where we've been

So where have we been?  

Truthfully, life has been much more... normal and routine than we are used to and, strangely enough, it's been an adjustment. 

But in our free time when we're not spray painting and building things and spending time with friends, these are the things we're reading, listening to and watching.

Listening to this album, and their other EPs, makes me dream of creating films to accomodate the songs. Perhaps the best worship album I've encountered in a long time.

The most beautiful spaces and hundreds of them.

I succumbed. I knew I would fall fast, and I wasn't wrong. 

Our current favorite album. It's actually from 2010, and didn't go over very well, but we're really enjoying it. If you like "Home" by Edward Sharpe, the whole album has that same sound. 

Jimmy's current read about a whole new way to offer education around the world. He reads a hefty amount of books about new approaches to our education system.

The most authentic portrayal of a family on television. Beautifully done, amazingly honest and pretty funny. I've cried more tears during this show than during any other I've ever watched.

Didn't love the ending (seemed a bit quick and cliche) but this was a fun, light and enjoyable movie. We're all for amazing cinematography and intense stories but every so often it's refreshing to watch one like this, even though the title is awful.

Blessings are a practice that has fallen off the map, but John's writing is beautiful and seems to speak the things that are the most difficult to translate in words.

"Awaken your spirit to adventure;

 Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk,

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm, 

For your soul sense the world that awaits you."

shasta

The beauty of Redding: we enjoy temperatures in the 50s during the "winter" but have access to snow in the mountains when we need our fix.

Saturday we trekked up the mountain with our friends Tim and Britt and we can't wait to go back. The scenery, even on the drive up I-5, is so beautiful and much more Pacific Northwest-esque than anything south of Redding.

The mountains were breathtaking and they have feet upon feet of snow. Majestic was the way Tim described it, and that's probably the most appropriate word for it.

 

scenes from the last weeks

We spent two full weeks at home over the holidays. We didn't do a great job of documenting all of it (no nice photos from Christmas - yikes) but it was an awesome visit that went by way too quickly.

Basketball games, tons of snowy weather, lots of cousins, surprised by a quick gathering of friends from Ashland, a New Years spent in airports. These are scenes from the last few weeks, in poor quality iPhone photo form.