Nailed It!

Soooo, maybe regular blogging hasn't happened yet, but two weeks is a lot better than two years, right?

Things are just rolling along pretty normally around here.  Spring Break is creeping up on us and I CANNOT wait!  I seriously never appreciated the awesomeness of Spring Break until I was back in a traditional school setting.  Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that Spring Break is just about here, so Chris and Coop are helping some local people pack a moving truck in the snow today!😁

I, on the other hand have stayed toasty warm inside cleaning the house like a boss!  That is, after spending half the morning watching mindless shows.

Saturdays, Chris and I have started a little tradition of coming down before the kids get up, fixing coffee and watching a house show together...we ,unfortunately, started referring to this as our Saturday morning adult cartoons and really did not realize how bad that sounded until it was kind of a habit to say...I promise, it is totally PG!  Our current series we  have been watching is Hometown, which is about some people in Laurel, MS trying to revitalize their small town by fixing up the old houses.  It is so fun to see the transformations and dream of all the things we could do to make our house cute if we had money!  😀

After Chris and Cooper headed off to help people move, I totally intended on getting up and going to the grocery or cleaning house or exercising, or something productive, but Lilly introduced me to another show that you totally need to watch.  It is a Netflix series called Nailed It.  It only has 6 episodes so you can totally binge watch it today and not even waist a whole weekend.  The premise is that they take amateur bakers and give them challenges to recreate cakes or baked goods done by professionals.  Y'all, it is a HOT MESS!  I sat on our couch, totally by myself laughing until I cried...it is funny because it is so accurate, those total fails are totally what would happen if I tried to bake that stuff.  I stopped watching after 2 episodes because:

1. I wanted to be a responsible home owner and mother and gift my family with a clean house and possibly even groceries for real meals this week (still on the fence about that last part). 
2. I felt that, as a loving wife, denying Chris the enjoyment of watching this with me was just too cruel...even after almost 23 years of marriage...I am a keeper, y'all!  

In complete honesty, number 2 carried a lot more weight than number 1.  Please, set aside some time this weekend to just try out 1 episode...you can thank me later!

So now, I SHOULD be sitting down to meal plan for the week and go shopping.  Instead, I am typing a blog.  Because, priorities!  Honestly,  Chris and I did something that we have been saying we were going to do for over a year but we finally bit the bullet and did it this week...we joined a gym!  BLAH!  I know this is a good thing, I know it is necessary for health, I know this should be considered a good use of money...but y'all, I hate gyms, and exercise, and eating healthy!  I just want to be little and cute and still eat yummy food and binge watch Nailed It.  But, since that hasn't really worked out for me, we are trying to be good and eat right and go to the gym...although, today, we are feeling several days of gym membership and may skip a day or two.  But, if I am going to spend money and time in a gym...I guess I should make better food choices as well.  I told y'all last blog that I was doing a weight loss Bible Study but that I was struggling with it.  Still struggling...still on day 10 after starting a month ago.  I was thinking about it this week and wondering why it is so hard for me.  I honestly get angry when I open it up and start working on the Study and trying to decide where my boundaries will be.  Why do I react like that?

This is what I have been wrestling this week and this is where I have landed...the last almost three years have been rough for me.  I had this picture of what life would look like doing ministry in SLC...but our actual life looks a lot like those fails on Nailed It.  I pictured walking along side Chris, hand in hand doing ministry together.  I imagined a church that embraced us and wanted to minister with us.  I imagined doing women's Bible Studies with our leaders and becoming a second mom to them.  I imagined using my place in a school to help make connections and build a bridge between life and ministry.  I imagined nights around a fire singing "Kumbaya" and kids in and out of our house constantly with fresh baked treats.  The reality is, being a full time working mom is HARD!  I can remember breaking down at one point when we were looking for houses here.  The market in SLC is so ridiculous compared to Jackson, TN  and the houses we could afford were depressing.   Not only that, we were restricted to living in a certain area of town.  Then, something happened at work that left me without a job for the next year that I thought I was going to have.  I remember just bursting into tears in the classroom saying I was just so sick of not being in control of anything...and I guess, in a way, I am still having that temper tantrum.

EVERYTHING is hard here.  Getting immersed in a church while also doing a parachurch ministry is hard.  Finding a real friend in the midst of a totally different culture is hard.  Working in a Title One school is hard.  Trying to help Annet in school when she just keeps falling further behind is hard.  Trying to find leaders that will just commit to leading is hard...and forget any community building or group Bible Studies.  Rejoining my family and trying to figure out where I fit in after being away for 20 years is hard.  Trying to fix supper and spend time with my family and get homework done and still find time to do Bible Study and have a little needed quiet time (Hello, introvert) is hard.  I am soooo tired of everything being hard.  So, as I realize that I NEED to be healthier, I want to look and feel better, and I need to make better choices...I also resist because I am TIRED OF EVERYTHING BEING HARD!  I really do not want to think about whether I am making a good food choice.  I do not want to count calories or resist my craving for chocolate...I just want something to be easy.  However, I also want to look not disgusting for Brooks' wedding...so with that picture in mind, Chris and I are trying to be encouragers and not enablers and we are trying to be serious about exercise and good eating....except part of today...because 50 cent corn dogs at Sonic today, let's just be real!

So, this week, I am trying to happily embrace the hard.  I am going to try to remember that things that are hard are the things that are most worth it and that victory after a hard fight feels so much more amazing than something easily won.  And if I'm not as successful as I hope, I can find friendship in the Nailed It contestants!

Back in the High Life Again???

Soooooo, the Neely family is still kicking.  I know I am always saying that I am going to get back to regular blogging...I just never seem to be able to manage it.  However, the other day, I got onto the blog and was just rereading posts and I loved seeing the journal of where we were and what was going on in our lives and I miss that I haven't done that in the last couple of years.  So, once again, I am going to try to get back in the saddle.

This time around, I am a little more comfortable with these interwebs and I am just embracing our names and online presence because, frankly, I am just too tired to try to remember nicknames, etc.

So, quick update.  We are living in Salt Lake City and Chris is working for Young Life.  Chris has taken up downhill skiing and is totally in love with it!  He loves the northwest, the mountains and the cool, dry weather.

I am teaching 1st grade at a local elementary school.  I don't cry every day this year and sometimes, I don't even have to bring work home with me.  I am a Wyldlife (for the middle school kids) leader and official chauffeur for YL kids.   There is a rumor I will be moving to second grade next year and, honestly, I am not super excited about that but, I will survive!  I am also trying to get wedding ready before July which is totally not going well...it is so much more fun to put weight on than to take it off.  I am trying to do a weight loss Bible study to renew my mind and perspective but I am honestly going into it kicking and screaming.  Why oh why can't carrots taste like chocolate?

Brooks, our oldest, is attending college in TN and is on track to graduate in December, along with his fiancé.  Their wedding is planned for the end of this July and contrary to how that appears, I am totally NOT old enough to have a child who is graduating college and getting married!  He is graduating with a degree in Christian Studies and is planning to attend seminary and also has a side business doing videography...he is quite talented and not just because I am a proud momma! 

Adam is the next in line, and will be graduating high school in May, refer to above comment about age!  He has waffled a little in what he wants to do as a next step but hopefully, plans will be solidified soon.  Adam is also a talented photographer and videographer and can rock some graphic design...I really do not know where my children got their artistic streak.  I, for one, cannot draw a recognizable stick figure and the one beautiful picture I ever took we had put on canvas and is hanging on our living room wall because it is an anomaly!

Anywhoo, I digress.  Lilly is about to be a sophmore in high school and will be moving to the high school campus next year...do not even talk to me about the fact that my daughter could possibly asked to a dance by a punk boy next year!  She continues to be a friendly, out-going girl that loves to do hand-lettering, sewing and all things artistic...again, where did this gene come from?

Coop is in fourth grade and goes to the school I teach at.  He LOVES Legos and plans to be a world traveler, in between being an archeologist, Lego engineer, a sound effect guy for movies, a Lego designer, a chef specializing in quesadillas, a paleontologist, a geologist, a horologist and he may throw in being a blue cow just for old times sake!  :) He also loves to ski and has his own YouTube channel about all things Lego.

Nettie is in third grade, also at the school I teach at.  She LOVES her friends...a lot.  She likes to talk to them before school, after school, at recess, during school...she really enjoys talking, much to the frustration of her teacher...we are working on that!  She has plans on being a chef at a Mexican restaurant when she grows up...the girl also likes food!  Talking and food, life is good!

Nettie has also asked me to include the newest member of our family, Malibu.  She is a fourish year old Poodle/Shitzu mix that we adopted almost 2 years ago.  She is my little lap baby and may or may not be my favorite child.  She is the one animal Annet actually likes...other than her pet fish, Sharkey, who met an early end a few weeks ago.

Life in SLC has been a weird adjustment.  The culture here is unlike anywhere else.  It has been super hard to find a church and even harder to find good friends.  Ministry here is tough.  The number of Christians is tiny and churches have not totally embraced YL.  With so few Christians and very limited resources, I think churches and other christian organizations feel threatened that we are trying to take their workers or their money.  There isn't a lot of unity among christian organizations here and the work is SLOW and hard with very little encouragement.  Sometimes, the disappointment and frustration is overwhelming...but the fact is, there are people all over the valley that desperately need the hope that Jesus offers so, we just keep plugging away!

Tonight, we are celebrating Adam's 18th birthday, which means I was like 10 when I gave birth, right?  We had a little Chili's and will be hitting some cake and ice cream soon but the highlight of his birthday is that his high school just won the state championship for basketball...there was more basketball talk than birthday talk at dinner!

Anyway, just a little Where are They Now post that will hopefully become a little more regular.  In the meantime, feel free to continue praying for the Neely family and for the young people in SLC that we are trying to reach.  Also, pray for our volunteer leaders.  Again, ministry is tough here and leading is often very unglamorous.  Pray that they will be strengthened and encouraged and that they will not burn out.

Thanks all!
Blessings!