Happy Spring?

Spruce Lodge on a sunny, pseudo-spring day

Victory Peak as seen from outside our house

Norah is getting big- we've begun potty training and she's doing great!

Justin likes it when I get bored, because I bake!!

Norah put 'covers' on our friend's puppy. She loves animals!

The men play floor hockey on Sunday nights. This is what happens when Daddy plays :)

"Just be quiet and eat the brownie batter, Norah..."

Hooray! Our prodigal camera charger has returned home! And a second note: I honestly do dress my children. They just choose to wear  bathing suits and dress-ups constantly at home. :)

Happy first day of spring! That's what my calendar says, anyway. It is high noon right now, and the temperature outside is 9 degrees. Doesn't feel like spring to me. But I will take the sunshine and the longer days!
We are definitely going a little stir crazy here at this time of year and I am trying to come up with lots of creative things for the girls to do so that they (and me as well) don't go crazy since we can't go outside. Hopefully about a month from now the snow will finally be melting, but I'll try not to get ahead of myself. :)

We had a bit of an adventure last week. The temperature dropped to around zero during the night and a very cold wind was blowing in off the lake. We woke the next morning to find that our pipes had frozen, which has happened before, but when Justin put the space heater on the pipes, we realized they had broken and within minutes there were a couple of feet of water and more pouring into the bottom of our house. Thankfully, the space down there is only used for pipe access and we had nothing stored there, because it would have been destroyed! The men were able to get the problem fixed within a couple of hours, so we weren't without water for very long.

Our two biggest retreat group weekends went really well and I hope that being here at camp was a blessing to all several hundred people that attended! I had been planning to sit in on the field dressing and dutch oven cooking classes that Becoming an Outdoor Woman put on, but that weekend Norah came down with a little case of croup and I didn't feel like I should leave her with anyone to share germs. But later that weekend we got to sit in on an Alaska's owls presentation, where we were introduced to all the different types of owls that live in Alaska, and then we got to see a live great horned owl! The girls enjoyed imitating each example owl sound that they heard. They also got to look at the caribou (that were going to be shot and cleaned the next morning, but we didn't tell the girls that!) in the pen near our house, and that was exciting.

My friend Bridget and I started a ladies' Bible study and last night was the first meeting. It's a study by Lysa Terkeurst and I think we're really going to enjoy it. It's awesome to be able to get with so many other ladies from the staff and community and fellowship and laugh and learn things together.

We are coming up on April which is going to be a very busy month for the program department. Justin will be gone nearly every weekend to present at churches and schools and to encourage campers and recruit staff. Hopefully the girls and I can join him on a couple of trips so that we can actually see him sometimes! :)
Also in April, and very exciting, Justin's parents are coming up from Minnesota for a visit. Evie keeps asking how long it will be until Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Steve get here! I hope that the weather will be more mild then than it is now, so that we can get outside, even if it is muddy or slushy.

The summer staff is coming together slowly but surely, and Justin's board of positions is being filled bit by bit. We are in need of male counselors, so if you know of any college age or older guys who are not sure what God wants them to do with their summer, send them to Victory's webpage to get an application!

Some ways you can pray for us right now:
-That the summer staff will continue to fall into place and be exactly the people that God has chosen to use this summer
-That there will be safety in all Justin's travels next month and that the trips will be fruitful 
-That we will continue to parent our children with the mindset of shepherding their hearts and teaching them to love the Lord, even when discipline is difficult, and that the boredom will stay at bay!

Quick Update

Just a quick update on life & ministry here at Victory. We seem to have lost our camera's battery charger so no pictures for now! :( Hopefully once we replace it I can post a longer update and some photos.
It is March! Two of Victory's largest guest groups will be on the ground this weekend and next, and Justin is hosting a work team of 14 people from Ecola Bible School for the next 10 days. So these will be a busy next couple of weeks for us!
I'm excited because I volunteered to help make espresso in the gift shop for mornings when groups are here, and I get to be trained this weekend. I love meeting new people and I love to make coffee, so it's a good combination!
Something neat happened this last weekend. We went to Kenai for a few days to visit my family and watch my sister perform in her theater company's production of South Pacific. We had been planning to give a quick update to our home church there in Kenai, but Justin was asked to fill in for the sermon at the last minute. Our Pastor at Calvary Baptist is recovering from a heart attack and heart surgery, and there had been no one to fill in until we realized that Justin would be able to go to Kenai with us at the last minute. It was comforting to see God's provision for pastor and church at the spur of the moment like that, and Justin was able to share with the church about Victory's theme for the summer, servant leadership, and how Christ-like leadership looks much more like servanthood to the rest of the world.
The girls are doing well. We've recently decided to start school with Evie this fall. Her birthday falls about 10 days before the cutoff for kindergarten, so it was a tough decision of whether to start her as a very young kindergartner, or start her next year as a very old kindergartner. But we've realized she is too hungry to learn and I would be teaching her "school" material anyways at the rate she's going!  Norah is suddenly talking not only in sentences now, but with sophisticated and usually correct grammar! It surprises us sometimes what comes out of her mouth! Though the pronunciation of some of the words could use a little help - my recent favorite mispronounced words of hers are "teep" for teeth, and "guggle" for snuggle. :)
We hope you are having a good spring, or if you're in Alaska, a good pre-spring. Thanks as always for your prayers and support!!

Ways you can pray for us right now:

-That the team from Ecola has safety in maintenance, housekeeping, and kitchen work
-That the Church on the Rock ladies would have a great time of spiritual renewal this weekend
-That the B.O.W. group (Become an Outdoors Woman) would see Christ in every staff member strongly next weekend- this is not a christian group so there is a strong chance to show God's love to the people we come in contact with!