Life’s been just shy of mayhem at the Kudey cottage the past two months. You can tell how busy I am by the stack of unread books on my table collecting dust and the hours building up of unwatched TV shows in my DVR. Hopefully, I can catch a moment to watch last night’s This Is Us episode at least…

Riker turned 5, started kindergarten at Rock Solid Academy, and has been making us beam with pride.

Andrew has been busy writing and creating promotional videos for the Hope Center (a free medical/dental/chiropractic clinic he volunteers at twice a week).

I finished the 13th edit to my novel, reached 76,000 words (wow), and I got promoted to business manager (and remained the art teacher) at Rock Solid Academy. 🙂

Andrew and I also started going to a marriage Bible study at our friend’s home each week. This new event brings us together through the fog. It’s so important to just take time to breathe together in all the craziness. We need time to reflect, talk, be still, or just sit.

That’s one reason I chose to have a bit of fun by joining an event that took place on Instagram last week. There was a hashtag event called #10thingstotell you. I found out about it through my best friend, Alison, who posted this pic on her story:

For those who don’t have Instagram, or don’t follow me (@laurakudey), I thought it’d be fun to show you my answers to these questions! I enjoyed answering them, I hope you’ll enjoy reading them. 🙂

  Day 1.

I grew up… wanting to escape my life and just live in the pages of one of my books. I was ALWAYS reading.
(Picture is from 11 years ago now. Reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I was 20. Wow.)
I entered the worlds of Jane Austen, Dickens, Tolkien, Lewis, Dekker, Carroll, McCarthy, Wells, Twain, Hemmingway, etc. and never wanted to let them go!

Now that I’m a wife, mom, writer, artist, teacher, and business manager, I sadly find too little time to escape into my lovely books. But, maybe it’s because my life is so much better now that I don’t feel the need to “escape”? Let’s go with that 😉. I’m still forever a book geek!!

Day 2 in #10thingstotellyou
Someone who has influenced me more than anyone else is my husband. Wow, God knew what He was doing when He brought the two of us together.
We are opposites, yet we come together on all the things that matter the most.
It was through Andrew’s influence, I finally shed the old feelings, jobs, and condemnation that didn’t belong in my life anymore.
During my bouts of depression, Andrew has encouraged, strengthened, and caused me to grow. His undying spiritual strength is continually inspiring me to strengthen my own walk with Christ.
He might have a hard time understanding my crazy writer mind, but he tries every day to pull that creativity out of me. He’s my cheerleader, knight, advocate, guide, and comforter. He always wants the best for me & this causes me to try to do my best!

Day 3.

A thing that changed my worldview was the week I lost my grandfather… He died on December 1st, 2008. I was so broken up by his death, I didn’t even want to go to his funeral. I chose to stay home in PA, while the rest of my family left for Nashville, TN.
The next day, I left for church and chose to drive WAY past the speed limit on our back roads. I was late, careless, and not in my right mind. I hit black ice going around a curve, and fishtailed into a tree. My car was totaled.
Once my car was driven to a repair shop, I had no way to leave my house while my family was in Nashville for 3 days.

In those 3 days I mourned, hit rock bottom, and read my Bible. I cried out to God like I never had before. In the next two months, I went through a complete mind change. That week made me realize life is fragile; I didn’t know what the future holds, so I needed to live to my fullest. God was preparing me for the following March, when I met Andrew.

Day 4:

I am strangely good at…
Some pretty “strange” things, because, well, I don’t like being normal…
Distracting myself by my cats, when I should be writing or doing housework.
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Strategizing and winning difficult board games. This torments my board game aholic husband to no end. 😅
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Recognizing a celebrity in a TV show or movie IMMEDIATELY, even if they are 20 years younger/old, 50 lbs fatter/skinnier, or have a different hairdo from the show/movie I know them from. YET, I can’t recognize people in real life most of the time 😓
And on that note…
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I’m strangely good at getting someone’s name wrong!
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Getting lost in researching something for hours.
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Problem solving. I refuse to have any open issues! If I do, I drive myself crazy trying to figure out a solution because I believe everything has an answer.
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Saying yes to too many things.
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Last, but not least… bruising my legs by tripping over the most random things.

Day 5:

I have mixed feelings about… living in Pennsylvania.
On the one hand, most of our friends & family live here. On the other hand, there’s too much snow, bad roads, and no beach. 🤔

Day 6:

A defining moment in my life was when our son, Riker Gabriel was born.
When I was 5 years old I said “When I grow up, I want to be a mommy and a Christian.” I can proudly say that I am both 😉.
Now, Riker is 5 and he wants to grow up to be spiderman. 😂😂😅

In the months of trying to get pregnant, God showed me His unfathomable grace. It wasn’t until I stopped relying on myself, did Riker enter our lives.

When I was only 2 days pregnant (yup, a test would confirm this event 2 weeks later), my pastor told me I was pregnant & there was joy growing inside me. Boy, was he right!

God has great plans for our little leader. Can’t wait to see his journey unfold!

  Day 7:
A recent discovery I can’t stop talking about… the wonderful “Writer’s Twitter World”!
There is an amazing world on Twitter & it is run by the writing community!!
I joined in October & I still seem to bring it up all the time. I found all of my critique partners, a beta reader, editor, countless writing friends, and loads of writing advice & support in this community.

Regular Twitter = kinda boring.

Writing World Twitter = priceless.

  Day 8:

Something I’m struggling with right now is… trying to do everything I want/need to do without going crazy.
I’m a wife, mother, writer, art teacher, business manager to a private school, fine arts human video (acting to music) instructor and evaluator, I volunteer for various functions at my church, and I’m trying to get back into playing flute after a 1 year break. All of these activities could be a full time job in itself.
I enjoy being busy, however, life is suffocating me lately. I really want to have the stamina & time to give each job its proper amount of passion (especially being a wife & mother) & I want to be able to do other things like blogging, start a youtube channel or podcast, write more, read more, etc. Praying for God’s guidance to balance my always full schedule!

 

   Day 9:

My magical reset button is…
A trip to the beach! Any beach. As long as it has sand, sun, water, and preferably waves, I’m magically refreshed!
I’m currently enjoying Ocean City, Maryland, and I feel like I can conquer the world when I get home! 😎

 

  Day 10:

In three months, will you ask me…
If I had any success in December #pitchmad with finding an agent for my book. And if I’m ready for Christmas. Hopefully, I’ll ecstatically say yes to both questions! 🤩😅

 

And now we come to the end. Hope you enjoyed this edition of “10 things to tell you”. Until next time… hope you all take a chance to breathe, enjoy life, and have a blessed day in the sun! 🙂