our new home

I am currently writing this blog post while laying next to a napping Benjamin in our new home! Our new bedroom is still pretty boring - we have all of one wall decoration and the entire room is very... white. The simplicity and newness feels pretty good though. We've been putting together our new place for the past week and settling in, and I am absolutely in love with the area and our new home. It's nothing fancy - just a simple little townhouse - but it's perfect for us in this season of our lives.

I wanted to include some pictures of our decorations and setup so far - I've been loving to share these over my Instagram stories and photos as well! I've been so excited to put together our home for months now - the idea of having our own home that our new baby can come to and we can settle our little family in to stay for a while. So, without further ado - here we go!

Our dining nook - I had so much fun making the wreath and garland decor, and I found that beautiful cow painting at  Goodwill for one dollar!

Gotta love a coffee nook! I found the wooden sign a long time ago at the Howell Melon Fest, the tin planter with K Cups at Dollar Tree, and the "Coffee" sign in the Target dollar spot.

I love our cozy living room. I love relaxing on the couches and watching Ben play  here. This is always what we walk down to in the mornings when we wake up and it's also where Chris and I watch movies at the end of the day together! Most of the decorations we already had from our last place, or I found them at Goodwill, the Target dollar spot, antique places, or even Dollar Tree!

Where we live, it doesn't feel like that typical Midwestern fall cool air that I grew up with! (It's a blessing and a curse living in a temperate climate.) However, in the evenings and mornings, it's pretty darn breezy and crisp, and it most def makes me want to do ALL of the fall things. So I took some of our clippings from the plants on our patio, a little doily action, and some of my decorations and put a little centerpiece together! I got the pumpkin jar and the sign at the dollar store.

I painted this bad boy and Chris made the wooden stand a while back when we lived in our first apartment! The pumpkin is from the Target Dolla spot (holla holla dolla!) and the tile with the cute adorable house on it was from Goodwill.

Just a nice pic of a hallway with a construction toy chilling out. I found that brand spanking new Threshold piece at Goodwill! (The glass frame thing with the leaf)

Our entryway that I am completely in LOVE with. Chris got this old wooden desk for free one night, and I love how the paint is all chipped away and original. I found that cool little coatrack at a thrift sale event, and the rest are mostly photos and decor we had already!

Ben's room... AKA my project and obsession! Both of his furniture pieces we got for FREE! (Dresser/changing table and toy organizer.) One was our family's old beat up dresser that they didn't want anymore so I repainted it, and the other I found on Facebook free with pickup. I painted this shelving unit with a paint sample from the hardware store. I have most of Ben's books on these shelves and many fun little toys that he can explore.

So, there you have it! I haven't included photos of the bathrooms, guest room, our bedroom, or our laundry area because they are still being unpacked and decorated. (I'm not in a huge rush for those areas! We'll be here for quite a while and we'll get them put together in due time.) I also wanted to show some photos around our new town. It's a teeny weeny town surrounded by wineries and mountains, and it's really a treasure. It's surprisingly busy on weekends because it has an assortment of hip little wineries, cafes, and restaurants on the main stretch in town, but it's very quiet all week. It's the sort of place where you can walk past people's houses and chickens will literally just run over to you from a neighbor's front yard. (Never lived in a place like it before!) There are tons of cool and quirky sights to see, and it's very sunny and beautiful.

So, there you have it - our new stomping grounds! Thanks for reading and checking out our new place - we are so excited and we've been having such a blast putting it all together. Hope you have a great and wonderful weekend.

Hugs,

Megan

pregnancy, moving, & updates

It's been a minute, and it's time for me to start blogging regularly again.

When I have a lot of things going on in life, it becomes hard to stop and reflect in ways that actually feel good - as in, soul-feeding, mind-clearing good. It's easier to just scroll on my phone or distract myself with other things. I was recently listening to the podcast Find the Magic (a new favorite - if you are a mama who loves learning about respectful family relationships and just all sorts of good, self-care, warm-and-fuzzy stuff, give it a try!) and the women on the podcast were discussing "high quality leisure activities" versus just quick distractions. For me, a high-quality leisure activity is writing, and I tend to put it on the back burner when I'm feeling burnt out. It requires patience and mental effort to write something I'm proud of, and even when I'm just writing about things I enjoy here on my personal blog, it requires more effort and energy than scrolling Pinterest or Instagram, but it also makes me feel a whole lot better. 

SO. Today I just want to write about a few big things happening in our lives, to give a big overview update, because I would love to be able to just start writing regularly again.

Pregnancy Update

You guys. This baby is due in a mere SEVEN WEEKS. McScuse me?! I can't even believe it! We haven't even decided on a name yet! We are moving this weekend to an entirely new town! I haven't even registered at our hospital yet! I have a big ole belly, a VERY active little gymnast in my belly who loves to kick my ribs and twirl around, and I'm feeling a lot of things. 

The third trimester, overall, has been treating me very well. I've been so incredibly lucky with this pregnancy - no morning sickness, no heartburn, rock solid heartbeat and lots of movement. It's been very physically healthy. My joints get kind of sore and stretched, I pee about a thousand times each day, and I get pretty darn sleepy each day, but overall, I couldn't have asked for a better pregnancy experience this time around. My iron levels leave something to be desired, but I'm working on that. 

The hospital that I will be delivering is a large hospital in our area - it's a great hospital and I am looking forward to the birth experience. My experience with my doctor hasn't been amazing - we kind of rushed into a place and just stuck with it even though it hasn't really impressed me too much. It takes a long time to get into a doctor in our area with our current insurance, so I feel a little stuck in that regard. I think if I could do the whole thing over, I would be taking a little bit more of a holistic approach as far as the whole pregnancy experience goes. I have been reading and looking at how amazing doulas, midwives and more natural pregnancy experiences are, and I've realized that the practice that I attend is VERY by the book and basic - I often leave feeling like the pregnancy just isn't as celebrated as I would like it to be, and like I'm just another patient in a very overcrowded clinic. I'm just taking this all in as a learning experience for next time. (Which won't be for quite a little while, but we have discussed planning on three kids. It feels like a good number for us, but we have a few years, a lot of settling in and figuring things out and growing our future before thinking about next time around! Plus, we want to get married, y'all. It's hard to plan a wedding when we're moving a lot and having babies!) 

We are definitely still trying to figure out a name. Before we knew what we were having, we were mostly thinking about girl names because we had a feeling the baby might be a girl! We had our heart set on a name, but once we found out it was a boy, we really weren't sure! We have a couple of strong contenders, but nothing is decided yet. Any funky ideas? Leave them in the comments!

I am so incredibly excited to set up the boy's room. I've been slowly making and collecting items over the past few months, and once we move into our new place, it's definitely the room I'm most excited for. When the baby is a newborn, he will be in our room for sleeping and such, but I'm planning on having them share a room because I would love them to be close friends as they grow a little older. We are going for a woodsy, outdoors, camping theme - I've made wooden signs, we have soft felt animal heads to hang on the walls, I may or may not be doing a small mural on the wall once we settle in. Don't worry, I will most definitely be posting a nursery/kids room tour once we get it all set up! I am notorious for a strong nesting desire when I'm pregnant - just ask Chris - I think it's just a strong instinct to create a cozy and lovely place for the baby to come home to.

Moving!

Yes, folks - we are MOVING! This time, it will not be as drastic as our last move from Michigan to California. (Whew! I've had enough two thousand mile moves to last me for a little while!) We are moving from our current home where we've been living with Chris' wonderful family for the past 8 months to our very own cozy and cute little CONDO! I have never lived in a condo, and we are so excited about the area and our new home.

The town we are moving to is a cute little place called Los Alamos, California. It's about 15 minutes from where we live now, and it's a teeny weeny little place. So teeny that we don't even have a mailbox! Everyone in town has a P.O. Box instead! How crazy is that? I love living in more rural areas, and Los Alamos is basically nestled in wine country and rolling hills. We officially get our keys on Friday, and we are going to move in this very weekend. It's really nice to be near Chris' family but also a little out in the country - I'm able to walk around with Ben during the day all over town because the streets are all very walkable and not busy. It has a few really cute cafes and new wineries and shops, and we're really looking forward to finding our place there.

Fixing My Credit

Alright, guys. Time to get real with you. Fun fact about me? My credit took a serious dive this past year. Let's just say that when you move, CANCEL THE UTILITY BILLS THAT ARE IN YOUR NAME! Otherwise, the bills will continue coming and you won't receive them in your mailbox anymore and then suddenly you end up with collection bills on your credit score. Yep. So, in case anyone ever thinks that I am a put-together person with my whole life together just because I'm a mom, just know that I am most definitely not. I am learning many adult-ing lessons right now. Also, make sure to just keep up on your stuff - your car's maintenance and plate renewal stuff, your credit score, any unpaid bills - just be aware that things don't just go away! Okay, I'm done reprimanding you because of my own mistakes. Sorry if I stressed anyone out.

In Conclusion...

It feels good to be back. What have you all been up to, readers? I'm excited to start posting regularly again - I have a lot of ideas about things I'd love to write about and I'd also love to hear about how things are with all of you. I have been putting more thought into creating a bigger and more engaging social media and online presence to encourage other mamas and women and just create a little online community of support and fun. Thanks for reading lovely humans!

Love,

Megan