Summer Sometimes

It seems to be another one of those summers where I'm forever jumping in and out of my car and driving a couple hours to my next weekend adventure. Weddings, summer visits, family barn renovation, sailing, cleaning... it's a full one. 

I'm just thankful that my weekdays are just as my packed as my weekends. If that weren't the case, I'd be spending my evenings wishing the hours away to the next weekend and next big adventure. 

Although, my weekends, lately, have been spent sweating and getting covered in dirt, dust, and bird droppings whilst helping my sweet parents re-do a barn for the TWO sibling weddings this October. 

Good timing, actually. I'm getting a new brother AND a new sister. So the Kohl children will now be an even dozen. :) :) (They're cheaper by the dozen anyhow) :) :)

Speaking of us Kohl children, I think this summer is setting the record for best communication. We're all a little more scattered than we've ever been, spread into 5 states and 7 cities, our in-persons with each other have to be way more intentional and our phone conversations are more often. I love it. Absolutely. 

For those of you who have asked after the state of my heart, having been following the broken valley and the slow-incline out of it, I'm in a place of joy. A place where being intentional in my pursuit of the Lord is challenging and important and rewarding. Not to say that being intentional with the Lord is ever NOT important or rewarding or ever easy either. It is what it should be, but I'm really fighting for it. 

I'm studying 1 John with my Bible study, 1 Thessalonians in my one-on-one discipleship meetups, and the book of James with the hope of memorizing it as well as cross referencing my studies into my study of the book of Romans. My plate is full. 

On top of that, I'm trying to keep my schedule steadily full of investing in relationships one-on-one with Bible study friends and making my weekly rounds of phone chats with cousins and siblings across the U.S. and SOMETIMES go to bed by 11pm. 

Work continues to go very well. It has its waves of complete chaos and overload and feeling too exhausting to process and issue any more contracts and sometimes it has a lull and moments of utter calmness. 

Right now we're in a calm part and I don't mind it at all.

Since there has been FAR TOO much to truly put into words, I'll just include some pictures and hopefully that will suffice for now. 

For as much as I love a spontaneous, un-planned adventure, I always have a list of adventures I want to do. My sweet friend Anne and I attempted to hammock over night in the woods a year ago.. we crawled into our hammock at 2:30 in the morning and it immediately started drizzling.. and then steadily raining. We didn't have a rain-proof tarp or anything and ended up seeking shelter in our friends' parent's garage at 4am. We didn't count it as a true camp-out on account we only lasted 2 hours.
It was on our list for this summer to ACTUALLY spend a whole night outside in a hammock like true adventurers do on a regular basis.

A week before our friend, Amanda's wedding, Anne accepted a job in FL which left us with THE ONLY option of camping out after the wedding reception. I thought long and hard about all the safest sets of trees for two females to sleep in over night in Des Moines.. and it turns out, the perfect place was RIGHT in front of me. The wedding reception was at a camp ground owned by our church.

SO!! After the wedding reception was all picked up, we dropped our exhausted  and danced out wedding-feet-that-had-spent-too-many-hours-in-heals into my swimming pool for a little bit and then threw on our PJs. At good ol' 12am, we returned to the reception site and began our hunt for the perfect set of trees for our overnight adventure.
We didn't find any perfect trees. BUT! We did find an old abandoned tank-lookin' Noah's Ark parked on a basketball court and managed to string ourselves between the ark and a basket-ball hoop pole.
It was glorious! Apart from the fact that I failed to think I'd need a blanket and almost froze to death at 3am and curled up in my hammock praying the sun would hurry up and rise and start warming things up again. But it was wonderful and we were so excited to have successfully hammocked overnight.

Here is a picture of my coffee mug and a list of places to hit at some way-too-early-for-a-saturday-morning time of the morning.
Garage sale'ing with my mom is a highlight every year and I've been able to expand my professional wardrobe with out destroying my grocery budget. 

Here's another one ^^^ This barn. The White Barn as it has been called for as long as I can remember. Built at the turn of the century (around 1918 I think) as a milking parlor for a small dairy, it was a staple of my childhood. In case you missed it, 2 of my siblings are getting married come October and both are planning epic dance party receptions in this, our old dairy barn. (That we used for sheep WAY back in the day and only a little bit for our baby cows). The barn reno project has been one of the largest endeavors we've taken on since Dad built the other half of our house. (Which isn't technically even done, But I aint judgin'.) 

It's a fun project, and we love seeing how the Lord blesses us with other people who show up to help.
(BTW, We'll take all the help we can get between now and then) 

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With numbers being low at work, our Friday games (we play every Friday) have allowed for longer game times. One of our FAVORITE games is called Molkky . It's super fun, and also like $50 because it's a European game you gotta order online. So, my sweet father let me visit his wood pile and make my own. 

Why spend money when you can spend time?.... Okay.. don't answer that. BUT in this case.. it was worth it. 

The 4th of July was its usual wonderful self that it is. We lined the curb for the parade and heckled all of the floats and walkers. Which, that's what parades are for anyways. If you're gonna walk in front of people for attention, you may as well welcome the attention. Which.. we gave them. 

Sailing.

Guys, the boats weren't even in the water last year and my heart died a little. Ever since I got certified.. 13 years ago, it has been a MAJOR highlight of every summer. Sailing is life.

I've been out TWICE now this year and am hoping to hit it at least one more time.

I even got to spend some time on a high-wind day in a Hobie Wave and that was wonderful. 

I've spent a lot of weekend at home this summer. Helping with the barn and visiting the humans residing under my parent's roof. These babes are some of my best friends and they're an absolute joy to hangout with when I go home.