Stream of Consciousness

Summer is definitely slipping through my fingers.

The wave of cool weather has been nice in that it’s a reprieve from the super hot days we were having, but I’m not ready for fall.

Not yet.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE fall when it’s ushered in after Labor Day.  The big pots of chili bubbling on the stovetop.  Candy dishes piled high with candy corn.  Orange sprigs of changing leaves draped across the living room mirror.  Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  Cool nights sleeping with the comforter pulled high over my face.  Carving pumpkins.  Picking out costumes.  Hot bonfires on cold nights.  Bundling up in jeans and sweaters.  Plump baby bottoms sporting tiny denim trousers.  It all tickles my senses.

But summer just seems so short.  The cool temps reminded me of all the good things to come, but also reminded me that the long days and hot afternoons are coming to an end.  Chilly little girls in wet swimsuits smelling faintly of sunscreen and bundled in fluffy towels.  Grilling dinner while the cicadas sing their summer song.  The sound of seagulls flying over head while tan limbs splash in chlorine pools.

I just don’t want my favorite season to pass by too quickly.

Blogging has taken a back seat to all the summer word pictures above.  I long to sit down in front of my sleek silver laptop and pluck out the stories of our life, but the real deal keeps pulling me back into the action.

Savoring the sweet summer moments with my family and friends has kept me busy during the long days and crashing into bed on hot nights.  The laptop sits lonely on the countertop waiting for my return, but I know that I’ll blink an eye and the first frost will be crunching under foot.

Summer reading has been good to me.  It’s been mostly non-fiction, faith-based stuff but I’m gobbling it up like drippy ice cream spilling fast from a wafer cone.  God is using the words and ideas of those wiser than me to shape me more and more into the woman He created me to be.

It’s slow, hard work and I often find myself fighting against it while also craving it so intensely.

I think I’m finally finding myself in territory where real change can happen.  The sweet spot where I’ve come to the end of myself…all of the trying and striving having left me weary and breathless.

The spot where I’m laid out on my face and my sweet Savior scoops me up and breathes His strength, power and love into my lifeless body.

It evacuates the cob webs and burns out the impurities with a red hot flame that hurts like the dickens sometimes, but leaves me feeling hopeful and joyful and finally at peace.

I’m learning so many lessons that seem completely different, yet also completely woven together.

They go on and on, and trying to harness their potency by chaining them down in a few words on a little blog post would make them sound cheap.  The lessons have been good.  So very good.  And they have been penetrating my heart and changing my mind which is normally so convinced  about everything.

I’m becoming less and less sure of everything, and it’s so good for me.

I’ve been reading to Grace out of the Jesus Storybook Bible.  And every.single.time. I end up in tears.  The book starts in Genesis and highlights many popular Bible stories and every story comes back to Jesus.  It all points to Him.

The real, actual Bible does too but we can be so dense that we miss it.

This kiddy Bible’s got it goin’ on.

Here’s a small excerpt from the story about the prostitute who washed Jesus feet and dried them with her hair…

I just love the picture it paints of the “important people” (read religious hypocrites) and also the “sinful woman” who really, truly loved Jesus.

So awesome.

Besides reading we’ve been taking walks and having play dates and hitting up every splash pad we can and doing crafts thanks to Kiwi Crate which has been a fun monthly subscription.  Talk to me if you want to try it for one month free :)

I’m still cooking up clean meals and even photographing them.  I have a backlog of recipes to post and I hope to make time in the next couple of weeks to share them.

Thank you for all the positive feedback on my Zoodle Video!  I’m so glad it made you laugh and it inspired me to make more goofy kitchen videos.

I’m going to do a little series on juicing and some other simple things like how I cut onions and peppers fast…you know, rocket science kind of stuff.

Andy is on break until the end of August and it’s been so wonderful to have him home.  Tag team parenting is where it’s at!

Plus, he’s my best friend and I’ve loved staying up late watching episode after episode of Suits and then cuddling in the morning as he sleeps in till 7am instead of his normal 5:00.  The girls are also thrilled to have daddy around every day :)

Life is good.  It’s hard sometimes and there are moments when I don’t know how I’ll possibly be able to muster up enough energy to make it till bed time.  But I remind myself that “life is hard, but we can do hard things”.  Thank you Glennon Doyle Melton for your beautiful words.  The truths that you dole out for the rest of us to chew on and mull over.

I also remind myself that gratitude will bring me joy.  I’m thankful to Ann Voskamp for her poetic truths about eucharisteo.  Her book is currently rocking my world.  When life seems empty and sad and hopeless, perhaps it’s because we are ungrateful.  Finding thankfulness and gratitude in the most ordinary moments is changing the way I see my life and my Lord.

I’m so thankful for the blessings I’ve been given.  The pain, the mistakes, the wear-you-down-slowly irritations of each day.  There are blessings to be found in all of that if we just look for them…