It’s the first day of classes at Radford and I’m back on a Monday! Yay! The first week of school is just the craziest and as much as I’m loving the change in routine, I’m not totally sure what to do without my daily afternoon naps :]

This last week was the start of Cru staff so we spent a lot of time with out staff team, catching up and getting ready for a new school year, and a lot of time with our students. Between getting the word out about Cru on campus and trying to get students connected in the first week, the first week is always the best kind of exhausting. It always reminds me just how terrifying it is to be a freshman and how thankful I was to find a home in Cru so quickly as a student. As I see all the new students walking around, I get nostalgic and all kinds of thankful that caring for college students is one of my jobs. What a precious season of life and how amazing that we get to be a part of that.

The parts of the week that haven’t been filled with Cru/campus ministry….who am I kidding? That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing. So thankful that I got to finish all my big business tasks before all this craziness started! We got to squeeze in a birthday party for our favorite two year old and spend all of my down time sleeping. Legitimately more tired than I’ve ever been and I’m going to blame the baby for that :]

Now for feels.

• We spent time out on Claytor Lake this week and it was wonderful! Only a few hours, but sitting in a hammock and reading a book and even a little lake floating makes you cheerful.
• This is my favorite time of year to have Neville puppy. He loves coming on campus and seeing all the students running around, and I’m not going to lie, it feels pretty good when people freak out over how cute he is.
• “Don’t settle for Wilsons.” One of the elders at our church yesterday sent us out with this picture from Castaway and it was so powerful. Without community and unity and real relationship, we slowly wither away. Which is why Tom Hanks has to invent himself a fake friend aka Wilson the volleyball after being stranded for so long. And so often as humans we settle for shallow relationship instead of fighting for what matters. I loved that, was convicted and challenged by it, and thought someone else might be too!
• We went rollerskating on campus last Friday…rollerSKATING not blading and it was SO hard. Haven’t done that since I was 8! ….at a roller rink party. Yes, it was so much fun. But my friend Tyler had to stay by my side making sure that I didn’t fall and hurt baby phipps. We’ve got some hilarious people on our side 😉

A couple snapshots from our week. Claytor Lake, Ezra turning two, and rollerskating like a boss.