Happy October, friends! The most exciting news around here is our kitchen project, which is well underway – I had to include a photo of some of the progress for this month’s update. The backsplash is complete (love!), the microwave has been removed and hood added, lots of little painting details were taken care of, the light fixture was switched out, and perhaps most excitingly, our fireplace has had a MAJOR glow-up. It all already looks so different!
And today, as you read this, a crew is back at our house hammering away, building out around the fridge before refacing and painting the cabinets later this week. It’s a bit stressful (I’m so nervous to see the paint color go on!), but I am very grateful.
Aside from a completed kitchen and cleaned-up dust, let’s see what else is on tap for October…
On my calendar this month: — Our annual fall trip to the mountains. We absolutely loved our trip to Black Mountain in 2021 but are returning to Highlands this year! — The 6th anniversary of Articles Club! Recap of what we read this year coming to a blog near you soon. — Lots of hikes. Fall, with its changing leaves and cooler temps, is my very favorite time to get out in the woods as a family!
What I’m loving right now: — Ever since Father of the Bride at age 7, it’s been Steve Martin for me. Loved this recent profile of him. — It’s hard to classify this as something I’m “loving,” since it was certainly a sobering episode, but this conversation with Jenny Black on the RB&G podcast has stuck with me weeks after I listened to it. I consume a lot of content around kids, parents, and the effect of technology on both, and there were still points she raised that were totally new for me. — Random, but we have found these waterproof pads to be so helpful when kids are transitioning out of pull-ups overnight. We lay it over the sheet and if there’s an accident in the middle of the night, we can just whisk it off without remaking the whole bed. And they go in the washing machine, too!
As a reminder, you can find alllll the things I’ve loved over the last few years neatly organized right here!
What I read in September: It’s been a strange month of reading for me!
I finished Take Back Your Family, and though I liked it, it mostly felt like ideas I already knew – and the writing was a bit clumsy. This epic piece by David Brooks was basically a more sophisticated version of the first half of the book.
I started The Common Rule and am LOVING it. However, I’m only one chapter in because I committed to trying each of the habits he lays out before moving on to reading about the next one.
I started Great Circle and quit it about 75 pages in. The plot plodded, I didn’t care for the characters, and I found some of the content disturbing. Not for me.
I started Crossing to Safety and am enjoying it so far! It was published in 1987 and feels like it was published a century ago, in some ways. Very different reading experience than a modern novel.
Finally, I just started Majesty last night and am a quarter through it, ha. My Mom took it out of the library when she visited and I figured I’d zip through it before returning it!
Revisiting my September goals: All hands on deck for the kitchen project! Order mirror and hand towel for powder room (Done! We decided on this mirror – I think it looks far more high-end than its price – and a hand towel from the JB x PB collection. Love!) Edit June in June Volume 7 Film Sheptember, Volume 4 Complete June’s baby book Prepare well for and enjoy our anniversary trip (Yes, although due to Hurricane Fiona it took a COMPLETELY unexpected turn. More about that soon…) Clear the backlog on my “Friday list.” (I completed about 1/3 instead of the half I was aiming for, but good progress!)
October goals: — Organize our garage. It is the stuff of (my) nightmares right now. — Sew the Christmas tree for my Advent calendar (back at it!) — Join Ben’s October challenge for a little Peloton pick-me-up — Send care packages to our college babysitters — Finish final kitchen details once work is complete (organizing stuff in cabinets, order rug, artwork for bathroom, etc.) — Edit Sheptember, Volume 4 — Create our family Halloween costumes (Nothing, and I repeat nothing will (ever?) beat last year’s, but we’re still going to have fun!)
Last quarter of 2022, here we go! Grateful for you all!
I’m one month into my new work rhythm, we’re back from two weeks in New England, June is back to school, Annie is walking, and fall is around the corner. And this month? This month, John and I celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. I am grateful and in awe, and included a nod to this milestone on my PowerSheets: “If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.” Taking care feels effortless some days and a tall order others, but every day, I feel sure we’ve found a treasure in each other. We will be celebrating big this month, and I can’t wait!
On my calendar this month: — The first day of fall! We’ll bake apple cider scones for our family and June’s teachers, a tradition we started six years ago. — My very favorite kids consignment sale! — Our tenth wedding anniversary and trip to Bermuda!!!
What I’m loving right now: — When in Maine, Kate introduced us to the card game Dutch Blitz, and I. could not. get. enough. It’s addicting in a similar way to solitaire (maybe I’ll win if I play just one more time!), but is played in a group. SO FUN. (You can buy an expansion pack to play with more than four, too!) — Martha Stewart was the topic of our most recent Articles Club, and this podcast episode was in the bonus material. As a very longtime Martha fan, I felt seen (and even learned some new info!). A very enjoyable hour! — This clock was included in our kitchen refresh design plan. I ordered and hung it back in May (for $8 less than it’s now listed for, sob) and it’s kept my hope for this project alive through many months of no progress. Aside from being a beacon of hope, It’s so nice to be able to see the time from almost anywhere in our downstairs without needing to have my phone on me.
As a reminder, you can find alllll the things I’ve loved over the last few years neatly organized right here!
What I read in August: — I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet | Hoo boy. I know I have many Shauna Niequist fans reading (I count myself among them!), but… this was not my favorite of her titles. The subtitle – “discovering new ways of living when the old ways stop working” – is important here: I realized pretty quickly that her “old” ways and my “current” ways are very similar. She speaks very compassionately about her old ways (not in a disparaging way!), and there are extremely valid, difficult reasons why she needed to find new ways – but I don’t have those reasons, and so this book just wasn’t what I needed for this season. And that’s okay!
Revisiting my August goals: Enjoy our time in Maine and Connecticut Edit June in June Volume 7 (I finally picked a song!! Progress to come!) Plan and enjoy our back-to-school dinner Make kitchen decisions and order things (Met with handyman and Callie! Tile, cabinet hardware, hood vent, lights have been ordered!) Make powder room decisions and order things (Light has been ordered but I can’t really say this is complete…) Complete June’s baby book Adjust to my four-day work week rhythm
September goals: — All hands on deck for the kitchen project! This is the big month when work will start and (hopefully!) be finished!! — Order mirror and hand towel for powder room — Edit June in June Volume 7 — Film Sheptember, Volume 4 — Complete June’s baby book — Prepare well for and enjoy our anniversary trip — Clear the backlog on my “Friday list.” In the weeks before my schedule shifted at work, I began to put tasks on a “Friday list” – things I’d get to when I was no longer working on Fridays. There are currently 32 items on it (some big, some very tiny) and I’d love to clear at least half of them out this month!
I’d love to hear: what are you celebrating these days? Big or little – all good things welcome :)
As a reminder, many of these are drawn from my 2022 goals!
Happy August, friends! It’s a big month around here – as of today, I am transitioning to working four days a week. This might seem like small news, but to me, it looms large. I’m very much looking forward to this change, and yet I’ve also felt conflicted – not necessarily about doing it, but about sharing it. If it would be of interest, I’m willing to attempt to untangle my many thoughts in a future post, as I think conversations around women and moms and household responsibilities and “work/life balance” (ick) are often shout-y, shallow, and all-or-nothing. This would decidedly not be that, but it’s still a delicate topic. Let me know what you think.
On that note, the main driver of this shift is to give more weight in my work/life balance to our home and family’s management, but I do expect it will give me a bit more time to write here, and for that I’m very grateful, as this blog and community are a joy of my life. (Still no plans to make it a job, though, ha.) Thank you, as always, for being here! xo
On my calendar this month: — A week in Maine and a week in Connecticut! Two of our favorite places with some of our favorite people. We feel very lucky. — The first day of school!
What I’m loving right now: — S’mores game changer: use original Fudge Stripes cookies in place of both graham crackers and chocolate bars. You’d think the ratio wouldn’t be quite right but it is perfection. Heartfelt thank yous to the Michigan cousins for making our introduction! — We listened to several episodes of the Along for the Ride podcast on our recent road trips, and they were delightful! Each episode has games, stories, and conversation starters, and though they’re geared towards kids, we all enjoyed listening and playing along.
As a reminder, you can find alllll the things I’ve loved over the last few years neatly organized right here!
What I read in July: — The Prophet’s Wife | I picked up this fictional novel about the wife of the founder of the LDS church in a bookshop in Michigan on a whim. The writing and interweaving of time periods felt a little clunky to me, but what bothered me most was the seeming liberties taken with the interior thoughts of the main character: her feelings towards her husband, her faith, and the church he founded (all largely negative, in her imagining). Though the author takes pains to note this is a novel, not a biography, the plot follows the historical record so closely that I guess it seems a little cheap to impose such strong feelings onto a historical figure without evidence for them. Also, I had flashbacks to reading The Paris Wife with this one: you know you’re headed to an unfortunate ending, and so a sense of minor dread hangs over the whole novel. Not my favorite.
Revisiting my July goals: Write the service I’m giving at the Island in August (Yes! This soaked up much of my extra time last month, as evidenced by my lack of activity here. But I think it was well worth it to show up for one of my most special in-person communities.) Edit June in June, Volume 7 Use Cultivate’s Leap Ahead Day to plan our Bermuda “marriage summit” …and strategize and plan ahead for family meeting topics(More to come here, but got started!) Write out a personal reading plan for the rest of our current sermon series Complete June’s baby book Make kitchen decisions and order things (I am not checking this off, but I did get organized to make decisions… I basically gathered everything I need to make the decisions and laid it all out very neatly so that Callie can come over and we can knock them out in an hour or two. That date is on the calendar!)
August goals: — Enjoy our time in Maine and Connecticut — Edit June in June Volume 7 — Plan and enjoy our back-to-school dinner — Make kitchen decisions and order things — Make powder room decisions and order things (light, mirror, hand towel!) — Complete June’s baby book — Adjust to my four-day work week rhythm
As a reminder, many of these are drawn from my 2022 goals!
I hope the second half of summer is treating you well, friends! If you’ve had any fun adventures lately, I’d love to hear about them in the comments! :)
We are back from a week in northern Michigan with John’s family, and wow was it a delightful departure from ordinary life. Everything from the weather (75, crisp, sunny, no humidity) to the character of each day (surrounded by loved ones young and old, very little schedule, very few responsibilities) was refreshing. Though the break from normal life did include this very delayed monthly goals post, it was worth it – after all, there’s still plenty of time left in the month, and I wouldn’t have been working toward these goals while away, anyway! :)
On my calendar this month: — All the birthdays! Annie’s, John’s, and Shep’s! — The big photo shoot for Cultivate’s 2023 collection. Always fun to see my pals in person (most of us work remotely) and make some photo magic! — Eating lots of peaches and making this dessert.
What I’m loving right now: — We lived for more than a decade without a printer in our home, and we got along just fine – I’d just print the few things we needed at Office Max, which cost pennies and was right around the corner. When June started kindergarten, though, we felt like it would be helpful to have a printer in-house, and boy has it been delightful. I have very bad feelings towards printers in general – they always seem to be running out of ink and/or jamming – but this one has been docile and compliant. Turns out it’s actually really nice to hit print on something and then just run upstairs to retrieve it instead of getting in your car. — I’m not sure if it can really be classified as something I’m loving, but this piece about the complicated and often uncomfortable realities of online returns was eyeopening. An important read for anyone who cares about waste and thoughtful consumption. — I snagged this road trip activity book for June for our Michigan adventure, and she loved it! A great price and really well done.
As a reminder, you can find alllll the things I’ve loved over the last few years neatly organized right here!
What I read in June: — Hunt, Gather, Parent | You know me – I love my parenting books, and this one is no exception. I’ve really enjoyed it and am jotting down things to share in a future post! As a side note, I’ve always found book review posts challenging to write – there’s so much to say, and how to condense it into a manageable format?! – and so even though I read a lot and love discussing books, I’ve written very few of them. Inspired by Nancy’s podcast episodes, though, I’m going to try framing future book review posts by sharing just five takeaways (I need a constraint!). Let me know whether you’d be interested in reading a post like that?
Revisiting my June goals: Download Blurb software, get familiar with it, and complete 2008 in book (Nope – more in my mid-year goals review!) Finish memorizing 1 Corinthians 13 with June (We did one more verse!) Finish editing Annie in April and film June in June, Volume 7(Done and done! Annie’s video makes me tear up the most of any I’ve done so far. I got to use one of my favorite songs and it is just so sweet.) Plan Shep’s fourth birthday party (and plan for John and Annie’s July birthdays, too)(Planning for his low-key nature/camping brunch celebration is complete! Annie’s birthday was celebrated in Michigan surrounded by family in one of our favorite places in the world. Scrambling a bit to get John’s festivities together in the wake of our trip, but we’ll make it happen!) End the school year and begin our summer well(Yes! More here!) Write the service I’m giving at the Island later this summer (No actual writing has happened but I’ve been turning over lots of ideas in my head, which is often the necessary prerequisite to writing.) Pick blueberries, many times over (Sadly, our favorite blueberry patch has changed their hours this year, so we haven’t been able to visit yet. Hopefully in the next week or two!)
July goals: — Write the service I’m giving at the Island in August — Edit June in June, Volume 7 — Use Cultivate’s Leap Ahead Day to plan our Bermuda “marriage summit” — …and strategize and plan ahead for family meeting topics — Write out a personal reading plan for the rest of our current sermon series — Complete June’s baby book — Make kitchen decisions and order things
We’re off for an extended trip to Maine and Connecticut later this month, so I’m doing my best to keep this month’s list simple and relatively fool-proof! And here’s hoping that gives me a some space to squeeze in blog posts I’ve been hoping to write: our Hammocks Beach recap, Michigan recap, c-section tips, first year baby gear final reviews, some faith formation practices that have been working for us, and that book review! Thank you, as always, for being here, friends!!
