Not What I am Really Thinking...

If I were to write what I am really thinking about today, I would tell you how I am thinking about the fact that this is the last August for the next 15 or so years where I will not be helping someone get ready for school to start. I would tell you that even though I LOVE fall (the only months that I really don't love living in MN are January-March), it always makes me feel a little melancholy. The weather has been cool enough the past two days that we have not been able to go to the beach. That, and the fact that fall is literally two weeks away, makes me a little sad. Like summer is dying. Top that with the fact that next August at this time I will be buying school supplies for a very excited kindergartner and turning 30 (it's birthday week this week!!). Well, let's just say that's a whole bunch of stuff that I just really don't want to talk about today.

Instead, I am going to show you something that I made recently!! I love being creative. It feeds my soul. When I write or paint or edit pictures I get lost in this world where time has no value. I don't notice how much time passes, I don't care if I stay up way too late, and sometimes I can't hardly get myself to stop doing whatever it is that I am doing.

At the beginning of the summer I got frustrated when I went to look for pair of earrings and found a whole container of jewelry that I forgot that I had. I decided that I needed to find a way to have my jewelry more visible so that I wouldn't forget about what I didn't regularly see. I had a faint memory of something that I had seen in a magazine several years ago, so I can't take full credit for this idea. This display is based loosely off the idea that I remember.







It's like having a piece of practical and useful art! I glued cork boards together, attached ribbon strips for my earrings, glued buttons onto the ends of pushpins for my necklaces and bracelets, and made a place where I can easily see all my jewelry. I love it. And in a house lacking on storage space of any kind, this just works out quite perfectly.

And is so much more fun to talk about on such a lovely day.

Fish and Fairy Princesses

A Few More Pics...

When I was in Moab, UT this was the view out the front door of my room. It was so pretty. As I said, Steve and I went for work, with the about 80 kids from the student ministries department at CPC. It was fun to get to know so many cool students and hang out with fun co-workers.

I also had time to watch the moon rise (you should click on this picture to make it bigger, I promise).

And I saw a couple of sun sets, although this is a sunset reflection against the rocks - technically facing East.

And, as I said in my previous post, I climbed to the top of the world. Where there were these flowers. It is so hot up on top of the world that these flowers are actually dried flowers, but still in the ground. They are hard and crusty, but so pretty anyway.

Steve and I also drove up a mountain to a pass that went between the tippy tops of two mountains. There you can basically see the whole world. See? (You should click on this picture too, to get the full effect. It's better.)

Or at least hundreds of miles of the whole world.

And there are amazing wild flowers up there.

And an ice cold mountain stream, which, yes, I did drink out of. And no, I did not get sick. I think it was the coldest flowing water I have ever stuck my hand in.

We also went on a sunrise hike with all the students in Arches National Park where we saw the Delicate Arch. It was amazing. It really made me wonder how the world was formed. I fully, 100% believe that God created this fine, amazing, wonderful planet, but I don't understand how the world out there looks like it does over just 10,000 years. I am very curious.

Best of all, I got to spend some great time with my favorite person on this whole fine, amazing, wonderful planet.