Life as we know it

Family

This summer seems to be moving at warp speed. Last summer – in stark contrast –  was painfully, terribly slow.Most of that had to do with the extremely oppressive heat (115 degrees, anyone?) and my own personal grief over having miscarried twice. I was never so glad to see a summer go as I was last year. I ran open-armed into Fall 2011 because it meant that things were finally different and that we could move on.

So here we are. A year later. Our days are filled with swimming, working, eating, and general joy with Jude. This week’s been a flurry of getting new patterns done for The Limited, finalizing an awesome awesome awesome collaboration that I can’t wait to tell you about, and trying to stay cool despite the (not nearly as oppressive) heat. I still need to schedule swim lessons, but I have to admit – I’m eating up this last bit of unstructured time before school starts for Jude a month from now. A MONTH. MAH BAYBEEEEE is going to SCHOOL!  Please send copious amounts of Kleenex. And hugs. And maybe cupcakes.

Oh! Did I tell you that Simon’s working on filming a TV show pilot? Yup. It’s true. He was asked to be the host for a new show that’s being shopped around to a few networks like HGTV or Food Network, and this was The Week of Filming. It’s been fun to hear about the whole process, although admittedly  a little surreal. Never in a million years, my friends, did I ever think either of us would be where we are today.

And along the baby front, not much is different. After several months of trying to get pregnant, my body apparently decided to put a halt to all things ovulation.  So there’s that. I mean, thanks so much, Reproductive System, for all you’re doing for me right now.  I grow more & more grateful for Jude every day, our little surprise redhead. He’s become a total miracle to me in too many ways. Sometimes pregnancy just seems so easy for some people. Sometimes I feel like it’s just not meant to be easy for me.  And, to say the least, that’s put a wrench into our plans. Isn’t it funny how we think that we get to determine things like, oh, you know, LIFE? As if I am so all-powerful, I should get to determine at what exact moment I should create life to bring into the world?  Nope. Getting pregnant is the quickest way to figure out that you are so not as in control as you previously thought you were.

But I knew that already. And to be fair, none of this fertility stuff is really a shock. I knew a few years back when I had all my ulcerative colitis surgeries that adding to our family might become difficult.   The good news is that lots of the tests I’ve had done have come back with excellent reports, so I’m going to keep taking my crazy pills fertility drugs and continue to pray that I don’t fly into a hormonal rage at any given moment.  Pray for Simon, too, while you’re at it. 😉

So here we are. It’s been weighing on my heart heavily, and I’ve been hesitant to talk about it here.  But again, part of my journey has been realizing that I don’t do well bottling things up. I prefer to let it all hang out.  I suppose it helps me find the value in the difficulty, you know?  At the end of the day, I KNOW that God has a plan. I KNOW that he works all things together for good. I KNOW that our story isn’t finished. And I am going to choose to find joy despite my circumstances.

Let’s see, what else is happening? Oh! On Saturday I’m going to be doing the Color Me Rad run. Although can I be honest? I have next-to-no-desire to run this thing in 100 degree heat. I wish the organizers would have scheduled this for October or something. So it’s going to be more of a walk-walk-walk-walk-jog a little – walk walk walk walk – jog a little. You get the picture, right?  Just nod your head.

This has also been the week of wrapping up my outlines for the panels I’m speaking on at the Stationery Academy later this month. There are so many facets to blogging, designing, and running an Etsy shop. I feel like I could write a book on the subject. Or … maybe just a blog series. Would you be interested in reading about stuff like that? The behind the scenes stuff?

Finally, check out these fantastic little prints (above) of some of my Instagram photos. I ordered them from Printstagram and I couldn’t be happier. The paper quality is so beautiful, and I adore having actual hard copies of some of the photos. I’m also inspired to create more Blurb books with my photographs. Having everything on the internet is great, but there’s something really emotional about having a hard copy of photos to pass down. Will our kids have that someday, in this age of technology? I’m worried that they won’t in the same way that did.

with love,
Rachel

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