p365: june 23

june 23: what a riveting and lovely day at work. i spent most of the day wrestling with and probably killing grape vines. there's rows and rows of grapes and they get tangled and need to be untangled. i basically compare it to what it would be like to machete my way through the amazon, minus the machete. don't be jealous of my super fabulous and glamorous job.

anyways, i've decided to retire the pair of toms that i've been wearing to work. they were already pretty beat up before i wore them to work and now they're pretty much shot. they lasted a good three weeks though!

r.i.p. ash canvas toms

p365: june 22 (except not really since i've skipped 3 weeks...)

june 22: well. long time no see? i have no excuses. i dropped the ball and majorly slacked at keeping up with this. i just hope that i can be more diligent from here on out!

so. since the last time i posted a picture a lot has happened. and by a lot  i really mean a lot of the same mundane thing.

i'm working at jersey acres at stone mountain wine cellar. it's a local fruit/dairy farm/winery. they basically do it all. i've been working there for about three weeks now (hmm. working for three weeks, blog is three weeks behind...anyone see a connection? but again...i have no excuses!) at this wonderful job i do everything from pick strawberries and rasberries to thin peaches and nectarines to work wine events like tastings and open houses to the majorly sucky task of hoeing and weeding the miles and miles of new strawberry rows. while at this job i'm outside all of the time which means killer awesome tan lines. i've decided that i'm not a big fan of the sock/sneaker tan, so i've been wearing toms. a toms tan line is much more fashionable anyways....right?

sorry!!!

i realize that i have been majorly lacking in the project 365 department. i've been busy adjusting to working and being home. i started taking some pictures and just never posted them, and then i just stopped taking pictures. i know, i know. i fail. but i'm not giving up on this. i just needed a small break and also some time to adjust to being back home. i plan on starting back up again with the pictures, however i'm giving fair warning that they may start to get boring because to say that my life is less than exciting in pine grove, pa would be the understatement of the century.  but i made a promise to myself to try to see this all the way through, and while it's technically not all the way through since i've taken 10 days off so far, i still want to finish it out to december 31. it will be good for me to come back and reflect upon.

so, starting tomorrow i will start taking pictures again and posting them. maybe with the free time i have i'll start editing them again and find inspiration in the most unexpected places. either that or i'll make my friends pose for photo shoots for me. :)

p365: june 5

june 5: spent the day relaxing. i did some more cleaning, but not too much. i have so much junk. it's been kind of therapeutic going through all of it and getting rid of a lot of stuff.

megan came home from d.c. today so a bunch of us went over to rossi's to hang out/welcome her home. this is the view on one of the roads on the way to rossi's house. as much as i complain about living at home and pine grove, i do appreciate how gorgeous it is. it just stinks that it's in the middle of nowhere.

p365: june 4

june 4: more time spent cleaning, unpacking, and re-arranging. it's a slow but steady process. i can only do a little each day or else i start to feel extremely overwhelmed and want to give up.

decided that i really needed to get out of the house. i've been wanting a new book lately so i went to barnes & noble in reading with my mom. i ended up spending way too much money, but got two new books, a devotional, and a new journal (hopefully to motivate me to write more and fill up my old one so i can start using the new one). it was nice to get out and to spend some time with my mom. being home isn't as bad as i thought it would be so far.

all through the night...

I’m home for the summer, which means that I get bored pretty easily.  Pine Grove isn’t the most happening place on planet Earth. Heck, Schuylkill County isn’t that happening.  The closest Starbucks is roughly 40 minutes away. Yep. Anyways, it’s a Saturday night, my friends are working, and I have nothing to do.  So, I decide to drive the 40 minutes to Reading to go to Starbucks and Barnes and Noble.  I’ve been thinking about buying a devotional for some time now and I figure since it’s the summer and I’ll have more free time, why the heck not?

Jess, one of my friends from project is always blogging from the devotional “Streams in the Desert.”  She was also reading through it on project so I decided to give it a try. I like that the day to day devotions aren’t overwhelmingly long, but they’re deep.  They make you think and give you a Bible passage to mull over.  They’re also dated day to day, month to month.  My OCD likes this aspect.

Anyways, today’s is based on an excerpt from Exodus 14:21:

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.”

The devotional goes on to talk about how quite often; God is working the most through the darkest times in our lives.  It says, “God works through the night until the morning light dawns.  You may not see it yet, but through the night of your life, as you trust Him, He works.”

This really struck me because I was looking through my journal at past entries and came to one from February.  I felt so defeated that month. It was like tidal wave after tidal wave kept hitting me.  I honestly felt lost and deserted and quite frankly I was losing faith pretty quickly. 

Through all of that though, the Lord was working. Through that darkness He provided light.  It wasn’t the exact light that I had been looking for, but still, it came and it saved. It was hard, but because I trusted him, he revealed a path to me that was beyond what I could have imagined.  He provided for me in ways that only he could.  He broke through the storm clouds and proved to me that he is worth hanging on for.  He had never deserted me like I had thought.  He was merely working on another route than what I had planned for myself.

Everyone has dark times and storms. It’s a part of life. It’s what you do during those times that matters.  It’s hard to not cave to yourself and your despair. One thing that kept me going was reminding myself that through all of this, the Lord was creating a plan that must be amazing beyond my comprehension or imagination.  He will provide light. He’ll work all through the night.  As cliché as I’m about to sound, the night may be long, but the morning will come.

p365: june 3

june 3: first day of my summer job. i'm working at jersey acres picking berries, working in the store, and doing other miscellaneous tasks. my back and legs are killing me from squatting and standing picking the berries, but it was a lot of fun. i'm just going to have a massive farmer's tan.

took zak out for rita's after work. that is one thing that i've missed about the north. some good italian ice. yum.

p365: june 2

june 2: first full day home. slept in a little then spent the day unpacking, rearranging, purging, and cleaning. i'm not even close to being finished. i have so much to do in order to get my room organized. i have piles of stuff everywhere!

p365: june 1

june 1: day of hitting the road! packed up my car with the last of my stuff and made it home. my wonderful dad had already unloaded everything from the van. however when he and my brother went to take the van back his car battery died so i drove to reading to pick them up and help him fix his car. it was a long day, but it's good to be home. even olive is adjusting to being here.

p365: may 31

may 31: last full day in nc. packed and ran errands all day. followed by lots and lots of cleaning. my dad came down with a moving van and helped me move out. saw bruce and becky and catie hammond and amy and said good bye. spent the last night in my apartment on the floor with olive.

p365: may 30

may 30: my room is mostly packed and ready to go. hung out with balls and went to r.e.i. and helped her get some stuff for the world race! came back and finished packing up my house. i hate packing. however, i got to go to dinner with eliza and see her before i left. it was great.