Sunday Sentiments

 

Welcome, May! I'm not quite sure how you arrived here so quickly, but welcome. I hope you plan to bring warmer weather with you! (And possibly a little less rain.)

This week, we arrived at the month mark since our departure from WillowBridge. Our main goal for the month following our exit was to rest, and I feel like we did a pretty good job of that. I may have planned to have a few more of those days spent in jammies, but I'm still happy with the rest we've enjoyed.

Here are some of my favorite things about this last month:

* Sleep. It's not just about the rest in general. I feel like I have had a lot of quality sleep since we've been here. I never went through any kind of transition period where this felt like a strange place to be and I couldn't rest. From day one, I slept and slept well. I think Ryan would say the same for himself! We hadn't had much time for sleep in the past couple of years, and the sleep/rest we did have was never complete. This feels like a gift. 

* Making a home. I always love the creativity that goes into making a home. I have pictures from way-back-when in Marion, when my roommate moved out and I made the house all my own. I remember loving it so much, and I've continued to love that about every move I've made since. To share that with Ryan (all day, every day) this past month was a gift, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think one of us comments daily on how much we love the homey feel in this place!

* Time to pray, study, and seek the Lord. Though we have had a surprising number of specific appointments and meetings since moving, we have also had a generous number of hours that weren't earmarked for anything in particular, and we've both had time to pray at length, study our Bibles, and seek the Lord's guidance for our future. I won't speak for Ryan on this one, but I know for me, it feels like these open-ended times are allowing me to understand more about our passions, dreams, and what the Lord desires of us in the immediate future.

* Time to read, write, and scrapbook. Ryan and I had a meeting this past week that really was more for him than it was for me. I was just a travel companion. So I took along a book and read most of the way through the meeting. It was the grandest feeling to have time to sit with a book! I've also had time to do some writing since we moved. Some of that writing has been for speaking engagements, but some of it has been for fun, and I've adored it. I've also been working hard at catching up on scrapbooking projects. My creativity seems to flow very well here, and I love that.

* Sharing our home. Yesterday we had our first guests for a meal, and it was completely soul filling for both of us. It felt like forever since I planned a meal for guests, but I was so happy to exercise those skills again! Our friends prayed a blessing over our home before they left, and I was so thankful we had the opportunity to share our space with them.

I hope so much that May is warm enough to allow us to enjoy our porch (lanai!) space more than once, which is the grand total of times were able to use it in April! And we're excited to see what else God may have for us to experience in this place in this month to come.

Happy May, my friends! Enjoy this beautiful (I hope!) first day!