March: Done

What a whirlwind of a month!


* Absolutely loved welcoming springlike weather to my world (for a minute anyway). I had grown very weary of shoveling...sprinkling salt on the sidewalks...bundling up with gloves, scarves, and hats. Loved seeing buds on the trees, tulips and daffodils pushing up through the ground, and opening my windows for the first time. And then...snow returned. And then...spring returned. Welcome to Indiana.

* I think the last half a month of posts tells you how much I loved my very first trip to Florida. So thankful for the invitation to go, the financial provisions God offered to make the trip affordable, and the time I spent relaxing AND hearing Him speak while I was beach-side.


* Celebrated Kaegan's tenth birthday and a decade of him living in my home! (Lucky for him I was gone on his birthday, so he got a celebration with the house sitter and then one with me a week later!)


* In the land of cooking, my greatest achievement was the night I made five coffeecakes in one night. Man, my feet hurt after that! (Let the record show, I did not cook WITH my feet.) I also tried out cinnamon bun pancakes - LOVED them. I made an extra yummy new brownie recipe too (three times, but who's counting?). Brought back a golden oldie recipe I'll have to show you sometime - salsa sloppy joes. Somewhere in there I ate some real food. I do promise.


* Entered full blown busy season at work. The time when my desk is always cluttered, my voicemail light is always lit, and I utter sentences like "I'm tired of talking." WHAT!?!! I love the busyness - because it's always good to be busy, but I don't like feeling behind. That bugs me. I even pulled my first twelve hour day of the season...


* Lent began this month. Last year God asked me to give up music in the car, and I thought that was kind of weird, but I did it. That was the season in which He taught me to hear Him...something I needed during my desert. This year He brought a new theme to my life which I'll wait and tell you about in an upcoming post. Let's just say giving up chocolate would probably be easier!


* Spent some time with old friends. Not as in aged, but as in haven't-seen-forever. The week in Florida was part of that, and then the week I went to the Pampered Chef party and the Stampin' Up! party, I got to see friends from my old church that I never run into anymore. Inviting a couple of sweet friends over for meals gave me more chances to catch up - and I did so love that.


* I've been learning anew how to depend wholly on the Lord. Many drives on the prayer path...many walks on a prayer path...many moments in the pew at the prayer chapel...a few times of being flat on my face before the Lord. I have no idea what He's doing in my life, and at times, it feels He is pulling me apart at my very core, but I am choosing to trust Him.


* And then all the randomness: like surviving (granted, not well) the switch to evil DST, helping paint a classroom at church, switching the closet to summer attire, successfully finding an Easter dress (before Good Friday! and without the assistance of a cross-dresser!), an epiphany of a new writing project, working on my Florida scrapbook, and decorating the house for Easter.

Stone Altar: End of March

Pancakes with the Princess: March

Another round of pancakes...served!! This month I invited my friends the Hancocks over for Pancakes with the Princess. They are so good to invite me over for movie/hangout nights and they grill and bake up all sorts of goodness for me! But I've been so bad about returning that favor! So this was the time.


This is Liam. He prayed for our meal. It was a darling little prayer and after he was finished, I said, "That was a good prayer, Liam!" He said, "I'm a praying MACHINE!" Well if that's the case, let me go get my prayer list and put you to work! Poor James was confined to the stroller because my table doesn't accommodate a family of five plus me. This was how we contained him. He seemed no worse for the wear.

Savannah sat on the extra stool we tacked onto the corner of the table. Look at how grown up she is!! And she has teeth again. Makes the eating go much more smoothly.

So for dinner, we had...pancakes, smokie links, orange slices, Amish breakfast casserole, and of course - the fabulous orange julius.

Aren't we cute?

And not to be outdone by his sister....

I think she liked it.

Aunt Bekah becomes a jungle gym...

He was unable to join us for the jungle gym because he was playing with the Easter egg stash. What an obedient CHEESE!!! child. I love him.

Their parents were present and accounted for but preferred to remain unphotographed. I just didn't want you to think I didn't find them photo-worthy. Definitely not the case!

Home Again, Home Again

* I interrupt my regularly scheduled programming to make the following announcement: I won my region in Phats' bracket contest. Yeah you read that right. This girl did her first ever bracket all by herself and won her region. If only I'd had a clue what I was doing. Okay I'm done. Back to Florida. So we can come home from Florida. *


I had to set my alarm for 5 a.m. On a Saturday. Criminal. I got ready, stuffed the last of the "stuff" in my suitcase, and got ready to leave. This is how I felt about both the hour and the prospect of leaving the state. Sneaked out and took onnnnnnnnnnnnnne last picture of my precious beach.

We somehow crammed all that stuff back in the Altima - and my carry-on suitcase resumed its position in my lap.

They call this a sunrise. Have you heard of them? :) Actually this was a really pivotal moment. I'll have to tell you about that in another post.

We got to the airport and I made it through security a little bit better than the time before. Unfortunately I'd not yet had a drop of coffee. Thank the Lord for Starbucks.

Khi was pretty happy - PYANE! PYANE!!!

Our flight out was at 8:45 in the morning and I thought the fact that it was so early in the day and NOT preceded by a 7 hour wait in the airport would make it an easy peasy flight.

Wrong.

I had more anxiety on this one than I did on the first one! Part of it was because I was in a row by myself. Megan, Khi, Silas, and Ronda were all across the aisle and back a bit.

Another pyane. Yeah you stay over in your own airspace, pyane.

We arrived early - and were on the ground before noon! Kristin, who had borrowed my car while I was gone, picked me up at the airport and took me to....

...you ready for this?....

SONIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She called me even before I left Florida to make the arrangements to pick me up, and during that call, she mentioned the Sonic outing. It was truly the only thing that gave me any hope for coming home. After we left Sonic (I had to stop on the other side of town to get more caffeine just to make it home!) I drove home, said hi to the cats, did not pass go, did not collect $200....

Good night.

Our Very Last Day

Friday was our last day in Florida. Sadness indeed. Ronda took this picture for my friend Katy. Originally we thought we would have to take our own beach towels on vacation, and that stressed me out. Those suckers take up some prime real estate in a suitcase! Katy (who after about three flights, deemed herself a packing expert) said to me, "Oh just wear it on your head. No problem!" So for Katy.... ...and on the other side of the couch....

MeeDonald!!

Friday was a SPECTACULAR day. The sky was nearly cloudless, the sun beat down...and it wasn't even seventy stinkin' degrees. I could not bear to stay inside another day....

...so I was the super cool tourist laying out in my capris and hoodie. LOL!!! Ronda did the same - out on the beach. She took pictures of these water sport people - c.o.l.d.

By the time she came back....um...I'd added a layer. I'm an embarrassment to my own self.

In the afternoon, I decided to make one last trip to the Lighthouse Donut Shop. Before I left to buy the donuts, I said to Jonathan and Megan, Can you think of ANY reason why I would need a photo ID to buy donuts?

Maple and chocolate. Yes please.

A hint of a tan, anyway.

That evening, Jonathan had to be back with Chorale for the next leg of the tour. With him in the car, there was no room for me unless one of the kids wasn't buckled in. I couldn't have that, so I stayed home to pack and relax while everyone else went to hear Jonathan.

Watched some Little House on the Prairie. Smile.

One last sunset...oh man I miss these.

And I spent my last night in Florida reading, dunking Oreos in milk, and watching TV. It was a good run. Why again did I think going home was a good idea?

It's the Weekly Recap!

* Sunday I taught my junior high Sunday School class. (I told them I was going to tell on them about this...) One of the exercises for the lesson involved putting together a puzzle. The leader guide suggested a 50 piece puzzle for four people to work on. I just so happened to have one - of Disney princesses. So I took it. Y'all, it was for ages four and up...and it took them 20 minutes to put it together. FOUR OF THEM WORKING TOGETHER!! When they finally got done, I took a picture because we were all exhausted!
I spent most of the day Sunday at church, actually. Our pastor had invited a guest to share music with us. He sang a little in the morning and then did the entire evening service. His name is Tab Beechler - you should check out his website and listen to the music clips. He was a lot of fun, but at the same time, his concert was very worshipful. I love that about a concert. And oh my word. To be able to play like that! Definitely a great day at church!
* Monday was not a bad day by any means, but it wasn't report-worthy. Chores, chores and more chores - at work and at home. Necessary, but lousy blog material.
* Tuesday evening I went to a Pampered Chef party- the first one I've been to in a LONG time. Pretty excited about the couple of little treats I bought for my kitchen!! And after that...I went to IHOP with my mentor, Lara, and we got all caught up. (And we closed the place down.) After we parted ways...I did a little Almost-Aunt B's Caramel Surprise Brownies baking:

* Wednesday evening I broke out the Easter decorations and got the house all spring-i-fied. It was my attempt to defy the return of cold weather. :) I don't think it worked, but you have to give me credit for trying!* Thursday I got a HUGE surprise at work! Robyn brought me a package that came in the afternoon mail...and it was an early (really early) birthday gift! Someone sent me David's new Best-of DVD and CD! I had absolutely no idea I would be receiving it and was so excited!! (I'm sure I really needed to explain that.) So I popped in the CD right away and started singing quiet little duets with David right there in my office.
Thursday night I went to a Stampin' Up! party at Angi's house. First one of THOSE I've been to in forever, too. Here's the cute owl gift box I made. I'm trying to look like the owl. I think it's a fail. (The expression, not the owl.)
* Friday I needed to go out on my prayer path at lunch, which meant I had to hurry through a drive-thru for some food, and much to my surprise, the person in front of me in line paid for my lunch! What a great day!

And Friday evening, I was a mad-woman around the house. Switched the closets, did the laundry, cleaned up the house, went grocery shopping, made pasta salad, made a batch of brownies, made a batch of Scotcharoos - whew! I was tired!

* Saturday was busy, but oh-so fun. My sweet friend Marie came over to spend the day with me, and we scrapbooked. I honestly don't even remember the last time she and I hung out for a whole day. It's been over a year. I loved having her here (and I made some headway on the Florida book)!
In a revolving-door-of-company sort of moment, right after she left, my friends the Hancocks came over for the March edition of Pancakes with the Princess. They have me over all the time for dinner/hang-out nights but I've been embarrassingly slackerish in returning the favor.

Books I'm Reading: Clearly there was little (okay no) time for reading this week. I did keep up with Sparkling Gems from the Greek and also began re-reading In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, because that's the book Olivia and I have decided to study together now that we finished our previous study. Even on a re-read, I think it's one of God's perfect-timing situations.

Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: Wednesday I returned to the prayer chapel on campus for the first time since the desert. I've learned that my visits to that place tend to go in cycles. God will urge me to visit regularly for a season and then release me from going for a while. So when I do go, it's always very sweet, because I know He's working extra right then. That day He led me to Scripture after Scripture and pressed each one on my heart. It was a really beautiful hour.

Update on Last Week's Goals: Well, everyone thinks I'm nuts, but the closets are switched. I know, it is supposed to snow - blizzard, no doubt - in the next couple of days, but I'll wade through it in my flip flops and tank top! And the house is buried in bunnies and Easter eggs. Love it! (And I have my eye on a couple more Easter decor items at the store....just sayin'.)

Goals for the Coming Week: REGROUP!! This entire month has felt something like a hamster wheel. I started the month madly preparing for vacation, then I was gone for an entire week, then I spent a week trying to get back in the swing of work (which grew busy while I was gone)...and unpack...and...and...and. And in there, we switched to evil DST, which has sorely disrupted my sleeping habits. So I feel like this coming week I need to settle into a routine - new or old. Try to get my sleeping, eating, working out, cleaning, etc. back on some sort of track and rhythm. Not sure how to do that yet, but want to try.

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!!!!!!

When we woke up Thursday morning, it stormed. Thunder and everything. Don't you tell anyone I said this because I'll deny every word of it, but I kind of liked that storm. It was all cozy inside the cottage and I just snuggled down into the bed to listen!

Jonathan slept on the couch, since we were fresh out of beds, so he and Khi spent the morning chillin' and watching MeeDonald (Mickey and Donald).
Ronda and Silas bonded a bit. He was actually starting to feel better after two trips to the clinic.

One guess as to what I did.

Since we couldn't really hang out at the beach, due to frigid temps (for swimsuit weather, anyway) and wind...we got ready and walked down the road for an early lunch.

We got there right when it opened at 11:30, so we didn't have to wait - and there weren't too many other people in there.

I ordered a shrimp pasta salad - kind of like the one I posted on the blog that day! This one had garlic and parmesan in it - that was a great twist!! I also got three meals out of it. :) They sure do serve large portions in that state!

I decided this would fit well in my office. (It says "Don't worry...be crabby.")

Someone was tired of sitting still. (Khi too!!)

When we got back to the cottage, we learned that six people (including a toddler) don't fit well in a cottage that size. I tried to take a nap but that didn't work, so I laid in bed and watched a marathon of My Fair Wedding with David Tutera. I heart that show.

After a while, everyone else played cards, but I don't know how, so I went outside. It had stopped raining, but it was SO cold and windy. Ronda said she'd never seen the Gulf this choppy.

I spent most of the afternoon bundled up in the gazebo with my journal, Bible, and (of course) cup of coffee, trying to stay warm while arguing with God. He won.

Finally I went inside, changed my clothes, and bonded with Mr. Silas.

Let the record show I became pretty stinkin' good at rocking him to sleep. He liked me.

SINCE we had Jonathan on hand...

...seemed only right to put his skills to work. :) He grilled shrimp, barbecued chicken, and grilled some asparagus.

It's a vegetable.

Or so I'm told.

I supervised. Tough job but somebody has to do it!

His masterpiece.

Bekah tastes her first asparagus.

The sun finally came out, even though it was so cold. Ronda and I went down to watch the sunset. I'd wanted a picture in the weeds. I felt it was a sign of arriving when one had a picture taken in beach weeds. So Ronda helped me out....

And then we sat and watched the sunset.

And that concluded our rainy day.

Almost. At the end of the day, Khi did a little fashion consulting for his brother.