Hi everybody!

I am popping in to say hello and share some tidbits from our summer. This summer has been so sweet. It’s been nice to have a break from school to work and save and enjoy a slower pace of life. One of my highlights from the summer was volunteering as a camp counselor for a week. It. Was. Amazing. But I’ll save my thoughts on that for a future post.

I think when I last blogged about “happenings” I was beginning the spring 2014 semester. I was also in the process of applying for nursing school. Well, guess what happened? A few weeks after sending in my application, I received a letter notifying me that I was chosen for an interview. Thus began the process of researching and preparing to answer questions like, “why do you want to be a nurse?” and “what’s the difference between and LPN and an RN?” and “what is the role of nurses in the healthcare system?” The morning of my interview, I dressed up in my jacket and slacks and nervously drove to the school. I prayed and committed everything to the Lord, trying rather unsuccessfully to ignore the butterflies in my stomach. I really believe that God gave me peace and confidence and the clarity of mind I needed in those critical minutes. The interview over, I had only to wait. I checked the mail every day for news of my enrollment in the program. Then one day, I came home from work and Daddy gave me a packet he’d gotten from the mail. Yes, it was from the nursing program, and yes, it had those lovely words of congratulations on the top! I was in. Now with nursing school only 2 weeks away, I am excited and ready to embark upon this long adventure for as long as the Lord sees fit. My plan is to graduate with my RN and transfer to a 4-year college to finish up my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I have my eye on OB/GYN (particularly labor and delivery). So those are my plans for now, but as a godly older woman told me, everything happens according to plan, but perhaps not according OUR plans. :) I am praising God for this opportunity He has given me now and want to work hard and be committed to it while holding it with an open hand.

So. Without further ado, here are some pictures from the summer.

We had some dear friends of ours visit as they were driving through Missouri on their way to Florida. Here’s a picture taken at Wilson’s Creek.

Fun at Silver Dollar City! Here my friend (and fellow waitress) and I are shooting water at the passing boats. Needless to say, we got drenched in the process. Haha.

My friend took this picture of me after a long day at work. I was laughing about something somebody said and I’d caption it, “let your hair down and laugh.”

Wesley and I traveled to Iowa for a friend’s wedding. It was a special and memorable weekend trip. We both enjoyed ourselves and it was a privilege to attend such a beautiful and God-honoring wedding.

One of mom’s aunts and her husband came for dinner as they were traveling though Missouri. It was a sweet evening of fellowship.

Hiking at a nearby park. We brought a picnic in our backpacks and enjoyed our traditional 4th of July picnic of rotisserie chicken, cherries, chicken in a biscuit, and brownies. (And a few carrot sticks to balance out the meal, of course). ;)

Kayaking on the James River for an epic day-trip!

Cutting strawberries with the boys for freezing one fine morning.

Celebrating Wesley’s 20th birthday. Goodness, it’s hard to believe that this guy is 20 already! Why do my brothers have to grow up so fast?

My cousin Anna came down for a visit. We had a lovely time biking our country roads, talking, watching chick flicks, cooking, and shopping together. Love this girl!

And here’s a recent selfie of my Mumsie and me. I can’t say how much of a blessing she is to me!

Well folks, that’s all for now. Next time I hope to post about my experience at camp.

What have you been up to this summer?

Hello lovelies!

Do you have siblings? If so, I’ve got an idea for you to surprise them with on one of these hot, lazy summer days. Make them a treasure hunt! If you’ve never done this before, let me assure you that it’s a BLAST to make. Simply type or write some clues on little strips of paper, hide them all over the house, and end with a prize for incentive.

The fun thing about this game is that you can make the clues as difficult or as easy as you want. They don’t have to be grammatically perfect or rhyme. You can even just write down key words if you want to. Here are some clue ideas to get you going:

Some eat these with cheese, others with sardines, and some just eat them plain. Your next clue lies there. (in our box of sardine crackers)

1998 images: last page. (the final page in our 1998 photo album)

25# x 20 reps. How much can you bench press? (underneath the 25 lb weights) 

Look in the place where you’ll find little brown strips of protective material and healing ointments. (bandaid closet)

A kid’s favorite pastime, comes in all sorts of colors, rhymes with “man.” (crayon drawer)

Your next clue is hiding in the game that Mom likes to play with tiny wood squares of wood (Scrabble box) 

Story about a long, cold season: page (7 x 8)/2. (A Long Winter, page 28)

Treasure ideas include tasty treats (I used dark chocolate covered pomegranate pieces), water balloons, another craft activity, an invitation to go out for a doughnut or an ice cream cone. Whatever it is, your siblings will be sure to be thrilled!

P.S. This got us all in the mood to watch National Treasure, so there’s another activity for you to do after your treasure hunt. :)

I just finished reading the book A Severe Mercy. It’s a powerful book. So many things stood out to me, but one passage in particular caught my attention, causing me to re-read it several times and really ponder its meaning. Sheldon Vanauken so eloquently puts into words how we tend to view time. It left me in awe of the hope of heaven and eternity with God!

photo credit

“If, indeed we all have a kind of appetite for eternity, we have allowed ourselves to be caught up in a society that frustrates our longing at every turn. Half our inventions are advertised to save time – the washing machine, the fast car, the jet flight – but for what? Never were people more harried by time: by watches, by buzzers, by time clocks, by precise schedules, by the beginning of the programme. There is, in fact, some truth in ‘the good old days’: no other civilization of the past was ever so harried by time.

And yet, why not? Time is our natural environment. We live in time as we live in the air we breathe. And we love the air – who has not taken deep breaths of pure, fresh country air, just for the pleasure of it? How strange that we cannot love time. It spoils our loveliest moments. Nothing quite comes up to expectations because of it. We alone: animals, so far as we can see, are unaware of time, improbable. Time is their natural environment. Why do we sense that it is not ours?

C.S. Lewis, in his second letter to me at Oxford, asked how it was that I, as a product of a materialistic universe, was not at home there. ‘Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures?’ Then, if we complain of time and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest?

It suggests that we have not always been or will not always be purely temporal creatures. It suggests that we were created for eternity. Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at it – how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren’t adapted to it, not at home in it. If that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion that eternity exists and is our home…..Heaven is, indeed home.”