Restored

It’s been a minute. The first month of the “new year,” 2025, is gone. Doesn’t seem so new anymore. I have had intentions of sitting down to write this for about a week and a half now, but life has had other ideas. But alas, here we are; me forcing myself to find the time, not being able to take it hanging over my head any longer.

We skated through Month 1 of 2025 with no medical updates, back on track after the December pause for the clinic visit. We did lose two to “streck” throat, as they call it, over the last month. Shockingly, Jennings was not one of them. Caroline started feeling bad on Christmas Day and was confirmed positive the next day. Henry followed about a week or so later, except his could have been called strep full-body-rash. He never really felt bad, but just had a rash all over that would not go away. Turns out it was strep. 🤷‍♂️I happened to look back at the post from this time last year and realized they all four had strep this exact same time! Hoping it’s not an annual thing.

Now it seems like our entire community in Charlotte is being taken out by the flu - and hard, from the sound of it. So far our family has avoided it, but as I write this I have the sniffles. 🤪 We’re bracing ourselves and will report back next month.

Well, enough of all that. Since we were last here, we celebrated Christmas. Hope y’all had a great one. Here’s a few from ours 👇

Top to bottom, left to right: Brother-man housing Christmas dinner - this marked the second year in a row that we have gone fancy with a smoked chateaubriand and got out the china. #newtradition Next, all cleaned up for church on Christmas Eve. Hosting the family, L’s side, on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning getting started. Jennings got all the army gear - him and his neighborhood buds are into playing army, or war, as we used to call it. Brings back some memories…going straight over the PJ’s is a new twist though. Lastly, the luminaries I have started making time to put out. My dad’s dad used to do these every year and my favorite part was getting to help light so I could play with fire. All of these came from him and I keep them in a box with his handwriting on it…some are probably over 30 years old…and starting to show it. 🤣

Our new year is off to a good start so far. We had a slow couple of weeks around the holidays. The kids were out of school the week of Christmas and the week after. I was off work that first week and the second was expectedly slow. Ever since the kids went back, though, it’s been zero to sixty and we are right back to our “normal” lightspeed pace. Here’s a few from the past month:

Top to bottom, left to right: It’s meet season! C had her fist meet this past weekend and did great. So fun to see all the work she has put in for the past five months pay off. Next is Jennings ringing in the new year. It was actually about 7p, but we had rented bowling lanes with another family. Pro tip: the NYE package is pretty affordable, includes all the New Year’s tchotchkes you need, and has a countdown that can get you in bed well before midnight. 👌Next is a nice January edition of Friday night family night - a fire, bowls of chili, and Clemson gymnastics. It snowed….kind of…for about an hour. We took my aunt out for her Christmas present to the arcade and then lunch…not sure which of the three pictured had more fun. L & I got away for a weekend to a rustic “treehouse” near West Jefferson. The only source of heat is the wood burning stove in the picture. The high when we were there was 30° - it was perfect.

That trip was definitely the highlight of the past month. We’ve tried to do this every year since coming back from Memphis. We’re 2 out of 4, if you’re scoring at home. We actually came to this same place two years ago, but all the kids got sick as soon as we got there so we had to turn around & leave.

We try to be very intentional with our time on these first-of-the-year getaways. If not, a weekend can get gone in a hurry. We debrief from the previous year and talk about the year ahead, annual calendar planning, goals, things we want to stop, things we want to start, and things we want to continue. Getting away to a place like this, where there are no distractions, it’s quiet, secluded, in the woods surrounded by beauty, is so restorative. My mind slows down and I can take a long, deep breath that quiets and grounds my soul.

We are so thankful for Gigi and Slim who kept the kids and made it possible this year. And for everyone staying healthy. We were guarding ourselves against disappointment and basically assumed something would happen to either cut the trip short or cancel it all together. Hopeful, right?

We are committed to finding and fighting for this time at the beginning of each year. It’s only been four weeks and already I feel caught up in the pace of life and unsure of what God is doing. I’ve felt recently like a few different things have been trying to triangulate on me, but I’m unsure of what it all means (if anything at all) and feel slightly disoriented. I think I would be completely spun around without a weekend to pause and create a rhythm of thoughtfully approaching a new year.

Praising God for that time and praying for discernment for what’s ahead. Before we go, I’ll mention that we booked our 2025 spring break trip. Spoiler alert on the destination, it’s Bluff City again! We’ll head to St. Jude in mid-April over spring break for his annual check. We’ll be back before that, but you can be praying for smooth sailing coming into it.

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

#allinforjennings