travel

Last week I went on a trip. 

This lush green-ness is the kind of beauty I miss now that I don't live in the south.

This is Toccoa Falls.

Also Toccoa Falls.

I went to school at Toccoa Falls College, and this week was Homecoming. Since my graduation was 20 years ago, (!?) I decided to go back for a little visit. It was a fantastic trip - I got to see old friends, I got to take in the beauty, I got to visit with a kid from my church in Colorado that goes to school there now, and all-in-all it was a grand time. 

I lived in Athens, GA for 10 years, and I also got to visit there. I went to my favorite restaurants, and a couple new ones. I visited with old friends, and got to drive around the beautiful campus without the distraction of 100,000 people clamoring to get into the football game. :)

And I went to church.

I went back to church and got to visit with friends I haven't seen in a long time. In fact I would call these people family. They adopted me into their family when I was living across the country from my own family. They had me over for family lunch on Sundays, and made sure I had a place to go for Thanksgiving if I wasn't traveling to my own family. 

I had such a great time seeing them and catching up. 

My soul is full.

K

retreat

This is where I was this weekend.

What a beautiful place to spend a weekend! High School group went on a retreat this weekend, and we went to a camp up in the mountains. The weather wasn't that great on the way up there, but as you can see, Saturday was gorgeous! This was free time - most everybody went canoeing or kayaking. It was fun to watch the kids gather out in the middle of the lake on their canoes - they called a "lake party". :)

I love a retreat. 

The opportunity to get away from regular life and retreat somewhere is wonderful. We retreated from all kinds of things. But most importantly we pushed on toward others. We studied the book of Ephesians, and spent time with God.We pondered what He wants us to do with our lives, and we prayed about it. That is an important question when you are in high school, but it's also an important question when you are a ways out of high school. Like me. :)

I am so blessed to be able to retreat, and to retreat with such a great bunch of high schoolers. 

I am grateful.

K

work

These are the roses in front of my house.

The lady I bought the house from last summer, Jennifer, had done amazing work on them and they looked and smelled WONDERFUL all last summer.

I am NOT a rose expert.

But, I am willing to put in some work to have nice roses. I like the colors, I like the smells, and I like how nice they look in my front yard.

But they do take work. I'm not sure I understood the amount of work that would be involved when this summer started. And, my mom actually did the trimming last fall and then trimmed them again in the spring so I haven't even done any of that work.

But I do stand out there every couple days and water them all. I trim the roses that have bloomed, and I cut off unproductive limbs so the other ones can produce more. I bought Rose Food, read the directions and made sure they were fed. When I went out of town I had to leave dad with instructions on watering them.

And all of this work is being done really by default. I "fell into" it, by starting to care for the roses before I had any clue about what was involved. Just jumped right in there. But now because of the work I have beautiful roses.

There is work to be done, for sure. But I think they are worth it.
Smelling pretty,
K

30 Days of Thankful: Day 26

Today I am thankful for God's beautiful creation. Here are a couple pictures I've taken over the years:

The above pictures are (in order): the collegiate peaks, balanced rock in Garden of the Gods, beach at Moss Landing, CA, South fork of the Arkansas River, Pike's Peak, beach in Fort Bragg, CA, Arkansas River near Canon City, CO, Arkansas River near Buena Vista, CO.

What beauty!
K

30 Days of Thankful: Day 13

I have had such great days lately. Recently, someone dropped these off on my desk at school:

It was a HUGE potted pot of beautiful Gerber Daisies. My FAVORITE flower! I know this is weird, but they just make me happy. Every time I looked at them over the past couple days, it made me smile.

Now they are livening up the front room of my house.

I am thankful for these flowers, but I am especially thankful for the parents at my school. They are the best. NOT because one of them brought me these beauties, but because they are SO helpful, and thankful for us, and supportive. I could not ask for a better cadre of parent to work for.

I am so lucky.
K