I was telling a friend the other day that the blessing and challenge of the last few months is that I’m not sure I’ve ever had so many different priorities on my plate at one time. I’ve certainly walked through seasons when I’ve been more stressed or overwhelmed than I am now, but I’ve never had this feeling of being pulled in so many important directions all. The. Time. In the interest of catching up (I’ve missed blogging!), I’d love to share a little bit about what I’ve been up to.

Work: As you may have seen on Instagram, I started a new job right after Labor Day! This has been the biggest shake-up to my routine, but I’m tremendously grateful for it. I’m working part-time as a copywriter for Gal Meets Glam, a fashion blogger and designer I’m sure many of you are familiar with :) I’ve been following Julia since we were both in college and have loved watching her content evolve and her business grow over the years. When she launched the Gal Meets Glam Collection in the spring, I felt compelled to reach out and offer my services through my copywriting business–even though she doesn’t run a wedding brand, I was excited about the possibility of trying something a little different. I honestly wasn’t even expecting a reply (but hoped for one, since I was pretty proud of the pitch I ended up sending, haha!), but a few days later, their team invited me to work for them as a contractor. About four months later, they called me with a part-time job offer, and after a lot of prayer and discernment (this is my favorite “sermon” on discernment ever), I decided to jump at the opportunity. I’ve honestly realized over the last year that I thrive more on being an employee of a wonderful business, not running my own–there’s some unspoken pressure in the creative space to be a “girl boss,” but I’m so much happier (and get to write SO much more!) when I’m serving another business I believe in. I’m truly enjoying the fast-paced, trail-blazing environment of GMG–it feels very “magazine” to me, which y’all know is a space I love!

Charlie: I’m so thankful that my job enables me to be home and present with Charlie–it’s something I love and cherish, and even though this part-time-work-from-home-juggle can be enormously complicated sometimes, I wouldn’t change it. Charlie has gotten so active and definitely needs more from me now that he’s two–carting him along as I run errands all day doesn’t cut it anymore. Some of his favorite activities lately are playing in the backyard, kicking a mini soccer ball around, going for walks to collect leaves, playing with this farm train, and reading these books.
P.S. If you’re curious about our current childcare set-up, a wonderful babysitter comes over six hours per week, and I am able to fit the other nine hours of work in throughout the week during Charlie’s naps (though I have to completely forbid myself from doing ANYTHING else during naptime in order to make that happen) and occasionally a little bit of time on Saturday or after Dave gets home.

Dave: Dave has been a champ over the last few weeks. He passed all of his CPA exams on the first try (!!), but just as that season of studying ended, I started my job at GMG and we found ourselves with a whole new schedule to navigate. He has been so understanding about occasionally piled-up dishes, laundry that sits in the dryer for a week, and a little more takeout than usual (any guesses which area of our life has suffered the most lately? Ha!) We have our first trip for just the two of us coming up quickly, and even though I’m super anxious about leaving Charlie (he’ll be in tremendously capable hands; I’ll just miss him!) for the longest amount of time since he was born, I’m trying my best to focus on how excited I am to spend a few days alone with Dave. We need it at the end of this crazy year, and everyone I know who has traveled without their babies seems to live to tell the tale and be closer to their spouse because of it :)

Blessed Is She: As you probably know, I’ve been guest posting for the Blessed Is She blog monthly for about a year now, which has been such a joy! I love their ministry SO much and am truly grateful to play the tiniest role in it. They invited me to join their team of regular blog contributors a few months ago, and I was so honored to be invited to write one of the weeks of posts for their annual Prayer Pledge month, coming up in January. It’s a lot of work on top of my already packed schedule right now, but I know it’ll be so worth it. Excited to share more when I can! In the meantime, I have a post about Advent coming out on their blog soon that I can’t wait for you to see, and I’ll be praying alongside their community with their beautiful new Advent journal. There’s still time to grab the journal here, or the Advent bundle (journal + canvas wristlet + frankincense-and-myrrh-scented candle!) here.

Half-marathon training: File this one under super-time-consuming-things-that-I-did-not-account-for-earlier! Now that I’m running up 5-10 miles per training run, it takes 1-2 hours to go for a run, and I am seriously struggling to find that much time, especially now that the sun sets so early. Honestly, I’ve been down to running twice a week instead of three times–not great for the last two months of training, but I literally cannot figure out how to do better at this point. Can I get a grace, not perfection? ;)

House projects: We are tentatively starting to feel out the real estate market in Raleigh again…we LOVE our house so much, but since we know we want to send Charlie to our parish school in a few years, we want to be closer to the school and are getting nervous about being priced out of downtown Raleigh if we wait too long. We want to be able to jump on the perfect property if one comes up, which means starting to get serious about the projects we need to do in our own house to get it ready to sell. It’s astounding how many little to-dos pop up every time we look around!

Alright, I think that about covers most of what’s been going on around here! I want to hear what you’ve been up to too, so let me know the following in the comments below:

1. The three things that have been filling your schedule lately, in one word each
2. One way you’ve been resting or relaxing lately (so I can steal your tips ;) Actually, my answer is that I FINALLY convinced Dave to watch Downton Abbey with me, and it is the best!!)
3. One thing you’re most looking forward to during the rest of November