Spring Storms

After a week of rain, I admit, I'm getting a little gloomy. But at least it's not snow! If you like housekeeping, you'll understand my need to spring clean, freshen up, redecorate....to fight the gloom I guess. Anyway, this is my bedroom; I'm rather proud of how well it turned out. Now if I could just get the rest of the apartment to look this springy.

I'm hoping to go home to Michigan soon for a visit. I was supposed to leave Saturday, but Luke's grandma died yesterday, pushing my travel time back. I confess, I'm terribly homesick. I was home for one day in September of last year. I think I just want some "mom time" and "sister time".

Our first year of marriage seems to be a year of losing grandparents. Oh, I pray it doesn't continue...mine have been pretty sick this year. I have to say, here, that I have been so greatly blessed to have the close friendship with my Grandma. I spend two or three days a week with her, and truly have an unusually special relationship. How can I ever be anything but thankful, even in the midst of sadness?

I finally just went through all the negatives for my wedding pictures...and organized them to order prints. It was SUCH a BIG job! I didn't think I was ever going to do it...but I finally, somehow, pressed through. I am so proud of myself! :P And it is really fun to go back and look at pictures of such a happy day.

I have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchini, radishes, and mint so far for my grandma...and they are all coming up (about two inches tall). I love to grow things...there is something so therapeutic about keeping something fragile and dependent alive. I think gardening would be an amazing medicine for people who are emotionally hurt. I know it was and is for me.

I feel that I need to write something uplifting...for my own sake...something to bring joy to my heart today-and to yours. And well, the best cure for gloom and sadness is Jesus! What a sweet Friend and Savior. It is so comforting to think that Jesus created me especially the way I am...I am loved and beautiful and righteous in His eyes. And it is SO comforting to remember that He is a man...a human...one who has experienced all the same sadness that we experience. He knows what a cloudy day feels like, what losing grandparents feels like, what being cramped in a small, cluttered apartment feels like, what being lonely for home and for friends feels like. He knows and He has sent His Spirit to wrap us up in love!