It's the Weekly Recap!

It's been a very eventful week here in Bekahland, so without further ado, I present to you the weekly recap!

* Last Sunday, I took my first turn ever (at this church) teaching junior high Sunday School. I'm on the committee that selects teachers, and those of you on such committees in your own church know...it's never easy to find teachers! I decided to be brave and volunteer to teach. We have four girls in our junior high class and I am thrilled to report - they are wonderful! We had a scavenger hunt around the church, ate some breakfast casserole, and talked about how Joseph (as in married to Mary) heard God's voice and obeyed His instructions. I really had a great time with them! (Gasp! I'm growing up!)

* Monday was my last day of break and I savored it with one final sleep-in and those few last talk shows/Little House episodes squeezed into the daytime hours. Then it was time to get back to the chores...which included (finally) taking down all the Christmas decorations. From start to finish it only took me about three hours to take everything apart and pack it away, which is pretty great, considering I had seven trees! My favorite part, though, was putting up the new.


I got to put up this beautiful frame that my best friend sent me. If you can't read the words, they say "Life is fragile. Handle it with prayer" and "If God brings you to it, He will see you through it." I thought it so perfectly described this season of my life. I put in a picture of me next to my Wisconsin stream and hung it in the living room.

Another new thing I put up...Christmas card pictures on my refrigerator! I've never done this before, but I decided I wanted to be reminded of the blessings I have in my friends. They are a huge part of the reason I am where I am today. I'm so thankful for them and I am looking forward to seeing their faces each day this year! (PS...if you sent me a picture - Where's Waldo yourself!)


* Re-entered the work force Tuesday after a blissful seven business days away from the office. I was petrified I'd miss the alarm entirely, but I did not, and once I got to work, I decorated the office with Mr. January:
No, I didn't buy it from his website. I made it using pictures I took at concerts. :) Yes, I know I'm pathetic.

And when I came home that evening, I tried a new recipe: brown sugar meat loaf. Threw in a baked potato while I was at it and had a real meal. Ate at the table and everything. What is this world COMING TO??


* Wednesday was super eventful. At work, we celebrated the birthday of our student worker extraordinaire, the lovely Miss Rachel. I love Rachel. She graduates in April and I do not know what I'll do without her. Seriously.

At lunch, I scurried into Meijer to pick up a tub of sour cream and left with one tub of sour cream, seven boxes of Christmas ornaments, and three canisters of garland (the red balls in the picture are really a garland) - and guess how much I paid for all of that!?!? $6.46!!!!

After work, my friends Greg and Angi came over to do some Habitat for Bekah work. I invited them for dinner (more of the fabulous brown sugar meat loaf plus I made some mac & cheese - Paula Deen style - and baked more potatoes). It was fun to entertain. Hadn't done that in a while! Of course I served dinner in my jammie pants. You know your friends are good friends when they'll eat your leftovers served in jammie pants. HA!

Anyway. Here's some of Greg's handiwork. He put up these three shelves in my guest room. I bought them on clearance two years ago. Clearly I wasn't in a rush. :)...

...and this white board in my office. I bought it last August. Thought maybe it was time to USE it...

...and these curtain tie backs for the office curtains...

...and these tie backs for the dining room curtains. I love the draped look of the curtains. I think this concludes all my minor Habitat projects at this time! Thanks, Greg and Angi, for giving up a whole evening to help me and hang out with me!

* Thursday evening, I had a first in Bekahland. I went to the Wal Mart return counter. I never return things. If they don't work out for me, I either throw them away or give them away. The whole idea of returning something makes me break out in cold sweats. But it's a great story...the Thursday night return adventure. Do come back tomorrow to read more about it.

* My weekend is best described as rescheduled. I planned to leave home Friday afternoon and drive up to Goshen for the Fire and Ice Festival. I wanted to go last year and got snowed out. So this year, a friend of mine (who lives up there) and I made plans to hang out Friday night and Saturday and enjoy the festival. I was excited to see her in her last month of pregnancy, too. But our plans were changed when...the baby came five weeks early! She was born this week and is fine and healthy (yay!!!) but that sort of made the festival NOT an option. So instead...

...I stayed home Friday evening, read part of a fiction draft a friend from back in college is working on (and really enjoyed it!) and....did a little baking. You know. Just some chocolate chip joy.


* Saturday I slept in late (love that), spent most of the day writing, and then in the evening, donned my Colts gear and headed to Greg and Angi's for dinner. Pot roast - YUM!!! And she made a great key lime dessert too. (You can see I'm pretty happy about it.)

Remember how I said I didn't have any more Habitat for Bekah projects? I lied. I kind of jammed my shredder, so I took it over for Greg to work on. Know what finally unjammed it? A toothpick. Now why didn't I think of that?

We watched The Craigslist Killer movie that had been on Lifetime this week and then we watched another killer: the Colts playoff game. Sadness to lose by A POINT!!!!

Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: Definitely last Sunday when I awakened from that dream and heard God's prompt to me to give up my dreams and drink deeply of HIS dreams. (I blogged about it earlier this week if you missed it.) Those are the kinds of whispers I heard from Him on a regular basis during my desert journey last year and I miss hearing them so frequently. A sweet, sweet moment.

Books I'm Reading This Week: Sparkling Gems from the Greek - my devo book; Believing God - the book I'm studying with Olivia; In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day - book I'm reading on a prompt from God; Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild - book I was given as a gift a few weeks back. FINISHED reading Left to Tell! (More about that book in a later post.)

Goal Update from Last Sunday: I was very pleased at how I transitioned back into real life. I went to bed at a decent(ish) time each night, got up on(ish) time every morning, cooked real meals (but didn't overeat them), worked out five days, entertained friends, and spent a good chunk of time journaling and brainstorming some writing ideas.

Goals For the Coming Week: I want to be extra diligent about protecting my God-time this week, because our spring semester begins Tuesday and this week is certain to be extra stress-filled. If I don't have that time protected, it will definitely show in my work-life! I also need to make sure I give the house a good cleaning. All the Christmas stuff is out of the way, so I have no more excuses.