despite my lack of posting, we really do have a lot going on.
– getting my life back. on tuesday, march 30, i sent off the massive grant that i’ve been working on for just a little over a year. it’s so weird to say that, but it’s true. seven copies of the grant (16lbs worth!) got sent off to richmond after many many many hours of work, overtime, blood, sweat, and by the end – tears. the skies opened up and the hallelujah chorus was sung. and then i took a nap and cleaned my office from top to bottom.
– youth group. there was a brief period in january and february where i wondered if we’d ever have youth group again (because of all the snow) and then at the end of february i really wondered if we’d ever have youth group again (because part of blacksburg high school had collapsed and the kids had been forced into sharing school buildings with the middle schoolers and were going to school from 2-7pm. yikes) but now we’re back on schedule and ross and i have been working on a really cool series (just in time for the mission trip) called Defending the Faith. basically, a real-world apologetics series where the kids will practice sharing their faith with others and knowing how to respond to the skeptics/unbelievers/general questions that they’ll probably get asked. we’ll be focusing on verse memorization, real-life application (with each other for right now, we’re not going out and rustling up atheists for practice), and prayer, so i’m excited to see how it goes.
– mission trip planning. in addition to weekly youth group lessons, the missions team also meets every 3-4 weeks for special team togetherness time + fundraisers in order to prepare for our june 13-18 trip to new orleans. this is such an exciting, scary, super challenging time – we’ve never lead a mission trip before and didn’t realize all the logistics (and sometime frustrating roadblocks) that this entails. God will most definitely be teaching me some valuable lessons during this time, not just the kids.
– house projects abound. since 2010 has rolled around, ross and i have been busy little bees around our house: new tile laid and new paint for our little 1/2 bath, finally getting our fireplace to burn wood without filling the house with thick smoke, cleaning out/organizing our study, preparing our kitchen for countertop replacement, painting our full bath in prep for part I of “master bathroom makeover”, and just general spring cleaning to declutter our house from the junk that threatens to overtake it about once or twice a year. and vacuuming. when you have two 60-pound labs that shed like wildabeasts, vacuuming gets its own category.
– gardening. nothing in the ground yet, but i’ve successfully managed to plant, grow, kill, replant, and sorta grow back, two rounds of summer veggies. hopefully now they’ll cooperate and just grow. round 1 of some actual, in-the-ground planting should start sometime this week for things like carrots, lettuce, potatoes, strawberries, onions, leeks, and broccoli. which means i should probably plan out this year’s garden layout soon. 
– the great outdoors. we’ve been totally embracing this new lovely weather by trying to get outside as much as possible – taking the dogs for walks, playing in the backyard, biking around christiansburg, and maybe even a one-nighter camping trip (to tide us over until we can get away for a whole weekend).
– etc, etc, etc. – trying to hangout with friends, spending time with youthlings, visiting with family, preparing for lasik surgery (more on that later), planning weddings/bridal showers/bachelorette parties, preparing for the photo shoots of a friend’s new business, more vacuuming, working off the winter flubber, and all other general life chaoticness. i love it. i cherish it. and i’m tired. 🙂
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