Daycare

As the spring semester ended, I was praying for summer plans. I had no idea what I was going to do with such a long summer break, considering how difficult it was for me to stay home throughout winter break. I knew I couldn't just stay at home the entire summer. It's really amazing how God gave me this opportunity to help out at the daycare/summer school for the kids. I've been amazed by how Johanna and Julia really love the kids and want them to have the best time at the daycare. I've also been amazed by how much patience they have for the kids - they help the kids use the bathroom, wash their hands, read the same books over and over again, clean up, etc. It's also rewarding having them listen. They're all learning how to share and clean up. Being at the daycare, I am learning to appreciate moms (and dads) even more. I'm also amazed at all the moms out there who take care of their children everyday. It's not a job that ever ends. They're constantly denying themselves to care for their child(ren).

Here are some photos from the daycare:

For now they communicate in Korean. I'm not sure how long this will last, but it'll be cool if they keep speaking Korean later on!

Best friends in the making?

Aw, I get to witness moments like these.

They love playing with dirt and sand!

Squirting water to help them keep cool.

Look at all the beautiful art work. I'm amazed that Johanna can tell the difference between the kids' art work.

Josiah was pretending to be the dad and Jakey was pretending to be the son for "take your child to work day".

The highest stack of chairs. 

Playing with sand means getting sand all over your body, haha.

I really enjoy listening to their conversations. They have a lot of interesting things to say.

Josiah's birthday celebration! Kisung brought all the kids a happy meal.

Gabriel really likes being in pictures.

They absolutely love playing with water!

"Look at my mustache!"

Creativity

I've been meaning to write a blog post on creativity for quite a while now (from winter break), but I hadn't figured out how to start this blog post.

Random tangent, but I recently realized that I haven't taken an English class for a whole year now (gasp). All I have been reading since college started are organic chemistry equations, textbooks, and scientific papers (that use unnecessarily complex language, in my opinion). Although I didn't quite enjoy English class in Roosevelt, it was good for me and I learned so much about literature and how to write. I am hoping my writing doesn't get worse in college.

Okay, back to the topic. It a truth so simple, yet it has taken me months to learn it. And then when I thought I learned it, I had to relearn it. So what did I learn these past few months? I learned that creativity comes from God. During the fall semester, I was getting adjusted to college that I didn't take many pictures. It also kind of felt like my creativity ran dry. Then over the long winter break, when I had nothing to do, I would go on Pinterest and become fascinated by all the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) ideas. I also had so much fun reading through Hillsong's Creative Blog. As I started using Instagram, I also became fascinated by all the creative Instagramers! And I too, wanted to be creative. However, I refused to acknowledge that photography and my love for arts came from God. Due to my pride, I struggled and struggled. During this time, I read some blog posts from other Christians, and I was really convicted.

"Creativity is a gift--it’s good. Yet, as with most things given and good in this world, the enemy loves to put a polluted and poisoned twist on it, and he loves it even more when he can get it right into the majority of our modern churches. More and more I have seen a disturbing number of “ministries” surface focused primarily on assisting willing and eager participants “find themselves” and “express their own individuality” through all different forms of art. They have made Christianity about self-expression, instead of a surrendered life that expresses Christ. They seem to forget that arts, music, drama, etc, all exist as a means to glorify Jesus, and not as an avenue to self-exaltation."

(The rest of the post can be read here.)

As the new year came along, my friend and I declared 2014 to be a year of creativity. And it's been amazing seeing all the ways God has stirred members in our church to do creative things! I've seen people explore things they have never thought of before. And I hope that as a church, we can expand and improve the media team, praise team, etc. and take steps in doing creative things. As I rightfully acknowledge that creativity comes from God, I have been learning so much and having so much fun with photography!

However, I learned that although creative things make me really excited, God calls me to worship Him. It's so easy to get distracted and unintentionally start worshiping the artists, instead of worshiping and praising God - whom creativity originally came from.

And so this is the simple truth that took me so many months to learn.

God the Provider

After Mary Anna played played this song for me, it's been one of my favorites this week. The song lines - "for you are for us, not against" really caught my attention. How often I forget that God is for us, not against us!

Last week my dad jokingly asked me, "Are you been praying for a car?" I had made comments about needing a car to my parents, but I didn't expect that my parents would buy one any time soon. Instead, I had been praying that God would give me a job over the summer so that I could start saving for a car. However, I find it amazing that God knew my desires and what I needed. Last week we went to the Hyundai dealership in College Park and bought our new car! This year, I've been learning that God never fails to provide. Sometimes (well, a lot of the times), he will not provide in the ways I expect it. Over and over, I see God's grace throughout my life. I don't deserve to have this car, but I'm thankful that God provides! 

I didn't get a job over the summer. However, God has given me a lot of opportunities over the summer. I've been teaching Luke geometry from last week and I started helping out at the daycare at church on Wednesday! The kids are really funny. I love listening to them talk and seeing what they have to say, haha.

Josiah: "My mom, my mom told me she's picking me up today. She's picking up all of us!"

Jakey right after: "My mom, my mom told me she's picking me up today."

Art Class

I took an introduction to drawing class in the spring semester (ARTT110). I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about drawing! I really wanted to show a progression of my drawings that I did over the semester. However, since I never went back to pick up my final portfolio, I'll just show you guys different drawings from the semester and what I learned from them!

Here we go:

On the second day of class, my professor told us to draw the still life he set up. Those were all the instructions he gave us. We had 2 hours and 30 minutes to draw and render the still life we saw. I finished drawing everything in an hour or so and attempted to create the shadows that I saw in the drawing. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even know the difference between all the pencils that I had - 2B, 4B, 6B, 2H. And this was what I drew after 2 hours and 30 minutes.

In the following classes, we did a lot of shape, mass, and shape & mass drawings as well as contour drawings. The top ones were blind contour drawings, which means I drew them without looking at the paper.

I just remember looking around at everyone during the blind contour drawings and seeing people peek down at their paper, even though they weren't supposed to, haha.

Then I learned about the importance of composition in a drawing! Before, I would draw the entire still life, but I learned that you can choose a part of the still life. I learned about the importance of the rule of thirds (it was easier to understand because I knew it from photography class). 

We drew the same still life from the first day of class in the middle of the semester. My professor wanted us to see how we were improving. By this time, we used more charcoal and were more familiar with it.

This took one whole class to draw and render. 

I really really enjoyed this class. Instead of just drawing from a clean sheet of paper, we first covered the entire paper with charcoal. Then we created the drawing by erasing.

This is when we started drawing only in pencil later in the semester. I realized that drawing with pencil takes an extremely long time and I prefer charcoal over pencil.

Although my professor didn't tend to give us a lot of instructions, I did learn a lot. I'm glad I chose to take ARTT110 even though I don't think I'll be taking any more art classes in the near future. Thanks for reading!