The Story of Today, Some Thoughts, and Tomb Sweeping

Mmmm chips and salsa...
While I munch, I shall pontificate.

(What is it about blogs that make me want to use big words?)


Tonight, after my very long day, I went to my parent's house to teach piano lessons and then hang out for a while. The door was locked so I rang the doorbell...and the World's Most Annoying Dogs (I shall hereafter refer to them as the WMAD) ran to the door and started barking their dang heads off. There isn't an appropriate way to explain how irritating the WMAD's barks are.
Anyway.
After my lessons, I hung out with the fam for a while. Actually, I hung out with my mom. Dad and Isaac were watching the Olympics, Ivey was playing across the street and Aaron was upstairs doing...Aaron things.
So Mom and I hashed out the world's problems- exchanged our "stories" of the week and discussed how to solve them. Those are always good talks...the kinds that Mom and I have. :)
Excuse me while I chase Kitty away from the salsa...


Okay, back.
So tonight I had another hour (or so) until Andrew got home...so here I am, eating chips and salsa, watching Kitty climb "Mt. Tuba" (Andrew's tuba case...which Kitty has claimed as her personal mountain), and writing this blog.
Thursdays are so long, but I like Thursday nights the best...because then it's all behind me. Now I have Friday to look forward to, and a peaceful morning with my hunny.

Here's something I was thinking about on my way home.

Wifehood and Motherhood
(Such a matronly thing to write about, right? Don't call me matronly, I might hit you with something.)

But here's what I was thinking:
When a woman becomes both a wife AND a mother, which title is most important? To put it in different words, are you first a wife, or first a mother?
At first, I thought "First, a mother"...but then, a husband and wife are the BASE of the family! They're the beginning, the sticky gooey stuff (glue?) that holds the family together.

I'm not even close to being a mom, but here is my idea:
A woman should be firstly a wife AND a mother. Both. But if it comes to choosing, then a woman will probably rightfully choose the family that needs her the most...which would probably be her children. Kids are young, impressionable...they need their mother's protection and love. If, God forbid, a woman HAD to choose between her husband and her child, I think she'd be justified in choosing her child. At least until the kid is an adult.
Once a kid is grown, I think it's another matter. Then, perhaps, "wife" is most important-- because the little peeps are out of the house and the husband needs her the most.

I guess it's an extreme scenerio: choosing between your husband and your kid. But it's an interesting thought, because I'm sure a wife and mother needs to choose which family member to cater to at certain points in her life.

Any thoughts?
(Am I really strange for thinking about this? Ehh...probably.)



Now, to re-emphasize my youth.
Today at college I took a few pictures of my friends and surroundings...and here they iz.

The storage room. Where interesting conversations take place, where we play trumpet songs on tubas, where we see how many bricks we can carry at one time.

Ann Marie and Danielle. The three of us are exclusive celebrators of TOMB SWEEPING DAY.

I have other pictures, but I've learned the hard way that you should load your pictures FIRST and THEN write your blog...otherwise you have to do a lot of dragging and re-spacing.

That's enough for one night.
God bless!
~Briana


-EDIT-
For those of you interested in joining the celebration of Tomb Sweeping Day (or are just curious), here's the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival

Morning time at our "Cottage"

This is Kitty, when she was a little baby kitten.
Now she is a slightly larger kitten.
I have no reason for posting this other than her cuteness.


Last night Andrew and I determined to wake up a little earlier, so we could enjoy our day together. See, Tuesdays and Thursdays are full school days for me. And because Andrew works second shift, the only time we get to spend together is on Wednesday and Friday afternoons (and a little on Monday mornings). So last night we set the alarm for 8 o clock (he didn't get back till midnight)...and this morning we woke up at 9:30.
Augh.
Despite that small setback, we enjoyed our day. We drank coffee and I made breakfast:

- eggs, sunny-side up
- bacon (turkey, of course)
- toast and butter
- tater tots!

Andrew worked on his budget excel sheet and I fiddled with the HTML stuff for this blog for a while...and then we read some of Zephaniah. I love lazy mornings...the trick is trying to forget all the things that need to be done (in my case, studying for the two tests I have tomorrow).

Then we drank MORE coffee, and after many hugs and "I wish I didn't have to go to school/work"s, we went our separate ways.
All in all, it was a happy morning, and I was glad to have it. :)

Rules Aren't the Enemy

It's the end of a long day, and I hardly have the brains to write a weblog. In fact, probably the LAST thing I should be doing is writing a weblog, seeing as I have a good many papers to write, and even more articles to read.
But there's something so therepeutic about writing for fun. Leave it to school to turn something fun (like reading and writing) into mundane academics.
Here are three things I've been thinking about lately:

1. My development: social, cognitive and moral.
My social development is a little less-than-perfect. I don't FEEL like an awkward person, but I'm afraid I can scare even the most benevolent strangers with my one-word answers and lack of eye-contact. There are days when I feel confident and beautiful...capable of talking to anyone about anything...and there are days when I long to hide behind my colorful striped 3-ring binder, berating myself for ruining a perfectly good conversation.

My cognitive development...well, I get mostly A's, so I'm not worried about my intellectual abilities. :)

Moral development is an interesting thing. According to Lawrence Kohlberg's theory, the highest level of moral development is where a person forms a moral code based on what is good for mankind, and not necessarily based on what other people have established. Sometimes this leads to civil disobedience. This is both fascinating and scary, because a moral code that is not based on biblical truth could go in any direction.
A man spoke in chapel this morning about how we're in danger of throwing out the old testament and forgetting the importance of God's law. He said without the righteousness and justice of God (His law), we'd be apt to create our own moral set, and judge others based on their compliance with it. Having the guts to question authority when it's in the wrong is one thing...but ungrounded disobedience isn't smart at all...and we need to realize that rules, in themselves, aren't the enemy.

2. The "Black and White" problem. Racism in our modern world.
I'm in a 'Diverse Populations' class. We've been talking about racism in its modern form: White advantage. According to many of the articles I've been given, racism is more subtle today, taking the form of hidden priviledges and advantages which are only present for light-skinned people.
I can see the validity of this idea. I hate racism...I wish I could change our world into a place where people respect people, regardless of color and culture.
BUT. There's one thing I don't like...in my class I've felt as thought "white people" have been pinpointed as the single reason for racism.
I don't believe that's true...anyone can be racist. It can't be only the caucasian's problem, right? I can't help but believe that racism is a monster which everyone has helped feed, and now everyone must help destroy. Blaming the whites for all racism isn't going to help much in my opinion (of course, I'm not excusing what my white ancestors did to the African Americans...it was horrible and I can't even imagine what they were thinking).
I'm just beginning to form my own opinions on this...it's a touchy subject, but so important!

3. Decisions.
We all make decisions.
We all make decisions based on our personal feelings and our "gut"...or even based on what other people tell us to do.
We all have made bad decisions and looked back on them, realizing our mistakes.
How can we know how to make the "right" decision, the first time? Do we NEED to make those bad mistakes? Can we avoid those moments?
Can a decision initially be good and then become bad over time?

(I think once God is added to the "decision picture", we have a whole new angle from which to view our lives and consequent choices. God has a way of guiding and directing us, sometimes even when we don't know it. But we also have a free will, so does God LET us make bad decisions? He must...if we truly have a free will. I conclude then, that our job is to seek His will in every decision we make.)


I rather like having a website which no one goes to.
It reminds me of writing your name on a tree...like a secret hid in the open. :)

God bless,
Briana

Myself

Scraps of Splendor, aye?

Life is full of great discoveries, large and small. Sometimes the discoveries are revelational thoughts. Sometimes they're huge realizations. Sometimes they're just great deals on eBay. We add these discoveries to our schema of life, piecing our knowledge together as best we can. These discoveries could be described as scraps. Not complete, not particularly mindblowing...just scraps of understanding that we gather along our way. Scraps of the big picture...scraps of splendor.

So maybe here I can share my own personal scraps of splendor...believing that one day I'll trade my conglomeration of knowledge for a complete garment. Of course, that'll be a while...and I've got plenty to do here on earth first. :)

So here's a bit about me:

My name is Briana. I'm a first born child; bossy, opinionated, somewhat enabling (okay okay, alot) and articulate. You have to get to know me before seeing any of those traits emerge. At face value, I'm reserved and quiet.

I'm a music major...I play trumpet and I'm going to school to be an elementary music teacher.

I'm a Christian...that'll make itself evident without too much prying.

I'm married to the best man on earth. In case you don't believe me, yesterday he cleaned the entire house (even under the couch cushions!) while I was at school. Today he prepared the coffee maker and set out a cup with creamer and a spoon, so that all I'd have to do is push the button to make coffee when I got home. Once he left notes all around the house telling me how beautiful I was and how much he loved me. :)

I have a kitty cat...her name is Kitty. I love her very much. :)

My life is rather simple...although that's not to say it's not busy. School takes up a large amount of time...and when I'm not at school, or doing homework, I'm with Andrew, my family, or at church. You can generally narrow down my location to one of those four places.

Friends? Well...I do have friends. Not the tell-you-all-of-my-secrets and get-together-all-the-time kind...I have a feeling that will come in the future. Right now I'm content with what I do have.

So that's me.

Peace,
~Briana

“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils”. Louis- Hector Berlioz