Pressing On

This month is whizzing by and I've had a hard time finding the time to document the journey. Although, my consistency with blogging this month has been somewhat lacking, my creativity "projects" press on. Here's a summary of what I've been up to this past ten days.

Day 8-10: Pastor's Wife's Retreat: At first I wasn't planning on going mostly because of the hassle of trying to figure out how Mike was going to juggle watching little man while preaching at two different churches. About a week before the retreat, I realized that I really needed some alone time and that it was important that I take that time away. In that same moment I also realized that I didn't have to figure everything out for Mike in order to go. I am blessed with a very capable husband who is an amazing father that is able to figure out how to take care of our son for a few days. Sometimes I forget that and try to do more than my share of everything which of course leads to unnecessary frustration. Thanks in large part to my April creativity/break out of the routine month, I decided to do things differently. Once the decision was made, I let Mike know what I was planning to do. He happily agreed to step in and let me take the time that I needed. The weekend ended up being a great blessing! I came back energized and happy. Mike and little man Matthew also had a great weekend!

Day 11-13: Picture Prayer Book: I got this idea from the speaker at the retreat and decided I wanted to do it too. A picture prayer book is a photo album of pictures and prayers. You can include any picture you want that reminds you to pray over someone or something. Below the picture is a prayer you write out for that particular person and/or situation. I decided to make a prayer book that focuses on my family and close friends. I will use this book to pray for my friends children, marriages, walks with the Lord, relationships, or whatever else is going on in their lives. I'm not finished with the book yet, but I will continue to work on it throughout the month.

Day 14-17: South Dakota Trip: We decided to take a family trip to unwind and have some time of reflection. This was the first trip that we have taken with just the three of us where we are not going to visit friends or family. It felt a bit strange because we had a huge cabin all to ourselves. It ended up being an amazing weekend! We didn't take any maps or GPS devices and were blessed by the spots and places that we happened to drive by that we were interested in checking out. We went to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy horse, a running store, walked a section of the Mickelson Trail (so beautiful!!), a health food store, a super yummy ice cream place, Honda dealership (we had some car issues on our trip), beautiful lakes, and I forget what else. We were amazed at how effortless this trip was and how much fun we had stopping at places along the way that we normally probably wouldn't have stopped at.

Day 18: Random fact tradition begins: I love gathering and sharing information. Many times, my random pieces of knowledge don't fit into day to day conversations, so I have to keep them inside. This seems like such a waste to me. So I decided to start the Random Fact Tradition. This is how it works: At the end of the day Mike and I exchange a random fact we came across that day. Here are some we've shared: 1) did you know that the Mickelson Trail goes for 109 miles? 2) did you know Grover Cleveland was the only man to serve two non-consecutive terms as president? 3) did you know that the ceiling in our cabin is divided into 38 sections?