Our New Weekly Tradition

The last 6 months have been a busy season for Joel & I. We're not proud of it. We hate how business is idolized in American culture and hate how we've been sucked into it. But honestly, we were unable to make many changes.

Joel has been working 30 hours/week while taking 20 grad school credits while job hunting which is another part-time job. I've been working/commuting 65 hours/week while trying to be a semi-ok pastor's wife. We worked hard to make sure we had our weekly date night, but really had zero time for relaxation.

I know everyone says their life is busy, but honestly we were beyond busy. We were killing ourselves. It was ridiculous!

We tried cutting out events. We said no to friends and student activities. We stopped having people over. Life honestly became miserable. We had very little to look forward to. We both remember crawling into bed crying a few times....and we're really not emotional people!

A month ago we heard a message by Nancy Beech from Willow Creek where she talked about remembering the Sabbath. She emphasized that God wants us to enjoy life and have 1 day a week when we can do whatever we find fun!

We left challenged. This is something we wanted in our life, but weren't capable of, that was until last week!!

Joel recently quit his job and is only a full-time student. Now, he has time to help w/ the cleaning, laundry, & grocery shopping which means more free fun time for us on the weekends!

So, our plan: take 1 day a week off for fun...where we get to do whatever we want.

Last Sunday we did this for this for the first time and it was tough...I'm use to my life being run by a to do list.

I started my morning by going for a run.

We played tennis. Yeah, these courts are literally in our backyard. We've lived here 2 years. Last Sunday was the 1st time we used them.

We went for a walk around a lake a quarter mile from our house we had never been to.

and met our neighbors:

We took a long nap.

Snuggled on the couch and watched a movie.

Made some fun food.

And just relaxed. What a beautiful day! We felt so refreshed & am so happy this can now happen weekly for us!