Happy Friday my friends. I am sitting at my desk with this trifecta of beverages and attempting to get some words out. It’s been a while.
Here’s the morning line up.
- Smoothie in the Yeti (keeps my smoothie extra cold) – frozen bananas, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, blueberries, spinach and cauliflower with plain greek yogurt, almond butter, a medjool date and oat milk.
- Coffee with a scoop of Bulletproof creamer and collagen protein. Remember you can use code JEN_PBRUNNERBP20 to get 20% off your Bulletproof order.
- Ice water in the purple Takeya straw bottle that has basically gone everywhere with me for the last two years – I have a whole cabinet full of water bottles but always come back to this one.
I have some company of the furry variety hanging out in my office with me. Zoey always loves corners and being under things. Look at all the white she’s getting on her sweet face. I can’t believe she’ll be eight in a few months.
So…let’s catch up. As I mentioned in my last post, I recently celebrated a birthday. I turned 39 on June 16 and have found this birthday to bring up a whole host of emotions, thoughts and questions around many areas of my life ranging from career to family to relationships to how I am showing up/serving in the world.
I decided to take a week off of social media around my birthday and then it ended up extending to blogging and lasted longer than I planned. The extension of the break in length and scope was due to a couple of factors.
First, I genuinely enjoyed taking time away from feeling pressure to document everything I was doing. I took a couple of trips during my break and it was nice to only pull out my camera when there was a personal moment I wanted to capture for my own memories. I also enjoyed the mental break from content creation, ESPECIALLY on Instagram. To be honest, I am not especially enjoying the shift to Reels that is happening on that platform. There is so much focus on video creation, trends and entertainment. Personally, I started blogging (and continue to blog) because I like telling stories through writing and photos. I’m not opposed to using video. I like video when video makes sense (like sharing workouts, for example) but it feels like the only way to have any amount of successful engagement on Instagram these days is through Reels. For the record, I’m still holding out on Tik Tok and have not created an account even through many brands are asking for it with partnerships.
Second, and most impactful by a landslide, is that while I was on my break we found out that my dad has to have open heart surgery. He has an ascending aortic aneurysm that we have known about for years. His cardiologist has been monitoring the size of aneurysm at regular intervals and my dad has been under guidance about what he can and cannot do. At his most recent echocardiogram, we learned that the aneurysm had grown to a size where it must be repaired. If it were to rupture, he would not survive. He will have open heart surgery to repair the aneurysm and they will likely also do a valve replacement at the same time. His surgeon is optimistic about the outcome and my dad has pretty much the most amazing attitude about it ever.
The surgery is schedule for July 21 in Pensacola. I will be traveling down to Florida to be with my dad while he’s in the hospital and also to help with things at home with my mom and grandmother. They expect he’ll be in the hospital for 5-10 days. He’s pretty determined to set a record for shortest hospital stay and to get home as soon as possible. <3
Needless to say, it has been a lot to process and absorb that we are facing another major surgery just six months after my mom’s double lung transplant. I am so grateful that we know about my dad’s aneurysm but I’m having so much anxiety leading to the surgery. I just want to get him through it and know we are on the healing side of things.
My dad told me that I have his okay to blog about his heart condition but it’s difficult to write about and bring to you. I know that we will be met with a flood of support and prayers but I feel like I’ve asked for a whole year of support and prayers. I wish I had different news to share but this is where we are.
My family is incredibly important to me and I am praying so hard that we have abundant good times and happy memories ahead of us once we get everyone “all patched up” as my dad likes to say.
I am not sure how present I’ll be on my blog and social media for the next month or two. I am planning to prioritize my mental wellbeing and focus most of my energy on Finn and my family. I may use this time to update/refresh old posts and recipes instead of creating new content. I will try to check in with a more personal post every week or two.
So that’s my update. I am signing off to head to the gym, and then I’ll be enjoying the weekend with Finn.
Hugs and prayers to all,
Jen
