I Miss Them

We've arrived on the other side of the initial rough patch. You know, that first six to eight weeks or so with a newborn that feels like you are a crawling through a tunnel. You do your best to soak up the rareness of each moment with that tiny little new person but everyone's reeling from the change of having a baby - you, the baby, the older kids, the husband... the dog (I'm not even being sarcastic about the dog. I'm not even being sarcastic about not being sarcastic. Which is rare for me. Dramatic females seem to be the norm around here - even in the canine world.)

Jack and Ava seem to have adjusted to a new baby in the house for the most part. But that adjustment period was not without tears, though, mostly on my part. The stress of life changing so much all of sudden was written all over their faces, and it hurt both them and me.

 

But then, one day, they were fine. I looked out the window to see them playing in their fence together and realized they were fine. They had fallen into a new normal quicker than I had, and even more importantly, they still had each other. They didn't need me as much anymore.

 

And this time the feeling that washed over me was that I missed them.

I missed the adventures we would go on.

{Brainerd, MN Spring 2012}

{Gull Lake Spring 2012}

I missed it just being the three of us.

{Maplewood State Park Fall 2011}

 

Even a good change can be hard. And the past has a tendency to seem more perfect than the present at times. Even when the new present is good......but harder.



 

 



Just another reminder that nothing is permanent. Another reminder to not wish anything away because one day you will miss it.



The Games We Play

You stick out your tongue.

 

I'll stick out mine.

Because it is so funny!

Do it again! Do it again...

The Things We Love {August}

I don't really remember August....

but these photos remind me we really did experience the last month of summer to some degree.


And here's what I love ~


Canning peaches (with help from mom). (Also loving the canning my mother-in-law did for me - green beans and tomatoes. Such a blessing.)

 {ugh. Floating fruit is not a sign of an excellent canner. I cannot seem to rememdy this.}

Giant baby yawns

Fun at the County Fair

Playing with baby dolls

Swaddling

Sisters

Silly Faces

The end of long, challenging work weeks - Daddy comforting baby or baby comforting Daddy?

A sleeping baby

And now apparently September is almost over, too?

I've Lost My Voice

Because someone said she would blog if I blogged and because my competitive nature can't turn down an offer like that and because I really should at least choke out one post in September......

The only problem is I've got so much to say but no good way to say it.

I'm not a musician but I've been told that all musicians look for that "new sound," something that sets them apart and makes them unique. I think bloggers, too, strive for individuality amidst a slough of a ba-jillion other bloggers, and I think we do so through our voice, our writing style. If you look at some of the most popular blogs, you will find a certain voice that sets them apart, even if that blog is devoted to photography or food, and that voice usually balances some quirky use of grammar that breaks all the rules yet still works, with a very identifiable use of words.

I think I had found my own blogging voice there for awhile, not that I am striving to have a popular blog or anything. But I wasn't bored by my own stories, and my own personal way of breaking grammar rules led to writing discoveries about myself that diagram-able sentences wouldn't have.

But then along came a pregnancy and Pollyanna, and I lost my voice. I just couldn't make the words come out in the same way. And now that the baby has been born and we are well on our way to being almost fully adjusted to life with a new little person around here, I still haven't found my voice back. I've got one huge saga post in the works and a few others I'm trying to put together, but they all sound flat and lifeless. The sentences are too perfect and my own personal flavor of word usage is no where to be found. Even I can't stand reading those posts.

If I ever do get my voice back, it will be just as momentous as the day you zip up and close the button on your pre-pregnancy jeans after having a baby. Which, for the record, happened today. They were my most forgiving pair of jeans, but still people. Little victories matter.

Around Here

Two weeks ago today our lives again changed forever with the addition of a baby girl to our family.

And here's a little bit of what it's looked like around here...

Things were going well......really, really well at first. And as I suspected, it didn't last. We're having our struggles and there's a whole big post in the works that attempts to draw a picture of the journey I've been on. I will finish that post....  "soon."

The Things We Love {July}

Oodles of green beans to process

Summer sunlight streaking into the house late into the evening

Watching the garden change every day

Buckets of produce out of the garden on a daily basis

Kids dozing off during boat rides on hot weekends

Watching "the guys" kneeboard and water ski

The sandy bottom of our favorite beach

Somehow taking it all in at 39 weeks pregnant

{photo courtesy of Jack-Hammer}

{my hair courtesy of 6 hours at the lake}

{crazy sunglasses needed to cover up pregnancy mask on upper cheeks exacerbated by sun exposure}

At 9 1/2 Months Pregnant...

I’ve…

Washed my husband’s work car – by hand

Re-planted 3 rows of carrots in my garden

Weeded and mulched nearly 2000 square feet of garden

Picked green beans, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, beets, and peas

Canned beets and green beans

Waddled into the hardware store and asked to purchase their best axe

Planted shrubs

Gone boating

Cleaned the same portions of my house “for the last time before the baby comes,” like, 47 times

Gotten my second ever pedicure

All during the hottest summer since 2007.

And there’s still no indication that this baby is gonna be born soon.