Turning the Page

Hey friends! Life has been pretty awesome the past few months, and in my case that means a fair amount has changed since I started this blog. I've been learning a ton about farming and sustainable agriculture lately, and have found that God's really given me a passion for growing and raising healthy food. So I started a new blog to document my farming journey and to share the neat things I've been learning (you can expect recipes, tutorials, and life lessons over there) and I will be posting more regularly than I have been on here - my goal is twice a week. I'd love it if you checked it out and if you happen to want to follow it or send it on to someone who's interested in that kind of thing? Well. I'd be tickled pink. (Side note: why tickled pink? If I get tickled I'm pretty sure I turn a nice shade of red, not pink. :P) 

Here's my new blog, Hope Farm.

With that, I'm signing off this blog and I wish you a lovely rest of your day, week, month, and year! Keep living for the Lord and for goodness sake don't ever stop taking time to grin at the sunshine or hug a little one. Life's a journey. Make sure you truly live it. 

Interlude

It definitely wasn’t planned. In fact, I’d canceled other plans to be able to focus hard, all day, on school. But God’s plans aren’t mine. And our internet was down all day, meaning I couldn’t do one lick of school. Also meaning I couldn’t do a lick of online socializing or distriactifying.

Now, I’ve gone long stretches without the internet before, and focused on school before checking social media and all that. But lately, the internet has been hanging over me. Seems like there’s always just one more rabbit trail and one more funny – albeit useless – video tempting me. And I’ve turned to it again and again to occupy my time.

But something about today’s sheer inability to connect to the internet freed me. Emails weren’t even an option, not to mention other social media or Youtube. I didn’t even have to think about those things.

So there I was, staring an interlude in the face. (I like that word. So I’ll use it. :P) What to do? I copied recipes onto cards and cut articles out of a magazine. I wrote a few letters. Then I cleaned and de-cluttered my room. I threw lots of paper in the recycling, per Ariel style (i.e. if you don’t need it, toss it. Preferably at someone who needs it, but if not, in the recycling or compost bin.), and sent the dust bunnies under my bed to dust bunny heaven. Or the vacuum bag, whichever you prefer. I found all the notes my co-laborers at Gull Lake Ministries wrote me over the summer, and paragraphs I’d written in Elvish a few years back (yes. I used to know how to write Elvish. You should try it; it’s pretty easy and looks gorgeous.). I watched the snow fly lazily in every direction outside my windows as I sprawled across my bed and pecked out this post.

The day passed slowly and sweetly. Each moment seemed to be savoring life, and I did too. It was lovely. I do hope our internet is up and running tomorrow, because my school desperately needs done. But today I desperately needed this interlude. It gave me time to breathe, to get things done, and to remember that life does not revolve around my computer. 

In fact, it’s often more vibrant without. 

I'm Still Alive!!

Hello friends! I've been kind of MIA lately, haven't I? I would say I'm sorry, but honestly I'm not. See, sometimes God replaces one adventure with another, and I've been living a new season of life - a new adventure - lately. Perhaps I'll do an update post on that. Perhaps. ;) In the meantime, hop on over to the CollegePlus blog where they just posted my sixth (sixth?!?! Goodness gracious! It sounds like I'm a writer or something!) post. It's about reading and the fact that I've actually been doing quite a bit of reading lately, which is unusual for me. Anywho. Keep living the journey, friends! 

P.S. Have you read any good books lately? I'd love to add them to my humongous to-read list! Seriously. My to-read shelf on Goodreads is 121 books huge. Better get on that...

Restless

Rest·less 

Characterized by a lack of quiet, repose, or rest. Not able to rest, relax, or be still: a restless child. 

Restless child, that's me. Typically I'm steady at work and school, but yesterday when I managed to get about one third of an essay revised, stared blankly at a post I'm editing, and moved from sprawled on my bed to sitting at my desk to sitting downstairs, to perched on the porch.... I was wondering, quite frankly, what in the world had come over me. I'm self-diagnosing restlessness. 

I'm learning that sometimes it's okay to loosen up and soar with the strange breezes that spring up. So yesterday, after hours of fighting against the wind, I just let it have it's way. Forget school! Forget blogging! Forget my projects! Tomorrow, perhaps, the wind will be in their favor. 

I went outside (which I would recommend as a cure for ailments such as sadness, lethargy, anger, pent-up energy, confusion, and the like), a prime example of classiness in my black athletic pants and horse-manure caked cowboy boots. I admired the rich black soil in a corner of the woods, tucked under inches of fallen leaves. Raked loads into a ginormous black trash bag and trudged to dump them in the garden. My garden's a hoot. Blanketing the soil for the winter is a hodge-podge of hay, leaves, old plants, manure, shredded paper, and cardboard. It's a mess. Like you wanted to know that... :P 

I went for a run in the wind and the rain and listened to music, which I never do on runs. Ran a mile and a half in the rain and the mud in July in Chey - no, that's not right.... 

Then I wrote a few friends whom I've never seen in person (this online college life is strange, but it's wonderful).

Then I read, and went to bed early.

I'm still restless, which is why I'm typing here instead of in a Word document for school. But it's okay. 

It's okay to not be perfect. Because, as my mama likes to say, If we were perfect, then why would we need Jesus? If I was always on task and never procrastinated, then by golly, I'd imagine I was in charge of my life. Which we all know is a lie. So even restlessness has a purpose. Our less-than-perfect days serve to perfect us. 

Summer in Snapshots

Crazy to look back and realize all these pictures and the growing I've done around them happened in under six months! I really feel like I grew up this summer. 

Homeschool formal!! I found my dress at Goodwill and altered it a bit (added straps, some extra fabric, and shortened it). My little sis is in the green in the first picture, and my little (or not so little...) brother in the red plaid in the second. 

Yeah, that's me with my pocket knife at the dance.... I mean, what else am I supposed to do when a night of dancing rips my dress a little? This picture might sum me up more than any other. :P

Wherein I actually meet some of my college-mates. ;) We had a ton of fun at the Creation Museum, and ended up spending hours outside playing Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples, and Liar.

Lauren and I hiked all morning at a nature preserve through four-inch high poison ivy.... but neither of us got it! :D

Gathering hay (ahem, mowed tall grass from around the property) to mulch the garden with! I also failed and then kinda succeeded at backing this thing up in a straight line. Hint: when first learning to back a tricky trailer, don't put yourself in a situation where backwards and turning is the only way out. *facepalm* A super short coupling distance + lack of experience = dad had to come rescue me.

My garden. If you've never tried mulching, you should! It keeps the weeds down, the moisture in, and adds a layer of organic material that turns into fertilizer. 8)

Love those boots! Seriously. Lace-up and waterproof all the way! Much comfier then tennis shoes, but maybe that's because I wear these more than anything else.

Lightning, Eddie, Chance, Valentine, Frisky, Rachel, Joey, Tinkerbelle.....

Alex-pony

Trail guiding on Selah

Riding downhill at work, somehow managing to not drop my phone.

Gardening - that's how I roll! 

Summer staff at Gull Lake Ministries - I'm in there somewhere (second row from the front, sixth from the left if you need help)!

Snow cone duty at camp

Hanging out at Lake Michigan on our time off

I made sauce from my tomatoes, onions, and basil! Yum. :)

Becca, our (currently very pregnant) riding instructor and Lauren. This was after our last lesson together before Lauren headed off to college - Becca's been teaching the two of us every week for five years!

Beth (hiding in Lauren's hair), Lauren, and I before Lauren left for college - fourteen hours away! 'Twas a sad day, but I'm pretty excited to see where God takes both of us.

Love this place! Not everyone gets to work in a Christian environment with plenty of awesome people, good hard work, and riding horses in the woods!

Isn't God a breathtaking artist? This is Sundae - she's got one blue eye, and I ride her nearly every week for lessons.