2018 Four Year Blog Recap

Hi there, how have you been? I have to ask because if you've been following this blog for a while, you've noticed some serious inconsistency in how frequently I've posted over the past four years. I'm jumping in to give you a recap of where I've been and where we're headed!I started this blog in the summer of 2014 as I was staying home full-time with my boys who were one and three years old. Although I had dabbled with other blogs in the past, I wanted to start fresh with a clear idea in mind: helping other moms live healthy in all areas of life day by day. The FitNow principle is that you always have the power in a moment to make a healthy choice – and those choices matter! Healthy choices accumulate into habits and empower you to live a well, full, whole, and healthy life.On fire for this blog thing, I then had two unexpected shifts in the fall of 2014: I felt undeniably called to go back to work and then I got pregnant with our third child. (No, the timing was not our idea.) As my husband and I discussed extensively, it did not make any logical sense for me to work during the timeframe we would have three children ages 4 and under. Nevertheless, that's exactly what happened. I am very grateful I was able to work part-time with my newborn and oversee the nursery ministry at our church which provided me more access to being with her. I'm not sure it would have worked without those accommodations but it was God's plan from the start, so He had those details worked out.Over almost four years, I have had the incredible opportunity to work at my church in communications, children's ministry, connections ministry, and currently oversee our volunteer teams. It would take many more posts to tell you about all of those experiences and how I've grown from them. Lessons in leadership, ministry, being a working mom and so much more continue daily.I think it's understandable that being a full-time working mom of three little ones would make it hard to maintain a blog, but it has always been in the back of my mind! Rather than take a break, I always thought, "I can squeeze in writing 2-4 posts and send a newsletter this month".  And then the month would be gone and I'd be like, "Ok, THIS month..."Throughout it all, I had to come to terms with the limits of my time and energy and commitment to keep my priorities in order: God, my wellbeing, marriage, parenting,  relationships and work responsibilities.  I had to be willing to pause and surrender to the season without striving to control or push myself too hard (which I do not always get right).Do well with the season you are in. You can't do everything all the time, but trust there will be a time for the things you're called to.Helping others by sharing online through writing and blogging has remained a passion and desire, and the seasons are shifting to be able to do those things more regularly. From here, the plan is a weekly blog post and monthly email update.

It's important to me to know: with all the content that exists online, what would YOU like to hear more about and how? What is helpful to you?

And visit me on Instagram @FitNowStephanie where I'm living day to day.