Life Update – January 2019

New home, Renovations, Kid update, Vacations, Cooking, Blogging

I’m ALIVE and well… really well. If you follow me on social media, you know I may have liked and commented on a few things, but haven’t been active on posting. Although, not sharing doesn’t mean a lot hasn’t happened. It has actually been very busy. We started to look for a new home in the spring of 2018. This was not in our master plan at the time, but once we get something in our head we move 100 mph towards that goal. Our home at the time served us it’s purpose for our family. We moved into it with just 1 child (pregnant with number 2) and left it with 3! Stuff was piling up and we all craved space, especially outside. So with that said, we moved after a large renovation and losing my sanity (only had a little to begin with). It is only a few miles down the road and we LOVE it! I will be sharing that process with before and afters.

During this renovation process we still managed to keep 3 toddlers alive. In this time our oldest turned 4 in June, and our baby turned 1 in October. Side note: The baby didn’t get a proper birthday party. Is this normal for the third child? Maybe we will go all out for his second birthday. The boys absolutely love the new home. Seeing them explore is really fun. Maddox and Miles go look for the fish in the pond daily, while taking their wheelbarrows to find treasures on the way. We never see any fish, but it is fun for them to look for 30 minutes. Monroe usually eats dirt and licks pine cones. Third child problems. We currently don’t have TV or Internet at the house and WOW…. We never really let the kids watch TV or play on devices. I prided myself on this. We are the ones who watched it once the kids went to bed. We would watch a couple shows every night. I didn’t realize how much I leaned on it to entertain us. Both of our days are full, and it is easy to plop in front of the TV with cookie dough. Now, Dustin and I break out the board games like it’s the new fad. He wins the game most of the time, although the time together has been a win for me too.

Service is spotty at the house so, I am writing this at Starbucks just so I can upload this easier. Plus I can get a few hours to myself. In August I decided to be a “real” stay at home mom. I previously had a sitter twice a week. She was an angel… not lying. God sent her to me. Although, I felt like I needed to try and keep my own kids. I sound like a brat writing that. I had so much anxiety about being a full time stay at home mom. How was I going to do everything? Grocery shop, run errands, breath, write, pee, and keep up with house duties. Well guys, I survived. It wasn’t the best timing and I definitely felt defeated a lot. I stopped doing anything “extra” and spent time building my life on the other side of this screen.

Guys, did you know people live real lives outside of social media and blogs. HA HA HA Well it was time for me to focus on them and myself. Being a better mom and wife has always been my goal. At the same time, I focused more on prayer and building the most important relationship with Him. It’s amazing what happens when you add Him to your life. Everything becomes better. My love for writing is still here and will start publishing again. Writing never stopped, I just didn’t share it with you. I didn’t want to worry about the comments and likes that can come with social media sometimes. Impressing people is not a goal of mine. Sharing motherhood and it’s beautiful chaos is what’s most important.

Speaking of chaos. I had a crazy idea. To cook every recipe in Joanna Gaines’ cookbook in one year. Then I challenged my best friend, Bree, to do the same thing. So if you want to follow along here’s how. Follow #onerecipeclosertojoanna on instagram. I already cooked her mac and cheese. I was a horrible blogger and didn’t take great pictures. I want to love to cook and focus more on the experience of cooking, not just the end product. I will have more on this in a separate post soon. Last year I gave up Target and succeeded so watch out JoJo. I’m catching up!

This year you will see our new home renovations, cooking with Joanna, travels, home adventures, my love of Sam’s Club and Chick-Fil-A, and how I try to maintain sanity with too much coffee!

Enjoy your chaos!

Bless your heart, Chelse