Ponderings: HPA, Death & Trust in the Lord

It has been a crazy month.

And probably the hardest-craziest-busiest one that my HPA family has ever faced.

I talked a little bit about Marissa's Momma passing away on July 3rd.

The shows announcement was later then it has ever been, not coming out until July 14th.

We had a whirlwind of a two and a half weeks, memorizing monologues and singing "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think."

Friday, July 27th, we went to a party. It was full of laughter and friends, no one even imagining what would come next.

Sunday afternoon, the 29th, Bre's Dad called mine.

Sam and Christianna's dad had died. Extremely unexpectedly.

We had seen him just two days before.

Auditions were only 5 days later, on August 2nd, leaving HPA with an month that can't be looked at lightly.
-----
It really makes me ponder death, this having two of my friends' parents leave this earthly home. We knew that one was coming, the other shocked us all, leaving hundreds of speechless people all over our area.

I had a hard few days, hurting so badly for both of these families that I have grown to love. It's hard to trust sometimes, but after lots of Bible reading and prayer, I know that God has a plan for everything that's happened, both the pain and the good. I'll probably have deeper thoughts on this topic when everything has sunk in a bit more.
-----
Auditions went really, really well. I had to do some last minute adjustments, which are never fun, but God really came through and guided me the whole way. I could so feel His presence and love throughout the whole day... in the hugs He sent my way, the dance party I had with a few friends to relieve our stress, and the answers to the prayers I prayed.

All I can say, is that I'm glad that it's all over and that I'm not in charge of casting. I'm so happy that I can trust in the Lord.
-----
 And really, that's all life is about. Trust in the Lord, and He will make your paths straight. He doesn't promise it will be easy, but He does promise He'll be with you.

He's the best. :)

You Say I've Been Gone For a While?

I've had a good excuse. :)

More soon.

What Can You Say...

What can you say to a friend whose mom passed into the Gates of Glory only a few short days ago?

Not "I know how you feel."

Everyone says "Let me know what I can do to help you."

And "I'm praying" while it is adequate, just isn't enough words, although it is true.

It all leads me to cry out "God, what do I say to her?!?"

And He whispers in my ear, "Just be there for her. Hug her. Show her that you are there whenever, all the time. Show her the tears in your eyes. Show her your love- and through that love, MY love."

So I hug her. I text her. I'm present and all there.

And I keep praying earnestly, that she can feel His presence.

She does.

And even in the hardest days,

He is good.

Marissa and I~ Wonka 2012

Because We All Need Some Cuteness on a Monday Morning...

If Only...

The twinsies and I were sitting at the counter last night having a great little discussion when I said something like:

"Jesus died on the cross for us so that we could live."

to which Hannah replied:

"Ohhhhh, that's really niiiiiiice."

Sweet girl, if only you realized how "nice" it is!

{When Our Plans Are Thrown Crazily Out of Loop}

My schedule for list Tuesday included:

Devotions
Finish all written assignments {history}
Make Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Learn A major chord
CD for Mrs. Gol----
5 gifts

Do you also see how almost nothing's crossed off?

sigh.

Tuesday morning I was making smoothies for breakfast. Nothing too abnormal about that, right? I sent Jenna out to the garage freezer for some blueberries and turned on the blender. J came back, and said we had a problem. Ellie had left the freezer door cracked the night before and the freezer... wasn't cold. And neither was most of our food.

double sigh.

The kiddos drank their smoothies while Mom and I went out to access the damage. The completely full freezer had thawed raspberry juice dripping down onto every shelf, one could actually poke the squishy meat, and a container of ice cream looked more like milk.

triple sigh.

We threw out 16 cups of cooked, diced chicken, all the raspberries, 16 hamburger patties, a few bags of corn and that ice cream. We decided to keep all the blueberries and all the jam.

That left us with 6 roasts and 3 packages of stew meat, all 75% thawed.  We buy our beef in bulk. :)

Momma and I spent the rest of the morning cleaning the freezer, calling neighbors to borrow crockpots, picking up crockpots in the wagon, mixing up recipes and browning stew meat. That afternoon, I began to see the comedy in the situation when our counter looked like this:

There was stew meat, shredded BBQ beef, beef for Beef and Noodles, and a roast in the oven.

But there were positives to the situation. I started counting them and before long, I was adding them to the list. 

1. That we caught this before all of our food was ruined

2. The fact that we were able to save the jam and blueberries

3. We now have several meals already cooked and in the freezer

4. Our freezer has never been this clean!

5. Our freezer was actually pretty empty- by the end of the year, it will be full to the brim with our new 1/2 cow, around 40 pounds of blueberries, fresh freezer jam, more chicken and who knows what else! God had a perfect time planned for this to happen.

6. The fact that...

 My history assignments didn't get done. (They actually still aren't.) I was worn out of kitchen work and so didn't make the muffins.  I don't know the A major chord for the guitar, and Mrs. Gol----'s cd still isn't in the mail. 

BUT...

My schedule was thrown out for God's schedule.

and maybe that's worth a sigh of delight.

"Without Our Traditions..."

"Our lives would be as shaky as... As a Fiddler on the Roof!" bum, bum, bum. Boom, Boom. The music still echoes through my head. And it will still. for years. but I'm okay with that. :)

Getting ready for Fruma-Sarah to come back from the grave

Being goofy :P

Elizabeth!!!!

Abby-Doodle and I

It would have been scandalous for a Russian Jewish girl to even look at a Catholic priest, much less wear his hat. But, as you can see, I am a very scandalous daughter.

My and Katherine's pre-show dance... another one of my favorite traditions

Our devotion committee praying before devotions one evening... this was one of my favorite parts of the entire day.

Crew and Libby

Brye... and a random penguin found sitting on a stool

The tv in the makeup room

Our amazing bottledancers

6 perfect shows... never dropping a bottle

My family :)

Full cast, crew and staff. If we had been missing a single person, none of this would have been possible. (And Breilen's sign reads "Peter Sinko..." Peter was really, really sick and so had to be represented in that way. :) )