The weekends have certainly treated me right lately. Sunday
night rolls around and I look back feeling so grateful and blessed. And I think
I’ve needed that lately. A little pick-me-up that energizes me to jump into
another week.
Last weekend was my annual Girl’s Weekend with pals that
I’ve known since high school. We are
approaching our 18th high school graduation anniversary. I know, how can that be? Did we all graduate
when we were only 10?! Yes. Yes, we
did.
We didn’t have a lot to show for
our time…..eating our meals out……. shopping….nails painted….lots of chatting
and laughing….…….but we relished in not needing to make food for anyone or
having to stick to a schedule. So grateful for
these women. My heart has struggled off
and on throughout this last year.
Constantly feeling in a position of striving to connect and make new
relationships. I’m a highly relational
person, but also still regularly struggle with symptoms of Jr. High Girl
syndrome (Feeling left out and wondering if someone likes me). So, uprooting and moving to a new community
has its moments of being lonely and just not knowing who to try to connect
with. So, a weekend with girls that I have history with and lots of shared
memories.....Mmmm…..blissful. And our husbands are all pretty amazing for being so good about letting us do this ever year.
And this past weekend, we grabbed the boys out of school
early and headed to Grand Rapids. First, we stopped to give Adam’s grandma a
visit. She’s been in the hospital for nearly 6 weeks trying to get a blood
disease managed. Good to visit with her
and Aunt Joni. She has a lovely view out of her window, a mesmerizing programmed piano in the lobby, and an automatic sensor sink! Even with all of that fun stuff we found, we're praying that her numbers cooperate and she can get out of there very soon!!!
Then we dropped the boys off at a friend’s house and headed
to a lovely wedding that evening. We’d known the
groom since his middle school years. He
picked a lovely girl back during his high school days and they had an
incredibly God-focused wedding ceremony that we were blessed to witness. These were some young adults that we count ourselves so blessed to have been able to watch grow in their faith and commitment to God. And oh…..it felt so good to see so many
friends! Sometimes you don’t realize
just how much you miss people until you have them right in front of you again. Felt so good to receive so many hugs and share in conversation with friends that are so dear to our hearts! Felt a bit of a hangover the next day (nope, not from alcohol). It was just such a "high" time for our spirits that I felt the letdown of missing people that next day. Thankful to have people we care about so much.....apparently, I'm just still struggling with the concept of relocating. This small town girl has a strong affinity for community and it just takes awhile to build that back up again. And unfortunately, the only picture I took of the evening was a poor selfie in a dark car as we headed back out of town. :) Someday, maybe I'll catch up with the times and snap pictures more often. I'm just gonna chalk it up to being in the moment. :)
Saturday was filled with soccer games. Landon and Tate are both playing this spring. We had a lot of early morning games last fall, but this season we have a lot of afternoon games. It breaks up your day more, but the weather seems to be much more enjoyable for sitting outside. Here, we found ourselves stranded in between games. Adam and Heath took off to catch a high schooler's LaCrosse match and we had an hour to wait in between games. Bottle flipping Gatorade in some beautiful sunshine is incredibly enjoyable. Mostly because of the sunshine.
And Sunday, a lovely Mother's Day was on the docket. A great morning at church.
(And in case I've mentioned too many times in this post about missing people and the struggles of relocating.....I really do like our church. :) Yes, this relocating thing has not been easy always, but we really do feel God's hand guiding us and having us here. We are continually grateful and have no regrets of following God's leading. That doesn't mean its easy and we constantly have warm fuzzies.....but we would rather know we were obedient than to live a life of ease and comfort. Just wanted to clear that up :) )
And then for the afternoon we gathered at my aunt and uncle's house. They live in the country and have a fun hobby farm with lots of animals. Good to see family and spend time with them.
And apparently, I was again "being in the moment" and we didn't catch any cliched Mother's Day pictures with my boys and I (or with my wonderful mother and I). When I finally thought about taking a picture we were on our way home. Heath had fallen asleep in the car and was in no condition for smiling. Tate still snapped a picture with me though. This kid might give me the most struggles and cause me to pray the most....but he is also my most loving and affectionate one. So grateful that God chose me to be a mom to these boys.
Finished off the evening with a walk with a friend. The two of us talk almost as fast as we walk. And we walk pretty fast. Appreciate how she goes deep right away though. Good for the body and the soul.
And our fridge is currently plastered in graduation open house invitations, wedding save-the-dates, bridal showers, and birthday party invitations. We're gonna be hopping these next couple of months.
