chronicles of a non-desperate housewife: Onward into Summer

So, mom and I sat down yesterday to look at calendars for the summer and I am STOKED. To be honest - I haven’t used a calendar all year. This has been the pinnacle of my messy existence and I am ready for it to come to an end. I am going to get organized and calm down. I don’t know how exactly that is going to happen.

In fact, one of the most awesome employees we have ever had at Bethesda is leaving us in a month… and our guys just keep on getting older. In the meantime - Jarod and dad just keep making bigger and bigger gardens and getting more trees. Students rotate - and we continue to make more global friends (just made my first Indian and Pakistani friends this last week and REALLY enjoyed that). Kids are growing more involved and I hear from others that dreaded word of “busy” expands through the next dozen years. I can’t imagine “busier” - nor do I want to.

In fact, Jarod has been speaking to me lately about the difference between “work” and “toil” and how one is God ordained and proceeded the curse and one is simply a futile exhaustion as result of the curse. I have known for years that Jesus is “our Sabbath rest” - but what does that mean? What does that look like in our day to day - too-long-of-day lives? Honestly, I don’t know. But it has become one of the my great missions to find out. I have know people far “busier” than me who live life in fullness and grace and calmness… and I know people who do little and are constantly stressed out. And then of course there is personality and seasons and age and support ranges.

I think of Eccl. 3. A time for EVERYTHING… and EVERYTHING in time. How do I live in the appropriate time? Recently I heard my cousin describe our life (specifically life at Bethesda) as living in a MASH emergency zone… and it struck me with depth. How do we live in the humorous chaos of this existence and avoid PTSD? That feeling of constant striving? The students who have graduated this year… and even some from before tell me they are struggling with depression and unbearable stress of their future purpose and great unknown. And I tell them to rest in Jesus. And we are honest enough for them to say, “To me - that is stupid!” I get that. Often to me it is stupid. When a 2 minute run into the pharmacy results in a man with disabilities and a broken arm dizzy on Percocet missing in a 90 degree parking lot - the weight of responsibility sits heavy and rest alludes. Two minutes. This whole thing could fall apart in any 2 minutes. That thought induces PTSD. Inevitably ... without faith - without rest - without Jesus. This is just me rambling… my thinking… about how to make this beautiful existence of ours sustainable... any thoughts are appreciated... what does rest and balance look like for you?

Cutting my hair felt good.

Jude is into his mess... but I'm hoping the heat gets to him :)

We are so proud of Salah's graduation and what a professional he has grown into -

and of course we love all the cousins he brought our way :)

Here are some MBA's who obviously don't know how to handle children yet. :)

Annie with her wonderful roommates!

Some of my favorite men.

Good bye to our dear sweet Vanessa... :(

So we held the graduation party at Bethesda this year. This is all the graduates who were there... but only the ones who had lived with us got the honor of planting trees...

I laughed at Team Meeting when I saw how many people it takes to run Bethesda... and to think mom and dad did it alone for so many years. What is this world coming to??