Sobremesa Stories

Letting stories unfold around the table

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Our Front Room Makeover: A Long Overdue Reveal!

September 3, 2015 By Lauren

Oh man, this post is SO long coming.  When I completely painted and made over our wood hutch a few months back, I promised I’d share more about our front room makeover soon.  Welllll, one positive pregnancy test, lots of morning (aka all-day) sickness, and about six weeks later, I’m finally getting around to sharing some pictures of our front room makeover!

This room is a small space right off our front door (you can see our most recent house tour from a few months ago here).  I think it’s designed to be a “sitting room” or more formal parlor of sorts, but it’s not our main living space so it really isn’t all that functional.  It might eventually become some sort of kids’ space for homework, books, etc, but for now, it’s just a fun space we get to play with and walk by without really doing anything practical there (we’ll soak that in as much as we can before kiddos enter the picture and destroy everything, you know?).

Front Room Reveal Before

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Home Decor

Learning To Take My Blogging Dreams Seriously

September 2, 2015 By Lauren

Waaaaaay back in April when I started this blog (okay,  I know that’s actually just a few months ago), I was a little nervous.  I’ve always loved reading blogs and they’ve been such an encouragement to me in both hard and joyful seasons.  Bloggers like Glennon at Momastery or Lisa-Jo at Lisa-Jo Baker have created beautiful, real, online communities where women can share their hearts, even when they’re messy, and I admire them so much.

As I moved out of a hard few years of adjusting to post-college life, I knew I wanted to do something creative that would use my creative energy and help me to process all the thoughts and emotions swirling around my head.  A blog seemed like the perfect space for that! I learned so much in that month of creating and designing the blog before it launched and have continued to learn a ton as I’ve started to blog consistently these last few months.

Learning To Take My Blogging Dreams Seriously Lauren And Jordan 2

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Filed Under: Life, Relationships

Testimony Tuesday: Fighting For Healing

September 1, 2015 By Lauren

When I graduated college a few years back, it seemed like I had everything lined up for me.  I was headed to Kansas City to finally be in the same city as my long-distance boyfriend of two years, I had a teaching job lined up, and would start classes for my Master’s degree in education soon after I arrived.  That boyfriend soon became my fiancé,  and after a whirlwind seven months of teaching, wedding planning, and night classes, we got married.

From the outside, everything was perfect.  But from the inside? My heart was aching.

Sobremesa Stories Testimony Tuesday

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Filed Under: Relationships Tagged With: College, Heart Stuff, Life, Marriage

Wrestling With The Fear Of Miscarriage

August 31, 2015 By Lauren

When Jordan and I found out we were pregnant this summer, it felt completely surreal (You can read more about the journey here!).  I took the positive pregnancy test at 4:00 AM before we headed to the airport for a 10 day trip to Mexico and California, so the whole thing felt like a blur.  I wanted to be excited about the pregnancy and all the possibilities within it, but more than anything, I just felt fear.

I feared that the THREE positive pregnancy tests I took were somehow a mistake, that I’d somehow made it all up and the doctor would tell us we were wrong.  I feared that there was something wrong with the baby and it wouldn’t implant correctly or grow correctly or do just about anything the way it was supposed to.  I was scared my body would somehow not be able to grow and carry this way the way it was designed to and the baby wouldn’t make it.  Even though I’m young, healthy, and have no previous miscarriages or medical issues that would make my pregnancy particularly high risk, I worried that something would go wrong.

There was joy and excitement and dreaming about our little one, but more than anything, I was so, so afraid.

Positive Pregnancy Test

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Motherhood Tagged With: Heart Stuff, Life, Miscarriage, Parenthood, Pregnancy

Five on Friday: Our Growing Family

August 28, 2015 By Lauren

Oh my word, what a fun week it was! Aside from some craziness with multiple Back to School nights and end of summer get-togethers, it was a fun, joyful week as we shared our fun news with our friends, colleagues, and the social media world (see below for more details).

1) Our Growing Family

In case you missed this post on Tuesday, Jordan and I are SO excited to announce that we are expecting our first little one next March! It has been a crazy few months full of prayer, squeals, and lots of fun moments when we got to share our joy with our family and friends.  I’m about 12 weeks pregnant now and so ready to leave the nausea and worry of the first trimester behind me! Check out Tuesday’s post for more details on our decision to try for kiddos and all that’s happened since then!

Pregnancy Announcement 2

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Filed Under: Life

Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On Wrestling With Grief

August 26, 2015 By Lauren

Thanks for stopping by for this week’s Womanly Wednesday!  This week’s post is by an amazing friend of mine from Davidson named Louise.  When I met her during her freshmen year and my senior year, I was so in awe of her sweet spirit, her heart to love people, and the deep way she was starting to process her grief about all that she describes in this post.  It has been a blessing to know her and see her start to explore God’s grace in the midst of her grief, and I hope you learn as much from her story as I have! 

Womanly Wednesday Louise Headshot

It was spring of my 4th grade year. He was only in the hospital for 24 hours. No one saw it coming. But at age nine my world was wrecked from the inside out as my sweet daddy and favorite person in the world went to go see Jesus. I was blown away, heartbroken and terrified. I had no idea how to respond or what I should think or feel. But I knew that Jesus was holding our sweet, broken family- it was evident by the great and strange sense of peace we felt. But how to respond to such a thing? I had no earthly idea. So when someone told me to “be strong for your mom” in the weeks that followed, I did just that.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Womanly Wednesday Tagged With: Grief, Heart Stuff, Loss, Parent Loss

Coming March 2016

August 25, 2015 By Lauren

So remember that trip to Mexico we took way back in July? And all those yummy fruity drinks I talked about enjoying on the beach? Well, all of those drinks were actually non-alcoholic, because at 4 AM on the morning that we left for Mexico, this happened:

Positive Pregnancy Test

After lots of conversations and prayer last year, we decided that we’d, let’s just say, “remove the goalie” and see what happened this summer.  We weren’t in a huge rush to start a family, but had seen lots of people we love wrestle with infertility and miscarriage and wanted to open ourselves to whatever God might bring to our family before we reached a point of feeling desperate.  Two short months later, after being a day late on my period and wanting to see if I’d be able to sip on real piña coladas during our Mexico trip, I thought I’d take a pregnancy test.  And to our complete surprise, it was POSITIVE!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Life

Six Ways To Stop Arguments From Escalating

August 23, 2015 By Lauren

I’m gonna go ahead and say it: Parenthood is probably my favorite show of all time. I love the depth of the characters, the combination of sweetness and silliness, and the complex ways they show so many different parts of marriage and family life.  But in the words of a friend’s husband: “Is Parenthood the show where they’re always yelling at each other?”

While I won’t say that’s true ALL the time…they definitely do yell a bit.  Sometimes when I’m watching the couples in the show argue, I’m amazed by how quickly arguments turn into loud yelling matches where each person shouts their own perspective without actually listening at all to what the other one is saying (especially Crosby and Jasmine.  I love them but their marriage is a hot mess sometimes).
Marriage Conflict Cycle Black and White

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Filed Under: Marriage Tagged With: Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Marriage, Marriage Advice, Relationship Advice

Five on Friday: First Week Of School DONE!

August 21, 2015 By Lauren

Oh my heavens, all teachers know that there is no tired like first week of school teacher tired (all you mamas are probably rolling your eyes, but since we don’t have kiddos, this week is all I know of T-I-R-E-D!).  It was a crazy but fun week as we started settling back into a rhythm of work and life again.  I’m definitely happy to be back though, and can’t wait for all this year has in store!

  1. Getting My Classrooms Set Up

Since I travel between two schools (one in the morning and one in the afternoon), and I moved rooms at one school/had my room painted and had to take everything down at the other school, I had TWO rooms to get ready for students.  While I may not have the spiritual gift of bulletin board decorating like some teachers, I still had fun throwing some posters, flags, and other goodies on the wall to make things a little more colorful.   I wish I had more time/money to spend to make this space sparkle, but for now, I’m feeling pretty good about it!

Friday Classroom Before After

Before & after of one of my rooms!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Life

Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On Letting Go Of Expectations

August 19, 2015 By Lauren

Thanks for stopping by for this week’s Womanly Wednesday!  This is one of my favorite parts of the week where different women bravely and vulnerably share their stories.  If you would be interested in writing a Womanly Wednesday guest post of your own, please send me an email with your information and a summary of what you might like to share.  It would be an honor to have your voice and your story on the blog!

I met my friend Kat a year or two ago through our church, and it has been so fun to be a part of her story as she has bravely chosen to trust God with big life decisions, even when it’s terrifying.  I love her heart, her sense of humor, and her honest way of sharing about her life and her marriage.  And the best thing? She just started a blog! Make sure to head over to Sweeter Comfort and check her out! 

Womanly Wednesday Letting Go Of Expectations

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Filed Under: Womanly Wednesday

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