Where to begin… it has been quite some ride around here over the past several months. First, it is our wedding anniversary. We have been married four insane years. Like insane. But that’s life I suppose, it comes at you when you aren’t expecting it and wipes you off your feet.

Through the highest highs and the lowest lows, you’ve got this one person who has promised to be there with you, to hold you, laugh with you, be your moral sounding board, tell you when you are over analyzing, urge you to step outside your comfort zone, to literally pick you up when you are down (and do a plethora of other grody things they didn’t know they signed up for), who only judges a little when you geek out, and when you rest your head at night you think to yourself what even is this life…?

I could sugar coat it for you but you are sitting in my virtual kitchen with me and that’s just not who I am. If you have been following along you know I have a rare brain condition which we now lovingly refer to as my “head thing.” I was officially in remission in January of 2017 and after a couple months of living a “normal” life (whatever that means) hubs and I decided to throw caution into the wind and start our own family. What is the worst that could happen? (We actually did consult several doctors and a couple specialists before making this decision.) Spoiler alert: the worst did NOT happen but it was pretty stinking close.

Heads up gents it’s about to get real, feel free to scroll ahead…

Pregnancy. What. I don’t know who these women are that skip through lavender fields in sun dresses with a perfect baby bump, glowing and all ethereal…. that does not exist. If it existed for you you are a unicorn that was meant to have tons and tons of babies. It should be erased from anyone’s perception of how this is really going to go down. I, (hello everyone) have a body that does not do anything the easy way. Pregnancy is no exception. I had not only morning sickness, but all day sickness. Yep that is a thing. And it wasn’t for the first trimester- it was the entire pregnancy 41 weeks of nausea and… I’ll just leave it at nausea. So blogging about food was not an option. Unless you wanted 41 weeks worth of potato recipes. I was like the Bubba Gump of potatoes. Needless to say the delivery was 1000 x more challenging than the pregnancy but we’ve made it out the other side… more or less. Phew.

Enter the Wee One. Motherhood. What. Talk about the most bipolar experience of life. They tell me this is normal. I have no perception of what normal actually is, but I’ll take their word for it. Everything is altered when you have this postpartum mix of sleep deprivation, hormones, and trying to nurture another living being, especially a loud one.

Mom strength is real. My body has done things I didn’t know were possible. Especially postpartum, and especially post abdominal surgery (the Wee One decided the sun roof was his best point of entry into this world). Since I gave birth to a giant, we basically skipped the newborn stage of life which I think Nature builds in to assist in maintaining sanity.

So here we are on our 4th wedding anniversary (13 years strong), plus one “head thing”, a crazy dog that thinks he’s human, a Wee One, and all the other regular ups and downs in life. I would not have it any other way. This is not how I thought things would go, but this is how it went. There is a LOT of love in this kitchen and I am doing my best to soak up every moment.