New to Two

31 Days of Writing

I am linking up with The Nester for her 31 Days of Writing Challenge. We shall see how it goes...

I have created a page/tab at underneath my header where all the #31days posts will be kept for easy accessibility. I will also be posting them to my usual timeline.

Follow along, or even join in the fun! Read about it all here

DAY 1

I am really excited about participating (or attempting to participate) in the 31 Days of Writing challenge hosted by The Nester! When I first started this blog we were going through fertility treatments while trying to conceive our first daughter. I was very consistent with my postings. Then pregnancy happened, and I slacked off. Ever present nausea, vomiting, and exhaustion did not lends itself well to writing. However, once our Ellie Faith was born, I started writing again to document my journey through early motherhood. I realized how much I loved it, and how I gained so much personally from blogging. Unfortunately, I have been sporadic at best over the last year. 

This blog has never been about gaining umpteen followers,  a huge readership or sponsors. Instead, over the years I have learned that writing is very therapeutic for me. Sometimes I need to write down all my thoughts, feelings, and experiences to gain the most out of life's lessons. If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know I tend to race head long through life, only to find I have to stop, screachingly, several months down the road to look back, and figure out how the heck I ended up here? Particularly in all things emotional. 

This summer, while at the beach, I started blogging again. I was getting ready to give birth to our second daughter, our first daughter was/is entering toddler-hood (aka a requiring a whole new level of mothering/parenting!), plus I realized how much I missed writing down my journey through life.

I am a huge believer in sometimes you have to look back to see where you've been,  and where you are now, in order to give thanks. I don't want to ever let my life get so busy, I forget or gloss over the blessings, lessons, or even trials God sends my way. Blogging helps keep me accountable in this area.

While, I would love to think/believe I will actually write something every day for 31 days, I am going to be completely honest - its probably not going to happen. However, I am going to do my best to participate as much as I can. I am using this as a discipline tool in my life.

After the birth of my first daughter, I got us fairly quickly into a pretty set routine. I was new to the staying home routine, after being used to the professional world of 5 days a week. After Ellie Faith's birth, I got up early. Had devotionals. Worked out. Snuggled my baby. Blogged. Cleaned. Cooked dinner. Napped. We are only three weeks into a being a family of four, and I am giving myself time/grace to enjoy and adjust to our new normal, but I can already tell ritual and routine are not going to be as easy this go around. 

And I am ok with that, for the most part. However, I don't want to take it so easy, that I loose all sense of discipline in my free time. Yes, my free time is greatly diminished with the addition of another child, but lets be honest - I still check instagram, facebook, and twitter more then a few times a day. Read blogs. Watch a tv show or two. I have time. Yes, there are days I feel like there really should be at least 4 more hours in the day, but ultimately, if I am being completely honest, while I may not have a ton of spare time, I have plenty of time. I just need to learn to use it wisely.

The vast majority of these post will not be deep or profound. They won't be entertaining or creative. They will probably be really short, and most likely boring to most. But they will be precious to me.

Precious because I intend to simply document our day to day life as we figure out how to parent two tiny females. How to balance household chores while cherishing sweet new born snuggles. Helping the toddler become familiar with who she is created to be, yet providing discipline and boundaries along the way.

These days will be gone all too quickly, and I will miss them and wish I remembered more. So far, I have never written a post I regretted. I do wish I had written more, and captured more memories with words.

So be prepared - many posts may not be posted until/during a 3 am feeding... from my phone. And even then, who knows how coherent they will be. Maybe you can function eloquently between the hours of 2-5am. Not this girl. I will be proud if I muster up a few sentences, that contain only a few grammatical errors, along with a picture or two that I posted to instagram earlier that day.

To learn more about our family, visit my About Me page!

Here's to 31 Days of Writing together!