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Hello lovelies! How did it get to be mid-afternoon Monday already? Oh boy! I’d better keep on workin’ on that to-do list and maybe grab some iced tea. You?

Cutest Late Summer Skirt:

A Sweet Little Monday Song:

Enjoy the rest of the day! Catch ya later with a Work to Weekend outfit 🙂

Of course, I couldn’t let the ten year anniversary of September 11, 2001 go by unnoticed on my blog. My heart has been processing the events again today, especially as I’ve been looking through the videos, galleries, stories, and memorials online the past few days/weeks. It takes an emotional toll. It is hard to imagine that was ten years ago that I was in high school, heading outside with my ecology class, desperate to call and make sure my dad was OK in Washington, DC. (he was, just stuck in town for awhile). There are thousands of stories much more emotional than mine, but still…

I think: What if it had been me, during a normal sleepy morning at the office, who suddenly went up in a fireball?
What if it had been me, terrified, panting down 80 flights of stairs?
What if it had been me, trapped and unable to escape?
What if it had been me surviving, living with the horror of what I saw every moment?
What if it had been me, at home, waiting for dad to come home? For mom to come home? For brother, sister, fiance, husband, to come home?
What if it had been me, knowing my husband/boyfriend/father/brother had rushed into the flames, to save others, and ended up dead?

And I get a little bit paralyzed, you know? It’s too hard to carry all of those burdens. Like I have to always hold everyone so close that nothing could ever happen to them. I think, for a moment, I’ll never get on a plane again. I’ll never go in a high building again. I’ll never go to a big city again. I think, who gets to decide it was time for those nearly 3,000 people to die? 

But I remember a quote from the (boring, not that great, sort-of-interesting) movie I watched last night, Princess Kaiulani: Make room for the living. And I take a deep breath, and I turn off the horrifying audio and video from 9/11, and I will text my parents, and my boyfriend, and everyone I love and tell them how much I love them and thank God for them. And I will pray for the families of the victims, and I will remember that God is in control.

So, well, I guess I’ll keep on getting on airplanes and going in tall buildings and maybe one day I’ll visit New York City….and I’ll try to make room for the living, as best I can.

I think I found the good things this weekend. 

Y’know…

*Picking tomatoes from the field. And broccoli, and basil, and peppers. And having the entire car smell like basil on the ride home.

*Playing in the corn rows until drip—drip—-DOWNPOUR! And screaming and running for the porch!

*Spending an hour or two shooting the breeze…until deciding we definitely need some ice cream with hot fudge to round out the evening.

*A revolving door of family comings & goings.

*Devotions to start off the morning.

*A continually full coffee pot all day long.

*Giggling until three in the morning.

*And taking a Sunday afternoon nap to make up for it!

*Trying to take a self-portrait of me + boyfriend (80 million times)

*Taking note of what color the street light in town is from the window–very important, of course.

And I tell you what, I didn’t once think I missed my computer, or my cell phone, or my quiet space (ok, there was that time that I was trying to nap that that revolving door kept revolving). I didn’t miss my Twitter, my GoogleReader, my hot water pressure (ummm….maybe that last one).  But my point is this: The priorities felt right this weekend. The ground felt firm beneath me. The days felt meaningful and relaxing, too. The time felt well-spent, even while watching the news and giving the dog some good pettin’. It felt fulfilling, in a way that, oftentimes, my own little life doesn’t. And that was wonderful to soak up, and to remind me that the simple life–well-lived, deeply rooted in family & faith, is the best life. 

Sorry, ya’ll, that this is so late! My mind has been trying to wrap itself around the utter destruction in my state, and it’s overwhelming my senses and emotions. Today, however, I am finally feeling a creative streak! 
I’m kind of been ADDICTED to these chips lately: 

Amazing Surfer-Girl Gear:

A curriculum vitae (CV) is pretty standard in my line of work. It’s a resume, essentially, for the more academic sort of world. And last night I was mulling over a conversation with my boyfriend, and for some reason, the CV popped into my head.

A CV lists your accomplishments, right? It lists every honor, award, cool thing, charitable thing, and impressive thing you’ve ever done, at least professionally.

And I thought to myself, Is that how I’m living with God? Working on my CV constantly, hoping that I can list every award, honor, cool or charitable or impressive thing I’ve ever done, and, at the end, show it to God and see if it gets me into heaven? It is so tempting to live that way, isn’t it? That’s how the world works.

What really got me is that if truth be known, I bet a lot of people’s CV are “fudged”, you know? Oh, that sounds impressive, let me put it on there, even though it really wasn’t. Let’s see, I volunteered for 5 minutes, but they won’t know the difference when I put it there. I was supposed to be at that conference all week, but I was only there one day–who is going to know? sorta stuff. Do I do that with God? There, God, I gave my $5 to the youth group camping trip, are ya happy? sorta stuff.