On BBQs, Beauty, & Blinking...

To Celebrate Saturday, and to Welcome in June, and to Kick Off Summer, we decided to invite over a couple of friends with whom we have done Life with... We grilled up a heap of veggies and threw on some steaks - and enjoyed our dinner alfresco as the sun was setting slow, and the Garden was all aglow!

We don't talk about what is on our hearts... no - we don't even reminisce about the growing up years.

Instead, we laugh over card games and share coffee too late into the evening, we share inside jokes and drink in the glory of flowers in bloom... ivy and rose bushes and peonies planted years ago that just keep on giving beauty - year after year... right alongside our lives living close. Through the winters and summers and falls... these plants are rooted in deep and bring forth life. Is this not us? Is this not our goal?

The rose bush, she gave me as a birthday present over a dozen or so years ago... 'because your husband can't take a hint and never remembers that your favorite roses are Yellow'... the peony was a transplant from her mothers' garden in another city... 

Our babies/girlies are graduating high school this week... we've raised them up and planted seeds... praying to see a harvest of beauty unfurl in and all around them, as they venture off and out into this next new season... 

From way back then, we envisioned their lives to be picture perfect.  Now... well, now we know better and we pray for vision to see their lives through His... through His plans and purposes for them, (not our own!), through His Abiding Love and His Abounding Grace... 

...and we are! We are seeing glimpses of them through His eyes... and they are glorious!

And yet... for this night... on a Saturday... in June... we don't discuss them.  We don't remember or worry ahead... we don't make plans or talk regrets...

Instead we unwind, we disconnect a little at a time as this next season requires it... we laugh deep and love true, and for a split second here and there over cups that are full with caramel lattes and reminders on the rims, eyes lock and that knowing look is shared and we remember to be grateful...

This is a full week of crazy celebrating... lots of opportunities to Count On and make lists...

Please forgive me if I don't make it over to our little cozy corner here much this week - I have plans to, but with multiple graduations, parties, family visiting, surgery tomorrow, and wanting to stay present and grateful in all of the moments, I am hoping you will extend me some grace... and prayers, as well!

My heart is to share this week with you as it unfolds, however you may end up getting a recap once it is all over!  But for now... count along with me, won't you?  What are you thankful for this week?

3 Gifts - Sweet, Salty, Sour:
#1232. Sweet - Carrot Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting
#1233. Salty - Special K Honey BBQ Chips
#1234. Sour - Lemons

3 Gifts Found in Community:
#1235. Support
#1236. Company/Connection
#1237. Iron Sharpening Iron
   (getting a chance to work on our rough spots!)

#1238. My Girlie making a DQ run to buy Blizzards as a rare splurge
   (with her own $$$)
#1240. Clearing skies after 2 days of rain.
#1241. Sharing the Best & the Worst of our week in our small group.

3 Gifts Hard Giving Thanks for:
#1245. Jacks Diagnosis
#1246. A Friends Rebellion
#1247. The End of a Season (...it came too soon!)

3 Gifts Worn, White, Whispered:
#1248. Worn - The ring that Lorraine gave me.
#1249. White - A blank Canvas, matched with a new vision or idea!
#1250. Whispered - Sweet Something as we drift off to sleep with a cool night breeze softly caressing over us.

#1257. Kayelyn & Bry's friendship... how they love, & laugh, & talk real
#1258. Our little Garden... full of color!  Giving Joy and Beauty to all who pass by... inviting us to slow down... to pause and drink in the beauty...

#1259. Graduation week is upon us...
#1260. Trying not to Blink this week - but to stay fully Present in every moment!
(Grateful that when we stay present, we slow down time!)
#1261 - A Daddy who has loved our Girlie like THIS:
50 Rules for Dads of Daughters...

Linking up with Ann with no 'e' and the Multitudes on Mondays:

Speak Life. Be Love. Shine On.
~Karrilee~