I'm about to put way too many photographs in a single post (not to mention I'm blogging about last Christmas, when the kids have just started back to school), but I'm trying to share the last few set of photographs hiding on my hard-drive, before I return to in real time blogging. I didn't take nearly as many pictures of our Holiday decorations last year, but I do have some pretty sweet moments preserved. Like we've done for the last several years, we had both a real tree and an artificial one last year. Our go-to location for Christmas tree shopping is a local tent where they bring fir trees from the Carolinas to sell. We opted to get our tree a little later in the season last year -- hoping it would last a little longer -- and were super disappointed to see the tent was out of trees ...
Polly-isms | Volume 1
When the pandemic struck and I was struggling to blog or memory keep with any regularity, I started adding to a note in my phone. I jotted down all of the funny things Polly says when we aren't expecting it and I regularly read through them when I need a good laugh. It's almost time to celebrate her third birthday and start a new note for her fourth year of life (WHAT IN THE WORLD?!). Maybe I'll transfer those to her baby book at some point, but the blog is as good as it gets today. Here are some of my favorite things Polly has said in the last year: I'm not a camel, I'm a kitty cat! Let's go to my castle! (When riding the golf cart towards our house.) Cut my tails (toenails), please. (When Gran gets on to her) -- I want to go home and see my family. (When Gran says "We are your ...
Back to the Beach
I can count on one hand the number of summers I haven't camped at Gulf State Park -- I took classes one summer during college, I only got to visit the girls for a weekend when I had a huge project to finish at work, and that time we had a global pandemic. We went back and forth about whether to travel last summer and even though much of our family went ahead, Josh and I just didn't feel good about it. We went to Disney in the spring (gosh, I need to share that trip with you here!) and as wonderful as it was, it was not the beach. The girls have been beside themselves about going and Polly's face below just about sums it up. We had the best two weeks together in our favorite place and I hope we never have to miss a summer again. Most of the pictures in this post are my sister's. I ...
Gulf Shores | Annual Family Photos
We camped in Opal -- post renovation -- for the first time in 2017. I had spent all spring tearing things apart and getting her ready for summer. I painted the walls, installed wallpaper, bought all new bedding and accessories -- you name it, I transformed it. My plan was for us to take our annual family photos inside the camper that year. I wanted to do something different and to mark the end of such a fun project. My sister and I always joke that we avoid our photos for as long as possible and then try to cram them in the last few days. Thanks to a tropical storm and lots of rain, our session never happened that summer. Thanks to pregnancy, a new baby, and a pandemic -- they didn't happen the next few summers either! Just before we left for vacation, Josh decided we should go ...
Monday’s Garden
When I logged into WordPress to upload this photo, the last posts that occurred in real time were in October. October. There is real grief when I think about how I've avoided writing -- really writing -- for over a year. When I truly think about 2020, I see more good than bad in my own life, but properly documenting our home and the lives of my girls will be one of my biggest regrets during that time. There are so many real reasons for why I avoided this space. Many of them are pandemic and politically related -- I struggled to share on-line because I felt like everything I said was the wrong thing. I worried I would alienate the right people and attract the wrong ones. I worried that my words would be used as a weapon instead of an encouragement. I also incorrectly thought I'd have ...
A Corner Office
Something I haven't talked about recently, is work. I've always been a little closed lipped on the blog about what my day job is, but that's mostly out of respect for our administration and clients. I've probably said that I work in the legal field, but I'm not sure I've given much more detail that that. I've been working from home for almost a year and since I hopped on to share a peek into my corner office, I thought I'd share a little more about my day to day life. But, first -- the office. When I first started working from home in March of last year, I assumed it would be temporary. I usually had my laptop set up on our dining table -- or on my lap -- or on a tiny desk I put in the sunroom to be near Polly. In the beginning, we weren't doing much work, since the shut down ...
Currently | February 2021
February came in with a bang. I found out about some changes at work this week and I'm not sure how they will impact my position exactly, so I'm remaining optimistic and prayerful about our exciting new direction. After many months of working from home, I finally feel like I've established a real schedule for myself. Polly has been staying with my mom three days a week, which give me two full days to work from home and another day to be in the office. The remaining two days I try to juggle work projects and time with Polly Pocket, so it feels like I'm a stay-at-home mom for at least a few hours each week. I'm still working on a "block schedule" for my work days and I think that will leave me feeling more productive, but I'm already more organized and together than I've felt in many ...
Sophie’s Bedroom Update
I told you I wanted to try a new old kind of blogging in 2021 and my lack of posts -- so far -- doesn't change that. January was weird and I just didn't feel like writing. I didn't feel like sharing too much of myself or disagreeing with people who don't really know me. You know? I remember thinking that being at home would give me so much more time to write and that just hasn't been the case. I think part of that was the kind of posting I used to do here, that took hours to coordinate with photographs and links. The kind of writing I really miss is the thirty minute power post where I share what is actually on my heart and mind. So, here is the first official post of the new year, full of what is currently bouncing around in my head. It's weird to do an update on Sophie's room for ...