Love Love Love

You know, I have a friend who has a blog (which inspired me to do this one in the first place...). She is pregnant (due in March); home schools her son and is fairly active in her church. She updates about every week. I don't know how she does it. I feel lucky to update about once a month!

Anyway... Happy Valentine's Day! We hope that it is a day full of romance and love and smooches and chocolate and the like. We love you!!

Things around here have been pretty much a mess. There have been illnesses of various degrees stacking up and shifting over. Jim finally got a chance to go to the doctor yesterday and verified the suspected sinus infection. The stomach bug made its infamous and inevitable return. We have been down and out and down for the count and just generally down for no less than a week. Jericho had an over-reactive snow day yesterday. We had a fraction of the 3-5 inches predicted. Not that it mattered - he was sick. We are just generally treading water and waiting for some relief. Your prayers are appreciated as always.

I'm getting an opportunity to get more involved at church. I'm helping to generate some small group materials (a.k.a bible/book studies). I feel honored and hope that I glorify God with the end result. I am also helping to start a new community group about how crisis can cultivate a richer relationship with God. I am excited. I feel like it lives up to the promise we made that if any good could come of losing Journey, we wanted to make sure we did it. On the other hand, it seems when you do things that point others toward the way, it garners a certain amount of unwanted attention. I know it seems like I am talking in code - and to some degree I am. Some of you know what I'm talking about. And to you all, I'm doing a shout out for some protective prayer. Believe me. I need it big time. And some of you think I'm talking crazy and am little odd. That's cool. If I spelled it out, probably you would even be more confused and worried about me!

Speaking of Journey. As many of you know, we are bumping up against some additionally painful dates. We will likely do a birthday party for her. The kids love an excuse to have cake! It would be nice do something significant to honor her for her anniversary as we did last year. I haven't had any bright ideas yet about what that looks like though.

As for church, we are about to start our annual church-wide journey where the entire church does a study together. This year it's called "Consumed" and I gotta tell you- It’s going to be big. I know it will be highly impactful for Jim and me. This of course also means painful. But they are growing pains. And if you aren't growing - what's the point? We had our Super Bowl service and it was probably the best yet. The bonus this year is that it can be viewed in it's entirety on the website:

http://www.crossroads.net/downloads/video.php

Just click on The Big Game and see what kind of fun we had while eating hot dogs and popcorn.

Joy did get to turn 3 this year. It was a low key celebration. Some friends joined us the night before and brought an opera cream cake from the Bonbonnerie. Holy cow. Now, that is a cake! On the day of we did ice cream sundaes. Many of you were kind enough to send money and thank you so much for your generosity! We bought a small gift from each person and pooled the rest to buy a membership to the museum. Joy LOVES to go places so it's a win-win. Thank you all!

The twins are a blast. They love music and dancing. Justice's new thing is to bring me his coat. He's so subtle. What do you think he is trying to tell me? It's going to be a long winter if he is already feeling cooped up in the house!

That's about all the news fit to print. I have included a couple of pics for your viewing pleasure.

I hope you feel the perfection of the love that comes directly from the Author of Love Himself. I wish you hope, healing and love in this tough season. Stay warm. Stay healthy. Stay sane.

Love from our home to yours.