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A most chaotic post to ring in the new year ✨

I wore my “Whatever” sweater on my first day back to the office. I bought it a while back when I was in what the kids call a “major funk.” My mood was very, “*annoyed voice* Whatever.” I thought it was funny (because, you know, my mood), but I asked my mom, “Is this going to make the mood stick? Like it’s just my thing now?”

In her motherly wisdom, she referenced Philippians 4:8, which has a lot of “whatevers” in it—whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, think on these things. I liked that, and I like the reminder that, whatever happens, God’s still got us—God’s always got us.

The last few years have been monumentally hard for my family. Tbh, there’s some fear and trepidation in my heart. But whatever has happened in the past—God has still been there. I can look back and see all kinds of things that really only make sense if you see that God was in them. Do I still have a lot of questions? Yeah. But I know whatever is going to happen—God will still be there. For whatever.

In the meantime, here are some snapshots of silliness with some of my favorite people. Featuring the @sonicmovie, which @matelskc, @elliott_matelski, and I saw twice because it was just that good; New Year’s Eve with free hats; Christmas at the grandparents’ house; my first time seeing The Nutcracker; oh, and one throwback to Thanksgiving with a picture my grandpa took without my realizing it.

That’s all for now. As always, thanks for being here for whatever. 💜

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My list of things I’m grateful for, because I need to write it down:
1. Elliott is alive and upright (I will spare you the photos of his car post-crash because those are traumatic).
2. Mom is cancer-free and done with active treatment.
3. Dad’s deposition went well, though we’re still waiting to know what insurance will come back with (because yes, two years later we are still fighting with Allstate for the benefits he deserves after sustaining a traumatic brain injury from the time a kid on his phone blew through a stop sign and t-boned him).
4. I’m recovering well from (suspected) shingles.
5. This chaotic summer has had many good memories, like Elliott’s graduation party; a spontaneous family trip to Mackinac Island; camp in the grandparents’ backyard with the cousins; and some incredibly fun photography adventures at work.
6. The garden is growing and so am I (though both of us are struggling through recent circumstances).
7. I have things to look forward to and people who want to see me.

I haven’t been here in a while. So, that’s the update on life. The not-so-surprising non-plot twist is: Things have been hard! Things are hard right now! Things are probably not going to get any easier! And for each point of gratitude, I have at least one question to go along with it—most of them starting with “why” and having no defined answer at this time.

But what are ya gonna do besides keep ticking on (even with a bad attitude, which I’ve been dragging around like a sack of moldy potatoes for a few weeks now)? We live by the faith that SOMEHOW (and your guess is as good as mine) all of this will work out for our good and God’s glory, and that the good He has in store for us is better than we know. I hold to that, even if in this moment it feels a little hollow, because I have seen it happen before in ways that are otherwise inexplicable. And so I hold it now, holding also the space for all the feelings God already knows I have, and which I know He has already made space for.

Aw, the world’s a crummy place—so this is my reminder to me that it’s still packed full of things to be grateful for. Write a little reminder of your own. It really is helpful.

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Please join us in welcoming our newest team members, Elliott Matelski and Bryce Malcom.

Elliott is from Petoskey, Michigan, and attended Petoskey High School. He is majoring in Business. A fun fact about Elliott is that he owns his own candle-making business.

Bryce hails from Grayling, Michigan, and is a graduate of Grayling High School. He is pursuing a degree in Cybersecurity. Two fun facts about Bryce are that he likes to play the guitar and go to the gym.

We are excited to have Elliott and Bryce on our team and look forward to their contributions. Welcome, Elliott and Bryce.

@bryce.mp5 @elliott_matelski
#Duit #storm #viral #strike #freshman #collegebowling #ME

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🔺🔺🔺

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Congrats Elliott, go panthers!

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Our Christmas had an unintentional theme this year... 😅⁣
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Well, this might have been the weirdest Christmas any of us have lived through, but I think it was actually one of my favorites. ☃️ ⁣
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We were able to do advent this year—an old family tradition we haven’t done in a long while—so every night we’d gather in the living room and Dad would read from the advent book Chandler and I listened to as kids, and then Chandler, Elliott, and I would take turns reading from a big book that slowly walks through the story of Jesus’ birth. ⁣
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We’d often follow that up with an episode or two of Star Wars Rebels or The Mandalorian. ✨⁣
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On Christmas Eve, we three kids opened a present and found Grogu/Baby Yoda pajamas smiling back at us. Christmas morning was slow and easy, without any travel plans, and I cried during our final advent reading. ⁣
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Significantly. 🙈⁣
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This year’s been hard—I’ve not been shy about admitting that—and through the pain and the doubt and the fear this year has thrown at me, I’ve felt God’s comfort and peace and grace in ways I have never felt before. So I cried, cuz I’m just so dang grateful that Jesus came for the misfits and the outcasts and the chronically ill and disabled—I’m so dang grateful that he cares about people like me, especially in a year when it’s felt like a lot of people don’t. ⁣
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And after my very sappy moment 😅 we got to presents. 🎁 ⁣
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It was kind of hysterical how many presents were Star Wars related—the things I drew around Potsie are gifts Chandler and I got, and most of them are ones we got each other. 😂 We just really like that little green guy a lot okay. 🥺 ⁣
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It was so nice to just take the day slow and enjoy each other’s company—we all had our phones down, so there really aren’t that many photos, but I think Mom captured a few keepers. 😂 ⁣
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I hope you all had a great week and that you’re all able to have a restful weekend. I know things are hard and different this year, but I hope you’ve been able to slow down and find the good in these days, too. I hope you’ve found some comfort and peace and grace. 💜 ⁣
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#KindOfASappyPost #BabyYoda #Grogu #TheMandalorianFanart #Mando #StarWarsChristmas #SpoonieArtist Potsie is surrounded by Star Wars themed presents—most of them involve Baby Yoda.

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MIDDLE SCHOOL RETREAT!

On October 9-11, we will be taking 6th-8th graders to @LakeAnnCamp_MI for their annual Middle School retreat, Exiled.

Exiled is an experience of a lifetime, as you will be immersed into a simulated environment that is designed to put you in situations where living for Jesus seems unpopular, or downright scary.

This is always an amazing experience and you will begin to discover what your own faith means to you and how you can live it out in your world.

Head to walloonym.com/retreats for more info about the retreat and to get registered.
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Registration Deadline: all forms must be submitted to pastor @BrantCole by the end of October 7th.

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Happy It’s-Finally-Not-March-Anymore!! 🙃⁣
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Went back and forth on whether or not I was gonna do a comic today—finally drew it because I needed to cheer myself up. ⁣😬
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A huge THANK YOU to my patrons—now including Elliott, who walked up the stairs one night, slammed a five dollar bill on the counter, and said, “Patreon can’t take a cut outta THAT!” 😅 Thanks so much for supporting me during the longest. month. ever. ⁣I extra appreciate it during this time. ⁣
As a reminder, you can find the link to my Patreon AND my Etsy shop (where my coloring book is on sale for $5!!) via the link in my bio! ⁣
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All right, that’s all I got for today. Thanks for being here, everybody. Don’t forget to tell the people you love that ya love ‘em. And that ain’t a joke. 💜⁣
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#AprilFoolsDay #WebcomicArtist #PotsieAndSusan #SpoonieArtist #ChronicallyIllArtist #DisabledArtist #AprilFreakingFools #ComicArtist #SpoonieLife #ChronicIllnessLife #PatreonArtist #SupportSmallArtists

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Swipe for the bonus fun fact that has been Elliott’s fave to share with me recently. 🙃 ⁣
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the kid who will always and forever be called “small child” and “small fry,” no matter how tall he gets. 😌 This kid is FOURTEEN today and all of us are kind of in a “wait how did you get so old” kind of state, I think. 😅 ⁣
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Once upon a time, while Elliott and I were looking through my comics and giggling (because he is great and almost always giggles at my comics), he was shocked to find multiple comics featuring Chandler, and ZERO comics featuring him. 😱 I figured what better day than a 14th birthday to change that? 🥳 ⁣
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Happy birthday, little man. Love you buckets—even when you give me fun facts I’d rather not hear. 😳⁣
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#HappyBirthdayToElliott #aka @realuptowndog #WhyDoLittleSiblingsGetSoTall #SoonPeopleWillThinkImYoungerThanHimToo #Anyhoo ##AComicForElliott #HappyBirthdayBuddy

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MIDDLE SCHOOLERS: On December 18th, we're gonna get our snow globe on!

Featuring a fun Christmas costume contest, and a goofy gift exchange, you will want to make sure you’re here - and your friends too!

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This just in—space android gets turned around in local Home Depot, apparently looking for replacement parts... 🤔⁣
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I didn’t post these pics last night cuz I was too tired. 😴 But I had lots of fun with Mom and Elliott! It was suuuuuuper cold, so we skipped trick-or-treating downtown (always a bummer, because Halloween in our town is basically a giant block party—the main roads close down and it’s just this awesome community event), but we did go to trunk-or-treating earlier in the evening just to see some other people in costumes. Elliott dressed as Millenial Dad, complete with a monkey toy dressed up as a baby. It was so well swaddled that people thought it was an ACTUAL baby, and two separate grandfatherly figures asked if the baby was warm enough. 😂 ⁣
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Afterwards we stopped by Home Depot because A) I needed some hardware to help me hang a new shelf in the studio and B) I thought it would be exceptionally funny for an android to go to a hardware store. 😅 ⁣
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Then we came home and handed out little packages of cookies and hot cocoa mix, with varying success. 🙈 Gretel hated it and was SURE that those small children were here to MURDER US. 😱 Bolt hopped outside to bark at a couple of them and when I said, “Boltie, get back in here, young man,” he hopped right back inside and the kids giggled. 😊⁣
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So it was kind of an unusual Halloween for us, but I’m glad I got to dress up and have some fun—even if half the makeup that I ordered didn’t get here in time. Thanks, Amazon. 😌 I’ve had a rough month, and this week has been exceptionally hard, so I’m glad I got to be Data for a night. ⁣
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Oh! And the Hilda pictures (aka me with blue hair 😅) are from Wednesday! I dressed up for Awana and REALLY HOPED that in a church full of kids, SOMEBODY would recognize a character from a Netflix cartoon...but nobody did. 😐 Not a single person. It was. Disappointing. 😅 (Also: I was the ONLY PERSON who wore a costume. Which was also kind of disappointing tbh. 🙈)⁣
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ANYHOO... How was your Halloween? Did you see (or wear) any exceptionally cool costumes? Let me know in the comments below! 🖖⁣

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We had zero fun. None. What. So. Ever. #photoscavengerhunt #middleschoolministry #walloonym

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