Nothing Happened This Week

Here I am at the end of another week, and I almost didn’t blog.  I actually had the time to do so, and as a lifelong journaller, I enjoy the chance to process the past week, but it was just that, “Nothing happened.”

Thinking casually back over the week, I just couldn’t think of many clear memories.  I enjoyed sometime at the end of the week to relax and unwind, I remember that, but what happened before?

Then I looked at my pictures.  There weren’t a ton of them, but they reminded me that this past week where “nothing happened” was actually a week rich in friendships and family time and memories.

For instance, nothing happened this week except that when we got home from Murphy on Sunday, my mom had left a bunch of clothes for the kids on my kitchen table.  She had stopped by on her way home from Louisville.


So nothing happened besides the fact that my mom showed yet again her amazing generosity and her love for all of us.

And nothing happened besides Greg getting to take his first day off in a long while on Monday.  Our family went up to Y.E.S. for lunch because one of our college friends, Shana, was providing it (but that’s “nothing,” right?  Everyone has amazing friends from college who help out in their ministries, right?)  We wanted to see her and to see the kids at Y.E.S.  Our kids ate lunch there, too, and enjoyed playing for awhile before we headed on to take a nature walk.



It was “nothing.”  Just some rock-skipping lessons on the edge of a calm lake on a beautiful day.  Nothing to see here, folks.




Nothing happened but a family walk and a chance to catch up with my husband.


We haven’t seen a lot of him this summer; he’s been busy with camps and trips with the teens, pouring himself into ministry, and acing grad school.  I’m so proud of this man—and so is Anna, who gave him the flower that is behind his ear!

That evening, nothing happened, except that I made two dinners, one for my friend, Heidi, and one for us.  I ended up staying and talking to Heidi for longer than expected, so I told my family to just eat without me:).  But really, that’s nothing.  Getting to talk to a wonderful friend who has just moved back and feed a bottle to her beautiful baby…nothing special there! 

I got home in time to eat dinner and pop popcorn for our movie night:



But it was nothing.  Just another movie night with the family that I love so much.

On Tuesday morning, nothing much happened besides a visit from our friends, the Steeds.  Afterward, they talked Luke into coming home and spending the night with them, but having good friends like that (and having a bff who knows everything about you) is “nothing.”  Not worth blogging about, certainly.
Once they left, Anna and I didn’t do anything besides go to a local park where she rode her scooter:



Absolutely nothing happened there besides a beautiful evening with my daughter.

On Wednesday morning, there was nothing to do besides go roller skating with Anna.  After all, Luke and Greg do not like roller skating, so we needed to take advantage of the time when neither of them were there! 



Nothing happened at the skating rink besides the fact that I got to watch my daughter’s amazing determination yet again.  I got to see her fall, then fall again, and again, and every time, bounce back up with a determined smile on her face.  She skated for miles that morning. 

We ended up sharing the rink with a YMCA camp group, which worked out because there were several games.  Anna’s favorite was limbo.



She was one of the five people who never got out!  But that’s really “nothing,” right?

That evening, I gave my testimony at church.  It could only be about ten minutes long, so this was the condensed version, and I didn’t pass out or throw up, so I’m counting it as a win.  The most surprising part was when I was mobbed by little girls while I was talking!



At the time, I was so confused by what made Anna come running to me, followed closely by her cohorts.  Afterward, Greg pointed out that I had been highlighting things that I still needed to work on as a Christian (selfishness, impatience, etc).  My point was not to put myself down, but to explain that as Christians, we can be honest about our flaws without letting them discourage us.  The whole point of my talk was how God gradually transforms us, so we know that, if we let Him, He is going to keep making us more and more like His Son.  Anna didn’t let me get that far, however, before she came running, out, apparently, to comfort me:).  Her friends were all giggly and happy, so even though it was a couple minutes before we restored order, at least it was a cute interruption!

After I finished, they all promptly piled on my lap. 



I felt very loved.  I had been nervous about speaking in front of everybody, so I’ve gotta say, this wasn’t a bad way to be greeted after I finished!

So yeah…nothing happened on Wednesday night besides the fact that I talked in front of my church for the first time and then got love-mobbed by a ton of adorable little girls.  Happens all the time, right?
On Thursday morning, we had nothing to do besides meet some friends at the zoo:



I didn’t get many pictures, and Anna and I couldn’t stay long, but we had a good time with the Burnells, the Wilsons, and my friend, Melissa.  It’s probably bad to say, but my favorite part of the zoo that day was seeing the kangaroos fight:



I normally don’t enjoy watching animals fight, but kangaroos are just so comical!

But besides the awesome kangaroos and the time spent with a great group of friends, nothing really happened there, you know?

Luke had ended up spending two nights with the Steeds, so we went to pick him up after we left the zoo.  Then it was home for a relaxing afternoon.  Nothing really happened that night, just that my friend, Caroline, came over for dinner.  She and I had really needed to catch up, and we shared a deep chat, with both tears and laughter, for hours.  But that was it, nothing else…well, nothing besides the fact that we each got a text/call from a teen from church, Brenda, who wanted to come over.  At first, we were worried that something awful had happened…but no, she had just texted Greg in grad school, and he told her we were at the house.  Brenda was excited that she had gotten her driver’s license, so she and her brother, Fidel, stopped by. 


Around 10:00, Greg got home from grad school, and the five of us sat and talked on the couch, and I think I laughed harder than I had all week.  Brenda is crazy!  It was 11:00 before everyone left and our kids were in bed. 

So really…”nothing happened” that night besides a deep conversation with an amazing friend, my husband’s completion of his summer grad school course, his giving of a GREAT presentation in class, and a happy group of friends in our living room, laughing until we cried.

Friday was a much-needed “home recovery” day.  I did nothing besides clean, organize, hang out with my kids, and then grill out with my family and have dinner together on the back porch.  “Nothing.”
And today, nothing happened besides having dinner with some great people:




So that’s it.  As you can see, nothing really happened this week.  Nothing besides church with my in-laws and cousins (see last post); coming home to a surprise from my mom; getting some much-needed time with Greg; visiting with my best friend, Courtney; spending some quality time with Anna; feeling amazing love from the little girls at church; hanging out at the zoo with church friends; catching up with my friend, Caroline; celebrating with Brenda and Fidel; and eating dinner with our long-time friends, Heidi and Michael.
Honestly, when I first thought over this week, I thought of its stressors:  things that were really not worth blogging about, simply because they are unoriginal and there’s not much I can even do about them.  But looking at my pictures reminded me of all the blessings of the week, all the times where God’s love and faithfulness were showered on me through my physical family and my church family.  I really think that God purposely lavished me with love this week from His people, and that love filled me with joy and peace.  In the One Year Bible this week, I read Romans 8, which reminded me that nothing can separate me from that love.  Looking back at this week’s blessings, I see how true those verses are.

And that’s a lot of comfort from a week where, really, “nothing happened.”

Weekend in Murphy

There is something about being in Murphy, NC, that is so relaxing to me.  Luke and I were only there from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, but it felt like a retreat.  I think it is just the nice, slow pace of things at Gigi and Papa’s house.  On this visit, we had plenty of time to chat and catch up, but I also had lots of time to read throughout the rainy Saturday, while the kids played and Gigi and Papa went about their business. 

On Saturday evening, we all went to eat at Downtown Pizza Company.  Gigi also gave the kids each ten tokens to play in the arcade.  The cousins decided beforehand to pool their tickets together and then split them evenly before they picked out prizes.

Afterward, we went for a walk along the Valley River.  Whenever I spotted the four cousins close together, I tried to snap a picture:

Along the walk, we learned the legend of the Great Leech:

And we also took a detour to walk along the train tracks:

It was a beautiful evening.

.There was also a fair amount of blackberry and honeysuckle picking:

On Sunday morning, we all went to church:

Then we came home for a smorgasbord for lunch as a way to clean out Gigi’s fridge from the week’s meals.  As a treat, Gigi made mint chocolate chip milkshakes for dessert.  The kids were very excited about this:

Finally, it was time to say goodbye.  After spending more than a week together, I was really impressed that, not only were the girls not sick of each other, they were actually sad to part!:)  Grace ran up to Anna and gave her a huge hug, telling her she was going to miss her.  And Anna whimpered in response, “Go with me.” 

So of course, the girls “tried” to do just that:

I love seeing my kids get along so well with their cousins.  The cousins on the Kirby side are all they have, and I’m so thankful for the time they got to spend with them this summer!

Oh—and the first night we were home, Anna CRIED because she missed Gigi!  I think she had a good visit!!

Our Week with Luke

Well, I have to admit that when Anna left two Saturdays ago to go to Gigi and Papa’s with her cousins, I was fairly certain we would be headed to pick her up by Tuesday.  It’s not that I didn’t think she would have a good time; it’s just that Anna has never spent a night away from all three of us in her life!  That’s crazy, I know, but I just knew she’d get homesick.

Ha.

On the contrary, she had a wonderful time all week with her grandparents and with her cousins, Grace and Amelia.  She did not get homesick; in fact, on Thursday night she cried because she was going to have to go home on Sunday while Grace, Amelia, Gigi, and Papa drove up to Maryland. 

Hmph:).

Actually, I’m really glad that she had a wonderful time, and I hope that this trip can become a yearly tradition! 

In the meantime, Greg and I had a full week to spend with Luke!  We kicked things off Sunday after church by going out to eat and then to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.  Later that evening, I went to dinner with Viviana and then to see our friend, Heidi, while Luke and Greg had a guys’ night.  Greg didn’t take pictures, but apparently then went to Opry Mills mall, checked out the LEGO store, ate dinner at Chuy’s, played a round of putt-putt at Grand Ol’ Golf, and then went for ice cream sundaes.  Not a bad night!

On Monday, Luke had his first day of Video Game Design camp.  Since Anna had gone to Ballet Princess camp while Luke was at Gigi and Papa’s with his cousin, Jack, I decided that it would only be fair to give Luke a camp experience, as well.  I asked him if he would be interested in this engineering camp that designed racing games, and he said yes.  Thus, he spent every afternoon this week working on a Star Wars racing game:

For the most part, he enjoyed camp, although by day 4, he was kind of tired of it.  He was always happy when I picked him up, though, and I’m just glad that he got to have this experience in computer programming!

On Tuesday after camp, he and I went putt-putting at a course closer to home:

This kid loves putt-putt!

That evening, we went to an outdoor movie night hosted by our church.  Luke’s friend, Caleb, liked his LEGO minifigure shirt:

Luke also helped take care of little Iris with his friend, Trevi:

 

He also played with Genesis:

He’s so good with young kids!

We had a good crowd at the movie night:

On Wednesday afternoon, it was back to computer camp:

That night at church, Antwan gave his testimony:

On Thursday before camp, Luke and I went back to Grand Ol’ Golf because he wanted to play the challenge course.  Check out the first hole…

What did he get us into??

The challenge course was, um, challenging, but we had a lot of fun.  It was nice getting to spend a beautiful morning with my boy:

Afterward, we at the Opry Mills mall for lunch and then had a few minutes to visit the LEGO store before camp:

After camp, we went to Barnes and Noble because Gaga had given Luke some money to get more How to Train your Dragon books.  He got the next two in the series, plus a cool HTTYD drawing book.  Afterward, per his request, we went to McAlister’s for a reading/drawing dinner date. 

On Friday, he had his last day of camp, and even gave a short presentation on the game he created.

Afterward, he and I headed to Murphy, NC, for a much-needed family reunion:

It was so great to see Anna after being gone so long. 

But it was also fun to have some one-on-one time with my boy this week!