I'm back home in Gilbert after spending a month in Eau Claire, Wisconsin where we bought a house this spring. Before arriving I had never been to Eau Claire and had only been to Wisconsin once before several years ago. I felt a bit lonely and untethered when we first arrived, understandable since I have so much routine, familiarity, and community in Gilbert. But as we prepared to leave I felt sad to go. Chris and I both fell in love with Eau Claire and the surround region as well as our Eau Claire house and neighborhood. Now that I'm... Read more →

here's our house; we think it's so cute! I'm really looking forward to a fresh coat of paint at some point next year / University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire campus and Rod and Gun Park Yesterday we woke to rain. Glorious rain. When we checked the rain gauge on our deck in the afternoon it read nearly 1.5 inches which is a bit shy of a quarter of our annual rainfall in Arizona. I've become relatively acclimated to the very extreme climate in Arizona and so now marvel at the most mundane weather. We still have two weeks left in Wisconsin... Read more →

Hello from Wisconsin! We are here, we're settled into our house comfortably enough for now (although we still need a couch), and the weather has been glorious for this Arizona family (although perhaps a bit cool for locals). May was full to the brim, so much so that I wrote no blog posts although I had many on my mind. Things that happened in May included: + Putting new flooring throughout our entire house in Gilbert. This entailed Chris removing all the baseboards and carpet and then hiring someone to level the floors and install the flooring and baseboards. This... Read more →

It's a bit of a wild story that includes offering on a house we had only seen virtually and having never actually visited the city it's in. But we are thrilled to share that we've closed on a second home in the lovely Midwest city of... I wore my new Wisconsin shirt for our closing and afterwards we celebrated with iced coffees Eau Claire, Wisconsin! We are excited about the house, the city, and the time we'll spend there as a family. I'd love to share all the details with you. But first let me remind anyone who is new... Read more →

Fall weather is very reluctant to visit us in south central Arizona. So we have to bring the fall spirit ourselves. A list of fall activities reminds me of the fun seasonal things we can still do despite the over-eager sun. The boys are old enough that they're excited to think about fall activities too which makes a family bucket list much more fun. We brainstormed ideas together with the boys one night after Maeve's bedtime. Some of the boys’ ideas are not quite fall themed (like "play with friends") but I love hearing what they come up with. Cedric... Read more →

This post is also available as a podcast in which I read the post. Search for "rising shining" on most podcast platforms to listen. For the boys' fall break we took a family adventure to Colorado Springs and had a great time! Unfortunately the trip wasn't with the whole family as we had planned. Two days before we left, Maeve came down with RSV and a double ear infection, poor gal! So Chris stayed home with her so that I could go enjoy the trip I had spent so much time planning. After the initial disappointment of not having Chris... Read more →

Here's a fun perk of having a blog and podcast: when I want to ask lots of people for advice I have a way to do that! The title of the post says it all. We are seriously considering buying a second home in the Midwest. We are in the early stages of researching where that might be and I would love input from my readers and listeners who live in the Midwest or have spent enough time there to give advice. But first let me give you some more context: for a few years Chris and I have talked... Read more →

After making us wait for so long... Maeve Elizabeth finally joined us Sunday morning. She was so sweet to let us get a full night of sleep and then arrived quickly, in just three hours, and was born at 9 a.m. She weighed 8 lb and 10 oz and was 20.75 inches long. Her birth was so quick after we waited so long for her – it was really surreal to be holding her! Our birth at the birth center was an incredible and peaceful experience. Compared to my previous two births I felt even more present and empowered by... Read more →

We've been home as a family in self-isolation for three weeks and it feels...kind of normal? Or at least as normal as it can feel to be staying at home because of a pandemic. Which is not to say that it's always easy or that I don't feel anxiety and frustration. But I think I've wrapped my head around this being life for the foreseeable future. Arizona schools are closed through the end of the school year so this is life until school (hopefully!!) starts in August. As soon as schools started closing the internet was flooded with ideas for... Read more →

Friends, I'm so excited to share some big news: we're expecting Baby Wharton #3!!! And we're having a baby girl! We are over the moon to being having another baby. It was something we thought about a lot over the past couple of years (and honestly ever since we had Cedric it's been in the back of my mind) but we just couldn't make a decision. I had a chart of pros and cons taped to our bathroom mirror for a long time. I hate being in limbo over big life decisions and really didn't like the feeling of not... Read more →