Hunkering down for winter

A brief update of all that's been going on, on our side of the world-

• Busy season: Ministry is in full swing with meeting new freshmen girls, investing in 9 amazing sophomore girls that I love, having a football tailgate, recruiting for a women's retreat, having the retreat this past weekend, having multiple meetings, with lots of lunches, dinners, dorm visits and hanging out with students in between.
• My fabulous husband: also in a busy season, but turn it up oh 20 notches. He loves this job and is built for it and for fun likes to dream and think of new ministry ideas. Weird. Awesome, but weird. I have a shut off in my brain and need to zone out, but he's like the energizer bunny (I have to remind him to take rest and sometimes force him to!). All in all, I feel like God has His hand on us and I LOVE being married and married to this man! It really is so wonderful

I'm hunkering down for winter.

October you say? Yes, I know. I live in Minnesota.

The weather has been increasing yucky and reminds me that I can't forget that winter is coming. Yesterday it was 60-something but it had that dreary, grayish gloom that accompanies the winter. I've pulled out the boots and coat. They're predicting...ah I can't say it. S-n-o-w on Thursday. I'm praying it holds off for a few more weeks. Ok, so one perk of winter is cute boots...I'm eyeing some cute brown riding boots. We'll see (you know I don't need them, but they're cute and versatile!) I've gotten to wear by black ones and I've resisted the Uggs until it really is cold.

Today its in the 40s and rainy. But this also means good winter food.

Yesterday I got a rotisserie chicken, made this basalmic brown butter asparagus recipe and double. baked. potatoes. yum!

I used the Pioneer Woman's double baked potato recipe because I couldn't find my mother's to-die-for recipe. But Pioneer Woman isn't all about being healthy so I made a few changes- I used 6 potatoes not 8 because it's just the two of us. Then I more than halved all that unnecessary butter and used 1/2 stick, only 1/2 cup of low fat sour cream, and baked some turkey bacon instead of the "picnic" processed stuff she used. (Let's be honest though as a kid my sister and I used to down that "bacon product" stuff- I just wanted to be a little healthier and I had the time)

And later this week I'm planning to make a tasty potato soup. Another hooray for colder weather. It's my goal to find things I like about the cold...so here's to cute boots and potato soup :)