Catching Up + Moving Forward

I've been all but absent lately, posting only major events or announcements and laying low otherwise. Really it's been since April that I've blogged with any sort of regularity, unless you count Mila Mondays. Here's the haps lately...

Margot turned 2. Mila turned 4. I turned 32. (I didn't blog about that, but it happened. One year older and wiser too, y'all.) We found out that baby #3 is a boy.

We took a family trip to Utah, where it was rainy and in the 50's, for a week. When we got home it was in the 100's here. That was a fun adjustment.


The girls have done another round of swimming lessons and are now in a tumbling class. We're making regular trips to a local water park, library, and children's museum in an effort to stay cool + have fun + get out of the house so we don't destroy each other. So far it's working, and we have the tan lines and stacks of picture books to prove it.

Lest you think our summer has been nothing but parties and vacations and adventures, there's also the ants that keep trying to invade our kitchen. And David's insane work schedule. And the terrible twos that Margot has embraced wholeheartedly. And the massive headache I've been fighting every day between 9 AM and 4 PM for the last two and a half months. As if I don't need to be functional during that part of the day or anything. Ugh. We've had doctor visits that ended in tears (hooray for shots), dentist visits that ended in numb faces (hooray for cavities), and one blissful prenatal massage that was unquestionably the best money I've spent this year, even if it didn't magically cure my sad cranium.

To be fair, David has got the ants mostly in check, he's finding a better work/life balance, Margot is handling her emotions a little better (for the moment), and my headaches are improving. And like I said, we've been having lots of fun despite any struggles we've had to deal with.

I've been reading a lot--books and articles online--and can feel my priorities and goals realigning themselves. I want my actions to reflect my values, which they haven't for a while, so this has been a Good Thing. Taking time to do fun things with my children has been a small but significant step in the right direction. I'm also going to bed earlier. I'm folding the laundry the same day I wash it, rather than letting it sit in a pile for a week or more. I am trying to improve myself without ignoring my natural tendencies and it feels really really good. Exhausting, for sure; being lazy is always the easier path but it's far less satisfying.

So I hope you know that, despite the radio silence, things are happening. I'm unraveling what no longer works with the pattern I want for my life and moving forward more deliberately. And now that I'm settling back into a better frame of mind--and especially now that I'm not lying on the couch every afternoon with a pounding head while the kids watch Mary Poppins for the hundredth time--I think there will be more bloggins. Maybe we'll get to revisit the original plan of giving this thing a major facelift. We'll see.

Point is, there are things to say, and I might finally be back to the place where I feel whole and balanced enough to say them. Yesss.

Photos by Let Me See You Sparkle Photography