(i started hanging out with these crazy kids again.)
i'm sorry it has taken me so long to update this thing. summer is in full swing, my friends. i am sitting here after an extremely long day feeling comforted by the sound of bon iver and the cool air. (the weather has been perfect. ellie says it's like canada - 70s during the day, no humidity, and 50s at night...i wore a sweatshirt both this morning and this evening and loved every second of it.) anyway, the long day. i expected it, i tried to prepare for it - but still i'm wiped out. this might be short because tomorrow promises to be full again and i really must sleep. i'm quickly learning the importance of making time for me and God in the morning because the rest of the hours slip through my fingers so easily. let me back up, attempt to collect my thoughts. (i've been unsuccessfully trying to collect my thoughts for the past week so i make no promises as to how this turns out.)
after the week cluttered with complaints, my perspective has shifted. by the grace of God i am finding joy rather than disappointment. i am embracing conversations and actively trying to be present in whatever task is set before me. it's hard, it's a discipline that i slowly learn, but i'm trying. i've still been landscaping in the mornings. Fred and Eththel have both been helping recently and i have really enjoyed talking with them; they are such dear people. for a little while this kid, (ok, not really a kid- he's 26...) Mike was helping out but he didn't last long. he was a really slow worker, really slow. Ethel said i probably scared him off with my hard work ethic,.... i always scare the boys away. hahaha my afternoons have been filled with babysitting, and my evenings with mowing. as i spent today picking strawberries, going to the library, a petting zoo, and playing tag at a park - i marveled at this job placed in my lap. even though babysitting can be tough, i really am thankful to be spending another summer with the Dague children. (pictured above) they are crazy and loud and sometimes disrespectful and difficult, but they're also so sweet and funny and adventurous and for that i am so thankful. we learn a lot from each other. (well, at least i learn a lot from them - and i only pray it goes both ways.)
so, working. a lot of working i have been doing. and running. (trying to gear up for the fall...) other than that, i'm trying to squeeze in time with friends but more often than not, i'm just too tired. it's weird adjusting to a schedule so full of work, adjusting to being so exhausted that i can't handle hanging out with people after work... but it's good too. it's nice to come home and do nothing but drink tea, spend time with my family and read books.
this weekend i did run the warrior dash! believe it or not, it was a little overrated. but still crazy and fun and silly. i'm glad i did it. and incase you were wondering, mud tastes gross and gets stuck in your teeth. it also gets stuck to your eyeballs and weirds people out who are trying to have serious conversations with you, haha. (i may or may not have tripped at the end and face planted in the mud, just in time to not see where i was going under the barbed wire or the fire that we had to jump over. it was perfect timing, let me tell you.) haha it was a fun weekend though. i really wanted to put a picture on here but i can't seem to pull it off of facebook... bummer. just imagine me covered in mud dashing through the woods, laughing and tripping all the way. you have great imaginations; i have full confidence you can do that.
this weekend is our annual family reunion. we will be going up to my grandparent's cabin to reunite with nearly all of my extended family on my mom's side. it's always a really really sweet time of fellowship and i am looking forward to it a whole lot. it is always interesting and somewhat sad too though, as a lot of my family members are not seeking God and living in the full life that he offers us. if you remember, pray that conversations would be rich and intriguing to my family that does not yet understand or even want to understand our good Creator God. pray that God would speak through my family and i...and pray that the weekend would be restful and rejuvenating for all; i think we're all a bit frazzled. beyond that - pray that i would really seek God this summer, wholeheartedly. i am falling into the familiar trap of, well, the familiar - feeling that i can do this on my own, because after all i've been doing this for 20 years. (lies.) i am not making time for God, i am not letting him pour into me, i am not taking time to write and pray and mediate on scripture as i ought and it's evident. pray that this would be a priority, that i would choose God over sleep every day.
other things:
1. i found a bridesmaid dress for a good price, praise God!
2. i learned that when you dead head a rose bush, you are supposed to cut the branch back to the one with 5 leaves. (they grow in rotations: 3 leaves, 5 leaves, 3 leaves, 5 leaves...)
3. today when we were at the little petting zoo kelsea (who just finished first grade.) said, "the llama keeps doing ballet." hahahaha (it kept putting its one foot (hoof..?) behind the other to scratch itself i think.)
4. when we celebrated my grandfather's birthday at the end of may, i hung up the beautiful sweater birthday banner that you girls made for me. i plan on keeping it forever. i also hung up the little triangle banner from genny's secret birthday party in barrington ;)
well my friends, i am off to bed.
i cannot tell you how much this blog means to me, how much of a blessing it is to keep tabs on each of you and know what's happening in your little circles of life. thank you for sharing, for challenging and inspiring me. thank you for your prayers and thoughts and words. you girls are golden and i am so undeserving of your friendships. until i find a deeper, more meaningful way of saying it,
i love you.
with a heart so full,
ashley
p.s. nina, i did get side bangs of a sort.
and genny i'm glad you're loving east of eden!
and hannah vee, thanks for the post card!
No comments:
Post a Comment