x

Life Lately




I looked back at my "2020 Travel Plans" blog post I wrote at the beginning of the year and I cry inside a little. This year took an insane turn no one was prepared for. Everyone has their own unique story of how life has changed, and today I'm sharing mine.

WORK: 
Alex and I have both been working from home for the past 3 months since COVID hit. I'm extremely grateful we both still have our jobs and have the ability to work remotely. It was definitely a challenge when Turner was home, and I stressed all the time about being a terrible mom and letting him watch too much TV. Everyday was a battle to get him to do homework, and his school did not take it easy on the assignments. My twins have been in preschool full-time so that was extremely helpful and there's no way I could have kept up the same pace of work if they had been home. Work has only gotten busier, and I'm stressed often but the weekends, prayer, my amazing co-workers, and pep talks from Alex keep me sane. 

SHOPPING:
I have no reason to dress up, so I haven't been spending much money on clothes. I did buy some great basic tees, a skirt from Target I'm living in, and a few summer hats. I've been focusing on decorating different rooms in my house instead of outfits. We upgraded our master bed to a king and bought a rug. We bought two extremely comfy couches from Living Spaces for our family room as well as a rug. I added cactus decals to Walt's room for $100, and finally got a bar cart since we've been drinking excessively (j/k...kind of). 

TRAVEL:
Bahahahaha....that's all I have to say. Well we are going on a few trips but they are local. We went to Port Aransas in early June and had the best time at Cinnamon Shore (full blog post to come). Other local trips include celebrating the 4th on the Frio River (Leakey), Jellystone Hill Country, and Mo-Ranch with friends. Alex and Turner are driving 17 hours to Colorado for a guy's trip, and staying in a cabin with no internet or TV. 


KIDS:
Turner absolutely loved not having to go to school, because he got to be with us 24/7 and could watch way more TV than normal. He did miss his friends, but I'm glad he had Walt and Whitney to interact with. Walt and Whitney actually switched schools after 4.5 years at the same location. Turner went there as well, which means we had been sending kids to that school for 7 years. We made the change because the new school is less than 5 minutes from our house, and their old school was near our work which is much further. We aren't sure how long we'll be working from home so it made sense as we are dramatically saving gas and time. 

Walt and Whitney's bedtime routine has gotten 10x harder lately. Whitney used to go down so easy for me a year ago, but the past 6 months it feels like forever to get them to stay in bed and go to sleep. I've started giving them melatonin most weeknights, but the process is still draining. Getting them to brush their teeth is the biggest pain in the butt. Walt was waking in the middle of the night and coming in to my bedroom around 1am, so I finally had him sleep with Whitney and now he stays in bed. The hard part is just getting them to fall asleep. Every night I read to them snuggled between the two, turn off the lights and sing some songs and hope they fall asleep. I usually fall asleep with them which I don't like because I miss my precious TV watching / late night snacking time 😉.  

BLOGGING: 
Collaborations slowed way down once COVID hit, but because of my full-time job I really didn't mind. To be honest it was kind of nice to just take a break and have a few months off. I didn't write any blog posts because I lacked the creative energy. At the end of May I finally shot with my photographer, Madeline, at the Grand Lady Austin, a beautiful new wedding venue outside of Austin. I usually shoot 4-5 outfits in one hour and use the edited photos for blog posts throughout the following two months. I also shot a few looks for Land's End fall catalog at home which I'm super excited about!

To be honest there have been many times I've gotten sucked in to the comparison game, and I've felt completely defeated. There are SO many bloggers out there now, and some that started a year ago have hundreds of thousands of followers. Like HOW?! I get really pissed when I see people with fake likes and engagement, and it wears on me sometimes. I started this blog nine years ago, and I'm extremely proud of it but it's hard not to compare. 

MARRIAGE:
Alex and I have been doing really well working from home together. We rarely talk to each other except at lunch because we're on conference calls all day. Alex has become a great mixologist so we're enjoying a drink or two during the week with each other, and he cooks breakfast almost every morning! Our kids still make our lives extremely stressful (especially at bedtime), but that's not new.  We were super bummed to have to cancel our 10 year anniversary trip to Europe, but we are hoping to go in 2021. Instead we had a 24 hour staycation in Austin and loved the 1x1 time together. 

Location: Grand Lady Austin | Photographer: Madeline Harper


I would say I hope life gets back to normal soon, but I think it's going to be a long time before we feel like it again. I'm just praying we still have school in the fall. Hang in there friends!

No comments: