Word Portrait of our family life

From Candace

In the past few weeks, our family has added some new activities to our weekly routine:

-Josh and I have both decided to take one morning each week by ourselves away from the kiddos. My special morning happens on Mondays. I go work out at the YMCA, and then I go to coffee/tea with my neighbor and friend, Julie. Then, I spend some time at home resting, praying, and doing a few household chores that I can’t get done with the kids around. Josh has been taking Wednesday mornings to think, pray, and do art. So far, this has been a rejuvenating practice for both of us.

-I have joined the Leadership Team for Reba Place Fellowship. I am representing young couples and families in this group. Reba has a “cloverleaf” diagram, representing the different aspects of the fellowship. The categories in include discipleship, nurturing other communities, finances, and community of love. I will be focusing on the community of love category, which includes small groups, common meals, the annual retreat, and nurturing community members at different life stages. I feel a little intimidated about this new role, but I am excited about the chance to learn and grow in this new way. I will meet with this team every Thursday morning.

-On Friday mornings, we have a new small group meeting in our home. The group is very diverse, including many ages and life stages. We met last week for the first time. I am excited about getting to know this new group of people. I am also hopeful about how we will be able to support and listen to one another.

-We will be sharing meals with a new family at Reba Place on a weekly basis. We have worked out a routine of alternating cooking a weekly meal. Tonight, we made the meal (a delicious quinoa salad and blueberry muffins) and the family came over to pick up their portion of the meal. We are hoping that this will be a good way to lighten the load of having to cook for our families every night. Really, I enjoy cooking for other people, so this was a lot of fun!

-We will continue having the Saturday morning oatmeal breakfast for couples and families.

-We observe Sabbath beginning on Saturday nights. We have a family meal together that night to mark the beginning of Sabbath. Lately, we have begun viewing Sunday afternoons as family time. Now that we have carved out some alone time during the week for ourselves, we feel free to just enjoy family time on Sundays.

I hope this is not boring to read! I just wanted to give you a better picture of what is going on in our lives!