Remember last week, when I posted a few simple photos of a delightfully sunny afternoon and the uplifting lunch I shared with a handful of lovely women? My photos were mere child’s play, but the photographer talent on the Embolden Team did a much better job of capturing our afternoon together, complete with mouth-watering shots of a good deal of our menu. Read my reflection of our time together and drool over some fabulous images from the day here on the Embolden blog. The linked post does our day much more justice than I’d previously done.

How does this relate to my 100 day challenge and prep for the baby and such? Well, in a few ways, I suppose. For one, last week was a challenging week, and I was needing a bit of a pick me up (or a distraction, rather), from the discomfort I was sorting through. Enter this picturesque day, coupled with a visit from my mama, and things were quite a bit more tolerable and pleasant by the end of the week.

On top of that, I was kind of forced to work through some insecurities about my growing shape and protruding bump that I may not have faced–had it not been for needing to just overcome it and be comfortable with cameras around all afternoon. People can say some lovely things, but some majorly lack a filter when it comes to pregnant bellies, and mine always feels polarizing. Either I’m on top of the world after a social encounter and conversation about the bump, or I’m walking away scratching my head and trying to figure out how to stay positive when the world can be so negative sometimes. Fortunately for me, you kind of have to make peace with yourself to be around a camera–whether you’re in the shots or not, and the few images that I have seen from the day just make me feel grateful. Since I’m making an effort to find celebration in every aspect of this pregnancy, I think I can safely just love that there are a few photos floating around of me in my rounded out state. I’ll miss this when it’s gone.

Lastly, if and when the Button thumbs through these posts someday, I hope that he or she will glean from the above that life is worth savoring. Sometimes, you just have to take a little time out from the norm to do something that heightens your senses and makes you feel more fully alive. There’s nothing wrong with this, and in fact, I think we’d die inside a little bit if we didn’t just stop to smell the roses here and there. Celebrate the small and good and healthy things in life, babes of mine. Celebrate and savor as often as you can.

I’m so glad that we’re on this 100 day journey together, sweet little person! It causes me to take pause each day, and to reflect what is happening in my heart, body, soul and mind as we grow together. You’re doing a really great job…only 9ish weeks to go until we can celebrate the beauty of the simple things in this world side by side!

savoring whenever possible,

mm