Take Back One Third...and Merry Christmas!

December 20, 2017

Take Back One Third...and Merry Christmas!

'Twas Christmas on social media, when all through the house

Every parent was posting, and clicking their mouse...

They predict 2018 will be the year of "digital detox" according to Arianna Huffington's Thrive blog via the HuffPost. I'm not holding my breath. But, I was glad to see it there on the list. We all need to take a break from that space which fills up a third of our waking ours each day, according to TechCrunch's 2017 latest research. Yup. One third. Americans are on their phones an average of 5 hours a day. Every day. Need a different perspective? That's 1,825 hours/year...or 76 days in a year you are solely plugged into that little device. Other reports say 23 days/year, but still. 23 or 76 days - that's a lot of time I'd rather be helping someone out, spending time with my husband or kids, taking a vacation, laughing with friends, embarrassing myself, baking cookies, watching the Huskers lose (but not next year:#frostiscoming) - the list goes on. Sad, and yet pretty incredible. I know I need to be better myself. In 2018, how will you take back a third of your days and "disconnect to reconnect?"

In other news, here's a quick recap of our 2017. What can I say, it was a total "eclipse" of the heart. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We're very grateful for our families, friendships, health, time, Him, and many nights, pho noodle soup or Casey's pizza.

2017 Highlights

In February, Kyle and I took a long-overdue, week-long trip to Play del Carmel, Mexico with two other couples and close friends of ours. We stayed at the amazing five-star resort, Valentin Imperial. We can't wait to go back to the beach in 2019. Over the summer, we took a road trip with the kids to Grand Island for the State Fair for some carnival action to see the animals, as well as spent time with Grandma and Grandpa Barr. In the fall, we took the kids to the Applejack Festival in Nebraska City to pick, eat and buy all things "apple." Kyle successfully went on his 2nd elk hunting trip - a 10-day excursion into the mountains on horseback. After returning, Beth road tripped with some girlfriends to The Elms near KC to tour two wineries and get some R&R.

Jaxon is in 1st grade now at Bennet Elementary in Mrs. Wusk's class. He absolutely loves it there and so do we. His favorite subject is math and often says the best part of his day is "when I got to see you" (insert us blushing). We think we are raising a pretty good kid after all. That, or it's all part of his master plan. Mwah-ha-ha-ha. Also, Jaxon lost a lot of teeth this year. Like 4 in a week. So that was interesting (and expensive). Activity wise, Jaxon played soccer and Bennet T-ball in the spring, swam in the summer (lessons with Aunt Barbie), participated in a Minecraft coding camp for kids, and took up Taekwondo in October, which he loves. We are a house of one-thing-at-a-time and love it. He tested out of his white belt in November and is now a yellow belt. We were very proud of him as he had to get up in front of about 15 judges, 92 testees and about 50 parents. Next is buying sparring gear apparently. His yellow belt test is in March. Most desired item for Christmas? An ipod. Sorry kid, but Santa ran out of those and won't get anymore for a few years.

Norah is in Pre-K in the Penguin Room at Christ Schools. She loves drawing, crafting and her magnet puzzles. This girl has some major sass (see prior post) and makes us laugh on a daily basis with her animated personality and how she likes to tell Jaxon what to do. We tried dance and gymnastics earlier in the year, but she wasn't feeling it, so we stopped. She loved her swim lessons with Aunt Barbie in the summer, and after a winter performance at school, she now wants to register for dance (and t-ball) after the New Year. Norah also got to meet the real Sugar Plum Fairy at the Land of Sweets in the fall and drink fake champagne with her mommy, which was all very exciting. Most desired item for Christmas? A snow ball gun.

Kyle is in his 14th year at Talent Plus leading recruitment and onboarding of associates, and he still serves on the ATO fraternity board as an Advisor. Beth is approaching two years at Assurity as a marketing and brand strategist, and still keeps a couple side hustles going with her wine business and coaching figure skating.

We've been in our "country home" for three years now and we couldn't be happier. This year we got to some of the apples on the apple trees in time to make and can some homemade applesauce. Grandpa Ivan and Grandma Sue are close-by so the kids enjoy running back and forth, mostly because Grandpa gives them chocolate. And we enjoy an occasionally-spontaneous wine night or pizza dinner together with them, which is always nice. It's peaceful out here, the stars in the sky are bright and clear, and we just feel a little closer to heaven. (Or is it just because our "neighbors'" sign says so?)

2018 will bring us a couple reality checks - Kyle's 40th birthday and Beth's 20-year high school reunion (crazy!) - as well as more husker football, cosmic bowling, a March ski trip, the #GoT finale...and our 15-year wedding anniversary!

Our door is always open (and so is a bottle of wine) so please stop by and let's catch up. And don't forget to find more moments to #disconnecttoreconnect.