Sobremesa Stories

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Five on Friday: House Projects and Awesome Husbands

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With cross-country winding down and some of our commitments slowing as the holidays approach, this week felt a lot more open.  We only have about seven weeks until Christmas (what in the world?) and then the baby countdown really starts, so it was fun to feel our schedules slowing down a bit this week.  I’m grateful for my husband, my puppy, and the beautiful home that we are slowly preparing to welcome our sweet baby Caleb into (you can read my letter explaining his name here)!

1) The End Of A Season

I’ve mentioned this a few times, but my husband coached high school cross-country this fall.  He’s had 6:00 AM morning practice almost every morning since Memorial Day, afternoon practices that went until dinnertime most nights, and lots and lots of Saturday meets.  And this past weekend, his runners rocked it at State, officially ending their season! It’s been so fun to see him jump into coaching this year.  He loves his students so well and is so intentional in the ways he coaches them, both as runners and as men.  He’s well on his way to becoming Coach Taylor and I’m pretty happy to be his Tami!

Five on Friday Jordan Coaching

2) Soup Mondays

These last few weeks I’ve made a big pot of soup every Monday night so we can eat leftovers throughout the week.  There’s something so calming about the rhythm of chopping and hearing the onions and garlic sizzle as another meal starts to come together.  This week I made this turkey-kale soup from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen (I mention her blog all the time and it’s one of my favorite sources of recipes). This soup was full of so many veggies and had such a yummy Italian flavor.  This one will definitely be added to my “Two Thumbs Up!” recipe list!

Lexi's Clean Kitchen Turkey Kale Soup

3) House Projects

Now that cross-country is over, we have officially jumped full force into some house projects we’ve been putting off! Jordan came home Monday night and ROCKED prepping the nursery! He took off all the baseboards, removed the blinds and doors, and started bringing up everything we need from the garage to get to painting.  We started sanding all the trim that night, got a little carried away, and decided to paint the trim on all six doorways on our upstairs hallway (1 bathroom, three bedrooms, two storage closets).  Thanks to some help from Jordan’s brother, we’re well on our way to doing that! I’ve been feeling the itch to nest for quite a while now and it was really fun to start to see some changes.  Below is the best before picture of the nursery I could manage with the awkward doorway/closet angles, but you get the picture: yellow walls, orange-y trim, and super bright lights.  I can’t wait to share the in-progress and after pictures as we start to transform it into a more neutral, cool-toned, beautiful space!

Baby Room Before

4) Personality Books

This week I’ve been jumping into a new book: Quiet by Susan Cain.  She explores how our world has come to favor the extroverted (outgoing, charismatic, etc) personality type over the introverted (quiet, reflective, etc) ones, even though a large percentage of our population are actually introverts.  This book is fascinating, intellectual, and reminds me a lot of the books I read in college psychology classes.  It’s been fun to stretch myself a little and learn about this new perspective on how people function, especially since I consider myself an introvert, even though I’m pretty outgoing and don’t mind talking to people or in front of people.  I’m only about 100 pages in but I definitely recommend it so far.

Quiet Susan Cain

 

5) Christmas tickets BOOKED!

I was born and raised in Southern California and my parents still live there.  For the last few years, we’ve headed out there for a week over Christmas to soak in some sun, some fun time with family, and eat LOTS of sushi. My husband looks forward to cheap and delicious Californian sushi for the entire year – not kidding, guys.  My pregnant self will have to abstain this year but it’s still fun to go!  We love getting to hang out with my family and escape the Midwestern winter for a couple days. This year will be a little crazy since I’ll be about 7.5 months pregnant, but the doctor gave us the thumbs up to fly and the tickets are officially booked! Let the countdown begin!

We snapped this picture in Huntington Beach when Jordan visited me in Cali just one month after we started dating. That was FIVE Christmas's ago!

We snapped this picture in Huntington Beach when Jordan visited me in Cali just one month after we started dating. That was FIVE years ago (aka we were BABIES and Jordan still wore clothes with the Hollister bird of shame).

Happy weekend, friends!

I’m linking up for some Friday Favorites with A. Liz Adventures, The Farmer’s Wife, and Grace and Love Blog.  Check out their blogs for more great posts! 
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Comments

  1. It must be so nice for cross country to be over! I never understand how teachers can also coach – it’s so much responsibility. Kudos to him. I love how you make a big thing of soup on Mondays to have for the week; I used to do that but for some reason got away from it. I think it’s time to resurrect it! Thanks for the inspiration. I’m very impressed with your progress on the nursery and can’t wait to see more.
    Lindsay recently posted…Why It’s Time to Get Rid of Basic B****My Profile

  2. I love the nesting part of pregnancy! I’ve been feeling it start lately, which is good because in a new house we have to finish off the babes room. Good luck though! are you guys going with a certain theme?
    Lauren Jane recently posted…Foster Care FridayMy Profile

  4. I would love to escape winter for a little bit this year! I live in SE Idaho and the winter is just brutal (in my opinion!) I’m trying to find a way not to hate it…but we’ll see how that goes!

    Congrats on getting your husband back after cross-country season! I hope you have fun prepping the nursery!
    Rebekah recently posted…3 tips for buying eyeglasses onlineMy Profile

  6. just discovered your blog today and totally obsessed. I love the idea of soup mondays! and yay for finally getting your husband back 🙂

  8. Quiet is seriously a book that changed my life. It made me view my introversion as a gift, and a beautiful difference, instead of another way I didn’t fit in. Also, I LOVE Huntington Beach. My first time to Cali, two summers ago, I stayed with a friend who lives right by there and we were at the beach every single day. Love California and so jealous you guys get to head out there!

    • That’s awesome! I have a feeling it’s going to shift some perspectives for me too and remind me that it’s okay to embrace that part of myself. California is so beautiful! We love visiting, even though I don’t know that I’d want to live there forever (and spend all our money because it’s SO expensive!).
      Lauren recently posted…Five on Friday: House Projects and Awesome HusbandsMy Profile

  9. Yay for getting your hubby back from cross country coaching and getting the nursery going! I didn’t have the nursery done until my first was three months old, and am just now having my hubs and BIL get the boys’ nursery together and I’m nearly 34 weeks! Meh, they sleep in your room for the first few months anyway, right?! (They do.)
    Paige @ An Uncomplicated Life Blog recently posted…The Level I’m At Right NowMy Profile

  12. Man I wish my husband liked soup! The only soup I can get him to eat and actually enjoy is taco soup. I’m a little jealous of everybody that talks about making and eating lots of soup during the cold wintry months 🙂