Life Through the iPhone

And just like that, half of June has gone by. It's now officially summer in Ireland and judging by the way the sun has been warming (and burning) us the past couple of days, I think we are in for another hot and lemony summer.  R has been nudging me to go out all day but this morning, I felt this aching need to string photos together, to memory-keep, to write my heart out because no matter how seemingly mundane my days and my activities are these days, I can't let this special month pass by without recording it. I'm staying put till I finish this post.

Life lately has been about new hobbies, summer reads, walk in the park, unanswered prayers and the need to be patient and lean on to God's timing and understanding.

These days too, I depend heavily on iPhone to capture random little things that make up the big picture. And if iPhone snaps are indication of life, this pretty much sumps up how the days of June rolled by:

Here are some more details:

1. CALLIGRAPHY-ing WORDS I HOLD ON TO

I love how Ecclesiastes 3 never fails to remind me of two things: there's a season for everything and  everything has been made beautiful in His time. It's been a struggle for me to hold on to this verse to be honest because waiting has taken far longer than I expected and everything I have prayed for is in a state of blur. But you know what? It's been a humbling experience so far. I've been learning that it's not all about me---my career, my bank account, my ambitions. It should be about God's grand master plan for my life. It should be about Him, really. If serving longer time in the waiting department is the only way God can get through me so He can break every pride that's carefully hiding in the crevices of my heart, so He can replace my worldly dreams with God-given dreams, so He can use my talents and extra time for His glory, so He can free me up of bad habits, so be it. I will wait for as long as God wants me to trusting that when His appointed time comes, it will be beautiful, it will be perfect, it will be the best.

Are you waiting too? Take heart and have hope. Remember He makes all things beautiful... in His time.

2. THIS BEAUTIFUL WALL ART

With equally beautiful words, this is Instagram and Blog-worthy.

3. CHARMED BY THIS BEAUTIES

I am, as always, charmed whenever I see these hanging baskets overflowing with flowers that I believe to be called petunias and surfinias scattered all over the city on summer time.

4. COUNTY NO. 7

We've ticked off our 7th county thus far---Carlow, Ireland. This is an outtake from our road trip. Have I told you we dream of setting foot to all 32 counties of Ireland? It will take years but hey, we'll get there, one county at a time!

5. WORDS OF PRAISE AND PRAYER

I have been encouraged by a lot of women I look up to the past couple of weeks. The encouragements came in different forms---a church-mate praying with me and sharing me her own testimony, a friend hugging me and asking how I've been, and leaders handing me out these little notes of praise and prayers. I feel loved and thought of and blessed really, just by their presence in my life.

6. GO OUTSIDE

Lastly, we've had random walks and mini picnics on weekends but the park a few steps from our house has been the easiest and the frequent target. Last Sunday, we were amazed by this burst of yellow and decided to lay our picnic blanket down to enjoy a fruit snack and a book of our own choice. Someone randomly decided to roll down a slope and we had one heck of a belly laugh. Ah this husband of mine, not many know how funny he can be.

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How's your summer so far? Hope it's been awesome as it has been with ours. :)