Every Little Blessing

As we creep further into July, I'm beginning to realize how fast my summer is flashing before my eyes. It's seriously speeding by. Only one more month and I'm back at CNU for Junior year! Crazy. And while I haven't been working a killer hard job or anything, my days are full and pretty tiring. Between nannying and spending time with my family (especially my little sisters) and having dates with friends and seeing my grandparents who live nearby and exercising and going to the pool and to Bible Study and trying to keep in contact with school friends.... it's all pretty draining! I am loving it, though, and I have some fun plans for July that I'm pretty excited about (including my good friends' wedding tomorrow!! yay Molly & Colin!). 

Despite all the business and the speed at which each day goes by, I've really been learning this summer about how incredibly blessed I am. God has been pouring out grace on my life in so many undeserved, unexpected ways! What started as a lazy, "wish I wasn't home" summer   He turned into a "so excited to be home and see what God has for me here" summer. Recently, I have been finding so much joy in the simple, daily pleasures such as eating breakfast with my little sisters after their early morning swim team practice, playing a competitive game of Sorry with the two boys I nanny, receiving an encouraging text message from a friend, enjoying Mom's fresh homemade bread topped with almond butter, looking around the dinner table at my family and marveling at how crazy but perfect we are for each other, running through the fountains at Reston Towne Center with friends while strangers stare and think we're drunk, etc. All too often I pass right over these little blessings and think nothing of them! But lately God has been opening my eyes to see that even some of the most seemingly mundane or dumb or silly parts of the day are truly blessings from Him, and every minute should be lived in full knowledge of how undeserving I am to receive ANY of these gifts! 

So! I hope you go out and enjoy your weekend (and the rest of summer!) keeping in mind that everything you do (every part of your life! whether it's going on vacation, shopping for new clothes, having coffee with an old friend, losing that extra lb on the scale.... whatever those little things are for you!) are ALL blessings that should be cherished, not thrown to the side. 

James 1:17

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

Enjoy a taste of photos from the past few weeks of my summer! :)

First up.... We gave Mom an iPad for her birthday in mid-June. She was quite surprised! :)

Swim meets are always very fun. :) I love my two little Franklin Farm Frogger swimmers, Abby and Anna...

Anna in warm-ups...

Abby finishing up a race...

Abs doing I.M. at the end of the meet...

Hanging out at Starbucks with good friends from home...

(It was Charis's birthday on this particular day! Early July. Love herrr...)

Beautiful birthday girl :)

Ben :)

Saying an official goodbye to our red Honda civic (totalled in my accident 2 months ago -- yeah, it's been sitting in our garage since May 16th, and we're just now sending it off).....

(thanks to Tori for these pictures! and in real life, the front bumper isn't attached.... we shoved it back on for the tow-truck)

I didn't want it to go!

Tori and Anna run around the backyard during a rainstorm (today!)...

Soaked but gorgeous Tor Tor...

THEN, David (home for a few days from Ft Benning) decided to do part of his workout out in the rain, and show off his Ranger Panties to the neighborhood.... 

That's it for tonight! I did a Crocs photoshoot of Tori, Abby, and Anna not too long ago and I promise to post it soon!