How the Ippels recharge

We have been busy lately.  We are always busy (and if we are honest, we kind of like being busy), but these past couple of month have seemed even busier than normal—we are coming off 2 and a half months full of visitors, our ministry responsibilities (NCA, Tesoros de Dios, AMOS, House of Hope, church) are in full swing, Andrew is involved with the high school musical and currently has daily rehearsals, we are preparing to host a 7^th grade NCA student in our home during the school week, and more!  These are all great things, but you may be wondering what we are doing to stay sane and emotionally healthy—what we do to recharge. 

I (Ruth) am the Rest and Relaxation Dictator in our family.  These are some of the things I try to make sure happen on a regular basis:

Watch TV.  Most nights, after we tuck our kids and monkey into bed, Andrew and I watch a TV show.  We are very thankful for Netflix (did you know that Netflix is different in different countries? We have some of the same shows that you have in the US, but a lot of different ones too).  Often, we fall asleep before the show is done—evidence of how tired we are.

Play sports. One of my favorite ways to recharge is to play sports.  Most Sundays, we play Ultimate Frisbee at the school.  On Wednesday evenings, I play volleyball.  Any time there is an opportunity to play a sport, I jump on it (we even tried football one day… we probably won’t do that again).

Andrew playing Ultimate

Have games nights.  We have several friends who we play games with on a regular basis.  This is a great time to fellowship, catch up with each other, and just have fun. Some of our favorite games right now are Settlers of Catan, 7 Wonders, Euchre, Rook, and Sushi Go.

Go on dates. If you would have told me 3 years ago that I would eat Sushi in a developing country, I would have told you you were crazy.  Now, sushi is our date food of choice.  We go on a date at least once a month, sometimes more often.  We have started taking our kids on dates as well. Henry’s first choice is also sushi. His other date request is to go to our brand new Walmart.

Andrew and Mae on a date--Mae choice? TGI Fridays and gelato

In the midst of our busyness, we recognize the importance of these seemingly unimportant habits.  We want to live well and serve well, so these are the things we do behind the scenes to recharge for the days, months and years to come.