Spring ALWAYS Comes!

Oh dear. We've been struck down at this house. But since I'm not going down, we're doing our best to keep our chins up. It started a week ago with Rory getting the flu. Not the stomach flu...but the fever, chills, achy body flu. He rounded his week out with a case of pink eye. I got the flu the day after him. While on a conference call, I started getting really, really cold. By the end of the call I had bundled up in hat and scarf couldn't figure out why I was shivering so bad. I took a hot shower, my legs were achy and I went to be for five hours. I woke up and told Rory, "I feel like I was in a bad tussle with a bull yesterday." That's how my body felt...like I had been kicked around, bucked around, stomped on... And I think it's the first time I've ever used the word tussle in a sentence.

Eventually this flu morphed into terrible colds. I lost my voice for a few days. Rory and I basically have whooping cough each night. We sound terrible. Elsie's nose is a constant run and Ivar can't believe his good fortune and all the television I am letting him watch. We'll get that back in check when we're all well again. Until then, a mama's gotta do what a mama's gotta do.

Elsie and I walked out to the mailbox last night and found a box from Tennessee. It said, "Just a Reminder..."

I opened it up and there were these awesome words:

What joy! It was a springtime care package from my cousin Jeremiah's family. I am assuming they had read my blog post about falling down in the walgreens parking lot (still have impressive bruises on my knees and shin from that one) and took pity on me. What a gift!

Inside was hand spun, beautiful, rainbow bright art yarn. I adore it. And flower tea! And a prism to make rainbows and paper sun catchers. And creative and thoughtful cards from her kids to my kids.

The timing of this box was impeccable. And all day we've been making rainbows in our living room, reminding ourselves that SPRING ALWAYS COMES!

Soul Sisterhood Summer Camp

I'm a big fan of summer camp. I worked as a camp counselor throughout my college summers and then as a program director for a number of summers after seminary. I think amazing things can happen when young people get away from their screens and out in God's creation for days at a time. I think powerful relationships can be formed when kids eat, play and live together. I believe God speaks clearly into hearts when kids are given the time and space to listen.

Recently I have become a huge fan of The Soul Sisterhood. My friend Amanda has poured her heart into these retreats and summer camps, filling each moment of the day with intention and creativity. The camps focus on cooking, sewing, crafting, journaling, building deep friendships with one another and strengthening each camper's unique identity in Jesus.


The retreats are intentionally small in size...limited to only 12-15 girls per camp. There is a camp grandma who is there simply to love the girls. There is a camp cook who helps the girls make and bake all the goodies they will eat all week. The counselors are just a bit older than the girls and there to serve as mentors and role models. The camps meet at a farmhouse just outside of the cities

And here's the exciting part. Amanda has just added another week to her summer for any 11-14 year old who would like to join the Soul Sisterhood! The camp week begins around 4 pm on Sunday, July 6 and concludes on Thursday, July 10th. Girls will be coming from all over and will enjoy a week of community, crafting, good food and time with their Creator.

If you know of anyone who might be interested, I cannot say enough good things about this summer camp. And feel free to drop me a line with any questions!

Click this link to find more information about the week.
And click here for registration information.

I'm not going down.

I just wiped out in the Walgreens parking lot. I was walking into the store behind a big running suv thinking how it would be bad if someone fell behind that car and just like that my face was looking at the ice. I landed on my knees, caught myself on my wrists, and watched my red box rental skid across the ice.

In an instant I was over winter. I've kept nice and positive, but picking myself up, wrists stinging, knees throbbing, and assuring kind people that I was okay, I decided I'm done.

I'm done with sub zero temperatures. I'm done with my breath being sucked out of my chest when I step outside. I'm done wrestling my kids into their car seats with their big, fat coats. I'm done with the crappy, scary driving. I am done.

But there is a problem with being done with winter, and it seems to be a big one.

I can't be. Being done is not a choice. So while limping through Walgreens over to the photo lab I decided not to entertain those thoughts. I can't be done with winter, so I won't be. I'll keep telling myself that it really is beautiful out there. And that the remembrance of all this snow will be etched in Ivar's childhood memories forever. And I'll start wearing my sorrels again, every day. I'll go buy more warm socks at Target. The twelve dollar kind. And I'll start shopping for a new winter coat. The kind that goes to my knees like a sleeping bag.

I'll make pot roast and lots of soups. I'll take naps in the sun and take my vitamin d. I'll wear long underwear if I have to.

Because I'm not going down.

our local zoo

Well, it's not really a zoo. It's the real deal. We were parked on the road, watching the cows when we saw the farmer, a friend of ours now, come out of the barn. And he invited us in to see the babies and mama's. Ivar loved it and Elsie screamed bloody murder the whole time. When the calves saw the farmer they thought he was bringing their bottles, so it got very noisy. And the louder the calves cried, the louder Elsie cried.

a wonderland

It's 1:15 and Ivar just walked into the kitchen, shuffling his feet, looking at the floor and said, "It's been a long day."

Oh baby has it ever. It has been quite the long week, too.

I've had almost a full week of isolation here at the grovestead. Rory was in San Diego the first part of the week while we stayed put because of Ivar's pink eye, and now the weather has cancelled everything the second half of the week. Yesterday when I found out my morning Bible study was cancelled (my first social outing all week!) I had to come up with a Plan B fast. So I drove myself to Menards, got a gallon of paint and nail putty and decided to paint the livingroom. A good project that is keeping me sane.

The snow is beautiful. The wind has blown the field so that it looks like white caps rolling on the hills. And that is Rory walking out to his office. Not to go and work there, but to get the step ladder for my sudden livingroom painting project. He's a good man. At one point while wading through the snow he yelled back, "It's up to my belly button!" And it was. The drifts back there are amazing.

And now we're trying to make something of this day. I called my dad mid morning and he said, "I'm sitting  here under the palm trees talking to your cousin Karen." So I got to talk to Karen for a long time, which was awesome. Then she handed the phone back to dad and he said, "did you call for something?" And I replied, "Just basic human interaction."

But we're gonna make it. And we're gonna have a really nice living room at the end of all this!