Around Here: Week 28 2021

 {July 4-10th}

Hosting... fourth of July at our house.  It was such a fun day!  My parents, sisters family, cousin Alix's family, brother-in-law and his girlfriend and my nephew and his girlfriend all came to swim and eat and be together.  
I went on my first ever "beer run" (at 38) to get more White Claws and Truly's.  haha!

Sending... Jack home with my parents for a sleepover and getting a bonus night for him at my sister's house.  He had so much fun with his cousins and grandparents, kayaking and swimming and making some sweet summer memories.  

Discovering... the twins struggle to sleep apart. Logan could NOT sleep with Jack gone.  Poor kid! Makes me worry about when they grow up and no longer live together or share a room. 

Letting... Logan go sleepover at his friends' house since Jack was out of town and he was bored. 

Planning... our garage sale and gathering all the last bits and pieces that we no longer need or want.  It has been the biggest project, but I am so happy with how the house is feeling now that it's less cluttered, more organized and I know where everything is. 

Noticing... the blue sky and the amazing clouds we get here.  I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, so it was rare to have a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds.  It was often grey and more often raining.  I don't think I will ever get over the lovely skies here and how dry it is. It's just the best. 

Listening... to Glennon Doyle's new podcast "We Can Do Hard Things" and loving every second.  She always does it with her sister, Amanda, but sometimes her wife Abby joins them, and they are just so relatable and the things they talk about are the same as what is often on my mind.  This week was entitled "Queer Freedom" and in it Abby talked about how she separated the idea of God from that of the church, and Glennon answered the hard questions: Can I love you and disagree with your lifestyle?"

Her answer:

"You don't disagree with someone's identity. I am queer. 

You're not disagreeing with me, you're rejecting me. 

It's not soft to disagree with me. It's violent. 

So the question is:

"Can I reject you and still love you?"

And the answer is "No."

Loved that.

Celebrating... all the kids being cavity free at the dentist.  It's the first time that all four kids have gone and been "sugar bug free"! We were ecstatic!

Resting... a lot these days and sleeping in as often as possible.  The kids are super self reliant and I feel like I've made it to the end of a marathon whose final leg I couldn't see.  It snuck up on me.  

For so many years on the weekends, I would get up with the kids on Saturday, and Josh would get up on Sunday so the other could sleep in on their "off day", and now we can sleep in every day, and the kids can feed, dress and entertain themselves.  Suddenly we have the freedom to sleep in, or run an errand or go for a walk, and they can take care of each other. It's mind blowing to finally be in this stage.

Building... a Lego bus!!! (Well, Wyatt did!) He worked so darn hard on that thing, and his ability to follow directions and master these amazing Lego builds is beyond me. I joke that even if he did need help, I could likely not help him! So it's a good thing he knows what he's doing. 

Kayaking... as a family at the lake and then coming home and making dinner for the family.  It just felt really good, like maybe I'm not doing everything wrong.  To be out in the sunshine with them, and to nourish their bodies with good food felt really nice. 

Reading... Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (for the third time) and loving it just as much as ever.  It's such an old book, yet somehow timeless.  She (the writer, a wife and mother) makes me feel so seen and understood.  I listened on audio the first time, and really enjoyed it, then I read the book.  

I loved these quotes in particular:

"We do not see the results of our giving as concretely as man does in his work."

and

"Solitude, says the moon shell.  Every person, especially every woman, should be alone sometime during the year, some part of each week, and each day."

and this was my favorite:

"How to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life; how to remain balanced, no matter what centrifugal forces tend to pull one off center; how to remain strong no matter what shocks come in at the periphery and tend to crack the hub of the wheel."

Attending... book club in person with nearly the whole group for the first time in almost a year and a half.  I was so happy to sit among my friends and discuss our lives.  Being wives and mothers and how the book impacted us and what stood out.  Just to feel so buoyed up by their love and understanding.  Gosh I am thankful for those ladies. 

Walking... with my friend Becky this week to meet some health goals we set.  It was HOT, but at the end we were glad we went!

Taking... Logan to the doctor for a same-day appointment when he got a really bad headache that caused numbness in his left side and nausea.  He came home from my friend Shana's (where he was going to work for her) and threw up.  After the vomiting, he felt much better, but this is at least the third time that he has had a headache so bad it made him vomit.  
The plan is for him to have a prescription of the same meds I take for my migraines (sumatriptan) and to order an MRI to make sure that this isn't anything to do with his Chiari malformation that they found a few years ago from imaging we did during his seizures. 
My little brother had migraines that made him throw up during middle school, and my mom and I both suffer migraines, so I think that's all it is, but I will be relieved to rule out anything more serious.  Especially since we just weaned him off his seizure meds and he is now grown out his epilepsy.

Laughing... at Molly eating Grady's dog food out of his bowl.  Sometimes he scoots her away gently and eats it himself, but sometimes he's not hungry, so she will eat a few kibbles.  It's so silly, they are bigger than her paws!

Grateful... to Josh for taking all the kids to the land for the day to play with cousins while I got a day to myself in the quiet house.  It was ever so lovely and I don't know that I'll ever tire of being in my house alone occasionally. 

Catching... a sweet moment between Logan and Carly (which tend to be pretty far between) when he was teaching her how to lean into the front door to get the deadbolt to unlock.  She struggles with that and it was so kind how he took a minute to show her.  The two of them can be oil and water, as they both want to be the boss of the other, so tender moments between them stand out. 

Enjoying... date night by going for a swim with Josh and his brother Samuel and her girlfriend.  I feel so lucky to have our pool, and to have Josh's brother here in town to join us occasionally for pizza and a movie, and that this is our life. It's so beautiful. 

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This brought me comfort:

Food for thought:

I follow Tiffany Roe on instagram and her insight to church abuse and the pain of leaving the church has been very healing. 

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