If I could have a superpower....

It would be the ability to touch someone's soul and heal all of their emotional hurt.

-Esther <3

Bitterness and other negative emotions.

Yes, this is another one of those "I've been thinking" blog posts. You people haven't been getting cooking posts because I haven't had time to cook, just work. And learn. Hence, these blog posts, the thoughts of a fifteen year old girl that probably aren't significant in a world of six billion people, but ohwell. I need to let this out before I explode, okay?? Okay.
So, I've been thinking. About bitterness mostly, and forgiveness. That kind of thing. When somebody sins against you, or hurts you exceedingly, or even constantly. Because pretty much everybody's been sinned against or been offended, and bitterness is something I'm seeing a lot, even in my own church. The whole "Well that was just inexcusable..." attitude, and sometimes "She doesn't deserve to be forgiven!". And that's something that I've struggled with a lot, especially this past year, is bitterness and forgiveness. And not just with an acquaintance, but with someone that I live and interact with and see daily. You know what bitterness boils down to? Pride. Us letting our hurt feelings get in the way of loving someone. Us thinking ourselves above and somehow less sinful than that person. The Devil whispering in our ear that we need to hold onto our hurt rather than just let it go. And so we do. And our hearts and sometimes our lives get filled with and hindered by this sin. But if you turn it around, look at it from a different perspective, and quit listening to the Devil, then it makes it a lot easier to let it all go. Because everybody in the world has sinned, meaning you. Meaning that you are just as unlovely as the next guy, even the guy who's offended you or makes your life miserable. And God is constantly, daily forgiving you of your sin, if you are trusting in Him. And do you deserve it? No. Not one of us do. And yet He gives us His grace. Lavishes it on us, actually. None of us deserve to be forgiven, and the absolute best way of showing Christ to someone is by loving them. And Love keeps no record of wrong. So let God wash you of your bitterness, and forgive the person you're holding something against. If God can daily forgive a world of His people who constantly mess up and are undeserving, you can forgive that one person you have something against.
Just some food for thought.
-Esther <3

Humans are weird.

So every once in a while, I'll be sitting in the car or laying awake at night, and I'll think, wow, humans are just plain weird. And because it comes into my head a lot, I thought I'd list a few of the reasons that us humans are just plain weird.

-We transport ourselves in large metal vehicles that we mass produce and they're so much apart of our lives that we don't even think about it.
-We have never-ending rows of poles in our towns that wires charged with electricity hang off of. Without these wires, we pretty much can't function. We also don't usually think about this.
-Come to think of it, we don't think. Unless it's the "philosophical" (-insert sarcastic laugh here-) kind. The kind that inspires people to make useless ten minute youtube videos of themselves talking radically because they think they aren't special or something. Sheesh.
-We let ourselves become distracted by things of the world and ignore God, who's staring at us lovingly with open arms, and then we wail. "Nobody loves me!!"
-We're becoming harder to entertain. Unless you have a iPad 2, you pretty much have nothing to do. Oh, and you're also not cool. People who are easily amused are going to be the happiest people, in this world. And they'll probably be the ones with more money in their wallets, too.
-All of our News, National or Local, is depressing.

Those are just some of the things I think are weird about the human race in general. We pick up weird habits! And we're really dumb. We're like...blind. Even us who know Jesus as our Savior. We just live our lives, and don't notice anything. Not as we truly should.

Do something for me, please. Look at your hand. Either one, it doesn't matter. Study it. Look at the wrinkles and lines and crevices, the occasional freckle or scar, and the unique fingerprints God Himself chose for you. Now move your hand. Do you know what just happened? You thought about moving your hand in less than the blink of an eye, and then your brain sent a message to your hand, and it moved. Isn't that incredible?!?! And you move a lot every day. I'm moving right now, pushing buttons on a laptop while I think about what to say. And we don't even think about this! We encounter it everyday, so it's ordinary and plain to us. Now I don't really know much about nerves, or how they work. But God created us incredible, so we can move and run and walk, and sometimes even jump-rope. He made us so that when we get really really happy, we can't hold it in, but instead scrunch up our faces and make peals of something we've named Laughter. Isn't Life incredible?!?! You can keep your Ipads and Fords, I'm going to sit here and look at this tree. It's a really beautiful tree, really huge. And it came from a little acorn. How? Um. Water and air. Plus sunlight. Crazy, huh?

There's all of this crazy beauty around me, and I can't help but notice and marvel at it, and worship God for it. I find that I can worship God just as easily when I took at a tree than when I'm in church. You may think I'm crazy, or weird. My friends are kind and call me passionate instead. ;)

So do something for me, if you please. Smile, a lot. Notice things. Look at the bigger picture by noticing the little things. :) The next time you're outside, whether it's hot, cold, rainy or dry, take a giant breath and thank God for oxygen and lungs, sky and clouds, random things in front of you. Try worshiping God when you see what seem to be simple things. Please.

It's dark out, and I'm done talking. ;) God Bless you all, have a good week.
-Esther <3

The longest blog post evaaahh.

Okay people! I beg pardon for not posting in over a MONTH. *cringe* Don't hurt meeeee! 

So the last time I posted, I was about to leave for the lovely state of Indiana. Wellguesswhat! I'm currently in the lovely state of Indiana, doing missionary work like a crazy lady, and having wayyy too much fun. So I've been here for a month, and a whole bunch of things have happened, and I can't tell you everything. But I wish I could!! I'll just tell you the highlights and bring you up to speed. We arrived in Indiana (in the late night, like 2 AM! Crazy train people kept us up, too, so we barely slept...) and the next week we started our pre-training. We learned a lot, and then all of a sudden we were whisked off to actual Training. And Training was intense, dude. We were evaluated and and sat through classes and were evaluated some more and then a a LITTLE bit of sleep and then did it all again. But it was totally worth it because I learned so much there, and all of the people there were incredible. So this week we started doing 5-Day Clubs, clubs for children where we teach them the Gospel, Bible stories, memory verses, and play games and stuff with them. 

Awesome story #1:

Monday morning we're at our 2nd club, and no kids come. So we go out to give invitation flyerish things to kids we find, and we found some who said they'd come the next day. And then we saw this little group of kids playing underneath a really pretty tree, and Bethany suggested that we present the Wordless Book (a took we use to present the Gospel story to children)to them. So she takes this one girl named Kylie aside and I took this girl named Ellie aside and I started to tell her the Gospel. It turns out she's never even heard of God. So I'm sitting there trying to explain and describe God (a very impossible task, really...) and she really understood well. And the light that switched on in her face when I told her that He loved her made me want to cry. So then I talked about Sin. I explained what it was, defined it. Then I explained that all have sinned, meaning everybody. And meaning her. I saw her get uneasy and troubled. But then I told her about the solution to this horrible problem, Sin. I told her all about Jesus and what he did for everybody, and what she can do to be saved. I asked her if she wanted to do that. She said "Yeah!" like it was the most obvious question on the planet, and nodded enthusiastically. So she prayed fervently and asked God to forgive her of her sin and save her. And she thanked him for Jesus' sacrifice and said she loved him, which I thought was sweet. Little girls' minds work that way. God loves me? I should love him back. Why aren't average Christians like that about God? We talk about God's love like it's ordinary, everyday stuff. Like God is ordinary, everyday stuff. Well the more I've found myself trying to describe God to children, the more in awe of Him I've become. He's indescribable, amazing. And the more I share of Him to children, the more I fall in love with Him. And that's part of what happened on Monday. Serious WOW moment for me. And there's more awesome stories to come, (things got even more amazing on Tuesday... *happiness*) Anyways, I must leave you, I have to go teach the last day of Clubs for this week. And I do realize that this blog post isn't the longest ever....I was hoping to have more time. I love you people. God bless y'all. 

-Esther <3

Blessedness.

Sooo. Today is Monday. And it was *awesome*. I'll tell you why.

Today I was going to go hang out with my friend Bentleigh (she called me last night to invite me over), so she picks me up and we're driving along chatting and laughing like normal-ish people (haha), and we get to her house and walk inside.

Two things I notice: Lots of food on a table, and Mrs Bledsoe with a camera in her hands. Then I walk a little forwards and see something move over to the left of me. Then, all of a sudden, a dozen beaming faces jump out of thin air screaming "SURPRISE!!!!!!!" 

My first thought? Holy cow are they really here for me?! Oh my word. Really?!   

Haha I ran around and hugged everybody and felt like bursting into tears, I was so happy. I have the bestest friends ever. We ate and swam and dunked each other in the pool, played games and tanned on the driveway. It was the perfect day. The only downside? Not everybody could make it. So to everyone who missed it: 

I LOVE YOU AND I MISSED YOU SO MUCH.

*happy sigh* I am so blessed. It's wonderful. Ridiculous, even. I don't deserve you people.

NOW? Packing. Lots of it. I have to fit everything into one very large suitcase....it's pretty stinking huge. Naomi fits into it, haha. I should stick her in there at the last minute. I can't live without the girl. And gahhh am I really leaving in two days?! No. I can't be. Ohmygoodness I am. And this day is almost over. So soon it will be one day. Oh my. I think I'll just stay in my little bubble of denial for now...heh heh. 

Well, I should go. Gonna go play cards with the family. Have a good week, people. 

-Esther <3

lovely weekend.

WHEEEE I had an awesome weekend! Yesterday our Church had its 10th Anniversary Party, which was so much fun. *giant grin* We ate BBQ, talked, sang till our voices gave out, and drenched each other with water balloons! It was immensely enjoyable. :-D 

Today was Isaiah and I's last Sunday at church for a long time, as we're leaving this Wednesday for Indiana. It was bittersweet, as the whole weekend reminded me how much I love everybody and how much I'll miss them.

Saying goodbye to everybody made me ache like crazy. But I pulled myself together and didn't cry. 

You St. David's people are the bee's knees. Seriously. 

And now this week will be full of packing, paperwork, *leaving*, traveling and arriving. And also stress. 

But hey! If life was all ease everybody would be ridiculously bored. Not to mention obese. 

Food for thought, people. 

-Esther <3

I'm leaving in 15 days. *cue panicking*

Hello persons! I hope you're all doing well. :) So, as I revealed in my last blog post, I'm going to Indiana for the entire Summer. And today it just hit me that I'm leaving in fifteen days. And I'm just freaking out a *little* bit. First of all, I'm going to miss everybody in Texas so much it's not even funny. I love you all so much and I don't know what I'll do without you for three whole months. Indiana will be new people, environment, everything. I wish I could say that I'm not terrified, but I'd be flat out lying, lol. So I'll put it this way: this will definitely be an adventure. One that requires courage. 

"If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone." -John Maxwell

Let's say I plan on growing a lot this Summer. ;)

-Esther <3

Catching up...again.

Wow. I really need to blog more and not procrastinate about it. A lot's happened since I last posted. Amazing what can happen in a few weeks. Well first of all, our Church hosted the Spring Ball. And it was so much fun!! I laughed till I cried and danced myself silly.

And then my darling Mommy had a birthday.

And Easter happened.

It was glorious. And now I have some news...I'm going to Indiana for the entire Summer. I'm staying with my Grandparents, and participating in the CYIA program, Christian Youth In Action. I'm leaving the 25th of May and going with my brother Isaiah by train! It should be awesome. :)
 Anyways, that's all for now. I'll try to be better about posting from now on, lol.
-Esther <3

Catching up...

Wow. It's been a while. And gee I feel a bit terrible for not posting. I beg y'alls forgiveness. :-P

So...a lot has happened in the last month or so. 

Like I got together with my bestest friend in the entire world. 

THIS girl. She's amazing. Take my word for it. 

Even though she laughs at me when I hurt myself. 

And she can't spell. (hehe) And she's a total nerd. But oh my word she rocks. <3

We shopped and went to Starbucks and had ridiculous conversations and basically had a lovely time. 

It was awesome. :-) 

And the latest blog-worthy thing that's happened lately is....my brother Isaiah came home. :-D He'd been visiting with my Grandparents in Indiana for three months. Which is actually a really long time! A quarter of a year, in fact. So when he came home....I was so happy. Ridiculously happy, actually. Just ask any of my friends, haha. I went around with a huge, stupid, constant SMILE all weekend. I just about died from happiness. 

Haha believe it or not, I really really missed this guy. :-P 

So....coming up in my life? Well our church is hosting it's Spring Ball this Saturday...which will hopefully be amazing. Balls usually are. And....that's about all. Church today was wonderful, I had so much fun. I sang till my throat ached and danced till my feet hurt. (They still do...ouch...) And I feel really happy. *hums* 

Anyways.... enough of my rambling. Have a good week!! 

-Esther <3

Food.

Sunday evening I cooked dinner! I made Shrimp Alfredo and steamed asparagus, chopped up dome fresh celery, and made giant chocolate cupcakes topped with Grand Marnier whipped cream. We were stuffed afterwards, haha. Here are some pictures.

 So the week's been going pretty good, hopefully it will keep it up. :-P Tomorrow we're having friends over for the day! Should be fun. Have a good week, y'all!
-Esther <3

Cause I was in a picture-y mood.....

It was gorgeous outside today!! Windy and just the right temperature. :-) I felt like having a photoshoot, but Naomi and Jade wanted to play volleyball instead, so I took pictures all by myself. :-P It wasn't as much fun, but it was lovely to be outside.

 

What happens when I think about certain hilarious conversations with wonderful friends...

The sunrise from our backyard

Overall, it was a lovely Saturday. Gorgeous weather, I relaxed all day and texted amazing friends in the afternoon, and enjoyed a delicious dinner made by Mommy.

Now to get ready for sleep, and the Sabbath.
-Esther <3

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” -2 Peter 1:4

Why my parents are awesome.....

I have some pretty stinking awesome parents. Why? Let me tell you. :-)

My Daddy is awesome because he randomly buys my Mom hour massages to surprise her with. :-) Such a sweet husband. And my Mom is awesome because she makes amazing meals and desserts. My goodness.

This was insane. I could have eaten it all day! It was a meringue cake topped with whipped cream, blackberries, strawberries, and a coffee chocolate sauce. "Yum!" is a serious understatement.
*happy sigh* Now I am happily full, and ready to face tomorrow head on.
Booyeah.
Life's pretty awesome. :-)

-Esther <3

Rodeo! And happiness.

Wow. It's been a while. I feel really horrible for not posting for such a long time. Sorry, peoples. Last week I had the awesomest time ever at the rodeo, with some of the most amazing people on the planet. And saw an awesome concert. Sugarland was seriously amazing live. My word. Jennifer Nettles has a voice that just makes you feel good inside. :-) I just GLOWED afterwards. Besides the fact that my feet felt so stinking sore from walking a couple marathons that day around the rodeo. And my voice sounded like a man's from screaming at the concert, haha.

*happy sigh* It was a very good week. And to make it better, I got the most adorable letter ever from Mary. My life pretty much rocks, don't you think? Have a good week, people. Whoever actually reads this. :-P
-Esther <3

Oh, and Lizzy: PLUMBER!!!! :-D

Highlights!!!

It's been a great week so far. :-) And today, my wonderful and amazing Mommy gave me highlights. Cause she's that awesome. For serious people. And I am so stinking happy. Here are some pictures:

My highlights! They turned out lighter than I expected, but I'm still happy. :-)

-Esther <3

"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. . . . We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith." -Margaret D. Nadauld

*love*

I love these. Vintage aprons from Ser La Table. Very much.

Methinks I need one.

Alas, I am broke.

Such is my tale of woe.

~Esther Noelle Habegger

Snow, dancing, and incredibly fun people!

Oh my. It's been a little while since I last posted. Well, a week. But it feels quite long.
Anyways, my visit to Lizzy's house was wonderful, and lots of fun. Only poor Lizzy got a terrible fever and missed out on most of the fun, she was resting.

And it SNOWED on Friday!!! Only by the time I got out to take pictures, it was mostly just ice.

Ice is so much fun to play in. It made for an awesome weekend full of happiness. Daddy took me out for Starbucks on the way to Lizzy's house and let me spontaneously run around in the ice like a mad woman. You know you have a good Daddy when he'll let you do that. And when he'll drive you to your friend's house with ice on the roads. So basically, I have the best Daddy in the world. <3

The rest of the weekend was filled with cold weather and laughter and food and dancing. :-) The Mayfields arrived at about 10 PM Friday evening. I made five large pizzas to feed all of us, and I made one of them the *special* way that Lizzy and I thought up, our own awesome recipe. :-) And I suppose I shouldn't take all the credit for the pizzas, cause Daniel M. helped me with one and made a pepperoni smiley face on it.  :-D

So that night we were planning on staying up all night having fun, but we crashed halfway through. We did, however, manage to stay up till 4:30 AM, watch Lady In The Water, Meet The Robinsons, and half of Inception, devour an insane amount of candy and Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper, and laugh our heads off.
The next day we hung out at the Outlet Mall pretending to be cool (we totally failed at this) until it was time to dance. And then dance we did. My goodness. It was so much fun. And then after the dance we went to Sonic, as is the awesome tradition of St David's dancers. Lemme tell you something. Sonic in 25 degree weather is cold. My word. Luckily we survived though. The next morning we had Church, and by then all of the sugar and lack of sleep and being in the cold had kicked in, and I felt horrible. So Mom took me home early from Church, and I've been recovering since. :-P But getting this cough was extremely worth it! That was just about the bestest weekend ever!

The best and craziest moments from it?

-Lizzy coming THIS close to blowing my head off with a propane lighter. "Oops. I didn't know it was on..."

-Daniel S. falling splat on his face after making fun of James... LOL that was totally priceless.

-Lizz and I pulling out our Inception totems every ten minutes and squealing about Arthur and Cobb.

-Me almost breaking my neck on the slippery porch that Elena sprayed.

-Daniel M. calling Lizzy an infidel instead of an invalid. "So are you staying home with the INFIDEL?"

 Hahaha it was an awesome weekend. <3 God Bless y'all and have a good week!
-Esther <3

The adventures of three uberly blonde women. And SNOW!

Today was awesome.

Oh my goodness. It was full of happiness. But also adventures. O.o
I went shopping with Grace Anne and Olivia, which was awesome. We ran around Market Street and went in freakishly expensive stores that I can't remember the names of. They have SUCH. cute. clothes. Totally makes me wish I had a JOB. :-P

Or a millionaire boyfriend. Both would be convenient. :-P

So we get back to Grace Anne's car (Actually Essie's that she was borrowing) and the stupid thing will NOT OPEN! And we're standing out there in 30 degree weather trying desperately to get the key to turn. So after calling Grace's father and having random and very kind strangers trying to help us, we ran all the way to HEB and bought a lighter, and tried to warm the key up. Aaand that didn't work. So we run all the way back to HEB and buy some canola oil and oil the key up. That failed too. So we decide if we're going to be stranded for the rest of our lives, we might as well get some food. So we ate at Chipotle. Delicious. And Grace called AT&T and they finally sent a guy to help us. But this took a while. So to keep ourselves occupied and warm, we danced in the parking lot and ran round in circles around the car like crazy people who'd lost their minds. Which, of course, resulted in people staring at us like we'd lost our minds! It was incredibly fun, despite the bitter cold. With the right people, anything can be fun. :-) So then the locksmith guy came and was working on the door and then Olivia's mom came and sprayed some WD40 on the lock. And guess what? The door opened. After all that work. We felt so terribly blonde... and we laughed a lot. So then Grace took me to Starbucks before taking me home. Which brings me to something else.

Starbucks is amazing. Plain and simple. SO good for warming fingers. And stomachs.

It was an awesome day. :-) The rest of the week shall contain much laughter and merriment and junk food as I adjourn to Lizzy's house. And, as I mentioned in my last blog post, dancing. *grin*

OH. And. It's supposed to SNOW tonight/tomorrow. Three inches. THREE INCHES! That is insane for Houston, Texas! It's always crazy humid and hot! So as you can imagine, everyone is freaking out. I'm packing my warmest clothes for Lizzy's house. And we're totally going to have a snowball fight. :-D I totally can't wait. I'm just bubbling with excitement. I'll be sure to bring my camera and take pictures. And blog about it, too. :-)

It's positively freezing outside. (Literally!) So I have my awesomely colourful mismatching socks on. They fuzzy. I loves them.

We have a fire roaring and warm food. My wonderful Mommy made the most delicious soup! It was definitely blog-worthy. It had shrimp, mini scallops, collard greens, spaghetti noodles, mushrooms, onions, and several other delicious ingredients in it. Amazing.

It's been a WONDERFUL day. I'm so terribly blessed it's not even funny. 
Hope you lovely people have an amazing weekend.
-Esther <3

Sick...

So I was hoping to have a pretty productive week. Get lots of schoolwork done, and cook something and blog about it. But before I had time to do any of this, I came down with a massive feverish head cold thing Sunday evening. ICK. I'm guessing I got sick from lack of sleep and too much sugar. Totally made my immune system go ppppppttthhhbbbbbb. And trust me. That's no fun. So I've spent my entire week, instead of baking and studying, taking Cod liver oil and Echinacea complex and drinking water and resting...bleeech. Oh. and watching movies. I had a Lord Of The Rings Marathon yesterday. BOOYEAH! That made me feel quite a bit better. Those movies are awesome. So stinking EPIC. 

OH. And may I just say:

                                          This man rocks my rocks. FOR REALS PEOPLE.

                           He's even cooler than he looks in the pictures. If that's even possible. :-P

So. I've had an....interesting week so far, to say the least, and I'm feeling much better. It's very good to be well again. :-) Oh. and tomorrow I get to hang out with THIS lovely woman, and the weekend I'm staying over with THIS lovely young woman. So the rest of the week shall be filled all manner of merriment and delicious food, candy and laughing. OHH. And dancing. Yep, I have to say it just like that. Because I haven't danced in exactly seventy days, if you count back from today. (Yes, I keep track....) So it will be so very amazing. And fun. So that's why it must be said like that, dancing. *dreamy smile* I'm horribly excited.

*happy sigh* Isn't life perfectly wonderful?

Well anyways, I think it is, whatever you cynics may say about it. :-P
Have an awesome week, people. That's an order. :-)
-Esther

Painting, Walmart, and Longing. And Baby Alives.

Hello Everyones.
It's the weekend! How awesome is that? I am so very ready to chill. :-)
This week has been full of school, babysitting, and PAINTING. My Mom bought some watercolors last week and I've just now discovered that....I love to paint. It's so much fun! And I'm almost good at it. Here are some pictures of things I've painted this week. :-)

A Poppy. It gave me much trouble and stress and I don't like the way it turned out. :-P I'm way too much of a perfectionist, I suppose.

A MINION. Haven't named him yet...

Another one of said awesome minion....

This painting is really little-girl-ish, a fairy being released into the wild....it seems like it needs a story to go with it.

Stuff I doodled when I got bored...

A wedding bouquet that didn't turn out the way I'd hoped....

My favorite. :-) Bright yellow flowers, a zebra finch, and a veiw into the earth. 

 Oh. I have a story. So this week my Mom took Naomi and I to Walmart to go shopping, and Naomi led me around the store talking her head off and being her usual bubbly, colourful, and plain awesome self. So we we're passing the toy section, and something catches Naomi's eye.

An entire shelf of Baby Alives. Ya know, those freaky dolls that are almost ALIVE. *shudder*

This is WAY too hard to resist for my spontaneous twelve year old sister. Especially with ME there, her fifteen year old don't-embarrass-me big sister. So what does she do? She runs up to the shelf and screams at the top of her lungs, "BABY ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!". And since the Baby Alives respond to voices, especially loud ones, they all start laughing their robotic heads of, screaming, laughing, and jumping up and down in their cardboard boxes.

It was positively hysterical!!!! And so of course Naomi had to do it again. And again. And, agaiiiiiin. And a ton of people in Walmart are staring at us, the crazy girls with the curly hair who are making an awful commotion of laughing, screaming, and "BABY ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!". Oh, my word. It totally made my day. It made my WEEK. Even though I hid in in Bike section, I was laughing so hard and thoroughly embarrassed. That was the funny moment of the week. :-) I've been going up to Naomi randomly now and yelling 
"BABY ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!" lol.

So yeah. Life's pretty much amazing, as usual. Though I haven't cooked anything in a very long time. So I have this longing inside of me to COOK. Like an insane urge to braise or fry or steam something, anything. I really wish I wasn't so busy with school. Ah, well. When I graduate I can cook all the livelong day. And indeed I shall. Anyways, that's all for now. :-) Adieu.

-Esther <3