Weekly Update: 2.1.25
Well-being is at the very center of Danish living. One cannot feel fully cared for or fully care for others without giving and receiving things like hospitality, relational love, comfort, contentment, and rest. Everything about hyggeligt living is dedicated to care.
Jamie Erickson, "Holy Hygge: Creating a Place for People to Gather and the Gospel to Grow"
Over the last months, we have had more than our share of harried, frazzled weeks. I can't count the blog posts I've typed furiously on a Friday night, just trying to put words onto the screen. This week, for some reason, was different. It felt oddly settled. We walked through our routines with ease, getting our work done while leaving time for care -- of ourselves and each other.
Each day, we started with a couple hours cleaning and cooking, getting our meal prep done bright and early. This week, we did a lot of paleo-friendly sheet-pan meals. It made for a bit more work at night, but the results were both fresh and delicious. Bonnie-Jean experimented with a paleo golden milk recipe that tasted surprisingly good.
After our morning routines, we worked on the bunkhouse. Most days this week, our focus was on interior siding. It was monotonous -- which was a relaxing change. We finished the half-bath and made progress on the hall.
When our dad was home, we started on our bathtub surround. Our main goal was to put up the cement board so that we could side the rest of the room. After taking some measurements, we realized we needed to add blocking for the cement board, which we did.
Our dad also installed an air admittance valve for the bathtub and a new one under the kitchen sink. We already had one on the back of the kitchen sink, but it wasn't draining properly. After some research, we realized we needed additional venting closer to the front of the kitchen sink drain system.
We spent two days this week running errands and grocery shopping. We had several large returns for Menards and Home Depot. After years of doing Walmart grocery pickup for our large shopping trips, we recently switched to shopping the old fashioned way. Technical issues with Walmart's website was making our large orders take more time than they are worth, so our Mom has spearheaded analog shopping for the last few weeks.
Grace had to take Milly to get her rabies vaccine at Petco. And Erin took several afternoons away from the homestead, trying to find homes for the stray kittens that showed up on our place last month. The last two finally went to new homes on Friday, and we are so relieved.
On Wednesday, our newspaper feature came out. Last month, Steve Chapman interviewed me for a piece in The Green County Commonwealth. It was a fun experience, and we enjoyed the opportunity to share our story with a wider audience.
We took one afternoon off this week -- enjoying a rare day when it was just our mom and us sisters here on the homestead. We embraced the quiet with an hour of reading aloud while sipping steaming cups of cinnamon-dolce coffee. We decided to pick up a copy of Kevin Leman's The Birth Order Book at the library, to see if his wisdom would help us understand each other better. The moment itself was delicious and refreshing, inspiring us to make space for such self-care more often. When we finished, we took advantage of the warmish January afternoon and had an outdoor foot soak -- something our winter feet were definitely needing.
During our late afternoons and evenings, we also found time to pursue activities that are meaningful to us. My mom and I spent a couple evenings working on our family tree. Grace and Bonnie-Jean spent time training their dogs. After dinner one night, I finally tuned the guitar and had a sing-along with my nieces and nephew. One evening, I spent more than an hour finishing a novel I started reading last fall.
For the first time in months, I found a rythm of work this week that gave me time to listen to a few uplifting podcasts and audiobooks. Using my earbuds as ear protection for the miter saw, I spent a couple hours listening to Jamie Erickson's Holy Hygge, which I borrowed from the library via the Libby app. As I listened, I found Erickson's wisdom incredibly encouraging -- her words giving me the courage (to borrow her definition of the term) to keep making space for the softer practices that lead to well-being. I've written often about my temptation toward production-based thinking and how I easily experince guilt when trying to carve out time for rest. Erickson details how well-being flows out of care for self and others. God commands us to work in this life, but he also commands rest and love -- both of which take time. Judging by our morale at the end of this week, I felt like our moments of quality time were very well-spent. Prioritizing well-being makes us all feel a bit more prepared for another busy week.
