Where the Redbud Grows

After rousing myself from bed (well after Cliff has fought with his 5AM alarm and gone to Crossfit), I make myself a cup of coffee and breakfast. When I'm lucky (which is often), it's an omelet made of farm fresh eggs, spinach, peppers, and onions... and don't forget the cheese. One teaspoon of honey, a dollop of Hatcher Family Dairy half & half and I take my first sip. Gosh I love mornings.

Within a few minutes, I've made my way from the kitchen to the yard. Yesterday, the front-stoop. Today, the back. I breathe in the morning air as I feed my brain and body and heart all of the fuel it needs to welcome the day. I marvel at the calls I recognize from birds littering the trees above me. I look down at my snowflake covered pajama pants and chuckle at the irony. I look out over the yard we have lovingly and frustratingly tended to for the last year and a half and I smile. The breeze lifts my face towards the sun still not yet mounted above one of two original trees on our property. And then my gaze falls on the fresh, cheery personality of one of our new trees, the Redbud. While I love every Spring, this one... well, it is just different.

Once finished with my last bite (but not my last sip, for I make my one cup a day last as long as possible), I take a quick walk around the yard to check on the health and moisture of the soil around our newest plantings. Today will not be nearly as warm as its predecessors, so all is well.

All, is in fact, very well.

I did some shopping yesterday.

My rosemary I planted the end of last summer.

Cherry laurels, newly planted just a few days ago.

My cascade of lovely - lavender, parsley, basil... and still more to go.

The redbud.

Turning forsythia newly transplanted from a precarious middle-of-the-yard spot to the fenceline.

Spring Break / And Other Things

This would have been my first working Spring Break (because unlike faculty, university staff are still on the clock). But along with Cliff, I was asked to "chaperon" for one of the university-sponsored trips going out this next week with a group of students.

Of all places that the trip would be going, with the objective of working with Habitat to build houses, Cleveland (TN, of course) was selected and the team was in need of somewhere to stay. Steve, our friend, Sunday school classmate, and fellow Belmont staffer (RD in Kennedy), was on a mission to find a host. Enter Cliff and the cabin, me as the much-needed female leader presence on a trip made up of a majority of girls, and the fortune of Cliff getting mission-week at Lampo and me getting "mission-week" if approved to help lead a Spring Break trip.

So that's where we'll be Monday, after and early-bird flight out of Norfolk, a quick pit-stop by the apartment to switch out luggage, and the drive to Cleveland.

I have needed all of this so much. The flight. The trip home. Playing games together and cuddling with the cats. And we've only just gotten here and started what I've been calling a sort of 9-day "hiatus." The plan didn't start out that way, but the Lord had something else in mind.

And the prospects of a stay at the cabin, the sole objective of standing outside with a hammer in my hand and building, building relationships with students outside my "realm of normal work," serving, and a night and day in the Smokies just blow me away (again) with God's timing.

So I will get back to nursing my cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee and patiently waiting for Mom's breakfast pizza to finish cooling so we can all partake. Hope you all have a beautiful Saturday!

p.s. The weather here is about the same as what it's supposed to be back home today, so you Middle-Tennessee folks better get out and PLAY, because we most definitely will be!

Going Home

Headed to:



for the weekend!

So what if this picture was definitely taken in the summer and not the beginning of March. Mom's got all sorts of plans for us this weekend, and I'm very much looking forward to a visit home to start off Spring Break with a bang.

Spring Break, you ask? Don't you work? Well normally, we both would be - but more on that later.

I Cannot Wait For These

to start blooming.

Spring Has Sprung!

Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. You don't even know what these days are doing to me; while they fly by all to fast (is it really March 14th? no... is it really?), their changes bring with them such a happiness, even a lightness that is so welcome. Spring Break was much needed and wonderful - the perfect mixture of having absolutely nothing to do and yet none too much free time. A few of the highlights, besides not having to go to work or school and yet still existing in my everyday life, were enough to restart this little heart of mine and bring to life some things that had been lying dormant for awhile. The trees are all budding and it seems just as shocking and thrilling as the transformation that takes place in them months from now; this is the first year I can truly remember welcoming spring so openly as it whispers of summer days ahead.

I spent a quiet afternoon on the porch at Bongo and in the stacks at Border's last week. I journaled and read scripture for what seemed like a whole day, kind of lost in a place I hadn't been for a really long time and I can only say that it was a very centering experience. If we were ever to shed our spiritual skin, I am sure that is what it would feel like: looking into two books that seem to translate desires and dreams, conflicts and convictions so well and recognizing something in me which felt much more passionate and alive than I had felt in sometime. I believe to truly look at one's life and to listen, for believers, is to hear God and sometimes that takes shutting everything out and remembering... reflecting... recognizing who you are, what you love, what makes you feel alive, and what places need fixing that nothing else in this world but the hand of Christ can fix?

Whew.

I needed last week so bad because along with it came a freedom that has lifted some invisible weight off my shoulders. I climbed every night last week, read books I get lost in, got pink on my cheeks from an outside lunch with a dear friend, spent time with friends, spent a whole day in the Tennessee sun by an enticing river and a mile of bluffs, smelled the sweet smell of my Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion, ate my first Benton cheeseburger, strawberries, and oatmeal pie of the season, and relished time with my darling fiance.

Speaking of, I'm getting married in 129 days and I could not be happier, despite the fact that still so much is left to do, half of which doesn't even involve the wedding but preparation for marriage. Wedding plans are moving along, and I realize so many people have been left out of the process: not intentionally, mind you - it's just been this way because life is moving along so fast. If you're interested to know, I've got my dress, the flower girl dresses and shoes, the reception location, a tentative church location, save the dates have been sent out, the hotel is blocked off for out-of-town family, my veil is on its way, reception playlists are in the works, and on it goes... so exciting for me, but most times I'm afraid I bore or annoy others when I talk about the wedding so I don't do it too often.

Welp, I'm going to take a quick lunch break outdoors and refill; life inside this little windowless office is only bearable if I remember to get outside it every once in awhile.

Enjoy Spring!