Around this time of year everyone starts to go cold with their coffee. Not me. I like mine hot. The baristas all assume cold because of the rising temperatures outside, so please remind me to specify when I order.

I’d like a grande-skim-white-chocolate-mocha hot – even though I’m dying to try the Midnight Mint Mocha. And the S’mores. But those are cold. Unless you’re willing to break the Starbucks hot/cold rules for me.

What’s your drink? Are you going hot or cold? Yes we have much to catch up on. So grateful for this little coffee date with you…

Welcome Summer

Summer is a tricky season for us. There’s a lot to love – warmer weather, afternoons at the pool, baseball in the park, the welcome wind-down of school break. But it’s also a really stressful time of year for us – summer jobs, less pay, less hours, the reminder we still haven’t arrived at the place we want to be in life. I have a hard time settling in, making peace, accepting where we are, and that often translates to anxiety and weight gain.

I know this, and have for quite some time, so over the last several months I’ve been praying very specifically about this transition. I don’t want to carry the baggage of all the other summers into this one, and I certainly don’t want to negate the joy we have waiting for us over the next few months because of the difficult moments I know we will live alongside it. I pray often that God would just fix some things, because it’s time and that would be infinitely easier, but I’m also praying that should He choose to leave it all the same for another season, that the attitude of my heart would be changed instead.

This is a tenuous line I’m walking, I know. This is what, summer week one? But I am beginning this season knowing more peace than I ever have, and that right there, is a blessing I will mark with gratitude.

The Annual Purge

Does anyone else feel the need to purge every once in a while? Like dump-the-contents-of-the-house-in-the-yard-and-start-over-again kind of purge? I’ve blamed it on babies for several years but I think I’ve run out the expiration of that excuse. Perhaps I’ll blame it on the big kids this year? Just to switch things up?

I don’t know what it is or how it happens that we constantly have things to get rid of. It’s like my house generates stuff for me to manage while we’re all sleeping. We do not have the money to fill this place up on a yearly basis with stuff we don’t need, so I know it’s not our spending. Still I feel like I’m constantly pruning our possessions.

This August marks eight years in our home – the longest we’ve lived anywhere as a couple by what seems like a thousand years – but we moved around a lot before then. Anyone who’s moved knows there is that one box that never gets opened that just gets shuffled from house to house. We have an entire furnace room of those, and I’ve determined this is the summer to finally part ways.

I opened the first one last week and it was like opening a time capsule of my own life. Paystubs from my first ministry job. The receipt for the bridesmaid dress from one of my best friends weddings. My old Blockbuster card. A late eighties necklace with the face of my six month old baby sister. So unbelievable, so fun, so enlightening.

There is so much I don’t remember, so many little parts of the story that get filed away and never thought of again until something like a random box is opened and explored. It makes me really happy we live in a world that has social media and blogs and digital footprints, because someday when all the “stuff” is finally gone and out of my house, I’ll still have a place where the memories live to remind myself of all the little parts of the story that often fall between the cracks of life.

Writers Block

I’ve been writing in a variety of forms for more years than I will ever admit, but I have never truly experienced writers block until now. IT IS AS HORRIBLE AS THEY SAY. The script I planned to publish in March is still not done, and while it seems I have an abundance of wonderfully distracting ideas and half-written blog posts floating through my brain, there is not one – NOT ONE – good idea to move this script along. This writers block thing is real and it. is. killing. me.

What does one do to remove writers block? I HAVE NO IDEA. So I’ve been reading lots and lots of Rachel Hauck* books, watching Netflix, and in general avoiding the computer. I’ll let you know how it goes. So far not great.

Move Beyond

Mike surprised me for Mother’s Day with tickets to see Derek and Julianne Hough on their Move Beyond Tour. HE WINS BEST HUSBAND OF THE YEAR! Seriously. This will be hard to top. I will remember it all my days.

Derek and Julianne are amazing in about a thousand different ways and their show was exceptional. I could seriously talk about it for days, but it’s their creative ability that really moves me. THEY ARE SO FREAKING TALENTED. Not only are they two of the most well-known dancers in the country, they choreograph. They sing. They play instruments. It seems there is no limit to their creative potential, and they live in the space where their gifts and their passions collide every single day. What a gift.

How are you?

Any fun summer plans? Getting out of town? Seeing the family?

Tell me! I’m all ears :).

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