Life Update: September 2021
Welcome back to the blog! I’ve had a few hectic and utterly exhausting months, but I’m finally ready to sit down and publish a post. With how nonstop my schedule has been, I’ve come to realize how important it is to take care of myself, and a big part of that is posting here on my blog. This is where my roots lie, after all. Anyway, let’s chat!
First, my little lady will be 11 months old next week and I can’t even process the fact that she’ll be considered a toddler in just a few weeks. They’re really not kidding when people say the phrase “the days are long, but the years are short.” Some days I’m counting down the minutes until bedtime so I can catch up on work and finally shower, yet at the same time, I feel like I blinked and she’s almost a year old. Motherhood has taught me so much, but above all, a huge lesson has been learning how fleeting time really is. I’m constantly aware that one day in the future, I’ll reflect on these times and wish I could kiss her chunky baby feet, smell her bald head, hear her baby giggle, see her two-teeth smile and breastfeed her just one more time. It’s also crazy to think about how much of my time and energy goes into making sure she has a fun day and is well taken care of, yet she will have no memory of this period of her life. It’s a special experience between two people, a parent and a child, that just one gets to cherish in their memory bank. I want to bottle up every second so I can tear open the jar one day and relive it, spit-up, short-nap days and all.
As for first birthday party planning, I really need to get the ball rolling! I got started early on gathering inspiration and deciding on a theme, but I haven’t bought a single thing yet and I’m starting to feel a little stressed. I’m feeling the most stuck on her outfit because the dress I really wanted for her is sold out everywhere and doesn’t appear to be returning anytime soon. My top priority should be finding a baker to make the cake, but here I am spending way too much time scrolling through pages and pages of baby birthday dresses. Also, several of you bought the balloon arch kit through my link in my inspo post and now it’s not being sold anymore (lol, you ladies are sabotaging me!!!!), so I shot myself in the foot there.
Update on Bone & Bloom: I’m my own boss, you guys. 🥺 This is what I’ve always wanted and I’m so proud of myself for making it happen, but let me tell you, I have a lot of hard days. Working while taking care of a baby is no joke, but it’s something I’m determined to do and have been since Clay was born. Mentally, I constantly feel like I’m not doing enough (which is such a lovely personality trait of mine) and that my time is too limited. As a full-time working mom and caregiver, I have to be on all day and it’s exhausting. My work days don’t end until 10 p.m. or later and I’m still trying to find harmony with everything. As I’m sure any business owner will tell you, it’s so hard, but it’s so worth it — and I’m really grateful to have a partner who supports me. I’ve proven to myself this year that I’m a fighter and even when I feel like giving up, I always have a little bit more left in me. Catch me tucked into bed with a candle burning, drinking barely-chocolate milk (a craving from when I was pregnant that hasn’t gone away) and listening to Dateline episodes while I speed-type on my laptop every night after I put Clay to bed.
Lastly, something that’s been top-of-mind is a huge lesson I’ve been learning since my last Life Update post back in June that I feel compelled to share. As I’ve loosely discussed in previous posts, life chewed me up and spit me back out in July during such an emotionally vulnerable time. Things I had hoped for at the time career-wise had fallen through and I found myself all the way at the bottom of what felt like a rungless ladder. As the weeks passed by, I understood more and more that the best things can come out of the worst situations, and sometimes something really hard has to happen for something amazing to come to fruition. Hang in there and remember that everything happens for a reason.
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That’s life lately — working nonstop, mom-ing nonstop and learning too many lessons to include in this post.