Sobremesa Stories

Five on Friday: Husband Crafts And Best Friend Visits

January 15, 2016 By Lauren

For a not-so-fun reason I share below, I have Friday off this week. We have Monday off for a holiday too, which means I’ve had three shorter weeks to start off the semester. With this pregnancy starting to wear on me a bit, I’ll take any days off I can get! We have lots to look forward to this weekend and lots that I’m excited to share with you soon!

1) Best Friend Visits And Maternity Photos

My best friend Haley (aka professional photographer extraordinaire) is coming into town this weekend to visit, see our house, meet our puppy, AND take our maternity pictures. So much goodness! I miss this girl like crazy and am so excited for a long weekend of sitting on the couch, eating yummy food, and catching up on life. Oh yeah, and taking some gorgeous maternity pictures because she is a boss and SUPER talented. She’s photographed our proposal, our engagement, was the maid of honor in our wedding (so no pictures there), and then photographed our pregnancy announcement pictures. My life would be so poorly documented (and just pretty boring) without this girl!

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Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On When Motherhood Isn’t Fun

January 13, 2016 By Lauren

As a first time mom, you have these expectations. From the desire to love every part of motherhood and this new journey to balancing it all to never losing yourself. Then motherhood happens and you find that things aren’t always going to be sunshine and happiness. It’s in those sleep deprived hours that you find yourself wondering what you’ve got yourself into. The next thing you know, your tired mind starts running wild and the thought crosses you mind: “What if I’m not made to be a Mama?”

Let that sink in for a second. This is supposed to be the happiest time of your life. You are a mother. You’ve experienced a miracle in that of growing a baby. You have this precious new little one to love and dote on yet you can’t kick the feeling that you might be in over your head. Not only has this been my mindset before but over the last 3 years, I thought this often. I wonder who God thinks I am to bless me with a son that doesn’t sleep, is the pickiest of eaters and likes to push limits on a daily basis. Why didn’t I get a child that was sweet as sunshine and easy to raise? Because God knows me and knows that I am not one to back down.

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Our 2016 Dreams And Goals

January 12, 2016 By Lauren

We have lots of dreams and thoughts for 2016, but let’s be real: having a baby will throw a wrench in even our best-laid plans.

Instead of having super specific goals that just might not be realistic with a little one, these are some of the things I (and the hubby) would love to work on and see growth in for 2016. I might set more specific monthly goals for myself as we get adjusted to life with a baby, but for now, we’re thinking big picture!

The blogging goals are more specific to me and the personal goals involve our family as a whole. We will have to give ourselves lots of grace as we adjust to life as a family of four (I can’t leave Olive out!) so some of these might fall to the wayside in seasons. And you know what? I’d say that’s a-okay with us.

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The One Thing To Do When Marriage Feels Hard

January 11, 2016 By Lauren

When we got married, we knew it would be hard at times. We’d had plenty of wise, seasoned couples warn us that while marriage has its share of sweet, joyful moments, it will also stretch, break, and grow us in ways we never could have imagined. Oh man, have we seen this to be true.

We’ve wrestled with what it looks like to support each other in times of depression. We’ve struggled with the reality that physical intimacy is really hard and confusing at times. We’ve worked to love each other in the midst of our personality differences, different hobbies, and a million other things (you can check out the archive of my marriage posts here).

And as we’ve shared life with other couples and read all of the your comments here on this blog, we’ve been reminded over and over again that we’re not the only ones who struggle in our marriages. This combining of hearts, souls, bodies, and lives is beautiful and challenging, and it seems like just about every married couple we know struggles with it in some way.

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Five on Friday: California Winter Break Recap

January 8, 2016 By Lauren

We’re a week back into the school year but my heart still wishes it was winter break! I loved having two weeks off to slow down, unplug, and spend time with family, both in Kansas City and California. Here are some pictures and updates from our two week break!

1) New Traditions

We had some fun on Christmas Eve morning starting a new tradition. We went out for a yummy breakfast and then headed to Target. We gave ourselves a $25 and 30 minute limit, then set out to find stocking stuffers for each other (and one additional gift for Olive and for Caleb). We put them in our stockings that night and had fun opening them on Christmas morning before we headed to Jordan’s parents’ house for Christmas day. Olive was a big fan of her stocking, reindeer, and presents, even if Mom and Dad did accidentally both get her the same present (great minds think alike?).

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Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On Heroin Addiction

January 6, 2016 By Lauren

Welcome to this week’s Womanly Wednesday! This is the first Womanly Wednesday post of 2016 and I can’t think of a better way to jump in. My friend Laura is vulnerably sharing about how heroin addiction impacted her family and her honesty is beautiful. Make sure to check our Laura’s blog, Willful and Wildhearted, to read more about her story and her travel adventures!

Everyone has at least one subject in life they don’t like to discuss with others. Unfortunately for me, a topic I have continuously struggled with my entire life is family. When many people think of family, their mind goes to a happy space filled with memories of laughter, inside jokes and traditions. I am fairly certain it’s not terribly common that most people I meet will ever be able to understand where I’m coming from on this – and that’s totally fine.

You see, I grew up with an older sibling addicted to heroin.

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My Five Favorite Books Of 2015

January 5, 2016 By Lauren

When I was a little girl, there was nothing I loved more than curling up in a cozy chair with a good book. I would read for hours and hours, reading while I ate, rode in the car, and did just about anything where I had a free hand. I’m not reading as many novels as I used to, but I still love to sit down with my feet up, a cup of coffee in one hand, and a book in another.

Now, I read a lot more memoirs, self-help, and faith based books that make me think and reflect about my life, faith, and lots of other things. This list below is five of the books I read that most challenged me, the books that had me laughing, crying, and coming back to them to read and underline again and again.

My Five Favorite Books Of 2015

1) Bittersweet – Shaunna Niequist

I love Shaunna Niequist’s easy, personal writing style and how openly she writes about marriage, parenting, and all the joys and griefs that come with them. I cried several times reading this book about what it has looked like for her to find joy in the midst of the struggles of marriage, and her words reminded me over and over again that it’s okay for things to be hard.

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Five Things That Scare Me About Being A Mom

January 4, 2016 By Lauren

If there’s one thing I’ve learned these last eight months of growing a tiny human, it’s that motherhood brings with it a whole host of worries and fears. Pregnancy is beautiful and miraculous and I don’t want to discredit that for a second, but I also believe deeply that part of being human is experiencing fear and struggles even in the midst of joyful, beautiful things.

That belief is why I was honest about how the first few months of pregnancy were underwhelming, why I shared about my fears of miscarriage in the first trimester, and why I continually share about the hard parts of marriage, relationships, and life as a “grownup.”

But today, I want to focus on one aspect of pregnancy that’s been on my mind a lot lately: fear. I’m hesitant to even label these things as fears for some reason. More than I am deathly afraid that everything will fall apart and be horrible, this list is a few things I am anticipating will be just plain hard. I’ve seen over and over again that God uses those hard, stretching experiences to grow us and draw us deeper into Him, but that doesn’t necessarily make those hard things any easier when we’re right in the thick of them.

So even though I know God will use these things for good, I want to share a few of the things I’ve been praying about and wrestling with as we prepare to meet our little man in just ten short weeks. If these things scare you or you’re facing them right now, you’re not alone!

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Seven Month Pregnancy Update

December 22, 2015 By Lauren

Well, hello! Since this past weekend marked 28 weeks of this pregnancy, I figured it was time for a seven month pregnancy update. I am officially moving into the third trimester, which blows my mind a little bit. It’s less than twelve more weeks until our little guy makes his appearance into the world!

How Baby’s Doing

Caleb has been a rockin’ and a rollin’ in my belly these last few weeks. His heart rate and growth have consistently been good and I’m looking forward to some appointments with more updates about him soon. He’s pretty active any time I sit down and has started to respond when his ornery dad or I poke him through my tummy. He’s even made me pause teaching a few times because of particularly hard kicks or somersaults! I think I’ve been feeling him get the hiccups every once in a while, which is another funny feeling. The movements are so fun and different and I’m soaking in every one!

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2015: A Year In Review

December 21, 2015 By Lauren

This year has been so good to us, and it’s crazy to think back on all the big steps we’ve taken in the last 12 months alone. Since I can’t send out a Christmas card to all of you (and let’s be real, our Christmas card doesn’t go into this much detail), I thought I’d take a bit to write down and remember some of the biggest events of our year. Maybe more for us to remember than for all of you, but hey…that’s okay every once in a while, right?