new seasons

I wrote this two weeks prior to actually publishing it. Hence the "last weeks" and other such mentions of time are not accurate to today.

So we're just trying to get in a full week of school around this point. Last week we had some snow - 2 snow days and 2 2-hour delays. One day we packed up and headed to the Kozels. The kids played outside and the Joanna and I sat by the fire with our laptops working away. It worked nicely. In addition to 3 dentist appointments and 2 Valentine's Day Parties, my week was completely hijacked. This week is better. Much better.

I don't think that I've mentioned that at the end of December I left my job at South Ridge Church and started working solely for Young Life. Back in August, Ben and I started thinking and praying about what that would look like, how it would align our family a little more, how it would help he and Scott. I've worked for Scott for several years very minimally. Scott's role as WV State Director and national Small Towns Director for Young Life have grown considerably. Add to that Mountaineer Area growth, and we decided that me being the Area Administrator for all three would make sense. So I divide my time between the 3: Mountaineer Area, West Virginia & Small Towns. I LOVE it! I've made myself a little desk space at Ben's office or I can work from home. When the kids get home from school I put away my computer and I don't spend my nights working. There is ROOM IN MY BRAIN TO THINK. 

Leaving South Ridge staff (not the church - we still go there!) was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I love the staff. I love what I got to do. It was safe and secure as far as the paycheck goes. But I felt divided - in my brain, as a family, in ministry. I'm still working on figuring out how to stay plugged in when it's not my life and when we're not going to church in our community. I'm very grateful to the incredible opportunities they gave me and the projects they allowed me to start - mostly Big Kick Soccer Camp and the Church Has Left the Building. Who knows. If this whole YL Staff thing doesn't work out maybe they'll have me back.

So that the update from here. And here's a few pictures.

Sophie's love language is physical touch. Most nights we find her snuggled up with Monkey. I picked up this stuffed animal at Sam's Club several years back and it goes everywhere with her. Recently, her hands have been so cracked and dry that we slather on some Vaseline and she sleeps with socks on her hands. Poor kid. I feel so bad for her. (Note: Since I wrote this we've discovered cortizone cream and cetaphil lotion for her hands. Miracle workers.)

These are our save the dates for this summer. We actually have one more. These are 6 sets of leaders getting married. 5 of the weddings are within 6 weeks! We are doing pre-marriage counseling for 4 of them. It's a big investment but really a lot of fun. Ben will doing 2 of the ceremonies.

These are the girls that go with the save the dates above. 

Delaney. Gabe. Cat. Ashley. Ashley. Katelyn.

Check out all that bling! Love these girls so much!

A couple of weekends ago we had our annual Regional Leader and Committee Weekend at Oglebay. These guys were stellar with their humor, music skills and technology. You don't even know!

And these kids . . . 

The Bergs and the Tuels love each other bunches. They are so excited to spend a month together at Saranac this Summer.

Our leaders, leaders-in-training and committee. There were 90 people in a 30 person and 16 person cabin. You do the math!

Star Wars is our newest favorite thing. We binge watched it over Christmas and saw 7 the Sunday night of the blizzard. Oh my gosh! I'm a huge fan now. Sophie loves it too. This is her list of all the characters. Green = the good guys/Jedi. The red = the dark side.

Sophie has spent a lot of time as Darth Vader lately.

Ted did some snow shoveling last week . . . 

. . .  to get this sweatshirt. These zip up hoodies are all the rage. And also goes with our new love of Star Wars around this house. (That's Darth Vader in case you can't tell.)

On one particular snow day this was my view across my desk.

Our mismatched socks. Seriously. How ridiculous is this?

Sophie and I made 4 loaves of banana bread last week. We had a few (a lot) of bananas leftover from her Valentine's Day party. I'm really not much of a baker, but this was fun (and easy) to do together. It also helped warm up the house. Our house is ridiculously cold when the temp drops below 25 degrees. So I try to do dinners that require me to bake to help warm up the house.

Sophie helped me dry my hair for our Valentine's Date.

Saturday night we went with our dear friends Josh & Bethany to dinner and an overnight at Lakeview. They won some sort of overnight package for 4 and it was so fun for extended time together. We laughed, had a great meal and got some time away.

We had a great time and it was good for my soul to spend some extended time with my dear friend. I'm truly thankful for 20 years of friendship! Seriously. 20 years. I love this woman so much. (And I am impressed that she wore a dress when it was 2 degrees. I was a wimp and wore my funeral pants!)

Ted and Sophie go to Boys Brigade and Gems on Wednesday nights at CMA. This week they did a mother/son and father/daughter event. Ted and I went together, ate pizza and did a craft. We both HATE crafts. And it has SPARKLES. Oh my gosh - we were a hot mess. But it was a great time.

Other recent highlights include a euchre night with the Kozels, Sophie starting at a new gymnastics place and loving it, my new love of HGTV, lazy Saturdays, Brownie Brittle, this new hair gunk I got for my hair that I love, love, love,  it being light later in the evening and warm weather coming this weekend after a streak of frigid weather! Ya.Hoo.