Life Update

In the last year, I’ve only written eight times. That’s less than I’ve penned in the last 15 years of my life by a long shot. I’ve long accepted the seasonality of life – the opening and closing of time and talent. Despite my acceptance, I continue to wrestle with the want. I want to write more. In fact, I wish I wrote full time for a living. That would be my dream job. Writing often feels so impractical though. It’s a soul salve for me, so is it so impractical?

Now that summer has arrived, I hope to carve out time to sit with my thoughts held before God, allowing Him to sift them. That was how I actually began writing on the regular initially. After spending a full day with my little ones, I’d sit with God in the evenings and find I saw Him in all the crevices of moments. He was everywhere. And I wanted more of Him. The more I wrote, the more I saw Him.

I’ve been seeking God’s guidance in what’s next for me and writing. Do I keep writing christian encouragement? Maybe I spend more time developing my freelance writing. Travel writing would be exciting. Or an opinion column no one asked for could be fun. Or is it time to shift completely? I slightly did that last year. Since today’s post is a rambling of sorts, maybe it’s a good time to update you on the last year.

I went back to work part-time last year as the campus director for a hybrid homeschool, A Latere Academy. Two days a week my heart was filled by kindergartners through second graders and their hard-working, homeschooling parents. To come alongside these families has been a true gift. The highlight of my year was bringing Andrew to work with me. He completed his school day and simultaneously developed a love for these kids. Watching him connect and grow was a true joy.

I also completed my second year of teaching Logic to middle schoolers. The surprising thing that brought to my life is how it changed my own brain. I learned how to problem solve better. I learned how to think more critically and logically. I’ve actually considered packaging it somehow as a class for adults online.

I’m loving this stage of life with our boys. Here’s a quick update on each of them.

Jacob will be 20 in the fall. Insane to believe. He graduated a year ago and is working part-time while he’s launched his own lawn care business. His courage to go against the norms and expectations of our culture has inspired us. He’s always been mature beyond his age, and we continue to see that in him. He didn’t want to spend 4 years in college to come out in debt and potentially never need that degree. He’s entrepreneurial in spirit and desires to own businesses and real estate. Landscaping is a low risk way to learn to start and grow a business. He’s going for it and we couldn’t be prouder of him!

Zachary turns 18 in the fall and begins his senior year. He plans to start flying lessons this year and pursue a career as a private pilot. Like his brother, he is courageous and bold. He’s driven and is ready to become an adult. He is celebrating his one year anniversary with his girlfriend and has been working at Chick-fil-A for nearly 4 years.

Andrew begins his freshman year this fall. He started working at Chick-fil-A this summer, following in his brothers footsteps. He is wrapping up what will be his last season of baseball this summer. We’ve been with this team since he was in 3rd grade and will be so hard to say goodbye. It’s been a good run, but he’s ready to shift his focus to golf and work. He’s playing tons of golf and dreams of going Pro one day. He also has an entrepreneur spirit and continues to be as strong-willed at 14 as he was at 4. Pray for us.

Steve and I are treasuring up all the time we have with our boys. We’ve always parented toward the future and are soaking it all in. At the same time, we are realizing that before long, we will enter a new season again and continue to focus on our marriage and creating lives that don’t center on our children.

As I’ve written all of this, I realize I almost never update our personal lives here anymore. When I first started my blog, it was more personal in nature than anything else. As my children have aged, I’ve tried to keep private much of their lives. If you’ve read this long, bless you. And that probably means you’ve been here with me from the start. If you are new here, please stick around. This isn’t the content I publish typically.

On that note, I feel I need to connect with you all and see who all is reading and what you are hoping to read. The internet is so filled with noise. The last thing I want to do is add to the noise. If you are receiving this via email, hit reply and let me know what you enjoy reading and would like to read more of.