july.

I reread Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series in its entirety this summer, and decided to go out to breakfast to celebrate. You were invited if you’ve also read the entire series, which is no small feat considering there are 17 books (with one due out this fall, hooray!). Linda, Cheryl, Beth and I met at Small Sugar for cafe au lait and croissants and spent a solid hour and a half talking about the series. It was blissful.

 

Nina’s Retirement Party

My Mom (known to her grandkids as Nina) retired this month from working at CIU for 24 years. She started out in Residence Life then spent the bulk of the years in the Student Life office. Kenny and Shari hosted a surprise retirement party for our extended family in order to celebrate. My mom is also a watercolor artist, so Shari and Amie made artist palate sugar cookies, which were pretty adorable. Congrats on a job well job for many years, Mom!

 

 

 

 

Visit with the Franklins

The Franklin family, who lives in PA now, came down for a visit at the beginning of the month, and we spent a very fun, very sweaty couple of hours at the river together. Kristin and I have been friends for 20 years and counting, and it’s fun seeing our kids connect even though they moved away a several years ago. Asher is still one of Judah’s best friends and they text and Facetime regularly, along with their friend Haddon.

 

 

 

 

Kira’s stay-cation

While we traveled to Gatlinburg with the Gentinos, some friends kept Kira for us. It was harder for us — okay, really just Amie and me — to leave her than we expected. But she was well-loved by the Fieldhouse family and Carly’s sister, Laura, and had a great time.

 

 

 

Amie turns 13

Right after our trip to TN, we celebrated Amie’s 13th birthday. Can you believe it? We now have not one but two teenagers in the house. We were thankful to still have Cathy and Pat in town from Seattle; Amie baked herself and Pat (who also has a July birthday) an amazing carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

 

 

Anniversary gift

July 6th marked 8 years of owning our home. I told the kids that it’s the longest I’ve ever lived in any house for my whole life. If you enjoy a trip down memory lane as much as I do, here’s my very first blog post about our house. Anyway, this year for our wedding anniversary we decided to gift ourselves with a real dining table.

We used an Ikea table for the eight years we’ve lived here, and it was a great table for us (it’s now on the back porch). But ever since our kitchen/dining remodel, we’ve dreamed of having one that we feel like matches the room a bit better. I also told David that this is a season of life where dinners have become fun and relaxing, and a great table feels like a way to celebrate that.

Our friend from college, Ben, builds dining and side tables as a side job, and once we saw his work on Facebook we knew we wanted to ask him to make ours. He was amazing: I sent several pictures of tables I like and he helped me choose something that fits our style and also has a classic feel that we hope will last us the rest of our marriage (and then the kids can fight over it). It’s white oak, unstained but sealed. From the time we chose the style and paid our deposit, it took about 6 weeks for it to be finished. We are so happy with our new table. Thank you, Ben!

 

 

 

 

 

Seth and Kate’s wedding

Some friends from church got married in Kingstree, which is a couple hours away, and a group of us from Cola Pres drove out for the wedding. This was the first wedding Trevor performed and he did a terrific job. It’s difficult to put into words what a gift it was for David and me to just show up, as friends and church family, and enjoy the wedding and reception. He is always honored to perform weddings! But we had seven years of lots and lots of weddings (the highest count in a year was 7). It feels wonderful to be able to share the load. Also, I’d like to point out that Seth regularly gets mistaken by small children at church for “Pastor David.” I guess I can see why!

 

 

 

Bethel

Gabe and Noah went to Bethel Christian Camp for a week in the middle of the month. It was so, so quiet around our house without them. We enjoyed it for about a day, then all got bored. That’s the week that David and I took Amie to Charleston to celebrate her birthday.

I struggled with the boys gone more than I expected, and it was mostly because Gabe didn’t have any friends in his cabin going into the week. I found myself worrying a lot about him and praying a whole ton. But he did amazing, and both boys said they had a great time. I was so proud of them and touched by the sweet things their counselors wrote to them. This was our last year at Bethel, since, Lord-willing, Gabe and Noah will go with Judah to Deerfoot camp next summer.

It’s the end of an era!

 

 

 

Health & Fitness

I joined a gym this month! You heard that right.

My friends had started working out at EQ Fitness, which is downtown on Devine Street, and convinced me to give it a try. You guys, I am not a gym person, nor have I ever been. I am insecure about how weak and uncoordinated and generally un-athletic I am. I don’t want people watching me exercise. And certainly not people I know.

But I had been feeling desperate about my health situation — both exercise and eating. I stopped running about 6 months ago when my knees began hurting and just haven’t been taking care of myself physically. So I tried EQ out. And I loved it! It’s all group fitness classes (high intensity interval training). I call it “Crossfit for normal people.” I love the feel of the gym — no mirrors on the walls, a positive, encouraging environment. So after a few trial classes I decided to become a member!

Surprisingly, I’m even happy to have friends there. It’s a totally different feel than meeting for coffee or doing life and ministry together (which I also love). It’s like we’re working on a common goal or pursuing a hobby together and that’s very energizing for me. There’s about 8 of us from Cola Pres that go and with different work-out times throughout the day I’m often in class with at least one of these ladies. I’m sore pretty much constantly, but after a month I already feel stronger.

 

 

I did experience kind of a crash in the last week or two and realized I just wasn’t eating right for the amount I was exercising (I initially went to EQ four times a week but since have scaled back to three). So I was able to meet with a friend and have a talk about nutrition and how to make some changes so I’ll get the protein I need and hopefully feel better.

I’m on an anti-inflammatory diet for a month, which for me means no gluten, dairy, and almost no sugar. Basically just whole foods if possible. It’s been a full week and I’m starting to come out of that sugar-crash sluggishness I think, and definitely feeling better at the gym. It is always hard following a specific diet because you feel like you need to think about food constantly. And I’m realizing that getting protein and fat is tricky when you can’t have dairy. I’ve found I need to eat every two hours or I get really hungry. But it’s been fun to try some new things, deep clean our fridge, and stock it with healthier foods. David follows the food plan with me for the most part and we both agree we’re feeling better and lunches have gotten much tastier.

 

 

 

 

 

Garden

Speaking of food, David is doing an awesome job with the  garden this summer–we’re getting more food from two raised beds than we did with eight! Last week I was sitting at the orthodontist’s office and saw a recipe for ratatouille in Food & Wine magazine (just one of the many reasons I love our orthodontist: I can read Food & Wine while I’m waiting on my kids). The article said “This dish is best made with all fresh-picked, local ingredients.” Well! I could do that!

The main ingredient in ratatouille should be eggplant but since we have these little ones, Linda supplied two squashes for us. I call it my squash-forward ratatouille.” The fun part is you’re supposed to de-glaze the pan with rose wine, so it was an excuse to enjoy a glass of rose with dinner. The dish was delicious! At least David, Amie, and I thought so. The boys thought it “wasn’t as bad as I expected.”

 

Noah wanted Mum Mum to know that her heirloom squash could also be used as ear muffs:

 

Judah said it would even work as an airplane head rest:

 

David and the boys are starting seeds for the fall garden in their bedroom. They are thrilled to get to check on their babies constantly.

 

Sunday off

Last Sunday, David had the day off responsibilities at church. We decided to take a family river morning and post up at the rocks to have family devotions, read Wendell Berry poetry, swim, and sip coffee that David made with the Pocket Rocket. It was gloriously restful.

 

 

 

Birthday movie night

Ams had a belated birthday movie night this weekend with some friends. They ate Publix subs and chips, watched Pride & Prejudice, and enjoyed Amie’s famous dark chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.

 

Judah and David went to Earlewood Park to play disc golf with Mike and Vincent, and Gabe and Noah went over to the Shealy’s house to hang out with James. A great evening was had by all.

 

 

 

What to read next

Last but not least, here are some books I enjoyed in July. Amie summed up how we’re all feeling this week by saying, “I don’t really want to start back to school next week but I am feeling kind of bored now, so it’s probably for the best.”

Happy August!