Yes, it has come to that: I'm wearing a blanket around my waist when I go out. For those of you who don't know or can't guess, I'm from Florida, and it is ridiculously cold out. Today the wind chill is below zero. below zero. How is that even possible? Zero is as low as you can go! It means zero! So I'm cold. Very cold. I want Spring to come. Now.

We were supposed to get between 4 and 6 inches of snow last night and today, but I don't know if we got that much. The Seminary was closed this morning and didn't open until late because of all of the snow. JJ didn't think it was such a big deal: "It's just a little snow." But I can tell it's cold outside because he's actually wearing shoes (and a hoodie!). That means it's very cold out. (In case you didn't know or couldn't guess, JJ is from the "frozen tundra" of Wisconsin and thinks St. Louis "snow storms" are pretty pathetic.) I must say, though, despite being painfully cold all the time, it is very pretty when the snow is fresh. I of course won't be driving in it, playing in it, or even going outside in it, but it's nice to look at from the window while sipping hot tea and wearing my Snuggie (and periodically bathing in body lotion). Did I mention I'm cold?

We are trying to get back in to the swing of things after break. JJ's diving back in to school work and I'm diving back in to housework--quite literally. Our study became a dumping grounds for miscellaneous paperwork and refuse while I was working, and I'm finally making it a project to get it all cleaned out and organized. Mind you, it wasn't just messy from the past two quarters we've lived here. No, it also included all the disorganization and mess that my dear sweet husband had accumulated and upon our marriage packed up and deposited in our "dump." I've determined that his organizational method was pretty much the stuff-everything-into-a-file-or-notebook method, which, while initially convenient, has its downfalls, mainly, that you have no idea where anything is and you have way more than you need. So, all that to say, I've been spending my week in the study filling garbage bags full of unneeded paperwork. To be fair, I had my own share of the mess, most of it scrap-booking and crafting supplies and journals stacked and piled unceremoniously on every surface. Between the two of us, we can make quite a mess. But, I'm happy to say that after half a week of hard labor, I can now see the floor. Seriously, I've made great headway, and I now have all our paperwork from classes organized and neatly stowed in binders by subject. Now we can actually find and use the great resources we've accumulated in our classes. For instance, JJ is currently taking Acts and the Pauline Epistles, which I've already taken. When we began talking about subjective and objective genitives, which neither of us can grasp at the moment, I pulled out my Exegetical Binder, flipped to the section for my Acts and Pauline Epistles class, and paged through my notes to find the pertinent section, and wala! So we're able now to easily refer back to previous classes and handouts and resources we've saved. I hope it will not only be beneficial now while we're in school but also when JJ's in the parish and when we have kids. We've gotten a lot of great stuff and been pretty careful to save a lot of it, and I think it will prove very helpful in the future.

JJ is eventually going to get on this thing to write more of his news. Suffice to say, he's continuing to do well and work hard and enjoy his classes and have no free time whatsoever! We are going to Sunday worship at his cross-cultural church, Chai v' Shalom, now, and that is very interesting. It's a really great opportunity and very enlightening for sure. In fact, we just learned this week that over 60% of Jews are atheists. Isn't that crazy? JJ learned about Jewish apologetics this week, and that was one statistic his pastor supervisor cited. One thing JJ found especially interesting is that the pastor said to use the Hebrew Scriptures when talking with a Jew. Seems odd, since, when talking with a non-Christian Gentile for instance, one would rarely bring out the Bible as supporting evidence since most atheists don't believe the Bible to be true. But the pastor explained that for Jews, their Scriptures are so a part of who they are, such an ingrained part of their culture, that you really can use them in apologetics even with a Jewish atheist. He said the more you bring them back to the Jewish Scriptures, the more it reinforces it for them. It was interesting when JJ told me about that. I hope I'm doing justice to what he said. You can ask him!

As always, God's peace. Thank you all for your prayers and support. (and pray for spring!)