I was going to entitle this post May is cray-cray, but then I realized it’s not even May yet. Yikes.  May will indeed be crazy – baptisms, a wedding, graduations, Kayla’s thesis presentation day, a family reunion in Texas – but it will be also be wonderfully filled with celebration. I can’t wait.

Maybe one day I will stop thinking that certain weeks, months, years are overwhelmingly full and realize that really, they all are. Rest is required, though, and there’s not been a lot of that. I’ve been writing the word “weary” in my journal a lot. June has more graduations, more weddings, more church activities. And July has two back-to-back Texas weddings, one of which is our own son’s. The Taylor Swift concert/Kayla & Jayden’s 18th birthday is the weekend after that. Youth camp is the week after that. There’s no end in sight.And I suppose opening our home to Airbnb guests only adds to the craziness, but it has been really great so far. Last weekend we hosted a mom, dad, and daughter from Westchester, NY. They were visiting UMass, since their daughter is an accepted student there, and she was trying to make a college decision. They were extremely friendly and chatty, even making us a bit late for a meeting at church last Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, three 20-something guys who work in Boston and graduated from UMass a few years ago arrived. They just wanted to come back and visit some of their old hangouts. Very respectful young men, who were on their best behavior.

This past weekend, we had two reservations and each of them canceled. We thought we’d have the weekend off until two more reservations came in on Friday afternoon. We happened to be driving back from a college visit of our own. The family that stayed Friday night (mom, dad, two adorable daughters ages 5 and 3) were from California, but living in Boston for a time while attending a Greek Orthodox seminary there. We enjoyed sweet fellowship over our common faith and homeschooling endeavors. A few hours after they checked out, two young Turkish families checked in. They couldn’t believe I had recently been to Turkey, and we all sighed together when the topic turned to Turkish breakfast, because there’s really nothing like it.

So yes, Airbnb adds to the workload of the week, but it’s been a wonderful experience so far. We’re booked into October at this point! Very few weekends remain until then. Crazy.

The best part of last week was driving out to see Cooper at Gordon College in order to celebrate his birthday – his 21st birthday! Wow.

Pauline theologian, and renowned New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright, was on campus last week, so the first thing we did was attend a symposium where he spoke. It was about hope…and natural theology…and how the cross is where natural theology and biblical theology intersect. It was good, and a little hard to wrap your mind around, and really warm in the lecture hall that afternoon, so my eyes were droopy, and my summary is probably not perfectly accurate.

A beautiful and warm evening meant that the yummy burger place we went to for dinner had its garage-door-style front doors and windows open. It felt like the whole town came out for burgers on a Thursday night just because the weather was so nice for a change. Chocolate cake and coffee were next up. Then a trip to the Verizon store to update the birthday boy’s iPhone, and lastly a Target run for finals’ snacks.

Kayla, Robert, and I stayed overnight at a nearby hotel in order go back to campus early the next morning for Kayla’s official campus visit and tour. Even though we’ve spent so much time on the campus through the years, it’s helpful to see it through the lens of academics as opposed to youth camp.

We ate lunch with Cooper on campus after our tour and during a quick break between a couple of his Friday classes, and then made a stop at Crave – a nearby gluten free bakery and coffee shop. Their cupcakes are just so good! Besides hosting Airbnb guests this weekend, Robert had a church membership class to lead almost the moment we arrived back in town on Friday, and I spent all day Saturday shopping for and preparing food for our church’s annual graduate lunch. We love to host the seniors (high school, college, grad school) from our church and say a proper goodbye, though we had 27 RSVP’s this year! Fortunately, most students don’t mind packing into our house like sardines. It’s good news, since we love hosting them here before they leave.

After cleaning up (I had lots of help!) Kayla left to spend the rest of the evening with her friend Charlotte, and Robert and I managed to stay awake long enough to watch the movie Same Kind of Different as Me. I’d definitely recommend it, though the book (a true story) is, of course, so much better than the movie. My dear Miss (Kelly) Riggs sent it to me when it first came out in 2006, and I loved it.

Thanks for reading the Missional Motherhood posts. I loved reading your messages, even if they weren’t all technically blog comments. The one that brought big tears to my eyes was from my friend Susie. She texted me to tell me she was finally, after many years of struggling with infertility, going to be a mom…through adoption. May 11. That’s the day she and her husband will bring that precious sibling set home to stay. She even sent pictures of her soon-to-be children. What a gift..to me, to Susie and John, to those kids, to the church, and to the community.

God sets the lonely in families…

Psalm 68:6

So…I entered anyone who commented at all into the drawing…on Facebook, on the blog, on Instagram, etc.

Lindsey Roberts is the winer of the Exodus story cards! Can’t wait to send them to you, Lindsey!