November Goals – a double post!

Our twilight month November is,
The evening of the year.
The brilliant summer noontide left
A pallor soft and clear.
– Ruby Archer

I love thinking of this month as the “evening of the year.” Isn’t that wonderful? It ushers in a coziness, a quietness, and a pull towards intentionality in these final days of 2024. A quiet winding down is needed in our world.

The last two months—my first time ever missing a post here in all my years of blogging!—have been the most unexpected we’ve experienced. As we close the year, I’m settling into a different pace and perspective with all that’s happened lately. Let’s recap the Isaacson’s Wild Season of 2024, shall we?

When I last wrote to you, we were doing a small kitchen renovation, replacing our 20-year-old stove (the door had finally fallen off!) and adding a real vent fan with an actual hole in the wall to remove the cooking fumes. We took some drywall out during the demo and found black mold. It was everywhere, all over the insulation and walls. Needless to say, this came as a shock, and we had to gut the entire kitchen and replace it as we treated the mold. A two-week project turned into six weeks and the most stressful season moving in and out of our house, mostly living out of our garage gym on a hot plate and not getting much sleep.

That led to a long bout of sickness for me and eventually for the kids. We were breathing fumes and chemicals daily, trying to do homeschool in the garage or wherever the sounds of nail guns were muffled. Praise the Lord for our Airdoctors. I would not have felt safe in our house without them. They worked overtime!

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After weeks of displacement and chaos, two days after the second full dumpster left our house, we renewed our vows with friends and family. More on that highlight from October in a moment!

I left the celebration early to care for Josh and stayed up all night with him for several nights. His ten days of fever turned into pneumonia, which is apparently worse than ever this year among children, and a month of chronic coughing and sleepless nights. We did chest x-rays and daily nebulizer treatments and missed weeks of school in the process.

Then, finally looking forward to some relaxation after the craziest season of our lives (there was far more than I can list here), I wrote our travel agent to confirm our long-awaited honeymoon with the family. A bounced email led me on a Google search to find her mugshot, incarcerated for taking people’s vacation money and not actually booking their trips. We were one of those people. More on this story and how it’s now part of an FBI case (!) in my highlights here.

Woosh. Certainly, more devastating things happened in the world and our state during these weeks, but this was a difficult season for our family. I’ve been two months behind on replying to texts, emails, and life in general, and my nervous system took a hit. Romans 5:3-5 has been on repeat: ‘Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.’

While all of this has produced suffering, we’ve experienced a double measure of hope as God has refined our whole family in the process. We’re so ready for this quiet and cozy “evening of the year.”

September and October highlights:
— Spending an evening with close friends and family renewing our vows at the Honeysuckle Tea House was a gift. With the help of my friend Rhi via Facetime and the Honeysuckle team (and my brother – a story for another day!), I took on doing all of the flowers. This is not advised whilst weathering mold remediation and tending to sick kiddos, dear readers, but the results were all my dreams come true. This entire experience with friends we love so much was balm to our weary souls. Emily shared a reading from C.S. Lewis, other couples renewed their vows with us (we surprised them!), my friend Svetlana and her team wowed us, Gina made my soul feel peace and captured every moment with joy, and my mom and brother cooked all the food (all organic, local, gluten-free goodness!).

Kaylee wrote my vows on my vows booklet for me at the very last minute and got all the kids down the aisle, many dear Southern Weddings and CWM friends were there, and friends traveled from afar far to be with us. Most importantly, Ari and I said our vows to each other, which I’ll share in a future post once I have all the photos to share with you. I loved every minute. Thank you, friends, for celebrating us from near and far! A sneak peek from Gina…

—The highlight of my week each week has been co-teaching a Shakespeare class at our kids’ homeschool school. It has been a JOY to laugh and play with these incredible middle and high school students. We are having a blast practicing our play, A Comedy of Errors.
— I took the kids to vote. It makes me tear up every time—voting is a joy and an honor to get to do.
— Given that I’ve sent two newsletters this entire year, I moved my list from a paid service to Substack. Join me here.
— Shay and Graham gave Ari and me a copy of this book that completed my liturgy collection. It’s wonderful.
— Homeschool time with these kids makes my heart go pitter-patter.

— And now for a rather big update that will get more airtime soon: I started a new job in mid-August, friends. A big announcement, I know! It’s a part-time executive role (about ten hours a week when the kids are in school) with a wonderful ministry, and it has been quite an adventure. When you set out to do good things for God, the enemy will work hard to thwart your efforts! I’ve never experienced such clear spiritual warfare. I can share the details on November 12th, but let me tell you a story for now. During my first week of work, I was set to fly to Jacksonville for a shoot with Tim Tebow. My plane started to taxi down the runway, and there was smoke. My plane caught fire, friends! What in the world!? I never made it to the shoot. Two weeks later, we found the black mold in our house just hours before I was set to lead our first team summit in Chapel Hill. I got sick in the remediation process and had nowhere to work with the nail guns and trying to feed and care for my kiddos without a kitchen. I flew to Dallas for a leadership meeting on the heels of the worst virus I’ve ever experienced and somehow gave a presentation. It has been zero smooth sailing since day one and many bumps along the road, but I’m taking this battle as a nod from God that we are up to something good. Stay tuned! 🎉

Ahead in November:
— We are still headed to the Bahamas. Days off are hard to come by and we purchased non-refundable plane tickets, so we rebooked our trip. Paying for it twice is not fun, but we need this time together as a family to hear from the Lord (on a water slide or two) after a wild season.
— I’m celebrating God’s faithfulness with the one-year mark since a major surgery last November.
— Grace turns 13!!!! I had to restrain myself from using more !’s! I love her so much. We’re having a small Eloise-themed celebration at home.
— I’m traveling to Charleston for a week for a work retreat. Very excited to visit Ethos again.
— Operation Put Our Health Back Together is on this month. I’m on a sauna streak and focused on detox and more movement. I’m also considering a turkey trot — a brisk walk for this hEDS gal instead of running.
— After an unexpected year, I’m ready to break out all my stickers, pens, and a hot cup of tea to do my 2025 PowerSheets (use code LARA for a discount) in a little solo retreat morning I’m planning. I had hoped to do this alongside friends in the next Flourishng Founders retreat, but life was a little full, as you can see. I’m planning an early 2025 FF retreat to start the year well. Details to come.
— We’re staying home for Thanksgiving with my mom. I’m already craving cranberry sauce.
— I have my eye on several things for the holiday sale season, including stocking up on our favorite Prime Protein and AirDoctor filters.
— I’ve pre-ordered my Christmas tree from the same small organic farm as last year. We’ll decorate her once the Turkey has been enjoyed! And I am already playing Christmas music. Are you? 🙂

Thank you for sticking with me through this double post, friends! I’m grateful for you always.

My November PowerSheets goals grew from my 2024 Goals here.

Your turn! What are you looking forward to this month? I’d love to hear.