P E A C E

I found a place 

Where peace resides 

Where mornings come with bible 

And runs come with conversation 

Where church is a community 

And I can read before bed 

There are late nights in the pool 

Hot evenings on my bike 

There are letters from friends 

And texts every day 

There are pets sitting in my room 

And audio books on my phone 

There’s a new comfy quilt

And criss-cross socks 

It's a pink casset player 

And old cassets to go in it 

It's a play with beautiful sunset 

Where dragonflys don't fly away 

And deer stay in the backyard

Maybe those things aren’t peace 

But together they are

I never thought of peace like this 

But now it's here 

I want to hold onto it forever 

W O R D S

Words 

Aren’t helping anymore 

Words 

Aren’t helping to describe 

Or to empty the ache anymore 

Words 

Aren’t filling me up 

And helping me heal 

But it’s little things 

That words don’t seem to describe 

Like when a bird 

Sits outside my window 

Or a kid 

Smiling up at my 

Sometimes the moments 

Feel like heartbreak 

Like seeing a photo 

Of a long time ago 

Or sending a text 

And getting no answer 

The healing and the hurting 

Are all mixed up now 

But maybe they are the same 

And I’ll know it later 

So for now I’m looking out 

For all those little things 

That words can’t describe 

Until I have words 

For all I want to say 

I have recently started keeping a gratitude journal and it has been the funniest thing to search throughout the day for all the good things. I highly recommend it. <3

June Highlights

June was a complete mixed bag of both amazing, and bad. It's one month I don't really know how to define, but I am so grateful for my friends who hung with me through it. 

Since the beginning of June is not horribly hot, I took a day and read in my hammock. Which was a win-win since I needed to read the book for review and it was awesome to spend time outside. Sometimes when work is super busy, it's hard to remember to spend enough time outside, so it's nice to take the summer and hang outside more. 

Since we live pretty far away from everything, I have three library cards for the library along my work rout, so my mom and I took a day, and renewed all of them, which was really fun! We went to the Austin central library, which is huge, and that was a blast. 

I'm working on sorting through my old photos, which is a lot. In June I sorted through most of my backlog from 2017-19 that was unsorted, and in July I'm hoping to tackle 2020-22. If I don't sort, and get rid of the useless photos, they become unmanageable really fast. 

A few months ago my favorite Half Priced Books was destroyed by tornado damage, and this month they finally reopened! I was so excited, I magaed to get a stack of books for an epic price. =D 

My sister and I starting babysitting for two new families, one with four kids, which was fun and chaotic. Rebekkah played an elaborate game of monkey in the middle for hours on end with them, and I read a lot of books to the younger kids. =) The other which was just one baby, which I rarely get the chance to work with, so I loved it!!

For fathers day, we had a family lunch at Whataburger, since that is his favorite restaurant. Then we hung out Sarah and Scotts apartment, and just enjoyed some time as a family. 

I decided it was high time I took back up biking, so I pulled out my bike. After cleaning a pound of dirt off of it, I took it for a ride which was awesome. I have missed it emencely, so I'm hoping I can get back into the habit of going on a regular basis. 

A dear friend had us over for a swimming party. This pool had a diving board! It was pretty epic. We enjoyed a day of swimming, and hanging out. We did a lot of "sycronyized" jumps, and had fun coming up with wacky ways of jumping into the pool. On a simular note, we finally got a pool again! It is an epic above ground one, and we are still working on setting it up, but I am very excited!

Rebekkah, Grace, and I made a time capsole together. It's some letters and a SD card to be opened in ten years. It was weird writing something that I knew wouldn't been seen for a long time! 

Well, to end the month off, my sisters and I passed around a cold. I spent four days curled up on the couch watching movies, and listening to books. I dug out an game of Rollar Coaster Tycoon and played that. Thankfully it was a light cold, so it didn't interrupt to much. =) 

My favorite new book was Kate's Informant by Sarah Holman. <3 That book was amazing! My only re-reads were the Romeo and Juliet code books (I'm getting better) and they were an enjoyable re-read. 

I got a month of Netflix to watch a movie with my friend Kate, so I tried out some stuff on there!

Carmen Sandiego: This show lived up to all the dreams of childhood. I loved playing Carmen Sandiago games as a kid. While I was a bit sceptical of making her a good guy, they totally rocked it. They kept with the fun education, and awesome puns. I would definitely recommend this show!

Bookworm and the Beast: I needed something one night and this looked very hallmark-esk. It was. Honestly, there was nothing wrong with it, but there was also nothing to make it fun. 

Captain America: Okay, so unpopular opinion here: I'm not big into superhero's. After high recommendations though, I decided to try Captain America and it did not live up to the hype. Cap was a good guy, but that's about all that's good about this movie. The bad guy had no definable motive, the supporting cast was either annoying, or quickly "killed" off (I say "killed" because I know no one truly dies, so it's hard to get sad). I found the bad guy to creepy, and the magic cube's abilitys to undefined. Also, the overarching theme was pretty bland. *Shrug* I didn't hate it, I just didn't find anything to like. 

Enola Holmes: I watched this with Kate, and really enjoyed a movie with the fourth wall broken so much. The plot and mystery were very enjoyable, and the characters fantastic. I found the violence to much, and some of the repeated actions a bit annoying (How many times does she need to swap clothes with someone??). But otherall, it was a cute movie! 

Magic Schoolbus: I revisited a bit of childhood here. Some of it was better then I remembered, some of it just downright weird. I remembered how much I hate them pasting kids faces on to animals. XD

Magic Schoolbus rides again: I thought this was an adorable re-boot series! They kept with the originals fun, while adding some new elements that made it even better. But I do miss the original catchprashe. "Be what you see" Just isn't inspiring like "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" 

Home: Kate watched this with me when I was having a bad day, and it was a cute little movie. Nothing hugely moving, but the music was epic, the characters very cute, and the ending sadusfying. 

The Railway Children: I loved this as a kid, so it was fun to re-watch and enjoy the characters journay all over again. 

How was your June? 

L O N G

Life is full of goodbyes 

That I never wanted to say 

People I wanted to hold on to 

Things I wanted to do 

All gone 

Without agreeing to it 

I had memories I wanted to build 

Things I wanted to share

People I wanted to meet 

But all too soon 

It was time to say goodbye 

As they went away to eternity

And it seems to me 

That life is very long 

When you have to say 

So many goodbyes

Life's been a mixed bag lately, but I have been so grateful for my epic friends and family. Drop me a comment with your favorite song right now. I could use some new material. 

May Highlights

This month has been crazy packed, but it was awesome! 

We started off the month in Texas, but by lunch time, we had arrived in Colorado Springs, and went to Garden of the God's. It was amazing, crawling over the rocks, and just admiring God's creation. That night we got to the YMCA and wow, it was jam packed but epic from there. The next day it snowed, but we had already signed up to do archery, so we did it in the snow, and nearly froze. XD They have a craft hut, so we all enjoyed some time there. I made a few small mosaics, my favorite being a big H done in purple and white. We did a space themed Escape room and made it out with nine minutes to spare, but it was intense! We did a lot of swimming, and enjoyed their adorable library on site. On our third day there we woke up to really deep snow (For us Texans!) We had been planning on going out for my mom's birthday, so we all cheered when the snow plows came and dug out the roads! After lunch we walked around Estes Park, and just shopping for fun. The whole stay was delightful, we did a lot of hiking, and some rollar skating. We also narrowed Bannagrams from the Y and played for hours while snowed in. We when were driving home we went by Focus on the Family, which was definitely a highlight of the trip because I love Adventures and Oddesy and was able to get Wooton's mail cap! Also they had Last Chance Detective memorbila! The road trip was definitely very long, and the whole trip had it's up and downs, but overall it was awesome! 

Rebekkah and I have a tradition of walking down to a nearby tunnel every year in May, so we got out kind of early and walked down. It was an hour a half of walking and picking wild blackberry, which was super fun! The only downside was it being hot. XD 

My sister and I bought hammocks when they were on sale, and now we have been setting them up in the evening and reading since it's pretty nice once the sun starts to go down. I'm trying to spend more time outside this summer, so the hammock has been a very nice, easy way to move myself out there. 

We've started having family nights on Tuesday's, and we cycle through who organizes them. I was first, so I made steak, and we played a bible triva game. It's fun to have suspific time to spend with family! 

As most of you know, my brother Michael is a nurse, and this month he received a humanitarian award at his work, so they snuck us into the hospital so we could surprise him when he received the award. It was so much fun to sneak around and see him honored for all the amazing work he has done. 

For the full lunar eclipes we set up a card table down at the end of the drive as we watched the eclipes while playing spicey Uno. It was a ton of fun, as half the time we couldn't see our cards and were having to hold up lights just to be able to play, or having to make new rules up as it progressed. the eclipes was beautiful, and I wish my camera had been able to document it better!

My Mom and Rebekkah went camping for two nights, which left Grace, Dad, and I at home alone. So we went to the library and grabbed some movies (My mom doesn't love movies, so we try to watch them while she's not gone so as to not annoy her). That night I took my niece and we met my brother at an arcade and spent a few hours. The next two days we just binged movies, my personal favorite was watching all three new Narnia movies in a row. 

I finished off a couple jobs for the summer, which I will definitely miss, but I am loving the time off! Now that my work is down to about two days a week, I am taking the time to work on more projects at home, and my (hopefully) my writing. 

Rose came home from Africa!! She moved out a year ago to go to YWAM, and has only come home for brief visits. But after going to two semesters of school, Panama, and Africa, she is home for the summer! After so many people moving out, it's nice to have Rose home for a bit as she raises support to go back. <3

A local church hosted a movie night of Encanto. We brought blankets and set up on the floor. They provided snacks, and hot dogs, and we all got to sing along! It was chaotic, but fun! 

In a lot of ways it's been an epic month, but some things have been going on in my life that had just made me feel my own weakness in acute ways. For that reason I'm stepping back from social media for a month to let me refocus on God. I'm also stepping back from some movies, and books that have just been pushing me further from God. I would love your prayers as I work through some things! 

I watched a LOT this month. All of vacation I only watched one movie, but over the last three weeks of the month I watched through a ton. We finished our watch through of Emergancy, and I re-watched a lot of old favorites. Some new movies I watched: 

Curious George: Somehow I had never seen this! It wasn't quite what I imagined, but I enjoyed George and his adorableness. 

The Amazing Spiderman: I really loved Peter Parker, and some of the drama was just amazing, but the plot was rather full of holes, and unessasary sadness. Needless to say, I am not a huge fan of superheros. XD 

The Man who Invinted Christmas: Wow, this movie was fun! There was some unexpected language, but otherwise I loved the portrayal of a writer writing his book. Also, it gave some more depth to A Christmas Carol. 

I read a lot of new books this month! My favorite new one was The Van Gogh Deception, and my least favorite was Written Off. It didn't live up to the others in the series. My favorite re-read was Red Rain and Pride and Predudice. <3

How was your month? What is your favorite vacation you have ever gone on?