Labor Day

Labor Day weekend … the unofficial end of summer, the beginning of college football in the South, a time to rest from the routines of life.

We didn’t do a lot to celebrate the weekend.  We journeyed to Tennessee on Saturday, followed Vanderbilt football on Twitter that night (go ‘Dores!), went to church on Sunday, and basically did nothing on Monday.

But we rested.  We took a break from the daily routines.  We spend so much of our lives driving, talking on the telephone, sending e-mails, marking things off our to-do lists, that it’s good to take a day to just “be.”  To exist, and nothing more.  Nothing to accomplish other than to enjoy the people around us.  No important conversations, no hidden agendas, nothing to do.

It’s kind of like being a kid again.

So, here’s to the unofficial start of fall – may it be filled with colorful leaves, crisp autumn days, good food, and great friends!

 

The Answer When You Don’t Know What to Say

Sometimes there are just no words to say when we are faced with difficult circumstances.  Mark Hall says it best.  Take about eight minutes to listen.

 

Ah, Spring!

Spring has certainly arrived in Owensboro in full force!  We are enjoying the buttercups, tulips, dogwoods, and many other signs that winter has gone for another few months.

Neighbors are coming out of hibernation to work in their yards, sunny days are putting people in good spirits, folks are waving as you pass by.  We are reacquainting ourselves with one another.

We have wedding showers in abundance – three in the span of four weeks!  These are fun times to get together with women to send another young woman down the path of wedded bliss.

Our spring concert at the high school is just under two weeks away.  We are feverishly working to perfect our music – all while the students are suffering from incredible bouts of “spring fever,” sometimes making an hour and a half class period feel like ten.

Summer is just around the corner – we are preparing for Chris’ graduation, the annual meeting of our denomination in Louisville, a mission trip to Baltimore to minister alongside our friends Lou and Sonya, Vacation Bible School, and hopefully a vacation before the season ends!

So many things to be involved with, so much to do.  Yet, we were created to take the time to greet our neighbors, enjoy the wedding showers, make a new friend, and reconnect with an old friend.

How are you spending this lovely spring day?

 

Living Life

I realize that I have been quite sporadic with my blogging of late.  I’ve read a lot about how it’s a really good idea to have several posts written in advance so that you have things ready to go on days when you really don’t have the time or the energy to write anything new.  Unfortunately, I’ve not really bought into that idea yet…

My only excuse for not blogging lately is that, while I blog about life and our relationships and the communities that we are building, I have been too busy lately actually living those friendships to write about them.

We recently had a very tragic and traumatic death in our church family.  A family unexpectedly lost a young adult son and brother last Friday.  We have shared with them this week in their grief as they said goodbye.  We will continue to walk with them through the long, lonely days ahead.

Our investment in this family is long-term.  They will need all of us more in the coming days than they did this week.  We will not fill the void or erase the hurt, but as Sam said to Frodo, we may not be able to carry the load for them, but we can carry them.

We have other friends who are bearing their own burdens right now, and we have some friends who are rejoicing.  I have a husband who is planning to graduate with his Ph.D. on May 15!

We are busy … living, loving, learning, and sharing with those around us.

So, I haven’t had time to blog lately.  Life has been busy lately.  What about you?  In whom have you been investing your time lately?

 

Crawling Out From Under a Rock

All of the musicals have been played and sung, most of the mess has been put away, and now I am back to “life as usual” … whatever that is!

Give me a few days to regain my footing, and I’ll be back – hopefully with stories to share!

In the meantime, enjoy this little blast from the past – 1989 to be exact.  Yep, that’s my hometown and Orlinda Baptist Church in the video.  And the old lady crossing the street?  Our church pianist!

 

Spring Cleaning

Thanks to Jessica, a friend from college days, I have been inspired this week to pull everything out of our closets and drawers and throw away, give away, or put away everything that I find.

Four days later, with five LARGE bags of trash, four bags of clothes, and a pile of other miscellaneous items to donate to charity, I’m thrilled with the results!  I’m not quite finished – I still have the kitchen to go.  I wish I could say that I had followed Jessica’s lead with before and after photos, but I haven’t.  I didn’t even think about it.  You’ll just have to trust me when I say that this is so much better than it was!

I don’t function well in clutter and disorganization.  And while my friends would probably all claim that my house didn’t look disorganized and cluttered, they aren’t allowed to look in  my closets.  I can do a pretty good job of keeping the “seen” part of the house tidy, but the “unseen” has been a bit lacking!

I feel so much more prepared to tackle upcoming projects with this behind me.  And, as I’ve been sorting and cleaning, I’ve been making a new list of things that need to be done!

 

Blogging Break

I’m going to be taking a bit of a break from blogging for the next couple of weeks.  The high school where I accompany the choral groups is performing “The Sound of Music” March 22-24, and my time is a bit consumed right now.  Never fear – I’ll be back on the 25th or so to tell you all about it!

If you are in or around Owensboro and would like to attend the performances (and we’d love to have you!), let me know and I’ll get you the details.

 

Validation

This short film – 16 minutes in length – has been making the rounds in the blogosphere of late.  If you haven’t seen it, make the time to watch it.

 

Article on Debt-Free Living

My husband and I have a commitment to live debt-free, and I wrote a little article about our experiences over at MyMissionFulfilled.com.  You can read the article here.

 

Life is Returning to Normal

You would think, with all that extra time on my hands last week, I would have actually done something.  You know, pianos don’t take electricity to be played.  Dusting furniture can happen without power.  Things can be polished without lights.  Lots of things can be done without electricity.

But did I do any of those things last week?  Nope.  Not one.

I did read quite a bit.  The particular mystery that I chose was one that I bought some time back because it was by a well-known Kentucky author.  It actually wasn’t very good, so I won’t talk about it here, but it did pass the time – just.

And, other than actually washing the dishes BY HAND and listening to the radio for any hint that power might be restored soon, that’s about all that I did last week.

So, today is about life returning to normal.  It’s been a good day, going back to my tried-and-true routine.  I love my routine.  I would go crazy if I had to try to decide what to do every single day.  Normal is good.  Routine is good.

Life is good!