updated worship playlist {music monday}

Hey guys! 

It's been over a week since I've posted on my blog! I have been on family vacation in Florida, soaking up some Vitamin D and hunting for seashells. It was a fabulous time. Pics and more about that will be coming soon!

I have had the chance to hear some wonderful new worship songs since I have been attending different churches in the area with Samuel. (No worries, I still love my hymns and I always will.) Some of my favorite new ones are here! They may have been around, but they're new to me. :) The other songs have been collected from my own findings here and there, cause that's what I do.

Props to this particular church whose worship leader posts the song list each Saturday night on his Twitter. Um, fantastic idea! It helps me when I lean over a dozen times asking, "Oooo, what song is this?!" You know how that goes.

So try this out during your quiet time and let me know which of these are your faves! 

PS- There is one song that I have been loving recently that Spotify didn't have, sad day. It would have been on here otherwise. It's called "For the Love of God" and it's by Andrew Peterson. You can listen to that one here. 

PPS- AH! The one that I most wanted to be on here, isn't. That one is "O Great God" by Sovereign Grace. Listen!!




What worship songs have you been enjoying? I'll add it to my playlist!

Happy listening,
Emily

you live and you (paint your room over again)

You know how in some situations you feel like you have to rewind a lot to help people understnad how you got to that point? Yeah. Well, last summer the Pinterest-aholic in me found a picture of a home with walls painted medium-dark gray and I just had to do that in my room. So I recruited a friend and we got to work! I even knew of other friends who were about to paint their walls the same color, which boosted my confidence and reassured my decision (for some ridiculous reason).

Before the gray, my walls were about as purple and you can get. If you had asked me then how I felt about the purple walls, I probably would have embarrassingly admitted that, yes, although I loooved the color, I was just ready for something more mature. And that's what I thought the gray would be. 

Maybe in another room or another layout, this color would have been the perfect shade of "mature" that I was trying to achieve, but in a small-ish bedroom with purple carpet and just one window for natural light, it was less mature and more depressing haha. I could barely stand to do my hair and make up in my own room for the past year. Every textbook I opened had a horrible glare on the pages. I laughed in the face of trying to take pictures in my room that turned out decent and had enough lighting. Oh, and you can forget trying to catch a fly in your room at night - instant camouflage. 

I could go on and on. 

But, I won't because this post isn't meant to be as dark and depressing as the paint on my walls has been (thank goodness). 

Last Saturday Samuel helped me prime it white, and on Tuesday my cousin will be coming to help me....I will end up painting the rest of the room myself and finishing it late Thursday night.

It was painted a happy shade of creme. Hallelujah. I let my mom pick whatever color she wanted it to be (forever) because I sure don't plan on painting this room again if I don't have to. ;) 

These pictures don't do it justice, but you can tell they didn't turn out great anyways. Even the finish on this paint has bothered me. Just bad.

The decorating isn't finished and it's not completely returned to it's former organization, but here's what I ended up with. I lovelovelovelove it!

So happy to have a happy room.

What's your worst painting fiasco? 

Ed Sheeran {Music Monday}

This. Song.

My heart explodes because of cute overload listening to this song from Ed Sheeran's new album, X. I listened to it all the way to Massachusetts and back.

I adore this song because it sounds like something my grandparents could have danced to at their wedding. John Mayer wishes he wrote this song. "Thinking Out Loud" has a perfectly old soul heart that takes you away. The lyrics are clean and adorably sweet. And his voice. It's smooth and understated where it needs to be, and fiercely tugs your heart when you need a little more convincing.


Favorite line? "Cause honey your soul could never grow old, it's evergreen."
(I mean seriously, who thinks of genius like that? Ed Sheeran. That's who.)

Travelogue: Cape Cod & New York City

Massachusetts, why have you been holding out on me? 

Cape Cod is BEAUTIFUL. It's like the mountains with a beach. Driving to the Cape is a journey through tons of shady trees and forest-y looking surroundings, and then it plops you out onto sand and waves! Bam - the perfect vacation combo. 

See what I mean?     Holland, MA

Sad story, here, folks: Immediately after this selfie was taken my camera got dropped, preventing the lens from closing. BUT. My sweet boyfriend (who felt so bad) very secretly ordered another camera and had it one day shipped to the house on the Cape. Yep, he's a keeper.

Have I mentioned these two got ENGAGED? Rebecca is going to be a Maketansky!

Lobster night! 

All vacations should come with a hammock. Just sayin'.

Cyrus James Emadi wins the prize for most adorable toddler on the Cape. Hands down.

Nauset Beach 

The drive home from the Cape was 21 hours and took us straight through New York City. 

   

We ate at an amazing Persian restaurant in New York. The lights were so neat.

Grand Central Station

Times Square!!!!!

Central Park & Trump Plaza

I am so thankful to have been invited to tag along on this vacation. :) It was a sweet time of engagement celebration for Dan and Rebecca, getting to know the Maketanskys, and seeing new places I had never seen before. 

Definitely one for the record books.

my tiny flower pot

I've never had a knack for growing flowers. I don't really ever think of them.

A few weeks ago, I was with a friend in Target (a.k.a. my happy place) and picked up one of those little flower kits from the dollar section.

I planted them in the tiny plastic pot that comes with the kit, and sat them in my front room where I knew they could get some sun.

I have been way too excited to check my sunflowers every morning. It has kind of surprised me. This little kit is perfect, easy, and it's helping me think of flowers more. And it's quite enjoyable.

I'm sad to leave my little guys over the next week while I'm on vacation. But I can't wait to see how big they are when I get back! (That is, if my family doesn't mind flower-siting.)

Humility and Cake

I have been to a baby shower, a funeral, and a wedding all within the past seven days.

Talk about going from one extreme to the other. Full circle.

But no matter how different these gatherings may look on paper (or in the box of left over decorations), they all kind of remind me of the same things.

Prayer. "I'm praying for you" is probably only said a couple hundred times to people in each of these phases. Isn't that something? Think about what that says about Jesus. Whether it's a happy gathering or a sad gathering, these people are showered with prayer - and they are comforted by that fact! Thank you, Jesus! You became fully man. You know what it is like to experience true joy and true sorrow. I am so glad my Redeemer is the God of all comfort and is also the only one who can truly fill us with joy. 

Family. I don't know of anyone else who deserves a gold medal more than the families. You guys have a lot of c-r-a-p to put up with! Nobody takes the hit harder in these situations than you do. You guys are the ones the new parents call last minute when Baby is having a meltdown. You guys are the ones who have to make the tough decisions when someone you love isn't there to make them with you anymore. And I couldn't begin to think of all the things you do when putting together a wedding. High fives all around.

Humility. Nothing challenges your perspective on life quite like when you're about to start a new chapter. It's in these moments of change that it's helpful to examine our hearts too. Changes like a new baby, a loved one passing away, and getting married are major (I haven't even experienced 2 out of 3 and I can tell you that). But what's your end goal? If you think that finally having a family or finally being married will complete you and solve all of your problems, haha nope! Jesus wants your heart, your mind, and your soul. It is really humbling to realize that in the grand scheme of eternity it doesn't matter what flavor cake you have. What matters is that we make Jesus our Cornerstone. 

What's that saying? "The more you know, the less you know." I feel that way a lot as I get older.

But I'll tell ya, it is pretty exciting when the people you grew up with are getting married and having their own kids. Thumbs up for growing up.

First Half of June + Upcoming Excitement

June has been an exciting month so far and it's only going to get more exciting! Let me tell ya 'bout it.

I saw my friends.

This month started off with a spontaneous trip to Lexington for my friend's 20th birthday! She and I are going on 6 years of friendship (4 as really close friends). I also got to reconnect with some friends from church and meet their new (to me) 6th month old baby!

College is a time of much socializing, true. But it takes a lot of effort to keep up with high school/childhood friends when everyone reaches this phase and is going in twenty different directions. I'm learning that sometimes quantity isn't as important as quality. Genuine little chats every once in a while are so so helpful and necessary to keep up friendships that you know will last forever. That's the important thing.

There is ALWAYS going to be initial guilt/awkward feeling when reconnecting with old friends. Part of that is unavoidable because not knowing what's been going on in a person's life that you consider a close pal can make you feel just a little like a bad friend (which isn't true). The bigger part of that feeling is that you (I mean, me) are just being silly and ridiculous. Ha! Don't let yourself think that because you haven't talked to a friend in a while they must hate you forever. Come on. Life simply starts looking different when you're growing up (as it should) and you just have to feel out new ways to adjust. So get over your silly fit, text them that one goofy-faced emoji, and coordinate a time to go hop on their couch and start making fun of each other like you used to. You will be oh so glad you did (and totally not remember what you were so worked up about in the first place).

So what happened last week? We're going to skip over that for a moment and fast forward to what's coming the last two weeks of June cause I'm pretty stinkin' excited. I'll give you a hint - both of them have the word "vacation" in it. 

VBS is coming.
The last full week of June (the week of the 23rd) is going to be a B L A S T. I am going to be leading the music for Hopewell's Wilderness Escape VBS! This will be my third year working in music ministry for Vacation Bible School and it honestly gets better every year. There is nothing quite like getting all themed-out for VBS and having the songs stuck in your head 24/7 for weeks after. Nothing.

I am SO pumped about the songs the kids will be learning this year. One of them has already blessed me so much! It's called Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (or Redeemer). Heard it before? This song caught my attention listening through the CD when I first got it and I later realized it was an old hymn. I couldn't believe I didn't know it. Apparently it was even sung at the Royal Wedding! The only versions out there are either really old sounding or instrumental (however, there is one by Indelible Grace Music that's okay!). I think Samuel and I need to learn it and record our own. Maybe we can work that out. :)

Do you know anyone else who has recorded this song? Please send it to me if you do! I LOVE the version that is meant for VBS actually, haha, but if there's another recording I would love to know about it so that it can find a home on my iPod.  
Do YOU know/love this song?  I want to know! Here's the one from our curriculum for this year. It's only a 30 second clip, but, ahhh! Don't you love it already?

 

Did you say vacation? 

YES. Guys. I get to go on vacation for the very first time with my boyfriend and his family to CAPE COD (which I have never been to!!!). I am screaming with excitement on the inside. Rebecca's boyfriend's family, who lives in Massachusetts, has invited us to stay at their house on the Cape for a week! We are going to spend time with the Macketanskys, a few days on the Cape, and possibly visit Boston too! From what I hear, it sounds like there is going to be a lot of beach games, tie dying, 2 birthday celebrations, and a plethora of movie nights. And ice cream, I think. So basically, it's gon' be an awesome week. I am looking forward to the car ride almost (almost) more than the beach. Is that weird? It's true. I will probably be sore from laughing so much after spending 14+ hours in the car with the James family. I definitely plan on sharing pictures with you when I get back and a video from our week. And hopefully I'll come back refreshed, tan, thankful, and with some good stories. ;) 

One more thing.

I should probably mention that the final for my summer class is Monday, June 23rd, too. Seriously a crazy week! I am amazed at how FAST this class has flown and how relieved I am to have it out of the way. All the more reason I am excited to have VBS and my own vacation post-summer class to celebrate the end of general education courses.  The fall will be a whole new journey as I enter the School of Education! 

Back to last week.

Last week was filled with a lot of running around and errands. I took this week as a practice run for the "vlogs" (video-logs) I want to make for 1) VBS and 2) my vacation with the James family.  ;) You can check out my week in the video below to follow me around and see what all I did last week. iMovie is like a monster of its own, so I'm still learning the ropes. Like I said, this was just a practice so that I don't waste footage for the other two events I want to document, but I really enjoyed putting it together! 

If you made it through this post, you win (...my thanks;). I just felt like you needed a good updating, plus I was so excited to share my upcoming excitement with you!  

Yay for summer and all of the many activities it holds!