Keep Calm and Keep it Simple
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| Newest addition (Alexander) |
Life has changed so much in the last six months. I now have a 6-month old boy, Alexander, who is such a calm cutie. My daughter is a vibrant ray of sunshine and also a miss-independent who apparently has difficulty accepting any sort of help from people. I started working again part-time. We sold our condo and moved into my parents home (more on that in another post). One of the most difficult parts of these changes is the adjustments to our rhythms. What Brian and I had created to be a well-routined, at times even easy environment with a little toddler turned into “ALL HANDS ON DECK!” chaos for the first two months. I felt like Juliana; I had to accept that I needed help. So I did. I also needed to accept where I was in this stage of life and allow myself to learn how to be a parent of two. Did you know that we aren’t born with that knowledge? In my experience, most of it flourishes from instinct, advice, lots of prayer, and good ‘ole fashioned trial and error.
While it would be absolutely laughable to expect our life to be consistent, we still require some consistencies. For me, those are friends, family, and date nights. We have date night every week that consists of us going out and staying in every other week. We’re surrounded by my family because, well, I live with them. So there’s no shortage of hugs, kisses, and love from my parents toward the grandchildren. Last but certainly not least, I need time with friends. It’s absolutely essential. I have the ultimate blessing to be surrounded by friends and mentors who challenge, accept, and love me. It allows me to be a better wife, parent, daughter, and friend to have people who tell it to me straight whether I want to hear it or not.
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| A little hike before a day trip to Young’s Dairy during Brian’s staycation last week |
Brian and I decided that we want to embrace simplicity in our lives. We’re still working on what that looks like, but the small changes tend to make the biggest impacts.
