Blog from the Beach

This week we are at our family's favorite vacation spot...Amelia Island, Florida. It always feels good to be back where we used to live. Vacation has allowed lots of time for thinking...I hadn't even realized how cluttered my mind gets in the day to day life back home. One of my favorite things to do on vacation is find time to escape just for me. This week that has come in the form of 3 mile walks every single morning before anyone else is awake, usually at about 6:30 a.m. The first couple of days I got lost in the beautiful scenery of Florida foliage and the music on my ipod. But after a couple of days I became so lost in my own thoughts that an hour could go by in what seemed like a few minutes! Here are some things I have been thinking about this week...

• I love my family. It is so nice to have "us" be the focus of a whole week.
• It is cool to have friends that you can go years without seeing and step right back into conversations and each other's lives.
• I love my job and I miss the people there a TON when I am away.
• I am going to miss Sarah Elizabeth horribly when she moves to Otterbein in August.
• I love the song So This Is Home by Switchfoot.
• I don't challenge myself enough to do hard things.
• In general, TV is pretty boring to me.
• My life is pretty darn sweet and I don't see that often enough.

There was tons more bouncing around in my head, but those are some highlights. And the other good thing? Maybe all those miles of walking helped with all the shrimp I have eaten this week!

----The Summer in Between----

This summer is kind of weird. It feels like this big transition for our family. Sarah graduated 10 days ago from high school. In 64 days she moves to college. Those are 2 very different stages of life and this summer is neatly sandwiched in-between.

I know that I am feeling a ton of emotions (and a little bit of anxiety) about all of this, so I can only imagine that she is as well.....times 10.

I start wondering about things like, "How many more vacations will we go on when it is just the 5 of us?" and "Who will Sarah become when she goes away and so many others have more influence on her life than we do?" and "How on earth did this period of my life flash by so quickly?"

I am definitely not letting myself get caught up in the emotions of August 17 yet. I keep pushing those beneath the surface. In the meantime, we buy things like towels and sheets and coffee pots, we select classes, and we pick dorms. All the details....but there is still a lot of summer between now and then, right?

But I am finding myself praying more than ever before for my kids. To remind myself, more than anything, I am making a list:

• That God would be the most important part of their lives.
• That they would be wise in choosing people to form relationships with.
• That they would be protected from evil.
• That they know they can always come to us with ANYTHING.
• That they don't become so self-focused that they stop serving others.
• I pray for the choices and hearts of the 3 men out there who will one day be their husbands. (Whoever these dudes are....I have been praying for them for 18+ years now!)

It's all really exciting. More exciting than scary. But for now I'm going to lean hard on the prayer part and let the rest fall into place.