Weekly Reflections

Hey Friend!

Happy Sunday! I have really enjoyed writing these "weekly reflection" posts these last couple of weeks. It certainly feels old-school-blogger and it's nice to sit back and think over the past week. 

I might be writing these for only me, and that's ok!

If somehow you found my blog and are reading this, welcome and thanks!

Anyways, this past week I was solo parenting since my husband was out of town on a work trip. Let me tell you, solo parenting is not easy and if there are any single moms reading this, you rock! That is a tough job!

What I've Been Enjoying

We spent a lot of time outside going for walks/bike rides by the creek, playing in the creek, or playing in our new toddler swimming pool! One of our outside adventures we saw an old mining building foundation, which was super cool! I love finding deserted pieces of history.

Another exciting adventure we had was going to Marshalls and finding a really big T-rex! Mav was so excited! My son is obsessed with dinosaurs right now, and when he saw it in the store, that was the toy he had to have! He didn't even bother looking at the other toys.

I have also tried to find fun indoor toddler/preschool activities to keep him entertained. He loved playing with play-dough, and spent a solid hour and 15 minutes creating with it!

We also got these dot art markers and I found a bunch of free dot art coloring pictures online and printed them out, and he enjoyed working on those a few of the days last week. I also really like how these pens help him work on fine motor skills and learning control when he is coloring with pens. 

I have really enjoyed working on my blog this past week. I have said that the past couple weeks as well, but it is true. I have really enjoyed this creative process. This past week I finished up on working on the code for the theme of this blog, and I am pretty satisfied with how it turned out! I have also been working on a treasure hunt thing here on this blog. It's a bit nerdy and maybe a bit cringy, but I love it!

Upcoming Things

This weekend my parents are coming for a visit. They only live about 3 1/2 hours away from us, so between us visiting them and them visiting us, we see each other quite a bit. One thing that I think about sometimes, that I think would be a great topic to explore on this blog is relationships with your parents as an adult. It is such an interesting dynamic, and I have been very intentional over the past few years at nurturing my relationship with my mom, which has led to a beautiful, healthy relationship. There is a lot I could say for this topic, so it will have to be a topic for another post!

The women's retreat for my church is near the end of September! And while it is still pretty far away, I am pretty excited about this. Part of why I am excited, is to have conversations with other adults, and to hopefully make friends, since we just moved to the small town recently and know no one! But also I am hopeful God is planning to do in my life there. I definitely feel like I am meant to go and I am coming expectant, though for what, I don't know.

What I've Been Reading

I have not gotten much reading in this past week! I have a few books that I am really excited to start reading, but I have been spending most of my free time when my toddler is sleeping working on my blog!

That said, I did read two books this last week.

A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna: I finished this book this week! And I really enjoyed this one! This one was a solid 4 star read for me! I loved the atmosphere, and the characters! And there was one scene in particular that nearly made me cry! It was a cozy read!

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna: I just started it and I am not very far into it yet. It does start off a little slow, similar to A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping, but I ended up really liking that book, so I am hopeful for this one!

Vesselless by Cortney L. Winn: To be honest, I am no longer really enjoying this book. I am about 85% done and I am trying to finish it because I have invested so much time into this story, but it is not for me. If you are curious about my unfiltered thoughts about this book you can check out this post, but be warned, there are lots of spoilers, so read at your own risk!

What I Want to Work On

I really want to read more this upcoming week! I have some books that I am very excited for and some that I am in the middle of reading and just want to finish! 

I also want to keep working on this blog. I still have more work to do on the treasure hunt project, and I also have just been enjoying writing, so I can't wait to come up with more posts!

I want to work on nurturing my faith. I wrote a post Thinking Out Loud: What Does It Mean To Be a Christian and through writing it actually, I realized that I had been comparing how I lived out my Christian walk in my 20s with how I live out my Christian walk now, in my 30s, and for so long I actually was asking the question, "If I don't look like the Christian I used to be, am I still faithfully following Jesus?"

And I think where I ended with that thought is, in my younger years I pursued Jesus with all that I had. I was only responsible for me and my time was truly my own, and so I pursued him him ministry and reading huge chunks of my Bible. And now, my life looks different. I have gone through years of infertility and I am now responsible for a tiny human that I had the honor and privilege to adopt. When I was younger, I pursued Jesus with everything I had. I was passionate and on fire for him. But maybe now He is asking me to faithfully follow Him in the life He's actually given me. And so I have been, and now I am trying to do that to the fullest, whether in motherhood, or cleaning my house, having people over, exploring our new town and community. In all parts of my life. 

Well that is all for this week!

As always, thanks for reading!