Erin Akin Carroll

That’s right, y’all! If I’m coming back, why not come back with my favorite way to blog? It’s a brain dump.

And I guess I just need to fill everyone in on what we’ve been up to.

1. House hunting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What’s new, right? We’ve been house hunting since December 2011. We sold our house in November 2012 and we’re still house hunting. But guess what? We’ve made a decision! We’re meeting with a builder today and we’re getting started. For months, we went back and forth on whether or not we wanted to stay in town or move a little farther out to a neighborhood we’ve loved for a long time. But in the end, we never felt quite at peace about the longer drive, and we kept finding major things wrong with the houses we liked in these neighborhoods.

We’ve found the perfect compromise, we feel. Staying in town and still having new construction– with a garage. A garage! One of the non-negotiables from our original wish list. We’ll still be near our church, our preschool, so many friends (but our friends are scattered all over town, too), and the part of town that we’ve loved for 8 years.

2. TV. I’ve been watching an obscene amount of TV on Netflix and iTunes. I watched all of Pretty Little Liars, Parenthood, West Wing, and Downton Abbey. When the boys go to bed, Todd does a little work (or listens to the Dan Patrick podcast) and I watch a show.

3. Cooking. I’ve loved being back in the habit of meal planning and cooking in 2013. I cook 4 nights a week on average. Wednesday nights we eat at church and the rest of the time we have leftovers. I’ve done my best to make myself at home in Nana’s kitchen. And it’s been fun for us to sit down to eat every night with the boys and with Nana.

4. One of our dearest family friends passed away this week. Mrs. Lewis was a mentor to my parents, and she practically introduced them to each other. She was like a grandmother to me, and her love for my brother and me was so evident. I love the way she loved my parents as if they were her own. And her children and grandchildren are going to miss her so much, too. I’m so sad that I’m not able to go to Louisiana for the funeral this weekend with my parents. She will be missed.

5. Fiona and I have had a lot more quality time together in the past few weeks. She’s such a great little cuddler.

6. Hayes is making great strides in speech therapy. I have absolutely loved watching his progress and getting to know his speech therapist. It’s the neatest thing just watching him learn to correct habits, and I love that his speech therapist is teaching me different ways to work with Hayes.

7. I just have to say that we serve an amazing God. I am so thankful for His protection over our family and that each day He calms my fears and shows me that He is guiding us down each path. So often I am so caught up in the details, but I just need to leave those to Him. Because, guess what? He’s in the details, too. It’s been a tough week, and I’ve felt so much peace in the midst of it all.

8. Watching my boys grow up is the most bittersweet thing. I love seeing who they’re becoming, but when I look at them, especially Hudson, I just have no idea where the time has gone. I know every single mother says this every day, but it’s so true. So many parts of parenthood are just heartbreaking. Looking at my 3.5 year old and not being able to see a trace of chubby belly or a cheek to pinch just tears me up inside.

9. I feel pretty bad that I took a blogging break right after Christmas and I never really blogged about Christmas. It was wonderful. So much fun. So relaxing. But December hit me like a ton of breaks and left me in the dust. I’ve loved the quiet January and the time I’ve had with my family.

10. Today is a big day in the life of preschool. It’s the day that the 3 year olds put on their “Circus.” Hudson is going to be a tiger, much to his daddy’s dismay. (Sorry, Clemson fans.) He’s so excited about his role as a tiger, and I’ll look forward to sharing pictures.

If you stuck around through my break, thank you so much! I’ll try not to let it happen again, but I can’t make any promises.

Hello, long lost friends! I’m returning from my unplanned, lovely hiatus to throw together a little obligatory au revoir to 2012.

Today is the day when everyone starts to finalize their goals and resolutions for the new year.

Lose 20 pounds. Read 50 books. Blog every day. Volunteer for a new charitable organization. I have seen some really fantastic goals and resolutions.

But this year? I’m just going for grace.

I want fewer goals. Because goals that aren’t met cause my heart to worry and then the worry puts little wrinkles on my forehead.

I’m going for fewer things on my to-do list. Fewer meetings, fewer commitments, fewer obligations.

Honestly? I’d just like to find a house in 2013. January would really be the best in my plan. But if there’s anything I learned in 2012, it’s that my plan isn’t the one that matters.

Sure, there are a couple of things that I’d like to do for myself like take better care of my skin and try to prevent the random breakout that stays for weeks at a time. And I’d like to get the last of that pregnancy weight to be gone for good. But I have no intention of eating up my time with obsessing over what I’m eating and stressing my kids out while we rush off to the gym.

I know my family. I know how we thrive. And we thrive on quality time. Quality time is my love language.

So in 2013, I’m going for grace. And quality time with my family. Because that’s when I’m happiest, and that’s when they’re happiest.

2013 needs fewer nights with Todd and me doing the childcare shuffle when one of us rushes off to a meeting or event and the other stays home with the boys.

My favorite week of the year is the year between Christmas and New Year’s when we spend an incredibly quiet week at my parents’ house. Without interruption and without a to-do list.

I may blog a lot less. Life may be less eventful. I may actually have time to read 50 books. But my goal is to let go of the self-induced pressure.

I know I’ll be more relaxed and I’ll have more time to cook the meals I want to cook and I’ll have more time to read the books I want to read at night. I’ll have more time for hitting the pavement with our double stroller. But, most importantly, I’ll have more room in my mind for laughing and playing.

At the end of a year where November and December felt like the rat race of all rat races, I am praying that I can be strong enough to do it differently in 2013.

And I’m eager to see the positive results that come from that decision.

What are you hoping for in 2013?

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas! Everything was very exciting at our Christmas celebration. Celebrating Christmas with two little boys is about the most fun thing in the world.

Todd’s Nana went into the hospital last week with a little infection and she is still there. We missed her very much yesterday, but we’re praying that she comes home really soon!

I wanted to share our final Christmas card with you all. After we chose our photos, I wanted to embrace the “unruly” side of our photo experience for our Christmas card.

I called Nina to help me out. I explained to her what I was thinking for  the theme, the text, and a general color scheme, and she ran with it!

I love the design she created for us, and love that the photos capture our boys so well.

The card is a folded card with the photo of the four of us on the front and the photo of the boys on the back. We picked a photo of Todd and me with the boys for the inside.

(The back and front of our card)

(The inside of our card)

Photos by Millie Holloman photography and the card was designed by the talented Nina