the week in review

There's a giant colander of crookneck squash sitting on the kitchen island... I have absolutely no idea what to do with it all, except make soup, that my family won't eat (Google crookneck, again). Another colander was filled with tomatoes in addition to the aqua bowl filled with tomatoes. Today, I got the tomatoes down to one bowl again. And I'm beginning to be afraid to go into the jung garden at this point. The peppers went with kielbasa on Monday night and more went into teriyaki chicken last night. There's another half-bushel still to be picked. I am so happily amazed at how much food we grew in our backyard this summer. I made more jam last week. This time with roadside peaches and frozen raspberries. It turned out really well. September has now officially risen in the ratings of second favorite month (May is still a strong first place), because picking food from the backyard and marvelling over it all has just made September weirdly wonderful.

Okay, moving on. I worked like a crazy woman all last week...my Etsy shop is open. It's not fully stocked, but I will keep adding to it weekly. We helped Ainsley and Jeff moved from their cute little rented '40s cottage to a cute little mortgaged '40s cottage, just a few blocks from their old home in the next town up from us, which is still just five minutes away, so perfect arrangement, all in all (we all think). (Cute photos to show here someday.) I sent off licensing proposals/photos in between Etsy and kids moving, and got told politely "no thanks". I got the stomach flu the same day as my "no thanks" and spent Tuesday through today SICK. Like awful sick. A really high and low week... hard on the soul. Getting a rejection letter and the flu in the same day really stinks. I cried. I rarely cry in front of the kids. (Corbyn cleaned his bathroom; it must have been dramatic for him.) (Mike brought home yellow roses; he's a keeper.) I was so sick on Wednesday I couldn't do much but lay in bed, just thinking and really praying for guidance. I so want to go where I've been being led; it's hard for me to see God's hand in my life right now. I wonder how much more I can surrender to understand God's will in my life... I know I've been given talents to serve God with, and through so much asking and praying, I have been led along a path that I thought was just about to open into a "promised land'.  A place where my talents could bring joy, creativity, and help for people. I think one of the lessons I'm being taught is that this is going to happen in God's good time, not mine. I am definately being taught patience and perserverance... I won't give up.  I know I'm being awfully cryptic in all of this... someday I hope to be able to tell more about my licensing journey. I just can't do it here, since people in China seem to really enjoy knocking stuff off they see in blogland. I sorta feel like I live a bouble life in my blog, because I can't talk fully about my licensing pursuits. It must seem odd when I've been gone a week or two here and come back having nothing very creative to share. Especially when that's what my blog is mostly meant to be about... sharing creativity on the creative path... (for hell's sake.) I just need to remember that this IS the creative journey... it doesn't follow a linear line; it meanders; it turns back on itself, and sometimes the clearing in the woods is just a rest stop, I've learned, not the promised land. So I'm going to pull weeds this weekend and clean my house and get caught up on laundry...clean undies wait on nobody...and then I'll get back to figuring out where to pick up from and start over again. This journey is circular too, I've learned :)

Oh, and on a cool note... :) I'm helping plant a Mary's Garden at our church. I'll tell you about it next week!

Have a lovely weekend, my friends.

XOK  

 

Comments

[Maria]

LOVELY post, Kelly! I think the only lesson we truly have to learn is patience (dang it!) ;) Can you imagine if everyone was patient? There would be no wars etcetera. Anyway, never lose sight of your goal. Your ship will come in, for sure. Persistence pays...

[Kelly]

Thank you so much, Maria. You are a dear friend to me!