First a bit of housekeeping.  January’s Bible journaling class has 6 spots left.  You can read all the details HERE.  I was talking to my cousin Rebecca yesterday about Bible journaling and it just makes me all kinds of crazy excited.  I simply love this class because I love reading the Bible now…total game changer…which is insane-o-town for someone who has never been a Bible reader before like myself.  And how fun is this, Rebecca lives in Memphis, so I might be coming to Memphis to teach a class!!!!  Let me know if anyone is interested.

Also, Debora Guy…I know you want to come to January’s class and I’m looking for you my lady.  For some reason all your emails are bouncing back and I never want someone to think I’m ignoring their emails…ever 🙂  Email me at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com  

I am open for orders.  Winter break has been a long one, but all 5 children will exit the house Wednesday morning for some sort of school/MDO and I will be singing all the hallelujahs and getting to work on current orders.  I would insert all the praise hand emojis here if my computer had emojis.  Message me HERE if you would like to place a custom order.

We are still putting together our Swaziland team.  You can read more details HERE.  I would love for you to join us.  It is going to be one amazing trip and I can barely contain my excitement.  If you’re interested or have any questions let me know.

Alright…housekeeping done.

So foster care is hard.  I toyed with a million different ways to say that, but what it all comes down to is simply that…it’s hard.  Is it rewarding and amazing and beautiful and God-relying…a resounding yes to all of the above, and so much more, but it’s also crazy hard and sometimes the hard just wins and over shadows all the goodness.  I don’t like this part about the whole thing or about myself.  I don’t like when some days I’m pretty much toast because of exhaustion and sadness and the high demands.  I don’t like when some days I just feel down and out and choose not to see the joy and the hope.  That’s the ugly part of my heart.  It’s hard to do the right thing…more often the wrong route is so much easier…so it’s a constant battle to choose right…and to take the harder path.

And sometimes you just have to break away from the whole the thing to re-set.  This past weekend Josh Kelley booked us two nights at Montgomery Bell State Park.  We even lined up family to keep our current littlest because speaking of hard, almost 2-year-olds are hard y’all.  She is completely loved, but she is completely a firecracker too 🙂  Plus swimming and hiking and biking didn’t sound too pleasant with a small child who could do none of those things.

So off we went and it was a great break.  Josh, Hudson and Solomon hit up a mountain bike course.  There was swimming in the weirdest, indoor, terrarium pool ever…people had literally etched their names in the pool algae.

Solomon’s faces have now gone from weird to diabolical…like he’s a master mind taking over the world one photo at a time.

We played tons of games.  We all hiked and Amon killed it…dude keeps up.  They created outdoor hideaways.  Josh Kelley made 1000 fires in the outdoor fireplace.

We ate yummy food and cooked smores in the microwave when Josh Kelley’s fire wasn’t quite cutting it.  We watched movies in bed on cable TV…oh em gee.  We rode bikes around and around and around our cabin loop.  It was just right.

And when we went to pick our littlest up she squealed with delight and then held onto Josh’s mom a little bit longer.  She’s 1 of 5 at our house…and she spent the whole weekend apparently soaking up all the solo attention.  Yes, a break was good for everyone.

School is in session tomorrow and our regular routine is on the horizon.  I can totally see it.  Cheers.

Happy Tuesday.