What happened? Well, my wedding planning went into full swing for the summer and I was preparing my classroom, and mind, for a brand new bunch of 4th graders that would be my students for the new school year. As you can imagine, these two things took over my life agenda! A halt was put to major blogging, cooking, baking, and sleeping (zzz...). I was exhausted! Nevertheless, the work and dedication I put into the planning paid off and I can say that 4th grade started with a lovely bang and was followed by an incredibly perfect wedding with my sweets. However, after we got married in September and I moved cities to live with my new hubby, I found it very difficult to balance my career, marriage, and previous hobbies. Unfortunately, this is when the blog received another kick to the curb as I was adapting to my new life changes.
Now we're getting personal...
Through these adjustments, I embarked upon several discoveries:
1.) No one really can explain to you just how amazing being married to the love of your life is. Everyone tells you marriage is blissful, challenging, and like nothing else one may experience, but until I actually became the Mrs. to my Mr., I didn't understand how much could actually change. It is such an incredible blessing to wake up next to my soulmate to find myself falling more in love with him than I thought possible. We have grown so much emotionally, spiritually, and personally through the first few months of our marriage. I am aware that things will eventually get shaken up, but I have no doubt that, together, we will be able to get through anything. Being a wife, it's crazy to think how much my priorities change now that the man that used to be my boyfriend/fiance is now part of me-- we created the start of a family! It makes me happy to care for my hubby and do whatever I can to nurture our marriage. I imagine this is what mothers feel like after being blessed with their own child...you just never know what it means to be a mother until you are one; you just never know what it means to be a wife until you are one.
2.) A good friend of mine presented an analogy about marriage to me that really stuck. She said something similar to, "Imagine that your life is a bucket filled with all kinds of small rocks and little pebbles. Each piece represents part of who you are and what you do. Marriage is a rock that is much larger than any of the other stones you have and when it gets added to your bucket, it takes up more room than you may have thought it would. This huge rock is amazing, but it is impossible to keep it without making some changes and removing and/or displacing some of the little pebbles and stones." This analogy really helped me make sense of a lot of the difficulty I was experiencing trying to balance everything. I couldn't keep trying to hang on to the way of life I was used when I was still living on my own while I was transitioning as a new wife. This wasn't easy, and if you really know me, you probably were there through the tough times and THANK YOU! Fortunately, my fantastic husband was, too.
3.) This third discovery was more of a reminder: Let go of control and let more faith in. Through all of the adjustments I found myself making, my health started to take spiral down a bit. My body was experiencing some of the worst things (that's another story, another time) I have had to go through and it soon became obvious to my husband that some other big changes might need to occur. He noticed that commuting far to work and running on adrenaline all day (can I get an "Amen" from any teachers out there?) was not helping my situation or our new marriage. To be honest, I noticed this too, but it took me a few months to finally accept it. I was reminded of discovery #2 often before I finally made the decision to resign from my position as a teacher from the charter school I had worked at for nearly 6 years. Oh, boy. This was a tough one...let me tell you. To leave 31 students I loved and a team of fabulous teachers that were my friends was frightening! I struggled with urges to try to plan and worry about everything I was doing. I wanted to try to control everything and make it work, but...my life circumstances, health, and husband were telling me otherwise. They were all right. I knew they were right. I was reminded that I just needed to make a right choice and trust God and rely on good faith that everything was going to be just fine.
4.) When you do something for yourself, the choice isn't necessarily going to shake the world. So do what is best for you and rejoice in it. This last discovery is one that I am sure many of you out there may respond with, "Duh!". I guess I had to learn this in my own way. As I traveled through life, I tried to always follow the rule books and think about everyone involved in my actions and choices. Making the decision to resign as a teacher after YEARS of hard work, two degrees, and a foundation built at a school I loved seemed like madness. There were too many people involved in my decision: students, parents, colleagues, friends, husband, etc. After a long period of thought, prayer, and contemplation, I finally made a choice that was for myself. I thought my class was going to sink, and my team would falter-- but they are doing just fine. I am on the road to healing and finding answers about my health, working on getting an equilibrium back, and feeling blessed every. single. day.
Whew! I know that was long! If you actually read through it all, I feel thankful. It felt good to get my heartfelt feelings out here.
Okay, okay... so what's in store for Oh My Pancake!? Well, as you can see, things look a little different around here! Thanks to Aubrey from Kinch Designs, OMP! went through a nice little makeover. The look is more clean and chic. I decided that a makeover was necessary since I am basically relaunching my baby blog.
Some major changes to OMP! include:
1.) You'll notice that I now have a variety of social media links! You can find OMP! on Facebook (page under construction) & Blog Lovin'. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram.
2.) My header now consists of several different pages. In addition to my recipe building (Recipe Index) and baking addition (Sweet Treats), I will be incorporating posts on DIY projects. (DIY) I am SUPER excited to share my love for making all things creative with my readers. Also, there is a a new page called "Married with Pancakes". I will be posting about my life with my hubby, Henry, and our little pancakes, Ellie, Sophie, and Harlin (our dogs). Some of these pages are still a work in progress...so make sure to check back soon as I build them up!
3.) Those of you who know the history of my blogging are aware that I used to be the writer of Yumology on WordPress. To make things less confusing and more organized, you will no longer be able to get directed to old recipes there. I am keeping you here on OMP! Yumology is still open, so if you want to poke through my old stuff, by all means do! I really am happy with this change even if it was hard to remove 100+ recipe posts off of OMP! :( Don't worry, I will still be sharing tons of healthy recipes here!
4.) I will be doing "Giveaways"...so, if you're like me and love free stuff (or yummy goods) be sure to subscribe!
I am so excited to relaunch Oh My Pancake! I sure hope you are looking forward to coming back here!
xo.
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