House on the Rock

It is absolutely crazy to think that this marks my 5th annual year-end recap blog. The first one happened when I was a college sophomore. Clueless, hopeful, and completely oblivious to all the work God was going to do over the next five years. As 2022 draws to a close, I cherish this time to reflect on His faithfulness from beginning to end. January: The month of the grueling Whole(almost)30. We tried to remedy a year of bad eating by a month of dietary detoxing, which bound us to spaghetti squash and pitted dates for dessert. It was humbling, infuriating, unfulfilling and short-lived. We made it two weeks before caving on a wintry Friday night and eating an entire bag of Fannie May's S'mores Mix. We also played three dozen games of Catan and finished all of Friday Night Lights. February: February is probably the biggest blur. We met with people who would eventually join The Fields Church, watched the SuperBowl with company new and old, enjoyed being almost a full month removed...

 It's December 21. We just sent out a batch of Walgreens-printed Christmas cards, this year featuring desperate red-eye concealer dots on two shiny faces nestled in front of a dimly-lit tree. We took it at my parents' house following a Thanksgiving Feast because we (mostly Joe) couldn't fathom the thought of paying someone and we (mostly me) never conveniently had people nearby to take a picture while looking presentable. So, we settled for green flannels masking some Thanksgiving pudge and an iPhone-camera picture printed on a glossy pharmacy card. Merry Christmas.  I probably wouldn't even bother with cards this year except I acquired a journal which summons you to place all your Christmas cards through the years in a burlap-colored slot with room for handwritten updates from the year. Last year's nearly filled a whole page: Graduated college/grad school, got jobs at Westfield, got married, moved to Westfield, changed churches, became members at Castleview, helped...