September Quarterly

9.28.2021


October starts the last quarter of the year! I feel like 2021 has been kind of a blur somehow. I would say the days are long, the years are short, but actually the days seem so short too in this season. I'm working at home full time, and my daily routine is getting everyone up, dressed, and fed breakfast (old fashioned oatmeal with brown sugar is our daily choice at the moment!), getting the kids to drop-off, coming home to work, going for a run on my lunch break, working some more, picking the kids up, dinner/bedtime, an hour or two of alone time at night that goes way too fast, and then I try to be in bed by 10:00, though sometimes it's more like 10:30. Does anyone still stay up past 11 anymore? Maybe don't answer that. I know I'm old and boring.

I asked on my Instagram if anyone had any questions or topics they'd be interested in me covering in this month's update, and I got a few, so here we go!

MARATHON TRAINING

Several people asked me to talk about marathon training, but I know not everyone is interested, and since I assume I'm going to have a lot to say, I'm going to work on a whole post about all things running, to be published hopefully by the weekend. I'll try to work on it later this week. My race is less than 2 weeks away, so I'm currently in taper mode. 

BABY F

Baby F is really not so much a baby anymore, and these days he's getting into e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. His newest trick is sitting on top of the kitchen table, because he realized that he can climb onto the chairs by himself SO THAT'S GREAT. I love milestones!

He wants to be everywhere the big kids are, but he doesn't quite understand that he's not a big kid himself, so he's spending his days waddling around and making everyone mad by knocking over magnatile towers completely on purpose and stealing matchbox cars from J's very specific lineup and then running away with a huge grin on his face.

He doesn't say a whole bunch of words, but he can say a few, and he's getting much more expressive and vocal about basically anything that's happening.


PARENTHOOD WITH THREE

Someone asked me to talk about spending time with each kid when you have multiples. In this current season, I feel like our routine includes time with me and R basically every day. I put F to bed at 6:30, Jordan puts J to bed soon after, and R and I read books or color for a half hour or so every night before she goes to bed around 7:30. 

I usually can grab time with F while the other two are occupied in the evening. There's a bit of time after dinner and before bedtime where everyone plays, and while I do NOT want to give the impression that R and J play perfectly together (because they DO NOT), they have been doing a better job recently than they ever have before, which is fun to watch and encouraging.

J is the hard one for me to get alone time with, because usually F is around and being needy. On the weekends when I'm home all day, I try to spend 10 minutes of quiet time while F is napping with R and with J. I set a timer for 10 minutes, and then when it's up I move to the next kid. It doesn't always happen, but I try. During the week, I honestly don't always feel like I'm able to spend alone time with J every day, just due to what's currently working with our bedtime routine; but I do try and give him specific attention when I can, even just a moment here or there, which hopefully is better than nothing.

KINDERGARTEN

I was pretty anxious as the school year approached about what our new dropoff/pickup routine would look like. The kids had been all at the same daycare, but now that R was going to kindergarten I was having to go to two locations in the morning and afternoon. 

I never would have expected, but it's actually been going really well and feels much easier than it did before, 100% due to the fact that Jordan is home to help. Before, he would leave the house before we did, so I was getting everyone up and dressed and fed on my own. Now, we wake up the kids at 6:15, almost an hour earlier than we used to, and he is able to help with the dressing and the feeding and the getting everyone in the car. It's been a great change for me.

SOCCER

Our big thing this month was J starting soccer! I admit that I always thought it was a little ridiculous to pay for a 4-year-old to play a sport. But he loves to run and is pretty good at kicking a ball, and we thought he would love it. And we were right! He has had 2 games so far, practice for 1 hour once a week, and he is having a blast. It's so cute seeing all the kids chasing the ball around the field, and last weekend he scored a few goals, which was so fun!


PODCASTS

This is a season of podcasts for me, and what a time to be alive! You can find someone talking about nearly any topic you can imagine, all for free. I listen to podcasts while I'm on a run, while driving home from daycare dropoff, while doing mindless busywork during the workday, and while cleaning the house. Current favorites (in no particular order):

-Scrapbook Your Way (my current nerdy favorite! A podcast all about scrapbooking!)
-The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill (currently in the middle of this series)
-The Megyn Kelly Show (I like when she brings on guests from different sides to discuss current issues)
-The Village Church Sermons (Matt Chandler's series on the book of Revelation was soooo good)
-Office Ladies (The Office rewatch podcast)
-Java with Juli (I really enjoy some of these conversations; I don't listen to every single episode)
-Drama Queens (One Tree Hill rewatch podcast)
-Good Inside with Dr. Becky (parenting)
-Unruffled (Respectful Parenting)
-Mama Bear Apologetics (parenting)
-Risen Motherhood (motherhood)

Podcasts my kids love:
-God's Big Story
-The Story Pirates

ON BEING CONTENT

Now for probably the most thoughtful topic I got: how to be content with what you have. That's certainly something a majority of people struggle with, including me. This is going to sound so cliche, but honestly, I do notice such a difference when I spend less time on social media. When I'm just doing my thing, with my people, I feel (generally speaking) great about my life and what I have. 

It's when I start seeing what everyone else has that I realize, oh hey, I think it would be nice to have that too but I don't have it and I want it but I can't get it because of this and this and this reason (money, space, time, location etc etc).

Whenever that feeling of discontentment or jealousy does poke at me, I try to remember to ask myself: do I REALLY want/need that thing, or do I just feel like I want it because I saw that they had it? Another phrase I'm working on: Good for them, not for me. Sometimes when I start feeling discontent, I take a step back and rationally examine the situation. Is this actually feasible for my lifestyle, for my goals, for my personality? In theory I might think I want this or that, but in reality I don't because it would mean changing something or a few things about my life that I actually like. It's good for them that they can do xyz, but it's not for me.

Now of course, changing things about your life to pursue goals and dreams and other thing you really do want is an entirely different conversation, but sometimes I find that the thing that seems "ideal" that someone else has is not, in reality, something I actually want for me. Does that make any sense?

Anyway, not sure if that helped at all, but those are a few thoughts on this late-night Tuesday. I'd love to hear any thoughts you have about how to be content. It's definitely something that goes in spurts for me.

Running/marathon post coming up next, and this way those of you who would rather walk across a floor filled with dried play-doh on bare feet than read a single word about running can just skip on by.

For My Grandpa

9.16.2021

Last Monday, I flew to Illinois to attend my grandpa's funeral. He was 96 and had been declining for several years, so although not unexpected, the reality and finality of death is sad. And yet, there was a peace and joy in it too, because my grandpa loved Jesus and had longed for heaven since my grandma passed away ten years ago.

There was a family service at the gravesite on a sunny and breezy Tuesday morning. The forecast predicted rain, which held off until we were having lunch at my uncle's house, and even then it was barely a sprinkle. My grandpa served our country as part of the United States Army in World War II. A flag was draped over the casket; there was a gun salute, and a member of the military played Taps.

On Monday night, the night before the funeral, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren gathered in the house my grandma and grandpa built over half a century ago. We told stories and looked at pictures, and enjoyed being together.

It was bittersweet, saying goodbye to my grandparents' house. It is a large house, with original shag carpet and a long hallway in the basement that I always remember being afraid of. I walked slowly down the curved staircase with the purple carpet, into the back sitting room where we had our Christmas gift exchanges, the porch where the "kid table" always was and the dining room, with the long table that seated the adults. The bathroom upstairs with a long sink and carpeted stairs that led up to a bathtub, and the half bathroom downstairs where my dad would sit with me when I was a toddler having a meltdown. 

The kitchen table, where I last saw my grandpa.

The last time I saw my grandpa in person was December 2019. He was by that point a little confused about who people were; he was talking slower and taking longer pauses. But he sang for us and quoted Scripture, and those two things he wasn't confused about. 

My brother and sister and I were there at the table, and he asked us, "When is the last time you shared with someone about Jesus?" My grandpa wasn't perfect, and he wasn't always easy to have a conversation with, but one thing I remember about him is that he was always talking to anyone, anywhere, about Jesus. 

"Do you know for certain where you would go if you died tonight?" he would ask the waitress at the restaurant we were eating at. "Do you know Jesus?" he would ask the lady at the checkout counter of the store. As a kid, it was embarrassing how often he talked to strangers. 

When my grandma was alive, it was not at all uncommon for her to come out of the bathroom at a hotel and tell us that she had just led someone to Jesus. "You did what?" we would say. And my grandma would have gotten the person's name and phone number and told them that she was praying for them and would follow up.

I admit that I'm not the best at talking to people about Jesus. No, scratch that. I'm pretty terrible at talking to people about Jesus. Underneath my embarrassment for how long my grandpa took to pray before our meal when we ate out or how much he talked to people he didn't know, I was also in awe of how easy he made it seem. And maybe some of that is just getting older and not caring anymore what people think (I do think that was part of it).

In honor of my grandpa, I decided that on my flights to and from Chicago I would ask the person who sat next to me on the airplane if they had a prayer request. It's not quite as bold as straight up asking them if they know Jesus, but it felt like a big step for me.

I stood in line to walk into the plane toward Chicago, psyching myself up to talk to my seat mate, and no one sat next to me! I couldn't believe it. I guess God decided he didn't have a divine appointment for me that day. I got my chance on the way home. I felt super nervous and blurted out the speech I'd practiced in my head almost as soon as the person sat down. 

His name was Benjamin, and he seemed surprised and confused (I also think he had a hard time hearing me with the sound of plane engine and the mask and the fact that I was nervous and talking fast), but he said that I could pray for success in what he was doing. I honestly have no idea what he is doing or what he meant by success, and for all I know he just said the first thing he thought of to get the crazy lady to be quiet. But I was proud of myself for doing it, even if "it" wasn't really that big.

It felt like a lot, and really it shouldn't. Just like typing this out shouldn't feel like a lot either. I don't even have to see anyone face-to-face, and still it feels scary sometimes to talk about faith.

But as I sit here, writing about my grandma and grandpa, that's what I'm left with: their passion for sharing Jesus. An uncounted number of people greeting them in heaven because of their work here on earth.

This post is for my grandpa Bernie. 
I know for an undeniable fact that he is, indeed, now at rest, and at peace.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:19-21

Hobbies and Things

9.01.2021

I'm going to try to write a "newsletter" of sorts on here once a month for the rest of the year and see how that goes. Obviously I fell hard off the blogging wagon and haven't been able to catch back up, but I really miss sitting down to write, and I still feel like this is a friendly place, waiting for me whenever I want to come back.

Another reason I'd like to try to keep at least a month recap going is because I've gotten super into scrapbooking lately, and my blog has served as a great reference, and I want it to continue to be a reference for future scrapbooking! 

My grandma got me into Creative Memories scrapbooking when I was in junior high, and it's been a passion and hobby of mine ever since. I love photography and editing, and then creating stories with those memories with physical and digital books. I get sad thinking about photos only living on my phone, and I regularly print out photos and make books. The majority of my digital books are created through Shutterfly or Chatbooks, but I also truly love making physical scrapbooks. I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me it's a super calming, fun activity that I do after the kids go to bed.

I won't bore you with the backstory, but basically I started to run out of supplies and ideas, so I hadn't worked on my scrapbook in a while, but I recently discovered the rabbit hole of--not joking--scrapbooking instagrammers. Who knew that was a thing?! I immediately drove deep and am not mad about it. So the past few months I've spent most evenings working on my 2016-2018 and 2020 scrapbook. Unfortunately for 2019, it got skipped somehow, and I think at this point I'll probably just end up making a Chatbook with all my 2019 pictures.

Yes, I am a crazy picture person. I regret nothing.
I just want my photos to live outside of my phone! It's weirdly important to me.


When I'm not scrapbooking, I've also taken on a very labor-intensive project: training for a full marathon. I won't bore you with the backstory on that either, but the long and short of it is, I'm registered to run my third full marathon (26.2 miles) in Chicago in October. I started training at the end of May, and my monthly mileage has pretty quickly been increasing as my runs have gotten longer. In August I ran 115 miles, and September should top that.

It has been harder than I thought, and harder than Jordan thought. My previous two marathons were both in 2013, pre children, when I could leave the house basically whenever I wanted to run as far or as long as I needed. Fitting 1-3 hour runs into my day with 3 kids and a full-time job is a real challenge, and I guess maybe it sounds like, "well duh," but honestly I didn't think it would be quite so demanding on my time and energy. As I often end up saying about things I sign up for, it's possible I didn't fully think this though.

Nevertheless, I'm only just over a month away from the race, and feeling excited and nervous and ready to not run so dang much. In June, July, and August I've run 4x a week except for a few weeks, and that's the most consistently I've run in the past 11 years of my running "career." And it's been so.stinking.hot. I do have a time goal because that's just who I am, but my main goal is truly to enjoy the experience. I doubt I will ever do anything like this again, and I am so excited to be back in my favorite place ever doing one of my favorite things!

The past year has been crazy hard. Everyone has their own different circumstances, their own different challenges, their own opinions and beliefs and thoughts. But the one thing we can all agree on: it's been unanimously hard for everyone. I'm thankful to have had this race as a goal and something to work toward this year--something that's gotten me out of the house now that I'm working from home; something that's kept both my mind and my body active; something that is challenging and hard and something that I can be proud of just for myself.

I hope the summer has treated you well. There are a lot of very scary and sad things going on right now, and I don't want to act like it's all been easy and fun. There have been hard decisions and lots of questions, more questions, and more hard decisions. To be honest, I'm very tired of all the arguing and noise, people shouting at each other with no intention of trying to listen to what the other person is saying or where they are coming from. I read a post recently where the writer said that we need to "posture yourself with charitableness." I love that. Take up a position of grace, of kindness, even when you don't agree.

To anyone reading this, I'm glad you're here! It felt so nice to type out some words in this space again. Happy September, friends.

・ DESIGNED BY ECLAIR DESIGNS