Summer was entirely too short and my wish-list too long to get everything in this year. God was gracious to give me July and early August to work on garden, yard, and home things, and get my school planning well under way. Good thing, too—my dear Mom had a stroke in August and things have seemed topsy-turvy since then. (Second family stroke this year—enough already!)
It’s hard to be hundreds of miles away from family anyway, but when there’s a crisis it really hurts. You pray and stay connected and trust that the Lord is working a testimony of grace. You jump when the phone rings, and shed tears of thankfulness at progress reports. It’s ever a walk of faith, this life, isn’t it?
But life goes on and we’ve settled into our new school year. SweetPea is a junior this year, so with only a couple more years to go, we’re trying to carefully think out credits and classes to make sure she’s going to have all she needs for graduation. I love how the Lord plans things for us: this semester she’s studying American government both at home and in an enrichment program, which includes Mock Government, and we just happen to be having national elections!
We even took in a big political rally a few nights ago (I told her it was a field trip) to round out her studies.She’s also studying 20th century world history this year. Grim, fascinating, at times unbelievable—what a century we’ve lived in. Her reason for wanting to study this was so that she would be able to better understand what’s happening in the world now. While an excellent thought, I’m just so very sorry that she is facing such a messed-up world. She confesses to being overwhelmed sometimes at the unending negative and dire predictions for the coming years—her years of adulthood, probably marriage and motherhood. But I remind her of this fact: because of God’s loving purposes, we know she was born for a time such as this. He will lead her surely and truly along His paths of goodness and blessing, in spite of the chaos around her.
We had a refreshing-to-the-soul weekend get-away earlier this month. A perfect cabin in the mountains, complete with good friends, perfect weather, and summer treats. Glorious!
Though I’m reluctant to let summer go…
…beautiful fall is here!
I was done with summer long before it was finished, but mainly because the drought and heat wave made summer not so nice this year. Now, I am sad that the hummingbirds have left me, the price I pay for cooler weather! Happy fall to you!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great month. Love the pictures too. How fun to have an election rally you could go to, that would be fun.
ReplyDeleteBy the photo, I can tell it wasn't an Obama rally, too many American flags, bwahahah. Nice vacation photos too. I'm sorry to hear about your mother, I hope she is improving nicely.
ReplyDeleteNormally I'd be sad to see summer go too, but after this extremely hot & dry summer, I'm even looking forward to cooler temps. I sure do hope we get rain soon though, we could use a really good soaker.