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It’s a new week! And good things will happen. Watch for them! Look for them! Sometimes the good things don’t always whack you on the head or dangle right in front of your eyes. Sometimes they are hidden treasures that you have to search for.

Holiday weekends are always fun and exciting…everyone is feeling festive and communal, and all kinds of parties and activities going on. It’s like something is different in the air on a holiday…

We spent most of our weekend starting out on a little summer business venture selling southern peaches to northern people. We started selling on Thursday and I’ve been immersed in peach-world ever since. It’s been super fun and a little exhausting, and we plan to keep it up for the rest of the summer.

The peaches come to us hard and un-ripe, and we were able to dig into them yesterday finally. I’ve been waiting for months for those first bites from a perfectly ripe peach, and I was reminded just how much I love those little things. Not because I’m selling them…but because they are just so sweet and juicy and summery. We ate them for breakfast over waffles, plain with lunch for dessert, and chopped up over chocolate cake and yogurt for dinner. Can’t. get enough. As a southern girl, I grew up eating peaches for weeks and weeks during the summer, and with our little venture, now I can be a northern girl eating peaches for weeks and weeks.

Besides working peaches, we had a pretty low key weekend. We were too wore out to do much in the evenings, so we grilled hamburgers and went to bed early. Not much of a festive July 4th, but we were too tired to care about much else. Sleep never feels so good as it does after a long, hard day of work, right?

And some links:

– Gelato vs. ice cream…interesting!

– Nifty idea if I can keep all my herbs alive…

– Clever!

– Secrets de Target.

– Ha, bummer.

– On true leadership.

– My friend got married and her wedding was stunning.

– Whoa, yum.

– …and speaking of peaches

What about you: how was your holiday weekend?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

We had a family wedding this past weekend, and what is it about them that makes you feel so happy and content and just…happy.

I’m a typical woman, yes, because I love me some weddings. I love them not only because of the glittering smiles from the bride and the somber excitement from the groom and the colorful dresses and flowers and pretty guests, but because it represents something so much more than what we know. I find that weddings leave me feeling both overwhelmingly happy, but also somewhat sobered. Happy because a wedding and a marriage is such a beautiful thing. Sobered because I’m reminded of the love of Christ…that perfect love of Christ…that for the joy set before Him, endured the cross for me, His Bride. And that one day, there will be a wedding of all weddings, and I can’t wait to be there.

Besides the wedding (which was absolutely gorgeous), we spent a lot of time over the weekend with family. I met and re-met a lot of Ben’s cousins and aunts and uncles, and while it’s still hard to keep everyone’s names and connections straight, it was good to be with them all. This might sound cliche, but the older I’ve gotten, the more I see the value and importance of family. I grew up with family…not only parents and siblings, but with aunts and uncles and grandparents. I grew up surrounded by people that were not only related to me, but who loved me and did fun things with me and made me feel accepted. It’s what I’ve always known, and those things are the easiest things to take for granted. But it’s a blessing…an incredible blessing to have family and be a part of family. And now that I’m married, I have a whole new set of family to be a part of. It’s a good thing.

We ended up hiking the Glen over the weekend as well, which we’ve been talking about doing ever since I’ve lived here. We may have picked the wrong time to do so, since it was packed with tourists, and I was in no mood to deal with the crowds. It felt like we were in another country with the amount of foreigners on the trail. But if you are ever in the Finger Lakes, you want to do this hike. Absolutely gorgeous!

And also tried out this new eatery just down the road from us. I’m not typically a burger and fries kind of girl, but this place is spot on. The majority of their meat and produce is locally sourced, and they also make caramel from bacon fat, which sounds way too good to be true. If you are local, you want to check it out.

Some links:

– Who knew?!

– So sweet + heart-wrenching + inspiring.

– Kindness changes things.

– Cute DIY.

– Ha, yes.

– Homemade + Nutella

– I need this tip.

– I really should make popsicles.

What about you: what kind of thoughts and feelings do weddings invoke in you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!