Grinch Kabobs, and Postpartum Reflections on Blogging

Running with the theme from my last rambling here, I am going to try and not send a post out to never never land just so I can say I've done x-number of posts a week.  I promise (to myself, mostly) to only post things that are important to me, things that we as a family enjoyed, things that I want to share because I think YOU will like them. I also might post my thoughts, and pretty pictures. :) Deal? So here is the last post I did on my other blog, and I wanted to share it here, because I know so many of you reading this are my family and friends, and you are like-minded in your love for the holidays and your love for kids!

I might periodically continue to share things on this site that are from Sugar and Grace. The posts will simply be pulled from there as is. I do this so that I can transfer my favorite recipes/kid ideas/etc. onto this site.

Well hey. I am still not quite sure what to do with this little site here. A lot has happened since I last shared anything!

We found out we were expecting in January, and it just completely threw me for a loop. And not in a bad way! We had been hoping to add to our family for the longest time, but this was my first pregnancy and I just didn't expect all the mental and emotional stuff that came with it.  I pretty much lost all desire to blog…I didn't even hardly pick up my camera for 9 months.  I had zero motivation to write about food; heck, for the first trimester I couldn't even look at my blog. Anything that I had made in recent days completely turned my stomach. I still to this day can't really stomach smoothies.

And it was the greatest 9 months ever! I didn't do ANYTHING at home except spend time with my family and read books. It was pretty fabulous. I just didn't care! I didn't care how many page views I got; I didn't stress about trying to cook and photograph meals all before my son's bedtime;  I didn't worry about having the "suggested" number of posts for the week/month/etc. And the world kept spinning. It was eye-opening, and refreshing, and utter bliss.

This is not to say I don't enjoy it, or try really hard at this blogging stuff. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate SO much anyone that actually takes the time to read what I babble about. But I realized that this blog was not my life (it's not even my job, unfortunately), and I got to enjoy this time with my family as a lazy pregnant lady. Well I still got up and went to work every day, but the evenings were the best. No muss, no fuss; no stress, no rushing around. Just dinner and hanging out. And reading. I read a TON of books while pregnant.

So our baby girl is two months now, and I am definitely still not not cooking or photographing anything new…and can't say that I've developed the desire to do so yet. I'm just trying to keep my head above water with two kiddos. But my mom mentioned this super cute Christmas gift, and when she showed it to me I told her we were wayyy ahead of her. We had done it last year; I just never got around to sharing it! So I thought maybe I could at least do that…share some of the stuff we did last Christmas. Because we did a bunch! Don't know if I'll ever have that much energy again! But I've got two precious, healthy kids and I'll take that any day. :)

Grinch Kabobs

INGREDIENTS:

Strawberries

Green grapes

Mini marshmallows

Bananas

Skewers

DIRECTIONS:

Really not much too this. Slice bananas into semi-thick slices (if they're too thin they will break when you try to skewer them), then start assembling.

First a grape, then a banana slice, then a strawberry, then a marshmallow.

This is so easy for kids, and a healthy snack. And kids love to eat anything off a stick!

Grinch Kabobs, and Postpartum Reflections on Blogging

Running with the theme from my last rambling here, I am going to try and not send a post out to never never land just so I can say I've done x-number of posts a week.  I promise (to myself, mostly) to only post things that are important to me, things that we as a family enjoyed, things that I want to share because I think YOU will like them. I also might post my thoughts, and pretty pictures. :) Deal? So here is the last post I did on my other blog, and I wanted to share it here, because I know so many of you reading this are my family and friends, and you are like-minded in your love for the holidays and your love for kids!

I might periodically continue to share things on this site that are from Sugar and Grace. The posts will simply be pulled from there as is. I do this so that I can transfer my favorite recipes/kid ideas/etc. onto this site.

Well hey. I am still not quite sure what to do with this little site here. A lot has happened since I last shared anything!

We found out we were expecting in January, and it just completely threw me for a loop. And not in a bad way! We had been hoping to add to our family for the longest time, but this was my first pregnancy and I just didn't expect all the mental and emotional stuff that came with it.  I pretty much lost all desire to blog…I didn't even hardly pick up my camera for 9 months.  I had zero motivation to write about food; heck, for the first trimester I couldn't even look at my blog. Anything that I had made in recent days completely turned my stomach. I still to this day can't really stomach smoothies.

And it was the greatest 9 months ever! I didn't do ANYTHING at home except spend time with my family and read books. It was pretty fabulous. I just didn't care! I didn't care how many page views I got; I didn't stress about trying to cook and photograph meals all before my son's bedtime;  I didn't worry about having the "suggested" number of posts for the week/month/etc. And the world kept spinning. It was eye-opening, and refreshing, and utter bliss.

This is not to say I don't enjoy it, or try really hard at this blogging stuff. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate SO much anyone that actually takes the time to read what I babble about. But I realized that this blog was not my life (it's not even my job, unfortunately), and I got to enjoy this time with my family as a lazy pregnant lady. Well I still got up and went to work every day, but the evenings were the best. No muss, no fuss; no stress, no rushing around. Just dinner and hanging out. And reading. I read a TON of books while pregnant.

So our baby girl is two months now, and I am definitely still not not cooking or photographing anything new…and can't say that I've developed the desire to do so yet. I'm just trying to keep my head above water with two kiddos. But my mom mentioned this super cute Christmas gift, and when she showed it to me I told her we were wayyy ahead of her. We had done it last year; I just never got around to sharing it! So I thought maybe I could at least do that…share some of the stuff we did last Christmas. Because we did a bunch! Don't know if I'll ever have that much energy again! But I've got two precious, healthy kids and I'll take that any day. :)

Grinch Kabobs

INGREDIENTS:

Strawberries

Green grapes

Mini marshmallows

Bananas

Skewers

DIRECTIONS:

Really not much too this. Slice bananas into semi-thick slices (if they're too thin they will break when you try to skewer them), then start assembling.

First a grape, then a banana slice, then a strawberry, then a marshmallow.

This is so easy for kids, and a healthy snack. And kids love to eat anything off a stick!

Blog Thoughts...

I'm kind of at a crossroads with my blog(s). (Did y'all know I had two?)  I have a huge jumble of thoughts floating around in my head so I'm going to use this post to try and sort it all out, and I welcome any thoughts!

1.) I don't feel that full-time photography is really my calling. I enjoy it, and I still want to learn and grow, but I think I will only take on clients when asked, versus actively pursuing sales. I'm just no good at that. Because of that, I don't feel this site needs to be a full time photography site, though that will always be a love of mine. Instead, since I already use it as a family journal of sorts, maybe I will just expand upon that a bit, posting my kid friendly activities and maybe a meal here and there when I find one we really love.

2.) I'm kind of tired about stressing about how my food looks. I mean, I haven't done this since before I found out I was pregnant, but if I go back to blogging primarily about cooking/baking on Sugar and Grace (the other blog), I fear I might fall into that habit again. Since most people reading on this site are either family or friends, if I do post a recipe, I trust you won't judge my props/lighting/presentation…right?

3.) I tend to get an inferiority complex when it comes to food blogging. There are just SO many great sites out there that I end up feeling like I can never match up to the quality of such-and-such's blog. And that's not really the point. Here, I can just share what I love, without trying to fit a niche or meet an expectation.

3.) I am doing something I never, ever thought I would get to do starting Januray, which is be a stay at home mom. Granted, it is only for the next six months, until the next school year starts back up and I go back to work, but it still means I get to take care of our daughter at home for a little while longer, and be a little more involved in Ian's school than I normally am able to be working full time. I am eternally grateful to my husband and family for being so supportive, but I still feel I need to try and contribute financially as much as I can. Since I will not be bringing home a regular paycheck, I am doing/making things to try to supplement what we are losing. That being said, I cannot really afford to spend time on two blogs, and I know I am not going to give up writing about/to my family. So this one wins. Maybe I'll even have a little "Shop!" button on here someday when I can figure out e-commerce….

So I don't really know how this is going to pan out, but I do know I want to share the things I love with the people I love, and hopefully that's what this site will be!

Thanks, as always, for listening. :)

Love,

Bree