May - Endings and Beginnings

 I'm sitting here writing this at my desk. Right above my desk is my calendar. It is open to June and June is LOVELY! There is so much open space on my calendar that it makes me shoulders relax and my inhales deep and my exhales long.

But that is NOT what my calendar looked like in May. I hardly have any photos to recap May so the quantity of pictures don't give justice to the month we lived. But I've also been trying to get better and just being in the moment without my phone all the time, which I consider a win.

Highlights:

Josh ran his beast with his brother to complete his Spartan Trifecta.

I was asked to speak for the New Sandy Creek's Seniors group. It was like a family reunion. (You can click THIS LINK to read the talk I gave that I rewrote as a blog.)

Our church released the first volume of our Living Room Sessions. We recorded these in our living room during COVID and it feels so redemptive to have these moments captured live and now out in the world on all major music platforms. (Search "Seven Marks Worship")

Cai finished up his club soccer season with the rec cup. No I did not pay $35 for the picture! Goodness. But I did grab a screenshot just to document his team. They really pulled it together toward the end of the season after a rough start. We have loved the coach that he's had with NCFC for the past few years. 

One of our bass players on the team helped open up an Argentinian bakery and we went to show him some love after opening day. We are SO excited for them!  If you are ever in the Raleigh area, make sure you stop by Milonga and try something. I promise you'll love every bite.

My grandmother made a family history book for each of her grandchildren before she passed away. It is for sure a treasure. Some of the pictures date back to the 1800's! After watching A Small Light, a Prime Video series based on the perspective on Miep Gies, a Dutch woman who helped Anne Frank and her family, we began talking about our own family and where they were during that time. Which brought out the book. I captured Jude's curiosity as Josh went through some of the history with him.

And last, but not least...we finished up another year of Homeschool. Goodbye 7th, 9th and 11th grade!

Cai has two days of exams next week and we are all officially into summer. And we have a FUN summer ahead!

Spartan Super

 

Last year I got the Spartan bug.

Josh talked me into running the Spartan Sprint: a 5K race with 20 obstacles.

I felt so amped up after that race that I felt like I could jump back in and run it again.

So this year I signed up for the Spartan Super: 10K with 25 obstacles.

It was SO much fun!

And I'm on the verge of feeling like I want to try for the Beast next year, but maybe I'm just crazy!

We joined Josh's dad and sister and BIL again and we rocked that race together.

Josh had already run a couple of Sprint's, and Beast's but this was his first Super.

And as if that weren't enough, we finished our race, he jumped out, rinsed off, grabbed a clean pair of clothes and hopped back in line just in time to run a Sprint. The trifecta was his goal this year, and in one day he knocked out 2 of the 3 races required. In just four weeks he would complete the beast and be a trifecta holder!

Spartan makes you pay for the race pictures now, so that's kinda sad, so this is all we got, ha!

May Came In Hot

 May was anything but relaxing, but it sure was fun!  Josh returned from Argentina and then left for Uganda by the end of the month. We finished up the school year, finished up Cai's soccer season (they got 2nd place in the final championship!), Rainy had her first aerial performance and Josh, Zeke and our buddy Chris drove knocked out a Spartan Beast, almost all in one week(end). It was insane! We ended up the month having a massive Graduation Party for Rainy and then I also got to celebrate my friend Sarah's birthday.

We also had a 36 hour chicken massacre. We lost 9 in under 2 days. We think the first one was a hawk but the other was a fox. Needless to say we had to start the process of making calls to Tractor Supply to start over again with some chicks.

And having the fence installed FINALLY allowed for some privacy again and we have been able to enjoy our back porch again!

Spartan Sprint

 Josh talked Rainy and I into our first Spartan race and we are HOOKED!  We met Josh's dad and his sister and some people from their gym and did it all together. It was SO.MUCH.FUN. In fact we are ready to bump it up a notch and do the Super next time.