I’ve started this post so many times, and no opener (or title) feels quite right.   I mean, how do you go MIA for so long and then just come back acting like nothing happened?   Answer:  You don’t.   At least I don’t.   I can’t.  So, I’m employing my social-awkwardness skills, and slowly sauntering back with my tail between legs to say… Hi.   🙂

I’ve missed blogging, but the truth is that even though we’ve completed some fantastic home projects over the past few months, home decor and blogging simply hasn’t been the focus of life as of late.

THIS has been the focus….

His name is Henry Alex Spragins and he was born on March 27th, 2017.   Ain’t he a beaut?? (Not that I’m biased). 😉

We are absolutely THRILLED to have welcomed this little guy, as growing our family is something that we’d hoped and tried for for a long time.   For  three years to be exact.    I was to the point where I *knew* it wouldn’t happen.   But, then it did.  And extreme happiness ensued.    I still remember that moment when we found out.  It was the weirdest, happiest, scariest moment ever.   Disbelief, elation, nervousness that something would go wrong during the pregnancy.   The fact that we were going to have the profound privilege of caring for another life when we didn’t think we would again brought such joy.    And we couldn’t have been more excited about it.    It took a while for it to even seem real.

…And then morning sickness hit and I was like “Yep!  REAL.”.  Ha! 😉

(At 34 weeks)

I’m not gonna lie… this pregnancy wasn’t a fun one.  I had awful morning sickness and crazy insomnia…  Oh, the INSOMNIA.  I barely slept the ENTIRE pregnancy, but all of this was a small price to pay in my opinion.  And, thanks to this pregnancy-induced *sleep training*, I was actually in much better shape sleep-wise for much longer than expected after he was born.  I mean, getting by with less sleep had become habit by this point.  That is… until about 6 weeks in, when I hit “The Wall”.  You know what I’m talking about… “The Wall”: That moment when you realize “I’m so effing tired that I just walked my kid up to school in my pajamas, with uncombed hair and no make up and didn’t even REALIZE it until I got home and walked past a mirror”.   Heehee!  I broke out into hysterical giggles when I realized that I’d literally forgotten to change.  Actually, “forgotten” isn’t the right word… It hadn’t even crossed my mind to begin with.  A few days later, I realized that Joey had also hit “The Wall” when the beeper on the coffee machine went off to tell us that our coffee was ready and he started fanning the smoke detector with a towel.   I laughed even harder at that one.

Despite all this, Henry is such an amazing addition to our family, albeit COMPLETELY different than Lucas was.  It’s incredible how two such opposite entities can escape from the same womb.  Needless to say, there’s been a total learning curve, but we’re getting there.

Speaking of Lucas, he’s been such a giant help.  He seems to have embraced his role of Big Brother like a champ.   It kills me every time I see them together.    Ugh, don’t even get me started on this cuteness…

Or the Daddy-Son moments, for that matter…

Just stop it right now.   (If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen these shots, but here they are again.  Because I love them.)

Anyways, once I started feeling more human again during my second trimester, I realized that in terms of our home, I needed to focus way more on function and organization.  SPOILER ALERT: They’ve been severely lacking.  I also needed to focus on ways to make our home more conducive to easy living, creativity, and family time.  Not just aesthetics.   While the former items have always been a consideration, pregnancy was definitely a reality check into how far I’d let them fall to the wayside over the past two years.  I spent a decent amount of time improving the functionality of our home as I felt up to it throughout the pregnancy and they’ll be subjects that I’ll blog about in the future.    Other changes that we’ve made include a new nursery, updated guest bath, as well as master bedroom, half bath, and laundry room improvements.   Oh, and curb appeal.  Oh, yes.   I’ve shared glimpses of these updates on Instagram, but I’d love to incorporate more comprehensive posts on the blog with details along with before and current pics.  Our House Tour page completely irks me right now…. It’s so outdated.  Time to rectify this.

Oh, and have I mentioned the kitchen???  Although the renovation was complete last summer, I haven’t stopped tweaking it in the meantime. ESPECIALLY since I’ve been in the space more, cooking.  Here’s a sneak peek…

For me, a neat and creative space that feels like “us”, induces more creativity to take place in the space.  In this case, cooking.   Sometimes Joey stares at me, like “Why are you changing that again??” or “But, I just installed that light fixture… ”.  He’s always patient and seems to humor me just fine, but it’s just my process.   Living with a room and changing things trial-and-error style is how it evolves into a space that feels like us.  The kitchen has taken great strides and I can’t wait to share the details of what’s worked, what hasn’t, and our experience with living with our Ikea kitchen (with some cabinetry changes we’ve made for elements that we’ve found sub-par).

Now, one thing that’s for sure is that our new bundle of baby cuteness has really put life into perspective as of late.

And I think this is why blogging came to a standstill for me for a while.   I LOVE home decor and working on our home, but the truth is that it isn’t our top priority… rather, it COMPLIMENTS our top priorities by making life easier, homier, more functional, and yes, pretty.   So, while I’ll be posting home-decor related stuff as per usual, I really want to start incorporating other types of posts upon occasion that reflect our lives in different ways that others may find helpful.

Truth be told, I’ve treated my blog as a journal of sorts throughout my pregnancy.   I’ve written posts as I’ve needed to to clear my head or document things that I was excited about.  I simply haven’t published them as I didn’t feel ready to share them at the times they were written.   I have a bunch of unpublished entries that I’d like to eventually share in between decor posts when the timing is right.  These are things that either I feel may be valuable to other people or that I want to document long term. Some include Henry’s birth story and how I recovered from my back injury (I’m better!  And running again!  Woot!).

Another thing that some of you may know is that up until this point in my career, I’ve worked as a registered dietitian for my day job.   My most recent job was in oncology, but I’ve worked with many types of clients over the past eleven years (both for various medical conditions and for healthy eating/weight loss).   BUT as much as I know about nutrition, I’m embarrassed to say that our diets at home weren’t always the best while I was working.   Since Henry was born, we’ve made the huge decision that I’m staying home with the kiddos for a while, thus, improving our nutrition on a budget is definitely a priority for me.   I’m not sure if this is of interest to everyone, but I thought that occasionally posting tips on what’s working (and isn’t) as well as how to get the process started in this regard may be useful to some.  What do you think?  Is this something you’d like to read about?

As I recommence into blogging again, frequency of posting will be organic and (again) reflect life.  Sometimes it will be more frequent, sometimes less.   But it will always be real in terms of what’s going on at the time.

So anyways,  anything else you guys want to hear about?  I always welcome ideas and constructive  feedback, so bring it!  😉