Rest.

Not too shabby for our week away.

Scotty and I played some frisbee golf during our retreat.

Today Natty woke up in a foul mood.  She entered into what I call the crazy or irrational cycle during which she works herself up into more and more emotional angst over absolutely nothing and there is no known successful method of getting her out of it until she is ready.  I usually end up very weary and quite annoyed in the process.  Then I took a walk.  It was a cold morning, but clear and beautiful and quiet.  I put on some music and started walking- fast.  The songs seemed to speak to where I was at and I had some time to pray, listen and process.  It was just what I needed.  Scotty and I spent 8 glorious, child-free days at a bed and breakfast last week.  We were taking part in a SonScape retreat (highly recommended for anyone in ministry) and we were given a gift of free time and an encouragement to take a technology fast for that time.  It was so worth it.  We slowed down- a lot.  We read, we slept, I took baths, we played, we walked, we talked, we sat in silence, we processed and we were filled.  God did a lot in those quiet moments.  And, he used our leaders to remind us of how important it is to just be.  To rest.  To slow down.  And, to fight against the frantic, crazy, always buys, always connected life-style that most of us have gotten used to. We learned a lot about ourselves in the process and made a lot of decisions about how we want our future to look as a family in Bolivia.  We were able to see how we got to the very unhealthy place we've been in and God, in His immense grace, was able to move us further out of it and help us to think about preventing ever returning there...hence, the walk this morning.  One of the best weeks of our lives.