In 2022 our family was doing the “1000 Hours Outside” challenge (see here), and we had a chart on the side of the fridge with little bubbles we could fill in each time we spent an hour outdoors. I like the principle of “you manage what you measure,” and tracking our hours prompted us to get outdoors more. And it was satisfying to track our progress and see the chart slowly fill up.
That spring Mickey and I hit our lowest point emotionally in grieving all the painful things that happened at Bethlehem the prior year. I found Mickey weeping on the couch three nights in a row, and floated the idea that maybe it might help to go to counseling. The next day I had a meltdown in the bathroom and started screaming at the elders and suddenly realized, “Wait, I think I need counseling too.” So we started that process together.