Life Lately: July 2022
I had a fashion blog back in college, and the other day, I stumbled across a few of the photos I took for said blog. They were so cringy, but they brought back so many memories, and it made me miss what the internet used to be before everyone became influencers and blogging became business.
Our son, Levi, turned five months on July 17, and I’m pretty sure he grows every time he sleeps. The days are so busy and time really does fly by in this baby season. And now that I’m out of the newborn and postpartum fog, I’ve been wanting to better document our life lately. I have so many photos on my phone, but I process things through writing, and I’ve missed that too.
So, I’m going to attempt to document a bit of our life here. It’s different from my other content on this blog thus far, but I’m excited to invite you into our life!
This month, we’ve only had some part time child care, so my husband, Daniel, and I have been splitting up the hours between naps to play with Levi, and then catching up on work in the evenings after Levi goes to bed.
It’s not an ideal situation and it is exhausting, but I’m grateful Daniel and I both work from home mostly and so we can pretty much do it all together. A marriage that is a partnership in all aspects is an answered prayer of mine from when I was single and praying for a husband, so I try not to take it for granted.
As you can tell, Levi particularly enjoys attending meetings with us - he’ll talk at the screen and his feet go a hundred miles per hour in excitement.
Other days, if it is cool enough, we’ll work on the front porch in the mornings since Levi loves being outside to watch the leaves, play in the grass and watch what the neighbors are up to.
The house across the street from us burned down so our view currently is not so pleasant, and we keep talking about how we can’t wait to have our own land someday with no houses or neighbors to be seen on the horizon - just a big front porch with miles of land (and cows) and a gorgeous sunrise!
My husband and I started watching Ranch to Table on the Magnolia Network (we’re big Chip & Jo fans!), and in one of the episodes Elizabeth made a honey lemon cake that looked absolutely delicious. We had all the ingredients at home already, and the recipe seemed simple enough (I am not a baker by any means!), so one Saturday morning during Levi’s nap, I attempted to bake the honey lemon cake. I haven’t baked since before Levi was born, but it turned out so good and I highly recommend it.
Since Levi is an early riser, we’ve been going on walks some mornings (and other mornings, my husband lets me sleep in for an hour and does Levi’s morning walk). We’ve been having a heat wave in Indiana, and so mornings are often the only time when it’s not scorching hot and humid. But, this means I’ve gotten to catch up on podcasts and I’ve been loving it, even if I can usually only listen to 15-30 minutes at a time before Levi gets hot or tired and demands to be home ASAP. Here are some recent favorites:
Lessons from the Farm: Fighting For Consistency With Your Dreams / If you have a dream or vision that you think God gave you for your life, but you're not sure if it's from God or your own desires (or why it's taking so long to come to fruition!), then you must listen to this episode.
SHE with Jordan Lee Dooley: How to Create a Life You Really Like / From this episode, this tidbit stood out to me: You can have it all if you love all that you have. Basically, we get to define what “having it all” means to us, and that often looks like choosing contentment and what we already have. Such a good listen!
Lessons from the Farm: Episode 85 - So, You Want to Buy a Farm? / My husband knows a lot about farming, and since we want to own a farm someday, as a city girl, I thought this would be a good episode to learn something new and useful from!
We have also loved going to the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings. Levi loves the people watching and we’ve been enjoying fresh vegetables. One week we weren’t able to make it to the farmer’s market and so we got zucchini from the grocery store and y’all, it’s crazy how different it looks and tastes from the ones we got fresh at the farmers market!
This month, my husband and I also launched The Dating Guide, with over 150 questions for Christians couples to discuss before getting engaged. We talked about all these topics when we were dating and engaged, and I truly believe it helped us set up a strong foundation for marriage.
There have been so many moments when we looked at each other and said how grateful we are that we talked about this before we got married so we knew of each other’s expectations and preferences! You can download a copy in our shop!
We wrapped up the month with a wedding. I honestly still can’t believe I have a husband and a baby of my own to go to weddings with. I spent over a decade going to weddings on my own, often sitting at tables with couples, and feeling so single and alone.
Levi is the life of the party - this child loves people and new places. He studies people intently, eyeing them with this deep, serious stare like he can see inside your soul and then out of the blue he’ll smile so big you can see all his gums. He’ll kick his feet and get so animated when people talk to him! I’m so grateful for this little family of ours!
We also took Levi to visit sunflower fields at a local farm. That same weekend in 2021, we went to this same sunflower farm when I was in my first trimester - I was so sick and nauseous. We had pie there, and I barely made it home before running to the toilet to throw up!
It is so surreal to now visit the same farm with our son exactly a year later, and I love the idea of making this a family tradition, especially until we have our own piece of land to grow sunflowers on!
July flew by, but we’re so excited for August because we’ll have full time childcare again, we’re going on vacation and Daniel and I both have birthdays next month!
