consistently inconsistent

I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't been the best blogger on the block. And I haven't been a slightly good commenter either. Reason? Way too busy for words. I won't bore you with all the goings on, but I will say that I miss you and I miss writing with some kind of consistency. I miss journaling about our family and the kinds of things we are doing. I miss posting pictures so that one day I will have all the memories in one place... a blog book.

Yesterday, I read my friend, Joyce's, blog and was reminded of some things. She and I have a very huge thing in common. That commonality is the fact that we both lived in England and have recently repatriated back home. She has been back for the past year and I moved back just a few months ago.

Having that experience changes you. It opens your eyes to so many new things, things you like and some things not so much. It makes you vulnerable in the sense that you know no one, you don't understand the culture, you have no friends for a while, your home church is exactly that~ at home. You eat differently. You walk instead of getting in your car for e.ver.y.thing. You're thankful for things like Fac*bo*k, e-mailing, texting, and this new-to-you phenomena called blogging. You are very familiar with jumping on a plane to see a new country or to go home and see faces that are truly known and know your heart.

Then a little time passes and you start to get to know people. You begin to get the new culture. You know how to find places with the all important GPS, aka sat nav that you and your hubby knew you needed beyond the shadow of a doubt. You eat beans for breakfast. You find a church because God knew where you needed to minister and be ministered to. You were a part of an amazing small group that brought the most unlikely people together. You pine after those same people hours, days, and months later. And when those same people send you a package in the mail, you tear it open with joy and anticipation. You see their children performing mini skits and dramas that was burned to a cd where the characters are each member of your family, but they have English accents. Perhaps that was their best "American" voice and it's endearing to hear. You read the postcards that they enclose of recent places they have been to and you think, "Oh, we never made it there. That was some place I would have loved to see." But God reminds you of all that you did see, and do, and all that you have now and all is right with the world again.

So in the midst of basketball camps, VBS, baseball games, meetings, pool gatherings, weddings, girlfriend outings, family gatherings, DIYing, spray painting, grocery shopping, texting, taking care of 3 new kittens, and just living, I am thinking of you my blogging friends. I am remembering my English friends, and I am appreciating, loving, and embracing the friends I had before I left. The icing on the cake is when you spend time with family that was separated by an ocean for a time.

One of these days life will slow down just a little to be more consistent, but in the meantime, I will cherish what once was and what now is.

Blessings Always,

Carol