simply homemaker

Hello everyone!

Can you believe we’re at blog number 10? I can’t either.

I’m sipping away my hot matcha latte on an early flight back to Washington DC to visit my people!

How dear and precious it is to realize there are people you can call your own and that you can travel across the country to go see them. I’m certainly grateful for all the great and little blessings today.

I thought about this a lot this past week, but I’ve loved living with Julie and Ken this summer. Julie Miller is someone who I always introduce as my “American mom” and I call her mama. It’s truly one of the dearest gifts the Lord has given me to know her and her clan. She has taken me to Ethiopia twice! Ken and Julie are so loving, wise, and just so kind. The way they love and serve Jesus everyday directly draws me closer to Him! They make coming home from these trips an exciting thing that I look forward to.

I must say that I love this little airline worker life even though it is super short term. Being able to go see friends in person is truly so fun! And visiting the people who I love so much makes the trips complete. Only one month left to fully make the most out of it, but I’m so glad I get to try this out once in my life!

*quick pause* Oh, I guess you wouldn’t know anyway, but I was pulled away for a second to listen to the security briefing on the plane. How cool— we’re having tons of first-time flyers today and the crew captain was so funny! I watched Inside Out on the plane and the girl next to me was secretly watching the whole movie too. Everyone has an inner kid. *quick pause ends*

This past week was quick, Wednesday felt like Friday because July 4th is on a Thursday which is today and I’m on a flight that will last all morning. Lots of work happened on Monday and Tuesday, I saw my friends Ellie and Kalina, Victoria and I had dinner and sang along to The Sound of Music on the way home, I set aside time to focus on studying and finished 4 assignments and spent all morning at the dentist yesterday. Ok, now I catch my breath. How did all that happen in just a week?

Everyone has a different metric to measure their success in life, but for me, I measure success by variety and depth. I want to live life to the fullest. To love, work, sing, dance, read and lay down and think. To know and be known fully and deeply. All of it.

This past week and maybe month also held a lot of space for future planning and dreaming! It’s so fun to be in this intersection of life where you can turn whichever way you want and still be early enough. I’m not blind to the fact that this freedom to choose is short lived and fully aware that these decisions will have a large impact on the rest of my life. However, I do feel privileged to be in the place of considering each of them.

This past weekend, I made my way back to the East coast to spend July 4 with some friends and stay with a family I love so dearly… the Ruffins! If you read my third blog, you know who they are! The Ruffins bought a new house, so we spent the whole weekend celebrating and walking through the amazing spacious house they now call their own. I spent the day helping pack for the upcoming mission trip to Ethiopia my church is departing on Sunday, and making meals whenever I could. Packing and cooking. Just my favorite two things to do 🙂 (I’m serious, not sarcastic.)

I also am reading my favorite series, The Inheritance Cycle, again! I totally stayed up until 1am reading that last night. It is such a fun series, and reading it in the summer on a holiday trip makes it even better.

— fast forwarding a tiny bit —

On Sunday, I went to my church in Virginia and had lunch with a couple who have really become my spiritual grandparents since I moved there, Tom and Ginnie Hayes, along with all my fellow AWANA volunteers! And then I had a sweet dinner with my friend Blair. On Monday, I worked from home in the morning and Ms. Diane Carnahan picked me up for lunch and brought me to the airport. I got very blessed again and got on the plane because 5 people on the standby list did not show up. It’s definitely a little nerve wrecking, the life of getting on planes last minute after everybody else just 15 minutes before take-off.

It’s Wednesday today and my week of work is going normal again! Last night included calling my mom and grandma, shopping for an AC Compressor on eBay, and reading before bed. This weekend, because of my mom’s insistence and also sponsorship, my brother and I are going to Disneyland!

A family whose girls went to my youth group moved to Oahu recently… so I might go to Hawaii and explore the island for a day! Totally up in the air, but now that they have a car, it sounds a lot more possible than earlier in the summer 🙂

I’m happy and content planning little adventures (aka booking standby flights) and working a computer job from my desk in the bunker, surrounded by string lights and a little honey lavender latte I picked up on the way to work. I am treasuring having a simple, happy life this summer, being loved and loving people as best as I can. Nothing fancy or impressive, just being grateful for the day to day and experiencing the daily extraordinary.

I don’t have a lot right now, but having little has truly allowed me to be free with my traveling this summer and thus I’m grateful for the season of having less. In fact, it took a while to downsize and get to this point of being able to fit my whole life into a car and travel with a little carryon every weekend.

Thankful for all my friends and families who open their hearts and their homes this summer, and all the seasons, to me.

Just a little happy post today, to celebrate our 10th time talking on this blog, that’s it! I hope you have a wonderful day, and I encourage you to plan a little fun adventure and make happy memories!

Love,

Tram