Wrapping up 2014
If someone were to ask me to put all of our 2014 into a giant box and label it... I'd label it... Our Adventure. What an adventure we had! Our "Year of Less" turned out to be a year of SO much more than we could have ever imagined for ourselves last January. Pregnancy, a full year of amazing clients, weddings and births, traveling internationally, dabbling in homeschool, Tommy finishing his master's degree... The year was PACKED... and we survived and thrived. (By taking a lot of deep breaths and being in-the-moment, I think. :))
I am looking forward to dissecting 2014 even more in the coming days... what did and didn't work for myself, my family, and my business? I am looking ahead to 2015 with hopes and dreams of continuing my journey towards more simplicity, intentionality, and contentment. I have been brainstorming and thinking of possible word ideas for 2015 and I am pretty sure I've got THE one narrowed down. But I want to finish my Goal Setting process first before I make that commitment. :)
This year I'll be following along again with Lara Casey's Goal Setting Process over on her blog (and using my PowerSheets again!). I plan to start in the next few days and hopefully finish up before Cook Baby #2 makes his or her arrival in a few weeks! JOIN ME! And if you decide to share publicly, will you leave a link to your blog post in the comments?? I'd LOVE to follow along!
Speaking of THE BABY. I've been working on a blog post all about this pregnancy, our birth plans, and my deep thoughts about bringing another baby into our family. It'll go live tomorrow... I hope you will come back and read it. :)
In the meantime... Happy New Year, sweet friends! Thank you for following along with us in 2014 and for sticking around through my blog silence and attempts to just-keep-swimming through the crazy. I appreciate you all more than you know!
2014 Giving Tuesday
I'd be remiss to have a big Cyber Monday sale yesterday and NOT follow it up with a recognition of the Third Annual Giving Tuesday! I just wanted to take a minute today to highlight two of my favorite local non-profits. Hopefully neither of these will be a surprise to you, as they are both such a big part of my heart that I've mentioned them numerous times around here.
The Motherhood Collective
This group saved me... they offered me a safe place to go during one of the most vulnerable seasons of my life. They embraced me and my loud mouth and quirky ways, despite my new-mama-lack-of-knowledge. They taught me that every mother is different, that we are all simply doing the best we can, and that we need to be easy on ourselves (AND one-another). They gave me permission to make mistakes and to explore different options for myself and my family as we journeyed through our new chapter of parenting.
The work The Motherhood Collective is doing is great... recognizing (and respecting) the time-sensitive season of early motherhood and providing a kind, gentle, supportive AND educational environment for mamas all over our area... it is truly invaluable.
If you are currently an expecting mama and/or in the early stages of motherhood, or if that season of life is a passion of yours, PLEASE get connected with this group!
Allow The Children
Confession... I was never interested in overseas missionary work. Like, ever. Until I married into a family passionate about it. I was invited on my first ever international mission trip in 2009 and the experience absolutely changed my life... it changed my heart and overall perspective on life.
Allow The Children is a local non-profit organization that cultivates partnerships with other Bible-believing non-profit organizations around the world to help provide financial and biblical resources to those in need. They do this through many avenues, including running a child sponsorship program, running free medical clinics in faraway villages, offering Pastor training Programs, the list seems endless, really.
Allow The Children has been used by God to alter the course of the lives of many, many people around the world... including my own. The work God is doing through this organization is so good and so needed. I hope you'll take a minute to learn more about them and consider sponsoring a child or supporting another project they currently have going on.
My life as a mom photographer
Oh gosh. Those words used to make me cringe, you guys. A "mom photographer." Those were... excuse me for my small-minded-ness... but in my mind, those were the ladies who discovered that they could learn how to use a camera to take good pictures of their kids, and maybe even make a dime or two on pictures of their friends, as well. But me? Oh, I wasn't a mom. I was a photographer helping to support our household before I ever became a mom. And for some reason that made me feel... more legit? I don't know. What I was doing was hard work and I was mildly insulted to think others thought they could "do it too." Ridiculousness. Pure naivety. Mamas who are also photographers: Please forgive me for judging you. I knew not what I was doing. And I will never do it again. Especially because now I know, (besides being a work-from-home-mom and a photographer), that being even just a mom really does put you into a whole different category of it's own. A beautiful category where every mama should have her own crown and vacation days and be treated like royalty. Except we all know that doesn't happen. :)
I am currently sitting at my parent's house... by myself. Feeling the total opposite of royalty. I am honestly a little ashamed to tell you this. But, I'm an open book, so here it goes. I sent my daughter away for a week while I am on-call for a birth. A whole week. Away from me... just so I can be prepared to work at the drop of a hat. We all know I went to Haiti for a week earlier this year, but that seemed different. That was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And Sunday was safe in her home, in her familiar space, with her dad. But this time it's so different.
I don't handle stress well. Like, literally, my body gets sick and I am in pain after a significant amount of stress. Okay, maybe not even a significant amount. Actually, it's embarrassing how little stress I really can handle. But that's not what matters. What matters is that I know myself, I know my limits, and I have learned to respect the boundaries my body puts before me. So. In this case, my parents were headed out of town for a week while I was planning to be on-call for two births on their side of the state. The original plan was awesome. Sunday and I would stay with my parent's while Tommy was at his annual, two-week army training. I could get up at 3am and simply walk out of the door for a birth, not having to worry about waking Sunday up and taking her to a babysitter in the middle of the night. Perfect! But then... my parent's were invited to my sister's house for a huge milestone in the life of her family. And they had to go! Of course they did! But then that left me with a commitment to two mamas expecting babies, and at my parent's house without childcare for Sunday. She doesn't know anyone here except my parents. And on-call babysitting isn't really... a thing. So I did the thing I thought was best for her comfort and for my over-sensitive stress level. I booked her a flight to go along with my parents.
They left yesterday morning and I am so sad! My mama heart is HURTING! What kind of mom sends their baby away just so she can maybe, possibly, work? I love my clients... I love birth... I love, love this opportunity I have in my life to do what I do and make a living doing it. I do not break commitments to my clients. But that little thing called comparison... it's ruining me today. I know there are mamas on social media who are thinking "What kind of a MOM does that?! I could never... would never send my TWO YEAR OLD away for a week." It's true. They are there. I'd call out their names if there wasn't a sure-fire repercussion. But they are probably reading this blog post right now, so yeah. I'm talking to you. :)
I'm a working mama. Yes, I run my own business and I call all the shots. But, I do have bosses, you know. They are called my clients. And I respect them and care about them, too. There are pros and cons to every job, no matter how much you love it. There are days when I dread sitting down at the computer and times I walk into a session with my stomach flip-flopping around. There are hard moments to this work... just like there are hard moments in motherhood. But they are worth it. They teach me and stretch me. And as I type this, my baby girl is safe in her surroundings right now... probably waking everyone else up way too early because of the time change. She's spending time with her cousins, waiting in line for the potty (for real, I'd show you that picture if it wasn't inappropriate for the internet), and having wrestling matches. She's happy... and mama's clients will be happy. These are the things we do for people we care about. And... okay... I am kind of getting a little mini vacation out of the whole thing, too. I guess that's a pro.
I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I have been weighing so many options in my heart these past few months. I shared with you guys last year that I felt a longing towards motherhood... a new feeling... one that I wanted to listen to. I'm still figuring things out as far as where this little business of mine is headed and what my plans are. And this blog? Some days I want to write... some days I don't. I haven't treated my blog as a business tool for a while... and you know what? That doesn't seemed to have affected my income. Imagine that! I'm grateful for the lessons I learn through being a business owner and being a mama. I hope to share more with you all in the future, but I'm taking blogging off of my to-do list for now. I'll write when I feel led to. And today, I felt led to.
And if you read all of this - whew. That was a doozy. Thank you. <3
