Happy New Year friends! It’s 2022 and I feel like I haven’t updated my blog in 27 years. It’s only been about 3 months, but still… After my last blog, things kicked into hyperspeed for Team Yearley. I thought I would share a few of the highlights of what's been happening over the last 3 months! I also have several ideas for where I want to go with my blog this year, so if you're interested in that, stick around!
At the end of October, we celebrated both mine & Lynae’s birthdays with a joint celebration at our house. It was SO nice to spend time with everyone and actually get to celebrate something. We had decided to do our birthday celebration a couple of weeks before Lynae's actual first birthday because we weren't sure what to expect with the weather and wanted to be prepared to utilize our outdoor space, as we don't have the largest of living spaces. It was quite lowkey and probably one of my favorite birthday celebrations that we've done yet. We ordered pizza, I made cupcakes and we just spent time with our family. This is likely the route I will plan to go for celebrations moving forward because with the exception of our two birthdays in late October & early November, all the rest of the birthday celebrations are in the summer. It will allow for us to use the inside AND outside of our home, without having to rent a big space and spend a bunch of extra money.
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was a HUGE day for Jesse and went on to change the rest of our year. After MUCH deliberation, Jesse and I agreed that he should take steps toward pursuing a job that had been coming up here and there over the last couple of years. The timing had never quite felt right... until it suddenly did. Jesse moved forward with the application and pre-interview requirements. He was interviewed shortly after and ended up getting the job!! His projected start date wasn't until the beginning of the year, so he gave a solid 4 week notice to his previous job and started the process of transitioning out of this job that he had had for almost 6 years. It was a wild change and we spent a lot of time talking through it both amongst ourselves as well as with Luke. His schedule changing was going to impact Luke quite a bit and we really wanted to ensure that we were bringing him into the conversation as much as we possibly could.
Luke had a week off for Thanksgiving break. It was fun to have him home for the week. Most of the family that we celebrate with weren't going to be in town for Thanksgiving, so it ended up being a very small dinner and it was super quiet. A change of pace from what we are used to, but much needed as we were heading into a busy month and the start of a new chapter in our lives.
December was already projecting to be super busy. I was hard at work getting things ready for Christmas. There was a lot that needed to happen and very little time to get it all done. Luke had two and a half weeks off for Christmas break, which added a whole new level of busy to my days. Midway through December sickness took over our household... and basically everyone on the planet's. It was awful. We dealt with so many just totally awful days, including Jesse being sick on his last day at his job. It was devastating. We eventually made it through and have all started feeling SO much better! It impacted our Christmas & New Year's celebrations, which was a bummer. But we're all just so grateful to finally be feeling better again! This is not true of many of our family members and friends, so we are praying fervently for renewed health and wellness for all!
The beginning of January so far has been NUTS. I mean seriously, what day even is it?? Jesse started his new job on January 5th and it has basically been a whirlwind since. We have had to adjust our schedules massively and there has been quite a few things that we have experienced over the course of the just TWO weeks (read: eight days) he's been working. Overall, I think that Team Yearley is adapting well, but that has not come without quite a bit of effort. There are still several areas where we are finding obstacles or difficulties that we hadn't anticipated dealing with, but those things will come with time and even more effort!
The kids are growing like weeds every single second and keep me quite busy most days. Luke is in his second semester of Kindergarten and we are just praying that he will get to finish this year out with in-person school and not have to transition to virtual learning. This is a very real possibility, but I pray that we are able to get through! He is LOVING school and learning so much. It's been truly wonderful to see him grow and evolve the way he has in just about 6 months. He is a completely different kid in a lot of ways and I'm amazed by him daily. Lynae is getting taller by the second, but really takes her development into her own hands. She pretty much determines whether or not she's doing something and most of the time opts to not. But she is growing well and continuing to enjoy spending time with her brother. They play together SO well and it's really heartwarming to see them together. She and I are able to have a lot of intentional one on one time while brother is at school, so that has been really fun. With Jesse's schedule change, he is also getting some one on one time with her while Luke is at school, so that has been a fun change as well!
So, that's the skinny on Team Yearley at this point. We're staying busy, but overall have enjoyed the ride thus far! Alright... the moment you've all (all two of you, haha!) been waiting for! Where the heck is this blog going? If I'm honest, I always have great intentions with my blog. But when I'm hit with spiritual warfare, my writing is among the first to be attacked. I will be on a great schedule of writing and posting and then in the darkest of moments I will hear that I shouldn't be writing a blog and that it's not worth it. "Why would people care anyway?" "What do you have to say that can mean anything to anyone?" "You're not worthy." It's a terrible experience most of the time and I will often be consumed with feeling like there is no reason to keep writing because if I do, it will all be for nothing. This has been a tricky battle and I'm really working hard on moving out of that mindset. When I think of the people that I follow, whether in blog or vlog form, I find that their words can touch me, educate me, challenge me, or even validate me in someway. I always feel so thankful for their content and would feel pretty bummed to not have it. With that said, I have no real interest in striving to be an "influencer" of any sort. But I do strive in my everyday life to be a safe space for people. And if I can provide that in my writing, then I want to be better about doing that too. I love love love to write and it really does bring me so much joy to share blogs.
As I have contemplated my journey moving forward, I think that setting a specific timeline for myself for uploading blogs and that kind of thing could end poorly. I'm very task oriented and if I don't upload when I say I'm going to, it just fuels the fire for the nasty things I hear in my head. What I know at this particular moment is that I have several ideas for blog posts that I would like to put out in the near future. I work well with an outline and have mapped out several ideas for blogs with the grace and understanding that they may not come out on a specific schedule. I'm eager to see where my blog is able to go between now and then, but my main focus is to try to stick to what I love despite the opposition I may hear or feel at times.
In my next blog, my plan is to share about my 2022 intentions. If you've been around for a while you know that I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions, but I have found such an impact in setting the intention for the year in some way. My first time doing this, I ended up seeing a lot of change happen throughout our year that may not have happened had we not set out to accomplish those things the way we did. I was able to process our upcoming year at the beginning of January and it has really been an impactful and important part of my process as we have transitioned into Jesse's new job. I look forward to what's to come!
Be kind, give grace, & I'll chat with you soon!
Xx,
Alex
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