Today—January 30, 2025—would have been my grandmother’s one hundredth birthday. Sadly, she passed away just over a year ago and never got to see this milestone. But I’m thinking of Oma today, particularly her influence on this very space. Oma never read my blog, but she was one of the first to encourage me in my writing.
Long before I had the idea to begin writing online, I was penning personal journals about our family vacations. My dad would add pictures to my words and have them printed into a book, and those vacation journals became Oma’s favorite reading materials in the final years of her life. She spent every visit telling me how much she loved my writing and insisting that I needed to share my words with more than just our family by writing a book.
Whether or not a published book is in my future, I have continued writing thanks in no small part to my grandmother’s encouragement. I think she’d be tickled by the fact that I now share more than just the details of my vacations, but parts of my whole life, with so many.
|| READING LATELY ||
It was a busy reading month! I fit in a couple of Christmas-themed books (post-Christmas)—one long, one short, both enjoyable. This cozy fantasy was a fun and unique addition to my usual reading, while this mystery was decent but not on par with other books in the series, and this historical thriller had an excellent premise but ultimately didn’t work for me. The kids and I loved returning to this Middle Grade novel I adored as a child.
Highlights from my extensive nonfiction reading this month were this shocking and beautifully written memoir, this eye-opening look at America’s public education, this examination of Progressive talking points from a Christian Conservative’s perspective, and this re-read of a behind-the-scenes look at one of my favorite shows.
I’ll be sharing a roundup of book reviews in a Quick Lit next week!
|| WATCHING LATELY ||
Moana 2—The first Moana is a family favorite and we were excited to see the sequel. And it was . . . fine. Not terrible by any means, but definitely not a winner like the first film. The animation is gorgeous, of course, but the music felt subpar and I had trouble following the story. The kids loved it, but I was pretty disappointed. My Rating: 3.5 Stars.
|| PLAYING LATELY ||
Do You Really Know Your Family?—My friend Cara got us this game for Christmas, and it is a big hit with every one of us! The game contains trivia cards that the person who drew the card must answer while keeping the answer to him or herself; other players then guess what that person’s answer would be. We played this game while my parents were visiting and it was a fun way for the grandparents/grandkids to get to know each other better, but we’ve played the game with just our immediate family and that’s a lot of fun too. I’ve been surprised by some of my kids’ answers, and also by how well they know me (sometimes better than I know myself!). This would be a great game to bring to a family reunion.
|| LISTENING LATELY ||
Recent podcasts that I just can’t stop thinking about.
FAMILY & FAITH
Practice Makes Parent—The Benefits & Challenges of Homeschooling
Mama Bear Apologetics—120. 5 Ways The Wes Huff Interview Showed Us How To Be A Better Apologist (pair with this from Joe Rogan)
ReFocus with Jim Daly—Annie F. Downs: Influencing Others with a Joy-Filled Life and also Tim Goeglein – Reversing the Cultural Revolution Through Faith and Family
The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast—Episode 701: College Revival, Gen Z’s Confession Movement, and Bringing the Revival to Churches with J.P. Pokluda and Jennie Allen and also Episode 706: Tyler Staton on Lessons From His Cancer Journey, Why He Didn’t Pray for Healing, and What Happens When You Can No Longer Lead From Your Strength
The Shawn Ryan Show—#152 Lee Strobel – Who is Jesus Christ the Son of God?
HEALTH & CULTURE
The Daily—The Year in Wisdom
Keeping It Real With Jillian Michaels—HRT: Unveiling It’s Life Changing Health & Wellness Benefits w/ Peter Attia
The Unspeakable with Meghan Daum—Los Angeles Fires: The Immaterial World
And on the music front, I have Drew and Ellie Holcomb’s latest album, Memory Bank, playing on repeat. I’ve long enjoyed music from each of these artists individually and I’m now obsessed with this joint album from the talented couple. The autobiographical songs are snappy and hopeful, a joyous celebration of memory and adventure and marriage. The collection is a good mix of uptempo songs and ballads, with a southern sound and soulful harmonies threaded throughout. It was fun to hear the couple share some behind-the-scenes of the album on this podcast. My own favorite tracks are “Brick by Brick” and “Carry the Water,” and “You Drive Me Crazy” just makes me laugh. This album reminds me a lot of two of my other favorite folk-singing duos, The Civil Wars and Johnnyswim.
|| LOVING LATLEY ||
My in-laws got me this purse (from my wish list) for Christmas and I love it SO MUCH! It’s a backpack which is a must for me in the stage of life, and I’m totally charmed by the way that it unites my enthusiasm for books and Disney. It’s big enough to hold an extra diaper and wipes, so I can carry it in place of a full diaper bag for short trips, and it has a few extra pockets both inside and out which help keep my bag organized. The only drawback to using this as my daily bag is that Kali has one that is very similar (hers is Cinderella themed) and I keep mixing them up! Thankfully I haven’t left the house with the wrong purse. . . which probably couldn’t happen, since I keep my car keys in mine.
|| MONTHLY KID-ISMS ||
CHARLIE-ISMS:
+ While reading, he asked me what an a-c-o-r-n was. I told him, and he didn’t believe me. “No, the things on oak trees are called egg-corns.”
+ As we looked at the weather app and saw our chance of snow had decreased: “In my mind we still have 100% chance of hope for snow.”
+ “I’m getting distracted from enjoying the good book I’m reading by all the other good books I could be reading next.”
KALI-ISMS:
+ Out of the blue in the car one day: “I just keep thinking: long kisses or short kisses when I get married?”
+ “Why is there boys on money? If I made money, I would put pictures of girls. Except some boys that I like.”
SULLY-ISMS:
+ Kali, playing with a set of toy keys: “Mom, are these real keys?” Sully: “How on earth would you think those are real? Real keys have buttons!” (Because our car keys all have remotes.)
+ “Is Mars the hottest place on earth?”
|| HAPPENINGS AND HIGHLIGHTS ||
My parents flew out to Texas for the week after Christmas and the visit was, as always, a great one. We mostly hung out at home playing games and hanging out in the yard (we had unseasonably nice weather) and savored our time with them.
Luke and I celebrated our sixteenth wedding anniversary on December 28 (obviously not January, but since my last Lately post). My parents watched the big kids and Nico joined us for a day date: we went to see Wicked (which was incredible) then had lunch at our favorite restaurant followed by a long walk and cards at a local coffee shop. Our tiny third wheel made the date a little less romantic/peaceful than we would have liked, but it was still a wonderful time celebrating our marriage and how we’ve grown in our sixteen years.
We had a lot of fun celebrating New Year’s Eve, and it was fun that my parents could join us. The kids spent the day making paper fireworks and other decorations, and we had a little party that night with dancing and games. We did a countdown to “midnight” (8:00) and rang in the new year with sparkling cider and some gingerbread house demolition. The neighbors were doing fireworks in the street that we got to enjoy, and Nico was mesmerized! The kids were up way past their bedtime and got a little slaphappy by the end of the evening, but it was worth it.
My big boy turned ten, and we had a great day celebrating him! We skipped schoolwork that day in favor of more fun things including a morning of presents, donuts, and seeing Moana 2 in theaters. We’ll be doing our big celebration with a trip to Kalahari (a local indoor water park) this summer, but we had a family party with In-n-Out takeout, a Menchie’s fro-yo cake, balloons, and a piñata made by the twins and filled with Charleston Chews. Charleston enjoyed his day, and WE enjoyed showing him lots of love on his special day.
Last week we got some snow! Before we moved to Austin we were told that it snowed here once every decade or so, but we have gotten at least one snowfall every year since 2016. The kids loved it, or course, and had fun making snow angels and throwing snowballs. Arlo cracked us up running like crazy around the yard and eating as much snow as he could. All of the local schools canceled classes for the day and the kids begged me to do the same. I told them that if snowfall kept them from safely making it to our kitchen table for school we would cancel too, so they piled fake snow (boxes covered in white paper) through the hallway. Their plan failed (I’m a tough teacher), but I admired their efforts.
|| ICYMI: JANUARY ON THE BLOG ||
Walking With the Good Shepherd in 2025 “I want to gain a deeper understanding of what Jesus means when He says He is The Good Shepherd, and what it looks like for me to hear the Shepherd’s voice and heed His call. My goal in this is to move beyond learning about the Shepherd and begin following Him more wholeheartedly, trusting His guidance and listening closely for His voice.“
Charleston Michael || DOUBLE DIGITS! “I’ve always thought maybe once I’m done being president I can open up a pizza place. I would do Italian probably except that I’m president, that might be bad representation for our country.“
Nickelson Ryan || Five Months Old “My inner Enneagram One is just a little too giddy over the fact that we now have a ten-year-old, two five-year-olds, and a five-month old (plus two forty-year-olds) in our family; nice, round numbers make me VERY happy.“
Books Beyond the Favorites: Superlatives From My 2024 Reading “A lot of these were 4.5-star reads for me and very well could have made it onto a Best Of list if there wasn’t such an abundance of riches to choose from.“
Bookish Consideration: How do you read? “I’m always interested in the unseen details of others’ lives, and I am SO CURIOUS about the ins and outs of people’s reading.“
I know that not everyone’s January was a happy one. My heart especially goes out to those impacted by the California fires. But I hope you were able to uncover some pockets of joy this month; if you’re willing, I’d love to hear about it—share a highlight in the Comments.
And finally, on a business note: I’m so happy to announce that I started a Substack! After being a Substack lurker for several months and growing increasingly impressed with what I’m seeing there in terms of community and content, I’m excited to start sharing my own posts on the platform. You can continue to follow me on this site, or you can subscribe to my account over there. For those of you receiving this via email, the formatting may look a little different but you will not need to make any changes to stay subscribed. Please let me know if you are noticing anything weird and my tech team (aka Luke) will get right on it!