Evelyn's Birth Story

We bought our first home and moved in a month and a half before Evelyn's due date, so I was not eager for the baby to come early. I was so worried the baby would come before I had the house in order so I was extremely one-track-minded in full nesting mode trying to get everything unpacked and organized in the house. Once I finally got it *finished* enough, I checked out of that and started getting ready for the baby :)

We had some really nice evenings together in our last few weeks as a family of three - a movie night in our garage with the wood burning fire going, nice little family dinners and relaxing evenings, and lots of special moments with Rose and I. I was soaking in the last bit of one on one time with Rose and was all positive, thinking, "I'm in no rush, the baby can come whenever," thinking I was so much more patient this time around (haha...).

You Are My Sunshine

At the river with my girl.

6 Simple Steps to Start Using Cloth Diapers

I remember being a little kid and looking into the bathroom to see my mom cleaning a dirty cloth diaper. I said something like, "Mom, that's so gross!" and she just laughed. Luckily there are now somewhat improved ways of cloth diapering.

I also remember having the distinct thought as an older person, "I won't ever use cloth diapers, they seem like a lot of work for no reason." Now here I am!

My Baby Is One! (Birthday Festivities)

This picture is amazing. Could her eyebrows go any higher?

My baby is one year old!!!

Part of me still feels like I have a newborn, part of me feels like newborn Rose was so long ago. This year really did go by so quickly though. I'm kind of terrified of suddenly realizing 15 years have gone by and I have a teenager.

Rose By Month (One Year of Rose!)

I can't believe I have a one-year-old. I know I've been saying that to everyone, but it's true! It's exciting but also kind of heartbreaking. In honor of Rose's birthday, I want to do a quick recap of this past year with Rose which has been more full of joy than I ever could have anticipated.

8 months pregnant and so ready to meet my baby!

The long road of pregnancy...

• 9 months of waiting! 
• There was so much excitement but also discomfort, tiredness, nausea, terrible night sleeps... 100% worth it to have Rose in our lives though! 

One Month Old

The Gift of Children

5 Ways I Try to Stay Frugal With a Baby

I've heard, a lot of times, how expensive babies are. However, that hasn't really been my experience, so I thought I'd share a few ways I try to stay frugal with a baby because, when I can, saving and being frugal is definitely important to me.

What do you do?

"What do you do?" or, "What are you doing right now?" - the token conversation piece. The question that inevitably comes up in almost every conversation with someone new - or someone we haven't seen in a while. We meet someone and we want to find out who they are, to place them in a box in our mind. We need them to be somewhat labeled - see what category they fit into. Or we are making small talk and it's just what comes to mind to ask because it's just what we do. It's always the go-to question that comes to my mind to fill a silence if I've just met a person.

How Minimalism Has Improved My Life as a Mom

I want to just start by saying I am not trying to be "a minimalist." I don't want the pressure of trying to be something, I just want to implement the strategies and values of minimalism in the parts of my life where it benefits me to implement them.

I used to struggle with depression and bad anxiety. It had always been my dream to be a wife and a mom, but with how debilitating my depression was at times, I had a hard time even finding the motivation to do something as seemingly insignificant as cleaning my room. I had this deep fear that I would never be "competent" enough to get married or have a family, and that made me deeply sad.

I'm so grateful to God for taking the depression away from me, but I have to admit the fear of getting overwhelmed and having it come back is always in my subconscious. I'm married now and have a little girl and it is all literally a dream come true, even with the hard days!

It might sound dramatic, but I can honestly say that learning about minimalism and having a lot less stuff in my home has helped so much in making motherhood and homekeeping manageable and enjoyable. It's helped my journey (my vocation) not be near as overwhelming and difficult for me as I was so scared it would be.

Having less stuff has led to less time spent cleaning and organizing, less money spent on "stuff," less stress and overwhelm because life is just more simplified.

Here is a bit about how it has impacted my life and my motherhood journey.

Cloth Diapering a Baby on Solids

I wrote a post about how I cloth diaper, and why I like cloth diapering, but both of those were written when I had just started Rose on solids. So I thought I would do a little cloth diaper update and let you know how it's going at 8 months, now that I have a few months of solid baby poop under my belt!

How I Cloth Diaper

There are so many different ways to cloth diaper, and when I started my search for the best way to go about it, I found the large amount of options somewhat confusing and overwhelming. There are so many varying opinions out there because certain diapers fit certain babies better than others, and certain systems suite different moms better than others. So like most things in motherhood, it's really just about figuring out what works best for you and your baby.

Rose's Birth Story

Rose Teresa McCallum. Born May 20, 2016 weighing 8 lbs 12 oz. 

I love hearing about peoples birth stories. When I was pregnant, I would lie in the bath reading story after story out of Birth Issues magazines. I think every birth is such a beautiful miracle and I find it so fascinating how each experience can vary so much.

So here is my birth story with my first baby. I tried to not go into it with too many expectations. I wanted to do it naturally but did not want to end up disappointed if things didn't go according to plan, so I just didn't really make a plan and I tried to stay open to whatever happened. Birth isn't really something we have much control over! We just have to do our best with what God throws at us.

Though it was (without comparison) the most painful experience of my life, it was also an amazing experience. I am in awe of God's miracle of childbirth, and feel proud of myself for all the hard work I put into getting Rose out into the world.

9 Things I Liked About Pregnancy

I want to start by being honest and saying that in general I did not like being pregnant. When I hear other moms say things like "I miss being pregnant," or "I love being pregnant," I just can't relate.

It's easy to find plenty of reasons to dislike pregnancy. Discomfort, raging hormones and unstable emotions, "morning" (all day) sickness, swollen feet, off limit beverages. I look at pictures of myself when I was pregnant and I do think my pregnant body was beautiful, and a miracle, but the main thing those pictures bring to mind is "that was so uncomfortable."

So with all that out of the way, I want to tell you nine things I did like about being pregnant. Pregnancy is so so so so so so worth it, because for 9 months you nurture a human life and at the end you get a baby (and babies are the best things ever), so if it's something I'm gonna do anyway, I might as well focus on the positive. So here is a challenge for myself, to write about nine things I genuinely did like about being pregnant.

What I Wish I Knew In the First Week Postpartum

This photo sums up the first week after Rose was born

Pregnant women hear a lot of the same things over and over again. Some of these things are a little annoying, such as dire warnings or anything negative because it's just not what a pregnant woman wants to hear. Some of the advice or cliches I heard, though, actually helped me. Hearing them from other moms helped me to know that I wasn't the only one going through what I was experiencing, it was normal. They also helped me know what to expect at times. So although the comments can get repetitive, I appreciated them.