Sunday

This morning,

...I woke up without using my alarm.....such a good feeling!

...I played badminton with the seester at the tennis/volleyball court ..........(which feels super wimpy after playing tennis yesterday)

...and got super sweaty in the 100+ degree weather

...and then jumped in the nearby pool to cool off

...ate some yummy leftovers from last week

...and then a yummy quesadilla on the George Foreman via the seester

...showered, did a random assortment of things, and then headed off to church

...helped the seester with 2nd & 3rd graders at Kids Connection

...got a BRC burrito at El Pollo Loco

...went to 'the 7' (7pm church service) ............& was challenged, fed, and stretched

...went to Target for some un-fun essentials

...came home, ate some ice cream & watched the finale of Castle


Needless to say, it was a lovely day.
: )


And a Song for Sunday:

{The Altar}  -Nichole Nordeman

I'm at the end of myself,
I just dropped out of the running
I don't recall when I last pulled the shades and said
"here comes the sun, here comes the new day"
Someone remind me again that joy might show up on ocassion
I'm sitting here with my hands on my head, and my eyes on the ground, wondering if I'll be found by You

Will you make me new? Will you take what's left of me?
I guarantee that it won't be a fair trade.
Will you set me free from what's keeping me afraid?
I know I've prayed it all before, but I'm back on the altar

I don't believe what they say about one foot in front of the other
If my life was a map, you'd see every last step just circling around, still lost, never found by You

So will you make me new? Will you take what's left of me?
I guarantee that it won't be a fair trade.
Will you set me free from what's keeping me afraid?
I know I've prayed it all before, but I'm back on the altar

Maybe last year I'd have made empty promises
Maybe last month I'd have tried to pull strings
But I don't have one single chip left to bargain with
The only thing left is me needing You to make me new

Will you take what's left of me?
I guarantee that it won't be a fair trade
Will you set me free from what's keeping me afraid?
I know I've prayed it all before
But I'm back
On the altar

thoughts in captions

Here is a little prettyness on this Saturday!


LOVE this.





a song from 2007 : )

rescue -by Newsong



a little bokeh for ya

Happy Saturday!

friends & blessings

Resolve:

 Good friends are worth it.

That is just chalk full of truth!

Over the past few months I feel like I've been in a different season of friendship.

For a long time I struggled with not having a physical support system of friends.

Although I have many friends,
I mostly connected to them via facebook/texting/occasional brief chats at church.

-

all 'normal' modes of communication, but.....
-

it just wasn't face to face talking and one-on-one hanging out.

This was a rough time for me, especially with everything else going on in my life which I correlated to my need for further support.

I became pretty discouraged and frustrated from the {seeming} lack of effort from my friends.

I know, I know, I'm getting pretty close to whining/complaining.

Attempting honesty though.

For awhile, it felt like I was the one giving.

all.

the.

time.

In every. single. friendship.

It seemed like it was getting harder and harder to find someone every time I wanted or needed a friend.

And soon, it seemed more like work than friendship.

But then?

God completely blessed me by placing me on the other end, finally being the receiver!

I also had one friendship completely start up again out of the blue.

-

without pretty much any effort on my part.

Which was a huge blessing.

It was such a needed repreive.

A break.

A breath of fresh air.

A friend who wanted and needed me.

Without prompting by.

And not just for a few minutes, but much longer.

My friend Amanda and I have been kind of getting to know each other again over the past few months.

And it has been lovely.

As a true friend, she is truly a blessing from God.

The friendship, characteristics, and values that we share are just a few things that God has blessed us with.

Basically, we share the same neurotic tendencies.

--Like being people pleasers/harmonizers,

having sisters as best friends,

and worrying & stressing about the same things.--

Looking back now and reading through my journal over the past season of my life,
I can very clearly see my cries and petitions from God.

And now, I have seen, tasted, and experienced His answer.
I am certain he is good.
He most certainly does answer prayers.

Also, looking back over the past few months, I can see how God has blessed me.
He has give me many great moments.
Moments of friendship.
Days with joy. laughter. hugs. love.

And then I realized a few days later......

How often do I treat God like this?

How often do I put him on the giving end instead of the receiving end?

My answer: I'm still a work in progress.

I will daily be striving, working, and trying to put him first -not delighting in me from afar, waiting patiently until I turn to him to taste his goodness.

A verse that I'm choosing as my anthem for this lesson of God's goodness and delight:
Psalm 34:8
{Taste and see that the Lord is good:blessed is the man who trusts in him.}

So tell me,
 What is the verse for your current season of life?

I Can Do, List

When I'm at home, bored, & trying to use my time more wisely, here is the list I gave myself of things I can do.

Thus, my I can do, list:

. make birthday bookpage garland  .......done! Turned out great!
. make rachel's card
. crochet a yellow flower   .....postponed to a later date
.  & wrap gifts
. submit bill to dad
. read hospital volunteer handbook
. copy down quotes from Georgia On Her Mind 
.  & Shauna Niequist
. journal        .....done, but kind of ongoing : )
. listen to last week's sermon podcast
. finish draft blogs
. finish & update playlist to blog
. work on a header for Rachel's blog
. wash sheets    .....ongoing though
. iron UO skirt
. do the dishes  .....ongoing though
. chalk up round flowery frame
. paint my nails
. paint moms nails
. write a note-a-day  .....moved to be my goal for August
. clean off desk
. clean corners
. switch winter clothes to back of closet  .....done
. make one thing off of summer to-do     .....ongoing though
. weed out/delete e-mails   ......ongoing though
. write activities in planner  ......ongoing

What I Want You To Know

I recently clicked over & stumbled upon a series on rageagainsttheminivan.com called What I Want You To Know.
The posts are incredibly moving and I could. not. stop.reading. them.
Literally.
I stayed up really late the other night reading every single post.

Taken from R.A.T.M.:
"What I Want You to Know is a series of reader submissions.  It is an attempt to allow people to tell their personal stories, in the hopes of bringing greater compassion to the unique issues each of us face. If you would like to submit a story to this series, click here."

What I think I gleaned after so much reading of various posts and comments can be said quite simply.
1.Do not jump to judgement/conclusions. You do not know someone's story or their situation. Or as one contributor wrote: "you haven't fought their fight."
Be kinder to frazzled moms with screaming children in very public places (i.e. the grocery store).

2. Everyone is different - we were created that way.

3. People make mistakes. I make mistakes. You make mistakes. People of every age/color/background/status/realm of influence makes mistakes. So learn to accept them and freely give grace to others when they mess up.

4. We were also created to be human. Not superhuman. Not perfect beings.
Therefore, have grace on people outside of the definition of 'normal'.
Welcome change.
And remember children will act like children sometimes- it says so by including 'child' in the very root of that word!

-----------------------------------------

Also, I have a few thoughts of my own on What I Want You To Know.
Which may or may not include:
-being a twin.  &
-growing up with a family member with a chronic illness.

Yesterday

Yesterday, on the first official day of summer,
 there was a forecast of 110 degrees.

Which translated to icky-hot-YUCK heat.

Which also made me think that it would be a horrible, no good, very bad day.

However, after surviving said 100+ degrees of nastiness,
I can say.....
 I showed the first day of summer who was boss!

The happs:

woke up lazily, chatting w/the seester on ma bed


quick lunchy

frozen yogurt date w/the seester & lovely friend Alex
{where I had thin mint + strawberry yogurt + strawberries + watermelon}
*don't even get me started on how much I love watermelon + frozen yogurt
I kinda love it. and I'm not a froyo girl


went 'paint looking' with the seester
(aka looking at paint colors)


spent 30 minutes in Home Depot.
-that's a hardware store-
not exactly my main spot.
'twas lovely & fun!


spent 30+ min. in Michael's
....and didn't buy a single thing.
-major progress people-
left super inspired!


library'd it up for 1+ hour
got TONS o'books.
eep! : )


went to the 'f-market'aka Farmer's Marketbought lovely green beans for dinner
+
romaine for crisp salads
+
sugary sweet strawberries
-for reals. they taste like sugar!-


dinner w/seester & lovely friend Katie
kebobs + sauteed green beans + couscous

sadly the only picture taken all day since I forgot the camera : (


trip to grocery store for ice cream

speed scrabble w/seester & katie
-slowest round(s) ev.er.-


read 3/4 of a new library book


'twas a lovely day.
for sure!

June slumber

Last week I had a very realistic and very long dream.
It included making {2} DIY projects I've had my eye on.
And then I scored the supplies for said projects.
For free.
Do I have wild dreams or what? : )
The sad thing was that I was really bummed that I when I woke up, I didn't actually get to make those projects for free.
Oh, geez!




And then something I haven't ever had happen personally in a dream...

...I dreamed about a friend I haven't seen a few weeks.
And her husband- who I haven't met yet.
Which is strange, because, well, we've never even met.

And then we talked on the phone about 30 minutes after I woke up.
Which was even more unusual.
(We text more than talk.)


For some reason, the last few months my dreams have been more vivid, realistic, and impact-ful.

Have you ever had that happen?

Ever dream about something and then be sad when you wake up and it's not true in real life?
Or dream about someone you haven't seen in awhile and then you suddenly do?
Or do you wake up not remembering any dreams?