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

waiting

Waiting is hard.

Today is Tuesday. On Friday I am supposed to buy a house.

I say "supposed to" because I haven't gotten word from the lender on how much the actual check should be for. This is the last step in this big, bad process of buying a house. Once I go get the check, I think everything will be good. Then I just have to go to the closing and sign my name a bajillion times.

For now, I'm waiting.

Since I sold my condo a couple weeks ago, when people ask where I am living I say "Camping in Mom and Dad's basement". And that is the truth. But really it is not a hardship. There is a kitchen down here, and a full bathroom, and a nice bed. And plenty of room to have some of my stuff. Not all of my stuff, but certainly enough to live for a couple weeks. As well as free laundry, offers of dinner, and a garage door opener. No, I am NOT roughing it.

But...

I am waiting.

I am ready to go to the closing.

I am ready to move in. I am even EXCITED about moving in. I am even excited about the actual MOVING!

I think the waiting is the hard part. Knowing what is coming, but having to wait.

...

As you MIGHT be able to tell, patience is NOT my strong suit.

So for now I will wait. And pray for patience.
K

leash

This is Dolly.

She is my Mom's dog.

Well, I guess technically she is Mom and Dad's dog, but when it really comes down to it, she is Mom's dog.

This week, Dolly was my dog.
Mom and Dad were out of town, so I was housesitting, and dogsitting. Cat sitting too, but the cat didn't do anything except lay in her bed.

I took Dolly out for walks twice a day, and we had fun. Yesterday we saw THREE bunnies on our walk! It was very exciting, and she almost pulled me all the way up the hill because dogs chase bunnies.

But one day, we were walking and there was someone out on the sidewalk with a blower. Dolly did not like the blower. I kept walking, because, well, it is a blower. But Dolly really didn't like it, and stopped. In fact, I think she backed up. And then, she pulled out of her leash. As the leash came zipping back to the leash handle, I realized that it wasn't around Dolly's neck anymore. I turned around, and Dolly was stopped still in the middle of the sidewalk. She didn't know what to do now that the leash wasn't attached to her anymore.

So I reached down and slipped the collar and leash over her head, and we were off as usual.

But as we finished our walk, it occurred to me that Dolly is fine while the leash is on her. But once it comes off, she doesn't know what to do. It is very disconcerting to be out in the wide, wide world with no leash on.

And isn't that what the Bible is for us? It allows us to roam freely and safely within a certain limits, but once the leash comes off, all bets are off and the likelihood that we will be hurt goes up exponentially.

I thought it was interesting that Dolly didn't like being off the leash. And that she KNEW when she was off the leash and it stressed her out. I guess it just goes to show that we all need limits.
K

LIFE2013

Oh wow.

This week has been HUGE.
Every 3 years my church denomination puts on a huge youth conference. It's like summer camp on steroids. And not in the woods.

But is IS pretty stinkin' awesome. I just got back, and this year was no exception.

We were in St. Louis this year, and it was great! There were awesome speakers, a concert by LeCrae, different seminars every day, lots of great time with my youth group kids, and even some great time with other youth group kids.

One thing I really appreciate is that the content that they presented was deep. It was meaty. We sat through sessions twice a day, plus 2 seminars each day, and for everything I went to the content was right on and very full. No fluff here.

There was service - for 3 days, a group of 2000 kids went out into the city of St. Louis and worked. We cleaned out an old cemetery, we painted a ballpark, we carried trash out of several different places, and it was great. I think when kids throw their hearts into serving others, great things happen.

We talked about God's mission, and how God's mission becomes your purpose. When you are called of God, His mission becomes yours. And he calls you to do this in lots of different places. Sometimes He calls people to go overseas, but most of the time He calls you to do His mission right where you are.

We sang to a video about cranking a chainsaw?!?!?!?

We ghosted people. Well, I didn't ghost anyone, but I did get ghosted. :)

We spent time talking about things that are going on in my kids' lives, and how they respond to what God is doing.

We listened to each other talk about what God was telling them, and their response.

There were seminars on lots of different topics: Identity in the post-church generation, spiritual disciplines, missionary panel, Jesus and consumerism, how to choose a college, how to be a Christian artist in a non-Christian world, and so many more.

It was a great week, and I'm grateful to have gotten to go. I'm grateful that there wasn't any major drama. I'm grateful that we all made the 14 hour drive back.
K

even bigger

Well I thought things couldn't get bigger and more scarier...(scarier?) but they have.

...

I bought a house today.

Holy cow - this is HUGE.

Really I'm not sure how to feel. I'm excited, but I'm also scared, and a little overwhelmed, and still waking up in the middle of the night thinking about things I need to do.

Oh. My. Word.

But the bottom line is that it will be a great thing. I'm trusting God. I've prayed this WHOLE time that He would work out all things in this big endeavor. And He is good. All the time. Regardless of what is happening in my housing situation.

And that's exactly what I have right now - a housing "situation".

So, I'm off to pack. I've got to get all my stuff over to Mom and Dad's house, because next weekend I'm moving the furniture into a storage unit for awhile.
Here's to cardboard boxes.
K

break

Today I needed a break. I headed over to nbc.com and watched an episode of America's Got Talent. It was refreshing, and I even teared up a few times. It was just a "feel-good" moment. Well, more than a moment, but you get the idea.

The reason I needed a break is because I've been glued to the internet and TV news, and facebook, and twitter, and everything else possible to get information.

Because of this.

Last summer, I wrote here about being WAY out of town while parts of my city burned down, and now it's happening again.

They are calling it the Black Forest Fire, and so far it has totally destroyed over 90 homes and is not contained significantly at all. Today the wind shifted and the fire burned back on itself and is now headed in the opposite direction as yesterday, threatening another several thousand acres.

I've been watching the coverage, but this afternoon it got to be a little much.

So I headed over to the ol' interweb to watch the America's Got Talent that wasn't shown last night.

And it was just the break that I needed.

I'm still praying for the firefighters and planes and people helping fight this fire, and praying for the people who are evacuated. There will be lots and lots of damage once it is all over, and every bit of that is a person or family that is affected. But the words of a song by Building 429 keep going through my head:

This world has nothing for me
This life is not my own
I know You go before me and I am not alone
This mountain rises higher
The way seems so unclear
But I know that You go with me so I will never fear
I will trust in You
Whatever will come our way
Through fire or pouring rain
We won't be shaken

God is still God, regardless of what happens this week. And I will continue to trust Him. For what, I don't even know sometimes. But I will lean on Him.

And maybe watch a little less news.
K

old fashioned

I would like to take this moment to confess that I am old fashioned.

Now, I am not old fashioned in EVERYTHING...just in a few.

I like technology. I am willing to use technology. For some things, I embrace technology.

But today I sat down and paid bills - the old fashioned way. I took the bill, wrote out the check, marked it off on the sheet where I keep track of bills, put on the stamp, put on the return address label, and made a stack of said bills to drop off at the post office.

Now I realize that there are quicker and more electronically-savvy ways to do this task, but there is just something...tactile about paying bills with my hand and tongue and checkbook rather than with a mouse and keyboard. That way it feels like sending an email. My way I feel like I am *doing* something. Like my hands are actually doing it.

Yes, I pay some bills online. But it feels weird that way, and I much prefer the old-fashioned way.

I'm going to make it a point this summer to see where else I am old-fashioned, because I feel that I have equal parts "old-fashioned" and "forward-thinking".
K