And with that, the sunshine is back.

And I'm back in the office for 8 hours a day for the rest of this sun-filled week.

I'm not bitter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I met Tarra tonight for a photo walkntalk along the river in Fort Langley tonight. Tonight. (Might as well make it clear it was tonight.) The mosquitoes were starving. So we left the path along the shore and wandered through the neighbourhood instead. And it was lovely.

And while she may not be aware of it, our conversation was exactly, exactly, what I needed.
I friggen love when that happens.

From there, I drove into Vancouver to have a late dinner with Clint. Haha. THAT conversation I could've done without... "What? Do something as a family? As if.... WHY would we ever?"

Sigh.

I work for the wrong organization. I am immersed/focused on FAMILY all day long, 5 days a week. And my kids want no part of it.

What the heck.

He did give me a hug and an I love you as we parted.
So there's that.

And when I got home at 11:30, I called BCAA to come get my house keys out of my dad's locked pick up truck.
Yes, for the second time this month, I locked them in.

I know.
Don't even bother.

It was 25 degrees at midnight.
Which in Canadian dollars is hot.

It felt like I was on a holiday.
Because warm air + sitting on the driveway = vacation-like feelings, no?

By midnight I had my house keys again, so I was showered and in bed, looking forward to my favorite end-of-day conversation via facebook with Jenn.

She's reading Outlander for the first time and I am here for her. I love that she fell for Jamie after one day of reading. I love that she is taking her time, absorbing everything. I love that she herself is a writer so she totally appreciates the way Diana Gabaldon has built this story. I love that she loves words. "I'm bathing in her words right now" she said earlier.

Sigh.

So for that past few nights, I'll find out what page she's on, and for an hour or so we chat while reading.

For the record, I've always been this nerdy.
I have memories of Val and I doing this at family gatherings. The rest of the house would be buzzing with people, doing family-gathering type things, and her and I would each grab a couch and our books and read. Then when we got to a share-able part, we'd read out loud to each other.


People don't change much.
If you did this as a kid. You'll probably do it as an adult.

Which may or may not be comforting to parents out there.

And now it's 2 am.

And I'm thinking about last night's event with Ravi Zacharias.

Carolyn Arends started the evening off. I've never heard her music before (at least I don't remember hearing it...) and some of her lyrics just got to me. Right in the feels.

Like this song:

The Last Word

Bad day in the garden, Eve fell for the lie
Now we just keep falling one lie at a time

It seems like forever we’ve been under this curse
But love was here first

Now everything’s broken and everything fails
We can’t quite imagine that love will prevail
We’ve got to remember when the bad goes to worse
Love was here first

‘Cause there will be a day
When the kingdom comes

When love has finished all that it’s begun
When we’re face to face

We will know for sure
Love’s gonna have the lastword
Love’s gonna have the last word

Bad day on the hillside, or so it seemed
When love was surrendered and nailed to a tree
But the grave came up empty and death was reversed
‘Cause love was here first

A bad day in the garden could not erase
All that was started with original grace

And though we have wandered, we will find if we search
Love was here first

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Friends. 
Seriously. If you don't have any, pray about it. God will bring them. 

2. Warm summer evenings, just looking at the stars. 
Which is reminds me of another one of Carolyn Arends songs:

Surprised By Joy  
words and music by Carolyn Arends

Every once in a while on a summer night
The sunset glows and I see the light
And when the stars come out it dawns on me 

There is holy ground underneath my feet 

Surprised by joy 
Awash in love 
Just one taste of grace 
And I'm overcome 
You've got a way 
Of breaking through 
'Til I'm surprised by joy 
I'm amazed by you

Just the other day when I kissed hugged my son 
I was blown away by what you've done 
'Cause when he smiles at me with his toothless cheeky grin 
All at once I see your hand on him

And when I least expect it
You surround me
You astound me with your love

Surprised by joy
Awash in love
Just one taste of grace
And I'm overcome
You've got a way
Of breaking through
'Til I'm surprised by joy
I'm amazed by you

3. And thirdly, I'm thankful for people who know what to do with words. Make songs from them. Write books with them. Memorize them and entertain us with them. 

Shalom,

xo