It's a new year!

Wow. I can't believe January is almost over! 

It's been an eventful month, for me personally, and the City of Philadelphia as well. I started the year by going to the Mummer's Parade, both morning and evening, I started (temporarily) watching my cousin Ashley's boys full time, I have a new Quizo Trivia gig, I started going to (and plan on continuing to attend) a new church, and it's really starting to hit me that I need to start my new home search. 

There is so much that I want to get done before January is over, but it's moving so quickly! I started/continued to read 3 books this month, and if I want to stay on my goal of reading 24 books this year (only 2 books a month!), I'm going to need to finish any of them soon. 

My January/February Booklist

Also I promised myself that I would get more sleep, and have more regular sleep patterns this year. Yeah, that's not going well. Sleep is for the weak.

Ashley's kids are awesome. Jameson is 28 months and Shane is 16 months old. So they are exactly one year apart *not stressful at all*. Really, they are cool, but they drive me nutso. It's been so darn cold out in Philly this whole month that we haven't been able to go out and do anything. It sucks for them and then they drive me nuts. Add not getting any sleep on top of that and my days kind of suck. I will post tales of our adventures, once we have any. Other than indoor fun.

Firefighter Jameson

Doctor Shane

Quizo! I love quizo, I just wish that it didn't interfere with my sleep as much! Monday nights I host at the New Deck Tavern, Tuesday nights I play, Wednesday nights I host at the Victoria Freehouse, some sundays I play too. That means that three-four work nights I am staying out late and getting home later and still have to be up by 7am. I was so thankful for my snow day today. I slept until 2pm. Which, coincidentally, doesn't actually help regulate my sleep pattern. Womp womp womp.

Hmm, what else? Well, there is church. I started going to a new church, and it's not nearly as ethnically diverse as my old church but it's a bit more liberal and open. For instance, they accept openly gay members, which would have been hard at the church of old because practically everyone who attends there is a young married couple. Also, oddly, new church doesn't have a sermon per se on a regular Sunday. They have a reflection time. It takes a bit of getting used to but it's kind of nice to not be preached at. If there is anything I miss from OCMC it's having a sermon. On the other hand, no one is asking me to babysit, so that's a huge plus.

On the book front, and you should expect several more of these updates throughout the year, I started The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, and I am almost finished The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, but I'm only 5 pages into Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. Oh! and I still have about half of The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer. 

Currently Reading

Oh My God what is going on with this weather? Seriously, it's crazy. The polar vortex, or as I have taken to calling it, Polar Vortex Part 2: The Climate Strikes Back  has turned my little city into Hothadelphia. (That was a Star Wars reference, Amanda) I just went out and checked, there is 11" of fluffy white snow out there, and it looked like it was deeper out front. We went out to "play" in the snow this afternoon, which involved Brianna jumping around, laying, snow angeling, and trudging in the snow while Jen and I cleaned off our cars and shoveled the walk. News Flash: It's really COLD!!!

Snow Angels!

So I suppose that's it for what I'm up to, next post will be about something that is weighing on my heart, the utter rampage of violence in my city this month. It's really utterly insane. But more upsetting things are for a later date. So long, and have a safe stormy day! 

The Substance of Things Hoped For....

Sunday:

So, my fault. I didn't check the blog before I left for Philly and I wasn't even going to go, but something was just telling me to go home. And then I was (well, Brandon and I were..) babysitting Joe's daughter's babies. They're twins, and three months old, and it was for almost 8 hours. I was exhausted and I wanted to go home and pass out but Megan wanted me to go out and I was just pissy and frustrated and I went out and then by the time we got home it was like after 1am, so I wasn't going to go to church, that, and Brandon was there, and my mom had someone seeing the house (potential buyer!!) so we had to clean, but you know when you get that feeling like you HAVE to do something?

Jared, this guy at my church, he was diagnosed with Leukemia in May of 07, ten months ago. He's always been really healthy, in shape, eats right and all that, so it was a total shock. He and his wife Anne have this great little boy Caleb who just turned two last month, and a new baby, Noah, who was born in October. Well, Jared hasn't been doing to well, he has a blog on this amazing site caringbridge.org and it's been really trying for everyone who reads it because of all the ups and downs and near remissions. Jared went home for hospice care last week and he passed away on Friday.

Well, Brandon and I went to ocmc today and I found out about Jared there and started crying in church and I felt like a jackass.

But Anne and her mom, Caleb, Noah, and Jared's parents were all in church today. It's not just in the caringbridge blog, Anne seems to be holding up extraordinarily well. I think that about halfway through Len's sermon (which was mostly about Jared) I realized that I wasn't crying for Jared but for Anne. Amanda is right, I would be pissed at God. How dare He! How can she be so eloquent and positive when she now has two little boys to raise without their father? How dare He leave Caleb and Noah to not be old enough to even remember their dad. How dare he take Jared so young. It's not fair. It's just not fair. I couldn't deal with it.

The amazing strength that both Jared and Anne have shown in the past 10 months has been awe-inspiring, to me at least. I am in absolute awe of how they both (Jared especially) have taken this in stride. I just- I couldn't do it. Maybe I just don't yet have that amount of Faith in God. and the Faith to trust that He knows what He's doing. It's just hard to think that there is a plan for each of us when you see, first-hand, the pain that the nicest people go through.

Anyway- today would have been Jared's 30th birthday. Pastor Len said that he's probably up with the Lord in one big party. I bet he's wearing a cone birthday hat. That would be just like him.

Pilot, Season One.

Hi there everyone. Everyone= The Blogging world, not the two (maybe three) people who will ever read this.

First: a little bit about me. I'm Jane. (Hey girl hey!) I am a student of Political Science at Shippensburg University in bumblefuck PA. I live with my friend Beth and our cats, Leona and Churchill. And another girl lives here too. I have a fabulous boyfriend, who is one of the three people reading this so, Hi Huney! I like to buy purses and I make jewelry, it's not really nice stuff, but I like it. I think "blog" is a silly word. So is spatula. I attend Oxford Circle Mennonite Church when I am home and I kind of wander when I'm at school. Two years and you think I could find a church by now. I also take Tae Kwon Do, which is really fun, I like to feel tough, but in sparring I'm a total wimp.

Anyway- Enough about me (there'll be more of that to follow) This blog is really just going to be a way for me to reflect back on myself as I grow as a person, a student, and try to grow in Faith. 

The title of said blog refers to a West Wing episode, (in season four) "Evidence of Things Not Seen” in which CJ has one of my favourite lines: ”Because I've got Faith mi compadre- That's the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” And that's what I hope to be. It's the goal, the outcome. Faithful. One who is full of Faith. True, realistic, authentic.

We'll see.

Song of the moment: Tidal Waves, Matt Duke