Tag: dslr

January Round up

January felt like the biggest breath of fresh air. At the end of the year I slowly went through and deleted social media off my phone & I started the year with just a facebook account that I purely use for the buy nothing group & book club communication. It felt so good to step back, not post anything and frankly not mindlessly consume so much. This is the first time in a decade that I haven’t posted consistently. As much as I loved the community I had on my insta I really want to focus on investing on the community right at my feet! In the past I’ve used this blog as an extension of my social media and I thought I’d keep it up but in a less frequent manner than my instagram. I thought I’d share what I’ve been up to this month, books I read, recipes I loved, and just other things I found myself getting into after taking a serious step back from social media.

Things I did instead of scroll:

  • I finished my 2023 photo album – which is a big undertaking, I still need to order it to get it printed. But it is completed which feels so good! Next up 2024!
  • I finished phase 2 of my 12 week workout program! This is a heavy lifting program and the workouts are long. But I’m proud I’ve stuck to it and I have loved tracking my weights and seeing my strength build!
  • We spent 71 hours outside in the month of January! I’m trying to do 1000 hours outside this year and for January that felt like I solid dent in the goal! I credit this to our new outdoor furniture / fire pit set up. It made it easy to curl up on our patio, listen to the rain fall and read or watch the boys play!
  • I hosted my BFF’s baby shower and we did such a fun craft of making candle holders with pressed flowers and modge podge! They turned out beautiful, I put a photo of them lit up at the beginning of this post. This would make a fun Valentine’s Day craft or gift. I’ll link the pressed flowers I used here and then we just got jars from the thrift store and modge podge from any craft store.
  • In the same vein as my photo album project, this month I started creating “home movies” with all the little videos I’ve accumulated in my google photos. I started when Will was born and have slowly been going through them and making larger movies. Google limits you to 50 clips but each movie ends up being about 15 minutes. I remember loving watching home videos as a child and it’s funny to think how this day and age we have SO many more photos and videos of everyday life than our parents ever did but we don’t watch or see them as much. So I’ve made it a goal to try to catch up on some home videos.
  • We survived an unspeakable Adenovirus stomach bug and a bad case of strep throat. Is it even winter if your kids aren’t on the carousel of endless viruses??? Solidarity to all the parents surviving sick season.
  • I did my first watercolor workbook exercise. For Christmas Chris got me two watercolor workbooks, not sure why I thought starting with the harder one was the right idea. But I started with the landscape workbook and completed my first one (see photo above). It was so challenging but I’m excited to keep working on it and see how I progress.
  • I kept track of my decluttering challenge (to purge 2025 items from my home this year). And the nerd in me is not only interested in keeping track but breaking down the categories of things I purge. So i keep a color coded chart and every 100 items I update the graph to see how the categories are working out! This month I purged about 200 items! And here’s how it broke down – with cosmetics / medicine cabinet and clothing being the top categories!

Books I read:

  • Parable of the Sower – This was a book club book and it was kinda wild. It was a dystopian book about the future, written in the 80’s about the year 2025. yikes. The setting is southern California, which happens to be on fire and in a severe drought… ummmmm it was a little to on the nose for the start of year. I won’t lie it was a super depressing book. but overall I think I’d give it 3.5 / 5
  • Electric Idol – This is the second book of the Dark Olympus series. I did not enjoy it nearly as much as Neon Gods which I read in December. I’ll probably still read the 3rd book in the series but this one gets a 2.5 / 5 for me.
  • One True Love – I read this book in two days. It was a super easy read. I’m giving this a 4/5. I liked the characters, I liked the story. It’s the idea of love and the different versions we experience in our lives.
  • War & Peace – I posted in my 25 in 2025 list that this year I’m doing a slow read of War & Peace which consists of reading a chapter a day. So I spent this month getting through the first 120 pages of this behemoth of a classic. So far I’m not disliking it! I’m also following along with the substack footnotes and tangents which puts out a short weekly summary podcast that helps you keep characters straight so that has made it a lot more enjoyable!
  • The Familiar – This one I did not finish. I stopped about 40% of the way through. It was a book my bookclub read of the summer and it was available right away on Libby so I just downloaded it. But it really wasn’t for me. I like the setting of old Spain, but I felt like the story just moved too slowly and wasn’t compelling enough to keep me interested. Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy!
  • I’m also working really hard with Will to boost his reading and we’ve been doing a 100 day reading challenge where he reads to me for 15 minutes at a time (we’ll hopefully work goal up but we gotta meet people where they’re at!) So I’ve been reading lots of stories with him & it is really fun to watch him improve and build his confidence.

2023 wrapped + reflections!

Somehow the calendar has flipped again & we’re once again at a new year! I love a good reflection moment and the start of a new year is the perfect time to look back. This year we celebrated big birthdays for our boys, we spent a lot of time outside, I read more than I have in years past. We took trips to the snow and the beach. I leaned into creating. I built dining benches, mud kitchens and redid closets. I tapped back into my arty side and started playing with watercolors. Chris and I took our first solo international trip and visited Singapore this fall. Of course there were less desirable parts of the year. The boys started the year with virus after virus and there was relentless rain. I got a strange post viral arrhythmia that I’m still sorting out (waiting for a cardiac MRI bleh). I wrote about this last year, but it’s impossible to categorize years as “good” or “bad”. This year was made of thousands of beautiful moments. There were moments where I struggled, moments I felt burnt out at work, or in my motherhood. There’s a chasm of uncertainty when it comes to Chris’ start-up life. But all of those moments are just that, moments. They are fleeting, some are beautiful, like walking my son to kindergarten each morning and others are painful. This year I was better about allowing myself to experience these moments for what they were. And I think the more you’re able to do that in your daily life the less significance a “new year” has, instead I feel gratitude for all this year has given to me. One of my favorite new year traditions is making a list for the year, you can see previous lists here: 20 in 2020 , 21 in 2021, Monday Mindset: 2022 Wrapped. I talk about the origin of this tradition, but I like to fill it with goals, simple things, things to try etc. So it’s time to review what was on my 2023 list.

  1. Attempt gluten free puff pastry – I didn’t do this, but I did make GF sourdough so I’m counting this as an adventure in GF baking!
  2. Go to the beach – yes, and it was one of my favorite memories of the year!
  3. Read 23 books – and then SOME, 34 in total!
  4. Spend 1000 hours outside - we got damn close so i’m counting this as yes. We spent 977 hours outside this year. I am SO proud of this – it was an exceptionally wet first 3 months of year but we purchased rain suits and splashed and made it outside.
  5. Re-open my Etsy shop – nope. but I did sew burp cloths for several friends.
  6. Get a will / living trust set up – yikes. nope. 2024 will be our year for this.
  7. Plan a Stedman family trip – nope
  8. Get another dog – no but this is a rollover for 2024 and I am SET on this.
  9. Hike in the redwoods – yes
  10. J’s closet renovation – yes, one of the hardest DIY’s I’ve done. It took obscenely long since I couldn’t work on this at night or at naptime, but I finished it and learned so much and that closet is 100x more functional now.
  11. Start hot yoga again – I did return to bikram this year. But then was quickly sidelined with my cardiac issues and haven’t returned.
  12. Redo garden beds - yes shout out to my amazing husband who took over this project while I was on limited activity for my heart.
  13. Review spending every week – no.
  14. Go to the dermatologist – also no.
  15. Use my DSLR camera more – I did use it some but not as much as I would have liked. This is an example of a goal that is too vague what is “more”?
  16. Store my phone away during the day – I was fairly good at this and even took a month. of social media which felt amazing.
  17. Take the boys on monthly individual day dates – not nearly as much as I would have liked.
  18. Make a personal timeline – started this
  19. DIY avocado dye – yes, this was fun and the color is a beautiful muted pink.
  20. Do a 75 soft challenge – yes!
  21. Learn to use the cameo machine – nooope! Better luck this year?
  22. Finish my 2021 & 2022 photo albums – YES!
  23. Rescreen our sliding door – we switched to a magnetic screen door which is way more convenient for kids and pets. although idk what I was thinking getting a white one.

Sunday Sunsets

Last night we spontaneously decided to head over to Baker Beach for the sunset and it ended up being one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve probably ever seen. This past week was so busy, Chris was gone Monday through Thursday for work, I worked 3 shifts including Saturday night. I celebrated a friends birthday & Sunday we went to Dim Sum for a red egg & ginger party. So Sunday was the first day Chris, William & I were all together for a whole day in a week!

Before having Will I used to take Juno to the beach weekly. It’s truly her heaven on earth but now days it’s a two person job. One to wrangle the dog and one to wrangle the toddler. I’m acutely award that we won’t live 10 minutes from the beach forever so I’m trying soak up all the beach days I can & even though it can be hectic I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Chasing Fireflies & other sweet things in the South pt. 2

Part 2 of our trip to Tennessee & Georgia! These photos are from the wedding we attended in Bell Buckle Tennessee. As you can tell by most* of the photos William had a blast. We got to spend some great time with family, we all stayed at a B&B together & were just a few blocks from the rehearsal & wedding.

Six Months

Six months. Half a trip around the sun. I feel like all of the sudden my little baby isn’t such a little baby anymore (cue the tears!). Even though he’s still physically fairly little, only weighing in at 15 pounds. This month seemed like William took a huge developmental leap. He has figured out to army crawl around, he learned to whisper when he babbles – which to be honest, is hilarious. He started the journey of solid foods. One of the biggest changes I’d say is how much more cuddly he’s become. He’s never been a super snuggly baby, but now when he gets tired he’ll lay his little head on your shoulder and totally nuzzle in. As much as I wish time would slow down & I say it in every single one of these monthly updates, this month William has seemed to grow up so much & it honestly makes me so excited to see what this cool little guy is gonna be like. We have a big month coming up, William will be going on his first international trip, plus we’ll be heading to Austin for Thanksgiving, needless to say his seven month update will be here before I even know it.

Pumpkin patch fun

We took William to the pumpkin patch last week! He loved it!! There was so much for him to take in & he loved touching all the different textures of the pumpkins. Will is turning 6 months old next week, it’s so crazy to think he’s half a year old! He’s just getting more and more fun each day!!

5 months

Time is flying! I feel like I blinked and it’s October. This month William went on his first plane ride, discovered the possibilities of rolling over & sleeping on his tummy. He continues to babble & learned how to blow spit bubbles. His budding friendship with his fur sisters is just about the cutest thing I’ve seen. I can’t get enough of his tender curiousty with the world around him.

4 months

William turned four months old on Monday. This month was a big one, we went on our first family vacation to Calistoga. Will got to swim for the first time & he loved it! At the end of the month he mastered rolling over!! And he has continued to sleep though the night (hallelujah!) Although I will mention that now that he knows how to roll over he occasionally ends up on his belly or in a section of the crib he isn’t used to so he will occasionally wake up & need some assistance getting back into the middle of the crib, but he goes right back to sleep. William also had his first true belly laugh this month! It was the best. He also has definitely increased his awareness of Juno & Peggy & he’s been enjoying petting Juno & he takes getting licked like a champ haha. He also transitioned out of 0-3month clothes & is now in 3-6month.

Month 5 has a lot lined up for us – William will be going on his first plane ride, I’ll be heading back to work & I have a feeling his first tooth with pop through!

This weekend we are headed to my parents for a last little summer getaway.

Our First Family Vacation -Calistoga

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Last weekend we packed up, dropped Juno off at pet camp & headed north for Calistoga! We stayed at Indian Springs Resort & we loved it. Our room was awesome. It had a great little balcony so when Will went to sleep around 7:30 Chris & I would head to the balcony & play cards & drink wine! This was our first getaway as a little family of three. We’ve taken Will to my parents house but he’s never stayed in a hotel. We really wanted to go on a trip to get him more accustomed to new places but we didn’t quite want the stress of flying yet. He’s typically a great napper on the go, but I think the heat was to much for the little guy because he definitely struggled to nap when we were out & about. I can’t blame him though it was hot even for us! Luckily he slept wonderfully at night! William also got to go swimming for the first time this trip! We’d wake up in the morning I’d feed Will really quick & then we’d head to the pool before it got too hot. It was great because the pool was empty that early in the morning. The pools at Indian Springs are natural hot springs so the water is around 92-94 degrees this time of year. William loved it. He was so relaxed, he would start sucking his thumb & closing his eyes while he floated! It was wonderful to get away for a few days & enjoy the summer weather & just recharge. We’re in SF for the next few weeks as I wrap up my maternity leave & then in September we’ll be take Will to Austin for the first time! YAY!

3 months

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And just like that William is 3 months old. In some ways it feels like it has completely flown by & he looks huge to me & in other ways it feels like so much time has passed! It feels like forever ago I was pregnant, even though I still have the linea negra to show it wasn’t all that long ago! This month Will has started to grab at toys and pull them to his face, he’s getting more comfortable at tummy time & everyday seems like he’s finding a new part of his voice. Last week he discovered he could scream(!!). He continues to sleep through the night (bless him!). & he’s taking 2-3 naps per day. He’s also becoming a lot more aware of our dog & cat & has taken to petting/grabbing Juno’s fur. He’s our happy little guy & everyday I love him more!

Below are a few outtakes from his 3 month photos!

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