simply homemaker

Dear readers,

The internship is over! The experience truly felt so fast. I still remember going on my first trips to Pensacola and to California to visit my brother and attend a wedding. On my last day, my team got kolaches and I got a really nice card from everyone. I also got a Day Off 🙂

Working for SWA has been a great experience. The company holds many values that I also hold (warrior spirit, servant heart, fun-loving attitude), while I am fully aware it is neither a perfect company nor a Christian one. However, the Lord calls His believers to all the nations and all corners of the earth. My hope is that the Lord would use my time there as He sees fit.

I’ve been reading a lot about God’s love recently, and how the Holy Spirit is the only means through which we can display both God’s love and holiness at the same time. In our own strength, we will only be able to display one of these two things, and Francis Schaeffer says, “the failure to show forth either of these is equally a perversion.” Truth and love must go hand in hand. It is challenging, but it is worth it to live both in opposition to evil and also for neighborly love.

This summer I’ve also learned a lot about myself and areas of growth that still need to happen. I have had hard moments and really fun days. I’ve read stacks of books and given up on social media. I’ve taken my brother to Disneyland, ridden a bus around Oahu, and biked across Golden Gate Bridge. I’ve made lasagna and had meals with friends and played Rummikub with grandma Betty.

Today, after church, mama Julie and I went to help Baetti move. Baetti is a rising sophomore at TCU, my alma mater, and she is living in the same door I was an RA at this year! It was so fun to put up her curtain and make her bed and go with her to Target. I feel incredibly grateful for the chance to love on her as a friend, especially in a time where her host family could not help and her biological family is in a different country. I certainly have been there.

I also have been reading These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I just think it is incredibly sweet to read about a time where life was both so hard and yet so simple and beautiful. It surely does show me that in hard work there can be much joy, friendship, and enjoyment of life. In a world where everyone wants to know everyone and everything, you do not have to. If this past year has taught me anything, it is the “joy of missing out.” Getting things off my list has been a sure and steady process. Today, I removed my Apple Music and Podcasts apps! This past year I have consumed these apps at an incredible rate, listening to hundreds of songs and podcasts. I hope to take a break and have time to just be before taking in more input.

One of the sweetest parts of this summer has been my friendships. They have deepened, despite all the craziness. I’ve learned so, so much about walking with friends as an adult in the past year. It also was the first year I really felt like an adult. It’s so different and so worth it, because what is better than showing up for people who you know would show up for you?

I’ve been working on a lot of things. My books. Packing my room into bags and boxes and suitcases. Getting my things ready for Switzerland. reading and talking more about design thinking, and so on. More to come on this!

I think this is part of the homemaking journey. The days go by so fast. You can be doing the same thing for six hours or do 6 different things in the same hour. Relationships and friendships fill your days, and the days always feel sweet because of that.

A short and quick update, but I’m falling asleep here after a full day of moving in the sun! See everyone again soon!

Love,

Tram