Blessings come in all shapes and sizes.

My first week of my senior year of college is done!! It looks like it's going to be a good semester! Busy, yes, but good! I've been feeling a little under the weather the last couple of days, so that hasn't been fun, but I've been able to rest a lot this weekend, so that has helped a lot.

I've learned a lot this week!! In a lot of different aspects, but especially in the spiritual aspect. I've learned that God blesses you when you are trying to do your best. I have been trying to read my scriptures every day this week, and that made it easier to get through this first week of school, especially with me being under the weather. I have also been able to depend on my friends this week. That has been such a blessing. My roommate was able to give me a ride home from the concert I went to on Friday, and I was able to get a ride to and from my friend's reception yesterday from my friends who went to it as well. I was able to have some bonding time with my roommate this weekend, and that was fun. I have some adventures to look forward to this semester, and that makes me really excited! :)

This week has made me excited for the rest of the semester, but also a little nervous! Haha but I'm hoping that I'll be able to stay ahead of the game and that I'll be able to do my best. I am hoping that I won't need to do any homework on Sundays this year since I don't have classes on Fridays, and I can just work on my homework while I'm at work (#blessthecomputerlab), and then I can finish anything I don't get done on Saturdays. I know that God is looking out for me because I just felt like I needed more hours for homework last winter and so I tried to make sure that I would get more hours for homework this semester and it has worked really well so far! I finished all of Monday's homework and half of Tuesday's homework yesterday! So I'm going to try really hard to keep up with homework  this semester. And I'm going to make time for studying my scriptures each day.

I got a blessing earlier this week and in the blessing, I was told that Heavenly Father loves me so much, and as I turn to Him, He will help me with any trials I have. And as I try to be healthy, I will feel better and be healthier. I have seen that a little bit already, and I am excited to see it throughout the rest of the semester.

I'm really, really grateful for the things I've been through this week. They've helped me realize that God is looking out for me. I am so excited to see what this semester (and year!) will bring me!!

He is with me and He loves me no matter what.

So, I'm naturally a musical person. I love to sing and I love to play the violin. And I love musical movies. You know, like Tangled, Frozen, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, etc. And I love to sing along with the movies and recite my favorite lines. Well, my brothers find it annoying that I do that. Well guess what brothers? I don't care—I'll do it anyway, whether or not they like it because it's not harming anyone. But when I say something—that either took me a little while to get or understand, or I didn't think and just said it—my brother always implies that I'm stupid. And I don't like that. I hate it, actually, because he does it to everyone and it's annoying and rude. I'm not stupid—neither are any of my other siblings—but he always implies that we are. And that's just so rude. We're a family and we are supposed to be kind to each other. Sometimes I have a hard time with remembering to be patient and kind, but I know when not to cross the line into "Uh-oh, this is the mean, rude, I'm-going-to-hurt-someone" territory. But my little brothers sometimes don't. And so I'm trying to help teach them to be kind. 

So, I'm also naturally an optimistic and happy person—this annoys some of my siblings; again, I don't care—and I am trying to be the peacemaker between my siblings. Sometimes it doesn't work. But I try it anyway. I am trying to teach Tyler (and sometimes Conner)—because they forget—that the little boys are only little and they do not understand that the little boys are still growing and learning!

This next school year is going to be my senior year of high school and I'm feeling a mix of emotions. I'm excited to be going to school and I'm excited to be finished. I'm also sad—I don't want summer to end and I don't want my last year to be over. I'm excited for the future, but also scared. I'm also scared for summer to end and for school to start. Really, my emotions can be boiled down to two: excited and scared. But guess what??

Did you guess? Okay, here's the real answer:

No matter what I'm going through in life—family matters, school matters, friendship matters—I can always count on my Savior and I can always turn to Him. I can always depend on His gospel to help me answer my questions and get through life. I am so grateful for His Atonement and I am so grateful that He listens to me and helps me when I need it. I have learned that He knows and loves me and He sends blessings my way when I need them, even if I don't know that I need them. He will always love me—no matter what—and He will always send me help. He is always right beside me and knows the path ahead of me even though I can't see it. He is always with me. And I am so grateful that He will never leave me alone because I don't know what I would do without His hand in my life. 

Just look.

Some days it is just so much easier to see the hand of The Lord than other days. Sometimes it's some weeks, sometimes it's some months. But I love it. I love recognizing His hand in my life. I love realizing that the world is so much bigger, so much better than I've thought. One of my favorite hymns is "How Great Thou Art" because it's so pretty and I love the message it gives. There are miracles in our lives everyday. We just have to look for them.

Gratefulness, excitedness, and randomness.

Yay!!!! I'm super excited!! I'm pretty much done with all the requirements for my medallion. I just need to finish up a couple of stuff and then I get it tomorrow!! I know that I've seen The Lord's hand in my life, because there is NO way on earth that I could've finished five 10-hour projects in two weeks without His help. It's been crazy trying to keep up with my schoolwork and my Personal Progress projects. After tomorrow, though, it will be less crazy and I can focus on my schoolwork ;). But there is no way that I could've done everything in the past two weeks that I've done without the helping hand of The Lord. I'm so grateful to Him, because I know that He's given me many little miracles along the way. It's been super easy the past two weeks to recognize The Lord in my life, and I've been so, so grateful. It's easy to recognize His hand in your life if your life is super busy, but you get everything done, and done well. I love to just think and ponder sometimes on random life questions, like what happens after we die? Do we float around or what? Are we guardian angels on earth? Do we get to choose who we "guard"? Anyway, I just love thinking and pondering on different things that are totally unrelated to anyone else but are completely related to me. If someone could see inside my head, they'd be lost. After I've earned my medallion, I'm going to take a well-deserved rest....during the next holiday break. :)