The Sunday 7

I've been terrible about keeping up with this lately. I'll try to be better!

1. I very often find inspiration for these posts from my camera roll. Especially when my kids were little, I had so many shareable photos and stories. Now, my camera roll mainly consists of screenshots and school stuff. This week, especially has been images of the items we're putting in our silent auction for school. Lame. In truth, school events are taking over my life lately. I'm in charge of Pastors' Day on Tuesday, and the auction is at the end of the month. It is a huge job, and I'm feeling very ill-equipped. Story of my life. 

2. Did I tell you that I'm going on a cruise with Niki for her 50th birthday in January? I've known about it since like February, but have finally decided to get serious about losing weight. It's quite terrible timing, since we're leaving the week after Christmas, and who can say no to holiday delicacies, but I'm going to make a valiant effort. I downloaded a fancy new app and did some ChatGPT research and spent last week counting calories, chugging water, and trying to get some steps in. I've purposely avoided wearing a smart watch because I don't want to know how few steps I get . . . and my concerns were valid. The watch only confirms what I already knew about my sedentary lifestyle. I've averaged about 3,000 steps a day in the week I've been wearing it. Lol. 

3. However, this weekend was my birthday, so I took a wee break from dieting and undid all my progress from last week. Haha. The problem with being so vocal about my obsessions interests is that my kind friends and family buy me Dr Pepper and snacks for my birthday. I can't let it go to waste! 😂

4. This weekend was also Ladies' Retreat with church. I haven't attended in years thanks to Justin's soccer schedule and having young kids and a whole host of other excuses, but I decided this was my year - even though it fell over my birthday. My sister-in-law, Esther, was looking for someone to go with, and she promised not to make a big deal about my birthday if I came. The retreat was being held at the camp Justin's family is very invested in (his cousin is the president) - the same place we go camping once a year and where Levi went to summer camp this year. So it was nice to be familiar with the location. We had absolutely amazing weather. (I'm not sure I've ever had such a warm birthday!)

The food was amazing (about that diet . . .), the activities were varied and fun, the beds weren't horribly uncomfortable (#bunkbeds), and the company was delightful. Esther brought a cinnamon roll and candles to start my birthday off right . . .

I did axe throwing, ziplining, got a glorious ten minute massage, and played some fun and hilarious card games.

We also hopped over to Lake Michigan since the weather was so nice. The water was a bit brisk, but that didn't stop us from wading in and enjoying it one last time before winter sets in.

Of course, the real highlight was winning trivia night! We competed against five or six other teams on a bunch of random trivia questions and ended up taking home the win! It helped that we had Jill (a former science teacher) on our team, since an entire category was science questions. Esther is the queen of presidential trivia, which came in handy. And I mastered the literary and pop-culture categories. We got to add our names to this trophy and will live in infamy on the Grace Adventures campus. 

Jill and Marty left before we got the picture, but we couldn't have done it without them!

5. The best part of retreat really was hanging out with people. It took me a long time to find my niche at church, but I've finally found my people - and I'm familiar and comfortable with many more. On Saturday, Esther and some of my other friends went horseback riding - a pastime that does not interest me in the least. Haha. But I wandered around the campus to the various activities and found people to hang out and chat with all afternoon. It was really nice to catch up with people I don't see often, and to be free of that need to be with someone all the time. I couldn't have imagined an afternoon like that even ten years ago, but my 30s were good for me in that respect - I've definitely gained some confidence. 

6. I've only read one book since my last entry because I've been binging the West Wing. But we talked a lot about Emma M. Lion this weekend and now I might have to go back and re-read those. The next once is coming out in February! 

7. Just a couple memes . . .