Life in a busy season

- February 02, 2015

Sometimes I get so behind on this blog that the thought of writing overwhelms me because I've missed so much and feel I need to catch all our out of town family up on life. This is totally one of those times!

We had an awesome Christmas with friends and family here and then visiting the rest of our family afterwards. It was truly so great! When we can go in town to visit for closer to a week rather than a weekend, it's so fun! I'm going to leave my Christmas update at that. Loved every bit of it!

Things here have been a bit crazy! And by crazy, I mean busy! Brendon and I are both involved with a class called Equipped Disciple. (Totally awesome class by the Navigators that encourages the basics of the Christian faith and helps you learn discipline. Can't say enough good things about it!) Brendon has been doing ED5 on Monday nights and starting this week is serving on Wednesday mornings before work as a leader for a group. I'm currently in ED2 on Monday mornings with an awesome group of ladies from whom I learn a ton! And on Tuesday nights I'm serving in GriefShare, co-leading a group. The semester just started, but I already know GS is going to bless me as a leader just as much as it did as a participant. (If you've lossed a loved one and never grieved that, please consider joining a group! GriefShare is a national program. You can find classes near you on their site. Ok that's my shameless plug. It's life-changing. Do it.) on Wednesdays we have a sweet college girl come over and spend time with us. It's so fun to get to love on her the way the Copelands loved on me when I was in college. We just adore Laurel! During the week we also have community group. We do life with some pretty awesome people! Just sayin. We are so thankful for them. It's worth every bit of time we put into it.

During the day we stay busy also. We have a few outings a week with the girls, Explorer School (homeschool), storytime at the library (Lil's new fave - they go in without mom. Big deal!), family weekend plans, other ministry ops, and seriously the schedule is a little nutso! It'll sorta slow down here in a couple weeks when Brendon finishes ED5. But we are on high speed till then. (We need a date night!) Now you know why we haven't been good about talking on the phone! ;)

As for personal goals, I've also been trying to be diligent to get to them gym a couple mornings a week! Hooray! It makes for early mornings, but it's so energizing!

On our days at home, the girls have been playing outside a ton! Until a couple days ago, the weather had been incredible! I basically had the bounce house up constantly and the doors open to the backyard for hours at a time while the girls ran in and out. We've been doing a lot of Explorer School, and I feel like I've finally been getting a grasp on how to teach one child while the other is busy getting into trouble! And by grasp, I mean school is going on. There may be permanent marker on the wall, but big sis is learning stuff! And as a family, we've been going through the Little House (On The Prairie) books, which has been so fun! I've never read them, so it's been so fun reading them for the first time with Lilleigh! It sorta makes me want to set the calendar back 100 years (more really...) and live in a little house on lotsa land! Love that simplicity! (If you know us well, you can see why we love these books so much... Land... Simplicity... Love it!) The other day we stayed home all day, play outside a ton and read several chapter aloud from Little House. In the midst of the busy season, it was so nice to have such a fun and slow-paced day! Those are some of my favorites!

Ok that's what's up here in a nutshell! Lilleigh turns 4 this week, so I'll post a birthday update soon as well as a "4-year-old Lilleigh update!"

Hugs from Dallas!

Some pics...

Reading Little House, all cozy. Oh, another update - I made these 2 quilts! Hooray! Another 2015 goal met! It's sorta addictive. I want to make more...