And Just Like That...Summer Is Gone!

I haven't been postiing much over the summer. I've been busy living life! Soaking in the blue skies and sunshine, savoring time with family and friends, delighting in the marriage of my oldest to his love, working, physical therapy, Dr visits, a kitchen remodel, a couple quick treasure hunting adventures, and whatever else life has tossed at me.

Time goes by so fast these days. I can't imagine how fast it will go when I'm 80! Have you ever heard someone who lives in a small town say blink and you will miss it? That's how I'm starting to feel about life!

I didn't get out to do much treasure hunting at all this summer. Something, or someone needing my help always came up and all but a couple of quick, short trips were cancelled. I am looking forward to Midland tomorrow with my junkin buddy Auntie. We've barely seen each other all summer, and we used to go treasure hunting almost every weekend!

My summer started off with the shower for my new daughter-in-love. I have done event planning/catering for years, but for some reason, this one kept me up at night and anxious as to how it was going to turn out. It turned out lovely, and since I wasn't my usual self, I forgot to take pics to share!

June, July and August were filled with multiple physical therapy and Dr visits (at least three times a week) for my torn rotator cuff (which was injured in April playing volleyball). That has healed quite nicely, and I am back at playing the game I love. Somewhere in there was a visit to a spine specialist because my PT felt I had some issues going on in my neck. While I was waiting for that appointment, I snuck in one quick night of sand volleyball and while running backwards for a ball, lost my footing and fell, hard, on my tailbone. The Dr doesn't want to get an image of it, because if it is deeply bruised or fractured, there is nothing they can do. It's been since August 10 (two days before my son's wedding), and it still makes me miserable-every day.

The wedding was beautiful and it seemed to be over in a flash! We now have a daughter, and my son is married to his love! I've been praying for his future wife ever since he was very little, and I am filled with goosebumps and gratitude when I see how much she loves him and what a good fit she is for him!

I mentioned in an earlier post that someone very near to me got a devastating diagnosis, early in the summer. Since then she has been to two other Dr's for second and third opinions. The diagnosis was Multiple Myeloma. The first Dr wanted her to get a second opinion and come back to start chemo right away. I was able to go to the second Dr's appointment and this Dr called it smoldering MM, something caught in the earliest stages, where it hadn't advanced to cancer yet, but could at any time.

Her suggestion was to watch it, with bloodwork and tests every three months and when it developed into cancer, then treat it, because the chemo wouldn't be effective until it advanced into cancer. The third opinion came from the Mayo clinic. They had appointments available right away, and after a battery of tests over several days, the diagnosis came back as MGUS, a precursor to even the smoldering MM. Which means the same, it may or may not develop into cancer, and watch it with bloodwork and tests every few months.

What a huge relief! It was something that consumed a lot of my summer, even though I wasn't the one whom the diagnosis was given. Since then, another dear family member has been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in an advanced stage. My heart aches for this person and their family, but I am leaning on God's promises for strength, healing and hope for them.

I've been working on a new project at work, and while it has been challenging, trying to take on the extra workload, while doing my regular jobs (in the same amount of hours), it has also been just what I've needed! When you've had a position in a company for 10 years, doing the same thing, it is wonderful to get something new to do, and especially if it is challenging!!

Mr has been working since November on new cabinets for our kitchen, building them from my suggestions in his woodshop in our barn. He hired someone he found online to spray a clear-coat on them, and they were ready to install the week of the wedding! It was CRAZY stressful, and totally the wrong time to start tearing our house apart, but they look amazing! He did an awesome job, and they really look great! We got our new countertop last week and have had the sprayer guy back to paint the kitchen, and living room. Tomorrow he will paint our master bathroom.

Our house has been in some form of chaos since he started spraying the cabinets in our garage around the end of July. The chaos has just moved from the garage, to the sun room, to the kitchen/dining room, living room and soon to be bathroom. I have the kitchen back in order. The living room is close. I am finding that I don't want to hang the same old things back on the walls, so that may take a while to figure out how I want to decorate.

The last things to be painted (next weekend) will be our sunroom doors and garage doors. Then everything can finally get back to normal around there. Whew!! I will be so glad to get back to normal, whatever that is!

Here's some pics of what my life has looked like this summer...

A quick trip to Town Peddler

 A quick visit to Williamston's Summer Open House

Some new treasures from Williamston

Lunch at at new diner in town

BBQ, and Blues Festival with a car show!

 Classic car show

Another pretty that followed me home!

You know my love for cabinets!!! Man! I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!!

This stove was amazing!

 

So, I had to empty my china cabinet so it could be moved away from the wall to paint...not sure yet if it will all go back in or not...stay tuned!

 Blissfield's Blissfest, downtown sidewalk sales...I think the drive took longer than the time we had to spend shopping!

Auntie ended up buying these!

She is normally skitish, but she loved my SIL petting her!

Gorgeous sunsets on my Monday evening walks!

Mid-way through the kitchen remodel project

This beauty followed  me home!

Found on Lake Michigan in Muskegeon...next summer we're going to paint some happy rocks to hide!

Lucy the Princess, does not like to be outside without us!

What!?! The 26 year old ceiling fan broke when the painter slipped??? I didn't even have to pay him to slip! Even though it was another expense, we weren't too sad to see the ugly old fan go away!

Gorgeous Farmer's Market boquet!

Getting a jump-start on my Fall decorations!

Checking out our new At Home Store!!

Pumpkin dump cake for our last night of summer sand volleyball! One small section without nuts for my cousin who isn't a nut fan.

And, just like that, summer flew by! Fall isn't looking much slower. Hope you are doing well, and having fun no matter what you are doing! I keep telling Mr, it's all in what you make of it!

Happy Hunting Friends!!!

Choosing to Be Intentional...

Some of you may remember a few years ago I started talking about being more intentional in my life. Paying more attention to how I live my life and what I choose to do with it, instead of being on auto-pilot, or just focusing on surviving or getting through.

One thing that has really impacted me the most is a devotional that I got a couple of years ago. The title of the devotional was called "Choose Joy". It was just a daily email devotional that came into my inbox, at a time when I really needed to see it. Don't you just love how things like that happen-just when you needed it?!!?

The words really resonated with my heart and I decided I needed to keep it in my inbox as a daily reminder to myself, so that every time I open my email I would see that reminder at the end of the list -choose Joy!

I kept it there for a long long time but then I started to think that maybe there are other things that I could remind myself to choose. So I started a little trial on my Google Calendar. I picked several random things that I wanted to remember to focus on and to choose and put one down for each day for a month right around Thanksgiving last year.

The things I put were very simple, things like- choose humility, choose to trust, choose to listen, choose Thanksgiving, choose gratitude, choose patience, choose understanding,...and so on.

During that one month trial I can't tell you how many times those simple daily reminders were spot-on for what I was going through that day, or what I needed to hear that day. They were all put in ahead of time and I had no idea what type of day I was going to have when I assigned that choice reminder for that day.

After the one month trial, I realize that this was something that could really make a huge impact in my life for the rest of the year. So, I decided to expand it and spread it out over the whole entire year.

Last winter I spoke to the ladies who are in my Christian volleyball league and told them about this and I really felt like at the time God had put on my heart to just encourage them in their daily lives. To remind them that we're not all perfect that we don't all have perfect lives, and that sometimes we go through some tough stuff but the key is to never lose your hope and never give up.

I told them about "choose joy" and how much it has impacted my heart and my life and encouraged them to keep putting one foot in front of the other even when sometimes it feels like it's just impossible to do. I also told them that if they ever need somebody to talk to I'm always here for them or if they need someone to pray for them I'm always here for them.

I was watching their faces because we were standing in a prayer circle at the time getting ready to pray. It was hard to read their faces because so many of them were closed off. A couple were nodding, but most of them were either looking down or not making eye contact.

After we spent some time praying over prayer requests, we separated into our teams and went into the gym to play our games.  One woman hung back and she told me how much what I said had touched her, and she thanked me for sharing. I was content with knowing that it was a positive thing for at least one person. Over the weeks and months many other women came to me trickling in one by one here and there telling me that I gave them something to think about and thanking me for sharing.

Now, it's almost a year since I did that first trial month, I'm still receiving the daily pop ups on my calendar of choices to make and sometimes they're not always applicable to the day but more times than not, they are!

The reminders remind me that there are always choices, and ways to make a negative or bad situation into something positive. They remind me to pay attention and be intentional with every aspect of my life. Sometimes it involves being more present, physically and mentally for people that I love, Sometimes it involves being more kind and patient with people who are irritating. Sometimes it involves taking time to reach out to people who may need a smile or a kind word or two.

The story continues to evolve...a couple of weeks ago, I saw an ad for an online t-shirt place that was selling t-shirts that said "Choose Joy"! Of course, I HAD to order one!! I'll be wearing it a lot, to remind myself to choose-in every circumtance in my life.