When last I left you fine folks, I was off to paint! And paint we did!

By the way I chose the peacock… I’m not done with him yet, but I realized how much I loved painting! There were no rules! This was not Renoir. This was “I think I feel like modge-podgeing dictionary pages underneath and then panting in wonky layers on top of it -using cardboard pieces like a pallet knife to spread color and sometimes my fingers (gasp!) and whatever happens, happens.”

I highly recommend it.

After that it was Super Bowl weekend, which equals this:

That would be pork in a crockpot…just waiting to become BBQ. And there were other fine delicacies, but we ate them all. Mmmm…

I highly recommend that too.

But after a full and sort of productive weekend in which we bought the makings for these:

(new baby cousins on the way…. soon!!! So excited!)

…And a pit stop at the goodwill where I found that book and those super cute nativities:

I found myself needing a break. I was doing good stuff, sure but I was emotionally and a little physically depleted. I kept hearing and reading the message to “Be still and know” and I thought I “knew” what I needed to know but I surely wasn’t buying into the be still part. At least until Monday a week ago, when I woke up with a sinus headache and deeper than that, a soul ache of just needing some quiet.

So there I spent the whole day on my couch – tv off, on a self imposed internet and insta-gram and facebook fast. Holed up, hunkered down and hanging out with just the Word. Truth be told I kind of carried it over into this past week on a mini-scale unintentionally (intentionally?) which sort of explains why things were a teensy bit quiet here.

You can’t give away what you ain’t got.

I went on a retreat when I was in middle school- our youth leader gal took a group of 6 or 7 girls to the mountains (what a brave soul) and here’s what I remember- being scared to death of the kayaking, rock climbing lessons for the group with her older brother (whom all us pre-teens thought was majorly cool and cute) sleeping in a un-air conditioned cabin and quiet time alone on Sunday morning after we had a worship time. I wondered then if the quiet time was more for her before she drove us 3 hours back to our homes because all I remember from that hour is reading a little in my bible and scribbling some notes on the paper she gave to guide us but I was more taken with wondering if my shirt was tucked in right or if my shoes were as cute as the other girls or where we were going to stop for lunch.

But now i totally get it.

There is just so much at any given minute going on around us- in our environments, our own heads, and on the social media. I see as I get older the importance and need for a retreat every so often- even Jesus did it regularly and I can only imagine the demands put on him on a daily basis don’t compare at all to mine.

I’m finding that if you want to really live an abundant life– not a busy life, but a fulfilled life it starts with digging down deep in God’s word.

I read a few weeks ago that reading the bible is like digging for treasure and I really like that analogy. It takes work. And some days you find stunning revelations and some days you only find pieces of broken pots, but nothing is wasted- it all points to a loving God who wants nothing but to spend a little time with His child- and you are one. Circumstances will come and go, but God’s unfailing love never changes if you’re just willing to dig for it, rest in it and really take it to heart.

I highly recommend it.

♥