"I wanted to get a tattoo about this girl. And I didn't have the kind of friends who were like 'Okay, let's step back and think about this. Discernment is the word of the day.' No, my friends were like 'This is a GREAT idea. We will pay, and drive you.' " --Josh Riebok

Some people thought having a chapel attendance requirement for each semester of college was a drag--they obviously didn't listen to the speakers, because if they had, they would have realized that much of what was said in chapel was something resembling the above. Most of my quote notebooks are filled with similar quotes from chapels. Hilarious. 

"If I'm gonna die, you'd better be right behind me. Or I will haunt your kitchen cabinets 'til the day you die."

--Shawn Spencer, Psych

Anyone who watches Psych knows that Shawn's one-liners are legendary. If you don't watch Psych...well, you should. :)

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade." --Charles Dickens

After an impossibly long winter, now that it's almost May, I think we've finally reached what Mr Dickens was talking about here. 

"A relationship will last, not because it was destined to last. It lasts because two people chose to keep it, fight for it and work for it." --anonymous

"See? I'm teachable! Though it's not helping my point that I almost said 'learn-able'..." --Me

"I love using Sharpie markers. Only sometimes they make me a little high." --Me

"Oh, I'm so putting that on Facebook. 'Things a parent never needs to hear..." --Mom

It's true--I have an unhealthy love for Sharpie markers. For starters, they last forever! I bought a huge package of them in high school, and they are all still going strong, some 8 years later! You can't beat that. But the smell--it really starts going to your head after a while. Gives me a bit of a headache. So much goodness. 

"Some days are for living. Others are for getting through."

--Malcolm S. Forbes

Today was one of THOSE days. Nothing was catastrophically wrong, nothing terrible really happened--it was just one of those things where everything I did, something didn't go quite right. Yuck. I'm very glad today is over.

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

--C.S. Lewis

"Homes are for free expression, not for good impressions." --'Yours, Mine & Ours'

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." --Dr. Suess

I love it when authors of children's books hit the proverbial nail on the head.

"The only problem with being a teacher is I get songs like 'Oh, Mister Sun' and 'Merrily We Roll Along' stuck in my head. For days on end." --Me

I am a music teacher--I teach private piano lessons, group piano, and Kindermusik, a music and movement class for young kids. I love teaching--it's my passion, the joy of my life, the reason I get up in the morning, basically. And recently I've been blessed with many students and classes, more than ever before in my life. Unfortunately, this means that the songs I get jammed in my head are of the...well, let's say 'less sophisticated' sort. I find myself humming the little ditties my students are learning, all day, every day. Which I wouldn't mind, if I could even temporarily get them OUT of my head. But, all in all, a small price to pay for doing what I love most. :)

"I'll tell you another secret, this one for your own good. You may think the past has something to tell you. You may think that you should listen, should strain to make out its whispers, should bend over backward, stoop down low to hear its voice breathed up from the ground, from the dead places. You may think there's something in it for you, something to understand or make sense of.

But I know the truth: I know from the nights of Coldness. I know the past will drag you backward and down, have you snatching at whispers of wind and the gibberish of trees rubbing together, trying to decipher some code, trying to piece together what was broken. It's hopeless. The past is nothing but a weight. It will build inside of you like a stone. Take it from me: If you hear the past speaking to you, feel it tugging at your back and running its fingers up your spine, the best thing to do--the only thing--is run." 

--Lauren Oliver 

I read a lot of kid/young adult books, but I'd never heard of this particular author before. I'm definitely going to have to read her stuff. This is pure gold--and something I frequently need to be reminded of.

"There are three stages in the work of God: 

impossible, difficult, done." 

--James Hudson Taylor

I was so grateful to stumble upon this reminder in the book I was reading last night. We all go through times in our lives when this truth is one that we desperately need to remember. I'm in one of those times now, and this was balm to my soul. Just in the past week, He's already brought me from 'impossible' to 'difficult', so I'm hanging on, trusting for the 'done' when the time is right. May He grace all of you with the same assurance!

"No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers." --Laurie Colwin

Most people who know me know that I am a serious foodie. There's almost no food that I won't try (or like, for that matter), and I am always in the kitchen experimenting out of my vast recipe/cookbook collection. I love cooking and food, there's no two ways about it. My favorite thing to do is cook for my college/early career friends, because most of them primarily eat either cafeteria food or their own hastily prepared meals--that means that they are my most enthusiastic taste-testers. I can make just about ANYTHING for them and they'll eat it and enjoy themselves hugely. I'm a fairly good cook, but that's just all natural instinct--I'm not trained or anything. But recently, since I'm now out of school and have some time, I've been pursuing my own culinary education. I've been finding and reading books on techniques, basic prep explanations, and other foundational stuff. I can follow a recipe no problem, but now I want to be able to be an excellent cook WITHOUT always having the crutch of recipes. Recipes are good, but man cannot live from recipes alone. I loved this quote when I found it because it so describes where I am right now: on the hunt for all the wisdom acrued by those who have gone before me. My 27th cookbook is en route to my house right now, and I'm so excited. (I initially felt weird at having such a large cookbook collection...until I started reading about these people who have cookbook collections of over 500 books. I don't feel awkward anymore. I'm in the minor leagues.)