He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
Psalm 23:2b-3a ESV
Thoughts to Ponder
Hi there, friends! It’s been awhile since I’ve sent a monthly-ish newsletter. I suppose that’s why I include the “-ish” at the end of “monthly-ish newsletter.”
As a quick introduction, for those of you who might not remember me or remember why you got on my email list—Hi, I’m Kristin. I’m a follower of Christ, Air Force pilot wife, mama to a 4yo daughter (Hannah) and 1yo son (Jack), fur-mama to our geriatric Maltese dog (Rosie), physician assistant, and writer.
But mainly, I’m a stay-at-home mom who tries to live life as gracefully as I can while likely sweeping up Cheerios from the floor before the dog eats them.
I write about turning to the Lord in everyday moments—every beautiful, hard, and ordinary moment. It’s the little moments that make up our days, and it’s so easy in the busyness and chaos of life to let our eyes turn elsewhere. I try to share practical ways on how to turn towards Jesus despite our daily demands.
Lately, I’ve been letting the busyness and stress get the best of me. I overloaded myself with projects and events and responsibilities that I didn’t need to carry. In an effort to do more and be more, I became the stressed, overwhelmed wife and mom that I didn’t want to be.
I don’t want my baseline to be stress and overwhelmed. But the only way to change that is to make some changes. Instead of trying to overhaul my whole life, I decided to just make some changes for the summer and see how it goes.
Here is what I’m doing to have a Simplified Summer:
Planning to not plan every moment. I’m taking the pressure off to do all the things, all the time. I’m making margin not only to rest, but to be more spontaneous, like when I impromptu-hosted my entire Bible study for lunch one day. Some days the only thing on the agenda is to go for a walk with my kids, and I am loving it. If it takes me all day to get the laundry done, so be it. My worth is not dependent on how busy or accomplished my days are.
Start each morning reading one Psalm. Normally I try to do a summer Bible reading plan, but I am trying to give myself the space and grace to go slower this summer.
Implementing a (relatively) phone-free summer. I’m doing my best to only check my phone if it rings (phone call) or dings (I only have text message notifications set to ding) when I’m spending time with my kids. I have time limits set to all of my other apps (internet browser, email, social media). I don’t want my kids to see my mindlessly scrolling anymore.
Merging my email lists. For too long I’ve been struggling with the behind-the-scenes techy part of sending my newsletters. I have finally figured out what my plan is moving forward (read more below), and it feels good to have this off my to-do list.
Porch talks with my husband. Lately, my husband and I have been taking 30 or so minutes most evenings to sit on our front porch and catch up as the sunsets. It’s a great way to start to wind down for the evening.
Reading before bed. I am really enjoying reading in the evenings after the kids are asleep.
Converting to a completely digital calendar. I am still working on this one, since right now I have a Google calendar on my phone, a monthly wall calendar that I write on, and a weekly calendar on the fridge that I also write on. It’s a lot of duplicate work and unfortunately, I am quite terrible at updating all 3 calendars… which makes things unnecessarily confusing. I’m in the process of figuring out a system to simplify our calendar, so TBD on that once I figure it out.
Assigning one chore or errand per day. Normally I try to power-through all the chores and errands in one or two days, and as quickly as possible. This tends to leave me exhausted and irritable, so I am trying a new approach: one chore or errand per day. Some days I need to do a little more, but I am trying to stick to just one task each day, and I am finding I am less tired with this new rhythm.
Overall, I am trying to take the pressure off this summer, and just be a wife, mom, daughter, sister, and friend. My worth isn’t based on my productivity, busyness, or accomplishments. My worth is found in Christ alone, and I want to start living like it. I don’t think the Lord wants us to live stressed, overwhelmed, and burnt out.
So here’s to a simplified summer, full of rest, reading, and relaxing—or as relaxing as a being a military wife and mom will let me. But as much as life can be busy and throw us curveballs, it’s also our choice to how we respond.
And I’m trying to consciously choose a slower, simpler way.
What I’m Reading
I am currently reading West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. My favorite animal is a giraffe, so when my mother-in-law gave this book to me I was thrilled! It starts off a bit slow, but the pace has picked up and I’m eager to find out what happens next. It’s based on a true story of how two giraffes traveled from the East coast to the San Diego Zoo during the 1930s. It’s fascinating to read about that era, as well as the adventures the giraffes have along the way.
I have been tracking my books on GoodReads and was pleasantly surprised to see I’m almost to my goal of 30 books this year (I’m currently at 23). I’m always looking for suggestions, so please comment with any book recommendations you have!
If you happen to have read my Substack Notes, you know that I’ve been spending my Summer in the Psalms—I’m trying to read a Psalm a day and takes notes in my Bible. I am really enjoying this simple rhythm. It’s refreshing to read through each Psalm slowly.
What I’m Writing
As I wrote above, I am trying to simplify and streamline a few things in my life, one of which is my writing. It is exhausting to try to figure out where the “best” place to write is—which email delivery system (there are so many, and gets so expensive), which social media platform, which style of writing fits best on each social media program to try to beat the algorithm, etc—and I just cannot keep up with it. Nor do I want to, if I’m being honest. I don’t desire to be a social media influencer. Performing for reels or numbers gives me a big ick feeling. I’m tired of toggling between email platforms and services based on what I’m “supposed” to do to try to garnish a following (also a big ick feeling regarding that). I just want to find a place to share my stories and the words I feel the Lord nudging me to write, and hope that anyone who reads my writing feels encouraged.
So moving forward, I will be sending out all of my newsletters, essays, and writing here, via Substack. It is the easiest (and cheapest) way for me at this point, and it feels good to no longer devote brain-space to the tech side of writing. If you received this email and want to continue to get them, great! You don’t need to do anything, you’re in the right spot. If my emails don’t serve you well, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email; no hard feelings. If you think my writing would encourage someone you know, I would be so honored if you forward this email along so they can subscribe. My hope is to serve my readers well with practical, Biblical encouragement to keep turning to the Lord in each and every moment.
I have a few essays that I’m working on, including one on time and capacity, that I hope I’ll share later this week—pending my time and capacity, of course. ;)
In the meantime, if you’d like to check out some previous essays or articles I’ve written, I’ve linked them here:
I wrote a little bit about me and my faith and life story here.
In this essay, I talk about my decision to pull back from social media, along with my adventures of baking bread.
I share about my marriage in this blog hop essay.
I talk about my coffee addiction and the origin of the name “Turning North”, here.
Links I’m Loving
My kiddos are absolutely loving this water table in our backyard. Ours is an older version I think, but it gets the job done. I found the water table on the curb in our previous neighborhood two years ago and snagged it up (I love good curbside finds!). The only bummer is that there wasn’t a way to keep the water flowing from the top water tray down into the main water table… Enter, this magical device. Best $16 I’ve spent in awhile!
I scrolled through my recent Amazon purchases, and the water pump is the only item I’ve purchased outside of our usual Subscribe & Save items. I put up some boundaries around Amazon and online shopping earlier this year, and I’m pleased to see the habits have overall stuck.
Keep an eye out for an article soon on shopping less!
What I’m (kind of) Cooking
Anyone else struggling with cooking this summer? Just me?
In the spirit of simplifying life, and giving myself grace, I am leaning heavily on my freezer meal stash. I am really grateful I stock-piled some freezer meals previously. Also in my dinner rotation are pizza nights, chicken nuggets and tater tots, and salad kits with grilled chicken.
I have also introduced my kids to “dinner snack.” This is basically a fancy way to create a kid-friendly charcuterie board. My typical “dinner snack” includes rolled up lunch meat, blueberries, strawberries, cheese sticks, crackers, and carrots. I change up the fruit and type of meat and cheese, but this has become a staple lunch (aka “lunch snack”) and dinner in our home.
Happy 4th of July Giveaway!
Summer is in full swing, and so are the popsicles, at least in my house. My daughter asks for a popsicle at least once per day, and who can blame her for wanting a sweet treat?
But treats aren’t only for our kiddos, which is why 9 Christian authors/writers are joining together to share a treat and give away a $225 Amazon gift card! Plus, everyone who enters gets a free faith-filled digital resource from each co-host just for signing up.
To enter: 4th of July Giveaway
It's delightful to read your newsletter, sweet friend. It's enriching, nourishing, uplifting. Keep up the wonderful work. Happy Summer!