getting my groove back

Seems like a lifetime since I've written. The summer of 2014 has stretched itself out over what seems like a year. It was full of lazy mornings and late night movies in the family room.
Beach days, pool days, and some boring days.
I probably made the kids 2 dozen batches of stovetop popcorn and they've consumed gallons of lemonade.
We got off the take-out food train and I've prepared most every meal at home.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, baby! Just like a boss.

Usually, I start summer break so petrified of doing the back to school rush again; the time slips through my fingers, even though I'm trying to grasp it and hold on.
This year was different because I didn't have that pressure looming.
The kids are officially enrolled in online public school and I couldn't be happier about it.
Sure, I'll miss certain things about their fancy private school, but I'm finally excited about our new life.
This easy-breathing I've been doing is a welcomed change in my life.

If you had asked me 6 months ago what I wanted more than anything I would've said "balance".
I was trying to do so many things at once, and I couldn't think of one area in my life that wasn't being cheated. Now everything is different and I am so thankful.

After quitting my job, it took me a month to find a new one. I was trying to enjoy the downtime, but It was financially stressful. While I waited, I got my house clean and (a little more) organized, started meal planning, repotted my houseplants, stuff like that. I was also taking my last prerequisite for the nursing program. Now I just need to retake the entrance exam and HOPEFULLY start the program in January.

I started back at Starbucks in July. It's a mixed bag for me. I love that the store is close to my house, and in my favorite part of town. I love the crazy partners that make me laugh and getting a free pound of coffee every week. I just feel like I'm living in yesteryear as it bring so many memories of doing that job from 2005-2010. It makes me miss my friends in Alabama. And it's also hard work; which is okay, but I'm not a spring chicken, y'all. Oh, speaking of my age status, every single new friend at work has had a conniption-fit when they learned I'm 39.

Here's the basic progression:
I mention my kids in conversation,
they say: oh. you have kids?
I say: yes, 3 of them.
they: ask their ages.
I say: 16,14,11
they say: what? you have teenagers?!
I say: yes, I'm older than I look.  I'm almost 40.
They say: NO! you're lying
I say: who would lie about turing 40?

I guess aging well is cool.

As the new school year begins, I am full of gratitude for so many things. Although I fought, and bargained against, and resisted almost every change that has come my way, I am starting to see it come together. I am seeing that what I perceived as loss was really mercy being given. I feel it now. I feel the mercy. Especially when I walk down the school-supply aisle at target and need 5 things instead of 500.

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. 

Isaiah 43:19