Un-Pause

I'm back by popular demand! Believe-it-or-not I've had a few inquiries as to why the posts have been lagging. The fact is, I've been busy.

I've been Art Directing up a storm.

I wish I could share the covers of the books we'll be releasing in Spring 2014, but unfortunately they are 'top secret' until our catalog goes to press . . . I know you are all dying for a preview!

The one cover I've been furiously piecing together that I am able to share is The Hurt and The Healer by Andrew Farley and Bart Millard (lead singer of Mercy Me). The book should be released just in time for Mercy Me's fall tour. Phew!

I've been full-time Soccer Mom, 

driving children to pratice a few nights a week, faithfully attending games and even coaching a U5 Soccer Team (that's 3-4 year olds). Ever try getting a group of 3 year olds to 'practice' for an hour? To their credit, they were very enthusiastic the first 10 minutes. Beyond that it was all dandelion picking, hand holding, and refusing to participate because the only soccer ball left was pink.

Bear (3yo) playing goalie. 

I purchased a new car.

Since I started commuting 140 miles a day the old Buick has been guzzling every cent in my wallet. It was time to find something a little more MPG friendly. After some shopping around we settled on a much-smaller-than-my-Buick Subaru Crosstreck. MTBR has a nice review on this vehicle. 

Sadly, driving a smaller vehicle has not improved my ability to park inside the lines.

Now that I drive a Subaru I feel that I have fully immersed myself in the mountain biking lifestyle and am epically excited for being able to park in Subaru's VIP Parking section at Iceman this fall--I might just park in there for the heck of it even though we'll be camping at the finish venue again this year.

And we took a family vacation.

While I've been busy orchestrating book covers by day (and night) and transforming to Super Soccer Mom in the evenings, Chad has been working about a billion hours a week and even snuck off for a few days of biking in the mountains. It seemed like it had been weeks since Chad and I had occupied the same space and months since we were altogether as a family. 

Late Friday evening we finally pulled out of the driveway and went North for the long holiday weekend.

Hiking by the river.

Bear taking a snack break halfway through his first ride on the VASA Singletrack.

Running down the dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

What I haven't been doing is . . .

Training for Lumberjack.
More on that later.