Mark and I are enjoying a break in my hometown of Kalispell, Montana. Yes, I’m a mountain girl. I’m looking outside watching a squirrel chew a peanut that my 4 year old hand fed to him. There are ducks floating by in the stream and snowflakes meandering out of the clouds above. It isn’t sticking, but it’s constancy reminds me that we’re not in Vancouver anymore. It’s been snowing for days for no particular reason. It’s warm enough not to be snowing, but we’re in the rocky mountains, so weather here doesn’t make much sense.

Coming “home” is always a journey for me. I am not the same person that left this place 14 years ago. I’m nobody’s leader here and I have nothing to do…that’s a far cry from my world back in Washington. I can’t fix problems that I left 600 miles away, so they are put on a mental shelf for a week in hopes that someone else will solve them before I return. My “Type A” personality is forced to sit on a couch and watch some afternoon movie that is completely void of a relative plot. Or I can get a cup of coffee and hang out with my mom for a nice long chat about when the bulbs will finally peek out of the frozen Montana dirt. The cup turns into several cups as I realize that there isn’t anything else to do.

For those of you who know me, you’re thinking, “This is good for her. She needs the time to do nothing.” Well, beware of giving Mark and I time off. We’ll come back with a bunch of crazy new ideas that we thought up in that “down” time and enough energy to accomplish them. I’m already ancy to get back to our mission and our plan. God has great things in store for North Creek and although it may be good for me, this leisure time can only last so long. I’ve bonded enough with Shorty the squirrel (yes, my dad names all the woodland creatures) and I can’t wait to usher in the next phase of chaos that we call the Coffee Church.