Life lately behind the blog

Now that it's the end of the year, I find myself reflecting on the past year... thinking about what a great year it's been in all aspects of my life. When I think about my blog, how it's grown this year, and how I want it to continue to evolve, I realize that one of the things that most of my favorite blogs that I've been reading over the years do is share a little bit of their personal life with their readers. I started off doing a little of that in the beginning of my blogging journey, but then life happened, things got busy, and things like personal updates got left behind. But, I think those life updates are important, not just for my readers to get to know the person behind the blog, but also for me personally to remember why I'm blogging in the first place. So starting now, I'm going to commit myself to sharing a little bit of my life with you through a quarterly personal update. I would love to say monthly, but I know that I'm less likely to stick to that schedule (hey, despite what you see on Pinterest and Instagram, bloggers aren't perfect!), and every three months is definitely more doable. Hopefully I won't bore you to death, and I totally don't blame you if you want to skip this post and stick with the DIY tutorials... but if you're curious, here's a little bit of where I am right now along with a fun announcement :)

Blog Life-

For those of you who aren't bloggers, let me just say, it's not easy. It's so easy to get caught up in the numbers game... how many pageviews, how many followers, how much income, etc., and it's even easier to get stuck in the comparison game. Sometimes you have to pull back the reigns, not worry about how successful other blogs are, and look at how far you've come with your own blog.

I recently got a little nerdy and looked at all of the year end stats for my blog in comparison to last year's numbers, and although I am not anywhere close to where I wish I was, I have to say, I was completely blown away by the percentage of growth this year. (I'm not going to share any numbers with you, but you can see in the graph below why I am so excited about this year's growth!) Just taking a step back to look at all I've accomplished this year instead of worrying about what I didn't accomplish was so encouraging! Considering the fact that I completely rebranded my blog to a whole new name, which pretty much meant starting over from scratch in a few areas of growth, I decided I should cut myself some slack and just appreciate that my blog is finally more representative of who I am and the things I love doing.

That's another accomplishment in itself. I used to be so reserved about sharing my blog with people in my personal life. I was embarrassed almost. I didn't want friends, family, or co-workers to know I had my own little slice of the online universe. But you know what I realized this year? I am a DIYer to my core. That's who I am through and through. My mind is constantly churning out new creative ideas, and I see inspiration everywhere I go. That's never going to change. And so, I shouldn't be embarrassed to share my creative outlet with the people in my life. The people that care about me should be supportive of me sharing my passion, so I have got to start being a little bit more confident in sharing that piece of myself. It's okay for them to know that I have an exciting project coming up, or that I'm ecstatic about a favorite brand wanting to work with me, or that it just plain feels good to pour my heart, time, and energy into something that really makes me happy.

Work Life-

Some of you may know that in addition to blogging, I have another job. I work as a nurse in a pediatric cardiac ICU where we specialize in caring for children with congenital heart defects. I've talked about it before here, but I have learned so much from this job. Children are so incredibly resilient, I am amazed every day by how much braver and stronger they are than adults. My unit is filled with lots of emotion. There are really really sad days, but there are really really happy days too. While our focus is on fixing "broken" hearts, there's no way anyone can walk through our halls without their own heart changing too. It's been an amazing experience, and I'm so glad that three and half years ago I stepped wayyyyy out of my comfort zone and left my old job to take this job. I've grown personally in more ways than I can even explain.

Our Home/Projects-

If you've been following along, you know we just finished our big kitchen makeover for the One Room Challenge. We also added on a laundry room and pantry this year. Those were all pretty big projects, so we've been taking it easy this month to just enjoy some family time and the holidays. In the coming year, we'll be finally taking our projects upstairs. The downstairs will finally be complete! Other than my son's hot air balloon themed nursery and his bathroom, we haven't touched the upstairs of our house. It really just needs a few cosmetic updates to make it fit our personality, so hopefully we will able to finish it all fairly quickly so that we can move on to our outdoor space this spring. Our first task upstairs will be figuring out how to paint the tall walls in the stairwell!

Family Life

Our son, Cade, turned one last month! I can't even believe how fast time has gone by. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but I never comprehended just how amazing it would be. It's cliche, but my whole life really has changed for the better and suddenly feels like it has purpose. I've enjoyed every minute of watching our sweet boy grow and learn. Seeing the world through his eyes is such an awesome experience, and I can hardly even imagine what life used to be like anymore. This little guy has completely taken over our hearts and makes every day a little sweeter. Don't get me wrong, it's not always easy, and there is always learning and adjusting for us as parents, but it's all for the best and all so worth it.

In other family news, we have a little announcement to share too! Cade is going to have a partner in crime in June of 2017! We are beyond excited! Baby #2 will be about 18 months younger than Cade, which we think is perfect. We can't wait to watch them grow up together as close friends.

If you recall my last pregnancy, my blog kind of dropped off the face of the Earth while I was overcome with terrible morning sickness. This time around, I'm still pretty sick, and extremely exhausted, but somehow I've been a little more motivated and able to keep up. I promise you that I will keep on blogging this time ;) I've got some amazing blogging friends supporting me in my blogging journey now, and I don't think they will let me give it up so easily this time around. Thank goodness for that! :) Not to mention, my incredible husband sees how much joy this blog brings me and how hard I have worked for it, so he won't be letting me back track either. The blog is here to stay!

I really thought this past year was the best year of my life, but 2017 is beginning to look pretty exciting too :) I hope you've enjoyed a little sneak peek into life behind the scenes. Check back for another quarterly life update in early spring! In the mean time, I always love hearing from my readers, so feel free to reach out through a post comment or email any time!! Enjoy the holidays, sweet friends!!!

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