Blog

12 min read

2022: A year in review

Welcome to my annual post of our life in the last year – a review of all the big and little events, travels, habits, heartbreaks, and joys. These posts require a lot of time and energy, in part due to sifting through all the posts I wrote in the...

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9 min read

Finn's birth story

I've been adding bits and pieces to this post for the last several weeks. Birth, and the arrival of a beautiful baby feel so sacred and I want to do it justice with my words. I shared Cooper's birth story back in 2019, and Finn's birth story feels...

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4 min read

Labor and home birth preparation

I'm 36 weeks into this pregnancy, which is hard for me to believe. The second half of this pregnancy has flown by, and we are fully in the throes of preparing for the arrival of this little boy. I was texting my SIL the other day, telling her about...

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2 min read

A heart awake to praise

It's a bit difficult for me to articulate, but over the past few years, I've noticed a habitual, or cyclical hardening of my heart. We've experienced loss and grief in ways that were unexpected and deep. Life as mama to a baby and now a toddler is...

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6 min read

Winter sweetness

It's been a little while since I've done a post about life lately, so I figured I would share some sweetness from life over the last few months.

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4 min read

Thanksgiving weekend and early December 2021

Per usual, this time of year flies. I've had much of this post saved in a draft for what felt like only a few days, but has in fact, been weeks. Time to catch-up a little on life these last few weeks!

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8 min read

Mourning, moving, turning 30

I want to write about true things. About real things. And in this season, a real thing for me and Nicholas is mourning.

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15 min read

2019: A year in review

Every year, I find it a bit therapeutic to look back on the last year. I know my heart is bent toward nostalgia, and at times, I wonder if that is one of the reasons I find looking back easier than looking forward. That's something for me to mull...

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9 min read

Cooper's birth story

I wanted to write out the specifics of a very special day, the day we met our little boy, before the details became fuzzy. Labor and delivery are truly incredible things; the way God designed our bodies to go through such an intense and wonderful...

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8 min read

The sweetness of now

I get a lot of questions about baby boy's arrival. The basics, of course, like when, followed up by comments along the lines of You're so close! And usually there are comments about Aren't you just ready to be done being pregnant by now?

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6 min read

Memorial day & life lately

This past weekend, my parents and brother came to visit for Memorial Day. Before they left, it was a little surreal to say, "Next time I see you, I won't be pregnant!"  The reality that we're (at the most) a month(ish) away from meeting Baby DeVries...

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7 min read

Preparations for Baby DeVries

I was just thinking the other day that I haven't shared all that much about what we're doing to prepare for June (our "due month" as one of the midwives I see referred to it as). Apart from preparing for the reality of being a family of three(!)...

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4 min read

Abundance

I frequently have nightmares (I always have) and usually, they set a tone for the morning, leaving me feeling unsettled. But today, even after a nightmare, I woke up to baby boy kicking like crazy, and thankfulness in my heart. We're still...

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3 min read

Moving into a new home

Well, hello!

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6 min read

Celebrating baby DeVries in Minnesota

This past weekend, Nicholas and I took a whirlwind trip to my hometown in Minnesota to see family and have my third and final baby shower. Friday, I drove to pick up Nicholas from his workplace downtown Chicago, and then we hopped on the road...

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5 min read

Life lately, late April 2019

It feels like spring in our new home in Northwest Indiana. It is the beginning of a lot of things for us.

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7 min read

A trip to the mountains

On Friday, we got home (to our new home) from a trip to the Asheville area of North Carolina. We planned this trip back in January or February, before we had even a thought of a new job for Nicholas, and a cross-country move, and other big life...

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7 min read

We're moving! And life at 26 weeks

The last few weeks have felt like a flurry of activity, in actuality with my calendar, but also mentally and emotionally. I think it's normal to feel that way in the midst of big life changes, right? As of today, it's 93 days until my due date,...

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4 min read

February self-care

It's that time of the year when typically, as a born-and-raised Northerner, I'd be yearning for spring. That yearning isn't quite so pronounced here in Austin, but nonetheless, February is a month of almosts. Winter is almost over, spring is almost...

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8 min read

After the waiting, & thoughts at nearly 22 weeks

Last week, we had our anatomy scan for the baby and found out that baby DeVries is a healthy baby boy! Nicholas is an older brother and I have an older brother, so it seems fitting that we would have a little boy as our first. My mom texted me and...

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5 min read

January sweetness

Life isn't incredibly eventful these last few weeks, but at the same time, uneventful, doesn't mean it hasn't been sweet. We're going about the daily business of living life, with little fun things sprinkled in, lots of sleeping, work days, coffee...

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3 min read

Relishing 2019

I don't tend to make resolutions, since open-ended goals usually make me antsy. However, this year feels different. I am excited about this next year, knowing it's a continuation on of life, but also that there are some big things that will change...

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6 min read

Our Christmas 2018

I'm writing about things a little out of chronological order, but it seemed to make more sense sharing our news first and then writing about Christmas and my annual year-in-review. With that aforementioned news, lots of things changed this year.

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2 min read

We're having a baby!

It's been a quiet few months over here, and for a tiny good reason.

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