Welcome back, friends!
I’m excited to be coming back to this space with you all, and I’m excited to share some vision with you for what this coming year will look like. Whole and Holy’s first anniversary is just around the corner, and I’ve spent this past month reflecting on the past twelve months and planning for the next.
The biggest change that I think is pertinent is the posting schedule: in the past, I’ve posted twice a week, with a reflection on Mondays and a series or book discussion on Thursdays. This schedule was born when I had a newborn and a not-quite-two-year-old, both of whom slept for at least one long stretch a day, giving me ample time to write. Now, the baby is one (and walking!) and the toddler is almost three (and slowly whittling down her naptime), and my time feels less abundant. By the end of last semester, I was starting to find myself stuck in a rut of fatigue around writing, in part because my ideal posting schedule no longer matched the time I had to write.
Thus, moving forward, I’ll be posting once a week, on Mondays, and alternating between a few weeks or months of reflections, and then a few weeks or months of some sort of guided discussion. I have high hopes of putting together a Narnia listen-along later this year, through the lens of Sarah Sparks’ album Into the Lantern Waste… but as I prepare that series, and decide what the posting frequency will be, I’m going to spend these first few weeks back just sharing my normal reflections on spiritual childhood, virtue, and the Christian life.
There are some other changes too: the tagline of the newsletter has been edited to better fit the type of essays I’m actually sharing; I’m thinking through some changes to the organization of content and the structure of the webpage that I hope to implement soon. While these don’t affect your immediate experience to the same degree, they’ve been helpful for me in conceptualizing and organizing this project for the coming year.
I am grateful for your continued hospitality in welcoming me to your inbox each week, especially as this change in my family’s routine demands a shift in how I can show up here with you. I’m excited to give this new schedule a try, and I’m glad to have you along for the ride!
What have you been up to over the last few weeks? How are you making adjustments in your routine to best accommodate the duties of your vocation?
Enjoy these short years with your babies
I think I’m realizing that the writing/life balance is constantly in flux. I’m getting ready to take a break for a month or so, but I think once a week (alternating between spaces) is really the max output I can give while not shorting my real life. It’s somewhat disappointing to make these concessions, but it’s very frustrating for everyone when I’m burnt out and cranky and constantly feeling behind. There is a legit period of mourning when they drop that afternoon nap, but you do adjust, and we have always had a “quiet time” (but no, it’s not the same as a 2 hour afternoon nap, and no, I have no guaranteed time when someone will not interrupt me in our current family schedule, and it just is what it is. In 2 years I’ll have a babysitter, so you win some and lose some 😂)