1) A Break From Blogging
I posted a few weeks back that I’d be stepping back from blogging as regularly and it’s been almost a month since I posted. After more than two years of blogging multiple times weekly it was a strange feeling to not even open up my WordPress dashboard for almost a month. But if I’m being honest, it was mostly just freeing. I totally took the pressure off myself to do anything productive during nap-time and aside from preparation for classes in my new job (see below), I’ve done a ton of reading, yoga, and other things that are good for my heart. This slowness feels right for our family right now and I am so grateful for God leading me in that direction! I missed y’all though and writing a little update felt right.
2) Chasing Around Our Crazy Toddler
Caleb is a confident walker these days and he is on the go nonstop from morning until night (minus a lovely 2-2.5 hour nap after lunch because being a toddler is exhausting). Wherever we go he wants to walk and not be contained and it’s made our outings a whole new adventure. After one miserable grocery shopping outing that saw him screaming, trying to crawl out of the cart, and getting into everything, I finally realized why moms talk about loving going to Target all alone!
Even with all the craziness, I really am loving this season. I love how curious he is and how much fun we have being silly and making each other laugh. I feel like we can take him so many more places now and we are having a blast showing him the world. I will take the fits and independence over the sleeplessness and fussiness of the newborn stage in a heartbeat! I love my little toddler, that’s for sure.
3) A Triple-Celebration Date Night
My mom was in town for Mother’s Day weekend and she gave us the gift of a kid-free date night! Since both my birthday and our anniversary are in May, we decided to make it a triple whammy of a night and celebrated my 27th birthday, Mother’s Day, and our fourth anniversary. Whew! We had a fun, long dinner at a restaurant downtown in Union Station and then walked up to the beautiful spot overlooking the city where we’ve spent many a picnic and date night in the past (that’s Liberty Memorial for all you KC folks). It was a beautiful night and for just a few minutes there, I felt like we got to sneak into the past and be the pre-kids us that used to love that spot. I know moments like that don’t happen all that often with kiddos and we sure did enjoy that sweet time together.
4) Friends in Town
In addition to my mama, May also saw a few friends coming to visit! We had some Young Life friends stop by on their way to a summer camp assignment in Colorado and had a blast sharing a meal and playing an intense game of Settlers of Catan. Then a few days later my old friend from Davidson, Kyle, stopped by for a night as he was in KC for a wedding! It’s always so fun to see old friends and remember another season of life and Kyle had me missing our Young Life clubs, silly car rides, and all the sweet memories that made my time at Davidson so sweet. I’m so grateful for our home and all the friends it has hosted since we moved in!
5) A New Job
These last few weeks have also been a bit crazy as I’ve adjusted to my new job teaching English online to kids in China with VIPkid. I’ve been teaching over four weeks now and have taught over 75 classes. I’m loving it! I’ve mostly taught early in the mornings when Caleb is asleep or Jordan is here to keep an eye on him, usually somewhere between 5:00-8:30 AM. That 4:30 AM alarm clock is a little rough but years of teaching make a 5:00 AM wakeup call pretty easy for me, so I’m surviving! The kids are adorable and the curriculum is already starting to feel very natural. I am so grateful for this job and how it allows me to support our family while still staying home with our little guy. I’d love to share the love, so if you want to learn more about VIPkid message me and I can give you all the details!
Here’s my best 5 AM selfie as I prepare to teach 7 classes in a row. Being this happy for that long is exhausting but fun!
Aside from all that, we are just loving the new rhythm of having Jordan home for the summer. He’s still working summer school for a few hours in the morning, but otherwise it’s been so nice to have him around for afternoon walks, park trips, pool outings, errands, and so much more. I’m sure I’ll be complaining about the heat oh so soon but for now we are soaking in all the summer sweetness. I hope you all have wonderful weekends!
All of those books look so good and it looks like the perfect way to spend your nap times 😉 Reading once you have little ones becomes more of a challenge, and I need to get back into it. I really like what you shared about being present over productive, I think having a little free time to renew yourself is so important. I know I’m always a nicer mama when I do that. I may have to take you list of books to the library with me to get my hands on some good summer reading. I have read “Bridge to Haven” and it is so good!
Shopping alone if very much a luxury these days. hah. Though shopping with a little buddy or two isn’t all bad either. Sometimes you just might have a little more noise coming from your cart than you might like 😉
I would be so interested to hear more about the VIPkid! I’m an English teacher turned stay at home mama this sounds like it may be perfect for me! Anything and everything you have to share about it would be wonderful!
Hannah recently posted…five randoms
Oh I would love to hear more about VIP kid. I looked into it a bit when you first posted about it, but was curious how it was going. I’m a teacher turned SAHM but I live in Australia now, so not sure about the time. My daughter is 10 months now and it’s so fun seeing their little personalities and how they understand more. I’m excited for the toddler phase!
Courtney {Alkeks Abroad} recently posted…A Day in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland
I’ve wanted to read The Royal We — I heard Lauren Graham bought the rights and is writing a screenplay.