Sobremesa Stories

6 Ways To Invest In Your Blog

November 12, 2015 By Lauren

When I jumped into the blogging world last spring, I read what seemed like hundreds of articles. I researched everything from the technical parts of blogging to how to facilitate community on my blog itself and on social media. In that early season I was so excited to start a blog and wanted to invest in my dreams for my online space and wanted to know every single thing I could do to help it grow.

Since then, I’ve struggled at times to find a good balance between being intentional to invest in my dreams for my blog while still pouring into my family and staying committed to my other responsibilities. Focusing on these six things has helped me to intentionally invest my time and energy on growing my little corner of the internet without getting burned out or overwhelmed, and I have seen lots of growth in my blogs readership and community as a result!

I’m sharing my favorite six tips for investing in your blog over on The Wetherills Say I Do. Head over there to read the rest of this post!

Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On Breastfeeding “Failure”

November 11, 2015 By Lauren

Welcome to this week’sWomanly Wednesday! When I found Amberly’s blog a few months back, I spent WAY too much time scrolling through all her old posts about marriage. I love her wise heart to see wives fight for real, honest, and loving communication and connection in their marriages and have learned a lot from her posts. Even though I’m not in this stage she describes here yet, I love her honest words about what it’s looked like to wrestle with her identity as a mama when it comes to breastfeeding. Thanks for sharing your story, Amberly!

A couple of years ago, I attended a class on breastfeeding as an assignment for the Prenatal and Infant Nutrition class that I was taking. I wasn’t in the mindset of having kids of my own yet, but it was one of the most educational couple hours of my life and afterward, I made the solid decision that I would be nursing all of my kids in the future. The lactation consultant who taught that night filled us with valuable information about the benefits of breastfeeding, techniques and helpful hints for making it a smooth experience. I took a lot of notes and just knew that I would be so good at this when I had my own child. Other moms made breastfeeding look so easy, so I was bound to be a natural at it. Never did I think that breastfeeding and milk production would make me feel insecure and inferior and bring up feelings of jealousy toward other women.

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How Perfectionism and High Expectations Impacted Our Marriage

November 9, 2015 By Lauren

For as long as I can remember, I have been a perfectionist. As an elementary schooler, I made my mom braid my hair over and over until it was free of even the smallest bump. In middle school and high school, I poured all that perfectionist energy into being the all-around perfect student: excellent grades, perfect friends, and the perfect youth group girl. Even in college when God started to strip me of some of those tendencies, I still tried to be the perfect example of Christian ministry, doing all I could to be the best youth leader I could be. None of those things brought me the wholeness and fullness I desired, but I still kept running after them.

As you can probably imagine, when I got engaged and married a year after I graduated college, my perfectionism didn’t exactly go away.

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Five On Friday: Baby Name Reveal & The KC Royals

November 6, 2015 By Lauren

With finding out our little one is a boy and game after game of Royals baseball these last few weeks, it seems like our whole world has turned (royal) blue! This week was full of fun celebrations and surprise days off and I loved every minute of it!

1) The KC Royals – World Champions!

Oh. My. Heavens. What a week to live in KC! The Royals officially won the World Series and our city went (and has been going) NUTS! We had a few friends over to watch the clinching game and we all ran out into the street whistling and spraying champagne as our neighborhood erupted with fireworks and gunshots. It was CRAZY! I love how much people around here support the Royals and I loved watching my hubby become a 7 year old boy who jumped and hollered around our house when his team won. Since so many folks were pulling their kids out of school to attend the Royals’ victory parade on Tuesday, they canceled classes for what we all called a “Blue Snow Day” so everyone could attend the citywide celebration. Over 800,000 folks showed up downtown and the whole city turned Royal blue! I sure am proud to be a Kansas Citian!

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What We’re Naming Our Son (A Letter)

November 5, 2015 By Lauren

Our Dear Son,

We’ve dreamed about what we would name our children for a long time, but as the weeks passed by in this pregnancy, one name kept coming to our minds over and over. When we found out you were a boy at our ultrasound a few weeks back, we knew pretty quickly what name we wanted to give you. All names are rich in meaning, but this one is our favorite. So, my son, with joy and pride I want to share with you the name we’ve chosen to give you, the name we’re giving to your tiny frame that will add to our family and our world in so many ways.

For your first name, the name that your friends and family and the many people that love you will call you, we have chosen Caleb.

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Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On Serial Dating And Loneliness

November 4, 2015 By Lauren

Welcome to this week’s Womanly Wednesday! This week’s guest poster, Rachel, was a student at the high school where I led Young Life. It has been amazing to watch her run after a life of fullness and joy in Jesus, even if I didn’t know her all that well in her high school days. As someone who wrestled with serial dating myself back in the day, I love how she describes that struggle and the hope she has found in the midst of it here. You can check out Rachel’s beautiful photography website here! Thanks for sharing your story, Rachel!

I was that girl who either continually had a crush or was constantly dating a guy in middle school and high school. I found my identity in boys and relationships. I loved the idea of always having someone to watch movies with, someone who would give me their sweatshirt at a Friday night football game and always having someone to text. I was a “serial dater.” The longest high school relationship I had was seven months. The shortest was two weeks. Commitment and settling was a big no-no in my book.

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3 Truths That Are Helping Me To Love My Pregnant Body

November 2, 2015 By Lauren

Since I was a lanky and insecure 13 year old standing in front of the mirror and watching my friends compare themselves to each other, I’ve seen ONE issue that it seems like women from every age and stage can struggle with: body image. It seems like no girl is safe from the fear of being too skinny, too fat, too much, or somehow not enough when it comes to their physical appearance.

I’ll be honest…body image has never been one of my biggest struggles. I’ve walked side by side with friends as they wrestled deeply with insecurities about their weight and appearance, but my deepest insecurities have pretty much always been tied to my personality. As a gifted “smart kid” who grew up a bit nerdy, I always feared that I wasn’t fun enough, outgoing enough, or funny enough for my peers to like me. Body image wasn’t really on my radar, even after college and as I gained a few pounds in the years post college.

And then I got pregnant.

Body Shaming And Comparison In Pregnancy

5 weeks pregnant

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Five on Friday: Koalas, Baby Gifts, and Sleepy Baseball Games

October 30, 2015 By Lauren

Now that the school year’s in full swing, it feels like the weeks are flying by! We only have about 7 weeks until Christmas break, and then after that it’s only another 10-12 weeks until baby arrives and our world pretty much stops for a while. Where the heck is the time going? Here’s a few updates from our fun week this week:

1) Sweet Mama Friends

I have felt so loved by some of my sweet mama friends these last few weeks! This past weekend, my friend Courtney texted me out of the blue and asked if I’d be interested in any of her maternity clothes. I said “HECK YES!!!” and picked them up and it was a bucket full of cute tops, dresses, leggings, and a few pairs of jeans and pants. Such a blessing! Then my sweet teacher friend Megan (who is pretty much the most thoughtful person in the whole world) ordered these adorable bibs below and had them sent to my school mailbox as a surprise after she found out I was having a boy. Seriously?! So stinking cute! I’m so grateful for how the moms in my world have already made me feel like a valued and loved part of their community. Maybe this whole mamahood thing won’t be too bad!

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A Five Month Pregnancy Update

October 29, 2015 By Lauren

As of this week, I am just a little past the halfway point of this pregnancy. It is crazy to think how the days and weeks have both gone so slowly and flown by. I have a feeling that’s a lot like what being a mama will feel like! It’s been a while since I did a “bumpdate” (like this one at 15 weeks) so today’s post is dedicated just to random ramblings and updates about pregnancy. If you’re super curious about all this like me, then read on and enjoy! If not, then enjoy the rest of your day! 🙂

Anyway, here are a few updates of how these last few weeks and months have been:

How I’m Feeling: Like I shared a few weeks ago, the nausea is officially GONE! It faded at about week 16 and with the exception of a few random yucky tummy days, I’ve been feeling good! This is such a relief and I have such respect for all you mama’s who were sick during your entire pregnancy. I can’t even imagine that! Now I’m just super hungry all the time and experiencing some random, not-so-fun heartburn at night. I’ve also been experiencing some round ligament pains and lots of back pain, but I have a feeling that’s just par for the course. Anyone have any tips they found to help soothe the aches and pains as their bodies stretch to hold and nourish a new little one?

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Womanly Wednesday: A Guest Post On Anxiety And Depression

October 28, 2015 By Lauren

I “met” Amanda through the Blog Passion Project a few months ago and have loved following along with her story and her blog since then. She writes beautifully about her life in college and what it looks like to find fullness and joy in the midst of school, work, and life. I’m so glad to have her story of how she’s wrestled with anxiety and depression on the blog today and hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did!