Life Lesson: No one cares about your stupid Pinterest project, Emily!

God has been pretty awesome lately*.  I had been praying a good long time for a few things:

1. Friends (my own age!)

2. A bible study that AG could be with me for. Since it would have to be on my day off I didn't want to lose out on an entire morning with her.

*note: God is awesome all the time, I know this, but I am selfish and often His awesome makes stretches me and I HATE CHANGE.  

So through the many ways and channels that God works a group of young mamas was assembled for a bible study book club.  There are four of us with 6 kiddos (5 of them are two and under).  Our first meeting was last Thursday.  I cleaned my house.  Like really cleaned it, I even mopped my floors which only happens 3 times a year.  I decorated for Valentine's Day with Pinterest crafts that made me look straight Martha Stewart.  I even washed the dog pillow.  Really people... I was on a roll.  As I set out snacks and made coffee waiting for my doorbell to ring I looked at my house and thought... 'Oh yeah, Emily... you are TOTALLY a grown-up and your house looks adorable'.

Enter women and kiddos and diaper bags.  It was an hour and a half of talking about JESUS and how to be a woman of God in this world.  An hour and a half of loving on other mama's babies. An hour and a half of hearing each other's stories. An hour and a half in the presence of other women walking this hard path of raising little people and loving our husbands and trying to somehow hold on to ourselves in the process.  For me, it was an hour and a half of overflowing grace.

Then babies were packed up and plans were made for next time and my dog got to come back inside.  

I sat in my kitchen feeding AG lunch and a thought occurred to me... no one said anything about my adorable Pinterest decorations!   In that moment I knew that God had brought together the perfect group of women for me. The ones who won't feed my ego but will nourish my soul.  The ones that won't perpetuate my desire to be the perfect mom/wife/daughter/Christian but who will remind me that we are broken people trying desperately to serve Christ.  The ones that care much more about my heart than my house.  

His providence continually humbles me.  I hope this week God's providence is revealed to you in a new and surprising way!  I also hope you don't waste too much time on Pinterest... apparently that crap won't make you friends!

Omaha... somewhere in middle America!

Any town with a Counting Crows song is good in my book... I have a feeling that Omaha is going to be great.

I am getting so excited that I can't focus (hence this blog). It amazes me how once you know you are going to see people you have not seen in what seems like forever, your thoughts return to another time. Those 4 years in Spokane at times seem like a distant memory. I think I put them there because there is so much longing I still have for that life, those people, and the memories just make me wish for them again.

It also brings tears to my eyes already to think of Tori walking down through those church doors. Not so long ago we were across the hall mates on our first day of college, scared to let go of our mommies and excited for freedom. Now we are women, married, moved, changed, but we still need our mommies, and now we need each other, too. There is nothing more powerful that female friendship, I honestly believe that. Last night I tried on my bridesmaid's dress and all I could think was how blessed I am to stand up and be a witness to two amazing people's marriage. How a 30 years from now when that dress will no long stretch over my hips, and our faces are covered in lines, we will still be standing up witnessing each other's big and small moments.

So here I go... off to Omaha... on a really killer adventure!