Way too long

Sorry about the apparent disappearance. The Blog has slipped our minds because of the start of the new semester and related ministries. Kim and I are leading a homefellowship through our church on Tuesday nights. There are about 10-12 people and 6-8 kids. As you might guess, this is not held in our small apartment but at another family's house about an hour away. So Tuesday nights are consumed by this ministry. We don't even have time for dinner, but the hosts of the fellowship have food ready for us whenever we arrive. We usually get there with enough time to sit down with the family for the meal. I find that that is the best way to start off the evening. We are using the Purpose Driven Life book as our weekly launching off point into the biblical principles contained in each chapter. Kim is also leading a women's small group her in our apartment building with an out 10 other seminary wives. That is held in our apt so I find my way up to the library on Thurs nights. I am also leading a men's soul care group in our building on Thurs mornings. We call them soul care groups b/c we are not studying the bible or going through a book, but rather are spending time praying together and checking in on one another, encouraging each other toward spiritual maturity. In addition, I have four classes, which I am working through. So that in a nut shell is what our week looks like. We are looking forward to a roadtrip next weekend with Joel and Allie back to Hillsdale for our 5 year class reunion at homecoming. You can bet there will be a blog about that. More than likely, until then...

Design for the Sexes

I'm addicted to HGTV, and I have dragged Lucas into my addiction (with minimal kicking and screaming). One of our favorite shows is "Freestyle" where they completely redecorate a room in one day using all their own stuff ( no paint or anything). It basically consists of moving furniture and rehanging artwork, but it's really cool. This concept is very appealing to student couples with no money living in housing where there is limited space and no painting allowed. So we decided that we would take the Labor Day weekend and "freestyle" our apartment (they only need one day, but we're not professionals so we figured we'd need a little more time). We decided that, while we were at it, we should clean and organize the apartment...and our storage space. Now, there is another show on HGTV called "Design for the Sexes" where they work with a couple trying to create a design that they both like. In general, I don't enjoy this show at all, but I learned the value of compromise this weekend. It turns out that when we talked about this weekend as being one of cleaning, organizing, and decorating Lucas heard: CLEANING, ORGANIZING, and decorating, while I heard: cleaning, organizing, and DECORATING. I couldn't figure out why he would get frustrated when I would jump ahead to which pictures we wanted to frame, or where to move the lamp I hate. He couldn't figure out why I got frustrated when we were in day 3 and we'd only made it through the storage unit, the closets, and the bedroom and done NO decorating. The good news is that we managed to survive the "freestyle." Our apartment is much cleaner, we got rid of a ton of junk, and we changed the furniture and art around enough so that I am happy...I mean WE are happy!