Story Threads | August 5th, 2026

Hey! It’s me.

I’m still here. Still navigating. Still adjusting.

I’m working on giving myself grace through this transitional time in my life and I’m finding that I fail as much as I succeed - at least it often feels that way. I’ve had days where I feel like myself and other days where it’s hard to get out of bed from the weight of life in this season.

There’s a lot of transitional things happening around here including Simon and Elliott getting ready to move into their own places, Isaac starting his new full time apprentice job, my parents care + adjustment, and the girls getting ready to begin their last year of high school.

I know I’m not alone in this transitional space and feeling the weight of it all.

Even the good stuff has weight.

Here’s a few recent story threads (mostly from July):

• Lots of time with Mom that I’m treasuring. Farmer’s Market. Necklaces. Flowers. Working outside in my yard and volunteering at the Rose Garden. Her gratitude. Helping her to remember pieces of the story from the last year or so when she asks. Being there when she’s struggling with all the change.

• Anna got back from her trip with her friends and their families to New Jersey and was here for a week before heading to Young Life camp at Malibu (in Canada). She has one week of chill and then high school volleyball starts and we ride the wave from there.

• Elliott is in Europe with his long time friend Ahn visiting other friends he made when he traveled there a couple summers ago right after graduation. He’s been sending lots of text updates to Aaron and I love hearing about his adventures. When he comes back he’ll be moving out into a house with friends and getting a job and beginning his own new chapter.

• Issac wrapped up his first full month of work as an auto mechanic apprentice. I wish I could accurately convey to you how big of a deal this is for this particular kid to find something that will get him up and out the door in the morning. I’m really proud of him and his efforts.

• We had new grass and a new flagstone path put in our front yard. The path creates a short cut from the porch to the driveway rather than having to walk around the grass. One of my favorite parts of the project was hiring an older brother of one of Anna’s friends who is just starting out with his own landscaping company for the job. Everyone begins somewhere.

• Hot temperatures and smoky air this week. It’s been one of the worst fire seasons ever recorded in the Pacific Northwest (cue 2020 memories when we lived with red sky for days when fires were even closer to where we live). I live on the west side of the mountains in Oregon - most of the fires are central or eastern Oregon/Washington.

• We announced the release date for our December Daily® collection (a December scrapbook project I’ve been doing each year for more than 20 years). That’s coming to the shop on August 25th.

• I’ve been sick the last few days with a dumb summer sore throat. At this point it’s just annoying more than anything. I’m also scrolling way too much and I don’t think that’s helping my mood.

• Simon is moving into his new place this weekend in downtown Eugene and he’s a mixture of excited and nervous. I’m happy for a new chapter for him and happy that he’s currently happy sticking around here in town. He’s been coming over a couple days a week to do some video editing for me and that’s been a lovely bonus in this season.

• I finally made some art marks again this past week and that felt really good except then I started overthinking everything (from what I was going to paint to the colors I was going to use to the brushes I pulled out to what is the point of all this, etc) and then I remembered that part of what I have loved about sitting at the table and making marks is that it helps me chill out and gives my thinking mind a break. Obviously it wasn’t giving my thinking mind a break on this particular day but I think this is actually the specific reminder I needed to write out + remember today.

• All this week I’ve been sharing some Note To Self scrapbook projects over on the AED blog. Those projects have been a good way for me to both remember + encourage myself as I travel through this chapter of my life.

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