First and foremost: Happy birthday to Renaissance, who is a whopping seventeen years old now! She’s heading into her senior year of high school and I’m just so proud of her and all that she does. She’s a hard worker, she’s smart, she’s talented, and she’s kind. What more could one ask for in raising a child? I’m all sorts of sentimental as we enter into the last year of her childhood…parenting is so bittersweet. I love having children in my home and I am dreading when they all fly from the nest.

Second and next most: Sorry for skipping last week’s entry! It was just really busy and I couldn’t get to the computer for something like this. My #craftygoals update on Friday was written on my phone while my husband drove somewhere, that’s how difficult it was to get anything done on the blog!

Highlights of the last two weeks:

• We did a lot of driving practice this week and I’m starting to see a lot of improvement and an increase in confidence. I might just turn out a driver or two after all!
• I tried out a new bread recipe this week and it turned out really well!
• Renaissance and I have made time to stitch together after lunch most days and I absolutely love it.
• Nathaniel helped me with my photoshoot for the Patriotic Baby Quilt and we had fun doing that together.
• The kids helped me update the garden and it’s looking really nice now!

Things I Wished Had Gone Better:

• Everything’s been going pretty well. Busy, but nothing to complain about. Finishing up a quarter is stressful and not a lot of fun, but this one wasn’t crazy and didn’t have any monster/stupid assignments, so it was fine…just took lots of time to complete.

The Weather Forecast:

Oh. Yuck. But it could be worse.

As I Look Outside My Window:

I am so proud! Renaissance and I sat down on the Friday before last and hammered out her birthday party plans and I realized that letting the garden “lie fallow” was no longer an option because I’ll be hosting her party in our backyard in a few weeks. So we made plans to go find some plants that Saturday, and as luck would have it, happened upon a very good clearance sale on them. We smashed plants into the back of the van, headed home, rounded up all the Brookelets, and were done three hours later. Garden with your kids while they’re little–they become extremely efficient at it in their teenage years!

Right Now I Am:

Winding down after a busy day and smelling the air as Michael makes dinner.

Thinking and Pondering:

• Hospitality vs. Entertaining
• Schedule changing in order to open up time for other interests
• What the heck am I going to do with all this free time in the next week, now that summer quarter is done?!?!

Listening to:

Evening sounds. Movement upstairs. Things being moved, air being breathed.

How Am I Feeling:

Content, and a little excited about the upcoming week and its lack of responsibility!

On My Reading Pile:

Due to two weeks ago’s devotional topic of connection, I bought a handful of books on hospitality and friendship. I’ve been reading through them and gleaning ideas. They’re scattered all over the house and I pick them up as I putter around and read a few lines here and there.

On My TV This Week:

I never really know. Maybe some stuff that requires thinking because I’ll have the available bandwidth since I’m not studying the days away.

On the Menu:

Nothing because my regularly-scheduled meal planning time was taken up with driving and picking up kids from a million things, and then all the studying. I’m just going to wing it, because it’s a weird week anyway.

Looking Around the House:

The living room is clear of Rachel’s belongings, we did it! It will be short-lived, as Michael got a bee in his bonnet about building a loft bed for Renaissance and it will have to be built inside her room because it won’t fit through her door once it’s assembled. So…yeah, Ren’s stuff will soon overtake the living room and she’ll probably have to sleep on the couch for a week or two. But loft bed/desk combo! Totally worth it.

To-Do List This Week:

• Plant lettuce and spinach
• Should decide if I’m going to make jam this year or not; schedule it if I am.
• Go do a fun thing that I especially want to do–quilt museum?
• Work on Renaissance’s birthday party stuff
• RELAX. I always use my breaks to “catch up” or “get ahead” on stuff, and darn it, just take a freaking vacation, Cara!

Devotional:

My word two weeks ago was CONNECTION. I was so looking forward to learning more about connection and figuring out a way to connect more with people in my life, but I mostly just came to the conclusion that I am not very good at connecting with others. I am greatly inspired to become better at this skill, so I ordered some books on the subject, which I’ve enjoyed reading.

Some observations:

• Food is often a part of connection rituals. Yet another reason to be a good cook!
• Most people I know are just too darn busy to eat a normal meal, let alone a meal that’s meant to be enjoyed and drawn out with conversation.
• The parent-of-teenagers stage might be a difficult time to work on connecting with others because we are just so stinkin’ busy, too. Trying to line up two families’ schedules to do anything together is near impossible.
• Connection often begins with MY efforts to reach out, and not the other way around. If I’m sitting around waiting for someone to reach out to me, I’m going about it the wrong way.

My word for this last week was TRANSFORMATION, which was a cool one to think about.

Some observations:

• A transformation is often preceded by a period of discomfort or feeling like you no longer belong or have outgrown your surroundings. If you’re aware of this order of events, it might make the discomfort less scary. Maybe even make it exciting?
• Transformation is almost always a positive thing, so embrace the change with enthusiasm, even in the messy, difficult, and uncertain parts.
• This reminds me of this last year–my Pinterest algorithm became very “academia-aesthetic” as I progressed through my master’s program, and I’d always wanted to be “that way” when I was a young girl, so I decided to just go with it this last year and it was so much fun! Embrace the aesthetic of what you’re doing! It makes it prettier and more enjoyable!
• Transformation is less scary if you have an end destination that you’re working towards.
• Your past, pre-transformation, is nothing be ashamed of. It got you to and through your transformation, so be proud of where you’ve come from and what you’ve overcome.
• We often speak of transformation as if it’s a sudden and drastic thing, but it’s really not. Transformation is a process that requires a lot of patience. The only way you appear to “transform” to someone else is if they haven’t seen you in a long time. Your everyday acquaintances probably won’t notice the changes because they are incredibly subtle and spread out over a long time. That’s OK. Doesn’t mean the changes are any less transformative.

This upcoming week’s word is: Abundance. Well, as a white, married, middle-class, college-educated, mostly stay-at-home mother of four living in the American suburbs, I will freely admit that I possess a lot of abundance, and I am very, very aware of the abundance that I enjoy. I wonder how this word will shape up as a devotional?

Linking up to Sandra’s Happy Homemaker Monday!