Fall, take your sweet time.

The internet world seems to make fall come so much faster than it does in reality. We had an unusually cool August, but it's not fall yet, here in the Philadelphia area... The leaves are green, the afternoons feel hot, and the sun stays out most of the evening...

Even though I adore fall- the season of apples and my birthday and campfires and jackets and Toms/jeans and back to school- I am in absolutely no rush for it to begin.

Because then it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then January and our baby will be here. Which will be amazing. But not quite yet, thank you very much.

This year, I'm taking every chance to enjoy each season and rest in them. And to savor the weather and the changes and the growing belly I'm sporting nowadays.

Fall, I'll be happy to see you but take your sweet old time.

Good and bad things lately

Good. It's sunny. I have a personal day to use today so I am living it up. We don't have to move this summer.
Bad. It's 95 degrees this week. We aren't moving this summer, which is bad and good, mostly just confusing because we thought there was an open door from God but it has closed.

Good. We have almost all our support raised for Spain. Praise The Lord. I get to have a free ChickFilA salad for lunch today.
Bad. Junior high sleepover tonight. Why is that bad? Middle school girls don't tend to actually, um, sleep, at sleepovers. I'm gonna have to either be the bad guy and make them, or just stay awake myself. Clearly it's going to be door number one. Duh. And other than that fact, this item could go on the good list. I love those kids.

Good. Our fence was the only thing damaged in the fire we had last Sunday night.
Bad. Somebody intentionally set two cars on fire in the church parking lot last Sunday night which spread to our fence and huge pine tree. It was super scary.

Good. We serve a perfect, mysterious, loving God who chooses to bless us and care for us. I am overwhelmed by his love.

On the blessings of this age

One of my friends (hi becca!!) wrote on her blog about how Jennifer Lawrence is younger than she is. I commented back that all the stars I like are younger than I am.

I also notice myself making snide comments lately about my age, how OLD 28 feels, how all these people are doing all these things and they're wayyyy younger. Ick. My attitude and self pity disgust me sometimes.

Because I like lists and because I need to kick my own butt out of this wahhh-me mindset, lets think about how awesome my life has been for the past 28 years. How much goodness God has chosen to pour out upon my undeserving self.

I have lived in four states plus Japan. I know a little Spanish and little less Japanese. I have taken vacations to Thailand, Okinawa, Ireland, and the Dominican Republic. I married the man of my dreams. I have almost six years of teaching experience. I get to take grad classes that I really truly love. My parents, in-laws, and brother(s) are amazing. I still am super tight with my college roommates. We own a home and I get to decorate it basically however I want to. It's almost always sunny in Philadelphia.

Basically, being 28 has been hard. My prayer almost daily is to honor God with this year and praise him for being soooo good to me despite my bad attitude and self consciousness about this current season.