The last few years, my first 4 as a mom, have been full of joy. There have been so many fun things to do, experience for the first time, and establish as new traditions. We have taken field trips, spent rainy afternoons at home, tried new foods and tried to woo our little one toward our healthy favorites. We have spent our first years as parents in a special sort of glow.

But things definitely changed when we became parents, especially for me, as the mom. Suddenly, most of my every day was full of child care, in all of its forms. And a lot of my favorite pastimes fell to the wayside, as I made time to take care of another human. I stopped reading as much, scrapbooking, playing guitar, rollerblading, shopping for leisure (ha!), painting, etc. It was too frustrating to get started doing something and then be interrupted and never have time to pick it back up again. I started to resent the pile of scrapbooking supplies that represented my lack of free time.

But seasons definitely do change, don’t they? As we approach my baby’s fourth birthday, I’m amazed at how the landscape of my days and weeks has changed. I recently shared a few posts about self-care and spending more time on myself. One thing I did recently as an exercise in carving out time for myself was to complete a month long makeup challenge (which felt totally luxurious in how unnecessary it was!) I’m getting better at claiming minutes during my day for myself. I even sat down recently and completed a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle! I mean, wow. I couldn’t have imagined doing something like that even two years ago!

As my time begins to feel more free, I’m considering my hobbies again. I’m opening that cabinet that has held my art supplies for so long, and I’m starting new projects that I have never considered before. I took a calligraphy class online with my mom. So fun!

And she’s teaching me to sew. ME! SEWING!!

My mom made almost all of my clothes when I was little. She sewed matching outfits for all of my siblings for all of our photo shoots and family events. She is an amazing seamstress. But I can’t make anything with fabric! It all seems so overwhelming and confusing when I sit down and look at a pattern. Cutting all one direction, measuring, sewing inside out, gathering…it just seems like a lot to absorb, much less gain mastery of! But my mom is awesome and very patient, and she’s been giving me lessons.

How cute is my Mom? Seriously!

We’ve made five summer dresses for Austen. I’m so proud of us! Four of them are very basic, I mean LEVEL BEGINNER, pillowcase style dresses. But I did a whole dress BY MYSELF! And then we did one dress with a pattern. It is so fun and satisfying to make something useful and cute for my daughter to wear!

So here is my DIY of late. I have photographic evidence! See that blue pinstripe? I did it MYSELF!

I think the one thing all of these cute dresses illustrate is this: sometimes in life we end up doing things that we never thought we would do. And it's exciting and confidence-inspiring when something unexpected goes unexpectedly well. So I'm learning to expand my borders and take on hobbies that are maybe more "me" than I ever thought, and I'm hoping that this experience will help me be brave about other "unimaginable" tasks, like tart-making or home decorating or photography.

Are you stepping bravely out into "hard" tasks? Taking on new hobbies? Let me know how you've stepped out of your comfort zone recently in the comments!

Love, 

Courtlandt

Keeping Fit

As we all know, I have been beyond horrible at posting the DIY's promised. I am hoping to do a few in the next couple weeks. With our little guy's birthday approaching, I am finally getting a chance to get a couple of those final tasks complete.

These past few weeks have been filled with craziness in our home with my husband nearly finished with his semester of school, and for me photography season is just starting to pick up. With all of this, we have been taking every bit of extra time we have to spend with each other and our little man.
We are also so excited to be expecting a baby niece into the family hopefully this Easter weekend! We will keep you posted.

With all of the additional tasks this month, I also decided to get a membership at the gym. "What?!" you say. Yes, it is for real.
As I have already been very honest about..  I am not a huge gym-goer. I do not love the atmosphere, and I really do not enjoy "working out." I would much rather play a sport or go for a hike. But, sadly, I do not do that either.

I can say before I had my son, it didn't feel like it was that big of a deal if I never went to the gym. I got out a lot and walked around a lot, but as many of us know things change when you have a kid. I read so many blogs of these women who somehow can manage their active lifestyles while having a newborn and I think "HUH?!?" I was lucky enough to get out of the house to buy groceries let alone to have free time to go for a jog.

But now after a year, I finally feel like I can sneak-in some "me time." The gym never sounded like "me time" in the past, but now being a mom... having a deep desire to staying healthy and strong for my kiddos... going to gym as grown into "me time." Even more so after a super stressful day. My hopes are that over the next couple years, we as a family will be able to be a much more active family, however that looks. Whether it be regular hikes, home workouts, who knows?
We will see what is in store.

Love, Julie