Quiet mornings in this house are one of my favorite things. Watching the sun trickle in through the thick of the forest. Hearing the rustling of the squirrels in the leaves and the plop, plop of acorns on the deck. Sometimes I can't even believe we live here - in the woods, on a mountain. A year later and it's still surreal to me. 

We dreamed of living here since the day we got married but we didn't know at the time that we weren't ready. There were lessons to be learned, places to see and some much needed growth and change had yet to take place. In a way we both had to have our comforts stripped away before we could really appreciate life here. 

By the time we arrived with nothing but hope and prayers we had learned to live from a place of gratitude and contentment. We had come into our own. I learned to be self-sufficient in the sense that I learned to rely on nothing other than God, my husband and myself. I learned to live for myself in the sense that I wasn't doing things to impress or please others - I was doing things that were in line with the person that I wanted to be. And most importantly I learned to give up control. For an extremely perfectionist, type A person as myself this was the hardest lesson to learn. And yet... I constantly repeat my dad's words to myself "All of life's anxieties come from us wanting life to perfect when it never is." Once I accept that life is and will be messy, unpredictable, hard and at times unfair, I find that I no longer fight life - I am able to embrace it. 

We still get frustrated, disappointed and plain old pissed off sometimes but we try to always come back to our blessings because we've learned that at the end of the day the most important things in life are constant and that is each other, our love, our family, our life. It may not amount to much on paper, or look very imposing and yet it's... everything. 

At 29 weeks I am feeling more than kicks, papa bear and I can actually detect tiny hands and feet! It's such a strange feeling to have baby bear moving around inside me (to the point where you don't have to feel you can just look at my belly), nothing on earth compares and nothing can prepare you for what it feels like. And I have to admit sometimes it just creeps me out. 

We also purchased a stroller this week and that alone has made this feel more real than ever before. My feelings about baby bear different almost every day. Sometimes I can't wait to meet him/her and other days it totally petrifies me. Just this past weekend I was putting something away in the fridge and happened to glance up at the photo of baby from our last ultrasound and I felt like I got the wind knocked out of me... I wondered/worried whether we are at all ready for the way our life is about to change in just two months... 

But I suppose you're never ready. 

But today? Today I can't wait to hold this little munchkin in my arms!

P.S. Yes, I really do live in this skirt. It is a lifesaver!!

Even though my sickness/sinus infection continued into the weekend we managed to have a bit of fun. Saturday we drove to Charlottesville where we strolled through downtown and stopped in the most darling little baby boutique and picked up a few things for baby. We had lunch on the patio of a Thai restaurant that restored our faith in Thai food (our fave spot in Georgetown just isn't the same anymore, sadly). Oh and there was an awesome restaurant with a bubble machine that filled the whole street in front of us with bubbles! Bubbles are awesome. Bubbles at sunset are even more awesome!!

Sunday Kevin made us pumpkin pancakes (unreal!)! Well he made them and I fried them as I happen to be better at that. Later that afternoon he painted our brick fireplace white while I lay on the couch going through my fifth box of tissues... By the way it may be the cheapest, most drastic and best update you can make to a room! We are over the moon about the new look!!

I hope y'all had a lovely weekend too!