My Times

I spent the weekend doing little more than nothing, alternating between lying on the couch watching dvds and sitting on the couch, crocheting, and um, watching dvds. I did go to a movie on Friday night, breakfast on Saturday morning, and church on Sunday morning, but pretty much other than that - the couch. It was fantastic. I so rarely get to do that anymore on the weekends - usually they are a frenetic whirlwind of activity, framed by 4 hours of driving, a couple of days where I seem to do everything but clean my house, which by the weekend, is usually in dire need. You see, I live near the middle of the state, where I moved almost a year ago, after graduating college, to start my first job. My fiance (more later) lives in our hometown, the place I moved away from, down at the coast, two hours away from me. So each weekend, I pack up Thursday night and leave Friday afternoon, headed to the beach where my real life is. Here, it's my alternate life, the single one, where I'm the only person who cares about my plans for the evening, or what I eat for dinner. There, we're a couple, involved in the church where he is the youth minister, circled by family and friends, and always having something that needs to be accomplished. There, there is a group of mostly 12, 13, and 14 year-olds who look up to us and call us, and with whom we spend every other Friday night, Josh beginning at 6, me usually between 7 and 8, whenever I can get there. There, there are VBS skit practices and skits on Sunday mornings, dinner with church members, Saturday dinner with his parents, Sunday lunch with mine. There, I find my home, my perspective, with him, I am reminded who I really am, and that freedom allows me to be who I have to be Monday through Friday.

This weekend I wasn't there and it was suprisingly strange how it felt, spending the whole weekend at home. Josh was in Gulfport, MS for the past week, with the youth, rebuilding a home as part of the Katrina Relief program. The group didn't return until Saturday night and since he would be exhausted and Sundays are busy anyway, it made sense for me not to drive down. So I crocheted on the afghan I'm working on, watched old movies with my roommate, cleaned and organized in my room (desperately needed), read more of Ruth Bell Graham's biography while sipping coffee on the porch, attended the church here I rarely get to visit anymore, played Mancala on the front porch while it lightly rained, watching the cats attempt to brave the raindrops, and snapped beans (which are currently cooking in the crockpot and will hopefully be really good by dinnertime. We'll see.). My roommate, Crystal, says I'm an old lady. And she's right. But it was a nice change. I miss Joshua, and even next weekend is up in the air for us, since it starts a change in his life that will change everything, but I'm anxious to see him.

Next weekend he packs up his apartment and moves his things into storage, where they will remain while he spends a month camping in the mountains, a sabbatical of sorts, before starting his master's at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in August. The move puts him closer to me, but possibly busier than he is now, so how everything is going to work out is still to be determined. Tackle each thing as we get to it. We get married in December and everything will change again - this year has been one of change and adaptation. From there, only God knows where he will lead us, and my imagination can hardly suppose.

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

"But I trust in you, O Lord;

I say, 'You are my God.'

My times are in your hands...

Let your face shine on your servant;

save me in your unfailing love."

Psalms 31:14-15a, 16