There was a time in life when I was really good at making and crushing my monthly goals. Sometimes I get discouraged because I seem to COMPLETELY FORGET that I have goals – which would explain why it’s February 6th and I’m just now posting these, even though I made this list in the middle of January.

Now that the days are starting to get lighter and I’m getting in a groove with Madeleine, I feel excited about the accountability of goals.

Four whole months with Madeleine. The day before she turned 4 months marked a year since I found out we were having a baby. I’ll never forget any of it. I’d experienced implantation bleeding (from when she nestled herself into my uterus as a teeny tiny egg) and researched why my body randomly bled for 6 hours. That’s when I discovered implantation bleeding and messily peed on a stick one Sunday evening. Two very clear lines showed up and I calmly washed my hands, walked out and nodded to Justen. I started sobbing and said I didn’t know what to feel.

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to, uh, “rebrand” my blog. You know, this little dormant corner of the internet where I used to write heartfelt stuff or track my debt repayment but this year mostly just shared pictures of my growing belly.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve stared at a blank “Add New Post” screen, bit my nails, and wondered what to put in the big white text area. Justen sent me a new WordPress Theme, asked if I liked it, and then I thought.. a new look to my blog will help me, for sure!

Once, awhile ago, I had a conversation with a branding strategist about.. well, branding. She told me that branding was more than just the colors on your blog. It’s the language, the topics, the things that make you YOU. The things that people recognize and associate with you and your (blog, business, etc).

As we were taking these pictures, Justen said “hey, she’s a quarter of the way to a year!” and I sat there, lip quivering and eyes filling with tears and he knew it was way too soon to talk like that to me.