Latest / Praise, Prayer & Protein / The Summer That Didn’t Go According to Plan | Season 2 Is Here!

Transcript

The Summer That Didn’t Go According to Plan | Season 2 Is Here! · Praise, Prayer & Protein

0:09
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Kate, Mom of Seven, Coffee Lover, and Believer in finding joy in every season of motherhood.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: This is Praise, Prayer, and Protein, where we talk faith, family, frugal living, and the real-life mom hacks that make it all work.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And welcome back to Praise, Prayer and Protein.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: And not just welcome back to another episode, but welcome to season two.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: I cannot believe I get to say that.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: If you are new here, hey, I am Kate, a wife to Micah, a mom of seven, a meal planning enthusiast, a lover of a good workout, good food, good friends, and Jesus.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: And praise, prayer, and protein is really a little bit of all of those things.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: It's a conversation about my faith, family, motherhood, taking care of ourselves, feeding our people, navigating the mental load, building rhythms that work for our families, and learning to find joy and gratitude right here in the middle of our own very full lives.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: I am so excited to be back and recording.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: Season one wrapped up as we were heading into summer, and I talked a lot about our summer rhythms and having a summer to thrive.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: I gave you guys a workbook.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: I was ready.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: The plans were made, all the things.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Summer definitely gave me some things to talk about.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily the thing I was going to be coming back and telling you about.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: But we made it.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: The kids are back to school.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Micah is back at the office, and I am sitting here in an incredibly quiet house right now, which feels both wonderful and slightly strange after having everyone around all summer.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: I am back to working out.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: And I am back behind this microphone.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: I have something really exciting that I want to share.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: At the beginning of this year, I received an invitation that I was incredibly excited about.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: I was asked to be one of the speakers for a get organized HQ virtual organizing event.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: That is a mouthful to say.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say how much of an honor that really was.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: There are more than 100 experts participating in this event, covering all kinds of areas that help us make our homes and lives run a little more smoothly.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: We're talking home organization, digital and phone organization.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes, please, my phone is constantly running out of space.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Routines and schedules, clothing, budgeting, meal planning.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: Hi, that's me.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: There are just so many different sessions.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And somehow they asked me to be one of those experts, which feels really cool.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: Because if you've been around here for any length of time, you know how passionate I am about helping moms take some of the mental load out of feeding their families.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't think meal planning needs to be complicated, and I don't think you need Pinterest-worthy menu every week.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you need to spend hours figuring out what you're going to eat, but I do think having a few systems and habits in place can completely change how your week feels.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: So for my session, I am teaching a 20-minute class on my 12 habits of meal planning.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: These are practical things you can actually implement in your own home to make meal planning easier and to help save you time, money, and energy.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: And you know what the best part is?
3:57
SPEAKER_00: The event is completely free.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: You can access the virtual event September 14th through the 19th.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: So whether organization is your love language or you're currently staring at a closet that attacks you every time you open the door, there is going to be something there for you.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: And because it's virtual, you get to watch from home.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: I have put the link to grab your free ticket in the show notes.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: So go sign up, check out the schedule, and make a little list of the sessions you want to catch.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: I am genuinely so excited to be part of this.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now let's get back to talking about summer because the last time we were together, I had plans.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: We left season one heading into summer, and I was so excited.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: We had our summer rhythms, we had our adventures planned, we were ready.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: And at the beginning of summer, it was so fun.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: I got to go tubing with some of my girlfriends.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: We had our Canada Day beach day at one of our favorite beaches.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: There were lake days and friends and all the things we love about summer.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we had so much more planned.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: I was feeling really excited about the next couple of months, uh, what the next couple of months were actually going to look like.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: And then Sunday, July 4th or 5th, I can't remember what day it was, everything changed within within 30 minutes, which is still wild for me to think about.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: The Saturday before uh we were at some friends' house and I felt great.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: I woke up in the night just not feeling the best.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Nothing dramatic.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: I just felt a little off.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: I remember thinking maybe I ate way too much good food because obviously that was a logical explanation.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't wake up thinking anything was seriously wrong.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: So we went to church Sunday morning.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: I came home, I made lunch, and then we had a big lake day with family and friends.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: We were paddleboarding, hanging out, and enjoying the water.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: And we had this hilarious inflatable floating pool.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: So my friend Sarah had bought uh an inflatable pool, and we thought it was a great idea to fill it with air and for the moms to get in it, and that would be our mom dock.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: No kids allowed, they have their own dock, and this was gonna be our dock.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: So Deja, Sarah, and I got into this floating dock and I was basically just lying there.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't really participating because I just kind of fell off and was floating around in this giant inflatable kiddie pool.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Eventually I started feeling like I think I'm really gonna be sick.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: So I told them I really need to get in.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: And then I started feeling really bad.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: So I sat up really quick and started paddling like a crazy lady, which looking back should have been our first indication that something was terribly wrong with me because you know what?
6:34
SPEAKER_00: I usually do not paddle.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: If there's someone else willing to do the work, I am perfectly happy to sit there and enjoy the ride.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: But I was like, get me too sure.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: I got back in and told Micah that I was going to the house because I really didn't feel good and needed to lie down.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: And that's when everything changed so quickly.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: I got into the house and the pain became so intense.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't get comfortable.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: I tried laying down, nothing.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: Standing, nothing, moving around, nothing.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: And the pain in my side just kept getting worse and worse until it became so unbearable.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, I could not even catch my breath.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: And that was the moment when I knew this wasn't just me feeling sick, that something was seriously wrong.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: So I called Micah and said, You need to come to the house.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Something is really wrong with me.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: He came up and I was keeled over in extreme pain and struggling to breathe, that he immediately called 911.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: The firefighters arrived first, and this is so funny looking back because I remember just feeling so dumb.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm in excruciating pain.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: I can't breathe properly.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: There were firefighters in my room.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: I was just really embarrassed because I didn't know what was happening.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: They asked me questions like on a scale from one to 10, how bad is the pain?
7:45
SPEAKER_00: And I'm pretty sure I just yelled out a hundred.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: There was no 10.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: We had moved beyond 10.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Micah said something to them.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: I remember so clearly, like, uh, I watched her birth seven children with no drugs, and I've never seen her like this.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what's happening.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: That's the official pain scale.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: Childbirth seven times, and apparently still not as dramatic as whatever was happening to me in that moment.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And then one firefighter looked at me and said something like, It's probably gallstones.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: We see this about once a week.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Don't be embarrassed.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: And somehow that made me feel slightly better because suddenly there was this possible explanation for what was happening to me.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: The ambulance arrived, they ran more tests, and then they took me to the hospital.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: This is the part that still gets me.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: 30 minutes earlier, I was literally on the lake.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: I was with my family and my friends, paddleboarding, laughing.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: We were enjoying a beautiful summer day.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm in an ambulance on my way to the hospital, not knowing what's happening.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: They're checking me for a heart attack.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: Life just can change so quickly.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, I remember my kids being like, we had no idea what was happening.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: We're just swimming, and all of a sudden we can see a fire truck coming.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: We can see an ambulance coming.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: It was just really scary.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: We actually got into a merge fairly quickly.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they started running tests.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh, of course, the pain eventually stopped.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Not immediately, but I started feeling almost normal again.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: And remember lying there thinking, was it really that bad?
9:07
SPEAKER_00: You go from thinking you might actually be dying to thinking maybe I overreacted.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: And then I remember Micah is saying he'd never seen me go through that.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it was actually that bad.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: After tests and scans and many, many hours of waiting, they confirmed that it was gallstones.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, the decision was made to be admitted and remove my gallbladder.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: After the test and scans and many, many hours of waiting, I'm talking more than 24, they confirmed that it was gallstones.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: And eventually the decision was made to admit me and remove my gallbladder, which I had absolutely not put on the summer bucket list.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: By Monday evening, after more than 24 hours of this whole adventure, I was officially admitted and had my first hospital roommate.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: This was also my first overnight hospital stay where I wasn't there having a baby, which felt really strange.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: There was no mica, no newborn, no little bassinet beside me, just me waiting for gallbladder surgery.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And waiting became the theme because I couldn't eat or drink anything.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: I actually hadn't eaten anything since lunch on Sunday and didn't know exactly when surgery was going to happen.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: I had some really wonderful friends come visit me on Tuesday, which helped so much.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: When you're having to lie there just waiting and you're not allowed to eat or drink, having people come sit with you and talk to you and laugh sure helps to pass the time.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: It's such a gift.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: But by Tuesday evening, I was feeling very discouraged.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: I was tired, hungry.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I had the worst coffee headache ever, and I was still just waiting.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: One of the lovely nurses unhooked me from my IV pole and told me, Hey, why don't you go outside with your friends?
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Because remember, it's summer and it's super sunny outside.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: And I did, and it was wonderful.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: We just went outside, sat at the picnic table, had some fresh air, and a bit of normal life in the middle of this very weird couple of days.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the smallest kindness feels enormous when you're having a really hard day.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Then I went back into my room and I got my second roommate, and she was an absolute gift from God.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Sweet 80-year-old woman who loved to chat.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: And if you know me, you know I also love to chat.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: So basically, they put the two perfect people in one hospital room.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: At one point, the nurse came in and sound said, It sounds like you two are having a slumber party.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: And it kind of was.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: We're both lying there in hospital gowns, me waiting for a medical procedure and her coming out of surgery.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: But I look back at that now and think about how kind God was because he knew what I needed.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: He knew I needed someone to talk to, to laugh, to get distract, to be distracted.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: I needed connection.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: And he put this sweet woman right beside me.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: That didn't change the fact that I was in the hospital.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: It didn't make surgery disappear.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: It didn't make me less hungry or cranky or have a caffeine headache, but it brought some joy into a place where I wasn't expecting it.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: And I think that became one of the themes of the summer.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: The plans changed, but God kept putting little gifts right in the middle of changed plans.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Wednesday morning, they finally came to get me.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Thank goodness.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly the waiting was over and it was time for me to go to the OR.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: And if you've had surgery, you know there's something about being wheeled towards an operating room that makes everything feel so real.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And I had just gone through surgery in October, so I remember thinking, I cannot believe I'm doing this again.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: That one was scheduled, so I was ready and prepared.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: This one I felt it was way too soon to be back in an operating room.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: But the surgery went really well.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And by Thursday morning, they sent me home.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: I had gone from having a fun Sunday lake day to an ambulance to emerge to several days in the hospital to surgery to home recovering all in a matter of four days.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: And this is where I want to talk about people.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: My mom dropped her plans that week and came to stay with our kids.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: My mother-in-law stepped in to help us.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: Friends brought meals.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: People sent flowers, people dropped off treats, they checked in, they prayed.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: It was such a blessing.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: We have such an incredible community.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: We have such a big family.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: There are nine people that were managing in this house.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And when I suddenly disappeared to the hospital for several days and then came home on and then come home unable to do most of the things that I do, that affects everyone.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: And our community, they showed up.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: There is something so humbling about needing help, but there's also something so incredibly beautiful about seeing people God has placed around you to step in and carry things that you can't.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: And once I got home, I started realizing, oh, this isn't just about surgery.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: It affects our entire summer because I hadn't had weeks to prepare.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: I hadn't cleared my schedule or reorganized the house.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: I hadn't planned meals ahead because I knew surgery was coming.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: I had gone to church and then gone paddleboarding.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: That was my preparation.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly I was being told six weeks, no lifting more than 10 pounds, no pickleball.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: That one hurt.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: Since I had been training all spring to be able to play.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: And that I was told that I probably would start feeling good uh in the next couple of weeks.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: But I was really, really important that I didn't do anything for six weeks because the incisions were so deep and they actually needed to heal pretty like from the inside out.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: So even when I started to feel normal, I needed to give my body time.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: That was really hard because I like doing things.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: I like being active.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: I had summer plans, I had kids to manage, camps to go to.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: There were things I had to miss, and there were things I had to change, and there were things I had to let other people do for me.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Because apparently the story needed one more layer.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: We were actually renovating a bedroom.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: We had just turned what had been our nursery into a big kid room for our older boys.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: And when I was saying renovating, I'm talking there is stuff everywhere.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: We gutted an entire room.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Things had been pulled out, furniture had been moved, supplies were all around the house, everything is displaced.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: And now suddenly I can't lift anything, drag anything, move anything, tackle any of the projects that I needed to do to get this room ready for basically the entire summer.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: So if you had walked into our home at a certain point this summer, you might have thought, wow, Katie, you're really embracing to learn to let things go.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Katie just physically cannot move this stuff.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: There is a difference, and I had to learn to live with it.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's one of the biggest lessons I took away from this summer.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you don't get to fix the chaos immediately.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to live in it.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: I talk a lot about systems.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: I love systems, meal planning, schedules, routines, knowing what's happening, having a plan.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Those things genuinely make my life better.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: But a system isn't supposed to make you believe you're in control of everything because guess what?
15:49
SPEAKER_00: You're not.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the plan changes.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes your body says no.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes something happens that wasn't on the calendar.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: The house is messy.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Summer doesn't look like your Pinterest board or the bucket list you made.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: And you have to decide: can I still find joy here?
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Can I still see what God is doing here?
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Can I let people help me?
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Can I stop fighting the season I'm actually in because I'm so focused on the season I thought I was going to be having?
16:16
SPEAKER_00: So I shifted.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: We adjusted.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: We lived in a little chaos.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
16:21
SPEAKER_00: We still had an amazing summer.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: We got to go volunteer at camp and see my kids.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: We went camping and thankfully I didn't have to do anything, which to be fair, is not actually that different from my usual camping contribution.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: There was another really cool thing that happened while I was in the hospital.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: An online friend of mine from the States posted on Tuesday that she was post-op day one from gallbladder surgery.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting in the hospital waiting for that same surgery.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: So I messaged her, you're not gonna believe where I am right now.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: And we ended up walking through recovery almost side by side from two different countries.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: We send each other voice messages.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: How are you feeling today?
16:57
SPEAKER_00: What are you eating?
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Does this hurt you too?
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Is this normal?
17:01
SPEAKER_00: How are you sleeping?
17:02
SPEAKER_00: What foods are working?
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Just those little check-ins.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: And again, I think this was just another gift from God because what are the chances of all the times for her to have surgery at the same time?
17:14
SPEAKER_00: Going through it together, we couldn't physically sit together, but it was encouraging to know that somebody else was walking through it at the same time as me.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: And eventually I hit six weeks.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I went crazy.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: I remember all that renovation stuff that wasn't allowed to be moved, all the things sitting around the house, all the jobs that I had been staring at.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: It was time.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: I started getting rid of things, moving things, finishing things, putting the house back together, and we finally got the room 100% finished so we could welcome our older kids home after their summer away at camp.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: And there's something so satisfying about it.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Not just because the room is finished, but because it felt like a marker.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: We're through it.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: I can do things again.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: My body is healed.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Our house survived and summer kept going.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm working out again, which means every day I discover another muscle that apparently took the summer off.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: And I'm consistently walking around saying, Oh my gosh, I'm so sore.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: But it feels so good to move again.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm back playing pickleball.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm enjoying, I'm enjoying being active.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling stronger again.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: The kids and I had the best summer together.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: And also I am very happy that they're back to school.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Both things can be true.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: I loved our summer.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: I love them home and I loved our adventures.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: And I'm also very ready for everyone to have somewhere else to go in the morning.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Micah is at the office, the kids are at school, and the house is 100% quiet.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Like really quiet.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: And I'm ready.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready for fall.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready for routines, for meal plans, schedules, and workouts, and I'm ready to be recording this podcast again.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: And when I think about summer now, the biggest thing I keep coming back to is this a change of plans doesn't mean the season is ruined.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we have a picture in our mind of what something is supposed to look like our summer, our school year, our Christmas, our motherhood, our health, and our family.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: And when something interrupts that picture, we just can spend so much energy mourning what should have happened that we miss what's actually happening.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: My gallbladder surgery wasn't something I wanted, but it wasn't convenient.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't choose to do it again.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: But when I look back at the experience, I see so much goodness.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: That week I had been tubing in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of friends.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: We had been to Shediak, which is also two hours away with friends that same week.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: And to be able to have an attack happen here at our house with my husband here, our friends and family here to be with the kids, to see my mom step in, to see friends bring fruit, flowers, visits, see a nurse recognize it recognize that I needed to get out and get some fresh air, to see an 80-year-old roommate who turned the hospital room into a slumber party, to see online friend recovering from the exact surgery at the exact same time, to see my kids having a great summer, even when mom couldn't do everything, to see myself learning to accept help.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: I see healing, I see laughter, I see God.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Not because God made everything easy, believe me, but because he was present in it.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: And maybe someone listening to this needs that reminder heading into this new season.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: Your plans might change, your routine might get interrupted, something might happen that you didn't prepare for.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: You might have to slow down when you don't want to.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: You might have to ask for help.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: You might have to leave the mess sitting there for six weeks.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: But different doesn't automatically mean bad.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: There can still be so much goodness in the season that looks nothing like you planned.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: And because this is praise, prayer, and protein, I thought that we would start season two with a little check-in.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Praise.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: My praise coming out of the summer is just gratitude.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Gratitude that my body told me something was wrong for Medicare, for family, for friends, for our community, for healing.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Gratitude that even with a pretty major interruption, we still had an incredible summer together.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: And gratitude that I'm sitting here now, healthy, active, and ready for a new season.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Prayer.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: My prayer going into this fall is that I would become wouldn't become so attached to my routines that I forget who is actually in control.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: And protein.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm back to my workouts, back to building strength, I'm back to taking care of myself, and I'm back to trying to remember that apparently I cannot take weeks off and then immediately pick up exactly where I left off without every muscle in my body protesting.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: So here I am drinking my decaf iced coffee with my fair life.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: 30 grams of protein, two grams of sugar, because we all know a little protein helps to save even big temper tantrums and big feelings sometimes.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, it feels so good to be back.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Season two, here we go.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: I have so many conversations I want to have with you this season about motherhood, meal planning, routines, friendship, faith, family, taking care of ourselves, and figuring out how to thrive in these really full lives we are living.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: And if your summer didn't go exactly according to plans either, I hope today's episode reminds you that the unexpected parts don't have to erase the good parts.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they're where we see the goodness most clearly.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: But before you go, do not forget about the free get organized HQ virtual organizing event happening September 14th to the 19th.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: There are over a hundred experts sharing uh session sessions on organization, routines, digital organizations, clothing, meal planning, and so much more.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: My session is 12 Habits of Meal Planning.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: It's about 20 minutes, packed with practical ways to feed your family easier.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: The link to grab your free ticket is waiting for you in the show notes.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: And if you're excited that praise, prayer, and protein is back, would you do me a favor?
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Share this episode with a friend.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: Send it to a mom whose summer also went completely off script.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Send it to a friend who loves a plan but is learning to hold it loosely, or share it in your stories.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: Tag me so I can see that you're listening.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: And thanks for coming back for season two.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being part of this little community.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Here's to fall routines, strong bodies, full tables, good friends, lots of laughter, and plans helped with open hands and seeing what God can do in the middle of it all.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: I'll talk to you next week on Praise, Prayer, and Protein.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Protein that carry me through.