A Day in the Life

of a woman doing entirely too much, for a good cause

A little over one week ago, I was staring out the kitchen window trying to process the fact that we were moving Ruby 600 miles away to Atlanta, Georgia, the very next day. I’m always surprised by how surreal much of life feels, and how ill-prepared I usually am (in every sense of the word.) And yet - things keep happening.

Somehow, I threw random items in a bag, climbed into our packed minivan, and returned two days later to a house that is emptier by one whole person. Somehow, Ruby is settling in and making her way. Somehow, life carries on. We ride its seemingly haphazard and sometimes even precarious current. On our best days, we remember it is the moon pulling the tides. Which is another way of saying it is God.

This helps us catch our breath. It helps us accept our present reality with its grab-bag of emotions. Maybe life is a bunch of adjustments strung together like prayer beads.

stopped to see Cal on our drive south

I miss Ruby. And I’m so excited for her.

All the while, y'all,¹ I have a book releasing in ten skinny days.

It’s hard to describe how and why there’s so much to do in the final weeks. My brain is barely retaining simple facts at this point. When today had barely begun, I realized I was in this state:

…which pretty much sums things up.

Cory has been chaperoning a 3-day field trip of Silas’s, where they stayed with Jesus People USA and Silas spent his one wild and precious day on Lake Michigan’s shores making this:

This meant I had the house entirely to myself for 3 days. This never happens! The timing couldn’t have been better. My book launch task list felt nearly insurmountable, especially after skipping off to GA.

I spent a large chunk of Wednesday doing important busy work. I didn’t leave the house all day (my idea of a good time!) As I hand-wrote 115 note cards, I plowed through the America’s Next Top Model documentary (omg) and allowed Netflix’s whims to carry me directly into a show I’d never heard of, Age of Attraction, which is basically like Love is Blind, except participants can see each other but do not know the ages of the people they’re dating. I’M NOT PROUD. It got me through.

I’m currently in the phase of “sleep” where not much of it is happening. It’s hard to quiet my brain. Just when I get comfy, I remember one more thing I need to write on my ballooning to-do list. I headed to work on Thursday on 5 hours of sleep - it always goes by in a blur. And then the chaos meter climbed.

• I rushed home for a Marketing call, to which I was 3 minutes late

• I answered some emails then planned to run to Staples to pick up an order, after which I planned to work for the rest of the afternoon and join a scheduled recording

• Around this time, the recording was canceled - I was thrilled to have one more hour in my afternoon

• Except two minutes after that, a text came through from my hairstylist, asking if we could move my appointment back by 30 minutes

• I HAD NEVER ADDED THE APPOINTMENT TO MY CALENDAR - if she hadn’t been running late, I would have ghosted her

• I drove to Staples then to South Bend (45 minutes away!) for my appointment

• I realized I was only 3 minutes away from Trader Joe’s, so I stopped by to throw $100 at them

• Ran another errand while I was in “the big city.”

• Driving home, utterly exhausted, panic washed over me in the WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR FOR MY BOOK TOUR variety. I stopped by Goodwill just to see what I saw

• I saw so many things!!! Fun fact: for my book tour, I’ll be dressed almost exclusively in secondhand stuff. What a thrill!

• Made it home around 9pm

• Showered, heated up some left-overs, then settled in for several more hours of busy work with the company of my friends from Age of Attraction. (IT’S BECOMING ALARMINGLY OBVIOUS THAT AGE…MATTERS.)

• Bed around 1 a.m.

If you long for the days when I wrote meaningful, fully-formed essays…me too, babe. I really do miss it. I’ll be back to regular programming soon. For now, I’m pouring my heart and soul into helping this book - packed with meaningful, fully-formed writing - into the world. Book writing is one of the hardest, most terrifying things I do. It never gets easier for me. And I’m totally obsessed with it. I’m doing everything in my power to honor that hard work.²

I want this book to greet our banged-up world like a balm. It’s going to help us.

The guys arrive back home this afternoon. Cal comes home tomorrow for spring break. He and Cory’s birthdays both fall in the next week. Ruby just texted me that she’s taking the bus to Chipotle. :)

Life carries on and on…what a ride.

Here’s to wherever the waves are taking you. I hope you find exactly what you need this weekend.

“The deal is, we are always shedding, always turning. It happens when we’re staring comatose from the redundancy, our nervous systems charred, our cheeks flushed from the synchronous crush of the best sort of luck. Everything at once.”

- from Counterweights

Don’t forget, you get the audiobook FREE when you pre-order. Two-for-one! You'll also get the printable application guide and a few other fun odds-and-ends. Choose your retailer and redeem freebies HERE.

my Wednesday “day wear”/pjs

1. I’m riding my “recent visit to the south” for as long as I’m able.

2. Huge thanks to all of you who have helped spread the word!