my new boots.

these boots are made for walking

and that's just what they'll do

one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!

<3

illinois illuminated.

Happy day! As I told you I was doing before, 

I took a trip to Chicago this last weekend. 

And, as with most of my blog posts, 

I included lots of pictures!

The main reason that my friend Kiersten and I were going on this trip 

was to see our good friend Emily Jaster get married! 

She has lived in Bloomington, Illinois for the last 5 or so years. 

She met an awesome guy named Eddy 

and now they start their journey as husband and wife!

Emily and her dad walking down the aisle. 

The kiss! <3

Haha! I like this picture. 

We were helping her fix her eye makeup.

Best friends don't let friends eye makeup look bad.

Especially when they are having to be in so many pictures!

She would do the same for me.

High school friends!

So! 

After the wedding we went downtown to eat for my birthday.

Oh yea, That's the reason that Staci decided to join in on the roattrip fun and go on to Chicago with us!

We then hit the road for another 2 1/2 hours and ended up here:

It was dark when we got there! But it was still beautiful!

We stayed with a friend of a friend named Sadie.

She and her husband and 1 year old son live here with 7 other adults and 4 other kiddos.

It's a Quaker church that they all live in community in.

They also get extremely cheap rent!

As a stay at home mother, its perfect for Sadie because she never has to be alone much,

and Dustin works right down the street!

Wish we would have gotten a picture with them!

In the morning we took the bus and train to The Loop down town.

Here we are, a fresh mess, wishing the art museum was open!

We ended up coming back and still not going because it was so expensive!

We walked to Millennium Park and saw this dome thing...

Then we saw THE BEAN! 

Staci has nick-named me LindseyBean, 

so it was fun to get a picture with it haha!

A panoramic from a bridge crossing the river.

Ha! My panoramic kind of tilted and repeated some of the buildings..

We were on our way to Navy Pier!

Which we walked all the way to the end of... 

It was long!

Here is about the point that I got tired of walking.. 

And it wasn't even lunch time yet!

A view of the city from the pier.

We then walked to Portillo's for some yummy Italian Beef dipped sandwhiches.

And then we did some shopping.

Here's some street performers. 

So good at the robot haha!

They danced and took pictures for tips!

We were about to get on the bus home when!

Kiersten spotted the Dick Blick store!

Which of course we had to check out!

She didn't end up getting anything, but I got some new pens!

Then we made our way back to the house and rested before dinner.

Sadie and Dustin invited us to their community dinner.

Which had about 20 people around one table,

passing around curry and wine. Yum.

We were so exhausted that we even had to deny sitting around the campfire.

We slept well that night for sure!

And then.. for the 12 hour drive home.

Whew.

<3

fall festivities continued.

Went to another fun fall place! 

Britt's Farm.

It was kinda similar to the last place 

but there was more things to do for adults...

well, adults that like to do kid things ;)

This lil guy liked to have his head rubbed!

I think he thought I wanted to feed him cuz he eventually

started trying to eat the sleeve of my jacket.

Babies!

They had an air compressed potato gun which was pretty sweet!

I was trying to hit that hay-bail target =)

THEN! There was this giant teeter totter ha! 

IT wasn't super successful with only two people

but it made us laugh!

Then we climbed on the hay! 

Tag! You're it!

This was so fun! 

It was a tricycle but each of us controlled one of the front wheels.

So when I stopped, Staci kept peddling and we would turn! 

This is what the hay rack ride was going through! 

Tons and tons of mud!

Corn!

We ended with a corn maze. 

Yes, we got lost.

But we made it out alive.

Then we got to pick some pumpkins to take home!

What fall fun!

<3

fall festivities.

It was seriously a great weekend! And one to kick of many more fun fall activities!

The weekend kicked off with some much needed catch up on sleep! Followed by the best coffee and morning walk to the farmers market ever! I came to the realization that coffee tastes a lot better when you aren't relying on it to wake you up.

Staci was in charge of the days line up! We went to Lazy T's Ranch outside of Manhattan and had some good ol' fashion fall fun!

We started out by exploring a 100 year old barn! 

Then we made it around to the huge sling shot haha!

Which might have broke while we were using it...

Then we went on a hay rack ride! 

This is the picture I was taking when I dropped my phone.

I had to stop the ride so I could run and get it.

It got ran over.

But it still looks and works fine. Thank goodness.

Afterwards we went shopping for all this stuff!

We literally went to every Asian market in town to get fish sauce.

I guess Thai and Viennese cooking uses it, but not Chinese! Interesting.

I was in charge of chopping.

I love it ^_^

Staci ran the show and simmered all the canned goods and curry paste together!

Our masterpiece! 

Sweet and Spicy!

Hit the spot!

This month is going to be fun of fullness. Full of funness.

Chicago trip coming up!

Corn mazes and pumpkin patch.

Maybe some haunted houses!?

Halloween! Ha!

Our life group has talk of dressing up like Bible characters!

Can't wait for the fun time ahead!

<3

Pursuing Joy

Ok. So I wanted to write this post about this quote.. but as I wrote them out I decided to preface my thoughts first. Cuz, some people reading this know me, others think they know me. And what I write semi reflects who I am in that digital front sort of way. But if I just wrote these quotes down, I think you'd get the wrong idea about me. So... if you're reading this: Hey =) I'm glad you care enough about me to come here. And if we don't talk much, I wish we did! And I'm not perfect. I accepted Christ when I got to college, and it changed the way I thought and the way I acted. There is often a temptation if people are not careful to start looking at others as a project... in a "someone to convert" sort of way. I hope that I have never treated you in that way, and hope that you are never treated that way by anyone. Cuz that's not what it's about. It's about Love, and loving you where you are, even if you never see God and Jesus the way I see them. And I will openly admit that I am not "a good Christian." In fact I'm terrible at it. But, somehow, through the grace of the God I know to be true, that's okay. I want to please God, but very often fall short of that. SO! I just wanted to tell you that because I don't want you to read all my "godly" quotes and thoughts with this skewed idea of where I'm coming from. Like I know what I'm doing haha! Life is hard. I'm just trying to get by one day at a time. And I hope that you can appreciate what I'm learning as I do that.



So the quotes I read... *ahem*



"...We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
- C. S. Lewis

"We have settled for a home, a family, a few friends, a job, a television, a microwave oven, an occasional night out, a yearly vacation, and perhaps a new laptop. We have accustomed ourselves to such meager, short-lived pleasures that our capacity for joy has shriveled. And so our worship has shriveled. Many can scarcely imagine what is meant by "a holiday at the sea"-- worshiping the living God!"
- John Piper


I am reading this book called Desiring God by Johnny Piper. It's pretty much all about how life is in fact about being happy and living for the pursuit of joy. In fact the subtitle is Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.

he·do·nism

 noun \ˈhē-də-ˌni-zəm\

: the belief that pleasure or happiness is the most important goal in life

— he·do·nist  noun

— he·do·nis·tic  adjective

— he·do·nis·ti·cal·ly  adverb

Confession: I'm preeetty sure that I've been a hedonist for quite some time. I mean if we are honest aren't we all? Who doesn't want to have fun and enjoy life and what you do?! Isn't that why we make the decisions we do? To enjoy or get pleasure out of it?

The thing is, when I became a Christian, I thought it was all about giving up what was "wrong," and denying the things that I once found fun. Although it is true, that we are called to live set apart lives, there was this shift... like... "you're being selfish if you want to have fun and enjoy life. you're being selfish if you want to serve or be on the worship team or do anything if it's because YOU enjoy it." Like God wanted more from me. That he wanted me to be always working towards His goal, which was not always fun and easy.

The thing is, Piper suggests that self denial isn't the way to be. In fact we SHOULD be pursuing pleasure! But the truth of the matter is, that God IS the greatest pleasure we could ever have. And that finding pleasure in Him is what is most glorifying to Him.

"The chief end of man is to glorify God

by

enjoying Him forever."

How cool is that?!

<3

through deserts we hunger.

From "The Green Letters" by Miles J Stanford

"When we first start out hungry and zealous for Him it is often imagined that extensive progress has been made, when as yet we have barely begun. As our Lord takes us along through the years it slowly dawns upon us that there are vast, almost infinite, areas of development through which he must lead us.

Many of these development areas are just plain desert--no spiritual activity, no service, little or no fellowship with Him, or others. What prayer there is has to be forced and is sometimes dropped altogether for months at a time. Bible study finally grinds to a halt; everything seems to add up to nothing. It is during these necessary times that the believer often feels little or no use in seeking to continue on. And yet there is a hunger deep within that will not allow him to quit. 'The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his' (2 Tim. 2:19)"


<3

Fall-ing in 2012

Last semester fell through my fingers. 

And I didn't keep this up to date so I thought I'd give you some glimpses of the semester. 

(Cuz lets be real, pictures are better than having to read anyways right!?)

When I got back from Canada I had my motorcycle waiting for me =) 

I bought a helmet and got an awesome jacket for my birthday!

Can't wait for it to get warm again!

A week or so into the semester my roomie cut my hair for me. 

I had an image in my head for what I wanted and she did great!

It's definitely grown out a lot since then so it's getting harder to tame,

but it's been a fun change of pace ^_^

After some job searching and trying to make things happen on my own,

God provided me a job with my best friend. 

And we've been blessed with some great coworkers that keep 

us entertained throughout our weeks

Staci and I (along with our new friends) started geocaching.

We've found about 100 caches since the beginning of last semester!

Mainly, It goes well with what we do...

Bike, and explore in search of more wonderous beauties such as this...

In some of our explorations, we've brought Otis,

my brother's new little one.

Staci made him that sweater out of one of her old shirt sleeves ha!

It was so precious! But he's growing fast.

 We've kiinndaa used him to get the caches around the dog park.

(Don't tell him that though... he thought it was out of love ^_^ ha!)

As it got closer to Christmas, one of the students at school told us about an opportunity 

to make a gift box for a kiddo in Mexico! 

We had fun shopping and packing his gift!

Throughout the semester, I continued going to my boxing gym.

I love the people there, and I've been enjoying challenging myself to get in shape 

and get better at beating the heck out of a heavy bag!

 At the end of December, I joined in on a fitness challenge with these lovely ladies.

And I ended up taking home the gold for best physical improvement 

and overall "biggest loser" for weight and inches lost!

All that hard work paid off!

 And of course, there was Christmas! 

This is my brother and I with all our "Hill" cousins!

And NOW! It's 2013! Crazy crazy!

I'm excited to see what it has in store for me!

Of course the most popular question ever asked to one such as me is:

"What are your plans?"

I will say this. 

I have no plans =) 

But God does.

And I'm trusting that He will reveal them in His perfect time.

I'd love to hear from any/all of you who read this!

Leave a message or holler at me @:

lindseyspring11@gmail.com

<3