The end of January

The last day of January always catches me off guard. The new year still feels so new and I barely remember we are in 2019, yet it can't really be new anymore because a whole month has already passed. January was a full month. This month, Luke has juggled conflict and responsibility in various capacities at LeTourneau and church. We have had many late night discussions over possible outcomes, hashing out ideas, dreaming of how things could be better. Our weeks have been about basketball practices, brewing kombucha and taking probiotics, getting Lucy comfortable on her bike on trips around LeTourneau, preparing for college student lunches, celebrating birthdays, and plugging along in math. We have laughed and cooked and hurried and slowed. We have had hard conversations with people from church. We have had exciting and life-giving conversations, too. We have studied and wandered, lost teeth and had others pulled. We have had dates and watercolor lessons, practiced instruments and built a garden box. We have hosted and been hosted, taught and learned. We have mourned the loss of a child in the community. We have celebrated the wedding of the couple we counseled. We have studied rocks and Romans and Latin noun declensions and Ghiberti and Giotto . We have read Harry Potter and Cilla Lee-Jenkins, Pippi Longstocking and Anne of Green Gables. We have rock-climbed with our CC community, fussed with each other, lit candles and baked banana bread. We've eaten Mexican food with our Dinner Club and folded laundry, met weekly for book clubs and shopped for groceries. We have played at parks and around the table and in the yard. We have marveled at sunsets and enjoyed the "Super Moon" with the telescope. We have loved each other, we have prayed, we have worshiped, we have grown. The hours and days and weeks sneak by, but overall, I think we are living them as well as we can and we are thankful. All of this is a gift from God. We are thankful.