The week started with us in two different states–no, we did not find ourselves a state line for this occasion. There are a number of loved ones we left behind in Portland, Oregon, when we moved to Boise. One in particular—a long time friend who was unable to attend our wedding last fall—I especially needed to spend time with. This called for a variety of things, most notably Pokémon battles, lightsaber wars, target shooting, disc golf, French toast, and video games. Jerrod has long been a great friend and always a very hospitable host. I also managed to squeeze in some time for my family, church, and extended family, the Hunts, all making for an exceptional weekend of catching up with people.

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Alexa, whom admittedly told me to go visit Jerrod, enjoyed a quieter, potentially more productive weekend than normal. It is as they always say, “While the cat’s away, the mice will work,” or something to that effect. Alexa and her aunt, Kim, found a Portland-ish coffee shop downtown,The District Coffee House, which hosts live music by local musicians every week. Alexa took me back this week for some different artists and fresh kombucha; it was enjoyable and definitely Portland-ish (read: hipster).

Alexa did some amount of cleaning around the apartment. She also decided to make up for lost time by going into work on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, she had been sick for two days last week, a week her office was experiencing some crunch time for current projects, and was then rewarded with paintballing on Friday. She still has bruises to show for it, but I did hear she showed them how it was done.

This week was also the beginning of a new month! Allow me to take a step back. Just before the first of this year, we decided that each month we would work on a new hobby (at least for the first year), alternating who gets to choose. We have all these hobbies or activities we are interested in, yet we had no plan of how to work on them. Alexa chose stretching for January, so we stretched five minutes (most) every day, and will continue to do so when we remember. It’s made a noticeable difference in the state of our muscles since we are standing or sitting all day.

This month I chose escrima. That’s a good question you’re asking yourseft right now. After some research, escrima turns out to be a great way to work on upper/lower-body strength, dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and teamwork. Resistance of some kind is necessary for an optimal workout, be it tangible or intangible (accountability), and both can help to improve how we work together. In fact, I’ve already seen improvements, because we can’t do the sinwali drills (literally, “weaving”) without working together to get them right. It’s new and exciting, and we’ll keep you posted.

Lastly, we were invited to a small group hosted by one of the couples attending the church we found here in Boise. I am of the mind people thrive on small groups, as they are essentially a small community one can relate to and feel safe with. It is certainly something I crave for. We are going through this book, Radical, by David Platt; the book is really challenging the thought processes of our group, which I believe is healthy. We also each bring different food week to week, and they always LOVE whatever we bring. This week was haystacks, and we brought rice–they loved it. I guess if you have never had rice with a haystack.

Thanks for tuning in to the Chronicle this week.