Matthias worked from home until 11 this morning. It’s not like we were spending quality time together, but it was fun to have him home when he isn’t normally. 🙂 After dinner this evening we made brownies together. We cook together often, but I can’t recall the last time we baked something sweet together. The first batch was a faillllll. We tried to use Truvia because we didn’t have sugar. I don’t recommend it 🤣 Our sweet neighbor Taryne came through and gave us a little bag of sugar though and we made the yummiest, fudgiest brownies.
April 29th, 2020
Ahh. Happy day! Growth in YL isn’t quick for me. It’s like... literally opposite of “get rich quick”😂 (“get rich quick” isn’t a YL idea at all, but people seem to assume that’s the promise with social sharing structures😂. HAHA. no. slow & steady.) Today feels good. When consistency pays off, I can’t do anything other than dance & praise. There is no such thing as overnight success. Whatever you’re doing right now— keep putting in the work. It’ll pay off.
April 28th, 2020
I feel grateful to be a stay at home mama every day, but especially on days like today. other than being out for a bit for our first festival board meeting since lockdown, Eliot & I just stayed home and rested all day. goodness, I couldn’t shake the sleepiness. thankfully he’s pretty easy and we just did lotsss of snuggling.
April 26th, 2020
Basically spent our day in bed— until about 2pm, really. That never happens for us and it was niceee. 🥰 I have a feeling it’ll never happen once we have a baby on the move so enjoying it now. 😜
Went out to the grounds being prepped for the festival, chatted with the people I’ve missed & am planning with, briefly had a paintbrush in my hand, and grabbed more BTS photos of the property & our photo of the day. And dinner for a second night in a row with Bailey & Josh.
Beau's Birthday
Sweet Matthias, even at nearly midnight he’ll indulge me for 2 minutes to grab our photo of the day. 216 days of these. Our consistency with this project may be the thing I’m proud of the most right now. ⠀
18 years ago Beau was born. Today I didn’t get to celebrate at birthday breakfast. I didn’t get to even see him on his actual 18th birthday— but we did have a pretty awesome party yesterday. His birthday is a bittersweet reminder of how fast the years go. The first time I remember using a camera was taking pictures of Beau. As he grew up I realized he was the sibling most like me. It’s like God forgot he already gave the Bonin’s WAY too much. But actually... no. It wasn’t ever enough. Beau is a perfect piece. The exact person we needed RIGHT in the middle of all of us. 2 boys & 3 girls before him. 2 boys & 3 girls after him.⠀
⠀
Beau is the cream cheese icing in between layers in the cake. (You know, the part everyone ignores the cake to get to cuz it’s so good.) He may be a 8 years younger than me, but he’s a best friend for life.
Watch Beau’s sweet corona surprise birthday & graduation party here.
April 23rd, 2020
midnight nursing & cuddles with my firstborn in the same rocker his grandfather used to be rocked in. what a treasure these memories will always be with our sweet Eliot Lionhart. (peep his little toes sticking out of the blanket.) spent our morning at home, afternoon with a dear friend (love you, Michelle!), and evening with Matthias. we’re still eating dinners we prepped before Eliot was born! but we’re basically at the end. ahh! I want to do another batch cooking day! unrelated: anybody else watching Waco right now? it’s so intense.
ethan & matthias
some of my very favorite people & their little tornado came over for dinner tonight. I love that Ethan & Matthias are friends. they didn’t meet until December 2015... anddddd we had eloped in October 2015... that could’ve been a disaster. I’m so grateful they love each other. most days I think Ethan actually likes Matthias more than he does me... and well, that’s ok. 🙂 glad to be friends with family.
April 21st, 2020
Bad news, good news. Lay on the grass and pretend there isn’t news. Just us, here, together. Grateful for my boys.
messy spaces
how long should it take to set up the space you want to make messiest? shouldn’t the messiest space be the quickest to be unpacked? ah. probably. that hasn’t been the case here. I am so slow to unpack my art things and so quick to complain about not doing the art I want to. I finally started unpacking boxes recently and I feel so *myself*. finding journals recently was fun. and finding things to paint with, draw with, craft with... ahh. it feels. so. right. I feel so right.
okay, now that everyone else has stopped reading because of my wordiness... I have to say what a blessing it is to work from my phone. I try not to say it too much because that gets annnoyyyingggg. holy cow. this is like what I did as a professional wedding photographer but 100x better because it’s without all the weekends away 😭❤️ and praise Jesus, because ALL I want is to be home with my baby lion. thank. you. God. for. YL.
being a wedding photographer was my DREAM. if I did that, I made it. ...and then I did it. and then I didn’t want to do it any more. isn’t life crazy?
April 19th, 2020
Cozy at home & happy to be at the start of fresh week. 🖤 this weather is perfect for our walks, but I’m finding the heavier Eliot gets (he’s 15lbs now!) the hotter I get with him in the ergo. We’ll see how Houston summer goes😂 made some oatmeal cookies this evening that turned out okay. No raisins or chocolate chips on hand so I had to get creative.
April 17th, 2020
I’ve finished the bulk of writing Eliot’s birth story and it has been a relief. The further I’ve gotten away from it, the more I realize is slipping away. It was the most beautiful, frightening, horrible, spiritual experience of my life and it ended with my son in my arms. The most precious moment- and watching Matthias cry. Ahhh. I’m so grateful I took the time to write it down.
PS. please pretend you don’t notice the horrible quarantine haircut I gave Matthias. Thanks. (Yikes on yikes.)
You can find eliot’s birth story finished here:
April 15th, 2020
Family dinner was canceled, but there ended up being a bunch of us there anyway. 😅 Also, had to get another photo with Byron after that Byron series 💞 of course, he happens to be invisible here. Oops.
And there’s Blackie mindlessly hanging out in the background. The dog that is ACTUALLY the family’s 😂
April 14th, 2020
I didn’t have the honor of meeting Byron as a puppy. Matthias found him dumped on property out in Bedias Texas on Thanksgiving 2014, five months before we met.
(Telling a brief love story - a girl & her dog - in my stories currently.) 🖤 instagram.com/madeleinefrost
April 13th, 2020
I joked, “you’re spoiling him” while Eliot slept on Matthias chest (his favorite place to be). “he’s spoiling me” Matthias said. and then I melted.
April 12th, 2020
Easter Sunday. Made Mimi’s crawfish chowder last night to have today with family. And it was seriouslyyy YUM.
But first, this morning we had brunch with the married siblings. All the most yummy & beautiful brunch foods by Hannah Joy, of course. She is one of the most thoughtful hostesses I know.
I gave Matthias a haircut yesterday. The first one in quarantine, the second one EVER. And yep. It’s bad. Yikes.
Journals
Over the last couple of days I’ve been organizing the second bedroom and I’ve been through so. many. boxes. I found a bunch of the journals I’ve filled over the years and it seemed right to get a photo of this new little life next to pages of my life leading up to his birth. Someday, if he ask to, I’ll let him read these. (Even the really embarrassing ones.)
April 8th, 2020
Oh, wow. These days as a mama of one. He doesn’t crawl yet, so even with this recent sleep regression, I’d say this is easy. And I thought... I thought I’d be giving up... everything. But it doesn’t feel like that. It feels the world has opened even more. I can’t wait to experience life through his eyes. (I love you, Eliot Lionhart.)
balance + kindness
Balance. Kindness. Learning how to navigate motherhood & working from home. Being a mama brings me joy. So does my work. Motherhood makes me want to cuddle all day. My work desire makes me feel like I’ve accomplished “nothing” if that’s what we do. He’s 13 weeks old. It’s ok to cuddle. It’s also ok to want to get up & chat with my community & work from my laptop & phone. Balance. Kindness. Learning day by day.
April 6th, 2020
First sleep regression and man, this week has been different & hard because of it. So very thankful for family, education, God’s grace, and the miracle of sleeping in.
Unrelated: picked oils around the house to fill our new shelf with. stopped the ice cream guy today who turned out to be a snow cone guy. bought ice & just added Ningxia Red, because, of course we did.
three months
Our monthly photo. Eliot is exactly 3 months old. He’s also exactly 13 weeks. On exactly 5 years from the day Matthias & I meet. It was Easter Sunday in 2015 and I was shooting my first wedding as a full time wedding photographer and he was the best man. (6 months later we were married.)
