simply homemaker

Dear friends,

September 1 is creeping up so quickly. During my summer job at the airline, there was a term I learned called “creeping delays.” It’s when the plane was supposed to leave 5 minutes ago but it hasn’t so the operations center puts a 5-minute delay on the flight to signal that to everyone else. You can just picture the flight inching down the line 5 minutes at a time until it takes off, and you’re sitting there wondering what we are going to do for the time being. That’s how I feel right now. Every day goes by so fast, and I begin each of them asking the Lord to help me make the most out of the time. This past week, after taking Blair to the airport, mama Julie and I launched straight into packing and getting the bags ready to be taken to Ethiopia. There was lots of lifting and weighing, organizing closets, and lunches in the office. But there was also reading with a kitten on my lap in the evening, coming over to help with Julie’s grandbabies during the day, and just driving around town running errands to get the trip ready. There was also writing and emailing and more writing and more emailing to work on a major project that has been on my heart all summer long. So, yes, I’ve been busy, but I have also been not.

Being 25 has brought me to a place of seeing more reality, which has really been helping me make decisions in life, even the microscopic ones. Like not buying the coffee that I want to buy because I can make it myself, or cancelling all my unnecessary subscriptions, or building little things for the future one little block at a time. They have all been things I’ve had to learn and unlearn and being this age makes them all “click.” The most important thing I’ve been able to learn is probably the heart of acceptance for the place that I am at, that the thing I am doing is the thing the Lord has for me, and the life of glorifying Him is one decision at a time. Peace comes from this place, as one picks up the cross each day and follow Him in unseen moments.

Something that has also been impressed on my heart this year has been the importance of doing that is right, not necessarily the thing that is convenient. For example, being off social media is really hard, but it’s worth it. Someone reached out to me via text asking me to come to dinner because she did not respond to my last message on social media. If someone really wants to connect with you, they will find a way, right? I’ve been trying so hard to get ahold of my grandmother online, but it’s been hard, and my mom has been asking me to just get a fake account. But, again, I don’t want to be back on it, and so I’d have to find my way around and make it work for myself even though to other people it makes communications so difficult.

I think it’s important we do things the old way again. Like writing down all the ingredients for a recipe and going to the store to get them. Or learning how to treat pots and pans and not putting everything in the dishwasher. Like sitting down and really reading through a document and taking notes so that we learn something. Like communicating intentions and sticking with them. These are important things, they feel obsolete, but they are so much better.

This past week it has been a fun time to pack all the school supplies for our children in Ethiopia into bags and bags and bags, and to make sure all the school curriculum gets to Addis Ababa for school to start this Fall. Most of my week involves shifting things around bags and writing down the weights of each bag and what they each holds. It’s also been texting friends and making sure I see them before I leave town, until who knows when. I can’t believe my three-month-summer in Fort Worth is coming to an end, and now I have to say “see you again” to my friends. It felt like summer was never going to end at one point! I’ll miss the quiet evenings reading through books, preparing to travel spontaneously on the weekends, spending such quality time with so many of my friends, having conversations during dinner with Julie and Ken, and just being a part of their tribe. It’s been incredibly sweet.

Next time when you see another blog, I would be writing from Switzerland. My bags are packed, but I need to begin packing my car to send my things back to Virginia. Lord willing, the Ruffins will be visiting next week to tour TCU (eek!) and I will get to see them in person before I leave for 4 months. And the best part is that they’ll help drive my car back to Virginia and the twins can use it. Who would have thought I would be organizing these kinds of details? How am I even old enough?

Life in Switzerland is also slowly taking shape. I have a church, I have a Bible study, I have a study plan for when I get there, and I know where the closest grocery store is. I also live only 10 minutes from my school and super close to the train station, so that’s very nice. I know what I’m doing at the beginning of my trip and at the end. I even have the syllabi for my classes. The only thing I’m not really sure of yet is what I am going to eat. Right now, the menu sounds like bread, cheese, milk, eggs, salad, and once a week making a Swiss traditional dish. I also have friends who have lived in Switzerland that I’d text when I get there just to ask them what the best things their grocery stores have. You know, essentials.

I’m 25 and pursuing consistency. It is such a different place to be than everyone else, but I can’t tell you how excited I am to build upon the routine I have here in the States when I get to Switzerland. Yes, I’ll be waking up in a different country, but I’ll still eat eggs for breakfast and still opens the Bible app as I’m standing at the sink brushing my teeth. I’ll still be reading books before bed, and I’ll still be taking Sabbath on Saturdays.

This summer, I also got to be in the same town where I used to go to college, Fort Worth. I’m writing this paragraph right now in Smith Hall, where I spent four years of my life going to business school, taking the majority classes and having so many memories. In this building I took most of my Neeley Fellows classes (a business honors program I was a part of for 3 years), business core classes, and made so many friends. In this lobby Victoria asked me to go home with her for Christmas and that was when we became best friends! As I was walking from Dutch’s, TCU’s famous burger spot, to Smith Hall, I walked across campus and was just in awe that the Lord met me in this pretty place and gave me a sweet summer of being here again. When I was in college, this place felt so big and was in some ways my entire world. Everyone I knew was here and my life revolved around what I was doing on campus and the opportunities I was constantly pursuing. Who would have thought that I would move to Virginia, and take Greek in seminary, and enroll in an MBA, and study abroad in Switzerland? Who would have thought I would come back? It is just so crazy and I’m so grateful the Lord was in it all.

Recently, I have been having coffee and meals with many friends who have been so excited I am going an adventure. I am indeed so grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity to travel and see one of the most beautiful countries in the world. But I think it’s so important to remind myself that the adventure also includes the moments where things are not picture perfect and those moments are no less important. Like going to the airport and having to go home 5 different times this summer, like sleeping for 10 hours at the JFK airport on the way home from Vietnam, like driving a car without AC all summer, those details. I think it’s important to include those in the memories, because they shape me into who I am – humbled and experienced and humored, which I would much prefer over a version of myself just having things handed to me on a silver platter and not having to try so hard to get anything and be disappointed once in a while. Because it is in those moments I learn only Jesus is the answer to every question and every need. Not things going my way or looking the way I want to – but things going in such the way that my heart is more aligned with His and I am at peace with my Creator.

Another fun update is that with the help of my two cousins, I got FaceTime to work on my grandma’s phone! So we just got to call on the phone and it was so sweet. As expected, when I called home grandma told me it’s finally time to find a job and get settled down. Part of me knows it’s a really good idea and part of me truly wonders if that is the best thing right now for me – another corporate job in another cubicle? Even at one of the best companies, it took decorating my cubicle to the max (I was known as “the girl with the string lights”) and getting a latte almost every single day for me to last the 9-5 hour day at work. If anything, being at home and baking and cooking and making home all day brings me so much more joy and fulfillment, even though it can be very exhausting sometimes. It’s hard to explain that to those who have invested so much in your education and career. Does anyone relate to this? Am I alone? Life seems so confusing when you have so many options in front of you.

Well, if anything, today I learned that the Lord told His people to wait for Him at least 116 times in the Bible. If anything was going to encourage me that waiting is a good idea, it’s that.

So, let’s learn to wait well in this season. Invest in your family and your friends. Learn new skills and continue to do things that bring you joy (for me it is simply making places a little more homely wherever I am). Read all the books and learn all the things you want to learn. Move your body (RIP if you are in Texas, I’m so sorry) and eat good food. Life can be meaningful in the middle places too!

Okay, next time you hear from me, it’ll be from Switzerland! So much goes on before then – I truly can’t wait to go on this adventure. Thank you so much for being a part of it! Now time for bed until the last church day of the summer!

Love,

Tram