It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog.
My last post was Beltane 2018, around when I started to feel a lot of new creative energy, an even stronger desire to connect with nature and to improve my art skills, particularly in botanical illustration.
About two days after my last post I found out I was pregnant. Archie and I were not planning a pregnancy, however we were not opposed to it and so we welcomed the new chapter into our lives. Fast forward to today and my full-time job is to take care of the most beautiful angel I could ever imagine.
During my pregnancy, I didn’t really feel like sharing too much online. I had nausea in the beginning and then when that passed, I just felt very inward (I actually am not a social person anyways). I continued to practice drawing, learning about plants and decided to learn calligraphy on my own.
Then when I had the baby I totally didn’t feel like being online at all. In the beginning phase of having your first baby it’s very stressful to say the least and I felt like I wanted to be more present for my daughter. I still want to be that way, but now I’m more in the groove of having a baby and I can relax a little bit more and occasionally do some things for myself while she’s napping or playing on her own.
I’m still not on social media as often as I was before and I like it that way. Becoming a mother has forced that change on me, or I did it to myself because I take my role as a mother to a baby pretty seriously.
I had a traumatizing birth experience and was forced to be in the hospital since I went into labour early. The medical staff were horrific and we are still dealing with the consequences of how awful they were today. It sickens me to even think of the whole event. Maybe one day I will write about what happened, but not now.
I’ve never been apart from her since she’s been home and have never even asked anyone to babysit. I cloth diaper and make all her purees. (In the beginning I used disposables because I was so overwhelmed, sleep-deprived and couldn’t think straight). I don’t sleep train her, I stay with her until she can fall asleep. I try to make sure she’s in fresh air and exposed to nature for a bare minimum of an hour a day.
I can’t imagine doing things any other way even though it is very time consuming. It’s a labour of love.
This year I was able to grow a little bit of my own baby food. Having a new addition forced us to move to a bigger space where we had room to dig out a garden. So I grew my first vegetable garden this year and was able to accomplish my goal of growing at least some food that I could puree for the baby. I didn’t get much – three zucchinis and three small squashes and a pumpkin – but it all went, or will be made, into purees for Sophie.
Other than growing some baby food we had a tomato overload in our garden. We’ve also got brussels sprouts that are almost ready, a couple eggplants, a few peppers and some onion scallions. Not much, but it’s very satisfying to at least begin learning about growing my own food and I’m looking forward to building on that skill year after year.
Anyways … I’d like to start posting on here again, time permitting. I don’t really have a strict niche on this blog and for now I will just post as I’m inspired to and see where it goes. I might just want to share my art and photography, or maybe natural home and lifestyle things, wild plants I learn about, or maybe even books that I love.
I suppose there is a general theme though … nature, creativity, “slow-living”, healthy home.
It feels good to post again. It must be the Autumn air … the autumn has a creative effect on me and I think on lots of others as well.
Happy October and thanks for reading.
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