Ice Skating and Stuff

So... Tomorrow I willingly return to the secular institution that is going to enslave me for the next 4 months... An institution that is going to feed me ideas that spring from presuppositions that are directly against my own... An institution that employs people who openly scorn my Christian beliefs... In other words, tomorrow is the first day of school... :)

Why go to such a terrible school you ask??? Well, because it is cheap. :) 

Ok ok, that isn't the only reason... I am living at home and I have a good church with lots of close Christian friends that offer a ton of support. Trust me, I would NEVER go to a secular college if I didn't have all of that... I just couldn't do it... Here in Northern Virginia especially, there is a very large Muslim and Hindu presence. You can feel the spiritual warfare in the air when you walk down the street and it takes a lot of effort to keep from getting really depressed. An analogy that I head once is that in life we are standing on a conveyor belt that is moving towards Hell... If we don't actively walk towards God, then we are moving away from Him. That is what it feels like on campus sometimes. The enemy is fighting against you whether or not you choose to engage him. I choose to engage him... Most of the time... :)

When I am on campus, if I don't have any homework, I try to remember to bring my Nook so I can read my Bible. I don't always remember and sometimes I forget to charge it, but when I do, it helps a lot. For this semester, I also bought a C.S. Lewis book... collection... thing... It has daily readings from his works... I am super excited about that one... :)

Another thing that really helps is prayer. I pray in the car on my way to school sometimes. That helps get my heart in the right place for the day. 

The last thing that helps is something that a lot of people don't put a lot of stock in... That is the prayers of other people for you... Do you know how uplifting it is to know that someone out there is praying for you everyday??? I can't tell you how encouraging it is when I get a text from a friend saying that she is praying for me... So please, friends, pray for me tomorrow as I head back into the pit that is Northern Virginia Community College... :)

Wow, I totally didn't mean for all of that to come out... But hey, when the thought flows, you go with it... :)

I originally meant for this to be an outfit post. I had a super fun Saturday yesterday in which I did nothing but play around with make-up, hair, and clothes in preparation for a super-tastic fun evening of ice skating with friends from church... This is the result. :)

Mint sweater (Forever 21) over a chambray button-up (J. Crew)... Since I was going to be ice skating, I didn't bother matching a pair of shoes with this outfit... 

Ok, so I didn't end up wearing this necklace (Charming Charlie) since we were going ice skating and a long necklace wouldn't have jived with that... I changed it to a short pearl necklace inspired by this post over at Bramblewood Fashion... :)

You can't really tell, but I did a fun eye shadow job inspired by this pin... 

You can see the blue (which looks purple here) touch on the inner lower lid in this picture a bit better... I also changed my lipstick when we went skating to a darker berry... One of these days I will do a whole post on lipstick... I love lipstick... :)

I did this little twirly side pin thing to make pulling my hair back a bit more interesting... I got the idea from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on youtube... Jane wears her hair so chic... I am going to be going through them again just to look at her hair... :)

Another word about my hair... Those curls... They took 10 minutes... How you ask??? With the magical curling iron that I got for Christmas... It is one of those that don't have a clamp... It is just a single rod that you curl your hair around and hold in place with your hand. If I wanted to, I could have Taylor Swift curls. But that would be a bit extreme for daily wear... When I get a camera that takes video, I will do a demo to show ya'll just how easy it it to use!!! :)

Ok, thanks for reading this way longer and deeper than I originally anticipated post... Hopefully it won't be the last this semester!!! lol :)