The beach is a large part of me, since I am a mermaid at heart, and so one of the things that I love to do is collect sea shells. After awhile I came to realize that I have more shells than I know what to do with! So I started coming up with projects for them. This project is how to make a string of shells :)
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La playa es un gran parte de mi personalidad, porque estoy una sirena en mi corazón, y por eso unas de las cosas que me gustan juntar son las conchas marinas. Después de unos años de coleccionando, se me da cuenta que tengo más conchas que yo sé para hacerlo! Por eso, empezaba hacer proyectos con ellas. En éste proyecto, describo cómo hacer una cadena de conchas :)
If there is one thing about God that I am always amazed about, it is how much He really loves us! And I mean a love like no one else could ever love, His love is so everlasting that it goes beyond death.
A few months ago I was in an extremely dry place, my bones felt so dry, and I was crying out for help. Since then He has answered every single prayer and has brought me into His everlasting and overwhelming love, and has infused me with something bigger than myself... Life. THANK YOU GOD!
I want to encourage you to seek Him and learn to receive His Love in full measure. It IS possible and it is absolutely amazing. This is an act of faith, believing that He loves you with a boundless and everlasting love. "Be strengthened with power through his Spirit... so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith -- that you, being grounded in LOVE, may have strength to comprehend... the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the LOVE of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." -Ephesians 4:16-17.
You also need to draw near to Him with confidence so that you will receive every single drop that He has to offer. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." -Hebrews 4:16
He will not let you down.
I know that is hard to believe, everyone in my life has let me down in some way or another. But He isn't just someone in my life, He is the creator of my life and He knows what to do with my crazy self more than I could ever know. As long as you "delight yourself in the Lord," then He will grant you "the desires of your heart." -Psalms 34:4 That is so amazing to me because I have a lot of desires for my life. I know that if I delight him then those desires will be granted because they are the same things that He desires for my life.
I have found that since I started seeking Him with a strong fervency that it has been a complete joy to spend time with Him every morning and throughout the day, and it definitely has become a delight to be in His presence. I do not worry about things as much as I used to because He takes care of them for me. I simply have to listen quietly to hear Him tell me what to do.
The devil will try to get you off track. He will lie to you and tell you that God isn't doing anything for you because the devil "is a liar and the father of lies" -John 8:44
The trick is to fight against those lies. FIGHT by submitting yourself to God, "resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." -James 4:7-8
I promise that if you do these things then your whole being will begin to fill up with Love. Soon it will overflow with Love and just keep on flowing! Love is the most important thing in life. Love God, love your family, love your friends, and remember to love yourself... if you do not love yourself then how can you expect to love anyone else? Remember that you are made in the image of God, if you hate yourself then you are telling God that you hate his work.
Love is essential, it is not a hard thing to do, and it is absolutely amazing to love and be loved.
Here are some stories that are taken from my memories of life in Strawberry, Utah. If you want to get the whole experience please listen to the song below while reading, I feel like it appropriately conveys the feeling of these memories.
When I was really young, my family and I lived in Strawberry, Utah for an un-determined amount of time. In my memory it remains a mysterious and magical place. I was about three or four years old when I lived there and so my memories are snippets in a fog that fades in and out.
[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]
My parents were the managers of a campground that was located next to a lake. My dad would clean the boats for some extra money while I searched for fishing sinkers like they were lost treasures. I had two friends who were my age and we would roam freely around the lake playing hide and seek and eating grilled cheese sandwiches under the staircase in the restaurant (their grandparents were the owners of the restaurant).
[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]
My mom had the wonderful job of walking around the campground to make sure that the visitors were being lawful. A lot of times they would park on the grass and my mom would have to make sure that they did not because it would kill the grass. I would ride my tricycle alongside her and I think that it was my job to be super cute in order to keep the visitors from getting mad at mom.
In addition to making sure that the visitors followed the rules, my mom also had the dirty task of knocking down the swallows nests that were built in obnoxious groups around the restrooms. This must have something difficult to do; I cannot imagine knocking down birds nests because it would probably be killing baby birds and eggs. The birds did not like this either and so our car was usually singled out by the swallows to be used as ‘target practice,’ in other words they would retaliate by covering the car in bird poop.
[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]
I remember one day in particular, my mom was making her rounds and I was on my tricycle. My sister was just a baby so she was in the stroller. My mom left her for a second and during that time my fearless sister managed to climb out of the stroller. She fell into the gravel, splitting open her forehead. To this day I have a very distinct memory of my baby sister crying loudly while being strapped down to an operating board before they sewed her forehead shut. In the middle of her forehead she still carries a scar that is shaped like a star.
As I mentioned before, the campground was located on a lake. This lake also housed a fishery to raise fish that would eventually be put back into the lake in order to keep the fish population at a healthy level. I remember walking around the fishery with my dad and he would explain the purpose of the fishery and the different kinds of fish that grew up there. I would climb up on the rails and look into the pools that contained the young fish, there were hundreds of them in each rectangular pool.
[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]
The first time that I got stung by a bee I was sitting in my mom’s bed. I sat there watching a huge bumblebee fly around the room; it suddenly landed on me and stung me for no reason at all. I know that there has to be more to this story because bees do not just sting people, but my mom says that she does not remember this ever happening. She thinks that I am making it up, but I promise that I am not. I distinctly remember how big it looked as it flew, the pain of the sting, and my reaction to it (which was of course screaming and running to mom).
Occasionally it would rain in Strawberry and on those days the grass and shrubs would come alive; it was like living in a lush green wonderland. One day I was standing at the door looking out at the rain when I spied a pitiful looking creature making its way across the yard. The poor thing was totally soaked and it was slowly dragging its once fluffy tail along behind it. Very concerned, I ran to mom and begged her to let me bring the creature inside to let it get dry and warm. “No Lydia, you cannot bring it inside, that is a skunk!”
[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]
A few years ago my Aunt challenged me to write down my stories so that I will never forget them. I haven't been true to that challenge in the last year but the other day I had the pleasure of listening to her story about going fishing for crabs in the marshes near Savannah, Georgia. Inspired by her story I wanted to post one of mine.
I know that it's important to be safe, and trust me I want to be safe, but aren't the most terrifying experiences the ones that are your absolute favorite to tell?
It was the last weekend of my time studying abroad in Chile. My friends and I had done just about everything that we could pack into one month, went snowboarding in the Andes, danced all night, loved on alpacas, and tried pisco sours... but one thing still lingered. We had promised each other that before the end we would ride up the coast to eat some of the famous seafood empanadas. So the weekend came and my friend and I bought "un directo" ticket that would take us directly to Con Con. Simple and easy. We got on the micro (a little bus), settled in, and began our journey up the coast.
As we rode further up the coast we began to realize that we had no idea where to get off. I assured my friend that it was fine, all we had to do was get off when we reached Con Con. This town was supposed to be on the coast, but suddenly the micro started to make its way into the hills. My friend gave me 'the look' and I began to doubt my plan.
"I know that we're on the right bus, we just haven't reached it yet."
Sure, I sounded confident but in reality I was a little nervous. We eventually did see the Con Con sign, but we were still in the hills and about to go away from Con Con.
"Ok, we need to get off at the next stop or else we'll really get lost."
My faithful friend followed me off the safe micro. It drove off, literally leaving us in a cloud of dust. We looked around with nervous eyes. We were at the corner of a small deserted looking market and a run down neighborhood. We were two gringas who could barely speak Spanish, lost somewhere in a random neighborhood, located in the hilly coastline of Chile, South America. I wish that I could show you a photograph, maybe then you would understand the gravity of our situation.
"Lydia, if I die because of this..." Needless to say, my friend wasn't very happy about this.
We were not hurt, there was nobody following us, and it was 11:00 in the morning. "We are ok, we just need to get to the ocean because that is where all of the restaurants are." With that, we made our best guess as to the direction of the ocean and began to walk.
We passed a few stray animals and got a few looks from the residents, but other than that it was just a good walk on a beautiful day. Eventually we did find the ocean. There was only one problem (isn't there always?), the steep hillside that was covered in vegetation stood between us and the sparkling blue ocean.
Ok so now the priority was to find the stairs that are usually carved into the side of the hill. We walked one way and didn't find anything, so we turned around and walked the other way. We finally found the stairs and climbed down relieved to get to the ocean. But once we got down we realized that there were not any restaurants in sight. Actually there was nothing in sight, no cars, no people, no houses, only a small sidewalk and the road. We decided to walk far enough to see around the bend. We reached the bend and peaked around.
Nothing at all. We were so lost. Until this point we had been pretty calm, but honestly now we began to panic a little bit.
As we walked we came across this beautiful shrine to Mother Mary. It has a specific name in Spanish but I can't remember it at the moment.
After a few moments of confusion we saw our savior drive around the corner. It was a lone, blue, micro. As it drove towards us, I couldn't help but notice how it seemed to be lopsided and driving a little too fast and wobbly for comfort. But we were not in a position to be picky and so we waved it down and hopped on. We barley had enough change between us to buy two tickets, but God was smiling on us. As soon as we paid the driver he launched the micro and nearly sent me flying backwards out of the still open door. I grabbed the nearest thing I could and pulled myself into the seat beside my friend.
After a few minutes of holding on for dear life the town appeared on the horizon. Oh sweet Con Con! How you have eluded us! We got off at the strip of restaurants and began to walk around trying to figure out which one to eat at. The first one we passed was closed as well as the second. There was one in particular that I wanted to eat at, but when we reached the front door of it we looked in and saw that they were doing construction. The restaurant was closed for remodeling. Lovely!
When we eventually made it to an open restaurant, we were the only customers. If you have ever been to South America then you will know that no body eats out for lunch because they are all at home.
Anyways, we settled in just grateful to have made it! As we scanned the menu we came to the disappointing conclusion that seafood empanadas were not served at this particular restaurant. With how the day was working out, that was the only thing that would have made sense anyways.
So I ended up getting some kind of seafood plate in the shape of a fish. The menu looked extremely foreign to me and so I just picked what I thought was shrimp.
Ironically my friend teased me for not being adventurous and eating something totally different. But whatever, I like shrimp.
I think that this plate was served in the quis quis style (basque cooking). Apparently Basque people have a very special way of cooking things.
So we ate our food, got some change, and made our way back to our homes. We were tired, we were full, and we were happy (and safe).
El fin
My days are slowly becoming less and less chaotic as I perfect my balancing act of classes, homework, work, and spending time with friends. I also just got a new job. I no longer work in the library amongst my beloved books, instead I have moved on to working amongst my beloved photos. I am now an official Imaging Technician :)
Anyways, I have been missing my kitties. I love my cats but most of all I loved it when they were kittens. So this post is dedicated to my absolute love of them :)
Check out evil kitty in the bottom left hand corner!
I know that I'm a little obsessed... but I just love my cats :)
