Retreat!

Mention the word "retreat", and the typical American will imagine a relaxing getaway weekend in a serene setting. However, scream the same word at someone in the midst of battle, and you'll see them running away as fast as they can go. When I hear that word, I'm more likely to think the way the soldier would. Retreats are not exactly relaxing when you work at a retreat-related ministry. It can be stressful, tiresome, and sometimes even dramatic. These past few weeks have been a change of pace.

It seems like most people don't like to take retreats in the middle of winter. That's fine with me, because that's conveniently when I'd like to take a retreat of my own. After all, it's the end of a series of busy weekends with comparable workweeks, the time of year where it's a hassle to so much as go outside due to the cold, and, oh yeah, it's Christmas! I was able to spend two weeks in Oregon with my family for Christmas, which was indeed a holly jolly time.

I returned to Camp Rivercrest Thursday afternoon, but due to jet lag and the fact that I got up WAY too early to catch my flight, I wasn't able to work. That's okay, because I put in more than a full day on Friday. After playing catch-up with the media, I hosted for most of the evening for the summer staff reunion!

The evening consisted mainly of Killer Bunnies and Quelf.

I only hosted that evening (which was really relaxed because there were only a few people there and we just sat around and talked and played a couple games), so I was able to enjoy the rest of the weekend while I could pretend like I didn't even work there. It was nice to see some of the people that I haven't seen in quite some time. We went sledding, played broom ball on the frozen pool, made graham cracker creations, and had a gift exchange (I contributed some nasty flavored kale chips and ended up with a sock monkey. I'd say that was a good exchange!)

No one beat our record from last year of getting six people on one tube. However, we did end up getting everyone down the hill connected together, both as a blob and as a train. 

I was the goalie for most of the game. I started counting the bruises I got from this, but gave up after looking at just my left knee. But it was worth it because our team won- the ball only slipped by me twice!

I was on a building team with Mikayla, Sarah, and Alyssa. (Yes, I ended up on the kids' team!)

We built a high fructose replica of Camp Rivercrest, which we called Candycrest. It included  a shredded coconut sledding hill, ice cube pool, jelly bean forests, a volleyball and basketball court with candy cane hoops, graham cracker versions of the chapel and dining hall, and even Alyssa's house painted red with Twizzlers!

Jeremiah ended up with my gift (which he promptly decided to re-gift), but Brooke ended up with something even worse: dried salmon and seaweed from Japan!

The night ended with worship. Because people were trickling out throughout the day, only a couple people ended up spending the night Saturday. So Sunday, I went to church alone (great sermon- it was about setting goals, but not in the typical New Year's Resolution fashion), and afterwords stopped at Food 4 Less. I hadn't gone grocery shopping since before I left for Oregon, so it was time to get some food! You should have seen what I was eating on Thursday and Friday!

I'm a sucker for manager's specials, which are super discounted items either because they didn't sell well or because they will expire soon. Almost all of my shopping consisted of either that or otherwise inexpensive items because I buy with coupons or in bulk. One of my bedroom lights burnt out, so I was also shopping for a new light bulb, which I realized I had never done before. Light bulbs are expensive! I was about to get the cheapest incandescent one (I prefer florescent but, hey, at least I don't pay the electric bill), but then I saw a hidden rack of manager's specials. Lo and behold, there were a ton of florescent light bulbs! After quickly skimming the box, I learned that the brand was called Green Bulb because it was environmentally friendly. This particular light was called the Pink Bulb, which made sense to me because it's pink packaging was covered with breast cancer ribbons and testimonies. However, when I got home I replaced the light bulb, I realized that it was also called a Pink Bulb because it actually gives off a bright pink light! I don't know if I'll ever get used to my bedroom's new hue.

Since I had plenty of food and had no intention to work on Monday, I decided to dedicate this day to baking and other homemaking-type stuff. I try to designate one of my days off each week as a stay-at-home day, which means I don't have to drive anywhere. This turned out to work really well today, because I didn't have access to my car for most of the day.

I stayed up until past midnight last night looking at things to make and tricks on cleaning, but I figured I could sleep in as late as I wanted, so this was okay. When it was still dark outside, I heard a knock on my door. For all I knew, this was 3 in the morning, yet I had all this go through my mind over the course of about three seconds:

"Is someone sick? No, this isn't summer. I'm not the health professional, and I'm off duty. I must have imagined that. It could be Eli because he sometimes seems to do laundry at all hours of the day although I never remember him doing laundry at three in the morning. He doesn't even go through my bedroom door to get to the laundry room anymore, he just goes through the bathroom door. And even when he did have to go through my bedroom, he never knocked when he knew I was asleep, he just sneaked in. Well, except that one time he tried sneaking in but ended up breaking that mirror. He still has six years of bad luck left with that one. I hope it's not an emergency. What kind of emergency could it be that they have to tell me this early? I don't even know if Emily is home yet. But even if she was home, what would have happened that she has to talk to me at three in the morning? Did something happen involving her tonight, and what would it be that she needs to talk to me about it? There's something wrong. Well, maybe. If it's important enough, whoever is outside the door will try again. But I'm probably just imagining all of this."

Once that mental rant was over, Eli called my name, and I invited him in. (However, it took me three tries to find which way I needed to get out of my bed. I can think of almost every imaginable scenario for someone knocking on my door, but I can't even remember which direction my bed is facing!) Apparently his truck wouldn't start and he was asking to borrow my car to get to work. So it was actually more like 6:30 am, and it was probably the one reasonable scenario that I didn't think of.

As much as he apologized for waking me up, I actually didn't mind the early start to my day. I tried making wool dryer balls (two of the three turned out well), and I had some time to put away the last few things left on the floor from my Oregon unpacking. In the afternoon, I made a couple loaves of challah bread (using the bread pans I got for Christmas!) and a few tortillas. (After working on the challah so long, making tortillas sounded easier than making pita bread, but I think they'll still go great with the falafel I learned to make a few days ago.) Other than that, it was pretty much just a relaxing day. In my own way, I guess it was kind of a personal homemaking retreat. And by the end of the day, everyone got some delicious homemade bread as a result!