thanksgiving

Super blessed to hang out with these kids last week, during a quick but totally-worth-it trip to Charlotte, NC.

Last week.  Was that just a week ago?  Because it feels like a solid month.  I miss them already.  Thank goodness for Snapchat - the Snapchats are priceless.  I really can't believe it's only been a week since that day - when we were still in Thanksgiving food coma and exploring UNCC's campus and roaming IKEA.  That was a good, simple day.  Totally different than how my next 14 days are looking...  

Not sure if these next two weeks are going to be the longest ever or fly by.  There are moments of gold, and there are flashes of light - wait, no, totally kidding.  (I have had Celine in my head for a couple of days though!)  There are moments, sure, when the fear starts to creep in and tries to take over.  But there are many, many more moments where I am so incredibly calm, it surprises me.  Totally throws me off, actually.  I'm not supposed to be calm, I'm a 1L.  I'm supposed to be panicking, right?  Too often we forget...nowhere is that written.

Nowhere does it say we should give in to fear.  Nowhere does it say that we should prepare to fail.  Nowhere does it say that we should just try harder, and pull it off from our own strength.  Everywhere it says the opposite.

Do not fear.  Take heart.  Peace be with you.  I have overcome.  I have overcome.

There is nothing to fear.  

That is why we give thanks.  That is why Thanksgiving is every day.  Not only the day(s) that I got to hang with my cousins, eat, sleep, watch football and Duck Dynasty, and laugh together.  But also today, when I get to sit here and work on negligence hypos and my Civ Pro outline.  And also, believe it or not, next Tuesday, when I have the first of four 4-hour exams, all of which play a fairly substantial role in how the rest of law school, and potentially the rest of forever, starts to shape up.

Hear me again.  Better, hear Him again.  There is nothing to fear.  Only thanks, always.  And that, friends, is about as good as it gets.

la familia

Choosing Ole Miss was by far one of the best decisions I have made and will ever make in my life, but as far as family time is concerned, it had some disadvantages.  All of our family on Dad's side is in New Jersey, and Mom's family is in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Chicago, with random second cousins and great aunts on both sides scattered through Ohio.  It's hard for us to see each other as much as we would like, and with me spending the last 4 years in Oxford, I missed out on some family reunions here and there.  To be honest, it was getting a little out of control - I hadn't seen my cousins on Mom's side for YEARS.  But we made up for it this weekend when Aunt Laura, Uncle Eric, Kayla and Corbin all came to visit Wilmore.

Kayla just finished her freshman year at UNC Charlotte, and Corbin will be a high school sophomore this fall.  They are awesome, and we soaked up the time together with late night chats, spontaneous drives, storytelling, and YouTube video watching. 

No matter that I was at Ole Miss and Kayla's at UNCC.  Laura's at the Bury now and Corbin still has a couple years to decide.  Whether we are personally Asburians or not, we gotta pay tribute to the family heritage.

So thankful for time with these two.

The only problem with the quality bonding time is that now it will make me miss them even more than before!  But we're working on another reunion as quickly as possible - maybe at Passion this winter, or time in Maine, or a random meet-halfway-road-trip.  We'll figure it out somehow.  In the meantime, I am thankful for the time we had together to catch up, encourage each other spiritually, laugh hysterically, and simply be.

three more days

Pieces of my heart are scattered around the country/world. The Oxford piece of my heart has been living and loving full force lately, but now that Thanksgiving break is only 3 days away, the Kentucky piece is calling.

I'm ready to be here

with them

Almost there. Only one night of Wesley, one Muffin Club, one Spanish test, one trip to the tire store, one football game, and maybe a few mini-adventures with friends to go before I'm on the road to the Bluegrass State. It is time.

land of cotton

I got a much needed reunion with my sister this weekend and used it as an opportunity to catch up on all things Oxford. Such as:

Bottletree
Rowan Oak
Shopping on the Square
Eli Manning in Square Books
Playing in a cotton field
Ajax for dinner
Ole Miss football game + Grove

Can a day get much more Mississippi than this?

Look away, look away, look away, Dixieland.

a day in the life

6:00 – wake up to bright sun, roll over and fall back asleep

8:00 – wake up, for real this time

8:23 – eat strawberry yogurt and a cinnamon raisin bagel

8:37 – begin kayaking

9:45 – return to house, eat breakfast for the second time

10:41 – begin laying out on the dock and reading

12:08 – go inside and grab lunch to take it back to the dock

2:10 – go for a swim

2:21 – decide the water is too cold for casual swimming

2:22 – continue laying out and reading

4:45 – take a nap on the hammock

5:57 – eat dinner on the picnic table

7:12 – wander around with cell phone trying to get service and 3G for internet

8:19 – go kayaking with Laura, take pictures of sunset

9:30 – sit at fire and roast s’mores

10:44 – grab sweatshirt and flashlight and stargaze from the dock

11:37 – get in bed, read a section of Psalm 119, drift to sleep, prepare to do the same thing all over again the next day

Day in and day out, this is pretty much how life at Songo Pond goes. Of course, all kinds of places and things to do are right around the corner…hiking trails, outlet malls, rivers, quaint New England towns, etc. We have plenty of other adventures, but more about them another time. Because when the weather is nice, I find myself more than content to simply stay.

In this house

With this view

Let's be real. Could you ever bring yourself to leave?

sbxi: scotland cay

When I was in third grade I was furious that I was a girl, because I wanted more than anything to be Jim from Treasure Island. He had all the good adventures in all of the good, exotic places. Thanks to my family and the Reed family, I finally got to experience some of my own tropical adventures this past week in the Bahamas. Here's an account of the week, complete with pictures.

Flew to Treasure Cay, then Scotland Cay. See this out the window the whole way.
Stayed here.
Fished for these.
Searched the beach for sea glass here.
Snorkeled with these people in a ridiculously cool coral reef.
Played with these in a lagoon.
Played on these in a lagoon.
Was amazed by how blue this water is.
Spent some quality time with these people.
I think I could get used to the island life...

october.

October is my favorite month, and with only forty-six minutes left of it, it's time to say why.

I put this off because I cannot accurately express it. Unless you've been where I've been and walked in my shoes, you can't quite understand. But some of you will somewhat understand, and others of you simply deserve an explanation for why I act especially ridiculous during this particular month every year. All I know to do is to tell you what October is, to me. Maybe that will shed light on the situation.

October is:

family traveling in from out of town
brand new journals
cleaning the house
Chamberlin Holiness Lectures
motor homes
long-sleeve shirts
Votivo red currant candles
cream puffs that are still slightly frozen
football
fresh air
leaves that start to fall in the wind
apples
Christopher Columbus
black cats
street lights that, without fail, always flicker out

October is assorted fall candy in leaf and pumpkin-shaped dishes spread throughout the Smith house. More, October is searching all of those dishes for a Reese's cup and finding that there are no Reese's cups left; instead, there are bunches of candy wrappers left in the Reese's cup's place.

October is finally getting settled. September is chaotic because you're still trying to figure out school and how to balance everything. By October, you've gotten the balance and are ready to soak up the fun.

October is when things happen. You think I'm making this up, but the craziest things, the best things, the most unusual things all always happen during this month. Maybe it's a Halloween thing? Maybe it's in my head. Maybe it's just a bit of fall magic.

Essentially, it all traces back to October 1998 and Dad's inauguration as WBS President. That month was chaos, but I remember it so well for only being in the third grade. That month kicked off all of the crazy adventures that have happened, consistently, every October since.

This October has been a blur, but, like all other Octobers, it's been great. I'm excited about a new month starting tomorrow - or, I guess, in twenty-four minutes now. I just had to acknowledge my obsession with these past thirty-one days first.

it's been a while. (part 2)

More pictures from the last three weeks. I'm glad to see my Mississippi friends again but, oh, how I miss these places and these people...


Of course, pictures and words aren't really enough to sum up all of the randomness, which - at bare minimum - involved long walks and talks with the cousins, Jersey corn, Wawa, tents, beach tags, Maplewood, midnight diner trips, Boost, midnight Italian sub marathons, and reunioning with some of our best family friends. People headed to the mission field, people temporarily back from the mission field, other preachers' kids, Laura's and my adopted big brothers and sisters, and countless other people we have literally known for as long as I can remember.

I love Mississippi with all my heart, but it's so good - and so necessary - to remember where I come from.