Lionhart is 5 months old tomorrow. Oh, sweet boy. And I wonder... What do I let in to our world? How will it affect him? When will he start remembering (when should I start turning off the political podcasts😅)? 🤣
June 1st, 2020
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn
this season
as a silver. as a leader. with my community. these night walks. I know this specific season won’t last forever. I know there are even greater things ahead. but here, now… I am happy. And I always want to remember this.
details
Bouncing all over the place, but sat down to actually knock out kitchen details tonight with Matthias and that felt reallyyyy good. Praise the Lord for Pinterest and Google Sheets.
We met the builders yesterday to share our ideas for our dream floor plan and now we’re waiting on something a little more professional than the drawings we came up with 🤪 The survey is complete on our land, so on to the next step there. (Don’t ask me what that is, Matthias is in charge of that.)
measuring our future
I’m pretty sure the neighbors are watching as we measure out our future home in this green space & along our buildings.
20 weeks
My little baby isn’t little. Eliot is 20 weeks right now and is so tall & large and in charge that he seems much older. I miss the newborn snuggles, but I love the personality. 😭❤️ he grew out of the solly wrap sooner than I would’ve wished, but he wants to forward-face and see the world.
I understand, little lion. And I hate to lose the chest to chest snuggle, but I’m happy you want to look out and take it all in.
May 24th, 2020
Rose & Andrew’s wedding Friday. Play & work on Saturday. Family time on Sunday. And we picked up Byron! He was at my parents for two days but he (and they) couldn’t stand it any longer. (He hides in the closet and cries endlessly. 🥺)
WEDDING WEEKEND!
ROSE MARRIED ANDREW 😍🥰🎉
s i l v e r
tonight. hitting Silver. our little life is changed forever and I can cry about that so I will. 😭❤️
May 20th, 2020
Happy to be best friends a n d married.
harder days
Months 6-8 of pregnancy were so hard. I couldn’t have imagined the joy to follow so shortly after. Every day I felt like I was just.trying.to.make.it.through.another.day. ⠀
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My heart ached so much. The season was chaos and waiting. Hurry up, slow down. ⠀
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A lot of that feeling was reflected in the photographs we took during that time. ⠀
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November 1st with our daily photo I shared, “someday, soon, it won’t be 10pm all the time.” Even typing those words out brings tears to my eyes. ⠀
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The sun came up. Our seasons shifted. And wow, it all feels like a lifetime ago now. ⠀
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I’m glad we didn’t wait. We didn’t wait for things to be bright & happy to slow down & document our life in a meaningful way. ⠀
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It was an act of faith. Sharing from the valley. Knowing, hoping good things are around the corner. ⠀
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And here they are. So many good things, so many good days.
some harder days:
May 16th, 2020
oh my. in bed until 1pm after Rose’s bachelorette. that’s kind of embarrassing. sign of a good time? 🥴😂 together time today. art. our people. smoking meat. the grounds 1488. more babies & celebrating life. a custom swing. a horny dog. togetherness.
May 8th, 2020
Celebrated Mother’s Day at Bonin family dinner. Hand written notes, a gift thought up & given by the adults kids to our awesome mom. I love having reasons to celebrate.
lists
Yay! Byron is home with us again after a couple weeks at the Frost family home because of a flea incident.
Met today about The Grounds & The North Woodlands Festival. Gosh. Every single thing we discuss when we meet starts a fire in me. Even the boring stuff like admin & emails. ⠀
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I did maybe 700 dishes today. 800? Maybe 1000? It felt like a lot. How can two people make so many dishes? And what will it be like when we have a house full of children? I can see why we had a maid growing up. Help will be necessary if I want to accomplish anything else. ⠀
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I was frustrated with myself tonight. Probably because I’m on my period and have all those ~emotions~ but also because I fill my lists with too many things that I can’t necessarily get to all in one day. I’m always so hopeful about what I’ll accomplish. I need to learn how to make more realistic lists for what I can accomplish in a day. I definitely learned from Amanda (@amandanoel___ ) recently— put the basics on the list too. Unloading a dishwasher & eating lunch ARE a part of my day. So I can’t just NOT count them because my lists are already too overwhelming.. Then at least when I look at my lists they’ll be getting things checked off and I won’t be as frustrated at lacking a sense of accomplishment. ⠀
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Baby steps. Learning to be soft.
four months with lionhart
ELIOT IS 4 MONTHS OLD.
Not only did I survive the wedding (even with Eliot on his own for his first time) but ROCKED IT. With Kate, because of course. She is the best second shooter + artist I know. I’m sorry. This is like riding a bike. Why do I doubt myself especially after this many years? also, 10000% present for the brides I have left, and confident as ever that this isn’t my dream career anyone. I want to shoot weddings for the people I love and never want to do it again.
his birthday
Matthias is 28 today 🥰❤️ And yesterday was both Ralynn & Rose’s birthday! We had a sort-of-surprise Frost birthday celebration at his parents for all of them. :) enjoyed a walk on the property before leaving this evening and put the camera on a post for this shot.
hannah joy & ethan are pregnant!
SURPRISE! It’s a boy 🥰💙 October 2020. ⠀
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Okay, as much as I’d love to be pregnant again, I know you’re probably like WTH? He’s not ours. ⠀
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ETHAN AND HANNAH JOY ARE HAVING A BABY 😭 and yes. I’m over the moon. And yes. It was hard to keep this a secret for so long. (Wait, this isn’t about me? My big-aunt heart disagrees!)⠀
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If you haven’t seen our story/Ollie’s story... read my big brother highlight… find that highlight here.
April 30th, 2020
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.