Life Update: I’m Back!
Like most of us, I’m still processing 2020. It’s been quite the year. For all of us. And while I have seen the Lord move so mightily in my life these last few months, it has still been a challenging few months.
After taking a bit of a break from this space (again), I am back and ready to share my heart and thoughts on all things motherhood, simplicity, and intentional living!
But first, a life update.
So get comfortable and grab a snack, some coffee, tea or water because this post is gonna be a longish one as we navigate through the last three months.
July
July officially kicked off my busy season! Midway into the month, I returned from maternity leave and hopped straight into client work and promoting my business. I also launched another brand: VA like a Mother - where I help other mamas become a virtual assistant so they can stay at home with their littles!
July is also Toby’s and Eli’s birthdays. I will be honest and say both Toby and I were pretty bummed that we couldn’t celebrate his 30th birthday the way he wanted to and the way we had planned before the pandemic: a road trip up the east coast. His birthday pretty much came and went, but I plan on doing it BIG with a re-do for his 31st birthday (so if you have any fun suggestions, please share them in the comments!).
Elijah turned 3 at the end of the month, so we went over to my sister’s apartment and had a mini celebration with just us. He was just happy to have cupcakes, all the sugary and highly processed snacks I hardly ever let him have, presents and all eyes on him. I’d call that a successful birthday!
And y’all, my mom finally got to hold Ezra! I basically had to force her because she was so afraid of passing any possible germs to him, but it was still such a sweet moment. A few weeks later, Toby’s mom got to meet and hold Ezra.
August
August is when things started to feel too much for me. I jumped in with both feet in July in business and home life, and didn’t think to ease back in, so I got burnt out. Add to the fact that I was inundated with negative news almost daily, and I found myself extremely anxious.
After praying about it and talking with my people, I decided that it was best for me to take a break from social media and anything that disturbed my peace. I’m currently still on my break, and am honestly not sure when I will return just yet.
I also decided to go through the Bible in a year again. I’m doing this plan, here, and love listening to the corresponding podcast episodes.
While I worked on my spiritual and mental health, I also became intentional about my physical and emotional well-being as well.
Physically, I’ve decided to switch the family to a gluten and dairy free diet. Cutting out dairy and gluten has been a bit challenging (I love allllllll the cheese and bread!), but now that we’ve been doing it for a while, it’s not too bad. We are about 80 percent committed right now, since we do end up having dairy and gluten about once a week or two when I haven’t planned well.
We’ve also been trying to get outside daily, especially since we’ve been pretty much cooped up since Ezra has been born (and I’ve learned last time that being postpartum and being stuck home all day every day isn’t healthy for Mama). So we’ve made the decision that if it isn’t raining, we take Eli to the park after dinner on weekdays, and at least once a day on the weekends. As someone who usually prefers to stay inside, I’m surprised at how much I truly look forward to and enjoy our time at the park!
I started working with my friend Myrna of Enneahealth when she launched her coaching program combining the enneagram and health (two things I LOVE). Can I just tell you how much this has been a game changer for me?!
The program is 12 weeks, so I am currently still in the program. During this time, I have learned how my type -Type 2 with equal 1 and 3 wings - play into my emotions, thoughts, relationships, and how I view the gospel. It feels so good to now know some of my triggers, my knee-jerk thought patterns, and how to reframe my thoughts.
The health aspect is also amazing, as I have accountability to stick to our new diet. I also love that I can see how my health, emotions, and thoughts all go hand-in-hand.
September
We kicked off this month in the best way with my 29th birthday falling on Labor Day. I spent the day with my girls having a social distance picnic at the park. I hadn’t seen my friends since the start of the pandemic (which means they hadn’t even met Ezra yet), and it was honestly the sweetest day!
The next day I officially became a homeschool mom! I mentioned before that we had made the decision to pull Eli out of his half-day preschool right before the pandemic made its way over here, so homeschool was always the plan for us for this fall.
So far, it’s been going pretty well! I chose to take it really easy and simple this year, so we’ve been working out of the Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool curriculum and we love it! Eli seems really engaged with the lessons and I love that I can either do all of it in under 45 mins, or I can break the lessons into segments throughout the day.
Since I’ve been getting serious about God’s Word, I’ve also been wanting to get intentional about exposing my children to the Word. So we started going through Play through the Bible in addition to our schooling and we love it!
The first two weeks were about apples and it also lined up with Eli learning about creation and Adam and Eve. So what better way to apply what he’s been learning than to go do one of the most fall things of all - apple picking!
We met up with my mom, sister, and two of my friends and their kiddos and spent a couple of hours at an apple farm. It was just too cute to see the boys so excited (there are SEVEN boys between the three of us)!
Thank you for sticking with me! I am so glad to be back in this space! I’ve been brainstorming of good things for my little corner of the internet, and I can’t wait to let you in on it! The first thing: officially launching a newsletter coming straight to your inbox every week! Think: exclusive content, updates, and more, so sign up below!