Word of the Year: Content

 

 

Every year I try to sit down and take stock of how my previous year went and consider how I would like the upcoming year to come to take shape. This is a practice I have done for 14 years now. Last year I set the goal to thrive in my life, not just exist. While I did not do this perfectly, I do feel like I was able to choose to do more than exist.

 

A few areas we found ourselves thriving as family included:

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We walked our boys through the experience of grief when we said goodbye to our beloved Sophie. It was one of the harder life experiences for all of us. I hope we did it with grace, showing our boys what it means to love and also how to say goodbye. 

 

We completed 68 weekly hikes and walked a total of 177 miles during the course of the year.

I read 43 books, many of them aloud to the kids.

We camped 25 times including a month-long camping trip up the east coast to Maine to visit my sister and her family. We visited 18 states this year, many of them during our trek up the east coast.

 

I decided to step into coaching this year for the first time. First with Isaac's soccer team and then Jack's basketball team. The boys also did well on swim team and Jack made excellent progress in cross country this year. 

 

I started the year teaching a group of 9-11 year-old boys as a part of our Classical Conversations co-op (they call this tutoring). This grew into me becoming the Director of this co-op. This was not something that I had planned on, but I believe I truly thrived in this position (though it has not been without difficulties). 

After a couple of years of low involvement in Scouts due to Co^id, we really enjoyed doing lots of activities with the boy's Scout troop this year. We hiked and camped with this group, and had the opportunity to set off rockets and launch catapults.

 

The highlight for our family was an overnight 10-mile paddle trip down the Tennessee River and also paddling the Hiwassee. We have really loved all of our adventures with scouts.

 

The boys also did several survival challenges at our house with a neighbor friend. They attempted this 5 times over the course of the year with 3 separate nights completed. They are very proud of their accomplishment.

 

As of last month we have been married for 20 years. While our marriage is far from perfect, we have tried to thrive in this are of our life and not just merely exist.

 

 

When thinking of marriage and the longevity that goes with it, I really got to thinking about choosing to be content. I have continued to think about that word over the last couple of weeks. Content is an adjective that means satisfied. It is so easy in this life to play the comparison game or to experience FOMO (fear of missing out), but when I choose to be content (and it is a choice), my life goes so much better. I am less impatient and more benevolent to those around me. It is something that I want to continue to strive for this year. While I have goals and things I would like to accomplish in 2023, I also want to find contentment in how my life goes. Normally I might have been bothered that I am posting this on January 2nd instead of the 1st, but it really isn't bugging me this year, and I hope that is a reflection of me being content.

 

Philippians 4:12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 

 

May I live this verse out this year.

 

My Words from Years Past:

Fortitude {2010} │ Adaptation {2011} │ Patience {2012} │ Deliberate {2013} │ Joy {2014}│ Peace {2015} │ Release {2016} │ Savor {2017} │ Healing {2018} │ Be {2019} │ Embrace {2020} │ Continue {2021} │ Thrive {2022}

Twenty Years

I recently heard an idea that was attributed to Aristotle that I can't quit thinking about: "If you want to come across as an ethical man, you need to be an ethical man." The more I think about this, I find that I can extrapolate this concept to most parts of my life, including marriage.

 

If I want a good spouse, I need to be a good spouse. 

 

 

 

Spoiler alert: I am not always a good spouse. And a lot of times when our marriage feels like it is going off the rails, one or both of us (probably both) is not being a good spouse.  

 

 

 

Friday was our twentieth wedding anniversary. Twenty years full of amazing memories, but also twenty years of being human and selfish. We don't always get it right. It takes work. A lot of work. 

 

 

 

We have both changed so much in the last twenty years. We have grown up. We have shifted in things we think. We have become more stubborn in some areas. It has taken work to show up and continue on.

   

 

Some days (years) seem so easy, some are incredibly hard and fraught with tension and misunderstanding. But we have continued on and it has, and continues to be, worth it.

 

Earlier this year we had discussed taking a big trip for this important 20th anniversary. We are not great at celebrating and it takes a lot of intention for us to make something like this happen. We are also procrastinators. And while we kept quietly talking about this trip we needed to take, we never made 

plans. 

 

In fact, the week before, Daniel called me to ask if he should take any days off since we hadn't decided on anything. I told him to take off Thursday and Friday and we went about setting a plan in motion. We found friends to keep the boys and booked a tiny house locally on Sunday (for Thursday!). 

 

It wasn't a grandiose thing. It was fairly last minute. I decided we should go on a couple of hikes that I love that I have done with our kids but that Daniel had not been able to experience. He decided where we should eat. We had fun just the two of us. It wasn't exhausting and we came home rejuvenated in our relationship.

 

I hope we take that big trip sometime in the next year, but if we don't, it's okay. I have never felt so content. Maybe contentment is where it is at. High expectations can wreak havoc (in my experience). Connecting with each other and working individually to be good spouses and finding contentment, that is what twenty years of marriage has taught me.

Happy 20th Anniversary, Daniel! I pray for many more years together and many more adventures to come!

A Look Back on the blog:
Five Years  |  Six Years  |  Skipped Seven Year Post  |  Eight Years  |  Nine Years  |  Ten Years  |  Eleven Years  |  Twelve Years  |  Thirteen Years  |  Fourteen Years  |  Fifteen Years

Books Read in 2021

In 2021 I exceeded by goal of reading 52 books for the year, coming in at 56. If I count all of the children's books I have read to my kids as a part of school, this list would be a lot longer. But I try to keep this particular goal to chapter books that are typically close to 200 pages. Outliers do exist in this list as I read Gooney Girl Greene and it was only 88 pages. I think I more than made up for it though by reading Atlas Shrugged which was over 1,000 pages! The favorite series that my kids and I listened to was about the Melendy Family – a series of 5 books, closely followed by My Side of the Mountain, The Willoughbys, and The Biography of Santa Claus. As for adult books, my favorite were We Stood Upon Stars, Adventuring Together, and Electric City. Though I really enjoyed most of the books I read this year.

Books read in 2021:

1. The Good Earth (Book 1) by Pearl S. Buck
2. The Birchbark House (Book 1) by Louise Erdrich (read aloud to kids)
3. The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes (read aloud to kids)
4. You're Not Enough and That's Ok by Allie Beth Stuckey
5. The Terrible Two (Book 1) by Mac Barnett (read aloud to kids)
6. Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen
7. The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia Book 5) by C.S. Lewis (read aloud to kids)
8. Ember's End (The Green Ember Book 4) by S.D. Smith (audio book with kids)
9. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
10. Prince Caspian (Chronicles of Narnia Book 2) by C.S. Lewis (read aloud to kids)
11. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
12. We Stood Upon Stars by Roger W. Thompson (audio book with kids)

 

13. Adventuring Together by Greta Eskridge (audio book)

14. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia Book 3) by C.S. Lewis (read aloud to kids)

15. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

16. United States of Socialism by Dinesh D'Souza

17. Greenglass House (Book 1) by Kate Milford (read aloud to kids)

18. My Side of the Mountain (Book 1) by Jean Craighead George (read aloud to kids)

19. Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry (read aloud to kids)

20. The Four-Story Mistake (Melendy Family Book 2) by Elizabeth Enright (audio book with kids)

21. Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle

22. The Tragic Tale of Narcissa Whitman by Chery Harness (read aloud to kids)

23. 1789 by Marc Aronson (editor)

24. Chasing God by Angie Smith

25. On the Far Side of the Mountain (Book 2) by Jean Craighead George (read aloud to kids)

26. Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr (read aloud to kids)

27. Awakening Wonder by Sally Clarkson

28. Then There Were Five (Melendy Family Book 3) by Elizabeth Enright (audio book with kids)

29. Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell

30. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology by Adam Alter

31. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

32. Liberty by Kirby Larson (audio book with kids)

33. Math with Bad Drawings by Ben Orlin

34. Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson

35. How am I Smart? by Kathy Koch

36. Uprooted by Grace Olmstead

 

37. Spiderweb for Two (Book 4) by Elizabeth Enright

38. Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

39. The Stormkeeper's Island (Book 1) by Catherine Doyle

40. The Saturdays (Melendy Family Book 1) by Elizabeth Enright (audiobook with kids)

41. Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge

42. The Willoughbys (Book 1) by Lois Lowry (read aloud to kids)
43. Gone Away Lake (Book 1) by Elizabeth Enright (audio book with kids)

44. The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

45. Casting the Gods Adrift by Geraldine McCaughrean (read aloud to kids)

46. Return to Gone-Away (Book 2) Elizabeth Enright (audio book with kids)

47. Pie by Sarah Weeks (read aloud to kids)

48. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

49. The Willoughbys Return (Book 2) by Lois Lowry

 

50. Tales from the Odyssey Part 1 by Mary Pope Osborn (read aloud to kids)

51. Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

52. Electric City by Thomas Hager

53. Kingdom's Dawn (Book 1) Chuck Black (read aloud to kids)

54. The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein

55. The Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble

56. The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn (audio book with kids)

Books I've read over the years:
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020

52 Hikes Challenge (2021)

 

I decided to do a 52 Hike Challenge last year as a way to be consistent with my hiking. Since I organize a weekly hiking group, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to meet that goal. Even if we paused for the summer, I was pretty sure we would still make 52 hikes.

Well we did! As seen in my photo blocks, we actually did 81 hikes. We kicked off the year with our annual New Year's Hike. Then our hiking group completed 39 hikes in our local area. On average we hiked 2.5 miles on these hikes, but we also did several hikes that were five miles long.

Our family took a camping trip out west in March and April where we hiked in Colorado, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arkansas. We completed 22 hikes as a family. The hardest for us was a 7-mile day in Yosemite where we made it to the top of Vernal Falls.

We visited 6 National Parks, 4 National Monuments, 7 State Parks, and made it to the Pacific Ocean – a first for our boys. Among other things, we experienced snow and incredibly big trees in the northwest, hot temps in Death Valley, and the lowest point in America at Badwater Basin.

Our camping friends did 7 hikes with us. I'm including our 11-mile bike ride around Cades Cove as a "hike" since it was in a National Park and we were experiencing nature firsthand, just a little faster!

I did two hiking trips with girlfriends. Jack and Daniel completed a five-mile hike with cub scouts. Isaac did his first 5-mile hike-and-bike to Edwards Point. We also did several hikes with local friends who aren't a part of our hiking group.

In October our hiking group did a corn maze – a first for my boys, and then one of our final outings for the year was actually ice skating, but I'm counting since it's my blog!

We ended the year with a final National Park hike in the Great Smoky Mountains with a quick hike to Laurel Falls.

 

I was trying to track my mileage and hikes for the year on Instagram, but my record shows that I completed 65 hikes with 177.5 miles for the year. I'd wager I hiked closer to 200. It was a good year for hiking. I'm looking forward to whatever hikes are in store for 2022!