Homework and Rest

Here is a recent homework assignment for our Kindergartner. They are studying weather.

This made us laugh. She is right, so I didn't correct her and have her add other types of weather. The assignment does say San Diego...and I did watch her think about it before drawing four suns. Ha!

Consequently, it just so happens that this San Diego family will be fleeing the sunny warm weather and spending Spring Break in THE SNOW soon. My husband shows his love for me by bringing me to the cold. Thanks honey.


Chris and I have had some homework from church recently too. Our whole congregation has been encouraged to start practicing a real Sabbath.  We have been prompted to take seriously God's example and command to REST. Within that Sabbath framework, we have been encouraged to include the following "rules for rest": identity and rest...simplify and contemplate...glorify God and do good...delight and play. Sounds good to me! It also sounds good for me.

For two weekends now Chris and I decided to experiment with a family Sabbath from Saturday at noon through Sunday at noon. We decided to stop "working" during this period and to unplug from technology. So far the experience has been both wonderful and challenging.

It is hard to rest. Hard, but also so so good.

It has been good to have a Saturday afternoon outing with our kids and without our phones. Good to play and explore with our girls. So good to slow down and focus on each other and our blessings more.

Here are a few pictures from one of our Sabbath outings on a strangely warm March evening. It was one of the best times as a family I can remember.

Rest up everyone.

"A Dream So Big"

There are certain people, who, when we get the opportunity to cross paths with them, even if just for a short time, leave a mark on our lives forever. Steve Peifer, and his wife Nancy, are just such unforgettable people.

Chris and I had the privilege of crossing paths with the Peifers for one year in 2001-2002 during our time at Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. We were fresh-faced, wide-eyed, recent college grads, and we were engaged. Steve always thought it was a big deal that we were putting off marriage for a year to serve together in Kenya and was super encouraging of us. We just figured marriage was forever, and this opportunity might not come again so we better take it, even if we didn't have time to walk down the aisle and say "I do" first. That year in our lives was absolutely amazing for so many reasons, and meeting incredible people like the Peifers was one of those reasons.

The Peifers are very atypical missionaries, which is probably why we loved them so much. They are regular people who chose an irregular path and are making a big difference in the world. We even got to witness Steve and Nancy adopt their twin Kenyan children while we were in Kijabe that year. They have inspired us in more ways than they know. "Beauty from ashes" could be their family motto.

We have followed the Peifers journey in Kenya for the past 10+ years and will always consider them friends. And when a friend writes a book, especially one that shares an inspiring story about a place I love, you better believe I am going to SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS.

So here is me shouting from the rooftops...BUY THIS BOOK!  Right Here.

The book was released today and I ordered it and can't wait to read it. Knowing Steve Peifer I can promise you that you will cry, and laugh (Steve is one of the funniest people I know), and be inspired that you can dream big too.

Here is a synopsis from Amazon:

A Dream So Big is the story of Steve Peifer, a corporate manager who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants, who today helps provide daily lunches for over 20,000 Kenyan school children in thirty-five national public schools, and maintains solar-powered computer labs at twenty rural African schools. Steve and his wife, Nancy, were enjoying a successful management career with one of America's high tech corporate giants during the dot-com boom of the 1990's when, in 1997, he and his wife Nancy discovered they were pregnant with their third child. Tragically, doctors said a chromosomal condition left their baby 'incompatible with life.' The Peifers only spent 8 days with baby Stephen before he died. Seeking to flee the pain, Steve and Nancy began a pilgrimage that thrust them into a third-world setting where daily life was often defined by tragedy---drought, disease, poverty, hunger, and death. They didn't arrive in the service of any divine calling, but the truth of their surroundings spoke to their troubled hearts. A short-term, 12-month mission assignment as dorm parents for a Kenyan boarding school turned this ordinary man into the most unlikely internationally recognized hero, and his story will inspire you to pursue similar lives of service.

Here is A LINK to Amazon so you can order it for yourself.

If you read it I would LOVE to hear from you.