summer

Porch Stories in August

August 28, 2019 by Kristin 12 Comments

Well, August always gives me all the feelings. I feel filled by summer, but I don’t want summer to end. I like routine, but I like having my people close too. Basically, I wasn’t ready for my kids to return to school until they did.

My dad died the week before Summer Break started and then we spent the first long weekend of Summer Break on a wonderful vacation to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Then I just never really had all the space I needed to process the grief that came with my dad dying and the realities that revealed. I had a long lunch with my mother-in-law who is also my friend last week because we needed to catch up. I’m thankful for the space for that sort of thing now. And I’m thankful my kids’ school years are off to a (mostly) smooth start.

Highlights

When I turned 40 in May, Greg gave me a trip to Colorado to visit some longtime friends and the Rocky Mountains. Again with the grief, we delayed the trip until our anniversary weekend in August. It was perfectly timed and such a wonderful trip. I shared about it the trip along the way on Instagram and Facebook {You can see all the posts & pictures here!} and then wrote a whole blog post once we were home.

The weekend before school started, we went with our best friends, my mom, and a nephew to Holiday World, an amusement park about three hours from here. If our family has a happy place with too much stimulation, this is it.

We spent a lot of evenings this summer riding through our woods, including the backside of our property that a company has been logging. I never would have predicted to find myself fascinated with the logging process. The picture at the top of the post is from one of our rides recently. There’s some profound about the seasons of the land and how God grows things from the ground to provide for us.

Favorite things

Adoption post – I always love sharing our adoption story, so I’m thankful Mandy Farmer invited me to share about adoption changed my legacy. {Read the post here.}

Jason Gray’s new music – I have to pep talk myself regularly because I’m quick to forget how to navigate well life’s winding road, so I’m grateful God gave me a soundtrack for this season. Jason Gray has a new EP of five songs that are the anthems my soul needs. If I didn’t know better, I would think this musical stranger wrote these songs for me in the midst of “order, disorder, reorder over and over,” as one of the songs says. But I am aware I’m not the only one who needs to perceive the new thing God is doing. {I wrote more about this.}

PackIt Freezable Lunch Bags – We love these lunch boxes! They have built-in gel packs that freeze so the food inside stays cold until my kids’ lunchtime. The bags fold flat and don’t take up too much room in the freezer. Plus when the packs thaw later in the day, the bags don’t sweat. Plus they’re easy to wipe out inside.

Counseling – My calendar once again has regular counseling appointments on it, and I’m so thankful for that space. I’ve missed it (and my counselor specifically) and I’ve needed it more than ever with all the things that got stuck in my head over the summer. {Here’s a post about when I first went to counseling in 2017.}

Outdoor Movie Night – Y’all know I love when life happens on the porch. We recently had a Friday Family Movie Night out there. We watched “Breakthrough,” which is based on an inspiring true story, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was (mostly) prepared for the boy to fall through the ice, require a miracle, and live. But I wasn’t prepared to relate to the momma main character who adopted her son, has diabetes, and wants to control all the outcomes in life. Talk about hitting home. Even so, I’m thankful for my family and our time together. I also really love our new projector and screen so we can have more nights like this – but probably with a lighter movie!

From the bookshelf

“Blue Smoke” by Nora Roberts – She’s written hundreds of books under two names, and this is the first one I’ve ever read. I really loved parts of it, although I had the mystery figured out well before the end. Still, I read it in two days and didn’t regret any of that.

“The Sometimes Sisters” by Carolyn Brown – This was a Kindle deal purchase quite a while ago, but I really enjoyed the sisters in this story and how their characters grew in their own stories and together as a family as they processed their pasts and recent grief. I liked the lake resort setting too.

“A Grief Observed” by C.S. Lewis – A friend had recommended this book to me and I found it for 25 cents when I happened upon a used bookstore in Estes Park, Colorado. I read it on the plane on the way home and marked several passages. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while and likely revisit in the years to come.

“Without Merit” by Colleen Hoover – I also found this fiction read by one of my new favorite authors for 25 cents at the used bookstore. I devoured it in two days. I loved how this story developed, revealing secrets one daughter in a complicated family couldn’t hold inside anymore. It’s a story about love and forgiveness – and how those things look different for everyone.

“Ugly Love” by Colleen Hoover – Disclaimer: This book had more sex scenes than I would normally read. I skimmed them. But I really loved the character development, how the story was mostly told from one character in the present and one character in the past, and where the plot went.

“All Your Perfects” by Colleen Hoover – Yep, another one! She’s a wonderful storyteller and I really loved how this one alternated between then and now chapters of a marriage. Infertility was a major theme in the book and having walked through that in my own life, I was impressed with how accurate and heartbreaking that storyline was.

“Verity” by Colleen Hoover – Obviously, I’m a fan of this writer. This is the seventh book I’ve read by her, yet this one was the first suspenseful one. She did that on purpose, venturing out of her usual emotional romance. Of course, there was some of that too. I read it in a day, thought I had it all figured out, and then was still a little surprised in the end.

“Finding God’s Life for My Will” by Mike Donehey – I heard this Tenth Avenue North lead singer recently on Annie F. Downs’s podcast and ordered his new book before the podcast episode was over. He said things about leaders and followers that intrigued me and encouraged me to follow Jesus more closely.

In “Finding God’s Life for My Will,” I marked catchy lines and thought-provoking paragraphs and rhetorical questions I need to keep asking myself. I texted a friend a few pictures of pages from the chapter about sorrow & joy and I read aloud to my husband funny and meaningful stories. I’m going to recommend the book to multiple friends with whom I have ongoing conversations on faith. (Obviously, I’m recommending this book to y’all too.)

I haven’t read many non-fiction books this year and am generally selective about which ones I read. This world is so noisy and bossy. But in this book, Mike Donehey shares stories that are gentle, funny, and true. He quotes scripture and reminds readers of what Jesus did for us, what we should do about it, and how life is not nearly as complicated as we make it sometimes.

On the screen

I already told you about “Breakthrough” and there’s not much new TV on right now. My kids did watch “Lion King” with my mom while Greg and I were in Colorado.

“New Girl” – I don’t usually choose sit-coms, but I needed some laughter in my life, so this is a good choice right now. I literally laugh out loud sometimes and these roommates and the new girl roommate in their life.

How was your August?

*****

Breathing easier in the mountains

August 20, 2019 by Kristin 3 Comments

I’ve been unpacked for a couple of weeks, but I’m still thinking about Colorado.

For my 40th birthday in May, Greg planned a trip for us to go to Colorado. We postponed the original June plan a couple of months because the beginning of summer was hard for me. But we flew out three days exactly after I turned 40 on what was also our 17th anniversary to see some friends and some mountains. I’m grateful for the way Greg knows me and knew I needed this trip at this time.

While I love planning trips, part of the joy of this gift is Greg mapped out our route and planned the general itinerary. We sat down together one night to book flights, hotels, and some activities for our four days in Colorado. I’d never been and was happy to go this way!

Monument / Colorado Springs

After breakfast at Snooze in Denver, we headed to Monument, just north of Colorado Springs, where my high school friend Dustin & Shelley (well, Dustin and I have been friends since middle school …) live. They fed us at a delicious, local Mexican restaurant called La Casa Fiesta, where I learned about calabacitas, before giving us a tour of Garden of the Gods.

Pikes Peak

Greg drove up to the summit at Pikes Peak, which is 14,115 feet high. The drive between mile markers 13 and 16 was particularly tense, but we parked at the last shuttle lot at mile marker 16 and took a shuttle to the top, where there was construction happening for a new visitors center. Even so, the views were amazing. We were at the top around noon and it was 50 degrees, compared to 80 degrees at the same time in Colorado Springs.

Breckenridge

The drive from Pikes Peak to Breckenridge might have been my favorite stretch of highway. The meadows and little towns between the mountains were lovely. I kept taking pictures of this drive (and all the others) and the images just don’t do the reality justice.

(But you can see all my attempts at capturing this lovely state here.)

We stayed at the River Mountain Lodge in downtown Breckenridge and really loved the hotel. The location was perfect and the room was spacious yet cozy. We didn’t get to explore downtown Breck as much as we had hoped because it was raining by the time we got there. We did eat a delicious meal at Blue River Bistro.

The next morning we had breakfast at Columbine Cafe and then rode the gondola up a mountain to where there were summer activities on what would otherwise be a ski slope. We took a chairlift up farther and an alpine slide down.

Idaho Springs

We didn’t get much time in Breckenridge because we had an early afternoon whitewater rafting reservation with Colorado Adventure Center in Idaho Springs. We did the beginner trip and really enjoyed the trip in the creek that’s fed by snow runoff and was still 38 degrees.

Estes Park

After rafting, we headed toward Estes Park, mostly on the Peak to Peak Highway, which was a gorgeous drive through and around and up and down mountains. We got there in time for dinner at The Grubsteak and dessert on the strip of downtown shops. Greg had ice cream in a homemade chocolate chip cone from the Danish Cone Factory and I had the best taffy I’ve ever tasted from Purple Mountain Taffy.

We stayed at a quaint hotel called Nicky’s Resort at which I wish we’d had more time to eat and relax. In the morning, we ate cinnamon rolls at a Cinnamon’s Bakery and then headed into Rocky National Park. Greg drove us along Trail Ridge Road, which is the highest continuously paved road. The highest point of this road that meanders right through mountain tundra is 12,183 feet. Once again, the temperatures on top of the mountain were about 30 degrees colder and prompted us to put on sweatshirts.

We spent some more time walking around downtown Estes Park. We lunched at Bob and Tony’s Pizza before I discovered Cliffhanger Used Books, where I could have spent even more time than I did. We drove around Estes Park taking in some more lovely views before we headed back to Denver, where we visited with our college friend Sarah before heading to the airport to fly home.

Conclusion

The road trip really worked for us, giving us time to take in views, listen to music, and talk about whatever came to mind. I really loved Colorado and already hope to take my kids back someday, perhaps even spending more time in each location.

I’m a details person, but the great big mountains and views of all these different places in just four days were good for my soul. I felt like I could breathe easier (figuratively, hello, altitude) and remember my place in this great big world while enjoying the adventure with my husband.

Welcoming a new (school) season together

August 14, 2019 by Kristin 4 Comments

Well, they’re off to seventh and fourth grades! (The youngest, who, of course, jumped into another photo, is headed to Mother’s Day Out tomorrow.)

As my family of five sat on our porch eating our hod podge dinner Sunday night, Greg asked us what we had learned this summer. Sunday nights are always bittersweet for me as I transition from a weekend mentality to preparing for the week ahead, but this was the last one before school started today so extra feelings were surfacing.

I loved that Greg asked the question, though.

Our answers ranged from food discoveries to my more emotional answers about grief and belonging to books we loved to practical solutions around the house. We joked and remembered and listed joy after joy.

Here are some of the things we learned, collectively and individually:

Grief is complicated and affects one’s sense of belonging. (Read more about belonging.)
Springs of water can come through an asphalt driveway and make quite a mess. (Any solutions to this one welcome …)
Trapping wasps is possible but they’re still sneaky enough to make their homes in small places they aren’t wanted.
Burgers are delicious cooked in a cast-iron skillet on the stove. So are steak bites.
New-to-us book series and authors are always welcomed. One child and I read a lot of fiction books, which is no surprise. And another child learned the joy of reading when we limited TV and other screens. (I have been devouring Colleen Hoover books. Cate found a new-to-her series called “The Unwanteds.” And Ben has been reading like never before.)
Hospitality heals. I know this, but I was invited in when I needed a break from initiating plans. (Read more about that.)
Home is where I needed to be many of the #88daysofsummer, but now I’m looking forward to some trips this fall.

We learned plenty more about each other – as a family and individually. And I’m in the midst of processing grief and anxiety and motherhood, but, for now, I’m grateful God gave me a fresh perspective and ushered us into a new season of life and school together.

Tell me, what have you learned this summer?