Fall 2012 Newsletter

Here is our latest newsletter.  I know it's small type on here.  Please comment if you didn't receive it via email, leaving your address, and I'll send it to you as a pdf asap!

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Get A Room!

It's date night. Soccer games don't start tomorrow until 1:30. So we got a room downtown (through a gift of hotel points) and are going out for the entire night and half the morning (since our babysitter lives here and all). We're planning on hitting the St Louis Art Museum then splitting a great burger.  In the morning I want to take Brian to The London Tea Room where I heard a talk last week on Jane Austin and peruse through the English furniture store next door.

I'm so excited to get away for an entire 18 hours! For real!

First Goodbyes of the Year

I think I assume most people are like me.  They think like me, they care about the things I care about, they want the same things I want.  Most of the time that's an incorrect assumption, which I usually learn pretty quickly.  But it's where I start.

Then there are a few handfuls of people who know me well enough to understand the heart behind the words I'm saying without much explanation.  I don't have to give disclaimers to them when I'm in conversation because they know me well enough.  Their friendships (hither and yon) are extremely dear to me.

But this time it's even different than that.  I have been given a friend who really seems to be just like me--our thought processes, our gifts and struggles, our hearts, our personalities, our marriages all seem to be uncannily similar.  An added bonus for me is that she is my mother's age, so I also have the benefit of her wisdom and life experiences which speak so clearly to me.

I've known her just over a year, and she's been a direct and specific answer to 2-year-old prayers for an older woman in my life who desires a mutually benefitting relationship.

She moves to Colorado on Thursday, and my heart is breaking.  It's not really a surprise, although a bit earlier than we expected.  It's not like we won't talk again.  But I'm sad we won't have our Monday afternoon dates anymore.  That I can't just drop in on her because it's all just gotten to be too much.  That we won't be able to share space, even if we're not in conversation.

Sadness.  And just the beginning of goodbyes.

For Joy, I AM a Feeler!

So I cried yesterday for basically two hours straight.  Probably more, to be honest.  At first I was hanging with a girl friend who I don't know especially well, but we've been meeting for several months to talk mostly about her.  But the Lord saw fit to let me share some of my heart yesterday, and the ball just kept rolling.  Lo and behold, she feels things deeply and had much encouragement for me.

THEN I went straight to a marriage counseling appointment where the tears continued to flow as I shared more about what I was experiencing and thinking.  And feeling.  And I fought to stay in the moment vs. moving past it on to whatever logically comes next.  Brian and I have been seeing the same guy together for over a year and a half, so we were able to really dig in and put some big puzzle pieces together.  It was awesome.

My girlfriend encouraged me to pay attention to my energy level after experiencing all the emotions, and I'll have to say, while I was exhausted after the tears stopped rolling, I am much "better" today than usual.  Well, that may have to do with a deeply felt prayer I shared with another girlfriend this morning.  We prayed for joy and peace and rest.  But regardless...  It seems that feeling all these feelings and asking God for help in them is a good thing.  No duh, huh?

But I thought I'd share a little more about how this process is going.  It will be good to look back on when I don't have the emotional age of a 4yo.

Twisted Temps

Tomorrow's high is 81.  Friday's is 52; Saturday's is 54; Sunday's is 56.  The low is 34 Sunday night.

Time to get out the blankies, smart wool socks, and hot chocolate.  Not a bad start to the month.

And, can I just say again, how THANKFUL I am to not be doing boot camp??  I like being with Brian in the evenings vs. being distracted by getting ready for camp.  And to not have to watch the weather.  Or write workouts.  Or get up at 4:45 three times a week.  It hits me over and over and over again that I feel different-funny (like yikes--what am I forgetting to remember?!) then realize it's because I can rest both mentally and physically from these things.  And that no longer do I have to get up and out Monday morning at 4:45am in 34 degree weather.

Praise the Lord!

Boo--it's October!

I dread October.  Truly fear it.  We have a history, and it's not pretty.

Today a friend and I talked about Psalm 136.  The entire psalm alternates an event with the line "for his steadfast love endures forever."  Over and over, no matter where in the story, we are reminded that God's steadfast love endures forever.  That the events occur because his steadfast love endures forever. That the story's point at every turn is that his steadfast love endures forever.

This is true today also, as the story continues.  Even in October.  Every time October comes around.

So it's my prayer for this month, no matter whether it hits the fan this year or not.  I pray that I will remember momently, in the good and bad moments, that God's steadfast love endures forever.  And preface and end the prayer in thanks, just like the psalm.

Because he is forever worthy of my praise and gratitude, because of his steadfast love.