Sobremesa Stories

Letting stories unfold around the table

25 Reflection Questions To Ask Your Spouse

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There is no quicker way to my heart than a cheesy, deep question.  When we started dating, Jordan quickly discovered if he wanted to keep his girl happy, he just needed to ask question after question – especially ones that gave us a chance to talk about all the reasons we liked each other.  You know, cute, new relationship kind of stuff. 😉

Over the past few years, Jordan and I have started spending some time over Christmas break reflecting back on the last year and dreaming about our hopes for the years that lie ahead.  This time isn’t always super structured and usually happens over all-you-can-eat sushi in California or on chilly winter walks, but we love to reflect back on all that we shared that year.

These are 25 great reflection questions to ask your spouse at the end of the year!

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Our Simple, Cozy Christmas Decor

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I’ve said it before, but Christmas decorations are one of my favorite parts of the holiday season.  Putting up our decorations marked the beginning of Christmas, and I loved sitting in front of the twinkling lights of the tree with a good book and a cozy blanket.

Now that we have a little one, I am excited to create those same traditions.  I follow so many wonderful bloggers whose homes are stunning visions of neutral Christmas decor, and my creative heart love loves loves seeing all that.  But if I’m being honest, it just didn’t really happen in our home this year.  I put up a lot of our decorations we had last year and had fun shopping the house to find things I could transform to be more Christmassy, but this year our house just feels cozy.

Christmas Home Decor Sobremesa Stories

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Five on Friday: Turkey Trotting And Christmas Baking

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Oh man, these four weeks might be my favorite of the whole year.  The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is so sweet and I love all the yummy treats, pretty lights, coziness, celebrations, and just overall joy that happen in this season.  Since I didn’t share any updates last week, here are some updates about our Thanksgiving and this past week!

1) Turkey Trot

For the first time, the whole English family participated in a Thanksgiving morning turkey trot! It was pretty cold so we bundled up the kiddos and headed to south KC to rock our 5K.  My brother/sister in law and their kiddos walked with me and strollers while Jordan and his sister did the 10K.  I’ll spare you all the details, but let’s just say Jordan took a wrong turn 0.2 miles before the finish line and managed to get himself DQ’d.  Woops! He still rocked it and ran super fast though (like sub 6 minute miles, people) and it was fun to bring Caleb to his first race with Dad (even though he did sleep through most if it).  I hope this becomes an annual tradition!

friday-turkey-trot

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Caleb’s Nine Month Update

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The Numbers

We have our nine month checkup this week so I don’t have exact numbers yet, but I’m guessing little man is weighing somewhere around 17 pounds.  He’s currently rocking 6-9 month everything, but I did take advantage of Black Friday sales to order some 12 months stuff for when he moves that direction in a few weeks.  That noggin of his is still pretty impressive and I had a nostalgic mama moment the other day when I looked at his little hands and they seemed SO much bigger than they used to do.  What in the world am I going to do when he’s a big ol’ toddler wandering around?

calebs-nine-month-update-picture

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Five on Friday: Hail Storm Surprises And Too Much Adulting

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Since last week I took a break from my normal Friday posts to share some thoughts about the election, it seems like it’s been a while since I thought back on what’s been going on with us.  It’s been a crazy few weeks and I am excited for some of the not-so-fun grownup stuff we’ve been dealing with to wind down so we can rest and enjoy the holidays.

1) A Crazy Storm

A few weeks back our area got hit by a crazy hail storm.  I had just woken up Caleb from his nap when all of a sudden it seemed like the world was ending and our house was exploding (can you tell hail is a strange thing for this California girl?).  As we peeked out onto the back porch and saw huge, golf-ball sized hail smashing into the deck and screens, I immediately thought of Jordan and all the other teachers parked outside at the high school.  He called me soon after and was actually out driving in it.  Y’all, his car got DESTROYED by the hail. Fortunately he was okay but his car has tons of dents.  There was also some damage to our house and we have insurance people coming out to take a look at that in the next few weeks. So crazy what one storm can do!

friday-hail-storm

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How We’re Creating Meaningful Family Traditions For Our First Holiday Season As Parents

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I love the Christmas season as much as the next girl, and having a baby makes it all the more special this year.  Everything we do, from decorations and treats to gatherings and celebrations, is shaping the memories that Caleb will have of his childhood Christmases. It adds a new joy and a new weight to this season and we are trying to be intentional in our choices and our celebrations.  Even though I’m sure our traditions will evolve as Caleb gets older or we eventually add to our family, but these are five things we are doing to be intentional in this first Christmas with our boy.

How We're Creating Meaningful Family Traditions For Our First Holiday Season As Parents

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Five on Friday: A Reflection on The Heaviness Of This Week

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I originally drafted this post as a normal Five on Friday post.  I wrote out some updates on how I’m rewatching Gilmore Girls in anticipation of the reunion season coming out, how I’m loving Ann Voskamp’s new book, how we got a crazy hail storm last week and Jordan’s car got a ton of dents.  I wanted to write one last point about some thoughts and reflections on the election, but that one paragraph became three paragraphs became a whooole lot of thoughts, and I felt like that was really all I could respectfully share this week.  So if you want to see pictures of our hail damage and my cute baby boy, maybe tune back in next week.  If you’re as confused by this election as I am and having just as many jumbled, convicting thoughts, keep reading.

My heart for this blog has always been that it be a place where people can vulnerably share their stories and their hurts, and this is a little picture of where I’ve been in my quiet times and conversations with people this week.

friday-five-family

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An Update On The Womanly Wednesday Series

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If you’ve been around this blog for a while, then you’ve probably seen posts from the Womanly Wednesday series.  I started this post back in fall 2015 as a way to give different women a chance to their stories.  I believe so strongly that vulnerability about our struggles is what brings us together and brings us toward healing, and I loved that my blog was a place where women could share and read about the hard things we all go through without shame.

For the first year or so of the series, I pretty much just begged any and all friends I could think of to share a part of their story.  I had friends from my childhood in California, my college years in Davidson, my travels abroad, and my life here in Kansas City share pieces of their hearts, their most challenging moments beautifully expressed for the world to see and know.

Womanly Wednesday Taylor and Friends

My friend Taylor shared a post about her journey with life post-college and Haley shared a post about the tension of trusting God with our desires for adventure.

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The Four Words I Refuse To Say When I’m Hurting

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I’ve hinted in some recent posts that it’s been a bit of a discouraging season with Caleb, and I’ve wrestled with control, fear, and shame way more than I’d like to admit these last few months.  With my husband gone for work all day and long hours with an exhausted baby who just wouldn’t sleep, my heart has felt a bit all over the place.

As I’ve read blog posts and articles by moms in similar places, I’ve been so struck by some of the comments when women share their struggles.  I’ve seen some version of a particular phrase over and over and I’ve been thinking about that phrase quite a bit: It could be worse.

“Oh you think it’s bad that your little one won’t nap? My guy is still waking up every two hours at night!”

“You’re discouraged because your kid won’t sleep past 4:45 AM? At least you have a baby and he’s healthy.  You should be grateful!”

“You’re feeling lonely in these long days at home? Imagine if your husband was gone in the military or worked nights – then you’d really be miserable!”

These kinds of comments could be made about any struggle – issues at work, in marriage, in trying to start a family, broken relationships, and so much more.  But at the heart of all these responses is the same idea: “You think ______ is hard? It could be MUCH worse.”

if-youre-hurting-saying-these-four-words-can-make-it-even-harder-do-you-say-this-without-realizing-it

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