Category: Our Life

Friday Favorites of Quarantine {04.17.20}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It took me awhile to get to this place. I still fall back into just sadness over this whole quarantine thing. I mourn a bit the ‘old way of life.’ Mainly, getting to see our families and the freedom to come and go without fear of bringing home a deadly virus. But, I’ve also come to realize that there are things about quarantine that I genuinely love, and I’ll miss once life goes back to “normal.”

For a person whose love language is quality time, I’m getting a lot of it. Being with the two people I love the most for an extended period of time without interruption or the need to go-go-go has been a blessing. I feel more connected to my family than I have in years…heck, maybe ever.

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Spring House Tour!

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Spring is I think by far my favorite time of year. A really nice, sunny spring day seems to wash away the memories of a cold winter being stuck inside. The garden starts to come to life, and birds return and start singing again. I change my decorations throughout the house with the seasons, and our spring/summer decor is clean, bright, and colorful. I shared a house tour of our winter and fall decor HERE and HERE. But my favorite decor of all is spring…so here are a few pictures from our house right now…

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Let’s Look At…Easter at Our House

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Once a month, I link up with two of my favorite blogs (Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything), to share a “look” into some little aspect of our life.

This month, we’re talking about how we do Easter at Our House.

We haven’t gotten into a good “Easter” tradition at our house for several reasons. One is that Harrison’s birthday is April 13th. And he didn’t have his first Easter until last year, when he was just over one. The year he was born, Easter was really early at the end of March, so he missed it completely! All of that is to say, our only “normal” Easter with Harrison was last year. Historically, we go to Easter morning church service, and brunch with family. We didn’t do much with the Easter bunny last year, so it wasn’t really a set-up for what I think our Easters will be like in the future.

Easter 2019

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A Typical Day During COVID-19 Quarantine

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’ve done a couple of typical day posts over the past year. You can go back and read them HERE and HERE. With the changes that quarantine has brought, though, I wanted to document this very different period of our lives. Nathan and I are both working full-time jobs at home, and we have Harrison here as well. It’s made for quite the change in our typical routine, so last Monday, I decided to document our full day from wake up to go to sleep. Here’s how we’re making quarantine work so far…

I still get up at 4:50 in the morning, and get a work out in before the rest of the house is up and moving.

I walk all the way to our living room to do my work out. 🙂

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Friday Favorites {03.28.20}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Wow. Fridays sure feel different right now. I used to look forward to them with all of my being. I’d look forward to and plan a trip to the park with Harrison or the garden center, before it would get super crowded on the weekend. And man, I appreciate the uninterrupted time with little guy, but the go-go-go person in me is struggling with not having some things to do. Every day is a practice in mindfulness, trying to be comfortable in the slow-ness of life right now, and, of course, unbelievable thankfulness for my family’s health. I know a couple of people now who are struggling with COVID-19, both in KC and on the east coast. It’s amazing to me the difference in their symptoms and severity of them.

We are one full week into our quarantine with Harrison at home. KC is on a stay-at-home order until at least April 24th, so that means, there’s only four more weeks to go!

How are you all doing with self-quarantine? I feel like I pray every day that our country starts to see the fruits of all of us staying at home.

My Friday Favorites are pretty simplistic and ordinary, because that’s what life is right now. Have a good weekend, friends!

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to spend this much time at home with both Harrison and Nathan. And it does have me realizing how much I love this little family of ours. The fact that this little boy is blissfully unaware of the chaos and anxiety that fills the world outside of our four walls right now. He’s perfectly happy in getting to hang with Mom, Dad, and Soy Soy for days on end.

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What’s Up Wednesday {03.25.20}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

What feels like a lifetime ago, my last What’s Up Wednesday, I was so excited for spring on the horizon, and my Fridays at home with Harrison. I was looking forward to all of the things that I love about this season. Being outside, gardening again, and getting to enjoy the good weather. And now that we sit here almost two weeks into self-quarantine, while none of the things has been completely taken away from me, it certainly feels different and more complicated.

I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life lately!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:

  • Sunday: Leftover homemade pizza
  • Monday: Tacos
  • Tuesday: Leftovers
  • Wednesday: Sausage Vodka Pasta
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday: TBD

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

What turned out to be the good old days. When you could run to Target, and be assured cleaning supplies. That you could have birthday parties and book club with your friends. That you didn’t worry about your friends who were now scrambling to wonder how they would make money for rent, and friends who worked in the medical profession that are now putting their lives at much higher risk for us every single day. Life before quarantine. Life with extended family and friends mostly. Life that looked like this:

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Let’s Look At…What’s in Your Purse

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Today was supposed to be a link up in the “Let’s Look” series, but due to COVID-19, my two favorite blogs are forgoing the link up this month. But seeing as I had already drafted a post about the topic, and I think we could all use maybe a little something lighter to read, I’m going to post it anyways!

Today we’re looking at what’s in our purse. I strongly considered doing a clean out of my bag before doing this post, but then decided, that was the easy way out to make it look like I’m perfectly organized all the time. So, here we go…

Things that I always have in my purse…wallet, keys, chapstick, and a card wallet full of a bunch of loyalty cards and coupons – half of which are expired.

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A Note to My Low-Risk Friends About COVID-19

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I had plans today to talk about my visions for Harrison’s new big boy room. The plans I’ve been making for theme, colors, and decor. But I feel compelled to change that given the national upheaval and fear that the coronavirus has taken over in many Americans’ lives. Let me start by saying, I am not an expert, and I do not purport to be an expert of any sort. I’m just a mom to a little one year old boy. A daughter to parents who are over the age of 65. A granddaughter to a grandpa who lives in a senior assisted care facility many, many miles away from me that is currently on lockdown. A sister-in-law to a sibling with an auto-immune disorder. And I myself, am 21 weeks pregnant with our second little boy. This is just one tiny voice among millions in my little corner of the internet world.

The entire nation seems to be at one pregnant pause right now. Waiting to exhale collectively…I stood in line on Thursday evening buying provisions in an attempt to provide us food for several weeks to be able to avoid the grocery store. And as I picked up each item off the shelf, I wondered if the person who had placed that box there had been sick, and unable to stay home until they were healthy.

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The Importance of Words

Posted on by Lauren Lane

From a very young age, I was taught that words mattered. The words that you choose to speak and write could have a profound and long-lasting impact on someone’s life. This probably played into one of my primary love languages being Word of Affirmation. Words have the power to tear people down, or build them up. To speak confidence and appreciation to someone, or to hurt and make others feel small.

I think the power of the written word in particular is often lost on my generation and younger generations. The way in which handwritten letters and notes can change the course of someone’s thinking is diminished to a fleeting text message in a hurried day. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t send the text, to let someone know you are thinking about them. The unbelievable access we have to one another makes our ability to communicate on a regular basis easier than ever.

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The 3 Movies I Watch Over and Over Again…

Posted on by Lauren Lane

You know the movies I’m talking about. They’re playing on a cable TV station with a million commercials, and you still opt to put them on for background noise. You could recite practically the entire script you’ve watched it so much, but you still love it. I love hearing about other people’s “background” movies. I feel like it tells me so much about them, and a little bit of a window into their lives. I’ve found that the movies that I listen to over and over again are usually the ones that I watched during the years of my life where I was really starting to come into my own as an adult. Maybe you’re the same 🙂

Good Will Hunting. Hands down my favorite movie to this day of all time. I love the writing. The quick banter and dialogue and deep character development. Robin Williams is brilliant. My Dad still texts me lines from this movie sometimes – it’s one of those loves that we’ll always share.

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