Favorite Things Update

Both of my children are covered in yogurt and currently fighting over Legos, so I naturally decided this was an excellent time to write a blog post - since I couldn't have found a more convenient time in the last four months.

I wanted to do a brief update in the form of a "Favorite Things" list. 

Favorite Stage of Development: 

Zeke has been potty trained for a few months now. Hallelujah. Well, day-trained. Since Kyle and I "decided" to have children twenty-one months apart, the name of our parenting game during this season is: sustainability. So Zeke is an underwear by day, diapers by night kind of kid. So far he's been doing great, and I am beginning to think night-training will not be the hellish experience I imagined it to be. #fingerscrossed

As of a few months ago, Evie is no longer nursing. Now, for the first time in almost four years, I am neither pregnant nor breastfeeding. 

The first few weeks after Evie weaned I definitely drank all the caffeine in site. (Not really, but close.) Since then I have simmered down, and now have settled to a sincere appreciation for a lot of small things that I did not appreciate before pregnancy and breastfeeding. A lot more of life has moved from the "personal rights" column to the "privileges" column in my mind. I think this has made me a more pleasant person to be around, as a whole.

Also being able to drink two cups of coffee in a day... that makes me more pleasant too.

Favorite TV Show: 

Parenthood. We are on Season 5 and I'm sort of done with feeling the gamut of my emotional range every episode. But I can't stop watching it. Neither can Kyle. I have never cried while watching a TV show, but this one makes me cry regularly. I'm usually one of those, "Real life is hard enough, why watch shows that make me think about how hard real life is?" people, but this one keeps me coming back. The only downside is that Lauren Graham's character (who most know as the beloved Lorelei Gilmore) is 99% obnoxious, but I guess that's what happens when you've played a character on a previous TV show that was amazing.  

Favorite Books: 

I recently finished Jim Gaffigan's Dad is Fat, which was hilarious. Actually I listened to it, which I think may have made it better because Gaffigan narrates it and I enjoy his comedic timing. Some of it was repeats from the stand-up shows he's done, but most of it was new to me. 

I also just listened to (I've been on an audiobook kick lately) Jen Hatmaker's For The Love. I've been stalking reading her blog for a few years now, and I'm a fan. The best way to describe it is a collection of essays about life and faith. She's funny. Like real funny. Like the taking a chapter to tweet out your life pre-social media kind of funny. 

Favorite Podcasts: 

I think I've just realized that listening to people talk while I'm doing laundry/dishes/making dinner/etc is a thing for me. Please don't hate me, but I've come to the conclusion that music isn't my thing. It just isn't. I enjoy it sometimes, but usually when there's a really specific purpose to it. Like a good cinematic score, or a long road trip, or worship, or a concert, or needing something loud and full of energy when I work out...but it is not something that I particularly like having on in the background all the time. 

I like listening to people talk though? 

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History and Things You Missed in History Class, I'm sure you see the theme there. I've really missed studying history since graduating, and these fill in the gap a bit. 

I also listen to Matt Chandler's sermon podcast and Timothy Keller's. By and large they're my favorite teachers right now. 

Favorite Thing to Cook: 

Recently, I have been cooking the business out of some breakfast tacos. All the time, breakfast tacos. 

But specifically with some homemade salsa, and tortillas that you cook? bake? pan-bake? I don't know. They come in the form of raw dough circles, but since you prepare them immediately before you eat your taco they wind up tasting SO GOOD AND WARM AND FRESH. And I pretend they're healthier even though that is not grounded in facts of any kind.  

Favorite Thing to Look Forward To: 

My little sister having her baby boy in November! (I am going to cry so much.)

One of our closest friend couples completing their YEARS long adoption journey! (SO MUCH TEARS.)

Our church plant team FINALLY beginning to regularly meet this week as a homegroup. (I am not going to cry, but I am going to make this group of people play obnoxious party games with me.) 

Favorite Workout: 

You guys, I am taking a cardio dance class. I know. I KNOW. Can I just explain to people who don't know me that this is the most ridiculous thing ever? But I'm doing it, and I love it, and it is weird. This is probably the most consistently I've worked out and still enjoyed it. A few months ago Kyle and I went biking around his parents house, and I beat him to our destination, legitimately. 

My husband is one of those people that is always in shape. Just, permanently... I don't get it. When I had a rare moment of being in better shape than him, it was a deep personal victory. 

This went away after he played soccer for like, three weeks, but it still happened.

Other than that, Kyle and I went to a marriage conference a few weeks ago and it was amazing. It contained a lot of deep heart things that both of us are still processing. Things that I'd love to write and write and write and write about, but I'll have to wait because it would be a book, or at least one of those posts that you keep scrolling and scrolling and think, "Will this never end?" kind of like this one is sort of becoming.

Much Grace,

Christina 

This Week's Soapbox is Named "Exercise"

We're gym shopping!

Kyle is participating in a triathalon in May, and needs a place to train that's a bit more substantial than the park next to our house. I am not participating in a triathalon, but I am training for our summer in Colorado. Any delusions of being in shape are quickly shattered when you're gasping for breath after walking only a few feet uphill.

We tried a gym this morning that offers a free three-day pass. Since we were there before noon the crowd seemed to mostly be retirees and stay-at-home moms. I listened to one lady talk about a horrific experience she had with jury duty, watched a news report with Jack Hanna (yes, the guy who used to do the animal specials on late night shows...), and read for a hermeneutics class I'm taking through our church.

Not a particularly riveting morning at the gym, but enough to get my mind off the burning sensation in my lungs. Before I knew it I had run a mile and a half and biked three. I think that's the most movement in the space of an hour that my body has had in a while... or ever.

As a post-grad, health & fitness have definitely upped as priorities in my life. I have never been the most health-conscious person. I'd chalk up the biking to campus and walking from class to class as good enough, but in the past year I've realized the college lifestyle just doesn't cut it. Especially now that I have a job that involves a lot of sitting.

So last summer when in Colorado, with the lack of oxygen simultaneously squeezing the air out of my lungs and crushing my ability to convince myself I didn't need to work out, I began running.

Before this, I thought the phrase "runner's high" must be some kind of oxymoron. So it surprised me when I started to enjoy it... a lot. It gave me energy and provided a lot of emotional balance during an otherwise crazy summer.

I have wondered why, as a Christian, I tend to focus a lot on maintaining a healthy spiritual life, but neglect maintaining a healthy physical one. Especially after last summer, when it became obvious that being physically in shape affected how I felt emotionally, and therefore often affected how I was doing spiritually. (The most practical example being if I woke up early and ran, I'd be much more likely to spend time with God rather than sleeping in.)

Maybe it's because (let's face it) the world we live in worships the human body. Sometimes I feel like many Christians have a knee-jerk reaction to this fact and take things too far the other way. My own issues with working out have had a ton to do with the lie, "Well as a Christian I need to care about deeper things than physical appearance so working out shouldn't be a priority."

It is true that we should care about deeper things than our physical appearance, but physical appearance is not synonymous with physical health (read: anorexia). The lie I was believing is that I shouldn't worry about taking care of my body because following Jesus only deals with the soul. Not to mention it conveniently gave me a "spiritual excuse" to not have to discipline myself to work out.

I've come to realize that taking care of my body should be seen as part of my walk with God, not outside it. He made this body, after all. I'm sure He has considerable interest in how I'm taking care of His creation.