Friends, on this day of love, I’m so happy to share that our hearts are growing and growing!

We are overjoyed that another little baby will be joining our family in August! YAY, indeed!!

It seems like it might be easier to take a second baby in stride, but knowing how precious our sweet girl is to us makes me even more grateful for and awestruck by this blessing. It was hard to imagine what our love for a child would feel like before we had June, and certainly how much fun it would be to be a mama — but now I know!! This time around, I’ve loved anticipating all of the good stuff that’s coming (like movement soon!), and it’s been nice to feel a little more prepared for the hard stuff, too.

That being said, keeping my expectations low has been my biggest challenge so far with baby number two. Y’all know how I feel about expectations – I live and die by them, as there are few things that more strongly affect my happiness and overall life satisfaction.

Last time around, pregnancy and life with a newborn was pretty much a gigantic blank slate. Specifically, I never had illusions about how wonderful the newborn phase would be. In fact, I expected it to be hard, frustrating, and exhausting, with a steep learning curve. I wasn’t depressed about this; I just figured it would be something we’d have to get through, and it would get better every day.

And then, we got a dream angel baby who did all the things. And it was SO WONDERFUL! Because I had low expectations, every good thing felt like a revelation. Even the smallest victories and happy moments were a delight.

For me, the key to repeat this experience again is not to have another dream angel baby (though I wouldn’t be mad about that!), it’s to again have truly low expectations. Easier said than done, but I am committed to experiencing this pregnancy and new little for just who he or she is!

Alright — on to the things you really want to know! :)

How do you feel? At 15 weeks, I am feeling good, though still tired in the evenings especially! The week we found out was truly awful – I had terrible back pain (something I’d never even heard of as a pregnancy malady!) and spent pretty much the whole week moaning and nauseous on the coach. John made an emergency run to Target for ginger tea, an extra heating pad, sea-bands, chicken noodle soup, and all the rest — we joked that the cashiers surely must have thought we were first-time expecting parents :) Since that week, though, it has been smooth sailing, with very little queasiness or anything else to complain about!

Are you going to find out whether it’s a boy or a girl? Yes! Yes yes yes. We can’t wait to find out in just a few weeks! My very favorite consignment sale is actually at 19 weeks and 3 days, and I’m considering using my one-time pregnancy diva card to schedule our ultrasound appointment a bit early, ha! My shopping needs will be very different based on the results, so I feel like this is justified :)

Does June know? We have talked about the baby in front of her, but haven’t really had a sit-down chat, and she’s never brought up the subject independently. I don’t think she understands much at this point. I’m sure we will be discussing her big sister status more intentionally as my due date gets closer and there is a belly to point to!

I’ll end the same way I did my first pregnancy announcement. We are grateful. We are trusting in God, who has equipped us with everything we need and has chosen us uniquely for this baby. We are trusting in each other, as we have for the last thirteen years. And we are trusting that all that is to come is the continuation of a beautiful story. Looking forward to sharing it, friends!! Happy Valentine’s Day :)

Biggest thank yous to our dear friend Graham of Anagram Photo for these sweet photos of our growing family!! He snapped them in his backyard a few weeks ago and then Sam served us the most delicious lo mein for lunch, so all around it was a blue ribbon day :)

Work is not something I talk about often on Em for Marvelous, so hopefully this installment of How We Do It will be an interesting glimpse into another facet of my life, one which many of us have in common!

To catch up any new folks: Nancy Ray and I are writing an eight-part series every Tuesday in January and February covering “how we do it” in eight different areas: the rhythms, habits, and routines that help us get things done and make the space and time for what matters most. You can read more of the backstory here.

Let me begin by saying I love my job, and I feel incredibly, incredibly lucky to have it. There are a number of reasons for this, but here are a few:

1. I find my work deeply meaningful. It’s personally meaningful to me, and I can directly see the positive impact my work has on other people’s lives, adding meaning to theirs. My work is one powerful way I’m able to share the gifts — the unique personality traits, the skills, the experiences — that God has entrusted to me.
2. I work for an amazing company. It’s a small business, and I have an impact on the decisions it makes, the direction it takes, and the opportunities it pursues. I have autonomy in how I structure my days, I feel valued, and I earn a steady income. As someone with an entrepreneurial heart and drive but little interest in owning my own business, this company is a perfect fit.
3. I love the ladies with whom I work. They are kind, they are smart, they are fun and funny, and they are passionate. Did you ever have the experience in school where you hated group projects because you always just wanted to do everything yourself instead of entrusting things to other group members? (Both hands raised!) Well, I never feel like that at work, and it’s something I still don’t take for granted! It’s incredible to work on a team where you trust everyone else will do their work just as well as you would, if not better.

I know my situation is unique, and again, I feel incredibly lucky. It’s one reason why I never seriously considered quitting my job altogether when June was born. I knew if I were to let go of it, there was no guarantee that I could ever find anything like it again when I wanted to reenter the workforce, say, when she was in elementary school.

I did, however, make a few adjustments when she came along, and they’ve made it so much easier to be both a mama and a team member. I now work a shortened day, from 9 to 4. I also work from home three days a week. To be clear, June still goes to school on those days, but since her school is literally two minutes from our house, we don’t skip a beat in the afternoons, and we still have time to play outside, go on an adventure, and get dinner on the table without feeling rushed or stressed (usually!).

As our family grows and kiddos get older, I’m grateful that further flexibility is a possibility, whether that means working 8 to 3 to match elementary school hours or cutting back to four days a week to accommodate the growing complexity of multiple kiddos and activities. Again, part of the reason that flexibility is a possibility is because of my longevity and loyalty to my company (I’ve worked there nine years!), and the equity I’ve built – something younger readers might want to keep in mind as you consider the shape of your career :)

Someone asked in my survey last year how I keep my work feeling fresh after having the same job for so long. The answer is in part everything I described above, and the other half is that, working for a small company, things are always changing whether I like it or not! (And y’all know I like stability!) In my tenure, we’ve grown from 3 to 9 team members, and the ways we do business, the ways we generate revenue, and even the structure of the company itself have changed drastically. That keeps you on your toes!! My role has also changed significantly over the years, which has led to plenty of opportunity for growth and learning.

So that’s a little bit about how I integrate my work and home life. Now, here are a few strategies I use for staying organized at work:

1. When I’m at work, I have child care. This is without a doubt the thing that makes being a mama and a team member sustainable and enjoyable. Though I am grateful to have the flexibility to work from home when June is sick or home from school on the odd holiday I don’t have off, I kind of hate working while she is at home — for me, it’s the only time when I feel like I’m failing as both a mama and an employee. When I’m with her, I’m all-in, and when I’m at work, I’m all-in — and confident that she is having so much fun with her friends and sweet teachers at preschool! This does not come cheap (gracious, no), but the peace of mind is worth every penny.
2. I try to use a one-touch email system. That means I’m okay with letting emails sit unread for hours or sometimes even days, but once I open them, I make an immediate decision and get them out of my inbox. That eliminates the time wasted of diving back into the parameters of a decision or situation multiple times without solving it and moving on. I also take advantage of Gmail canned responses whenever possible. Those things are lifesavers!
3. I use Asana to stay organized. Asana is a project management system, and our team is a bit obsessed with it. We implemented it about two years ago, and though it sounds cliched, I’m really not sure how we got anything done before we did. Not only does it help multiple team members contribute to and stay up to date on each project, but we have taken the time to document “process templates” for everything we routinely do, whether that’s writing a blog post, planning a photo shoot, or hiring a new team member. Each time I’m faced with a task, I just plug in the steps and follow them instead of starting from scratch each time, potentially overlooking something important.

4. I use Pomodoros in especially busy seasons. Usually the day to day rhythm of work is enough to keep me focused, but if it’s crunch time or I’m feeling extra distracted or frazzled, I’ll use the Pomodoro technique. Basically, I set a timer for 25 minutes, and then put my head down and work without interruption until the timer goes off – no email checking (unless the task I’m working on is email!), no Instagram checking, no getting up for a snack, etc. When the timer goes off, I set another for five minutes, when I can do anything I want – stretch my legs, check my personal email, respond to text messages, etc. Then, it’s back to another 25-minute stretch, and so on and so forth. Those little distractions can really add up, and I’ve found this technique a great way to curb them.
5. I use my PowerSheets to track my goals. I generally set quarterly versus yearly goals for my role, and my PowerSheets are a great way to continually be reminded of them (which is more than half the battle for making progress!). I keep them open to my tending list on my desk – a peek at February’s below!

6. I use a social media planner for loose scheduling. Sharing on my personal platforms is part of my job, and this simple doc I designed helps me keep track of what should be said when. There’s lots of flexibility here, but it’s a helpful guide in busier seasons! If you’d like to try it yourself, you can download it here.
7. I keep a generic background image on my laptop. This might be the weirdest tip :) But I find if I have, say, a family photo as my desktop background, feelings of sadness or distraction might creep in every time I closed a window – or, at least, I’d be jolted out of one world into another. I do have framed family photos on my actual desk, and I’m not sure why I feel differently about those, but I do. My pretty sky scene is also a neutral backdrop that offers breathing space instead of adding to visual and mental clutter. (And on that note, I try to keep just 1-3 icons on my home screen at any one time, always including my To Do List Word doc :))
8. If there’s something I need to bring with me the next day, I put it in the car the night before. Guys, this is such a simple tip, but it has been huge (HUGE!!) for me. I’ll talk a bit more about getting everyone out the door in the morning in the upcoming Kiddos post, but this small step is one key. Need to bring styling items, a book, a piece of clothing, or a box to mail? They’re rounded up, walked to the garage, and placed in the car the night before. I can’t count the number of times I’ve raced around in the morning collecting things I needed for the day, or worse, gotten something ready the night before and then left it sitting on the counter. This simple habit eliminates both.

I’ll finish by adding just a few notes about Em for Marvelous organization. Even though it is not my job (I make about $15-20 per month on affiliate links, and that money goes to cover hosting and web development costs, not our mortgage!), I approach it quite seriously. Posts take at the quickest half an hour to write, and at the lengthiest, six-plus hours over multiple days. I generally write on weekday evenings after June is in bed, and sometimes while she is napping on the weekends.

The most important tool I use to stay organized is the blog planning sheet I created several years ago. This is far and away one of my most pinned posts, so I’m glad y’all have found it helpful over the years, too! My goal was to create a place to both brainstorm post ideas for each month as well as to schedule those ideas throughout the month. The top section has blank lines, and ideas get crossed off once their posts have been completed. The bottom portion is a blank calendar. I try to keep sheets for the next six months or so printed out so I can jot down season-specific ideas as they come to me.

I recently updated the PDF to include the nine most popular EFM topics (voted by y’all in my last survey!) in the brainstorming section to help me plan content that covers a wide variety of topics. I’ve loved this update, but y’all can still download the original sheet here.

I’d love to hear: What helps you stay organized at work, whatever work might look like for you? Share in the comments, if you’d like – I love learning from you all! And don’t forget to check out Nancy’s post for a business owner and all-around awesome person’s perspective. Thanks for being so wonderful, friends!

The rest of the series:
Time: Em’s post and Nancy’s post
Finances: Em’s post and Nancy’s post
Home: Em’s post and Nancy’s post
Personal Lives: Em’s post and Nancy’s post
Work: Em’s post and Nancy’s post
Relationships: Em’s post and Nancy’s post
Kids: Em’s post and Nancy’s post

Affiliate links are used in this post! Pink shirt photo by Ally & Bobby, June photo by Katelyn James, and bulletin board photo by Ally & Bobby. Do you like that I’m wearing the same shirt in two different photos from two different occasions? :)

Happy Tuesday, friends! I apologize that we don’t have a new How We Do It installment for y’all today – Nancy is majorly under the weather, and since this week’s topic is one we feel so passionately about, we figured it was better to postpone than push posts out that weren’t up to snuff! The whole series is shifting back one week, so keep an eye out for our thoughts on organizing our work next Tuesday.

In the meantime, I have something fun for you. I was reading through some of my own 2017 survey responses recently as I helped my friend Rhi put her blog survey together, and it was so helpful to remind myself of the types of content y’all said you loved most!

One of those topics was home design. It’s not something I get to talk about terribly often as, though we have grand plans, we generally move at a snail’s pace :) But, I’ve been thinking through some fairly major changes I’d like to make to our living room over the next year or so, and I thought it would be fun to share them here!

I can sum up the changes in this way: I’d love for our home to feel like the cozy, warm, refined, and calm home of your most stylish and Southern childhood friend’s Mom. Got that? :) More Southern Living than Domino, but so warm and approachable — somewhere you instantly feel relaxed, and where you just want to spend a few hours nestled in and curled up, chatting.

So what’s my plan? The first change is that I’d like to evolve our color scheme to be a bit softer and more neutral. I’ve felt recently like it’s challenging to decorate seasonally or for holidays (something I love to do!) because adding any extra colors or layers on top of our already vibrant “look” takes things to a visually chaotic and cluttered level.

To this end, I’d first like to remove the red, orange, and coral tones to shrink our color palette a bit. That leaves us with blues, blushes, and neutrals, plus touches of green, yellows, and maybe deeper pinks here and there. Though I’m thinking of this scheme as a bit more refined, I still want it to come across as happy – that’s one of my favorite things about our home!

Removing some of the hotter tones means the red chairs, the area rug, our throw pillows, and even our floral artwork will likely be phased out. A few of these pieces I plan to sell to recoup some of the money we’ll spend on new furnishings; others I’ll repurpose elsewhere in the house. (I already have a spot picked out in our upstairs hallway for the flowers!)

The rug I’d love to replace with one in a similar pattern but a narrower palette – I’ve included a few options in the boards here! Also, if it’s not obvious from the boards, one of the things I’m most hoping to add is a pair of comfy armchairs (at least one with an ottoman!). To me, these epitomize the change: nothing says cozy to me like the comfiest, oversized armchair! I can just picture them paired with a reading lamp and lots of blankets to wrap up in :)

The last big furniture change is that I’d love to switch out the small dresser our TV sits on for a longer piece with doors instead of drawers so it’s easier to store June’s toys and for her to put them away herself. With the additional surface area on top, I’d love to display more family photos in frames. Also considering switching out our chest coffee table for something softer and lighter.

Whew! That’s a lot! Like I said, we’ll make these changes over the next year (if we’re lucky!!), but I like to have a vision for the end goal before we begin. I feel like I’m getting closer to that.

Honestly, though, the thought of making SO many large purchases so close together (and ones that we’ll hope to have for a long time, like the armchairs), makes me really nervous. Because of that, I’m considering hiring a local or e-designer in some capacity to help with the sourcing and confirm that my overall vision makes sense. Of course, working with a designer is an additional expense, but I feel like it might be worth it to put my mind at ease and feel like we’re stretching our money as far as we can.

Have one of y’all ever done something similar? I would love to hear, if so!! There are a few larger companies I know of, like Havenly and Homepolish, and then a few independent designers that I’d be interested in getting pricing from to compare. We shall see!

Sources from first board: vignette from Ashley Whittaker Design, armchair from Interior Define, bedroom unknown, pillow, basket, rug, stairwell, bedroom, ottoman, fireplace unknown, ottoman, living room unknown, bedroom

Sources from second board: armchairs, gray armchairs, blankets, living room, rug, window seat unknown, hutch, rug

Affiliate links are used in this post!

Happy February, friends! It’s going to be a great month :) I have actually been feeling that I would like a little more specificity in my focal areas for the year (which is pretty unlike me!), so I’ll be digging into that over the next few weeks. In the meantime, I’m grateful for the chance to write these monthly posts and the push they give me to keep moving forward little by little, even if I don’t yet have a perfect picture in mind of the finish line. I know everything I’ve listed below matters to me, and that’s a great place to start!!

What I read in January:
— All Joy and No Fun (Guys, I recommend this book for every single one of you!! It is SO fascinating! Read it, then come discuss it with me :))
— The Opposite of Spoiled (This book was a gem, too! Lots of practical tips I’m squirreling away for later!)

Revisiting my goals for January:
Set a date for our spring camping trip (planning dinner date moved to February!)
File all paperwork in our blue room (halfway completed – made good progress!)
Make our “areas to be purged” list (not yet!)
Tackle two areas I already know need help: our closet shelf and pantry (YES!! So happy about this! The pantry organization in particular has been huge, and so easy to maintain.)
Walk our home with John and make a list of needs and wants, then rank them (purging needs to come first, I think)
Browse through The Lifegiving Home online resources
Write June a note on her second birthday
Set up my Life List (post here!)
Order our 2017 photos from Social Print Studio
Confirm my EFM posting plans for January
Order my Fruit of the Spirit canvas

February goals:
— Set a date for our spring camping trip
— Make our “areas to be purged” list
— A neighborhood walk. Every day. (Hoping it warms up soon so this is more pleasant!)
— Decorate our house and kitchen table for Valentine’s Day!
— Ruthlessly edit the loft ruthlessly (did I mention ruthlessly?)
— Make a list of monthly dates for the year, inspired by Lisa
— Find a new toy storage solution for our family room (leaning toward a trio of Brimnes cabinets, inspired by Rhi)
— Choose and commit to a photo back-up service
— Enjoy our trip to Florida!

If you use a photo back-up service (Dropbox, Amazon Prime, etc.) that you love, I’d love to hear from you in the comments! If you have a favorite date idea to share, I’ll take that, too :)