Happy July, friends! A proper monthly goals post will be coming shortly, but first I wanted to step back and share a mid-year update on my 2022 goals. I’ve done this for the past few years, and, as we say at Cultivate, pausing and reflecting like this really does help me to appreciate how my little efforts have added up over time. And, I don’t know, I figure you might be curious?! If so, let’s go!
Goal no. 1: Return to in-person worship. Progress I’ve made: I said this was my number one goal at the beginning of the year, and the progress certainly bears that out – hallelujah! Like many, we began worshipping from home when churches closed at the beginning of the pandemic, and then… never really returned, even though we were loyal online attenders. However, given my understanding of Jesus’s vision for a life of faith centering around learning, growing, and loving in a local community, I knew it was past time for our family to open ourselves back up to the discipline and delight of in-person worship. And we have! We’ve joined a new church family and have been worshipping regularly since February. We’ve joined a small group, we’ve started serving, we’ve gone to people’s houses for dinner, and we (and our kids) have made friends. From where we were then to where we are now, it’s all by the grace of God, and I am so grateful. What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: This goal is complete!
Goal no. 2: Bury the word of God in our hearts. Progress I’ve made: I have not been particularly systematic about this goal, but it has been fruitful nonetheless! The kids’ Sunday school has memory verses each month, so we’ve memorized those as a family, and June and I have also worked on a few together (still plugging away at 1 Corinthians 13!). For the first four months of the year, we were in a sermon series on Matthew as a church, and I LOVED doing my daily reading each day at lunch as set by the church-provided plan. Since we’ve moved onto a new sermon series without an at-home plan, I’ve gotten out of the habit, but this makes me think that it might be the right season for some other kind of structured plan (something I’ve not been interested in for a few years). Regardless, I have really started to notice my increasing familiarity with scripture (also helped by my work developing Write the Word journals!), how it has increasingly come to mind when I’ve needed it over the last few months. Grateful! What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: We’re still new at church, so I don’t know if providing a reading plan to correspond with the sermon series is common or not, but if it’s not, I would love to sketch out my own so I can get back into my lunchtime study. And I want to finish 1 Corinthians 13!
Goal no. 3: Complete my outstanding creative projects quarter by quarter. Progress I’ve made: For this goal, I assigned specific projects to each quarter of the year: a 2010-2014 family photo album to Q1, the first 10 years of EFM book to Q2, kid memorabilia and memory keeping to Q3, and finishing the Advent calendar to Q4. The Q1 goal is complete – HOORAY! The Q2 goal is dead in the water. What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I have accepted that the EFM book is simply too large of a goal for me to complete in my current season, given the other items that my revealed preferences (i.e. what I actually do) have shown are my priorities. I do plan to revisit the idea in the future. For the second half of the year, though, I’m moving forward with my plans as laid out and feel confident I’ll be able to complete them!
Goal no. 4: Make my fitness a priority and have fun doing it. Progress I’ve made: Fitness was 100% not a priority in 2021 – being a healthy pregnant person and a cozy post-partum person was, and that was perfect for that season of life. And now here we are in 2022! Our Q1 Peloton challenge was a slam-dunk success (apparently I’m a competitive person?!): I worked out every day but two, and biked 240 miles. Though I’ve dropped off a bit in Q2, so far this year I’ve logged 2,629 minutes of cycling, strength training, and stretching – versus 1,800 in all of 2021. I’ve also been in in-person physical therapy (and doing at-home exercises) since February for diastasis recti, and though it’s taking longer than I’d hoped, I’m grateful to be seeing progress. Finally, we’ve taken a handful of bike rides as a family of five! I have several goals under this umbrella: complete a diastasis recti program (any recommendations?), compete with our siblings in a Peloton challenge in Q1 (and probably Q4), add Annie into our life as a bike-riding family and get back out on the trails (starting in Q2!), and complete an MS75 ride in September with John and hopefully our brother- and sister-in-law! What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: We need to decide if we’re going to tackle an MS ride this year or table it to 2023… I am leaning toward the latter. Now that we have our car back, I hope to go on many more family bike rides together this summer and fall!
Goal no. 5: Celebrate our marriage with joy! Progress I’ve made: John and I are celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary this year! There wasn’t a lot I wanted to *do* for this goal; I mostly just want to make it a focus to praise the Lord for all He has done and continues to do in our marriage. And I think we’ve done that! We could not be happier or more grateful for where and how we are at this point in our life together. We’ve enjoyed monthly date nights (so far this year, for my Triangle gals: Chef’s Palette, Mandolin, the Durham (and Nate Bargatze!), Taverna Agora, the Provincial (and Top Gun!), and Mandolin again). We’ve booked a beachside dinner in Bermuda. What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: On our September Bermuda trip, I’d like to incorporate some “marriage summit”-type activities and vision casting for the next decade, and am planning to figure out the format for that during Cultivate’s Leap Ahead Day later this month. Planning to read sections of Creative Love and do some internet sleuthing, but if you’ve read a book or article or listened to a podcast episode on marriage summits or milestone marriage reflections, I’d love to hear! I also think I need some sort of celebratory anniversary dinner outfit?!
Goal no. 6: Refresh our home one quarter at a time. Progress I’ve made: This goal is by far the one where I’ve expended the most effort and have the least to show for it, ha. The original goal was to refresh our kitchen (and possibly our mantel) in Q1, and tweak our loft into a true play room in Q2. In reality, in what felt like a part-time job at times, I spent all of Q1 and into Q2 chasing down contractors to bid on our project. We did, eventually, chose two, and their work is scheduled to start in September (!). I also worked with Callie on a design plan for the kitchen (we’ve chosen the cabinet color!), and we’ve made some changes to our loft that feel significant: adding shelving, rehoming some of my styling supplies, rehoming some toys, and displaying the ones remaining with more care, a la the Montessori model. What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: LOTS! In Q3, it looks like our kitchen project will be complete, our fireplace mantel and surround will be replaced, some detail on our stairs will be refreshed, and our power room will be refreshed, as well. In prep for September, when the bulk of the work will be done, I need to make many, many final decisions and a few purchases. I am very grateful to be able to do this project (10 years in the making!), but the decision fatigue is real. Would you be interested in hearing more about what we have planned? It might help motivate me, ha!
Goal no. 7: Establish new rhythms for our family. Progress I’ve made: This goal was the most vague, and it’s easy to feel like nothing has happened. But, stepping back, I can see that we have absolutely established a new Sabbath rhythm: church, out to lunch, an afternoon nap for everyone in the house, and prepping for the week ahead. We’ve also done two quarters of our quarterly dates with the two older kids and they’ve been a huge hit! June and I went to our local production of Mary Poppins in Q1, Shep and I went to the trampoline park and Chick-fil-a in Q2, and June and John went to a ropes course and out for sushi in Q2. What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I’m hoping to start family meetings when the school year starts back up! Planning to use some of my Leap Ahead Day time to do some planning on this.
Goal no. 8: Make meals easier. Progress I’ve made: This is my simplest goal of 2022! I wanted to 1) buy a small chest freezer for our garage, 2) get into the practice of doubling and freezing meals, and incorporating frozen meals into my meal planning, and 3) build out 1-2 “brainless” weeks of menus for each season so I can copy and paste when I’m short on time. So far, I have gone to Lowes to look at freezers, reached an impasse with John on whether we should buy one, and wrote one brainless meal plan :) What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: Still hoping for that freezer!!
Whew! I’d love to hear how your progress on your 2022 goals has gone so far, if you’d like to share. Big or small, it’s worth celebrating!!
June has wrapped up her first year of elementary school, which means we’ve been in transition-to-summer mode! Just as we marked the beginning of kindergarten, we wanted to mark its end as a family, too. She had a wonderful year with the best teacher and sweetest class – more than we prayed for by every measure – and so celebrating was easy. Here’s what we did:
1. June got to choose our meal. She chose spaghetti, which in our house means Rao’s sauce and frozen meatballs – easy easy. I added cheesy garlic bread (again, frozen), her dessert choice of chocolate lava cakes with vanilla ice cream and raspberries, and “special drink” (sparkling cider, which is the preferred beverage for every special occasion around here).
2. We set a fancy table. That pink gingham tablecloth has been my go-to for years. We added place cards by June, popsicle plates, taper candles, and flowers from our yard (!). Always love setting a table with my girl.
3. We read good words over her. We’ve started the tradition of asking her teachers to write a note each year in a picture book, and at dinner, we read their beautifully-encouraging words. She beamed the whole way through.
(We chose this book for the tradition. I looked at lots of options, and though I wouldn’t say this book is the absolute best story, it’s sweet, the illustrations are lovely, and the pages have enough negative space for notes. For message, my first choice would have been this book, but alas, there’s not enough space for notes on the pages.)
4. We brainstormed summer fun. Also at dinner, we went around the table and took turns adding adventures to our summer fun list. I’ll take the ideas and form them into a list we can print for the fridge in the next week or so.
5. We filled in her school years memory book. I ADORE this simple and lovely book. Over the weekend, she and I spent some time filling in the prompts for the end of the school year and adding photos and artwork.
6. We hung our summer calendars. I printed oversize prints of this free summer reading chart and this $5 summer calendar. The illustrations by Camp Castle are so sweet, and the extra-big size just makes them fun. June got busy coloring the edges while I filled in our plans for June, July, and August. Hanging a summer calendar was a game-changer in 2021, so doing it again was a no-brainer!
Happy first day of summer, friends! If you recently closed out a school year, did you mark it in a special way? I’d love to hear!
There is one detail about our family life that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about John as a father and, really, as a person, and here it is: when our kids cry out in the middle of the night, they call for Daddy.
I know this is unusual, because every time it comes up in conversation the other person is staggered. Moms are simply the default middle-of-the-night parent, it seems. And this makes sense, to a certain extent: if you’re breastfeeding, you are the one that’s needed in the middle of the night. And then, as with many other patterns, it simply… continues.
That’s not what happened in our family. It turns out I am a very deep sleeper, and so when June was born, I would sometimes sleep through her baby cries (even though she was in the same room as us). John, though, would hear her. He would go to her in her bassinet, change her diaper by the dim light of the cracked bathroom door, re-swaddle her, and then deliver her to me to nurse. Every night, often multiple times a night, without fail.
Maybe it’s that imprint of him coming to each tiny baby’s aid from their earliest days, or maybe it’s the relentless gentleness, attention, and care he’s paid them every day since. For whatever reason, when it’s dark and our children are scared, or cry themselves awake from coughing, or vomit into their favorite stuffies and blankets, or bolt upright in bed, suddenly desperate for a sip of water, Daddy is the one they call for. They know he will always come, and they know he will always take care of them. He’ll turn on the nightlight, he’ll bring them water, he’ll change the sheets and pajamas and find new stuffies and tuck them back in. All, many times, without Mama even knowing anything is happening.
One day, our children will realize how extraordinary their father is, and how lucky they are to have him: a Daddy who loves deeply, and sacrifices deeply – a Daddy who loves them so deeply he’d never call it a sacrifice. But I know this now, and this weekend I’ll honor him and all of the other extraordinary dads loving and sacrificing quietly, gently, day in and day out. Happy Father’s Day. xo
Are we getting soft in our old age? Perhaps. But for year ten of camping with our friends – ten years of wide-open wonder and crisp air and melty s’mores and fireside chats, but also packing and hauling and uncomfortable backs – we opted to celebrate in style, with a glamping weekend at Gold River Camp at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Marion, NC. It was a delight. And you’re darn right we had matching tees. I’d love to share a few photos, if you’d like to see!
We arrived to Gold River around 5pm on our early June weekend. It’s a small, private campground that’s only about a year old; they offer cabins, RV sites, yurts, platform tents, and traditional campsites. Booking is all through Airbnb. The owners are onsite, but interaction is minimal (we unlocked our cabins with a code). We stayed in the Bower and the Cottage, which are connecting “cabins” – ours was one open room with a bed, a futon, and a bathroom with a shower; the Ray’s side had a living room area with a futon, a separate bedroom, a bathroom with a tub/shower, and the teeny kitchen. I put cabins in quotes because they’re really more like tiny houses – not a log in sight :)
The beautiful thing about not having to set up camp the way we usually do? We could start exploring right away! And there’s lots to explore at Gold River. The kids made a beeline for the creek, and though that was definitely a highlight of our stay, there were also Eno hammocks, Adirondack chairs, fire pits, and tables and chairs dotted around the property for anyone to use. (Less glamorous but maybe more important: trashcans were also always nearby – and were emptied multiple times throughout each day – which was convenient and appreciated.)
For dinner on Friday, we threw together spaghetti, sauce, and meatballs, frozen garlic bread, and cut veggies and dip (prepped at home to keep things easy!). We toted our plates down to the pavilion, a covered, open-air common space in the center of the camp. There were tables and stools to perch on, and best of all it was just feet from the babbling creek. After admiring fireflies from our front porch and getting kids settled in beds, the adults claimed a fire pit to close out the night.
Saturday morning dawned absolutely gorgeous – warm, sunny, clear. We had a quick breakfast of eggs, sausage, and fruit before packing up and heading to Toms Creek Falls. This hike was almost too easy for our taste – it’s a pretty much flat out and back that took about 20 minutes each way – but hiking in quickly meant we could spend plenty of time enjoying the waterfall at the end. And the waterfall would have been worth a much longer hike! We had great sight-lines to its dramatic plunge. The kids clambered over rocks all the way up to the pool at the base and there were sunny spots to enjoy snacks on, too. I just put my feet in but the water was coooooooold.
From there, we had lunch at Hillman Beer in Old Fort before heading back to Gold River. What a cool spot! Retrofitted from an old factory, it’s a cavernous, open-air space nestled right next to a creek (lots of creeks on this trip!). The food was delicious and it was neat to see all the brewing equipment through big glass walls.
Back at camp, a few of the littles napped while the rest of us spent the afternoon at the creek. (As a reminder, on this trip our kids were 7, 6, 4, 3 x 2, and almost 1 x 2.) The water was about a foot deep at its deepest, so it was easy for the kids to enjoy floating downstream, digging in the sandy bank, and splashing in the shallows. The adults supervised from camp chairs in the water, and this is possibly the most treasured part of camping weekends for me: sitting and doing nothing besides enjoying the surroundings and the company, with not even phantom tasks or the pull of household chores or a laptop to distract. It’s an opportunity to slow time way, way down, and it is good for the soul.
Dinner that night was the traditional hot dogs over the fire, with chips, veggies, and baked beans on the side, plus another round of s’mores for good measure. Bedtime is always easier on the second night: the initial buzz of excitement has burned off, and everyone’s exhausted from being outside all day :)
Sunday was another gorgeous morning, and we carted our pancakes and bacon down to the pavilion to eat by the river, pajamas and all. I think the kids spent the next three hours before checkout entirely in the Eno hammocks, ha. Most of them fell out multiple times, but good times were had by all.
Gold River will certainly go down in history as one of our favorite camping memories – the kids proclaimed it to be “the most fun ever” many times over throughout the weekend. If you’re nervous about camping but itching to give your family an outdoors experience, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Though we’re planning to return to our more rustic roots in 2023, I’m sure we’ll be back to Gold River at some point in the future!
Any questions about camping, in North Carolina or with kids? I’m always happy to help!
