Lorien's 4th Birthday

Lorien turned four on July 19th. That day we spent the evening in Denver with FLI students and friends—hurt ourselves eating at the Cheesecake Factory and watched the Cubs beat the Rockies at Coors Field. It was a fun last outing with Institute students. 

Later in the weekend, we celebrated with a family birthday party: burgers, barbeque chicken, salmon, sweet corn, cheesy potatoes and—oh my!—this cake. 

Of Tea and Tattoos

When I'm 84, I want to be Sarah Ogden.

The Rains Have Returned

The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, 

to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. 
– Deuteronomy 28:12

There's always been something about rain for me.

Growing up on the farm, I learned early that the crops—and therefore the paychecks—were dependent on the Lord opening the sky and watering the earth. I remember sitting on the front porch of the big cement block farmhouse, my dad in his big chaise lounge lawn chair and me in my small one, covered in a green blanket, breathing in the damp, fragrant air and enjoying the thunder concert.

What Do I Want to Be When I Grow Up?

Or maybe...

What do I want to be next month? That is the pressing question.

With my current role ending, it hit me that I haven't looked for a job in fourteen years. Back then I was a new college graduate with a degree in English and a teaching license. Ever since, the jobs have found me.

But as I begin to seek the next opportunity, I realize the experience I've gained in the interim is wide and varied and doesn't point directly to me doing one specific thing in this season.

Can I tell you what I love to do, and what I have done? Then you can tell me if you have (or know of) a team that could use someone like me.

Gonna Miss this Place

Last Friday, I found out that my job at the Focus Leadership Institute will be ending on August 2. By the time I cross that finish line, I'll have invested 11 years and one day there. Eleven years. That's a big chunk of my 36-year-old self.

I'm thankful that I got some hints that this was coming. Because of that, I got to process a lot of the nasty emotions about a month or six weeks ago. When the news actually came, it wasn't as messy as I expected it to be.

Just to Keep Things Straight...

Thursday, June 6: Josh and my brother Steve leave Ohio in a Penske truck to move Steve's stuff to Colorado. They stop in Greenville, Illinois, to see Grandma Keffer, who is in the hospital with pneumonia.

Friday, June 7: Mom drives the kids and me to the airport at 6 a.m. Dad Keffer picks us up in Denver at 10 a.m., brings us home and I go straight to work.

Crash-a-boom-yah

More kid phraseology: 

Crash-a-boom-yah: Lorien's word for anything that makes a noisy impact

STAM UP, MOMMY: Josiah's newest, meaning he wants me to stand up. But somehow it always makes me feel like he's swearing at me.