Can you believe it? Christmas is finally here! Well in a few days at least. But our kids are officially off for the holidays and Mike and I raced around all morning to get enough groceries to host twice and last us until Wednesday. We also got our last few gifts which means I get to hibernate in our home until heading out to our church’s Christmas eve service on Sunday. This is a good thing because we just got a dumping of snow here in southern Ontario.
Above: present opening from Christmas-part 1, last weekend
I had a lot of plans for the past couple months and the lead-up to Christmas but then life happened. My November was full of unexpected stresses like a colonoscopy (which was clear… phew), and December has brought one illness after another into our home, keeping kids home almost daily.
I have three half-written seasonal blog posts that never made it to the finish line, and finally this past week I just had to throw in the towel. It took me until yesterday to get excited for Christmas, but as I raced around, (after sending our mostly healthy kids to school and daycare), and finding some absolutely perfect gifts for Mike and the kids, the excitement finally set in.
But as excited as I am for Christmas, I always love January, because not only does it bring my thirty-fifth birthday, but a fresh new beginning. I have big plans for Nesting Story and our family, including possibly adding another member to our family. No, I’m not pregnant. Any guesses?
I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season and that you are able to let go of perfection, carve out some time for yourself, and cherish the small joys in between the inevitable chaos. Happy Holidays from our family to yours!
Oh and if you are behind on what’s been going on here, here are this past week’s YouTube videos for you to catch up on…
Where do I start this one? I feel like I haven’t checked in with all of you here on the blog, in terms of me, personally in quite a while. Let’s talk health, lifestyle and the blog.
I guess it goes back to last spring.
Last spring, after a quieter winter, life got busy. I lot of exciting projects came my way, I had a lot of travel, both for work and vacations, and the kids schedules were getting busier.
During that excitement I noticed my energy levels lagging, heart palpitations kept coming and I was often light-headed. I kept putting it off and finally I went to see my doctor when it dawned on me that I hadn’t had a physical in over FOUR YEARS!
Whoops!
My blood work came back showing that my iron levels were in the toilet. So I started to take iron supplements and my energy levels came back.
This past summer was a blur of travel and work deadlines. I’ve been working on some really exciting projects,
and our family even went to Mexico.
The peak was definitely my trip with Mike to New York, without kids, for our ten year anniversary. We basically ate and walked our way through New York. I had been a few times before, but it was Mike’s first time to New York and he loved it just as much as I thought he would.
By the end of August I started having abdominal pains that were different than any IBS symptom I had experienced in the past. But, typical me… I ignored them.
But by the second day, as Mike watched me try to put Beau to bed doubled over in agony, he insisted I go to the emergency room. I compromised and agreed to booking a doctor’s appointment for the following day.
The next morning, about five minutes after Mike walked out the door to work, as I began to make our kids’ breakfast, I gripped the counter as our kitchen spun, and I managed to make it to our couch, shooting an S.O.S. text to Mike…
“I’m not well.” It said.
The next thing I knew, our door flew open and there was Mike, ready to take over with the kids. I was so glad to see him.
Later that morning we left to my doctor’s appointment. As she checked my belly, my doctor decided to give my abdomen a little shake and I screamed in pain. That gave me a one way ticket to the Emergency room.
Hours, many tests and a ruled out appendicitis later I almost left the hospital feeling like it was a waste of time, but a general surgeon visited me and convinced me to stay for a CT scan. Thank goodness he did.
It turned out that I had diverticulitis.
Diverticulosis happens when pouches (diverticula) form in the wall of the colon. If these pouches get inflamed or infected, it is called diverticulitis. Diverticulitis can be very painful. – Webmd
I was told that I was very lucky that I had gone in when I had and an abscess, or a perforation hadn’t occurred and was sent home with two antibiotics.
Since then I have had follow up appointments and a colonoscopy is booked for late fall. But truthfully, I haven’t felt the same since.
I have been exhausted, and nervous that I am going to eat the wrong thing and set it off again. I will always have these colon outpouchings, and it is my job to eat an extremely healthy, high fibre diet.
This for me has been a big wake-up call. I have been making some huge lifestyle changes including being less busy, moving towards a more minimalist life, having laser focus on work, but not trying to do everything, making more time to cook, and moving towards a more plant-based diet.
I have also been exploring my health on a deeper level. I have been peeling the onion as to why I am having so many digestive issues and struggling with my energy and I am even changing my skeptical opinion about essential oils, naturalpathic medicine (I grew up in a medical home, so that’s a hard one for me), and moving towards a happier, healthier, fuller life.
I have so much more to say, including how my recent health has shaken my confidence. How I am reteaching myself to get up in the morning to workout. How I am learning to have a better relationship with cooking and my kitchen. How I got a live blood cell analysis, and what was found.
For a while there I was pouring my heart out on my YouTube videos, (which I will continue to do), but not here on the blog. I started to get it in my head that the older my kids got, the more polished my posts had to be and the more beautiful my photos had to get. And that simply isn’t true.
Comparison truly was my thief of joy.
In fact, yesterday, while Mike and sat in a silent waiting room, I was scrolling through Facebook searching for a blog post to dive into to pass the time. I couldn’t find any. I turned to Mike and said, I wish I brought my headphones. Everything these days is video. I miss reading a raw, authentic blog post.
I guess there is a place still for personal blog posts.
So, with that all being said, I am going to be showing up here, on my blog more. Journaling my journey through motherhood, womanhood, marriage, wellbeing, health and lifestyle. I will by pouring my heart out to you unfiltered. Letting you in.
I am looking at this a bit as a new chapter for my blog. I hope you join me!
Oh, and in case you want to catch up on some of the big events that I mentioned, here are the vlogs that documented those moments…
I cannot believe another year has passed! I truly feel like we are hitting a new stage around here. Despite the terrible-twos occasionally popping up here and there, we have seemed to hit a sweet spot.
Our kids are getting more independent and I am finding it easier and easier to get out with all four. Mia and Everly are talking in full sentences, which is very exciting.
I am very thankful that we are ending 2016 healthy and happy. Here is a little look back at our previous Christmases, as well as a full Q & A our family did…
Well, it’s done, we did it, we’ve closed that chapter. I am talking about creating one video every day in the month of September.
There were days that I almost threw the towel in because I had to re-do an entire vlog when files were corrupt, or when the kids and I were sick. But that voice in my head was so strong, and my determination to see-through this challenge, (that was my idea), was so powerful, I just had to finish, and finish well.
This experience was life-changing. No, seriously, I am not just throwing around a term used too often. It literally changed my life.
Here are some lessons I learned while creating 30 personal videos in 30 days…
I am A LOT stronger than I thought. This lesson is something I had already learned once before, when I was pregnant with my twins. Deciding that I was going to take on such an enormous task that was mentally, physically and intellectually draining was one thing, but not giving up, or skipping a video, even when people who were cheering me on supported me to “take a break,” was the biggest test.
When I was pregnant with my twins, I never had the option to take my gigantic tummy off for a day to take a break. I was in it whether I liked it or not.
Doing daily videos for a month was my idea. No one was relying on me to produce them. There was no monetary pay-out at the end. It was just a personal goal that I took on and could have just as easily given up on.
I am not a 90% person. I had always been the person that would want something, but not even try because I would be scared that I wouldn’t be perfect at it, or complete it. But this time I started and ended something that was really, really hard, and that feels really good.
About a week, after starting filming, editing and uploading a video everyday, when the honeymoon phase was over, and Mike and I got into a fight.
Don’t get me wrong, he was my number one supporter, and partner in this project. I can’t even remember the details about why we were fighting, but we fought.
It was so bad that neither of us caved, and he decided to sleep on the couch downstairs that night. Ouch.
But the next morning we talked, worked it out and got passed it. From that point on we teamed up and I worked each evening as Mike picked up my slack around the house.
We found our joy in doing the videos again, and this test, in turn has made us an even stronger duo.
I found Nesting Story’s direction for the next chapter. Although I know for sure, (at least for right now), that three videos a week, instead of seven is a better fit for us, I have fallen in love with video all over again.
For a long time I was only telling our story through written word and photographs on the blog. But organically more and more has shifted to video. I love that we are able to share our story through video with the blog supporting it.
I have completely fallen in love with the YouTube community as well as the community of people I have reached on my other social media sites through video. I have created long-lasting friendships with other creators and have truly felt supported in this endeavour.
Thank you. All of you!
How precious time with my family is. Doing daily vlogs took me away from my family. We all survived, but it made me miss them in a way that I needed to experience.
For a long time I was living from nap time to nap time and conference to conference. I had been so burnt out from having twins and being in the baby stage for so long that I was just going through the motions.
But working around the clock while watching the previous day unfold in front of me on my computer did something to my soul.
It made me want to participate in life with my husband and my kids again. It made me want to do things with them, like cook, venture out of the house, play and show more interest in what they were doing.
Because of this renewed love of family time, I have been actively taking some unnecessary irons out of the fire and creating time.
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In the end I always circle back to why I started sharing what started as my story, and became my family’s story… to connect. I was so lonely during my twin pregnancy and wanted to know that I wasn’t alone, and that maybe there was another mom out there like me.
I wanted to open up my experience of motherhood complete with triumphs and failures, but always problem solving along the way.
Whether I am sharing on video, the blog, or other websites like Baby Center, I will continue to be real, to inspire and to connect.
Here is the last of my September daily vlogs with something very special at the end…
This past week we finally said goodbye to the last pacifier in our home. This is just one step further away from the baby stage which brings a mix of emotions.
Also, we had a week full of fun while Mike was on holidays, including a family reunion at a farm with all of the little cousins. Follow along on the vlog…
Where do I start this one? I feel like I haven’t checked in with all of you here on the blog, in terms of me, personally in quite a while. Let’s talk health, lifestyle and the blog.
Well, it’s done, we did it, we’ve closed that chapter. I am talking about creating one video every day in the month of September.