Looking forward to....

....the weather warming up, ....having no plans tonight, ....riding our bikes tomorrow, starting our garden, spending some QT with the hubby. I'm feeling good entering the weekend with no residual work-related stress. While the first week of work is always awkward as you revert back to knowing virtually nothing, having daily breaks and leaving at a reasonable hour really helps me to go home feeling more refreshed and less stressed than I have for a loooong time! Fantastic! This blog started with a list of goals and a rigid plan that aimed to allow me to accomplish those goals. Looking forward, the next year will be an interesting one for us, as the state budget cuts have truly limited Matt's school schedule flexibility, and we will thus be facing a time in which we will have to spend wisely and cautiously, and save as much as possible. While I've realized I can't manage to stick to such a rigid plan, I'm going to have to think again about how to manage my time and money best in order to continue to meet our goals. Sigh. The challenges never seem to stay away for too long. In such times, it helps me to remember: 'God said, "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart".' -Jeremiah 29:13

Hope, faith, and love.

Isn’t it funny how life turns out? My friends and I have talked about how when we were in high school we figured we’d simply just go to college, get a good job, and then get married and settle down. But we never really thought about how we’d get there. Never did we think about the fact that we may not know what that good job would be, or that there is often a very wide gap between what we’d love to do and making money to do it. Then there’s marriage…did we expect that our spouse would just walk up to us in the grocery store, in the strawberry isle, and ask us out? And it would all fall into place from there? On top of all this, we must have figured that by then we’d have a nice little saving account set up for that house…the bills…and whatever else this life requires. It’s funny how now we realize that every single one of those things require work. Lots and lots of work. From compromising, to prioritizing, and making sacrifices…. You never really plan on those things but they are all inevitable. At least for most of us. But the point isn’t to be a downer. My point can perhaps be summed up in this quote:
“The universe can dream a bigger dream for you than you can dream for yourself.”
Don’t let the realities of this life set you back, just be prepared that it may not always look the way you expected it to and embrace it! The attitudes with which we approach things can be the most significant driver of how they turn out. I’m someone who really seeks to figure things out in advance, and when things are up in the air I stress myself out trying to think them through. But it hardly ever pans out the way I thought it would anyway. I’ve found great peace in relying on the plan that exists for me, so long as I do my best to rejoice in all that I have and approach every day with nothing but hope, faith, and love.