Starting Out The Year

Getting Into A Groove: The year is off to a good start. I'm feeling fresh and ready to tackle the year. It still feels weird to say that I have "athletic goals." Everyday, every meal, every workout is a small goal, leading to a bigger one. Here's to a great year.

This quote is everything.

Thankful for a full season of fixer upper to distract me from Saturday training rides.

Boom. Done.

This.

The Weekend: We spent the entire weekend vegging and hanging with family...and a lot of football. It was glorious. 

The men playing "beanboozled"was probably the highlight of the day.

Joy: On Monday, I accidentally turned my alarm off which means that I slept through my alarm by an entire hour and a half. My first patient was 25 minutes late being brought back for his appointment, and my second patient of the day had a serious complication with his treatment which led to me making a million phone calls and putting out a lot of effort to smooth over the situation. As I got more and more worked up, "count it all joy" kept coming into my head more and more. 

James 1:2 " Count it all joy, my brothers,[a] when you meet trials of various kinds," 

The day turned around when a patient brought us a coffee in celebration of his last treatment. It was the sweetest gesture, and it truly made my day. 

"3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Date Day...kind of: I randomly had Thursday off this week, so I snuck in everything that I could. Since Jordan is still off of school and doesn't work until the weekend, we spent the day together. After my morning dentist appointment(found out I have 3 freaking cavities, BOOOOOO) and a workout at CityWay, Jordan scheduled a massage for me. The massage was glorious, and my body needed it. Well done, Heather, well done. After the massage, we had lunch at Public Greens, one of my favorites. On the way home, we drove around the east side to look at the area and dream about our future. It was sobering...the east side is rough, and it was eye opening to see what it would be like to actually live downtown. We will see what the future holds. Regardless, it was a great day and I'm so lucky to be here where I am right now. 

2017 Goals

Last year, I had a really hard time setting goals. I couldn't get aligned with what felt most important to me-I never had a moment of clarity. While it certainly wasn't a wasted year, I never felt a clear sense of accomplishment. This year, I had a very clear moment where I sat down and wrote exactly what was on my heart. I'm hoping these goals point me in the right direction so that I can love God, love the people around me, and love myself well.

• Lead Children's Large Group: Jordan and I are teaming up to lead once a month at the downtown campus. We felt called to this, and are excited for the challenge. 
• Complete An Olympic Tri: I had this as a goal for last year, and it didn't get accomplished. Honestly, I didn't believe that I could do it. After watching a full Ironman, and doing some soul searching, I'm far more excited to accomplish this than I was last year. 
• Complete A Half Marathon: I've already signed up for the Monumental Half in November. I'm excited to challenge myself with this. I've done it twice, and I want to make my third one the best!
• Go To Vincennes Every 2 Months: It's difficult to make it home regularly, and we want to make this more of a priority. 
• Take A "Real" Vacation: We haven't taken a vacation that's not a mission trip since we've been married. We're hoping to use some of our Christmas money to take a trip West and do some hiking!
• Read 6 Books: I love listening to books and podcasts, but I'm wanting to make more time for stillness and reading.
• The 5 Love Languages
• His Needs, Her Needs
• Made To Crave
• Present Over Perfect
• The Book of Forgiving
• Create Daily Quiet Time: I stress out on the daily that I'm not a morning person like Jordan-he is so good about getting up early and reading/praying. I've fully accepted that I love my sleep, and at this moment in my life it's not my jam. Therefore, I'm committing myself to carve out time each day to be quiet and pray, even if that means turning of the podcasts during my drive home, or sitting in the car for ten minutes before I come inside.

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve this year at Katie's 30th birthday! Katie fixed an amazing paleo dinner and paleo birthday cake-that was really really good! There were tons of amazing snacks and cocktails, and we made it to midnight...barely. So thankful for an amazing group of friends to celebrate with! 

Downtown TPCC: Finally! We woke up early on Sunday to go to our first service at the city library. We volunteered with the kids to learn the ropes before we run it in a few Sundays, but we loved it. It felt smaller, more personal, and like home. 

We finished New Year's day with some cuddles from Baby Katie-she is precious and growing so fast.

The Good Stuff

Welcome Baby Katie June: Yay for a new beautiful and perfect niece! We got an early Christmas present, and Katie June made her appearance at 8:43 pm. We were supposed to have family Christmas that morning, but a huge ice storm hit most of Indianapolis and our plans got scratched. Instead, we all met at the hospital, visited with Aaron and Erica, and hung around until Katie was born.  Baby and mom made it through everything without an issue, and we are so so thankful for a safe delivery and beautiful baby. 

To pass the time, we played the "drawing game" with Reid.
 This was his interpretation of what Baby Katie would look like!
He won 11 times in a row 😂

Meeting Aunt Abby!

So thankful to be her aunt.

Happy 1st Birthday Ellie Jo: It is crazy to think that Ellie is already a year old! Absolutely crazy! Pat and Abby threw an amazing party-complete with Brozinni's-everyone's favorite. Ellie did great with all of the attention, and was adorable eating her cake and opening gifts.

After her party, the Bushnell side of the family stuck around and opened Christmas gifts. Per the usual, the white elephant exchange was hilarious and Terry and Carole spoiled us more than we could ever deserve. 

Christmas: I have zero pictures of any Christmas action, but I'm totally ok with that. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to put my phone away while spending time with humans-it sounds ridiculous, but it's hard. 

At the last minute, my boss gave me the Friday before Christmas off. This was a huge blessing, that allowed us to go home on Thursday night. As soon as we got home, we met my family at Green Auditorium to see Mikayla and Caden before cotillion. Mikayla looked gorgeous-per the usual.

On Friday, I scheduled an early hair appointment with Jenna. I love love love that girl, and miss seeing her so much. Spending a few hours with her and catching  up with her is so good for my soul. 

Friday afternoon, we did lunch and dinner with my family and opened up gifts that evening. My parents showered us with so many gifts, and we had so much fun having a low-key Christmas. Unfortunately, we had to drive home that night in the pouring rain so that Jordan could work that morning. I drove down on Christmas eve to Jasonville to be with my dad's side of the family. It was great to see everyone. I spent Sunday with Jordan's family and prepping for the rest of the week. Monday was an amazing day of relaxing with Jordan-so thankful for a 4 day a week job.

Christmas was weird this year, but it was so much fun and left our hearts full. We are so abundantly blessed.