Tuesday life.

This is exactly what I look and feel like trying to get dressed every day lately.

I shared on Monday that I was looking forward to staying inside this week because of the ridiculous weather conditions coming our way.  As I am writing this post it is currently 2 degrees outside + feels like -21 degree out. Yesterday the temperature was between 0 and -4 all day, again feeling like -20 or colder. WHAT?! Schools in this area had to cancel because of the extreme cold temperatures. For the sake of accuracy for this post is the first time I have truly looked up the weather in weeks. If you don't know this about me - I am not a fan of cold weather, at all. My latest weather philosophy is that I just don't look at the weather because (1) I already know the forecast will be far colder than I would like (2) I don't need to know how cold it is because it also is guaranteed to be cold enough out to hurt. Sigh. 

On a happier note, one of my best friends sent me the best scarf for Christmas!! (Of course I love scarves in general) this scarf however is (1) soft (2) really warm (3) thick (4) cozy (5) some of my favorite colors and all around almost magical. Lately with how cold it has been I wear this scarf every chance I get. I am thankful that I have friends who are concerned about me surviving this wintery weather. This may seem like a lot of gushing about a scarf - but for someone who lives far away from most of her best friends, their thoughtfulness always makes my day. It's the little things right?! :)

In health news around here, Adam is still not totally recovered but not getting any worse. We braved the weather last night for a chance to meet up with a friend for dinner in Green Bay. I like trying new restaurants out and our friend recommend that we go to a place called "White Dog Black Cat Cafe" to eat. Definitely a local place. It is one of those restaurants where all of the furniture is mismatched and there are lots of different paint colors on the walls, local art, and because of the name giant paintings of cats and dogs. Adam is not a huge fan of the mismatched look - but I enjoyed it! We all enjoyed the food - very yummy. Another bonus: we got to try a new (to us) local beer. In addition to trying new & local places when we go out somewhere (compared to going to a chain restaurant) - we also enjoy trying local food + drink. Last night's new brew was a porter from Door County, WI. Thankful to have flexibility in our schedule to be able to go out on a weeknight + catch up with a friend. Not bad for a Tuesday night! :) 

Winter days recently.

So we are STILL struggling to not be sick here - I seem to have recovered but unfortunately Adam is not quite back to full health yet. Since I have been on the upswing with how I'm feeling, I have been working to recover 'normal' life for us. It's a funny thing that when 100% of the people living in an apartment don't feel good, 100% of the dishes do not do themselves! We have a dishwasher so really there is not a huge excuse for the giant dish pile that accrued in our house while we were both sick other than: we were sick + no one wanted to deal with them. See proof below. (Bet you did not think you were going to see our dirty dishes when you started reading this, ha!)

I share these pictures with all of you for a couple of reasons. 

(1) I'm challenging myself to be more transparent this year with blogging. A LOT of life changing and exciting things happened in our lives last year which is mainly what I blogged about because graduating from college, getting married, and running your first marathon are exciting things. They were also real parts of our lives last year. BUT blogging about just exciting things is not a realistic view into life all of the time. 

(2) To challenge myself to blog more transparently by default means I work to blog more often. This is simple, the longer time elapsed between posts last year the easier is was to highlight all positives. 

(3) Everyone has dirty dishes that pile up, we are not exempt from this. 

(4) I am thankful that even though being sick together is not fun, we can still laugh at ourselves + our messy kitchen + messy everything else. 

This weekend we did a chance to have some downtime, which is I think what helped me get to the end of being sick. One of my favorite things to do is have a laid back Saturday morning. Adam usually makes breakfast for us (let's face it I always LOVE breakfast time) and we get to just be. This weekend was waffles, YUM.

Now that today is a Monday all over again, I am looking forward to NOT going outside as much as possible this week, since we will again be experiencing 'polar vortex' weather conditions. I am also looking forward to a week of better sleep since I can breath normally again :) 

Sick & loved.

The way that this dialogue set from the tv show "Parks and Recreation" captures life for us right now, is a little too accurate. Sometime towards the end of last week, Adam started getting sick (boo) and then by the time I was safely 3 hours north of home and leading my first retreat as the DCE at Faith, attempting to make good impressions on a group of new high school students...I started getting sick too. Both of us are not really sick 'enough' to not do things, such as work. Adam said it best in one of his tweets this week:

When I'm sick I like to pretend I feel better than I actually do because somehow I just know that mentality actually has curative properties. I don't know why I just used the phrase 'curative properties' in a sentence, lame. Really, I just wish I could wave some kind of magic wand and cure us both. Since the magic wand option hasn't really come to be, we are just trucking along. Attempting to take care of each other (this has included Adam making an emergency grocery store for Saltine crackers so I could enjoy some soup - my husband is awesome) and convincing each other that work is still doable and telling youth about Jesus really is important. :)

Despite sickness, I was blessed with a great weekend of Snow Camp with a group of my new middle school & high school students. We were at a place called Camp Luther - and spent most of the weekend outdoors doing snow things (cross country skiing, snowshoeing, tubing, broom ball, running around in the snow...etc). These snow activities also meant the weekend was a repeat pattern of bundling up/going outside/unbundling/drinking hot chocolate. As someone who prefers warmer weather I have officially given up at looking at the weather forecast since I know it is just going to be cold. I know that I am in the right career path however if I can see snow & coldness as part of how God calls me to serve Him & love others.

Over the weekend and the beginning of this week, I have appreciated reminders from God of how His love for us endures all. Me enduring snow or being sick is nothing compared to what He endured for us on the cross - all so that He could say "I love you" and nothing can separate you from me. I pray that whatever you are struggling with this week - maybe sickness like Adam & I or maybe, probably, it's something else all together - that you are blessed with reminders of God's love through it all.

It's Monday, but it's ok!

As I sat down to write this post I actually had to think about what day of the week today is/was. Celebrating Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years, having family visit, visiting family and starting 2014 with a plethora [fun word points] of snow days - it became far too easy to not keep track of days!

I'm currently waiting for pork chops to finish thawing so I can hopefully have dinner ready before Adam gets home from basketball practice with him team. Trying a new recipe tonight :: Stuffed Pork Chops :: I like trying new recipes because I have a lower expectation for how they turn out since I have no other attempts to compare them to, ha! 

We are just starting to get back into some kind of 'normal' routine around here. Last week I started a new job as the DCE at a church in Green Bay. [Side bar: this job was a God thing. This church's Senior pastor and DCE both left at the end of the year for various reasons. While the church is trying to figure out how they want to move forward in ministry & staffing I will be filling in at the youth director - which works out for everyone, I have a job, the church has someone to work with their youth, blessed all around] Adam & I are currently a one car family so with my job starting, last week meant figuring our schedules out to make sure we were both where we needed to be when we needed to be there. I am thankful that my husband and I make a good team.

Even with a busy week [dentist appointments and all] we found some down time. We started watching a new [to us] TV show "The Following" - the first season is on Netflix and was excellent. the second season starts later this month, so it looks like we became fans just in time!

We were excited to watch the Colts play over the weekend, which was less exciting when we got to watch them lose. Oh well, there is always next year I suppose. What I loved best about watching the game Saturday night was that before the game started we both agreed that neither one of us felt like cooking a big meal for dinner BUT we were both hungry [we had been at Zion all day for basketball games]. This decision meant we ran out to the grocery store to pick up pizza, wings, ingredients for a cheese dip, and chips and called it a night. I love & appreciate that Adam is my best friend and that sometimes 'I love you' means: let's eat pizza and watch football together until we fall asleep.

So, last night as part of an effort to return to normal, non-holiday living, I worked diligently to de-Christmas our apartment. Thankfully the Golden Globes were on to keep me company. I wish that taking down decorations was as satisfying as put them up, but it just is not. Also, our apartment looked like a Christmas bomb went off while I was trying to figure out how to pack everything up.

Thanks Mom for the handy ornament storage...thing!

Christmas bomb.

Not thrilled to be taking Christmas decorations down.

Last bonus of normal life returning, we got to squeeze in a walk last night. This is a big deal because it has been CRAZY cold here, like -40 kind of cold, so with the temperature being a 'toasty' 38 last night we bundled up for a chance to get outside. I should add, our walk was a little more like ice skating since we quickly found out that most of the sidewalks in our neighborhood were quite slick :)

Time flies. Welcome 2014.

There is nothing like the end of one year and the beginning of another to cause everyone to take time and reflect. I have always gone through phases with the whole new year/resolutions thing. Sometimes I have made "resolutions" which consisted either of:

1. Things I knew would be really easy to accomplish and check off my list (easy ego boost! ha!) OR

2. Things that I knew would be way too hard and easy to dismiss as a silly idea in the first place. Read: still not my fault that I didn't accomplish the resolution

Another new year phase of mine from years past would be to write a letter to my future self about whatever was going on in my life at that point and then I would read it the following year. Those letters were generally pretty amusing to read since this was primarily something I did during high school.

Essentially, resolutions and such just really haven't been something I have grabbed onto as new years begin - that being said though, I do enjoy taking time to think about all the life that happens over the course of a year. 2013 was quite the year, most of which I blogged about [thankfully]. Besides this blog, I also usually Instagram an assortment of life moments which are also fun to look back on.

Here are my favorite blog posts from this past year:

First post of 2013

A favorite photo with a friend

A public apology

A Day in My Life

A Rant...

Letting Go

Something Old, Something New (first post-wedding blog)

Hopefully it goes without saying that getting married was THE highlight of 2013 - but just in case you missed that - August 2nd, 2013 was hands down the best day of year, starting our marriage :)

Since our wedding & our marathon this fall, here is a look at the end of our year...time flies. Happy 2014 everyone, we are looking forward to sharing more life with you all in this wonderful year ahead!

October

• Our first marathon in Chicago
• The main event of October for any given year is the celebration of Adam's birthday!
• We led a small group Bible study in our home this fall, our small group was on hand to help celebrate Adam's birthday and later in the month to carve pumpkins
• Not running. After the marathon, it was time to take a break

November

• The whole month of November in my opinion can just be called "Pre-Christmas season" 
• Basketball season began for Adam who coaches a 7th & 8th grade boys team
• We went to a Christmas parade in a nearby town - it was unbelievably freezing outside to be standing and watching a parade - we left early!
• Most of my free time before Thanksgiving was spent working on designing wedding albums for all of our parents & grandparents to give as Christmas presents. 6 wedding albums later...I at least had a jumpstart on Christmas :)
• Adam's family joined us for our first thanksgiving
• We cooked & carved our first turkey successfully
• Here is a link to all the receipes we used for our first Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving 2013
• Chopped down our first Christmas tree (YES!!!)

Christmas parade

Thanksgiving Day

At the Christmas Tree farm, complete with horse drawn sleigh rides to the tree fields :)

Our tree being cut down!

Adam's parents went home with a tree too :)

High ceilings = BIG tree :) These pictures were taken putting the tree into stand #1. A few days later Adam went out and bought a bigger stand since our tree did not fit into the one pictured here. We have no pictures of putting the new stand on since there were just 2 of us for that little project. Just know it was a mess - but the tree was much happier to have more room, and Adam was more confident that we wouldn't wake up to our tree tipped over one day ha!

Decorating our tree!!

December

• I participated in a Women's Christmas event at church called "Advent by Candlelight" - everyone decorates a table, enjoys dessert and listens to a speaker + special music performances
• My mom came to visit! We spent the weekend baking Christmas cookies, watching Christmas movies, going to one of Adam's basketball tournaments - and then we got snow which meant Mom got to stay an extra day :)
• Tree hopping (read: Progressive Dinner) with our small group Bible study. Adam & I hosted the appetizers. We had such a fun night all together visiting that somehow we took no pictures.
• Adam & I sang in the church Christmas cantata, Adam is still singing the music he learned.
• Got to spend an afternoon visiting with our friends Kevin & Jordan who were up from St. Louis
• CHRISTMAS - we had a lot of fun getting ready for and enjoying our first Christmas together. 
• The day after Christmas we drove out to Maryland & spent the rest of the year visiting my family, which included a trip to the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. & ringing in the 2014

Christmas cookie baking with Mom

First time shoveling our front walk!

Saying goodbye to Mom at the airport

December was also Christmas card season!

Our visit with Kevin & Jordan. Lunch & a trip to the Kohler Design Center

Christmas morning & day! Magical :)

Opening presents by the fire :)

Driving to Maryland

Family time :)

Our visit to the National Cathedral 

Last picture of 2013/first of 2014 :)

January

• After ringing in the new year in Maryland, it was time to head back home to Wisconsin. We split the drive back up with a stop in Indiana to surprise Adam's parents :) 
• We made it home last evening despite snowy driving conditions all day
• During our road trips to and from Maryland we enjoyed listening to the Divergent book series, almost finished with the second book now

Our drive home.