September Recap
Once upon a time, I felt as though I didn’t really share many personal life updates on the blog. I’ve been trying to improve that aspect of Just Bee lately, because I do love using my blog as a personal journal as well! I’ve been loving these monthly “recap” posts. It’s time for another update – this time, all about September!
RELATED: September // What I’m Looking Forward To
September Recap:
Labor Day weekend with friends! Bjorn and I really enjoy hosting people at our place for Labor Day. We had friends over last year, and this year we decided to go even more “all out.” 😉
We had 11 people in our home for the weekend, including a 2-year-old and a dog! It was certainly a full house but we had so much fun. Bjorn and his buddies love to play board games (particularly strategy games, and “love” is an understatement), so the weekend was mostly filled with game after game! I think the total number of games played that weekend hovered somewhere around 13! Even the early mornings started with mugs of coffee as people huddled around a board game in our dining room! We ladies joined in for most of the games as well. I’m just not big into the really intense strategy games – I’m more of a Scattergories gal. 🙂
We also went shooting one afternoon, grilled out, and made some homemade ice cream! It was a wonderful long weekend and afterwards, Bjorn and I were just filled with gratitude for these awesome people God has put in our lives. We may live a couple hours away from most of them, but that hasn’t hindered friendships (thank goodness for technology!) and it makes times like these even more special!
We finished up our childbirth classes. It was something I mentioned in this post that I was looking forward to this month, because I wanted to feel armed with more knowledge. I do feel like I gained a lot of knowledge, and it was really useful for us to attend these classes, but in general I still feel like there is so much we don’t know! And that’s not the fault of the class or anything else – and we could read parenting books all day long – but that just seems to be the nature of parenting. It’s definitely something to surround in prayer! I am 38 weeks along today! Baby girl could be here any time. 🙂 The good news is, I love our hospital and I love the nurses we’ve met so far. I’m impressed with what the hospital offers us, and they have great progressive ideas about labor and birth that are research-based. It’s basically things I would want to write on my birth plan – and they already do them! – so that is reassuring.
Harvest time hasn’t exactly come yet – but it will soon! Our soybeans are juuuust about ready to be harvested. Farming will be ramping up intensely very soon here. Please say prayers for safety and efficiency this year! With baby girl coming soon, too, there’s a lot going on and it would be such a blessing for the weather to cooperate so that Bjorn can get farming as “concluded” as possible!
Fall is officially here, though! We’ve had some really warm temps lately, but this week, mornings have been cool and crisp and the highs have been more like the low 70s. I love autumn days like this! The sunshine still feels warm on your face, but there is that distinctive chill that we can start to perceive in the air now days!
I’ve been enjoying pumpkin everything lately. 🙂 I’ve made whole grain protein pancakes a lot recently – the ones I buy are called Kodiak Cakes
My favorite fall recipe is probably Pumpkin Snickerdoodles – I use this recipe. I can’t make these too often because I will eat the ENTIRE batch. 😉
I did a mentoring photography session! I was mentored by Carissa Christine, who did our wedding photos. It was such a great opportunity! I’m so glad I reached out to her. She and I met and talked about photography as a business, editing photos, and more – and we also did a mini session together, which was a blast! We took photos of my friend Jordan and her cute family on a warm evening mid-September.
It’s always fun learning more about photography – I love it so much and it is such a wonderful creative outlet for me. I’d love to eventually do official family sessions in the future!
Bjorn’s aunts threw me a baby shower! It was such a sweet afternoon down in Iowa. I was once again blown away by how loved our little baby girl is already, and I am so grateful to have married into such a special family.
^^ my mom and me ^^
^^ the beautiful hand-stitched blanket from Bjorn’s grandma! We’ll treasure it forever! ^^
There were so many lovely, thoughtful gifts, and our daughter’s great-grandma made her the most beautiful pink blanket! They surrounded me (and baby girl) with prayer at the end – an incredibly touching conclusion to a happy afternoon celebrating this baby.
Other fun times with friends. My friend Jordan and and her daughter Selah came down to visit for an afternoon – and Jordan even brought supper with her! It was so much fun. We played at the neighborhood park and enjoyed some chat time before they had to head back home. This month, Bjorn and I also had lunch with our friends Sam and Amy and their precious daughter – oh, it is so fun to catch up with college friends and to meet their kids!!
^^ Baby girl’s bassinet is set up in the corner of our room now – I just love seeing it there! ^^
Final baby prep details! My parents came down and helped a lot with various house projects and organization tasks, and my sister-in-law Signe has helped with so many different tasks that I couldn’t do alone, too! I’m so thankful.
I worked on tons of crockpot meals until I was exhausted! Now we have 18 meals in the freezer, plus some frozen smoothie packs and 6 different gallon-size bags of healthy breakfast cookies!
RELATED: How I Prepped Crockpot Freezer Meals Before Baby (+ recipes!)
Bjorn had army training. He was gone for 6 days – although we’ve certainly done longer apart before (2 weeks, 6 weeks, etc.) this time felt extra significant because I really didn’t want to have the baby early while he was gone! 🙂 But, we made it to the other side, haha! It was so sweet because someone stayed with me every night Bjorn was gone – either my in-laws, or my mom, when she came down for the baby shower. I was (and am!) glad to have him back home, though!
Magic of Light photography class. I mentioned this before – Summer Murdock’s Magic of Light class sells out in literal seconds, so I’ve tried for several years now to get in. And this fall, I did! I’m in the course now and it is so full of incredible information. Even by the end of the first day, I felt I’d learned so much more about photography and light than I’d known before! It’s a total game-changer.
^^ my sunshiny view most mornings ^^
Getting into a new routine – for now! 😉 With September being the first month of school, Bjorn is back to teaching Monday-Friday…and I’m not. It’s been an adjustment to figure out a whole new routine and schedule for myself, but I’ve been really enjoying this extra time to prepare for baby – not to mention rest, this late in pregnancy! My routine will change drastically all over again once baby girl comes, so I think the theme of this year is going to be flexibility! 🙂
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We bought a FREEZER and a DRYER! This was honestly one of my favorite parts of this month!! (You’ll understand if you have lived without a clothes dryer for 4 years.) Bjorn and I were watching for Labor Day sales, and snagged some great deals on a chest freezer and a clothes dryer. The freezer has already been hugely helpful with all of the crockpot meals I’ve been making! I know I will just LOVE having it to store extra food over the coming months, instead of just using the small freezer at the top of our fridge.
In addition to the freezer, we got a dryer!! I could do a happy dance just thinking about it again right now! We have saved a lot of money over the years by not owning a dryer. I have line-dried everything, either on our huge clothesline outside in nice weather, or indoors on drying racks during the winter. You can imagine my excitement in finally owning a dryer after 4 years of line-drying everything. We had to have a venting system put in because the people who owned and lived in this house before we rented it never ran a clothes dryer. I’m so excited because of the future fluffy towels and soft baby clothes it’ll bring us. 🙂 (All of baby girl’s clothes are already washed and machine-dried, and are ready to go!)
I got a prenatal massage! It’s something that made me think, Wow, I should’ve been getting these all along! 😉 It was such a lovely way to relax and work out tension before the baby comes! I HIGHLY recommend getting a prenatal massage to any pregnant mamas out there!
Whew. September sure ended up being a full month! (And I know October will easily match it!) It looks like we’ll most likely have an October baby after all! I thank God every day for my husband, this pregnancy, and the blessings He has given us. Here’s to a beautiful month of September as we look ahead to an exciting month of October!
** To catch up on past personal life updates, check out any of the posts below!
Those cookies look so good and are definitely making me crave some snickerdoodles (which I haven’t had in forever). Definitely need to send hubby to the store b/c the baby needs some snickerdoodles and Rory loves cookies too. And that blanket- so cute! My MIL isn’t so skilled but thinks she is. She made the most hideous (unsafe) blankets for Rory. But my Aunt and cousin had a fleece blanket made with Rory’s name embroidered as well as one of the quotes from her gallery wall (In a Field of Roses, She is a Wildflower).
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I enjoy these recaps, Hannah! It’s so fun to get a glimpse of daily life. 🙂 I would love to be mentored by a photographer one day – what a great way to learn and get some feedback! You’re photography is always so beautiful and it encourages and inspires me to keep learning and improving!