Summer is here!
School is out, the warm days have begun, and hopefully you’ll all be getting a bunch of vacation coming soon!
(Although to all my New Zealand and Aussie readers, I know it’s winter. I remember being Down Under last May! So I hope you are enjoying bundling up and cuddling up!)
I have a bunch of quick things I wanted to share with you today, to let you know what’s happening this summer on the blog, and what you don’t want to miss.
First, my life is changing in a big way. And for Rebecca, an even better one!
For those of you who have read a few posts where we mentioned this, or listened in on the podcast yesterday, you’ll know that this fall Keith and I will be grandparents! We went up to Ottawa last weekend to visit Rebecca and Connor and did some maternity clothes shopping. This one’s my favourite:
She’s so happy to belong to a church right now. She’s been given SO MUCH STUFF that we don’t even need a baby shower. And then, of course, she’ll pass on everything to someone else when she’s done having kids. It’s great!
We’ve been thinking about the baby years all over again, and we’re all eagerly awaiting the addition of Little One. So that’s a lot of what’s been on my mind!
Because of Rebecca’s pregnancy, though, she and Connor won’t be joining us next week when:
Katie and her husband David join Keith and me as we travel across the pond to visit England!
We’re taking off the middle of next week, and we’ll be staying primarily in Oxford and in Portsmouth. In Oxford we’re visiting friends, and doing a lot of nerdy C.S. Lewis things (plus visiting the Downton Abbey Castle), and in Portsmouth we’ll be doing some Jane Austen things and tracing my family tree. We’re trying to go as cheaply as possible in bed & breakfasts, but I hope to be posting some great pictures on Instagram, so keep up with me there! (And Katie posts way better pics than me, so keep up with her, too!).
While we’re gone I’ve got some posts already scheduled, and Rebecca will be writing a bunch. We’ll be taking a few days off for the July 4 weekend, and Rebecca and Connor may not record podcasts while we’re gone, but there will still be quite a few posts. I have a bunch of stuff I want to say, and I don’t want to let my reader questions get even further behind.
Want to catch up? Here’s what you don’t want to miss:
In the meantime, you may want to catch up some really great stuff. Here are the top 2 posts for June:
And here are my two biggest podcasts to date, if you haven’t started listening. Remember, you can subscribe using iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or any other podcast app that you use! (And see all of the podcasts right here).
Other great summer stuff:
Now, two summer posts that you may want to revisit as well. When I originally published the post on sex and family vacations, we had a LOT of comments. I reran it a few years ago and didn’t get the same amount of controversy, but feel free to chime in again. My own feeling is that it’s okay to have a vacation where the primary purpose is having fun with family, and not necessarily having amazing sex, especially if you’re camping or sharing a hotel room. But some disagreed. See what you think!
Can Sex and Family Vacations Go Together?
(Hint: It’s okay to concentrate on the kids for a week, especially if you’re sharing a hotel room or a tent and the kids are older!)
Which course should I work on next?
Okay, I’ve got two options for what my next project is when I get back. I can do:
- How to Have an Orgasm course
- The Sexual Shame Recovery course
I get asked for both all the time, but any votes? Let me know in the comments!
And that’s it for now! I’ll be packing up all my stuff this weekend and getting ready for our vacation. What are you up to? What course should I make? Let’s talk in the comments!
Free baby gear is great! We did have a shower for my first, and I remember trying to register for stuff that was decent quality but not ridiculously expensive, because that stuff adds up. I’m currently pregnant with my third, and thankful to have friends and family that are willing to pass on hand me down clothes, since I’m having a girl after two boys. We really haven’t had to buy much for her yet, though I couldn’t resist a little shopping, and I even got some free, badly-needed summer maternity clothes from a cousin that I was also able to pass on our baby boy clothes to! My husband is also very much looking forward to getting all of the baby gear out of the house as she outgrows the need for it.
As for the course, I’m voting for the first one. Especially if you address trying to get there after dealing with painful sex, since you’ve been there. I’ve already told my husband that once this baby is out and I’m sufficiently recovered, that I’d really like to finally figure out how to make this fun for me, too.
Yay, Becky! I really hope and pray that you can get there. I know it’s been such a long and frustrating journey for you. I think I’m likely leaning towards that course first, too. The problem is I think many women need the second course FIRST, but perhaps the need overall is greater for the first!
Oh, please do an orgasm course! I’m sure there are many readers like me who are going crazy trying to figure out how to get our bodies to cross the threshold!
Also, congrats on the new addition to the family! Does mean we’ll get some updated pregnancy and postpartum marriage and intimacy posts?! 😜
Both sound good, but I vote for the second one.
And congratulations on the baby that’s coming!!!
I hope you all have a wonderful vacation ☺
Here’s my vote for the sexual shame recovery course. Who knows, that might eliminate the need for the orgasm course for some readers.
Wow! What a blessing to have basically all baby items gifted to you!!! I’m sure that alleviates a lot of stress for you two, Rebecca and Connor!
I vote for the sexual recovery course first THEN the orgasm course. I think they kinda go together, and for those who would benefit from both, of be helpful to address the recovery first before addressing how to work your way up to orgasm. (Though for myself personally, I’d vote for the orgasm course. I could definitely use that one lol. Though I’m fairly certain my issues are due to lack of stimulation , both physically and emotionally).
Definitely orgasm course. I just turned 44 and used to have pretty great ones, but in the past yearish I can barely have an orgasm and they aren’t intense at all. I think it must be perimenopause stuff, crazy hormones? It’s pretty disappointing making intimacy very lackluster. 🙁
I think the 2nd one is in great demand currently. In my own life, I’d love all the information I can get on this right now. I commented an few months ago asking advice for my situation. And it’s still ongoing. My abuser confessed and is tried to paint himself a fully reformed, one-time offender pedophile. I learned that my father and two oldest brothers, while good decent men, thought I lied until he came forward. And are still more interested in shielding my abuser from me than vice versa. My husband is trying to be neutral (because he’s aware of my strong need for my siblings who I call my children. Threatened by the situation) and it’s been a very stressful sex life lately. Throw in the guilt that I married a good man, while my motherly older sister married an abuser….who cheated with another sister. I wish I had more material for read about cleaning and purifying the whole area of sex.
Oh, dear, that’s just such a sad story! I’m so sorry. And to throw in your responsibility for your younger siblings on top of everything else. What a mess!
I vote for the second one and here’s something specific I’d love to see covered: how do you retrain your brain to experience arousal without guilt? Purity culture and all that made it so sex was something bad to be avoided at all costs. Now I’m happily married with a good sex life, but it’s like sex and shame HAVE to be together for my body to respond. Does that make sense? I really struggle with my thoughts to not make some kind of fantasy where we “shouldn’t be doing this, but just can’t help it!”. I just can seem to pull sex out of the guilt-ridden part of my brain. So sex and orgasm are always a mixed bag of physical pleasure, relational closeness, and secret feelings of shame and guilt, which makes me only really half-hearted about it. In fact, sometimes I have to really work with myself to not get annoyed in the beginning because I just don’t love the way I feel during and after sex. I wish I could focus on my husband and be in the moment and have loving feelings ONLY. Help?
Anonymous, that makes total sense, and it’s very common. Sure, I can try to work that in. Absolutely.
Oh gosh, yes, this. So much this. Sheila, *please* include this.
If sex is actually supposed to be good for women, and not just an experience in which men orgasm (whatever that is) and we get morning sickness and labour pain, please, please the first course.
It’s alienating and really feels like God gave women the short end of the stick.
Thanks for your feedback! It sounds like they’re both definitely needed. I’ll have to get to work!
Aww, super exciting! Congrats to your family!