2014 - Transitions

If I had to use one word to describe 2014, it would be Transition.

Some of our transitions were easy and joy filled and  relatively seamless. Some were hard and painful and made us cry.

In them all, we felt the steady hand of our God and we leaned hard into the hope of verses like Isaiah 43:2a.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

One way God used to remind me of this truth in 2014 was in the beauty of the sunsets. As I looked over the pictures we took these past 12 months, I was struck by the number of sunsets I had taken. I don't know if you can have a good year for sunsets or not, but I certainly had a good year for taking pictures of them. Seeing the beauty and majesty of a sky on fire reminds you of eternal truths and an eternal being waaay bigger than you. And this One who paints the sunsets loves, is in control, and can be trusted. His goodness in giving us a book, The Bible, to hold in our hands, to read, and to remind us of all He is and all He said blows me away sometimes.

While we were seeing stunning views like this over Bolivar at the beginning of 2014, our Faith was seeing stunning vistas over the Mediterranean and ministering to people in the Middle East. 

She loved her time with the ministry YWAM, and was there through February. Since then, she's transitioned back to Bolivar  - still ministering, working, and singing. She's now going to Southwest Baptist University, where she studies Biology and is a jumper on the track team. 

Faith was here to enjoy her sister's senior year basketball swan song. Elizabeth finished strong but we all had to encourage her to be a little more vocal and aggressive. (wink, wink)

In March, my midwest men (Lou and David) headed to California to spend a week with our Luke, who has transitioned to life on the West Coast. They hiked and ate, toured and ate, drove and ate, and ate some more. Definitely good male bonding time.

All were awed by the Redwoods

Spring in Bolivar wasn't quite as warm as spring in Cali, but warm or not, Elizabeth played her favorite sport, soccer. And I flipped out when she did her signature flip throw, a highly effective offensive weapon. So much fun to watch.

Soccer was actually a 2 for 1 sport for us. Our freshman, Mary Grace, played right alongside her senior sister.

#23 and #17 ---> my favorites

Senior Night

In between soccer games, we made time to get served by our favorite waitress. 

Glad she carried food trays up and down these steps and not me!

True confession time: Having a child who's worked in food service has made me a better tipper.  

At Easter, Lou's sister, Dona, was smiling beautifully in our Easter dinner pic. Our family enjoyed her sweet self for a chunk of 2014. We prayed God's blessing over her as she (and her cat, Bobwinky) moved on and down to Dallas at the end of July. Her living with us was a gift to our family. 

Clockwise from my 88 year old Mom: Elizabeth, Faith, Lou, Alex, Hannah, Mary Grace, and Dona

Me and my girls on Easter

May brought Mother's Day and Graduation and all the happiness that surrounds those days. 

Mom and 5 of my kids

David, Me, Faith, Elizabeth, Hannah, Mary Grace, Lou, and Alex

The transition from a busy school year to the warm, slightly slower days of summer is always welcome. 

The only thing unwelcome is that sometimes the college student who just came home from school leaves again for his "job."

David spent his summer as a counselor -  playing sports and encouraging young men at Kanakuk Kamp. His time at kamp was a nice break from accounting classes!

Summer also meant lots and lots of hammocking with friends. I wish this had been a thing when I was young. So cool.

Summer also brought July, and July meant we packed up Hannah and Alex's cute little Springfield cottage and moved their stuff to an equally cute (and significantly smaller) garage apartment in Tulsa, OK. It is so OK that they are there, but we miss spur of the moment,  "Hey, we're in Springfield! Want to get together?"  

One last pic in front of the house on Fremont

Mary Grace and Hannah saying good-bye after we moved them to Tulsa.
People mistake these two for each other.

Hannah and Alex have affectionately coined their garage apartment the "treehouse."

Alex is inspiring 4th graders at Chouteau Elementary through Teach for America and Hannah is learning all about the business side of construction at Stava Building Corporation. They live near downtown and are completely adorable.

July also brought a more permanent good-bye. My mom, Violet Marea Petty Vaughan, died on July 13, 2014. I wrote about it here. She has made the final transition to heaven, which means we are transitioning to life without her. Because she lived with us for a couple of years, she had become a part of our daily life - of who we are as a family. How thankful I am that my children really knew their Grandmother and had the opportunity to help care for her. In that same vein, enough cannot be said about the kindness of my Lou to her. He loved her well.

And, she taught him how to make her awesome pound cake! 

Mom loved me well and I'm glad God put us together on this earth.

Mother's Day 2014
She was still beautiful at 88 years old!

When the family was all in for Mom's funeral, the Harris boys joined their dad in his favorite pastime. I love pictures of my three favorite men.

Luke, Lou, David

My siblings were also here for the funeral. How glad I am for this one picture we took that day.

Keith, Hugh Jr, Andy
Kathy and me

We didn't know it at the time, but it would be the last picture of all 5 of us. My oldest brother, Hugh Wynn Vaughan, Jr., died on August 6 - a few short weeks after my mom. One friend wrote, "Grief has followed grief for you right now. We will pray for you and for all who loved your brother." 

We felt those prayers. God was faithful in those deep, dark waters.

Summer ended with 3 of us participating in their first triathlon.

I was not one of the 3;). I made a great fan, though, and we loved the atmosphere and heart of such a physically challenging event.

David tackled it as an individual, and Lou and Faith snagged our friend, and D1 swimmer, Emma, to compete as Team Elf. (Emma - swim, Lou - bike, Faith - run). They all did us proud.

Fall came, and so did the mass exodus.

David and Elizabeth headed to Fayetteville to call the Hogs and study a little.

Faith moved her stuff into the dorm at SBU.

Now the only ones who made noise around here on a daily basis were me, Lou, and Mary Grace. Mostly Mary Grace. She and I were actually pretty chummy until that fateful day at the end of September, when the state of Missouri awarded her that most coveted of all official documents - her driver's license.

Everybody has driven their Papa Hugh's 1987 Dodge Dakota.

In between driving all the places a sophomore in high school needs to go, Mary Grace managed to hit the tennis ball around.

And her Dad enjoyed watching her (me too:)

Our Cali kid is still auditioning and writing and working in LA. We are always glad to FaceTime or message that boy. Did you know California is a really long way away?

We were super glad he was home for the holidays.

Everybody was home for the holidays, so the noise was back...and welcome. It's a good thing to really like your adult children. They are all so different...and interesting. They make me think. They make me pray. They make me smile.

We are far from perfect and have our tense moments just like every family, but we have good, deep history - and that is a good, deep gift from God.

Thanks for scrolling through. As we all transition from 2014 to 2015, know that the Harrises send an old Irish blessing your way.

Sampler my Mom made

God's blessings to you and yours.

Sunday Review

On Friday, the girl at the deli counter probably gave me a funny look.

While she was slicing my mesquite turkey, I was checking Instagram. I follow a comedian named John Crist, and one of his pictures made me laugh out loud. I immediately looked around - not because I was wondering who saw me laughing - but because I wanted to see somebody I knew so I could show them why I was laughing.

I wanted to share it.

I like how good things are not diminished when we share them. They are multiplied. (Conversely, hard things - sad things - are not multiplied when we share them. They are eased, but I'll save that discussion for another post).

Sharing some of my good things (hoping that in sharing mine, you'll think back on your week and remember yours) is one of the reasons I blog. My weeks certainly aren't all smiles and roses, and I share that part of my life here, too. But I rarely need help remembering what's hard about my life. That usually screams pretty loud and clear. Because it's so loud, it can drown out the melody of all that has brought me joy during a week. I'm typically surprised when I look back over my pictures on my cell phone at a week's end. I see a snapshot and go, "Oh yes! That was this week! That was fun...or good, delightful, hilarious, nice, happy, etc..."

And delightful is the word I'd use to describe our night at Morsel's Java Jam Celebration. Unlimited desserts and good music? Uhmmm... yes, please.

Grace and Mary Grace - lifelong friends enjoying the festivities

Issak and Faith were part of the musical entertainment

This chalkboard is near the java area in our house, and I caught myself glancing at it more these past few days.

I first read this quote on my niece, Angela's,  Instagram - it was one of her "take-aways" from her week at family camp.  It spoke to me, so I had my Elizabeth work a little chalk magic before she left for school in Fayetteville. Looking at it actually served two purposes. It reminded me of good truth and my good, off-at-college Elizabeth, who we kind of, really miss - a lot and a bunch.

As I write this post on an 83 degree Sunday afternoon at the end of October, it's hard to believe we've had cool enough weather for this:

Actually, I think it was only in the low 60's when we did this, but our Mary Grace pleaded for it, and we caved to the begging of the baby of the family like all parents tend to do.

This week also brought some much needed cleaning out of some cracks and crevices. I found a couple of treasures.

First, this school picture of David.

Poor, adorable guy.

I'm glad he grew into those teeth:)

Second, I found the invitation to an Open House my parents had when they built their new house back in 1969. I don't remember seeing this before, and I really liked the peek-a-boo action they employed on the invite.

"WynRea" (pronounced Win Ray), was the name of our home and land in Munford, TN.  I always thought how they came up with the name and how they decided to write it was so clever. Dad's full name was Hugh Wynn Vaughan. Mom's full name was Violet Marea Petty. They took the first three letters of Dad's middle name, and the last three letters of Mom's middle name and combined them.

WynRea

When my man and I built our house, I tried to do just the same with our names.

Louis Blan Harris

Shelley Marea Vaughan

"BlaRea" 

"Blah Ray,"    "Blay Ray,"    "Blah Ree ah,"    "Blah Ray,"    "Blay Ree"

Oh, dear. No matter how we accented and pronounced that syllable combination, it just did not work. Like, seriously, did not work. So, we say something that is not original, but more pleasing to the ears. We call our home and land, "Home."

Ignore the scribbled "Z" at the top

A couple of other treasures were shown to me by my cousin, who my sister and I enjoyed visiting this month. She showed us this quilt block my grandmother had made and signed.

And she gave us these pictures of my mother which I'd never seen before. Treasures, indeed.

One of her engagement poses

Mom, her brother, Elvis, and sister, Ruth

A week is always better when I get to take walks with my favorite guy. We were on the tail end of a 5 mile loop when he graciously agreed to sit down on the sidewalk to get just the angle I wanted for this picture.

I like this picture of us

We also sat down at a really fun wedding that showcased a couple of ideas I had not seen before. The guestbook consisted of a bench and a Bible!

I underlined Romans 8:38-39, which is the reference we had engraved on the inside of Lou's wedding ring.

Speaking of rings, do they give those out to the winners of The World Series? Can you tell who I'm rooting for?

And, speaking of the end,  I can think of no better way to do that than with some pictures of the fall beauty we've been enjoying here. It has been breathtaking and stunning and I'm grateful for eyes to see it.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Many blessings to you as you begin a new week!