I'm back!

*Explodes from cannon in cloud of confetti. A bit discombobulated, gazes around, realizes where one is, and proceeds to sheepishly grin and wave.* 

Hello friends!! No, I have not died. I am very much alive! Although, by the state of my blogging activity, one could likely easily presume that I had. Life has been life, and blogging has simply taken a backseat amidst the soaring heights, plunging depths, and sharp curves of the roller coaster. 
I thought that I would pop back here on the blogosphere to say "Hey!", update you guys on what I've been up to for about the past...(quickly checks date of the most recent post)...about a year,*Has it really been that long???* and hopefully post some more in the next few weeks!  



What have I been doing? 
(Since the answer to this could prove to be exhaustive, I have decided to list some of the main events of the past ~10 months at an attempt to stave off boredom. ;) )

• The first thing, and technically this occurred in February, was my church's college conference! It was an absolutely amazing time spent with wonderful people, and a time to grow closer to God. 

(This was a picture of the group that came from just my church, but the conference was students from all over North America! It was really cool!) 

(This is a video from same conference the year before, which I also attended. I couldn't find a video of the 2019 one, but this one will give you a good idea of what it was like. :) )

• Babysitting some of the cutest babes ever. :)
• College-2 more semesters completed! Down to the final one! :D

College has been a good experience so far, and not as big of an adjustment as I originally had thought that it might be since I went from being homeschooled my entire life to being on a college campus, surrounded by hundreds-thousands of people I didn't know, classrooms, teachers...the whole shebang. The biggest thing for me to get used to was the whole "socializing" part of college. I know, I know. That fits into every stereotype of a homeschooler ever, but the schoolwork didn't seem that bad to me, and every other aspect of college was fine as well. It was just getting accustomed to hearing a cuss word used every other word in a sentence, and many other things that I hadn't experienced/heard about as much before simply because...I was homeschooled. *enough said*
All that being said, if you are reading this and have been homeschooled your whole life and are debating/worrying about going to college, don't worry about it! You'll do great! 

• One of my siblings graduated! 
• Working throughout the year and pretty much every day over the summer 8+ hours a day in no air conditioning in an already hot kitchen.

 

In all seriousness, though, it wasn't that bad. Yes, it was hot. Yes, it was tiring. And yes, someone in our department may or may not have suffered from heat exhaustion, but there were a few bright lights of goodness.  I worked with some really wonderful people, and hey, it's money for bills and college, so I'm not complaining. 

• Hiking with friends and family.
  Hiking is like one of my favorite things, you guys. Take me adventuring in the outdoors and you've got one happy girl.
  Here are a few pics from the hikes:

While on one of the hikes with a very dear friend, we may or may not have gotten a bit lost. 

*At-hem* Let me re-phrase that. 

The GPS that we were following took us on a completely different route than the average human would take to arrive at the destination we were trying to get to. This lovely piece of mechanical directional device, which works well in most situations, decided for whatever reason to steer us back into the boonies. 

Literally. 

We were driving on one-lane roads and across a one-lane bridge until we reached the end of state maintenance, realized at this point that we were obviously going the wrong way, and re-directed the directionless GPS. The GPS proceeded to take us a different direction, and obviously, we assumed that it was steering us back to the main road and the hiking spot we were trying to reach. How wrong we were. 

Only after the narrow country road we were on turned to gravel and there was no way to turn around because we were literally on the side of the mountain, did we realize we were nowhere close to where we needed to be. At this point, with the mountain hilling up on one side of us and dropping off on the other side, the only option was to back down the lane that was barely big enough to fit my car. Instead, we hoped and prayed that the GPS was simply taking us the hard-core back way to the hiking destination. We were correct, after driving on a lane that eventually went from gravel to simply river-type-rocks and mud, with large pot-holes....basically a path that was meant for rangers on their jeeps and four wheelers, you get it... off-road vehicles. And here we were, in my car. Driving up a rocky path, singing to Lauren Daigle's song "Rescue", trying to keep calm and stave off panic. 

Below is a picture that I found off the internet that is the closest that I could find to what the road looked like. Just imagine a mountainside looming on the left and a drop-off down the mountainside on the right. 😅

Praise the Lord, we finally made it back to the main road we were trying to get to, and arrived at our destination safely without further incident. We definitely had a little adventure, and learned that you can't always trust the GPS. 
We did realize later that the lane was a maintenance road for the forest rangers.

Oh, what wisdom is gained from aftersight. 

• Gardening and Canning

We canned quite a few tomato-related produce this season (salsa, tomato sauce/pasta sauce, tomato juice, and just plain tomatoes), as well as green beans and pickles. We also had other veggies and fruits that we froze/consumed such as: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, applesauce, peaches, zucchini, spinach, lettuce, carrots, peppers, corn, peas, and onions. 

• The County Fair
  Because I am cheap, I usually tend to walk around and look at the animals and craft/art works since the rides can tend to be on the more expensive side. And of course, a fair expedition isn't complete without funnel cake. :)

• Reading, Writing, and Movie-consuming

• Watching my brothers' basketball games and playing pick-up ball. 
• Serving at church, pet-sitting, thrifting, and all the other sundries of my life. 

Thus concludes the summary of what I've been up to for the past couple months (at least the things that I don't mind sharing with the internet, lol).

There has definitely been a lot of laughter and some tears, but through all the twists and turns of the past few months, God has been faithful. His mercies begin afresh each morning, and each day, step by step, He is directing and creating a beautiful masterpiece. At least I'm trusting that He is.

Treasure in life isn't always made up of the good things, the hard things that we go through can sometimes give us an even more valuable treasure. Think of the cross. 

Enough said.