Adventures in Marriage
We began this latest adventure to encourage others and share some of the blessings we experienced in our marriage. We recently celebrated our 25 Wedding Anniversary and noticed how many good people went through very difficult divorces. We have struggled watching family and friends end relationships that meant so much to us and many others. We want to elevate marriage in the cultural conversation and help others realize the blessings God has for them when they love their spouse as Christ loves the church...and along the way, we get to spend a little more time together!
Adventures in Marriage
Summer 2026 E54
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We would love to hear from you!
Finally the end of the LONG HOT SUMMER is here but the heat lingers. Courtney & Shawn share recent celebrations of the kids as well as a major set back in the vehicle department. It's not an adventure anyone wants to experience! Through all of it, they share a reminder to find relief from the heat, the grind, accidents, and whatever else life throws at you.
We recently created a IG account for the podcast and would love for you to give it a look @hornsbymarriageadventures
If you found anything helpful or encouraging, please consider subscribing and sharing with others.
As always, thank you for listening!
#marriage #adventures #jesus #healing #children #husband #wife
All right, welcome back to Adventures in Marriage as we get ready to close out summer twenty twenty-six, and the long, hot summer that we've had here in Northeast Louisiana, Courtney.
SPEAKER_00Which is still going.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's not over yet.
SPEAKER_00It's long and hot. Technically, in two days, it's not summer. So we're here on the Sunday, the last Sunday of summer, and it certainly very much still feels like summer. 95-ish degrees, and it feels more, well, I think 103, 105. And uh, we might have a little cooling at the end of this week. A little, not a lot, but it has been a long, hot summer for everybody. And we're desperate to see the temperatures go down just a little bit.
SPEAKER_01But at the same time, we've had some uh summer rhythms that have been fun to do, like uh weekend snow cones. And um, you know.
SPEAKER_00Just had our last snow cones of the summer. Doesn't mean that we're done with snow cones, just means the last snow cones of the summer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, pickle snow cone for me because I'm trying to keep the sugar count low.
SPEAKER_00I'm just nodding my head.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what'd you get?
SPEAKER_00Bahama mama. It's the closest thing to pina colada that I can have. So a little taste of summer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, summertime. This has been an interesting summer uh for us because we have uh the grown-up child, you know, the adult child things happening, uh new developments and fun stuff in that. And um also like the weird thing we we had a weird vehicle thing. We're we're driving a minivan now.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so we're already going there. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01You tell me we got lots of things to talk about, is what I'm saying. Just we have a few things to talk about with regard to summer in particular. And so I I just was prefacing everything to say uh summer's been interesting and that uh we're doing some there's been some first here this summer.
SPEAKER_00Well, and going back a little further, summer is just now a busy season for us because we own a business that does really well in the summer, and so that takes up a lot of our energy where maybe summers might have looked a little different in the past.
SPEAKER_01But now I would say, yeah, I would definitely say pre-creamery, summer was not as busy for us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like maybe especially like in the weekends and the nights, we would, you know, maybe be out walking or exercising or just doing more leisurely things together or individually. But now it's usually uh at least during the summer, and believe us, we're grateful for the the business, but oh, they are short on staff. Oh, they need bananas. Oh uh you know, they're out of quarters, or you know, we we need to go do extra help. Hey, our air conditioning is broken. Let's go buy a new air conditioning unit for this business that we bought over a little over a year ago. So that was part of our summer adventure, and we've talked a little bit about that um a couple of podcasts ago, but those are some big ticket things that happened during the summer. So the creamery takes up a lot of our summer energy, and it has just been extremely hot. So July on, because June is still kind of tolerable, but June, and then you get to July. July it's tough, and August was tough. Yeah, and then now we're in mid-September and it's still pretty rough. So just trying to survive summer, but yeah, we have adult kids, so that looks different. The rhythm is different. We're not hauling them around, but it's trying to keep up with who, who's where, who's going what place, who's gonna be home for dinner, who's not gonna be home for dinner.
SPEAKER_01That's that's an interesting one, is is um like dinner became there were certain nights of the week where dinner was pretty, you know, pretty uh sacred. I don't know if I don't know if I want to say sacred.
SPEAKER_00But it was time together.
SPEAKER_01It was pretty regular, you know, and it was definitely time together. And now that seems to be chopped up even more so than ever before.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. And it certainly felt like that this summer too.
SPEAKER_01And not not necessarily by us. By them, yeah, with their schedules and their schedules, which you know, we're happy for them to have life and you know, opportunity and all that kind of stuff. But at the same time, it's like I like sitting around the table even though they yell at each other sometimes.
SPEAKER_00Well, and just the rhythm too, for me. Yeah. For me, the rhythm.
SPEAKER_01Okay, you know. That's a that's a good point because you like like you want to cook food that you know is gonna get eaten. Yeah, because you don't want to cook for two of us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I definitely don't want to cook at all, but I'll just say that. Yeah, but I definitely don't want to cook a full meal for five people and then no one be there. Because I definitely I'm not too ashamed to say I don't want to go to that extra effort anymore. If you're not home, I don't want to make it. And then, hey, if you're not home and it's just me, I could probably eat a sandwich.
SPEAKER_01What do you mean probably? You're gonna eat a fold over with some grapes.
SPEAKER_00Maybe some chips.
SPEAKER_01And some chips, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Might change it up a little bit. Maybe some chips and salsa. You never know. But it's hot. I don't feel like eating anything like that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's just hot. And and then you do make dinner and then everybody's gone. And then it sits in the refrigerator for days, and I'm desperate to get people to eat leftovers. So these are like new problems we have. They're not really problems, but they're just new realities because we have three children that are grown-ish and they still live primarily with us. And so the time I don't cook is when we get the well, why didn't you make anything for dinner? We never have anything. You don't cook anymore. You know, I get that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01So which is wild, which is wild to hear them like, and and they don't all do it all the time. But when it happens, it's wild to hear them do that. It's like, wait a minute, what house did you grow up in?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like, how did you get fed all these years?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know?
SPEAKER_00Well, it's also though, so you can go do whatever you want, and I just have to react.
SPEAKER_01Very much so.
SPEAKER_00But when you decide you're gonna be home, you want to eat and you expect something to be ready. But we have had uh them helping and doing and making dinner a couple of times, and I'm all about that.
SPEAKER_01I did. I I finally I knew you were stressed, we had a lot going on, and I'm like, okay. I sent a text and I didn't include you on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I said, um, okay, you you each pick a night, you need to plan it. I'll help pay for it, but you need to plan it and make it happen.
SPEAKER_00I don't think Cooper ever did that.
SPEAKER_01He owes us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So and so and then in the the other part of summer rhythm, our youngest started driving and bought him a vehicle in during the summer. So him doing, you know, a couple of jobs that he hasn't had before, and him going to those things, and the rhythm of him going to go get out and about, and so the rhythm of having three kids with vehicles and all that. And I feel like maybe there's a theme here with vehicles this this summer. Uh, that seems to be a a prominent theme of ours. So our our oldest daughter bought a vehicle in late spring, early summer. So uh that was her first vehicle purchase on her own. And then uh our son, we bought him, we took a trip over to Mississippi and bought him a truck, and now he's you know able to help us out and running errands and got his own job and things like that. And and now that you know school year started taking himself to school, which is uh which is a great thing.
SPEAKER_01Um Yeah, I have to admit, I miss hanging out with him in the morning, but at the same time, I'm like, I don't mind not having to get up.
SPEAKER_00Except I have to call him from my bed to make sure that he's awake. But these are just different rhythms, it's a different rhythm of life, these are just things that we're living with. However, we always you know love to kind of prod and kick and and tease ourselves about all the adventures we have in marriage. And so, yes, we've had a couple of adventures and uh they kind of have rounded out our summer. They're a little stressful, they are uh a pain and and golly, just unbelievable. But these are adventures, quote unquote, that we're having to live with right now. And uh, I guess this is what happens when you have five people in a household with five cars. So we are living currently going through a uh claims process and recovery effort for a two-vehicle accident that involved zero people in zero drivers, zero drivers, so no passengers, no drivers in our yard.
SPEAKER_01So for those who don't know, we live on a corner and we have two driveways, one on each street that our house corners. And um one Sunday, I don't know, three Sundays ago, I guess, I was getting ready to go run some errands, uh, primarily to to alleviate some of your stresses by getting rid of stuff on the carport. And um I remember one more thing I had to get. So I had the truck in reverse, and I am I am 90% sure I put it in park. The 10% doubt is because only because the truck moved, but the truck didn't move until after I walked away from it. And and you know, it's a it's a two 2017 D Son Titan, it's a V8. So I've tried to recreate this this whole scenario before uh since then, and every time I I I take my foot off the brake when it's in reverse, it moves like right away. So I and I just can't believe that something hanky didn't happen, like it got hung up between park and reverse, and maybe when I closed the door and walked away, it slipped in the park or reverse, and and anyways, whatever happened, maybe I there's this small percentage of me that maybe some some kid in the neighborhood got in my truck and tried to back it out. I doubt that happened. It's probably the other one. But the truck backs out of the driveway, and because I turned in the driveway, there's a little bit of turn, you know, in the wheel, the front wheel. It backs out of the driveway onto the street, does a U, and goes through the yard. When the yard drops down just a little bit from the road to the yard, and there's so it just picks up a little speed and it just creams the side of Peyton's uh new ride Toyota RAF 4 and just goes up the side of it. Abs I am absolutely mortified all afternoon when I saw it. I couldn't believe the damage. I I couldn't believe that that happened. It's like it was just absolutely because it's it's my baby, and I don't want I don't want to I don't want to mess with it.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's incredibly frustrating.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, it's it the whole thing's frustrating. I if it had been your car, I'd have felt bad, but I I feel a little bit worse because it's like our children, the last thing we want to do is set our kids back or or mess anything up for them. So, anyways.
SPEAKER_00So we have two vehicles in the shop. So we have her vehicle and we have Sean's truck, and her vehicle has pretty significant damage. It's not total, but it's been in the shop for a couple of weeks, and it's gonna continue to be in the shop for a few weeks. So anyway, so she's driving my vehicle and uh Sean's got a rental because his truck had some damage, and and I'm driving a rental because uh Peyton's vehicle is in both of our names. She and I we co I co-signed her loan, and so for the rental company, they put the rental in my name because I'm the insurance holder. And so that means for the first time in my 49-year history, 27 and a half years of marriage. Yeah, I am now with three children who were all driving. Yeah, I'm now the proud driver of a minivan. So my choice was a this purple Jeep, yes, which insurance didn't quite cover, or the minivan, which insurance 100% covered. Now, I wasn't excited about the minivan at first.
SPEAKER_01However, this is not your mama's minivan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I grew up in a minivan.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I had delivered flowers from my mom's flower shop in a minivan. This is not my mom's minivan. First of all, it has two doors on the side.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00And you push the button, it opens automatically. You don't have to grab it and like slide it open like we did when we were younger. The seats push a button, they fold down into the bottom. Like you could have, it's almost like a little mini cargo van.
SPEAKER_01You could turn it to a cargo van.
SPEAKER_00And I have used it as a so the night we got it, so such a middle-aged thing to do. We're so exciting. We took that minivan to Sam's and to Sam's to buy food for the gravery.
SPEAKER_01Laid the back seat down and um yeah, and had plenty of room to put all the stuff in there.
SPEAKER_00I have hauled lots of recycling in this view.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, big pieces of the planet.
SPEAKER_00There you go.
SPEAKER_01With that minivan.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you can fit a lot of cardboard in this minivan, so a lot. Uh, but I have to say it's a 2027, it's brand new. It only had 2,500 miles on it. I've been driving it for a few weeks now. Might be kind of sad when I have to turn it in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The backup camera's great. The Bluetooth is great. So I don't want to go back to my old vehicle. I mean, I don't know if I want to be a minivan permanently, but I don't want to go back to my old vehicle. I'll I'll I'm liking it. But yeah, I I'm 49 and have never driven a minivan as a mom, as the typical soccer mom, because we had three kids who played soccer and hauled a bunch of crap for our kids.
SPEAKER_01And we hauled a bunch of people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but it was never yeah, we had a little SUV that had, you know, captain's chairs, but never a minivan. But yeah, but we actually uh got the minivan because that weekend we had to rent it. We shout out we were drive, we were driving down a four or four and a half hour trip down to the Gulf Coast for a family wedding, which we'll yeah, that's gonna be what we talk about in our next episode.
SPEAKER_01It's just kind of recapping the wedding and all that fun. So shout out to the 2027 Chrysler Pacifica. Uh if you are in the minivan market, this I would give this one a hard look. I mean, it would definitely be something I'd like to do.
SPEAKER_00Chrysler, if you're listening, let us know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We like it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's pretty nice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. The front does look like a spaceship. The front exterior does look a bit like a spaceship, but it's really nice inside. So we'll go with it. And we're very grateful to Enterprise and to State Farm for taking care of us. So we only had to pay two deductibles for the accident, considering how much damage is done. And if they want you to, uh what was funny is that he immediately got a phone call from the safe drive app that we have for State Farm asking, you know, there had been a report of a crash. Was he okay?
SPEAKER_01And she needs to roll an ambulance.
SPEAKER_00Right, which which I appreciated. But then, you know, uh, and our agent who was texting us right away and, you know, in the office, we were appreciated that. And they said, you know, go online and do the or do the auto bot, you know, go and upload your accident information. Well, they couldn't understand because there were no people in the cars. So it was it was not.
SPEAKER_01I wrecked the AI app. It just couldn't process two vehicles, no driver.
SPEAKER_00They just had to do it for us on Monday. But yeah, this was a Sunday afternoon, and uh he just came in devastated and just couldn't even tell me at first what happened, and I was freaking out because I could tell something bad had happened.
SPEAKER_01He just Yeah, I I will say though, you Peyton, uh especially because y'all were the two main ones, y'all were great. Um immediately the response was which I I I'd like to think I I would do the same thing. I don't know. Uh the response was uh it's okay. It's it's you know, the we have insurance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was just so thankful no people were involved.
SPEAKER_01Nobody was hurt in the neighborhood. Yeah, because there are kids that go up and down that side street where the the tree all the time. All the time.
SPEAKER_00And we always say they never watch where they're going.
SPEAKER_01Bicycles, scooters, tricycles, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I sure did go up and down the street and check the ditch. I was freaking out for just a moment. Like, oh gosh, please, please don't let anybody have been behind us. Right. But and thank goodness it didn't hit the house.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't want to mess with that.
SPEAKER_00No. Or it would have messed with your truck pretty good, I think.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, so I I do appreciate the sweet spirit. Uh I do appreciate friends who are like, dude, it's it's really, I mean, accidents happen. I feel like a giant bonehead, but at the same time, you know, nobody was hurt.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, just made life a little complicated for a few weeks.
SPEAKER_01And I've got a Mazda MX90, and I'm I I like I like the way it drives. It looks nice. I don't like all the noises it makes.
SPEAKER_00We can switch. You can take the minivan.
SPEAKER_01I'm down. I would like the minivan. Yeah, let's do that. We'll switch. Um, the Mazda is just the the seatbelt warning. It's like, okay, I I was at Sam's the other day, drove from the gas pump over to a parking spot without my seatbelt on.
SPEAKER_00They didn't like that very much, did it?
SPEAKER_01I even after I put it in park, it was still beeping at me to put my seatbelt on. I'm like, I'm in park.
SPEAKER_00Now, my min we talked about this, my minivan. If I put stuff in the backseat.
SPEAKER_01Thinks you'd left a kid in there?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's gonna ding, ding, ding, ding when I get out of the car, and it doesn't stop because it thinks I've left somebody.
SPEAKER_01So so the safety features on these things are a little uh over the top, but you know, they're a nice ride, so that's good. We're we're grateful to have them. It's just different.
SPEAKER_00So that's been some of our summer adventure. That's taken up the last three weeks or so, but a big part of our summer adventure, because really we we were looking at this starting in July before we even went on vacation.
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm really kind of surprised that it's uh this opportunity didn't disappear because of you know travel and everything else.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I just happened to see a house in our neighborhood was for sale and thought it was cute. Uh we have an interesting housing market in our community right now. We have a data center being built, and it's you know, 30, 45 minutes away from here. But as the uh larger region or our hometown, there is just a huge opportunity for real estate. People are desperate to have rentals, hotel rates are high with all the different occupancies, and Airbnbs have been very popular, so just real estate is just going fast. People are buying up real estate for rental for Airbnb. Uh you know, the the construction workers are going to be here for the status center for probably the next five or so years. So it's just a really interesting market. And what that has affected with our oldest is that hey, if you ever wanted to try to rent your own place, like get out of here and go get an apartment or something. Rental rates are super high for a single woman, you know, young woman who's got a you know start her job, like that's way more than our mortgage is now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's no summer tree for $250 a month, you know.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you're going way back.
SPEAKER_01That was a dinky little apartment I had.
SPEAKER_00It was a dinky apartment for $250, though, but you got you got what you paid for. You got what you paid for. But you know, she would have loved the opportunity to, you know, get wanted to get out on her own, but did not want to pay some of the rates because you're all your money is going to that. And so we just didn't know if that was possible. But lo and behold, found this little house, uh, knew the realtor, knew the company that uh was representing the property, called her up and on a whim and said, you know, hey, y'all are showing this. Can you uh can you come show us like tonight or tomorrow morning or you know, whenever? And went through it and, you know, it was a cute little cottage. And you know, the price was one that in this market is reasonable because there's just not a lot of affordable housing right now for someone who's single and you know, young in their career. And so we just started, you know, showing uh our daughter that and dreaming about what would that look like. I think the idea for her owning a home was one she loved, but how do I do that? Is that even possible? Yeah, can I even do that on my own? And so we just started that process. So it was it was definitely a journey, definitely an adventure. Uh lasted several weeks, you know, through the summer, and you know, looking at numbers, looking at down payments, interest rates, all the things that she has no clue about and didn't really want to know about, but loved the idea of owning something and fixing it up and turning it into something that she could do something with. Uh, from our perspective, something that we could help bless her with that would be an investment for her future. And so uh yeah, go ahead. We've been able to make something happen.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we we helped her buy a house and um cute little two-bedroom, one bath. And uh we've been in the midst of painting, uh cutting bamboo in the backyard, uh weed eating, washing stuff, hanging curtains, pulling up floor tiles. Pulling up floor I haven't done that one, praise God. Uh pulling up floor tiles um that were glued down, uh, you know, all kinds of fun stuff. There's oh, oh, I did take down that really dirty ceiling fan. I got another one to go.
SPEAKER_00Some funky mini bonds.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and her her hope is to kind of turn this house around to get it move in ready uh before October one or right around October one so that she could maybe put it on the market to rent or Airbnb just, you know, occasionally, and then she can still keep her place of the house and well, because there's some things she's got up.
SPEAKER_00pay for some improvements that have to be made. And if you're a little bit strapped for cash flow because you just put it into the down payment of a house, this is a a way to do it. So it's it's an interesting time, interesting market that we're in.
SPEAKER_01It really is.
SPEAKER_00And a couple of people that we've talked to, both in real estate, one uh family one is a family member and one is somebody that we've gotten to know over the past couple of years in uh doing some work for us, both have been very encouraging that have said, you know, I wish I would have started this when I was that young. This is something that can help build wealth and it's only going to appreciate and value. So you know kudos to you for being young and putting yourself out there and being brave enough to make a purchase like that. So we've been uh this has been an opportunity where we've been able to you know give assurance and security but also help her pursue a dream that she didn't know would be um would be possible. And so it's neat to be able to help watch her do that and be an active part of that. I say active because uh I still have paint flecks all over me from painting this afternoon. Yeah yeah so we were actively in the middle of that worn out yesterday too very much so up and down the ladders on my knees a lot on the floor you know painting baseboards just all the things and um this is uh it's been uh it it's gonna be several more weeks of work but I think you know in the long run it'll end up being a a really great project for her so we're definitely entering a new phase of life of and that happened relatively quickly because like you said we we kind of uh saw it what right before vacation it was before vacation yeah yeah yeah and so um closed when end of August just two weeks ago yeah just two weeks ago here in September yeah so um like that very first week of September yeah yeah so it it it it happened relatively quickly because I I say quickly because it wasn't necessarily on the radar. Right and it's only down the road from our house it's what a mile maybe a mile.
SPEAKER_01So it's exciting because uh I think that's just a great testimony if you're out there and you're listening and you and and you feel like maybe you're stuck just know things can change for the better pretty quickly. You know and and some of that has to do with uh being on the same page. We definitely are on the same page with wanting to bless our children and help them take uh the next step forward and to uh get a uh an even stronger start than we did. Um we look back and we know that our parents made sacrifices and did things for us and and we're we're just trying to pay that forward and do things for them too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and being on the same page is important because you're dealing with finances and it also means delaying some things that we had wanted to do um goals or just things that dreams that we have and so you know we have to be able to openly discuss okay are we going to push back things that we want to do so that we can be able to help them or bless them which is you know part of being a parent and if you're a parent you make sacrifices all the time but you know the uh the stakes are a little higher now because we're talking about you know big life decisions and and certainly financial decisions that have an impact. So you know um not something that we were planning on but kind of fell into our lap and uh exciting you know that she has that opportunity and I guess that's what we're trying to figure out too is you know with all of our children what is our role? How do we help them? You know how much do we help them how little do we help them how much do they want our help how much do they not want our help these are all things we're dealing with.
SPEAKER_01At various levels and sometimes they want our help with a lot on some things and other things they don't want any help at all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah and that's the fun part for us because we're like is it fun? No it's not uh that's the challenging part for us because you know we're we're figuring out where those boundaries are and uh it's not always clear but again we're on the we're constantly trying to make sure we're on the same page. So I think that's an that's the marriage component of all of this is like yeah Courtney doesn't want to bless our kids or do something for our kids that I don't want to do and vice versa we we're in this together. Now we might we might have to get you know 100% on a couple things and and and go over the details but for the most part we're we're moving in the same direction together.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and we and then you know balancing how we want to help them and bless them but also what we still need to do for ourselves right oh absolutely yeah and not trying to sound incredibly selfish but we we're here together we're gonna stay here together and they're gonna pick up and move on and do their things and you know what do we um make sure we're doing for ourselves in the present so that we're still strong in the future. Amen yeah that's good and you know we you planned a little date for us the other night just a nice dinner reservation stop painting that was what would you how would you describe that? You were surprised well yeah that you decided to do that because it was a place that you know you have to drive just a little bit to get to it's a little bit nicer. It's not like just come as you are reservation helps.
SPEAKER_01Yeah yeah because it can be very busy too but a reservation helps it's a nice Italian restaurant in this area and and uh I I knew that you had been putting a lot into the house and a lot into work and so I just made the invitation the um reservation. Yeah didn't ask you just said hey I did it I yes very very you know very classic move there.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And it was on a night where I was in the middle of painting and I physically had to stop what I was doing to be able to go get cleaned up to go. Because that every night that I'm off work and not doing something related to after hours work or whatever school whatever it is I'm over there trying to get stuff done trying to help beat the clock you know just race the clock to make sure we can get her in there and she can start doing her thing but though that was nice you know we had a a great it was a tasty meal.
SPEAKER_01I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00So just trying to find out I enjoyed the company right I mean it was you and me in a uh a beautiful setting and just able to relax and you know yeah and it I and it indulge a bit the stress you know stress is real and there's work and lots of fall events we're jumping in that week to week to week where there's you know week after week there's something the stuff at the house but all the kids have just all their things here in boxes and storage and like every free space seems like it's filled with something of theirs that we're just holding until fill in the blank and uh even stuff for the creamery. And so um Sean knows and he's laughing at me right now but clutter clutter stresses me out.
SPEAKER_01And I know you're not alone in that I'm sure some other people listening are like yeah you tell you know it's like clutter's the worst.
SPEAKER_00Well I know it's I think it's scientifically proven I've seen it on Instagram and that means it's scientifically proven true but clutter stresses women out. Maybe it increases your cortisol or something like that. Yes. But I believe it I hundred percent believe it.
SPEAKER_01So stressed out women stress men out.
SPEAKER_00So yes I I shared something the other day you will never understand how a clean countertop will make me relaxed. You don't know what to don't don't blame me for what's about to come out of my mouth if there's a cluttered countertop but it's cluttered everything right now. So I've been very much on edge and it's very stressful. So anyway we're we're just kind of talking and sharing about some of the real things that are happening in our lives right now for for the summer um you know I know people have been saying it's fall for weeks now it hasn't been falling with you on this I I can't call this fall.
SPEAKER_01Yeah well especially when it feels like it does yeah when it's 96 degrees or better.
SPEAKER_00You're sticky at nine o'clock at night. Yeah yeah so yeah I'm I'm looking forward to it is it Thursday or Wednesday? It's Tuesday. Tuesday's the first day of fall Tuesday is it's still going to be hot that day. Yes yes yes it is but everybody's in that fall mindset and there's pumpkins everywhere and you know people are drinking all their fall drinks and Hobby Lobby's already got all their well they've been having all their stuff out. They had it out and you know we have to get in that mindset for the creamery because that's what people want and that's what sells and we're in that you know we're in marketing and so that's what you do. And even though even though I am not feeling it I am not feeling fall at all. So it's it's been a long hot summer. It's been uh a summer that has been full of uh different things that have are taking us to new adventures in our life you know um we're in a new season and we keep we continue to be reminded of that new season uh with all the different things that are happening uh in our lives with some nice first yeah and so this summer has been about that so it's been uh about getting to recognize that uh react to it and uh pivot a little bit in some things and figure out what the future's gonna look like what does that look like moving forward and and all in all the the whole time staying uh in step together for the most part yes you know and big things yeah yeah that that's been an important piece so yeah and not and not trying to let the stress get too much to us or the changes get to us too much or you know uh some of these big life decisions um or that the big things that happen to us in life like vehicle accidents and home purchases and all the things and I feel like I feel like honestly oh yeah yeah yeah we uh just you know balancing everything else that comes in the middle of it I I joked earlier that we you know decided to buy a new air conditioning unit we also had to buy a new fryer for our business about that yeah I know how can we forget about that I mean we had a big uh special coming up through our local tourism organization called restaurant week where our special was with a burger and fries and oh yeah the fryer goes out three days before restaurant week starts and it didn't get we had to buy a new fryer and that didn't even get in place and you don't still go to Walmart and get a new fryer until the middle of restaurant week. Right. And so you I'm amazed and but I can now have a full appreciation for how many orders of French fries we sell because we sell quite a bit.
SPEAKER_01It makes a difference.
SPEAKER_00Oh it makes a big big difference you know so just just the things of life and those little things create stress because in the moment they're stressful and we're just learning we continue to learn about partnership about communication about sharing duties and sharing responsibilities I don't want it all to be on him. I don't want it all on me but how can we support one another in those things and you know that just that is still something we work on. That is still something we're learning. We're much better at it than we used to be but I think we we recognize how important it is for us to be there for each other and to try to help lighten the load for one another when the other one is feeling stressed, tired, not well, whatever that may be and I think those are some lessons that we have learned this summer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah it's been a um it's been a good one uh with challenges uh that and I say good not necessarily because of the challenges but I think because you and I have been able to meet those and navigate them well together.
SPEAKER_00And we've had some fun. We've made time for some fun. We have so you know we uh snow cone dates you know or icy dates or whatever you want to call them he's not drinking any of that stuff right now so I'm glad we got through the summer before he decided he wanted to be good and not drink any of that stuff. Uh or swimming dates we would go swimming uh at our local gym that has a nice indoor pool and you know it's mainly just being together just at going and doing something that is a little bit enjoyable swimming in particular because it's been so incredibly hot and we would uh you know spend some time out in the yard and then go cool off in the pool and and that helps temperaments that helps our our mind our bodies and our spirits and so that's just meant uh as an example just to encourage you to find ways to spend little bits of time together that help break up and it needs attention. No but that brings some relief that brings some enjoyment that brings some relief that brings recreational distraction something like that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So anyway uh wishing everybody hoping you all had a great summer hoping everybody is going to have a great fall season uh really hoping that it cools off for everybody especially around in our neck of the woods and looking forward to uh what the fall will bring as Sean said our next episode we're gonna talk about the wedding that you officiated for our nephew and his new wife down on the Gulf Coast and we'll talk about a piece of scripture that was tied to that and and recap the wedding.
SPEAKER_01Yeah it was a sweet time I look forward to talking about it and um grateful uh that summer's ending I you know so I try to appreciate as much as I can but I've sweat enough I'm ready to get back to fall and eventually even into winter they're fun to meet but you know we'll we'll we'll what little of those seasons we have. We'll lament your shorter days when we get there so yes uh but until then we're gonna have a good time enjoying cooler weather and and uh all the things that come with that so thanks for being a part of the adventure with us