Every year we gather ’round with friends, food, drinks, and games, and slow down long enough to just laugh and enjoy each other’s company. This year we missed some key players, but had some friends who had never been to a Thankschristmas before. The great thing (one of the many great things!) about my group of friends is that anyone can join in and they fit perfectly! If you can come up with a funny response to “Things you shouldn’t name a children’s book,” then you’re golden. By the way, the winner for that prompt was Allie with “The Birds and the Bees; a Pop-Up Picture Book.”

I’ve been completely slacking when taking pictures around family and friends in the past year. I love to have physical evidence of memories and fun times, but I never want capturing those memories to surpass the actual moment when it happens. You know what I mean? But I have been trying to make more of an effort to photograph things in my life every since Lucy was born. Now I’d like to actually print out the photos (which I haven’t really done since the advent of Facebook!) so that one day Lucy will know her parents weren’t always sticks-in-the-mud…. not that she’ll ever think that we are…. Right?

Sometimes, when you’re really tired, and your baby won’t stop crying no matter how many boobs you have or shooshes you offer, it’s easy to have a negative point of view. Why won’t you stop crying, baby? Why?! Frustration sets in. Fantasies about life pre-baby begin to cross your mind. But during one of these moments recently, I was logged onto Facebook and saw the heart breaking news that friends of ours had lost their baby boy, who had been born just a week after Lucy and had been struggling with a heart condition for the three weeks of his short life. I quickly grabbed Lucy, held her close, and kissed her a hundred times. I began to wonder, do I take my blessings for granted? I totally do.

I don’t want to have something taken away from me or from a friend to to fully appreciate my blessings and to really experience the true joy in loving my life as it is now. Not as I wish it were, or what I hope it will be in a year or so. Happiness is really all about perspective, isn’t it? And thankfulness isn’t just for those who appear more fortunate. Contentment comes with being thankful for where you are and finding that silver lining no matter how bleak the situation might be.

I’ve been thinking about how great my life really is, and not in a bragging self-righteous way, but in a purely thoughtful and thankful way. Things can seem completely different when you shine a bright light on them.

• Phil found out he will be unemployed after this school year. But we found out early, and now he has seven whole months to find a new job.
• Lucy is having rough days of extreme crying, projectile vomiting, and issues with food sensitivities, but she has been sleeping peacefully through the night, and seems to be a healthy baby otherwise.
• I have this tumor in my neck that I need to have surgically removed, but now we know that it’s not cancer, and that our insurance will pay a good portion of my medical expenses.
• Our second vehicle is out of commission, but my mother lives close and always offers to help me run errands and get around town.
• Some days I despair at tending to a screaming baby all day long, often without a chance to bath or eat, but I have a partner! And when Phil comes home from work, he asks me what he can do to help, and by evening our baby is a joy to be with.
• Money around here is extremely tight (to say the least), and Christmas has traditionally been a stressful time financially, often overshadowing the joy that should come with this time of year. But this year we planned ahead and saved money every month so that now we can bless our family with thoughtful gifts on Christmas morning, and not worry about the financial strain.
• I’ve been struggling with body image issues since Lucy’s birth, and don’t know how to dress my new body, or how to love it. But I successfully carried my baby to full term and am able to breast feed her now, which is more important to me than fitting into my favorite clothes.

There’s so much more that I’m thankful for right now, but I really needed to write out my list of gripes and reconsider them as blessings for which I am truly thankful!

Well, it’s true. I’m a mommy now. And I know what you’re thinking. Oh great, another mommy blogger! Just what the internet needed! Well, if you’re bracing yourself for lots of chubby-faced pictures (of course I refer to Lucy’s cubby face, not my own), you can brace yourself no longer and rest assured. I’ve got plans to continue blogging, but not as a mommy blogger! Sure, my blog has some evolving in its future, that much is unavoidable. But let’s talk a little bit about what my plans are for Making Nice in the Midwest.

I’ve always said I wouldn’t let the other parts of my life fade away into oblivion, as motherhood encroaches and makes its best attempts at pushing away my identity. No sir! I would keep up my hobbies, maintain my social life, and be fabulous all the while. But I can’t avoid the fact that my days are spent trying to sooth a screaming baby, keeping up with laundry, catching up on sleep, trying to somehow prepare food for our family, and attempting to keep our house somewhat tidy in the process. Oh, and that little thing called personal fashion? It’s a bit difficult to focus on when you’re covered in spit-up and your breasts are the size of cantaloupes  Or watermelons, even! All of these things aren’t very exciting or glamorous, and probably not interesting to you guys at all. They’re very draining, though, and leave very little energy for much else. I had no idea this is what I should have expected from early motherhood!

Things should calm down a bit as Lucy settles into more of a regular sleep schedule, and I figure out how to balance things, but in the meantime it makes it difficult to find too much else to blog about. The truth is, cranking out new ideas and making time to fulfil them just doesn’t come as easily as it did in my pre-motherhood days. And I’m not planning on burning the candle at both ends, or being less of a mother to try to create a cutting edge blog.

I understand that many of you aren’t much interested in baby things. At all. Two years ago, I was that blog reader who quickly scrolled by the baby posts from some of my favorite bloggers. I just wasn’t interested. And to be honest, I’m still not super interested in baby talk. Though, there are those of you who are interested in seeing how Lucy is growing, what she’s wearing (diapers and sleepers so far! ha!), and how we’re getting along with a new baby in the house. So I’m really aiming to strike a balance.

In the past, I’ve always shared parts of my life on this blog, and now that Lucy is here, she is obviously a pretty big part of things. So, parenting talk and baby pictures will occassionally make an appearance here on Making Nice in the Midwest. But I’ll make sure to keep those kinds of posts sprinkled between the usual DIYs, fashion posts, and other fun stuff you’re used to seeing here.

Oh, and going along with the good mother bit…. I’ll be dialing back the blogging a little. I’ll still be here, of course, and I’ll still keep blogging. Just not every day as I was able to do in the past. And I hope you all will still follow along in the process!