New years resolutions are a funny thing. It seems that for some reason we need January 1st to roll around before we get serious about making changes in our lives. At least that's how it is if you're like me. Last year, my only resolution was to run more. I ran some in high school. I wasn't the greatest or fastest runner, but at least I actually ran. So that is what I did. Starting this year, January 1, 2014, I downloaded the Couch-to-5K app on my phone and got on the rickety treadmill in our garage and ran. I really wanted to stay committed. At first, I was only running for about a minute at a time to start off, but as I progressed, I started running in our neighborhood early in the mornings and I got up to about 20 minutes at a time. I impressed myself, actually. I didn't know if I would really follow through or not. But I am thankful that I did. I lost about 16 pounds! Eventually the initial motivation wore off and I stopped running as much. October 31 hit and it seemed like everyone, including myself, was in "holiday mode" and life just didn't slow down. I definitely feel like I'm ready for another injection of motivation!
So here I am, checking the box on one of the things listed as a resolution for the new year. If you know me at all, you will know that this isn't the first blog I have ever kept. I blogged quite regularly starting about 7ish years ago. My first blog was dedicated to my one and only child (at the time) to keep family and friends updated. My husband and I had just moved to a city where were had no family and virtually no friends. It was a way to stay connected. My daughter was reaching milestones that I wasn't able to share right away (this was before I was on Facebook). So blogging seemed like the best way to share those exciting times.
When I became pregnant with my second child in 2007, I found new meaning with blogging. We found out that my unborn daughter had a severe heart defect and would need to have open heart surgery immediately after birth. Not only did the blogging platform allow me to keep family updated on our doctors visits and other news, but it was how I met some amazing families that had children with the same heart defect. And eventually that turned into a huge support group and I found a few lifelong friendships. The internet is pretty amazing.
When my son was born in 2010, I pretty much stopped blogging all together. Having three kids in 4 years and 4 months was tough and I didn't have any spare time to blog. I was napping or zoning out or eating or taking a shower... you know, things you can't do when the kids are awake.
All that to say, I have felt this incredible pang of guilt whenever I look back at my old blogs and see how much I missed documenting the milestones of my son. (Knox, I'm sorry buddy. The struggle is real for the third child.) I just want to start documenting again. I would like to have a record of all the different funny stories and quotes and an actual archive of our trips and birthday parties other than just photographs.
Another of my resolutions is to eat better. I know that sounds really simple when you take it at face value. But when you have a family of five, including three kids (2 out of 3 who are picky eaters) and a husband who travels for work at times, it can be a bit tricky to figure out. Since college I have been very interested in nutrition and after seeing Food, Inc., a food documentary, in 2010 I have been more concerned about what is actually in the food we eat. At the beginning of this year, I started incorporating a little bit of the Paleo diet in my own personal meals. I made the same recipes over and over again because I was kind of afraid of it, to be honest. It seems a little complicated to integrate into real life. I was overwhelmed, especially at feeding a family this way. So, for Christmas, one of my gifts was the book 100 Days of Real Food. I haven't read all of it yet, of course, so I am just starting to figure it out. But basically, it is a book about how a family (yes, with kids) decided to take on the challenge of eating "real" food for 100 days. (Real = unprocessed). So I have been pinning away on my Pinterest page different real food recipes and ideas. And I also plan to document some of the meals here.
Learning food photography is another of my new years resolutions. I just l-o-v-e the art of photography and have dabbled in it quite a bit over the past several years (my favorite is photographing newborn babies), but I honestly just don't have time or motivation to continue doing this. I think food photography will provide me with the creative outlet I crave while also incorporating new recipes I find and feed my family. Yay!
Some of you might be wondering about the blog name, Birch Street. It's really nothing exciting, but Birch Street was the name of a street I lived on as a child. Our family moved a lot and it's really the first street name we lived on that I can remember. I have a lot of good memories from when we lived there--my sister and I riding our bikes up and down the sidewalks, walking to Girl Scouts, playing on slip-n-slides with the neighbors, having neighborhood cookouts and roasting marshmallows, sledding and playing in the snow, getting treats from the ice cream truck. I could go on forever... Anyway, it was a good time in my life and I hope that my children's memories of their childhood living on our street are just as happy.
So, here I go again! Starting a new blog that will hopefully help me record our family life as well as share some of my personal endeavors. Thanks for following along! Oh, and happy 2015!
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