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.