140 - Best of 2021
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Show Notes:
This episode is going to be a fun one. I firmly believe before we can look ahead and move forward, we need to pause and look back, and this episode is going to do just that. It's going to be all about 2021. The things that happened in my life that were highlights, experiences—I recommend trips that we took, books that I read, things I tried and liked, and more.
Here is the best of 2021!
For the full episode, hit play above or read through it below.
One of the best things we can do in life is to remember.
I don't think it comes naturally to me at all, especially as I'm on the brink of this new year, I feel like I'm constantly just looking ahead. I'm planning, I'm looking forward to whatever's on my calendar, I'm dreaming, but I really think it's so important to practice just looking back and remembering because we're forgetful people.
This is in the Bible over and over again, and the Lord has said again and again, in the Old Testament, there's so many stories where he says “Stop and remember. Remember the Lord, remember what he did for you.” One of my favorite traditions that Will and I do every Christmas is sometime in the month of December, we have what we call a Christmas date night and we look forward to it. It's obviously a beautiful evening set aside just to be with each other, enjoy a delicious meal—usually we try to pick a restaurant that has pretty twinkle lights—and while we're there at dinner, we make a list of everything that happened that year. And every single year, we remember a whole lot more happened than we thought. We always say, “Oh, I forgot about that!” or, “Oh my gosh, was that this year? “and “Ugh, I can't believe we took that trip. That was so fun!”
And we just remember all of the good that happened that year. and every few years, well maybe every like five years, I don't know, it's not every other year, it’s every several years—we have what we'd like to call a “momentous year.”
It's a big year. One that carries so many significant milestones and events that it leaves a mark on us. It leaves a mark on our hearts and it changes our trajectory for the future. And I feel like 2021 was one of those for us. We had our fourth child, Benji. We took five amazing trips. We did so much travel this year. We paid off our house. This year, Will experienced significant growth in his work. I took a significant sabbatical in my work. We joined a new church after being part of another church for almost 15 years. 2021 felt like a home and a heart reset, and it was just really good. It's a really good and sweet year for our family. So today I'm going to just share a lot of those highlights with you from our momentous year.
And while I did blog about a lot of these favorite memories and momentous occasions, I'm going to include some extras today on the podcast that I did not include in the blog post. And of course, it's just easier to kind of elaborate a little here, which is why I love the podcast so much. So let's jump in.
First: the best trip that we took or the best adventure that we had
Honestly, we had so many wonderful travel memories. I told you, we went on five crazy trips. I can't bear to leave any of them out. So, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you all of them.
Great Wolf Lodge, which was just our family, which was so sweet, and I was kind of newly pregnant. I think I was like at the end of first trimester.
We went to St. Thomas just Will and I, while I was pregnant—so I guess Benji came along too, but we didn't take any of the other kids with us.
Florida. We did a big road trip down to Florida for a cousin's wedding, and we went to Disney World.
And then just me and my mom and my sister and my niece, who is like 16 months old, we went to Blackberry Farm (which was amazing) for my mom's 70th birthday.
And then over Thanksgiving, we spent 10 days in Blowing Rock and Boone, North Carolina, which is one of my favorite places in the world. It's so beautiful there.
The best book that I read
I can't, I can't narrow it down. I can't narrow it down here. Sorry. I just can't.
Up From Slavery left such an impression on me. I talked about that book in Episode 103 if you want to hear about it, it was incredible.
I also loved reading The Gospel Comes With A House Key so much, especially knowing that the author lives like 20 minutes from my house, which I think is super cool.
I couldn't put down Where The Crawdads Sing. Such a great read. Oh my goodness. If you've read this book, you know, you know, it's so good. It is a fiction book. Really great. I read it on our trip to St. Thomas and it was just one of the best like vacation reads, like just such a captivating story.
Best movie
This is kind of sad to admit, but I have to say Will and I had never seen It’s A Wonderful Life. Isn't that sad that we’d never seen that? I don't know how either one of us got through life without seeing it, but we watched it this year at Christmas and it was so good.
Second best after that was The Family Man, which my friend told me, it's like one of her favorite movies of all time. And we watched that one and it was also so good. I looked at Will after watching both of those movies at Christmas and I was like, they don't make movies like that anymore. It was just the good stuff of life. Like just loving family and yeah. Okay, I'll spare you. I'm going to stop. A couple other movies get honorable mentions:
In The Heights. That was so fun to watch. Lin Manuel Miranda. He's just crazy talented. And Oblivion was one of those that just messed with my mind. It was really interesting. Really interesting movie. Really well done.
Best TV show
You might guess it—Ted Lasso. Everybody's talking about Ted Lasso. It is hilarious, and it's really good. I love the characters. I feel like it's kind of a modern guy version of Gilmore Girls with its fast pace and cultural references, but I'm just loving the characters and the storylines. Although I personally could really do without all of the over-the-top focus on sex. Just got to say that I don't really appreciate that, but overall, the show is great.
Best album or song
Okay, there’s a song I heard that was, it's just really precious. It's called Belovedness by Sarah Kroger and it's beautiful.
If you are a regular listener, you already know that Jess Ray is my sister-in-law and she has her own incredible music. She came out with an album this year called Baby, Take my Hand. And I love that album. And she also is part of the band Mission House and they released a new acoustic version of one of their albums, and I can't get enough of the new acoustic version. It's really, really good.
Best follow on Instagram
Being that I've been off Instagram for six months, you know, I guess the best way to answer this is what are the accounts that I missed following the most? And there are four that come to mind.
First, Shay Cochrane (@shaycochrane) is a dear friend of mine. She started Social Squares. She and her husband were in the middle of this move into this beautiful new home that they were building, and I just really was sad that I missed that. I loved watching her, put everything into that home and I can't wait to get back and just see what she's done with the home. And I just love her family. She's a delightful friend, mom, business owner. She's awesome.
The two other accounts are twin sisters, Cameron (@cameronfaye_) and Brooke (@brooke_gantner). They, I just love them. They have beautiful kids and there's so much fun to follow.
And then my friend, Kate from Naptime Kitchen (@naptimekitchen), she's just a hoot. I love her. She's so much, but she helps bring like such realness to Instagram and she really gives practical advice on life.
So I missed following those people a lot.
My best kiddo milestones
Milly learning to read has been so amazing after being her co-teacher for two years, meaning I homeschool her part-time and she goes to school part-time. It makes me so proud to see all of our hard work finally click, like she's getting it. So fun.
For Lyndon, her obsession with coloring and drawing. That girl loves art. And that has been so much fun to see.
Beaufort. Okay. His milestone. It's like, there's just so much. I feel like he's just exploded. Like his conversation is amazing. He scooters all over the place and it's hilarious. The way that he stops and goes is just so funny and fun to watch.
And Benji, he's just the smiley-est baby we've ever had. Like, I don't know what it is, but he smiles at everybody and it's like, when he smiles, it just takes over his whole body. And he like hunches down and like buries his head in my arm like he can't contain his joy. So cute.
Best marriage milestone
You know, we celebrated 13 years of marriage while I was pregnant with our fourth child and we took a trip to St. Thomas. That's awesome. That just, it was just so sweet to recognize all of those big things with such a big trip, and it was just so nice to have so many uninterrupted meals and to sleep until we woke up, you know, in spite of my heartburn and pregnant belly in the bed, but also just like lingering at restaurants, not having to get back to a babysitter. It was so great. That trip was just a great trip to recognize our years of marriage and our fourth baby. Really sweet.
Best Faith-grower
Honestly, having a home birth. Giving birth to Benji at home was the thing that challenged my faith. I mean, in so many ways throughout my pregnancy. I do this every time I'm pregnant, but I have to really work through fear expectations. I went to counseling for it. I just cried out to Jesus. I had to worship through some days and just really prepared my heart and body for it. Man, the actual day he arrived was so full of God's presence as I just continued to worship and pray and trust through the whole process. It was amazing. And if you are into birth stories, his birth stories on my podcast, you can go back and listen to it—episode 126.
Best trend that I tried
Curtain bangs. I told myself I would never get bangs again, I made that promise to myself and lo and behold, here I am. I got bangs and I like, I'm still getting used to them a little bit, but I do like them.
Best beauty purchase
I feel like I don't know. This one’s hard for me. I feel like I probably need to invest more in beauty purchases, but I did try Olive & June nail polish. You can just get it from Target and the little like oil drops that you can drop on your nails so they dry fast. I really liked those. I like how short the little paint brushes are that you use to paint your nails with very short, which that's weird, but I liked that.
Best family memory
Okay, before Benji arrived, the best family memory was Disney. Taking everyone to Disney World was so fun, also so intense being like 30 weeks pregnant, it was just intense.
After Benji arrived, because of said Disney World trip, we watched a lot of Disney movies and we were big into the Lion King this year. And I just, I think back so fondly to Halloween this year, when we all got dressed up like ridiculous characters from the Lion King and trick-or-treated through the neighborhood while blasting the Lion King soundtrack, while the kids drove the little power wheel around. It was just our family, but I laughed so hard that whole night. It was great.
Best habit I created
The first habit that comes to mind is nursing a baby. It's not really a habit, but it is kind of because I do it every three hours, I guess that can be considered a habit. Now, I guess, in addition to that, my most recent habit that I'm still forming is trying to get really consistent at the gym and going to the gym and doing hot yoga at least once a week. It's amazing. It has been so life giving for me. So yeah. And it's just, we're such a circus, like such a scene when we drop off all four kids, when it's just me, I just drop them off, four kids at childcare. It's so funny.
Favorite blog post written
I loved sharing about Benji's birth story and all the beautiful images there, but I'm also gonna leave a link in the show notes to a blog post for my friend Emily's blog because it kind of wrecked me. I cried a lot when I read it and then I showed it to Will and then he cried. And maybe he won't appreciate me saying that on the podcast. I don't know. But it just, it like makes you think about parenting and the passing of time and oh man, it's just good.
Here’s the link: Children and the Passing of Time, by Emily Thomas
Best new recipe
I tried Joanna Gaines’ mac and cheese. It was such a crowd pleaser for Thanksgiving, we made it for Christmas. Someone brought it to me, a friend of mine brought it to me when I had my meal train set up after Benji was born, and I was like, please, what is this amazing mac and cheese? You have to give me the recipe. And of course she sent it to me and it’s Joanna Gaines’. It was so good.
Best life hack or mom hack
You know, this is kind of a no brainer, but when I go places and Benji's asleep in the car seat and he's just typical fourth kid, like along for the ride everywhere, I have this really dark blanket and a tiny portable sound machine, and I put that over his car seat and I put that little sound machine on and he will stay asleep through so many preschool drop-offs and pick-ups, and I didn't start doing this until he was like two months old, but it's been a game changer. So he has learned to be on the go. He's very flexible, but also I liked it for my babies to sleep. So it's just a really good mix for him to be able to sleep through all the stuff we have to do.
Best mama moment
You know, I think after so many months of preparing Milly to be with me for our home birth, we read a lot of books together. We watched a lot of births on YouTube and after kind of talking her through all of that, having her with me in the room through my labor and delivery was so special, like so special. She poured water on my back. She gripped my arm, she encouraged me. She took it all in and I just never could have imagined that happening, like giving birth to a baby that would eventually help me give birth to another baby is just amazing. It was amazing.
Also getting out of the house with all four kids by myself for the first time was also a great mama moment. I felt like I conquered the world.
Best Home Improvement
We bought a deep freezer and for Christmas, and my husband put up a zip-line in our backyard. The kids aren't really big enough to use it. They're still working on it. And Lyndon may or may not have fallen off of it today, but it's fine. It's fine. It's really, it really is going to be like such a fun improvement to our backyard as the kids get older.
Best little luxury I have enjoyed this year
I guess this would be a little luxury. I bought a few super soft fuzzy blankets from Home Goods. They're like $15, $20. Huge. Really soft, so cozy. And I just cozy up with them whenever I'm watching TV or whenever I'm drinking my coffee in the morning or whenever I'm snuggling the kids, they just feel so soft and luxurious. If you have a Home Goods near you, you can just go find it. They come in all different colors. There are lots of different brand names. I don't even know what to tell you other than just look for one that is crazy soft. And I think it's worth every penny.
The best decision I made in 2021
Taking a six month sabbatical from work and social media. That is something I will never forget that I did and I have zero regrets. I feel so refreshed, so whole, so happy. It just, it really was one of the best decisions that I made this last year. And I'm so glad I did.
Okay. That's it. That's my best of 2021! I'm so thankful to share those with you. And I hope that it has encouraged you to think about the good parts and the highlights of your 2021. And if you haven't yet, I encourage you to just take a minute and just make a list. Make a list in your journal or in your planner and write down all of the good things that came out of the year, because let's be honest, it was still a hard year. It was still a hard year in a lot of ways. But if we look for it, we can find the good.
One thing I wanted to mention before you go is that we start the Contentment Challenge on January 10th, and if you're not sure what the Contentment Challenge is, it's simply a challenge to give up shopping for three months so that you can pursue the things in life that really fulfill us, that you can focus on your relationship with God, relationship with people, doing things, getting outside and just taking a break from the crazy materialism that consumes our culture.
If you're interested in this, if you feel like God is tugging on your heart to do this for three months or for one month or for any amount of time, I highly encourage you to go to nancyray.com/contentmentchallenge. I have some resources there for you that will help you do it. And I hope you join us.
I'm going to close with words from Shauna Niequist who said,
“Every year you will trade a little of your perfect skin and your ability to look great without exercising for wisdom and peace and grounded-ness. And every year your trade will be worth it.”
Thanks for listening.
