Play switch!!

I got into the "Fiddler on the Roof" play that I mentioned previously in a former post. :) It wasn't a big part at all, but what with it being my first musical EVER, it was pretty good I think. But. . . we hadn't gotten full permission to do the show yet. . . and as it turns out there's a professional traveling troupe doing that very same musical in this area, so they didn't end up getting the permission.

So as of yesterday a big switch was made from me being in "Fiddler on the Roof" to all of a sudden being in "Anne of Green Gables" the Musical. . . . No one has been cast yet, but everyone who was in the other cast and still wants to be in it will be. It's all just a matter of what part you get.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Beautiful. . .

This past Tuesday I went to the first meeting of a small group that I'm involved with this summer. And it went wonderfully. :) I think that it will be great! But anyways. . . we were talking about beauty, and what God sees as beautiful. We're working through a book called "Want More? Life" by Natalie Lloyd, and the title of the chapter was "You're not pretty; you're beautiful". . . or something to that extent. It talked about David when God chose him to be king, and that section there that talks about God not looking at outward appearances, but instead seeing the heart. And then it asked, if God looked at you, would He see someone beautiful?? Naturally. . . that was kind of an awkward question. I didn't think I could say yes, because I knew that I was by far not a perfect person, and the definition of beauty with God is someone perfect right??? So, I answered that I could only hope.

A few days later. . . I was busy reading a REALLY good book called "Bones of Makaidos", fourth book in the Oracles of Fire series by Bryan Davis, (if you haven't read these books–as well as the first series Dragons in Our Midst–you should go read them. . . . :) They're GOOD!) when I came across a section of the book where a character was asked almost the exact same question as I had had such trouble answering. "Are you truly beautiful in God's eyes?" But her answer wasn't "I can only hope", or some other indefinite answer. She was confident. . . Jesus had cleaned her, so she was wholly pure, and no one could make her believe that she was still buried in her sins.

It clicked.

And I realized how wrong I had been. We should never doubt the cleansing power of Jesus' blood, nor, how beautiful we are in God's sight when we truly rely on His saving grace. No one's perfect; so before I had been led to think that no one could truly be beautiful in God's sight. But sure. . . no one is perfect by their own power, but when we allow Jesus to wash our hearts with His love, we become pure, scrubbed clean of our past sins. That doesn't mean that we can never sin again. . . and we do make mistakes, we fall at times. But that is no reason not to run back to Jesus when we realize that we are wrong, and allow Him to pull us into His arms, and gently wipe away the dirt from our palms and set us back on the right path. And then. . . when God looks at us, we can have no doubt that He will smile and call us His beautiful daughters or handsome sons. :)

So yes. . . I am beautiful.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

P.S. BOOK NEWS! I just finished the 3rd draft of TSOT today!!! WOOT! :D One more, then a few others edit, and on to publishing!!! . . . This is actually happening. . . . . .

To Life!!

Tom Sawyer is done. It was amazing! And by God's grace all of the performances were fantastic!! :) The first night we had a "bit" [laughs] of an accident. . . one of the actors got his foot run over by the house prop when it was getting moved on. And he had a rather nice sized part in the next scene. But everyone was fantastic! And we got through it with relative ease. :) The boy especially was amazing. We skipped the first part of his scene, and just continued on to the next part of it while I was running around backstage trying to take care of his bleeding toe, and letting the director know through the headset what was going on (he ended up coming back to help figure it all out). What ended up happening was the boy got some paper towels stuffed in the toe of his sock then he was sent out to do the final bit of the scene. But you could never have told from how he acted that he was in pain!

But yes, other than that, there was no big, unpleasant, last minute surprises. :) So that was very good!

And now it's over. . . . It went so fast!! I've already auditioned for another play though. Fiddler on the Roof. It's the first musical I have ever auditioned for, so I'm kind of nervous about seeing how the results come out! :) Please pray that if I should be in this play that I will get a part, and that it will be the part that I can give God the most glory through.

Pakka pú! (Thank you) :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Standby Q1. . . .

So for the past monthish I've been extremely excited about this play that I'm in (Tom Sawyer). I auditioned for it. . . let's see. . . sometime in the later part of May. I didn't get the part that I had hoped for, but although I was planning on backing out, because I didn't feel that the part I had gotten would allow for the kind of learning that I wanted, God sat me down and told me that He wanted me in this show after all. :) And sure am I glad that He did!! Because not long after I told the director that I would be being in the play after all, he asked me to be the stage manager for the production!

So that has been simply amazing!!! And I, and my parents, feel that I'm getting far more of a learning experience from this than I would even if I had the part of a main character. :) So once again, God proves Himself faithful. :)

The only thing is. . . I've already had the "stage managers" nightmare. (Not anything that has actually happened, just the asleep dreaming kind.) . . . Let's just say it was CRA-AZY!!! And my director was kind enough to assure me that I would have many more to come. . . .

Well. . . now you are updated on my life of recent. :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Yurt: ?

Last weekend (Memorial weekend) my family and I went up to our little piece of land that we have up north, with a yurt on it. . . .

What's a yurt?

(yurt |yoŏrt; yərt|

nouna circular tent of felt or skins on a collapsible framework, used by nomads in Mongolia, Siberia, and Turkey)

The time was very relaxing, and one of the best times I've been able to have up there in years! On account of either being, or getting sick whenever we go up there. . . . But God was good, and this time I only had a minor cold/allergies that were easy to deal with. :) So I went canoeing every day (sometimes more than once a day), and went hiking in the hundreds of acres of national forest right next to our property (my ankles and up into my calves were still sore for several days after getting home). And besides having an all around great time in that way, I got a jump start back into my writing. I was able to rewrite the first chapter and a half about over the weekend. And when I got home I was raring to dive into editing, and get more writing done. So I arranged a schedule, and now I'm writing in the evenings on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and editing on Tue, Thur, Sat. With that schedule I've already been able to get a bunch done, and I'm lovin' it!! (To quote Max, from "Get Smart": I've been watching those lately. :>)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

"Houston We Have Ducklings"

I can't believe that it's already been about a week since these little ducklings were just eggs!!! :) (These pictures were taken only a day or two after they hatched, so they're quite a bit bigger now!)

My brother has some ducks (three to be exact), and about a month or so ago, the oldest of the females started gathering her eggs into a nest and sitting on them. Then about a week ago, the first little duckling appeared, then another, and another, making a total of three adorable little fluffs of feathers. :) They were a lot smaller than I had expected them to be from what I'd seen at Tractor Supply! (If you're not familiar with it, they have a time in the spring called "chick days" when they have a whole bunch of baby chicks and ducks for people to buy, and you can go look at them and hold them, it's really fun.) And we named them Houie, Douie, and Louie–according to the order that they had hatched. So let me introduce them to you. :) (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger if you need.)

Below is Mrs. Mama Duck (her real name is just "Duck", but we've taken to calling her Mama Duck) and two of her babies (Houie–the yellow one in front–and Louie–the dark one behind).

Here's all three; Houie, Douie, and Louie. I love this picture 'cause it makes them look like tiny conspirators!

And here's Houie again (who I'm for some reason always and forever wanting to call Howie! And I'm not exactly sure why. . . . Maybe it's the way I've been spelling Houie. . .).

Houie, however has been having some troubles, and we're not exactly sure what all was wrong with him. So a few days after hatching (like the day after I took these pictures I think), we had to bring him in to try and nurse him back to health, 'cause he was just getting more and more weak, and we were afraid that he wouldn't last another day out with the other ducks (the Mr. in particular. . .). So we brought him in, and for about two days we were carrying him around snuggled up next to our chests with our hands wrapped around him, trying to keep him warm and comfortable. After a bit his eyes started to get crusted up and stuck together, and he was virtually blind, but after an accidental dump in the water, we realized that that could be washed off. So after washing the crust off of his eyes, he started to eat more and began to get more energy. Now he's continually gaining more strength and interest in everything around him, and he's growing at the same rate as the Douie and Louie outside. Our hope is that after a little longer he'll be strong enough to go back out and join them (if they'll accept him back in). :)

. . . Bet I had you expecting me to sadly tell you that he had died, huh? ;) lol. For the first few days we were absolutely certain that he wouldn't last another day, or even through the night. But God is good, and now he's doing really well! :) But I'm actually kind of glad that we went through that. Because now we have one of the ducklings that we can pet and hold, and that will snuggle up in our hands and even come on occasion when we call it! (Yup. That's right.) If he was still outside, he would be running away with the other two, acting like the boogy man was alive and coming after them. lol. . . . That gives a funny picture.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Never Underestimate My Jesus

So God's been doing like a TON in my life these past few weeks; teaching me to listen, truly listen to Him (not just say "ok, if You want this to happen, let it happen" like I usually do when I'm "listening"), and showing just how amazingly awesome HE is!!!!! :) Today I heard this song on the radio, and I got to thinking just how perfectly it fits with what's been going on!! Here are the lyrics, and I tried to find a good link for the actual song, but couldn't find one. . . . But here are the lyrics anyways:

Am I at the point of no improvement?
What are the deaths I still dwell in?
I try to excel but I feel no movement
Can I be free of this unreleasable sin
oOoOoOoO

CHORUS:
Never underestimate my Jesus
your tellin me that there's no hope
Im tellin you your wrong
Never underestimate my Jesus
when the world around you crumbles
He will be strong he will be strong

I throw up my hands
oh the impossibilities
Frustrated and tired
Where do I go from here?
Now Im searchin' for
The confidence I lost so willingly
Overcoming these obstacles
Is overcoming my fears
oOoOoOoO

CHORUS

I think I can't
I think I can't
but I think you can
I think you can
gather my insufficiencies and
place them in your hands
place them in your hands
place them in your hands.

CHORUS (2x)

You will be strong (3x)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Update On Books

The editing of the 2nd draft for The Sword of Teneraz is underway. :) So far I'm pretty happy with how it is coming along, though I really need to put more focus into it so that it can come along faster.

But The Wolves of Langoor however are having some troubles. . . . :\ So I'm currently taking a break (gives me more time to focus on editing), and when I pick it back up, I'm planning on doing basically rewriting what I've written so far. I was only on about the 30th page so far, so it won't be that much to rewrite. . . . [sigh] all that hard work.

But anyways. . . my reasons for doing stated dreaded thing: It just didn't feel right, and I was at the point that the ideas simply weren't coming out unless I poked, and prodded, and–to put it plainly–tortured them to. I finally realized what I think my problem was:

1-I needed a break. Time to clear my mind and bring back to focus where I want this story to go.

2-I was relying on my own strength; my own will power and imagination. At the beginning it wasn't coming all that smoothly, because this story has a more complicated story line than any others that I've written, and to be frank, I hadn't spent as much time just sitting and daydreaming about this story, to the point that I'd figured out the structure of every sentence in a certain scene, like I have for the others I've written. So, I had heard that it was good to make a layout of your story, and I decided to give it a try. But that was my error. Don't get me wrong, for others, I'm sure it helps a TON! But for me. . . planning everything out like that left out any room for last minute spurts of inspiration, which push the story in a different direction; any room for God to give His ideas. I'd left MY author out of the planning. He's the one who had always given me those spurts of imagination that kept my pen going–He's the one who gave me that imagination in the first place! I remember when writing TSOT, a time when He stepped in and completely changed where I thought the story was going, and because of that, it turned out FAR better than it would have if I had kept going the way I'd thought it should go. I know that other authors use the layout, and it works great for them. But for me, that's obviously not the way God wants me to go. I believe, that He wants me to trust in Him; trust that He will guide the story where it needs to go; trust that, when I sit there with a blank paper, and an open mind, asking Him what He wants me to put down, that He will tell me, and I won't be at a total loss like I fear I might be.

So. . . [takes a deep breathe] the layout goes in the trash. And I feel like I'm stepping off a cliff. . . . But, like that one character that I pushed off a cliff; since the author's still breathing, I know that somehow I will survive–and in the process, have the adventure of a lifetime. :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

New Header

I finally decided that it was time to change the header on this blog. . . . So I did. :) What do you think?? Do you like it?

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Easter!!!!! :D

Happy Easter all!!! :D I hope that you have a special day sharing this day with family and friends, or having a just you and Jesus day. :) Whatever your doing, remember who, and what you're celebrating:

Matthew 26-28

HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!!! :D

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~