A New Normal

Hi.

Meet John Brian Saugen.

fresh out.

milk drunk

Adorbs.

that's a big forehead.

vintage Zorn via daddy.

John's our newest, most precious, family addition.  2 months old as of December 7th!  I will have to post some newer photos (once downloaded off my phone) showing his sweet sweet smile that he shares generously these days.

And.
This is my dad, Brian.

He passed away on September 30th, exactly one week before John was born into our family.   Boy do I miss him...

Birth is amazing, and death sucks.  There's not really any other way to describe it.  Luckily, friends and family make life worthwhile in between.  I feel like there is so much I want to write about those two events, but I just don't have the energy to put proper emotion into it right now.  So...  I won't.  Though I am sure I'll touch on both as life carries on.

We are just settling into our new normal, whatever that is.

I go back to work full-time after the new year, and am working half-time this month, and so am enjoying the days that I am home with my family.  I can't say this was the most "restful" or "relaxing" of maternity leaves...  quite the contrary actually.  But I'm really enjoying the role of "stay-at-home-mom" for this abbreviated time period :)  Boy I can get a lot more done than usual!  Organizing!  Sorting!  Getting rid of stuff that has accumulated that we don't need!  And I've really enjoyed cooking, since I actually have time to do so during the week.  (Unfortunately for my waist-line though...)  The only real hard part of maternity leave is trying to see all the people I'd like to hang out with - the ones I said to "I can't wait to spend more time with you during maternity leave!"  And then I found I didn't have time, or I just haven't made time to do so...  oops.  Mostly because I love being in my home with my kids, and am really just treasuring not having to schedule every minute of every day.  So I am trying to not feel guilty for not seeing all the people and instead just focus on what is making me happy, which is just staying home and being boring.

I hope to keep updating this blog more.  I love that I have so much of Olaf's beginning stages recorded on the blog.  Sadly Forest (middle child...) doesn't have as much.   Hope to remedy that for all three of them in the next year!