thankful

this weekend was splendid. i hopped in my parents car straight from work on friday (at 10:30pm), and trekked all over the pacific northwest. ok, that sounds really adventurous, but really we just road tripped all over oregon and washington seeing lots of family.  saturday and sunday were jam packed with activities with lots of driving in between…staying at my sister’s, then heading to my brother’s in seattle for my niece’s art and horse riding birthday party, my nephew’s football game, mars hill church for a killer sermon by mark driscoll, and my nephew’s pool birthday party. we made our way back to portland sunday evening, but only for enough time to trade out the clothes in my bag and change cars to head to central oregon (then with wil) to spend some time with both sets of parents and his sister on monday and tuesday. another set of whirlwind days…shopping, dinner out, golf, zumba, going through boxes of school year memories, and a fabulous 3 course meal that wil cooked for everyone. followed by another long drive wednesday morning to get us both home in time for work.

phew! we were exhausted to say the least, but blessed and thankful for all the time we spent with family. i’ll be sure to post about the meal in the coming week or so…an unofficially oregon themed, autumn feast.

these two at the girl's party reminded me of gracie & ava...

but something else that made the last few days so great was you guys! every time a comment popped up in my inbox, i was overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness for your outpouring of support and encouragement in my ventures. the comments and notes were each spot on, whether it was an encouraging verse, a helpful link, or just a ‘i struggle with that too’. we were so back and forth between places and houses that i never could get on a computer to reply, but i intend to.

although i haven’t really been able to work on anything being gone the last few days, just spending time away from everything, think about it, talk to parents, and visualize potential opportunities helped me feel like this is just a slight variation on the path i was already on, that god had intended from the beginning. it’s good to know that the general look of my day to day life will be the same, but the tasks i spend time on will alter. nothing drastic, nothing overwhelming. and like many of you mentioned, just getting started and doing a little at a time is just what needs to happen.

thanks friends!

petunias, following the sun...