Wednesday, July 27, 2011

{Word-less Wednesday} Summer Fare...

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Surviving...

Summer

This is how we do it...

This past week the heat was almost UNBEARABLE...

Lukewarm pool water got us through...

We've also completed Week One

with our sweet Japanese student, Ren

We're continually surprised to see what is so normal to us

through her eyes...

We're learning a lot about her

and a lot about us...

And it is good.

This weekend we played "tourist" in our own town

we enjoyed seeing her delight over what is to us, almost invisible

like back roads...

and the Amish...

and farms...

and covered bridges...

and farm animals...

we discovered we could stay all day in our own town and spend

nothing but $1 on a water sold by Amish children and a 1/4 tank of gas...

and actually LIKE it...

Summer...

It suits us fine.

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world."
Ada Louise Huxtable

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

{Word-less Wednesday} Universal language....

Finding common ground...

"Our Similarities bring us to a common ground;
Our differences allow us to be fascinated by each other."
American novelist, 1936Tom Robbins

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

stretch marks...

It's not the first time I've had them...

unfortunately, no one warned me when I was pregnant with Alex that

my previously tiny body would forever bear the marks of the strain of all that extra weight.

I've grown used to them and am old enough to know that life is too short to care...{too much}

BUT..

these days I'm enduring a different kind of stretching and straining on my body...

ones that I am sure will also leave lasting marks.

I am expanding beyond my natural ability in so many ways lately.

And it is good

And I am grateful

But stretching means change

and change is sometimes hard and uncomfortable at first.

I am stretching in

my schedule

my flexibility

my relationships

my time

my thoughts

my prayers

my control

{or lack thereof}

I'm not really mourning what "was", so much...

I see the marks, and I'm pretty sure they will always be a reminder of what got me here.

And "here" is probably not really a final destination,

but a stop along the way.

There are many unknowns up ahead...

and if I look too far ahead,

the unknowns are

daunting

and

lonely

But I'm pretty confident that the stretch marks of

today are so that in my tomorrows I can see

the bigger picture of what God was doing.

There's no pride in bearing our stretch marks, either on the outside or the inside...but there is a sense of satisfaction that the results were worth the pulling and expanding.