Updated August 8, 2025

Family & The Sweet Chaos of Friendship

• The Livermores just left and I'm emotionally exhausted in the best way — our Iowa friends (now living in Omaha) came for a week with their family of five. Our youngest kids have known each other since they were babies, so watching them all together feels like some kind of friendship time-lapse.

• We did all the tourist things: Ocean City for beach vibes, Six Flags, Smithsonian American History Museum, FDR Memorial, Library of Congress. Good friends make even the most crowded tourist spots actually fun.

• One week of camp left for the kids — then Wesley has bike-riding camp (yes, that's a thing), then back to school at the end of August. How is summer almost over?? Still slowly working through Fablehaven and finally finished The Last Airbender (still the gold standard for smart kids' media).

Ministry & The August Energy Shift

• August is when The Table Church comes alive again — people moving back to the city for school, summer vacations wrapping up, everyone remembering they have a church community.

• Movie night coming up: we're showing The Sinners — because how many churches do you know that would screen that film?

• It's the big volunteer recruitment push time.

What I'm Reading/Watching

• Reading How to Read the Bible by Kugel — absolutely fantastic, will definitely be my go-to recommendation for anyone wanting to dive deep into biblical interpretation.

• Just finished Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies on Emily's recommendation. Cute enough but not really my speed.

• Working through the sequel to Nightwatch on the Hinterlands (need to actually look up that title because my brain is clearly not functioning).

• Watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — perfect low-stakes comfort sci-fi. Also stuck mid-season on Doctor Whobut hard to finish knowing the whole show is on hiatus.

Random Thoughts & Feelings

• August/September always feels like the real New Year to me — school calendar, church programming, family rhythms all reset when summer ends. Tempted to plan a retreat and completely rejigger my goals and planning.

• Wrestling with: The weird tension between summer ending too fast and being genuinely excited for fall rhythms to return.

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Previous Now Pages

• July 18, 2025
• February 12, 2025

What's A Now Page?

Inspired by Derek Sivers, it's a place to answer the question, "What are you up to now" as well as remind me of my current priorities. See https://nownownow.com/about