It seems crazy to me now, but I used to get regular haircuts and dry my hair every single day. Since having triplets, I've gotten my haircut every 9-12 months. Recently I've been trying to dry my hair a little more often since I do want my hair to look nice, but realistically I average about once a week. I used to train for marathons and triathlons, and I seriously forgot until recently that there was a period of my life when I went to yoga regularly. Currently I run two miles about twice a month, and I went to a yoga class led by someone from our church last week and I was sore the next day because I couldn't even remember the last time I unrolled my yoga mat (plus Graham spent the whole time climbing / laying on me, running under my legs as I tried to balance, and then rolling up my mat so I had to finish the class on the hard floor). I do climb at the gym a couple of times a week, but my workout regimen is nowhere where it was pre-kids. And before I had kids, I had a career. I worked hard to become a CPA and I worked full time for 6 years. This past year I started working a little, but I only work 3-4 hours a week. I spend the rest of my time homeschooling two days a week, grocery shopping, making meals, making sure all of the kids are fed and clean, keeping our house in order, and taking the kids on outings. I think everyone knows that moms work more than "full time," but it is so different than showing up to a job every day and having adult conversations.
 |
This is clearly an old picture since my niece is now 12, but look at that hair! Dried and curled! |
 |
| Katie and I are on the right in the grey shirts during the Phoenix Marathon. I loved being able to train for this race with her when we both lived in Colorado. |
 |
| Life today. Messy post dinner kitchen and making a quick dessert with all of the kids "helping." I don't think I would have believed it if someone would have shown me this snapshot of my life 10 years ago. |
Recently I also rediscovered a blog that I kept before I got pregnant with our triplets and during my pregnancy. At the time I kept the blog private so that only those I invited could read it. I had quit my job, traveled for five weeks, and I was preparing to do IVF. After struggling with infertility for a couple of years Micah and I discovered that IVF was our best chance at having a baby, but we weren't ready to share the journey with the world since it was a difficult process for us. My job was not very flexible, so we agreed that I should quit to focus on the IVF process, and we thought I would return to work once the baby was born. Little did we know that our first round of IVF would be incredibly successful and that our two embryos would turn into three babies. Clearly I never "returned to work," but I don't regret that decision at all.
For those interested, this blog ( immersioninhousewifery.blogspot.com) documents my journey during the couple of months before we started IVF and it ends with the birth of our triplets. Although the pregnancy was difficult and the birth story was traumatic for me, I am incredibly thankful that today we have three healthy, intelligent, athletic, creative, opinionated 5 1/2-year-olds. And since we were committed to using all of our embryos, we now have an almost 2-year-old that has been an amazing addition to our family, even though the thought of having another child seemed terrifying at first. As a side note, our fertility doctor told me that I was his most successful patient as we had four viable embryos and we now have four healthy children (during the first round of IVF we transferred two embryos and got three babies since once split, after our second embryo transfer in early 2016 I had an early miscarriage from our third embryo, and our third embryo transfer of our fourth and final embryo resulted in Graham).
I have to admit that sometimes I wish I could travel through time and experience life before kids again. It's hard to believe that I could just leave the house when I wanted and do whatever I wanted to do. But it's also hard to imagine life any differently than it is today. I longed for children for years before we even started to try to get pregnant, but because of life's circumstances we decided it would be best to wait. The younger me wanted babies, even if it meant less time for herself. I'm glad that I was able to spend so much time doing things for myself pre-kids as I know that someday my life will revolve less around the kids and I will become more of the person I was in the past.
