On Changing Seasons

Isn't it amazing how quickly things can change in the matter of a year, or in the matter of a minute?

Our focus for the better portion of this year has been dedicated to family. Back in March we learned we were expecting again. Many of you know the complexities we carried in trying to start a family, ultimately meeting our daughter after multiple rounds of IVF. Given those challenges and our original plan for one child, it was a surreal moment when we learned we were spontaneously pregnant and are very excited to be welcoming another little girl in just a few weeks.

In what seems like the blink of an eye, we have a busy preschooler with enough energy to keep us continually on our toes and seeing the world in new ways.

In haste, we snapped the porch photo above on her first day of preschool this year, which also marked the first day Tim would start a 6 week routine of daily radiation treatments. Looking back, I'm so happy we took the time to capture this slice in time. Early in the summer Tim was diagnosed with tonsil cancer — another life journey we hadn't anticipated confronting. 

After two surgeries and coming face to face with the realities of radiation, I have never been more in awe of my husband's strength and grateful for our family. We are relieved to have discovered his cancer in an early stage and are optimistic that we're nearing the end of this part of the story. Most days I've felt filled with gratitude at all we have to be thankful for and in that same breath, some days I just want to collapse under it all.

We've also continued to spend a lot of time at the river, which has been a welcome escape and retreat. 

We're just coming into our third fall season since finding the house, and over the winter we completed a full renovation that opened up 360 views of the water. We reached a good pause point between the house renovations and turning attention to the outdoor hardscaping we'd planned to tackle before this year's unexpected twists and turns of life revealed themselves — so we'll look forward to working on the outside more come springtime.

At home, we're in full-on nesting mode — trying our best to clean out, get organized and prepared as best we can for the baby to arrive. Our city row house is beginning to feel smaller and figuring out kids' rooms has been like putting a puzzle together (What will work best for the newborn stage? How will we navigate creaking floors while one is asleep and we're up with the other, etc...). At the same time, we've never shied away from a good puzzle and are in full acceptance of the new baby haze and chaos ahead.

Thank you for taking a moment to check in on us today and for many of your kind words over the last several months. We hope you and yours are keeping well!