Sweet Summertime {may}

I have majorly procrastinated on the whole blogging thing. When I don't have as many responsibilities, I am much less disciplined. I knew that about myself, but this summer has fully reinforced that character flaw in me. 

This summer has been a tough one so far. Good in certain ways and on certain days, but over all tough. It's the first time since...well, since I can remember, that I haven't had so many responsibilities I thought my body would explode. At first the rest and the nothingness was oh so nice, but after about I week I was sick of it and the "blah" feeling set in. 

I am so thankful for the time I have gotten to log with my family and other people that feel like family to me, but it also reminds me of how incredibly important my local church family is. How important strong, gospel-centered community is. Because life without it is bad news. We definitely were not created to live this life all on our lonesome. 

Any who, there have been days when I did a little more than nothing, so here's a photo dump of sorts of the month of May.

My last final was April 30th. That's right, I was done with school before May. 

It still blows my mind. 

As soon as I was took my last final, I loaded up my kayak, texted Mackenzie, and we hit the lake. 

I can't image a better way to kick off summer.

I headed for Greenville for an Indian dinner with friends. My schedule got a little mixed around, so I ended up spending some time reading in Falls Park in downtown Greenville. I would love to find myself here more often.

Next up: College Leadership Retreat

I spent a few days in Clemson before heading home for the summer.

Mackenzie, Jake, Miles, and I went to play disc golf at Chattooga Bell Farms. It was miserable outside: high humidity and gnats galore. The boys were rushing to finish the game before sunset and it just wasn't enjoyable. So Mac and I ended up leaving them to take pictures of the sunset. 

I went home a little earlier than originally planned in order to partake in the second ever "Priddy Party," a term coined by the 5 kids, ages 4-8, from 2 different families in our church. A Priddy Party is when these kiddos come over to our house and stuff their adorable little faces with junk food (amongst other things) so that their parents can have a kid-free date night. 

I love these two families so much. When I heard they were coming over, I immediately moved up my departure date from Clemson...especially when I heard that baby Lucy was joining the party. 

I also came home early to celebrate this awesome mother of mine. What a blessing she is to our family! I think we'd all agree we'd be lost without her love, wisdom, and sass. 

Ok, so here's what the rest of these pictures entail: In short, lots of people that mean a lot to me. 

Part of coming home for the summer is catching up with those that I love. 

I have also been hanging out with students from the FBCFM youth group. One night they decided to go midnight bowling. I don't think I've stayed up that late since I was a freshmen in college (not that that was so terribly long ago, but I definitely felt the late night!). 

I also took a couple of road trips. 

 I went to a wedding in Spartanburg with some of the girls from my student life team. Later, I took a road trip to Alabama to visit Sara. 

I got to surprise three teams that were having a camp at Shocco Springs in Talladega. It was so good for me to get to go there and see camp going on and students worshipping our great God where I spent four weeks serving last summer. My heart was really aching for Student Life and it was just what I needed. 

Then Sara and I explored downtown Birmingham and found some pretty awesome shops. 

On the way there I stopped near Clemson for lunch and on the way back I stopped in Columbia, again, all to see people that my heart loves and dearly missed. 

And that pretty much sums up the month of May!