Having summers off has always been one of the greatest perks about being a teacher–it means sleeping in past the sunrise, reading a book while eating breakfast, and having all the time I want to experiment in the kitchen. Nowadays, it means glorious days spent at home with Raven, cheering her on as she is currently in the struggle to roll from back to tummy and planting kisses onto her chubby cheeks whenever possible.
Last summer–our last childless summer–I will probably always think of as the lost summer. Not because we didn’t get in our fair share of novelty, fun, and adventure, but because I didn’t blog about it much–and if I didn’t blog about it, did it really even happen?
The truth was, last summer I was still reeling a bit over my decision to not try and turn the blog into a little side business, and because I was no longer seeking out more and more followers, I wondered if it was worth it to keep documenting our little adventures in this public sphere. Because I was trying to get more photography expertise under my belt so that I could finally start a little photography business, I let the blog slide.
Then I got pregnant, and felt terribly sick and fatigued almost from the word go. The blog fell almost completely by the wayside as I just tried to keep all the necessary balls in the air—going to my photography class, prepping myself for the upcoming school year, trying to get enough food down so the nausea wouldn’t overwhelm me.
Now, when you look back into the archives, those really do seem to be the lost months, undocumented and forgotten.
But!
Before getting pregnant, Matt and I went on quite a few adventures—I was going a bit stir crazy from being home alone all the time, and I very well knew that it could be our last summer with just the two of us. We found ourselves going out on a lot of dates, everything from the farmer’s market to antiques stores to new restaurants to challenging hikes. And I took pictures and then more pictures, eager to try and master the manual mode of my camera and employ all the new strategies I was learning in my photography class.
But I never blogged any of it.
Well, I came across these pictures last night, when my usual insomnia kicked in (one of the lovely side effects of the corticosteroids I’m on)–these were taken last July when my dad was in town and visiting us for the first time ever on our home turf (instead of us going down to see him where the rest of my family is located, about an hour south of here). We spent hours philosophizing in the kitchen, tried out the cola-glazed meatloaf at one of the new restaurants in town, and took my dad to the wind caves, which is what these pictures are from.
Three things stick out to me as I look through these pictures. Nope, make that four—
1. Check out how long my hair is! I’m anxiously growing it out again now, hoping I can muddle through this awkward phase where my hormones are doing all sorts of crazy things to it like changing its texture, making it frizzy, making it both fall out faster and grow in thicker simultaneously…(Seriously, when does your hair get back to normal after having a baby?!)
2. Even though I remember feeling a bit poochy in these pictures (because I gained ten pounds last summer right before getting pregnant, thanks again to hormones), I look back now and see a skinny-minny. Ah, it’s funny how life experiences change our perceptions of ourselves.
3. Other people might not notice, but I can definitely see that my photography skills have improved a lot since taking these a year ago.
4. Now, seeing pictures of just Matt and me, I will always see the empty space around us that was meant to be filled by Raven. I look at these pictures and almost half-expect to see her in them because it feels like she’s always been with us. I suppose that’s how it is with each new child—you just know they belong with you, and that they always have.
These pics were taken July 22, 2014—just over a year ago.
Funny how much can change in just 53 weeks!
These pictures also serve to remind me that I only have one month left before returning to work–looks like we have a lot of adventure planning left to do! (Gotta get that baby in these hiking pictures where she belongs!)
Thanks for letting me do a bit of a Throwback Thursday—sometimes you just gotta blog about stuff in order to not forget it.
Plus I liked these pictures and wanted to share 🙂
