100th Post 🎉 Q&A

Wow!! The 100th Post on The Riddick Family Blog...

I started this little blog February 2021 while Pierce was working in the studio all weekend recording a friend's album...it had been a dream of mine for so long, and that weekend, I wore something cozy, packed up with laptop, grabbed a London Fog, and sat in the back of the studio turning a little dream into this sweet space....

I snapped this on the way to the studio that morning... I'll always remember that sweet weekend, and so glad for the beginning of this little space on here. It's far from perfect, but has been the most fun for me to update our friends and family, meet new kindred spirits, have a creative outlet, and scrapbook moments of our little day-to-day life. 

When I pushed publish on my first post, I sent the link to my mom, thinking she would probably be the only one to ever really read it... A little over a year and a half later, I've met so many sweet friends and consider it such an honor that so many come to read each morning... I hope you find small joys along the way and that when you leave, you feel a little more refreshed than when you came. 

Thank you for following along each morning ❤️ I look forward to and have come to love this little space so much!! 

To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to answer just a random assortment of questions... I'm sure I'll do more Q&A's at some point in the future because they're some of my favorite posts to read on other blogs, but here are just a few for your Thursday. ☺️

Why did you start blogging? 

Having a little blog that is like a scrapbook for our family has ALWAYS been a dream of mine. In fact, it's one of the things I put on a list for Pierce of "things he should know about me" while we were dating 😂 ...not sure why that was so important for him to know before we got married hahaha But I have always loved following along on people's blogs. In fact, there's still a blog that I followed in high school that I go back to sometimes to see if she's started posting again. 

And after following a few people's blogs for some time on here, I finally decided to just start. And I've loved it...

We're not on social media much, and for me, it's a way to share and keep our friends and family updated, and have something to look back on different seasons of our life. I told Pierce the other day that I hope I still blog when we have more kids because looking back on some of these posts, even Life Lately posts when it was just me and Pierce is so sweet to have. 

What enneagram number are you and Pierce? 

This is a fun one - I am a nine and Pierce is a four/three... It's been fun to know just a little bit more about how we think about things and the way we approach situations... We are also both middle children, and for some reason, I think that helps us think about things the same way sometimes too. ☺️

What's been your favorite post that you've written? 

Aww...I love that I have all of the posts I do on here... I love our Life Latelys and Day in the Lifes, I love the ones I documented different parts of our home, the ones where we've celebrated big things, and the ones about Jane... But maybe the one that I think most often, "I'm really glad I wrote that one," is The Gift of Teaching... It's such a special season of my life, and I know the farther out I get, the more I might forget, so I'm glad I took the time to go through a year's worth of classroom pictures and documented a few of my favorites throughout the year. 🍎📚 

How long have you guys known each other?

So many fun questions about us! I think I might do a whole week series on all of these when we get closer to our anniversary this fall, but we met summer of 2013! So we are coming up on 10 years next year!!

How did you and Pierce meet?

We met at a summer camp in Texas - Pine Cove Christian Camps. We both worked there every summer in college, and I actually worked with his older sister for a summer before Pierce started working... So when I met him, he was always "Kelsea's little brother" in my mind 😉 ...for a little while at least hahaha 

How did Pierce propose?

SO fun!! This will definitely be a whole post during our anniversary week I think, but Pierce planned the best day and surprised me with the sweetest engagement on my parent's front porch, which is such a special place to me! And let me tell you, I had NO idea...at all. Hahaha Like...I mowed the grass that morning kind of no idea 😂 

...if I would have had any idea that was the day Pierce was proposing...I probably would not have been covered in grass clippings that morning 😂

But he got out of class early on Saturday, and we drove up to spend a weekend with my parents for Memorial Day...all the while, he had already made a sweet little wooden step stool (that he proposed on) with my dad, had had lunch with my mom, and planned for all of our family and a few close friends to be there after for an amazing dinner....

We have this sweet little memorabilia that he made in our room now with the date of May 26, 2018. We will ALWAYS treasure that sweet day. More to come on this for sure... 

Do you think you'll ever get a pet?

I think so! Maybe one day when we have more of a yard...We always say that if we have a farm one day (the farm for Pierce, the farmhouse for me 😉), we'd love to have a great family dog to play outside. Right now, I think it might add a little too much chaos to life with a newborn haha 

Where did Jane's middle name come from?

Aww...Jane Arbel ☺️💕 I wrote a little bit about it here, but we both went to Israel when we were doing a discipleship program through Pine Cove, and we just absolutely treasured our time on Mount Arbel (said are-belle), which is said to be the mountain Jesus went up to pray. It's overlooking the Sea of Galilee and just so beautiful. 

And Pierce and I, before we were even dating, sat right here on this rock listening to a sermon on prayer and then having some time to pray in that beautiful space...it was just so impactful, and I remember thinking that I loved the name Arbel... 

And several years later, it's our sweet girl's middle name... 💕 

I still have these very flowers dried and framed in our house today. We'll always remember the sweet lesson of prayer on the top of that mountain, and we pray that it's a beautiful reminder of prayer for Jane as she grows up... ❤️

Do you think you'll always be in Nashville? 

And last, but not least...sweet Nashville...Pierce has lived here since 2012 - he moved here for life at Belmont when he was in college. And I moved here in 2017 after we had dated long distance for a little over a year... Since then, it really has started to feel like home. We always say that we'll be here as long as the Lord has us here. We don't see us moving anytime in the near future, but we always try to hold things with open hands... We love our home, church, community, jobs, and friends here though and are very, very thankful for this sweet city we call home.

Wow!! 100 posts in...do you feel like you know us a little better now?! ☺️ I hope so! Again, thank you so much for reading each morning and for blessing us with little comments, emails and encouragement. It really is a highlight to my day! 

Here's to 100 more!

See you back here tomorrow! 

❤️The Riddicks