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Around The Blog Lately Plus Catching Up With Us

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Around the blog lately plus home and family happenings. . .

Around the Blog Lately - At Home With Zan

Hello friends, it’s being a while since I last connected with you through this blog. In the past few months, I have had some setbacks and have not been able to blog as much. That’s not to say that I have not been trying to get back on my “feet” since Fall – albeit to no avail. I knew I wanted to cut back some on how much blogging I did weekly and create consistency with my postings. However, I still haven’t been able to put out much since the Fall.

I managed a few postings in January and February but since then it’s being some kind of a struggle to get others in the making worked on enough to publish them. Some of them are in draft only to edit and publish and others I just can’t seem to be able to even get to the photographing point. Part of this setback is because I cannot find the time or the appropriate setting to get the stuff down. Other times, when I do have a chunk of time to work I seem to go blank. It’s like all my excitement fades off into something blank – I cannot think of what to say. Or I may start typing and it just does not feel right. There are also a few other hindrances that have been keeping me from putting out content lately, too. I’m not quite sure what is going on. But I thought I would at least let you know where I am with it at this point before hopefully beginning to share again. I have a few posts in the making!!

And to those of you who reached out via email regarding the blog (whether it be about sharing or collaborating), I do try to read your emails if I see them come through. I do admit that on occasion, I may have forgotten to reply. 

Around the Blog Lately - Plus Catching Up With Us - At Home With Zan

Meanwhile I’ll share a few photos (mostly unedited) from some of our events outdoors and around the house to get you caught up or just for the fun of sharing (the lot of it is mainly from Easter) and get you caught up on what I want to do with the blog.

Blogging…

In the past, I’ve mentioned how I wanted my content to reflect not only decor, DIY and organization but also family posts and wise homemaking chats (I call them chats for lack of a better word) like when I began. I think overtime, my blog had somehow gotten away from what I intended it to be. Please don’t misunderstand. I want this blog to develop and change if things don’t work plus I certainly don’t expect it to look like it did when I first began blogging. Learning, developing, and striving for betterment is what we should do. But trying to change content to keep up with others success won’t get me anywhere. Being me and doing what I like best is what would. So I want to bring back some causal posts regarding homemaking, family outings, our travel and things of that nature. Posts that DON’T require perfect editing to catch a reader’s attention. I want them to be fun, encouraging, and speak a little wisdom to those who may just need it. And of course, I still want to share organization, decor, and DIY but just not that alone.

Note: Nope, I don’t have all the answers but I do think those posts will lighten the load from always thinking about the next decorating project or the next organizing project or the next DIY project.

So that was the blog stuff. Now let’s get you up to speed with the family,  around the house, and a bit of a random stuff.

Family…..

Our babies are not so much “babies” anymore. Even the littlest one is already 3. SAY what??? Wasn’t he just born? (This photo was after church on Easter so don’t mind that our hair is a bit wrinkled and not quite in tack).

Around the Blog Lately - Easter Photos - At Home With Zan-

We’re homeschooling this year and that took some learning about ways to make school go smoothly (as much as we can). She is doing so very well. Here we are celebrating 100 days of school (or of lessons). She decorated her shirt and we made cookies!

Blog - Homeschool - At Home With Zan-

Earlier in March, we took a family trip to visit family in the Caribbean. It was sunny and nice little break from the cold weather. I have not yet worked on the photos for sharing but you can catch the beautiful ocean front view in this next photo. I know you wanna take a trip:)

Grenada Trip - At Home With Zan

Around the house….

As far as the house goes, we’ve not done much. As you may have note that we don’t have a fixer upper home plus we’re renting so we don’t have major house projects going. We focus mainly on function and organization and of course, all things pretty.

It’s being a long while since I actually bought random decor for home. I realized that more than decor, we needed organization first. I started holding off to make larger organizational purchases rather than little random things for the sake of it.

Christmas, I spent about $5 buying one little (un-needed) tray. And that was the extent of our Christmas decor spending.. Well I mean, I ended up purchasing some lights and a few lanterns for outside. But I was so happy to not spend a ton on buying stuff that we really didn’t need.

With that said, I only recently started to add a few things to the house (for the front room especially). It was sitting empty and just felt so incomplete being in a central spot of the house. At times, I’d put bins and baskets there temporarily while I worked on organizing other parts of the house. But it needed it’s very own organizing. I’ve also started to organize the laundry room and a few minor areas. (Here is a look at the room to the front that I’m referring to). Note that there’s a bench and a chair and not much organization going on there. But I’ve added a few things over the Easter weekend and it already looks like it’s coming together (not shown).

Home Tour - Hallway - Opened Entry - At Home With Zan

Easter…

How was your Easter? I hope you took some time to celebrate it’s true meaning. Around here, we try to focus on what Christ did for us and at the same time be reminded of how imperfect we are. I cannot tell you how many times I seemed to have fallen short and have to remind myself constantly of His forgives. What better times like Good Friday and Easter to remind me (us) of this truth?

The Meaning of Easter Printable - At Home With Zan

We didn’t go to an Easter play or anything of that nature on Good Friday. But we try to teach our kids about the meaning of Easter, we also try to do a few fun things with them.

 

Around the blog lately - Easter - At Home With Zan-

This year, we didn’t go to an outdoor Easter egg hunt. Originally, we thought we’d only do one home for the kids but thought it might be fun to go out to one too. By the time we checked into what outdoor hunts were available we just weren’t ready enough to get there on time. Therefore, we only did the one at home for the kids – it was so much fun for them.

Easter Egg Hunt - At Home With Zan

I filled the eggs with some fun little things (stamps, balls,  a few candy, etc) and hubby hid some around the house and some inside. Also, I made them individual baskets with a few extra things I thought they would love playing with. It looked like they were not expecting the extra baskets and seemed truly surprised by that plus the little items in them. They loved the activities!

Easter Basket - Easter - At Home With Zan

Easter Basket - At Home With Zan

For gathering around the table, I set an an Easter table in the dining room. Earlier during the week, the kids and I did some egg decorating which we were able to use on the table. The table was for fun and then I remembered we would have two extra adults visiting so I needed more plates and sitting.

Easter - Table Setting - At Home With Zan (1)

With the table came two big meals, an Easter brunch on Saturday and dinner on Sunday. Overall, the food was rather delicious.

Easter -Brunch - At Home With Zan (2)

Easter Dinner - At Home With Zan-

Random….

Although I did some things to make cooking, cleaning and tidying easier I still felt a little over overwhelmed. But God’s strength was sufficient. Sometimes I think homemakers seek to make everyone else happy and in the process get burned out. I thought about the passage of Mary and Martha when Jesus went to visit their home. Martha was busy with much house work but Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus. Mary was commended for doing so. That’s not to say we should not take care of our homes and serve others but finding ways to make things easier so we don’t feel burdened and like we’re working all day (rather than enjoying your guests) is not a bad idea at all.

Kitchen - At Home With Zan

 

Anyway, that was just a little update from around the blog basically on why it seem to have been on stand still for quite a while. The photos were just additional:)

If you are a frequent reader here I so appreciate you following along and taking the time to read. 

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2 thoughts on “Around The Blog Lately Plus Catching Up With Us

  1. Hi, Zan! It seems like a while since we’ve had a chat. I do keep up with you and your beautiful family on Instagram. I’ve been experiencing a little burn out myself and haven’t been posting as much either. Your home is always beautiful and your Easter tablescape is lovely. Just wanted to stop by and say hello!

    1. Oh Alli, it has been a while!! I am so glad you stopped by and left a comment. To be honest, I doubted if anyone would even read it since I’ve kind of not been very present here. That is so encouraging and and to keep on. I keep up with you too via Instagram and hope we both can put this blog ‘burn-out’ thing behind us. It gets tough. And thank you so much for the lovely compliments about our home and family!!

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