Sobremesa Stories

Five on Friday: Christmas Break!

December 18, 2015 By Lauren

Oh. My. Word. What a week! I am so glad to have made it through these last few weeks and finally be at the point where we can enjoy two weeks off. I can’t wait to celebrate Christmas with family, enjoy sweet time with friends, and take some time off from the routines of everyday life. But before I get too carried away, here are a few updates from our last week of the fall semester!

1) Fun Deliveries

All of those packages we ordered over Black Friday have been starting to arrive and it’s been so fun to come home from work to surprises on my doorstep! I don’t want to give too much away since I’m sure I’ll do a nursery reveal, but I’ve loved seeing some of this room start to come together. A friend from our church small group came and helped Jordan put up trim in the nursery and our entire upstairs hallway (shoutout to Bret for helping and Madi to letting us steal him for the night) and now hubby has been starting to assemble some of that furniture that’s been arriving. I am so excited to have all of break to start putting that room together and am grateful to have a husband who’s willing to work on it with me. Make sure to follow me on Instagram for more updates like this picture below that I shared this week!

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Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On Being “Too Skinny”

December 16, 2015 By Lauren

Welcome to this week’s Womanly Wednesday! This week, we have the honor of hearing from my friend Chandler of Life As A Larsen. She’s opening up and sharing about what it’s looked like to wrestle with body image over the years and I love her honesty about a side of this issue we don’t usually hear about. This post is a great complement to Maegan’s post from a few weeks back about her weight loss journey and body image struggles, so make sure to check that one out too!

“You’re so tiny!” “I wish I could be as skinny as you are.” “Do you ever eat?”

These are the type of questions/comments I hear every single day; and let me tell you it gets old. I know they are compliments but to me they are just a reminder or how much I need to be aware of my size and health.

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Five Things We’re Saying No To This Holiday Season

December 15, 2015 By Lauren

Like I’ve shared about many times on this blog, I am a perfectionist to my core. I want to be perfect, do perfect, and be viewed as perfect in just about everything (you too?). Christmas is no exception. Since our first Christmas as a married couple, I’ve had to let go of some expectations about what Christmas “should” be like and embrace how it actually is, in all its sometimes magic-less, normal reality.

This year, we are saying no to lots of things in our attempt to choose our family and our hearts over busyness and people-pleasing (you can read more about how we’re overcoming busyness and learning to say no in this post). And in this crazy season of parties, expectations, and lots and lots of “shoulds,” we’re saying no to the things I’m listing here.

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How Motherhood Is Changing My View Of Christmas

December 14, 2015 By Lauren

In years past, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to make Christmas feel meaningful. I’ve done Advent devotionals, read through different versions of the Christmas story, and tried to make myself feel all sorts of things about this beautiful story that changed our world forever. Despite all my best efforts, most of the time I just got caught up in the busyness and said a quick prayer of thanks before jumping into time with family and friends.

But this year? Christmas has been rocking my world.

This baby growing in me is a miracle, but that is not what has been on my heart this Christmas. More than anything, the thought that keeps coming to my mind this Christmas season is the reality of what always precedes new life: the pain of the stretching.

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Five on Friday: Sick Puppies and Holiday Cheer

December 11, 2015 By Lauren

Happy Friday, friends! We made it through the week and now (if you’re a teacher like me) it’s just ONE more week until winter break! I am so ready for two weeks off to sleep in, sit by my Christmas tree, and enjoy sweet time with all my favorites. One. More. Week. But until then, here’s a few updates from this past week and weekend!

1) A Sick Puppy

This little lady has randomly gotten sick a few times over the last few weeks and we’ve seen some changes in her appetite, so we decided to take her to the vet just to get things checked out. She was completely fine and her normal rowdy self, so they said to switch to a food for sensitive puppy tummies and see if that helped at all. I’m glad she’s fine, but it really was so pitiful and sad to see her hurting. I know I’ve said it before (like in this post about how getting a dog made me a better human), but worrying about her this week reminded me how close she is to my heart. This girl is a part of our family and brings us so much joy. To say I’m glad she’s just a princess with a sensitive tummy is a major understatement!

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Six Ways To Decorate For Christmas Without Spending Money

December 10, 2015 By Lauren

When I shared our Christmas home tour on Monday, a comment I saw many times is that people just didn’t have the money to buy decorations this year. If they couldn’t decorate for Christmas without spending any money, they felt like they couldn’t decorate at all.

First of all, I totally hear you on that one. Store-bought decorations are SO expensive and honestly, aren’t always even that cute. But friends, you do NOT have to spend all your hard-earned money on decorations to make your house cute (especially if you’re like me and would rather spend that money on overpriced holiday coffee drinks – gingerbread lattes forever!). There are so many ways to decorate with what you already have or find a few, cute pieces at secondhand stores. These six tips below are my tried and true methods for decorating cheaply and I hope they help you make your house beautiful and cozy without breaking the bank!

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Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On Living With Lyme Disease And Cancer

December 9, 2015 By Lauren

Just like our broken world, our broken bodies constantly remind us that everything is not as it should be. On this Womanly Wednesday, my sweet friend Rebecca of Caravan Sonnet is sharing about her journey with Lyme Disease and cancer and how those battles have shaped her into the woman she is today.

When I was correctly diagnosed with Advanced Late Stage Lyme Disease in 2013 I had a very emotional response to the news. It was not a pretty sight, and to be frank it wasn’t “accepting” at all. I fit the complete profile of a lady who went through the all five stages of grief.

Womanly Wednesday Lyme Disease and Cancer

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Cozy Christmas Home Tour

December 7, 2015 By Lauren

This is Jordan’s and my first Christmas in our home and it’s the first time in the years we’ve been together that I actually put some time into decorating. As the months pass, I’m getting more and more confident in my style and my ability to create beautiful little vignettes around my house that bring me joy as we go through our days. I loved coming up with some crafts and ideas to do this Christmas, as well as figuring out how I could use some decorations we already had to bring in some pops of red or coziness. And you know what? I LOVE how it turned out! I’m sitting on my couch staring at my mantle and my glowing Christmas tree as I write this and I couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out.

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Five on Friday: Christmas Decorating And Family Fun

December 4, 2015 By Lauren

Happy Friday, friends! We made it through another week and if you’re a teacher like me, we are just two weeks away from Christmas break. We had such sweet time together and with people we love over Thanksgiving and I’m so grateful for this season that lets us slow down and cherish the people we love. I hope your bellies and hearts are still full from last week like ours are! Here are some updates from our last two weeks since I took a 4-5 day blogging break over Thanksgiving.

1) Thanksgiving Weekend

That five-day weekend could not have come at a better time. I had been feeling worn down (mostly physically from this whole pregnancy business and two weeks of a yucky cold) and five days to just rest and be with family was much needed. We spent Thanksgiving day with Jordan’s family eating yummy food, laughing at silly kiddos, and watching my husband and his three siblings play FIVE HOURS of foosball. Five hours, people. What in the world? We hung out with all of his siblings and their significant others several times over the weekend for some family pictures, leftovers, and even one epic game of Settlers (that I WON, I might add). I’m grateful that Jordan’s family lives close and that they are people whom we love dearly and always enjoy spending time with. I know that’s not the case for everyone and we are oh so grateful!

I’m green, and my initial placement totally won this game for me. Just saying. #SettlersNerd

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Neutral Boy Nursery Inspiration

December 3, 2015 By Lauren

If you love the inspiration in this post, make sure to check out the pictures and finished post about our little man’s neutral, rustic nursery. I love how it turned out and if you love these pictures, I have a feeling you will too!

Since we moved into our house last January (you can see a house tour from last spring here – hoping to share an updated one soon) I have had so much fun decorating our space and making it feel like home. I love the creative outlet it is and the way it lets me experiment with color, texture, and vision for different spaces without much risk (because really, as long as hubby and I like it we are happy).

Add a baby and some pregnancy nesting hormones to the mix, and you can bet I have been ALL about our nursery planning! We’re done with cleaning out the nursery, painting the trim a crisp white, and painting the walls (they are a beautiful gray-white color by Behr called Silver Drop), so now it’s time to get dreaming and planning about furniture and decor ideas for our neutral boy nursery!