It is hard to believe we’ve already been in NC a week. It has been very bittersweet as we grieve over and miss Granny…and yet truly enjoy being around family and loved ones.

Last week, I had to go shopping for clothes to wear for Granny’s services. I am absolutely certain she wouldn’t want us showing up to honor her in our hiking boots and raggedy pants. 🙂 When we walked into Belk, the first rack I saw in the girls’ section had 2 little black dresses with animal print scarves. So perfect! They were, of course, exactly the right size! Soo meant to be.

I will always think of Granny when I see animal print.

This week I asked each of my kids and nieces/ nephews a favorite memory of Granny. AB said at Christmas whenever AB was wearing her special Christmas dresses every time she walked by Granny she would say, “ohhh AB you’re so peeerty!”

I just kept thinking how much Granny would have loved to see all her grands and great grands looking so adorable and handsome:

The services for Granny were very special and beautiful just like she was. A few noteworthy memories: 1) as we drove from the funeral home to the cemetery, we thought it was very neat that we passed the home Granny grew up in:

And also passed the church she walked to the altar to at age 13 that I referenced in the poem. (I didn’t catch a picture of the church) She had lived and traveled all over the country but certainly had returned “home”.

2) I also thought it was very remarkable that in Rocky Mount, people still stop and pull over when they see a funeral procession. I’ve never experienced that anywhere except here.

I loved seeing Granny’s boys- now-men show their respect to her and their moms.

My mother in law and her sisters are well loved by their churches, neighbors, and friends so we were very well fed all week. I love southerners and how they show up to drop off lots of food during sad or hard times. We didn’t even lack for our fave treat (ice cream!) because Aunt Pam and Charles made us homemade ice cream to enjoy. It was so good! One of the best we’ve had. In their own time of grief they still thought to make us our fave treat and let us enjoy a happy day with cousins:

And I don’t even know where to start on our “RV Park” my in laws have for us here!!! We have named it “There’s No Place Like Home” RV because it sits here on Dorothy Lane. Wow they really treat you like family when you stay here haha. From home-cooked meals, laundry services, hot showers you can use safely without sandals, lots of room to blow dry:

and wow the views!

I swear we came here wanting to be a blessing and a help but we sure have been on the receiving end a lot!

We have a HUGE table for school. No more “her papers are touching mine!”

And we are catching up on all the science experiments we couldn’t do on the road:

The kids have been knocking out school work so they can get into the water ASAP!

By the way!!! We definitely went from being in total holiday mode to back to summer haha. In Wyoming and South Dakota, I was already thinking thanksgiving and Christmas since it was 30 degrees out! And then we came back to NC and it was still summer (well – it felt like it at least). We were very thrown off! It has felt like 103 the weather channel said. It took us all about 4 days to get used to the humidity again. Wow we had really acclimated to dry deserts or cold mountains. It was a rude awakening to adjust to NC summer heat and these gnats! I don’t remember these gnats at all. It’s amazing the things you must just get used to. We’re already used to it all again and in some ways it feels like we never left.

RR went with Uncle Fly to a fishing event so he got his own fishing pole. On one of his first casts he got this guy:

This was his 2nd catch and he ran in all excited announcing that he got another one… but the size of this one lol:

I love this pic I caught of him:

We’ve also had our own drama…. 1) another mouse in the RV (but we think he found his way out!) 2) a possum in the garbage can

3) and our sink somehow was left on when we didn’t have water so when the water came back on the tanks filled and overflowed everywhere. When we walked in and saw water everywhere I was like no no no no no! I just started throwing everything out the door as fast as I could. Sorry Gramma Peepa I’m not sure what any neighbors watching must have thought haha. We only ended up having to throw out some books and some papers and stuff that was unimportant. It was another reminder just like last year to live “light” and not hold on to anything too tightly.

When it comes down to it, our true home is waiting for us in eternity with King Jesus! In America we are much more stable than most places in the world so we often feel that our homes are very secure… but our earthly homes are so much less secure than our true eternal home waiting for us!

Like we talk about to the kids…. “home” is where we are… but really the truth is that home is where Jesus is so we have so much to look forward to! All the comforts warmth and joy of our “home” here in Rocky Mount and our “home” in Leland and my childhood home in New Jersey – they all just point to our forever home that He is preparing for us! Every promise God has made has come true. We can trust Him and He promises He is preparing a place for us.

We finished off the week here with the most amazing sunset tonight! WOW!!! These were just taken on my cell phone with no filter. Wow wow wow!!!

If this is just a foreshadow of the beauty we will see in our eternal home…. can you even imagine!?!?