February made me shiver {7QT}

Soooooo, pretty chill to like, write on a super controversial topic and then go dark for a month…err, 5 weeks.

I used to mourn my favorite bloggers as they would reach a critical mass of kids or a critical mass of success with some other venture and their writing would, slowly but surely, recede into sporadic and then entirely absent appearances. I’m really trying not to be that guy! Not because I don’t fully comprehend exactly how it is that happens, now, but because blogging is my first love and you always come back to your first love. Right? RIGHT?

Moving on.

1.

It’s 3 degrees here in Denver today, which is contrasting, erm, frostily with the way my week began. Which was 80 degrees and tropical. Thanks to a combined herculean effort of many covid-negative family members, dear friends, hospitable extended family on the island of Oahu, and some very, very well used Southwest Airline miles, Dave successfully pulled off the actual surprise of a lifetime and took me to Hawaii for a week. During a pandemic. Having arranged childcare for our half dozen children before presenting me with said surprise. Husband bonus level: triple platinum.

2.

The backstory is that 11 years ago while honeymooning on the Big Island, he made a promise to bring me back for our 10th anniversary, at which I scoffed and said something about probably having too many kids by that point. Reader, I was not wrong on that point, as we spent the actual date of our 10th anniversary in the hospital preparing to welcome baby number 6. But Dave? He’s a determined guy. And so accounting for the aforementioned combination of factors above plus the highly specific negative covid tests required by the Hawaiian health department, he planned, executed, and pulled off the most incredibly sweet and astonishingly relaxing week of our lives thus far, deferred to year 11 rather than 10. He is the absolute best, and yes, I’m a little bit depressed that he’s back at work and I’m currently typing on a laptop propped up at a mysteriously sticky kitchen counter wearing 3 layers of clothing and listening to the gentle strains of Spongebob and intermittent screaming wafting in from the other room.

3.

Our kids are somehow, someway, miraculously still in school and have had no (looks around anxiously for wood to punch through) cohort quarantines so far this semester, and only one last semester. I don’t know if it’s the hand washing, the extra intense cleaning, or some big Holy Spirit intervention but it feels a little bit like, well, yeah, a miracle. Our sweet neighbor kids who go to public school were finally allowed back into the classroom again in January, and so far, so good for them too.

Happily, I learned tonight that our extremely liberal and frequently frustrating governor went ahead and applied for federal emergency relief funds for non-public schools in Colorado last week and so I’d like to take this moment to publicly go on record for the first and possibly only time and say a heartfelt and sincere THANK YOU to Jared Polis. Our teachers have been busting their buns for the past 11 months like nothing they’ve ever experienced before, I’m sure, and if we can get even a modest amount of those funds into their paychecks and offsetting their expenditures on classroom supplies and cleaning stuff, well, hallelujah.

4.

I’m cohosting? Co-experiencing? Co-whatever…ing a really cool course my dear friend Karen Cruess, LPC, created called Rewriting Your Story With God. It’s a 7-part, self and group guided journey through 7 modules exploring something Karen calls “story work” which is, in a nutshell, examining the story your life is telling and re-envisioning it through the story God intends to tell through it. While storywork is a therapeutic technique and a super successful one at that, this isn’t therapy. It’s more like a whole-Lent long retreat with weekly sessions where we check in and process through some of the material for the week and answer questions and make suggestions and share insights. And because it’s not actual counseling, it’s literally a fraction of the price. Like cheaper than a single therapy hour. Register here. The price jumps up by $50 bucks after midnight on Sunday, so maybe tell your husband what an amazing Valentines Day gift this would make.

5.

Hey, I finally started a podcast! Only took 10+ years.

Just kidding, I’m just freeloading on Karen’s…though, it has been super well received and it’s been a lot of fun recording together, so, I think we actually are going to keep recording regularly under the umbrella we’re calling the True, Good, and Beautiful Project … and eventually, the podcast.

For now, find us on iTunes, Spotify, or here. This episode in particular explains a little more about Rewriting Your Story With God.

6.

I made a life changing decision recently to stop wearing ugly pajamas and if you haven’t thought of anything to gift your husband with yet this Valentine’s Day, might I suggest this extremely low hanging fruit? I’m not even suggesting anything very exciting (though, you do you) but like, a step or ten up from a ripped up men’s Notre Dame t-shirt and paint splattered drawstring shorts. I also just feel generally less disgusting around 9 am when I finally have time to get dressed and I’m wearing cute pajama pants and a “sleeping sweater” (thanks Target for creating something we all know you just made up especially for 2020) and not the aforementioned couture. So marriage booster and self care. Win/win.

7.

Benny is by far our craziest baby in the physicality department. Which is … really saying something for anyone who knows Zelie. Or Luke the verb.

Today alone, for example, he launched himself off the couch and did a full front flip, dove into the side of the bathtub like a breaching whale and instantly got the biggest black eye I’ve ever seen on a baby, and taunted me from his perch in a bay window on TOP of his sister’s dollhouse, waggling his eyebrows and shaking his booty with delight when I discovered him and moved in for the capture and release.

He also can’t walk yet at nearly 15 months, which is par for the course for Uebbing kids, but God help us all when he finally finds his sea legs.

Happy Valentine’s day, happy Friday, and happy return to semi regular blogging.

In the works: my very tardy What I Read in 2020 post (would you believe it’s like, super, super long?) a fun day in the life look, and some deep thoughts on marriage.

I’ve missed you guys!