Showing all posts in THOUGHTS

 

Since I wrote about some highs and lows  of mothering a few weeks ago, I’ve tried to make a few changes myself in hopes of a trickle down effect– happy kids, happy mom… happy mom, happy kids… right?!  Oh if only it were that simple.  ; )

 

I decided it was about time to start getting up before my one year old since, for the most part, he’s been sleeping through the night for some time now.  My husband gets up a little before 6 am during the week to leave early for work so I made him promise not to let me sleep in!  The first week was SO good.  I made my hot lemon water, sat and read for a bit, prayed, and basked in the stillness of the morning.  My son slept until about 6:30 so I had at least 30 minutes to myself.  One morning it was 7:10 before I went up to get him– can you imagine?!  I mean, over an hour to myself … I hardly knew what to do with myself.  ; )  It was good for my soul and I was a much nicer person to my kids right from the start… probably because I actually finished an entire cup of coffee prior to their stirring!

 

 

Unfortunately, kids are unpredictable and since that first week it’s been kinda rocky– middle of the night bad dreams, 5:40 am wake ups, me awake and downstairs but reading the same verse in my Bible over and over again because I feel like I’m half zombie.  One morning I was making coffee with Eamon hanging off my leg thinking ‘I don’t care what anyone says I’m convinced I WILL NOT MISS THIS!’  Ha ha.  I feel a bit bad admitting that’s what was going through my head at the time.

 

 

Today was one of those days– in a way I felt ripped off that I didn’t get my alone time.  But if I try really hard to change my perspective, to be grateful for my children, to embrace the ‘ya win some ya lose some!’ way of life… my bitterness seems to melt away and I realize how petty my complaining must sound.  My little early risers are my heartbeat!  How I love them, how I treasure their company, how I would miss them if they were not in my life.

 

My character and attitude are truly being sharpened by them day by day and I know I have a loooooong way to go.  What about you?  Do you wake up before your kids?  Any advice on training children to sleep in?  ; )  Until then, we’ll be the crazy neighbors taking pictures outside the house at 7 am.  😀

 

 

Well, here I am.  I decided to start my own blog– we’ll see how this goes  : )  When I moved from California to Ireland to be with my husband after our wedding in California, we started a blog so that friends and family could see a bit of our day to day as we started our new life together in Belfast.  For a few years, we were pretty good at keeping up with it– then came the birth of our daughter.  Things slowed down, but we still checked in from time to time and posted photos.  Then came our second child, a son– I guess you could say it all went downhill from there!  Blogging is time consuming, and can feel a bit laborious when there’s not a whole lot of motivation behind the posts other than keeping people up to date with ‘the latest.’  I wanted to have a space that was more than just talking about my kids, our fun weekend, a trip home to Santa Barbara, etc.  I’ve always enjoyed writing and often felt myself wanting to share about a project I’d been working on or a great recipe I just discovered.  Or even just spilling out thoughts on some of those tough ‘mom days’ that we all have from time to time.  It didn’t take long for me to think of a blog name, and so I decided to go for it.

 

I grew up in Southern California on a street called Huntington Drive.  If anyone asked me about my childhood, all memories would begin and end there.  It may sound cliché, but it was the type of place where kids were outside playing in the street until dusk and neighbors were borrowing cups of sugar or chatting from one sidewalk across to the other.  I really loved it.  And when I was thinking of a name for this space, I kept coming back to Huntington– a quiet, sacred part of this earth that holds my oldest and dearest memories.

 

So, for this first post, here’s me saying hello and welcome to my little corner of the cyber world.  : )  Whether you’re a family member, close friend, or someone I’ve yet to meet– thanks for reading.  I will always do my best to share my heart, my creative side, and some adventures with my little family along the way.

 

Erin