*It's been almost 5 weeks since I was accidentally pinned between two cars in a parking lot up in Denver. My visible bruises have healed (thank goodness! they were lovely). I still have deep bruising that I will probably need to get rubbed out by a massage therapist (I am procrastinating that appointment...) and a almost healed broken tailbone. It's much better. Much, much better. Still sore to sit comfortably but that's to be expected...for a while. It definitely threw a wrench into our vacation and our life but it's brought about a reminder of God's grace and the love of His people in my life. Truly a blessing in disguise.
*Our exciting first year as senior pastors continues to challenge and amaze us. It's been quite an adventure. The latest being our youth pastor resigning and moving on to another church in Bayfield. It was a surprise to us but not to God. These people are awesome and we are sad to see them go, but God has shown me that this is also an exciting time. Mark - one of the best youth pastors I've ever known - gets to interview and find a great fit for our church and our youth. Something I'm really looking forward to. That is not to say the Mattherson's weren't that...it's just an exciting time to see how God is going to move this ministry forward.
*Mark is back in school after a couple week break over Christmas. For some reason he seems busier. Reading, papers, posts...on top of church things. He's been such a trooper and we have 18 months to go! Next week he has meetings in Denver and will be gone 3 days. In April he has a week long trip planned. We basically have to take things one day at a time. Sometimes one moment at a time. We also just found out this morning that his grandma passed away last night in her sleep. It wasn't entirely unexpected but still sad nonetheless. Her memorial is next week and we've tried to figure out how to make it happen for all of us to go but it doesn't look like it's possible. Mark will go up a day earlier than planned to be with his family. I have commitments that week that are difficult to reschedule. Dorothy was 98 and loved the Lord. She will be missed!
*We are wanting to move this year. Hopefully in the next few months if everything works out perfectly :) We have started the process of pre-packing and decluttering. It's actually been wonderful even though it's been a lot. I love getting rid of so much excess and living more simply. It's definitely easier to clean. We have finished 6 areas (closets and laundry room included) and have 4 big ones left (kitchen and kids rooms!!). I love my house and am sad to leave it but we have need for a different space. Since the kids and I are home all day usually, we just need different ways to have our own space (and sanity). We've found a house that we are interested in that would meet our needs. We will see if it's available when we're ready to move. Otherwise God's got a greater plan.
*Kate is doing much better compared to how she was in August but we still struggle daily with her issue with noises. She gets upset with chewing sounds, breathing sounds and gun noises (thanks to the boys). It's a challenge to eat and live :) But we have another appointment with the therapist in Colorado Springs and it was suggested that we get her hearing tested. She might have super sensitive hearing (which would explain a ton). We'll see how this goes. She also lost her bifocals in the snow back in December and went without glasses for over a week until the new ones we ordered came in. Last week the snow melted just enough to find them again. Hurray for a back up pair!
*The boys have made things even more interesting around here (just in case we were bored). Their antics have included: Moving all the switches on one side in the breaker box in our closet to make them all look the same which caused much confusion for this mama trying to figure out why one whole section of our house wasn't working but none of the switches looked tripped {Kale}, trying to climb a dresser to get to the radio on top and pulling it over almost on top of himself but only giving himself a black eye because the drawers falling out stopped it from completely falling {Jack}, drinking Benedryl sometime during the day and us not finding out until right before bedtime {Jack}, finding a pocket knife and using it to carve lines into the window sill while I was doing school with the kids {Jack}, trying on different fun teeth in the dentist office's prize basket and putting them back which resulted in taking out ALL of the teeth and giving them a good washing and apologizing to the awesome staff {Kale and Kate}. There's probably more but my brain isn't recalling it at this time.
*Two of my sisters and my new sister-in-law are all pregnant and due in April, May and June. We have 1 more niece and another nephew and 1 unknown at this point. I'm guessing a girl but we'll see :) I'm thrilled to be watching everyone else have their families and my kids are over the moon to have more cousins to love on and play with. I've been crocheting like crazy (a wonderful therapy for me) making blankets for them. It's gonna be a busy spring and summer with showers and births!
*Not to mention that we're going to Orlando for our next pastor's conference in May and will be staying extra days to take the kids to Disney World. But more on that later.
I'm out of time and have to start school with Kale. He skipped yesterday and promised to do double today. We'll see if he meant it. He's been reading like crazy though in his quest for the Millennium Falcon Lego set...
My next goal is to blog twice next month! Stay tuned!
