Butterflies

I am in a very weird place in my life right now. I moved out of my house in Philly almost two weeks ago, and I do not yet have a permanent place of residence. My original plan was to move back in with my parents for at least the summer and until I got called to a congregation. Well, now that I am in a call process with a congregation in NJ, I decided not to actually move my stuff just yet, so I am "staying" with my parents, and my stuff is all over the place. I have some things in my parents' house, I have my piano and a dining set that will likely become mine in a storage unit here in western PA, I have the rest of my furniture in a house on campus in Philly, and I have the rest of my "stuff" in boxes in the basement of the house I just moved out of. And even though I haven't officially been called to the congregation yet, I'm far enough along in the process that I will be starting very soon if they vote to call me, and so I have to make moving plans, even though I don't know for sure that I am moving to NJ! I was sitting in my parents' house today watching HGTV and working on some stuff and I couldn't figure out why my stomach felt so crazy, like I was nervous. And then I realized that the buterflies were probably due to all of the above. I'm a planner and the fact that things in my life are all up in the air right now is hard for me. I know that God is with me and things will all work out, but this waiting and not being able to do much about it is difficult.

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

Well, I had been doing a decent job of posting more regularly, and then the end of the semester arrived, along with finishing assignments, filling out paperwork, graduating, visits from family and friends, making moving plans, celebrating, saying goodbyes, and enjoying my new-found "freedom". That's pretty much what my life's been about for the last few weeks. I graduated from seminary on May 21st, with my fellow classmates and friends, with my mom, dad, aunt, and best friend there to support me. I enjoyed a nice, but brief, visit with my aunt and parents, and then Mandy stuck around for most of the next week, since her last visit occurred during "Snowmaggedon" and we couldn't actually go anywhere. We spent some time at some shops in Chestnut Hill, up the street from the seminary, and we visited some of the typical touristy sites in center city Philly. We also attended the wedding of one my close friends from seminary, watched season 4 of Gilmore Girls, and each worked on a quilt. Mandy has several quilts under her belt, but I had yet to try one, so I was excited when she agreed to help me with my first. I found a design online that I really liked and she had the fun job of figuring out the pattern. We picked out some cute fabrics, and were able to complete the top of each of our quilts. I really like it, and I'll be sure to post a picture of it later. I'm waiting until I can get together with her again to finish it. Since she went back to western PA, I've been trying to find a balance between doing things I have to do: like starting to pack, and working on sermons for some guest preaching I'm doing, and things I want to do: like finally reading the Harry Potter series and working on some other sewing projects. I'm not sure I've found the right balance yet, but I'm working on it!

(*If you don't want to wait until I post a picture, you can see the quilt I'm working on at Mandy's blog, here.)