Year in Review

 Hi Friends!

     I just love love love year in review posts, specials, and articles. When I found out I was an ENFJ/enneagram 9 personality type, welp, it just all clicked into place WHY I love that stuff so dang much. I love to reflect. Freaking love it. I love looking back, gleaning lessons, and thinking about what went well, what could go better, and memory lane is a place I love to hang out (Maybe that's why I love Buzzfeed "You Might Be a 90's Kid if..." lists). 

2020 was the strangest year of my life. Fortunately, not the toughest. And for that I am so thankful. Here's a monthly run down of our 2020. 

January: Hank and AJ both had horrible cases of the flu right at the start of the year but they got better just in time for us to move into our new house. 

February: Hank started swim lessons. AJ's parents came to visit. We hosted a Super Bowl party. We had a snow day. 

March: The world closed down. There was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake. We adjusted to being virtual teachers. Hank started staying home from school. 

April: Staying home. Celebrated Easter at home. More online teaching. AJ's brother Matt got engaged. 

May: Watched Tiger King (lol). Visited The Spiral Jetty. I spent a lot of time reading outside. 

June: The school year ended (so bittersweet). We visited St. George. We celebrated Hadley's 4th birthday. 

July: AJ's parents came to visit. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. Lots of hikes, visits to the farm, Payson Lakes, Ashton Gardens, and walks. We got a Traeger. 

August: I finished my math endorsement. Our backyard was finished and we spent a lot of time out there. We all went back to school. We bought a new car. 

September: Hank got a big boy bed. Lots of outside time. 

October: Hank was Buzz for Halloween. We road tripped to Oregon for a few days over Fall Break. 

November: We had our first Thanksgiving at our house. Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. 

December: Hank turned 3. We spent a lot of time looking at Christmas lights. We are officially done teaching in 2020! 

 Thanks so much for following along at This Sunday Kinda Love! 2020 was weird and hard and painful. But I promise if you look (sometimes you have to look hard!), there are moments of pure joy and happiness.  Happy 2021 to you! 

Savor Your Sparkle, Leslie 

Life Lately

 Guys. Guys. It has been so long since I've blogged! My last post was my October Reads and now we're into November and this girl has some THOUGHTS. I've got a Hallmark Christmas movie on (why is the hair on these leading ladies always so on point?!), Hank is upstairs napping, and I decided to do a photo dump here to catch up on life lately. Every few months I toy with the idea of moving my blog to "private" mode. I think I might someday, but I always return to it because I love documenting and then later, looking back and remembering. So here we are.....halfway into November---living life in a Pandemic (I know we're sick of it, I know it's stressful, but it's still happening and we need to try and be part of the solution), approaching the holidays, and we have a new president. I wish I kept a tally for how many times I refreshed CNN.com from November 3rd-November 8th. It was a lot. I'm thrilled with the results (not exactly the margins I was hoping for, but hey) and hope that our country can come together to build a better and brighter future for everyone. Ok, folks, Life Lately Photo drop.....

Halloween: Hank had a fun Halloween party at school and we had some friends over for a Halloween celebration the day before. We didn't trick or treat but Hank had a blast being Buzz!! He wanted to be Woody all summer long and then about a month before Halloween he declared, "It's Buzz, mom, I want to be Buzz!" 

My awesome mom made party bags for Hank's classmates and my MIL made party bags for my 1st graders. So sweet! 

Hank has been working hard on a "dinner manners chart" and after 35 evenings of good manners, he earned his prize: a wiggle bike! He LOVES this thing and it's awesome for zooming around our basement. 

I've been making all kinds of new recipes! AJ made a pulled pork on the Traeger, I made dehydrated strawberries (they cooked for 3 hours at 250 degrees and turned out so chewy and yummy), crustless pumpkin pie, slow cooker chicken marsala, tortellini soup, and tonight I'm trying a new recipe: Hamburger and fry pie! (Cheeseburgers are Hank's favorite food so I hope he enjoys this new twist on it). I love trying new recipes especially when we're home so much! 

Christmas has arrived at Starbucks! I had my first caramel brulee latte of the season today and waited in line for 30 minutes for my free reusable cup the day of the holiday roll out. It's so crazy but going on "opening day" is sort of a tradition now. Starbucks helped me get through conferences last week. They were held via Zoom. I missed the camaraderie of the whole school together and seeing former students and visiting the book fair, but overall, they went well this year despite the different format. 

These guys are my whole world. Hank is chatting up a storm and makes us laugh all the time. He does this new look we call "side eye" and it's hilarious. And don't worry, AJ slipped his annual autographed school picture into my lunchbox this week. I added it to my wall but strategically moved it so it wouldn't be in the frame of my zoom meetings because ummm, weird. Lol. 

I'm just over here trying to resist putting up all my holiday decos (I want to respect the turkey), but I can't help putting up a few things here and there.....the holly jolly will be on overload this year. We all need it. We've never celebrated Christmas in this house and I'm so excited to decorate.

 I have been listening to Leslie Odom Jr.'s Christmas album and it is perfection. (He's Burr if you didn't know!). I'll leave you with this jam I've had on repeat. Have a happy week and Savor Your Sparkle,

Leslie 

That Fall Feeling

Hello hello. 

   I haven't done a picture update in a while so I'm doing that today. I love keeping our memories in this little space on the internet. It's officially Fall (and no, not like that means pumpkin stuff is out, but it's like actually fall weather-wise) and I adore this season. I love the decorations, the crisp air, the seasonal events, and yes, I like that the fall is a sign post that holly jolly Christmas fun is just around the corner. But also, the Fall can feel hard. I hate it when the days get shorter and it feels like 10pm right around dinner time. I can start to feel that teacher fizzle from the high energy go-go-go of the first weeks of school catching up with me. And this year, man, this year it alllll just hits differently doesn't it??

 I was trying to express to AJ the other night what this season feels like and the word I landed on was heavy. The Pandemic feels heavy. On one hand I am so totally over it and ready to move on, but on the other hand, I know that numbers don't lie and the higher than ever case counts are alarming. It's scary. Also politics. Very heavy. (Insert the wide mouth emoji here). The world (our country in particular) feels broken. Damaged. I know better than to think that we will be this divided forever but DANG. So yeah, heavy feels about right. But when things feel too heavy, I have to remind myself that maybe I'm not meant to carry it all. In fact, I know I'm not. But sometimes feeling a bit of that weight can be a good thing. It creates awareness that what we do and say matters and that while I know who holds this whole thing up (God, in case you were wondering), we can all do our part to carry some of that heavy for each other too. That is a long and winding way of saying, I see your heavy too and sis, it's totally possible to live with "The fall brings out my happy/basic/extra self/give me all the pumpkin spice everything and how freaking cute are baby pumpkins" and also "Yikes. Dayyyyyummm. 2020, what else you think you're gonna pull?" at the very same time. (But keep in mind, despite the despair that creeps in my heart when I watch the news or the *literal* lack of actual light in our days, Fall also means the return of Reeses pumpkins, the return of some of my TV faves,  crunchy leaves, and infinity scarves ..anything really to lighten the load, I'll take it!). I was meaning to write two separate posts this week, a photo update and my little musings on how life feels uncertain and unknown but this is my dang blog and I'm just doing 1 post this week. See: "heavy." 

Remember that country song, "These are My People?" I always think about that when I see a pic of my little crew. These ARE my people and they are my everything. We've been going on lots of walks and adventures. 

I visited Hadley. I just love spending time with her. 

To say our Traeger has been getting a workout lately is an understatement. We've done flank steak, meatloaf, chicken kabobs, apple cobbler, burgers, and this weekend, a giant brisket. We've got pork belly and chicken wings on the docket next! 

We visited the Zoo! 

We ordered some photos on canvas for our front hallway. I think they look so good! We also took off the front of Hank's crib. He loves his "big boy bed." He is getting so grown up! 

School is going well. Someone please remind me how exhausted I will be the first month or so of school. Every single year I forget how those first few weeks are (Like I want to be in bed at 8 pm sort of tired). My class is cute and I pray we can stay healthy and together all year. I got a Donor's Choose funded this month with all sort of holiday teaching goodies including all these gingerbread themed books! So fun! Also, how amazing is technology?? My kids had a zoom call this week with the Ogden Nature Center and we got to see some cool animals and get questions answered live! I need to remember how awesome technology can be because we watched The Social Dilemma last week and I was about ready to throw my phone in a river. (I highly recommend the movie. We already know what technology is doing to us but I believe it pays to hear it over and over). 

Speaking of Neflix....GUYS. GUYS. This was just a little half hour thing on Netflix's social media platforms (I thought it was on actual Netflix and kept refreshing like an idiot), but we watched this Friday and it was so perfectly adorable. I love revisiting the Banks Family! 

I've also been doing plenty of this.....

Check out my September Reads HERE

Well that post got super duper long. That's for reading along. May we all find some light and let down some of our heavy. 

Savor Your Sparkle,

Leslie