finding beauty, confidence, and rest in motherhood
Here I am, popping in to shout from the rooftops to the internet — encapsulating your placenta is great, buuuuuuut …. blending it in a smoothie is better! Now, don’t be alarmed. I didn’t blend the whole thing. Just a 1 inch cube. It was hardly there. But there enough to give me a big boost after […]
January was such a blur for me this year … newborns will do that to you, I suppose! I’m just now getting around to many of my annual traditions … ahem … and am happy to finally report that I’ve landed on a word of the year for 2016. Today. It’s my reminder to focus on the present. To be […]
When I was pregnant with Jemma I made one big mistake. Well, probably more than one, but there is definitely a more prominent one when I look back at my earliest parenting experience. I thought that if I prepared enough for pregnancy and labor that everything else would be a piece of cake. Wrong. Pregnancy […]
I whipped up a batch of these cookies for a friend who recently returned to work. Her pumping output has decreased a bit and we all know how worrisome that can be when your little one is relying on mama’s milk around the clock. She messaged me this morning that she had gobbled up a […]
I’ve been giddy to share today’s post because there is nothing better than sharing the ugly truth and then matching it up with a solution or two. Moms are like that, I suppose. We’re fixers. Got a problem? I’ve got a fix for ya! Dealing with something ugly? Let’s work together to make it lovely! […]
I left out the most important part of our Lubbock adventures because it deserved a post all of its own. And no, the title of this post has nothing to do with a Gretchen baby bump. No, no, no – not yet! It does have everything to do with the little miracle that is my […]
I put off exercising for years because … well … HOW? First I had one kid and then I had two. Add my home state of rainy Washington and it just never seemed feasible to find a time to consistently exercise. So, I didn’t. Then, one day – I just stopped making excuses. Dishes could […]
I have a whole list of draft posts sitting in WordPress. 37 to be exact. Some are partially done, others are waiting a photo, most are just topics I want to share, brief reflections and yummy recipes. This summer, I’m trying to work through them. I’d add “all” to that sentence, but “realistic goals” is […]
From the moment a mama finds out she’s expecting, she begins thinking about pounds. I know at least I did. As the scale crept up, it crossed my mind a handful of times, how exactly, it would go back down. I say a “handful of times” because I’ve never been very involved with my weight. […]
Two babies down and a few more to go (someday, not now) and I’ve got a little feeling that I’m growing in my expertise of all those mama things that rock your bod postpartum. Today, I want to share about postpartum sitz baths – also known as mama bath magic. So, you just pushed a […]
2 years ago today I started my first birth. It was hard and wonderful. Empowering and scary. It was everything I imagined and full of unexpected twists. Over the years I’ve thought a lot about what I wanted to change, but in the end, I’m so happy it went exactly how it did. Healthy and […]