Back to Blogging: Life Updates & Motherhood Joys

Posted on by beautybeyondbones

You know you’ve been gone from blogging for a while when a) your site defaults to its settings from 2 years ago; and b) when you login, you’re prompted with a “How to Make a Post” tutorial suggestion.

Anywho, HELLO FRIENDS! Gosh, I have missed you all so much.

I’m currently sitting in the kitchen of our new house, next to our sleeping baby, Penelope Grace! (No, she’s not a double-namer, a la the early 2000’s…I’m looking at you Chad Michael Murray, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mark Paul Gosselaar).

Nope, she’s my Penny girl.

But this is a monumental day…not because of the outcome of the election (we’ll get there…) BUT because it’s the first time I’ve whipped out my laptop since giving birth back in July! Let’s just say, I don’t want to miss a second with Penny. Which is why my hair is a mess, moving boxes are still needing to be unpacked, and my toenails are unpainted for the first time in…I kid you not…probably 18 years.

Gosh, I have SO much to catch you up on. I feel like I’m sitting down to coffee with an old friend from high school, and this “quick coffee date” is really going to be 3 hours of nonstop chatter.

First things first:

Penelope.

Oh my gosh, she is everything I’ve ever dreamed of and prayed for. She’s three and a half months old now, and God has just B L E S S E D us with such a happy baby. That is what everyone says when they meet her: That she is a) happy and b) chill. Which is the truth. I’m not exaggerating when I say: she wakes up with a smile, and she goes to bed with a smile.

I sing Edelwisse from The Sound of Music to her every night when she’s falling asleep, and as soon as she hears the first three notes, this big smiles goes across her face. It’s so cute.

Speaking of, I’m teaching her how to sing, and by golly, she is able to match pitch! It’s incredibly impressive. I’ll post a video on IG tonight of when she first discovered her “singing voice.” It is just precious.

And of course, she had to be a princess for Halloween…Cinderella to be exact.

But this girl, her joy is what I love most. She is always beaming. She seldom cries…only when we have to fan her butt during diaper changes lol TMI??

I am just so grateful to God for her. Motherhood is everything I could have ever wanted.

Second order of business: we moved.

Yep…after 2 months in my parents’ lower level waiting for our house to be ready, we are finally IN!

And boy, does it already feel like home. It is nowhere near where we want it be in the end…we haven’t even unpacked our artwork yet! But at least the nursery is finished!

Our house is 99 years old…next year is its 100 year anniversary, and yes, we’re going to have a fun 1920’s themed party to celebrate 🙂 It is right down the street from my parents’ house, as well as my brother and sister-in-law’s house. This neighborhood is so cute…it’s Mayberry. Like something out of a movie! The kids all ride their bikes to school and come home for lunch every day. There’s a central neighborhood park that has movie nights and other gatherings for the community. I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere. CERTAINLY not like Manhattan. It’s safe, it’s so friendly, it’s beautiful. I’m so glad this is where Penelope is going to grow up!

And yes, we do see my parents and/or brother’s family just about every other day. Talk about fabulous.

OK – Next order of business…and, okay, hello…howwwww am I only NOW getting to this? But thank you, Lord, for the outcome of the presidential election!

Steven and I stayed up until 3am watching Trump’s victory address. What a win for America, my goodness.

It felt so strange to not be writing about politics this time. If you are an “OG” and have been with me for a while, you may recall my post from 2016, “Profile of a Trump Supporter“…which, let’s just say, garnered some attention. A couple of my friends actually cut me out of their life because of that post. So yeah…suffice it to say, I was chomping at the bit to write about this election’s fiasco with Kamala and Trump. I’ll just button it for now with these two words: Candace Owens. I invite you to check out her YouTube series on Kamala’s family lineage…simply wild.

But I will say this:

All over my social media on Election Day, I kept seeing post after post from mothers posting their daughters, with a “Voting for my daughter” caption, followed by a Kamala Harris endorsement.

And I’m going to be honest, that thinking is just so backwards to me. Voting to protect the “right” for your daughter have abortion access?

It makes me so sad.

I also voted “for my daughter,” but in a very, very different way.

I voted for her right to live in a safe and secure country. I voted for her right to free speech. Her right to worship freely. To be protected from harmful gender ideology that preys on and sexualizes children. I voted to protect her from boys in girls’ sports and locker rooms. I voted for her right to live in a healthy and prosperous America.

But I think I’ll stop there, before I get too into the weeds, and just say how grateful to GOD I am that Donald Trump won.

Some other final things of note:

Penelope is getting baptized later this month! Which is really exciting: in the church where Steven and I got married, and by the priest who married us.

I’m nearly back to my pre-pregnancy running routine. I’m back to six miles a day…Penny goes with me and loves it. One more mile and I’ll be back to my old workout routine.

I’m cooking again! Not that I ever wasn’t…but I’m now back to making delicious, rather involved meals….as oppopsed to just kind of “survival cooking” when Penny was first born!

And with that, Penny just woke up! Time to feed her! *I’m exclusively breast feeding…also, thank you, Lord, that I was able to do that!

I’ll be back next week with more!

Love you guys!

Thanks for stopping by!

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beautybeyondbones

BBB: Because we're all recovering from something. // For speaking/business inquiries: beautybeyondbones@yahoo.com

22 thoughts on “Back to Blogging: Life Updates & Motherhood Joys”

  1. Congrat’s on the new home, love the updates, and I am just as thankful as you for the outcome of the election. You articulated it a lot better than I. Blessings on you and your family. DM

    Liked by 5 people

  2. You are back! It’s great to see you and the baby, Caralyn! Penny is so beautiful, you and Steven are so blessed. I am glad that you guys have a beautiful home in a wonderful location, blessed! I too am very glad that President Trump was re-elected, America can’t take another four years of Democratic destruction of our country. I look forward to your next post, Caralyn, and that noodle dish looks so delicious! Welcome back!

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  3. Yay! I am SOOO happy for you. She is beautiful, and I am in love (from a distance) with those chunka cheeks!

    And yes, I agree about the backwards-thinking for anyone who “voted for their daughter” and voted for Harris. So much to unpack there… but I’ll refrain for the time being.

    Anyway, congrats on your lovely family and wonderful new home! So glad you get to raise her near your parents. That’s huge!

    Liked by 4 people

  6. Welcome back, and congratulations on the many recent blessings in your life. And now you know: marriage changes you, but parenthood *really* changes you. And in all the best ways.

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  10. I was just thinking about you the other day and poof! here you are! So good to see you back. Penny is just precious! I love how happy you all are in your home and near your family. And I am, like you, extremely grateful for the result of the election. Thank God for His mercy to America! May we not waste it!

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  11. Welcome back! I haven’t really changed in the last few months. Life is busy, and I’m not managing my time well, to the point that I’ve hardly been writing at all. In the last year, the only creative writing I’ve done is just nine episodes of DLTDGB, one of which was mostly previously written material, and a new Stone Shadows story. A lot of my friends in real life have moved away, I feel like there’s nothing left for me in my own city, and as for my remaining friends in the region, I’m tired of having to drive almost an hour each way to hang out with one or two people I want to see and a bunch of others I don’t click with.

    But this isn’t about me… it’s good to hear from you. I remember your “profile of a Trump supporter” post, and it’s kind of mind-boggling to think that that was eight years ago! Time just keeps flying by…

    In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have had either of these candidates. I voted for DeSantis in the primary even though he had already suspended his campaign by the time we voted. But I’ve lived through four years of a Trump presidency, when things were pretty good until Democratic governors pressured him into shutting down for COVID like they were all doing. And Kamala is from my state, which has rapidly descended into chaos in the last couple decades. I’ve seen her as attorney general, when she mercilessly went after Christians and pro-life activists while looking the other way when her cronies were committing horrible crimes. Seems like an obvious choice to me, but too many people only cared about identity politics and didn’t bother to look into her awful, extreme record. Fortunately, enough people in other states had enough sense not to let that happen.

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  12. Wait… I had something else I thought of from your post… the part about losing friends because of the way you voted. One of the biggest supporters of my writing said on Instagram something like “here we go, another four years of hatred and division, so if you voted for Trump, I don’t want anything to do with you, please unfollow me.” First of all, that statement is so embarrassingly ironic (the real kind, not the Alanis kind) that it makes me want to laugh. But now I don’t know what to do. The people who have said to unfollow them because of how they voted, I’ve mostly been doing what they asked because I need to clear out my friends list, I don’t want to be friends with hateful people, and the other four who explicitly asked that I really won’t miss too much. But this person, like I said, has been one of my biggest supporters. I haven’t unfollowed her yet, but I think I’m going to go no-contact for a while, and maybe in the unlikely situation that she comments on something of mine and I don’t reply and she asks if I’m ok, I can kindly point out that she wanted nothing to do with me and see how that discussion goes. Or not. I don’t know. It’s sad that people are so hateful and divided that any of this has happened at all.

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  13. Oh my, welcome back! I’ve missed you, but not a day goes by when I do not pray for you and Steven & Penny. Thank you so much for tuning back in and sharing photos of your princess! She’s adorable (of course!)… God bless you!

    Liked by 1 person

  15. I was so thrilled to see your post in my inbox. I thought maybe you were going to stop blogging. That would be so sad. God bless and keep you and your family as you settle into your new house. We too are so glad that President Trump won the election! God bless.

    Liked by 3 people

  17. So excited to get an update from you! Always enjoy following along, especially as I have some time to check in during my own maternity leave with my month old.

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  19. A coincidence that you only just restarted your blog and I, after a long time, finally decided to check your blog to see what I’ve missed. As i continue life post-COVID I’m become less and less the a type guy I was. Despite best intentions I just haven’t written any thing for months. Just don’t have the motivation. Plus, the nerve damage in my left arm from the coma has affected my dexterity in that hand, making typing a chore.

    ANYWAY- Penny is gorgeous as is your house. Somehow, I always knew you’d end up back in Cinci and was waiting for you to realize it too 🙂 Now you’re where you always wanted to be and where God planned for you to be. I’m very happy for you. All the best to you and yours. As ever, Jeff

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  20. I am pleased everyone seems settled and happy. I am really glad your parents are nearby. This sidesteps many things especially health concerns for you and Penny.

    I personally had misgivings about both sides of politics this time round. I was horrified at tge Sieg Hril salute recently in particular.
    We seem to have entered the Book of Revelations.

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  22. Ultimately it seems to me that everything is about money and people seem to have forgotten that Jesus said it would very easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to go to heaven.

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