My friend Allison (her husband and my husband are childhood BFFs) has awesome bangs — well, honestly her entire hairstyle is awesome (always), and yesterday morning I finally declared, It’s time for me to have bangs again! Allison and I have similar hair texture and color, and every time I see her or a photo of her I take one step closer to having bangs cut. So yesterday I snuck out in the afternoon and had them cut, and would you believe I love them? :) They’re so fun.
Last year around this time my hair was darker (not my natural color though) and I had bangs, although they were more of a blunt/straight across cut. Now my hair is more of an auburn/blonde/light brown mix to match my natural color — paired with side-swept chunky bangs. This time around my hair feels more natural and easier to style.
For months, and I really do mean months (since February) our family has been praying for Zack’s work schedule to lessen. It has been a really long year, but I’m seriously grateful to see our prayers being answered and his schedule slowing down. It can be so hard to be patient and wait, can’t it? And to be honest, I wasn’t always quietly waiting… There were many days since February where I cried and complained and questioned WHY we needed to wait. My guess is it wasn’t just about answering our prayers but having God work on our hearts, too.
And so during that time I clothed myself (in a sense) in maintenance mode. Knowing the days would be very long and sometimes lonely… Knowing I would have to balance taking care of Max and caring for our home and encouraging Zack, grocery shopping and play dates and bath time, walking Bauer multiple times a day and praying fervently and resting during naptime — these things consumed my time and mind, and auto-pilot kicked in.
I hate admitting this, but after a few months I began running off maintenance mode: not really thinking about what would make me happy, but instead putting my family first so that they were happy. What I missed out on was recognizing how important both of these things are! It’s not about putting myself first as though there’s greater importance to my needs, but rather knowing when I hold both my family and myself on the same level both areas thrive, together.
I want to remember these past eight months as encouragement for the future. I remember a few years ago, when we lived in Minneapolis, going through something similar: something in life caused me to put myself on pause while we worked through a hard season. There was much learned, but I don’t think I processed it the healthiest way.
And now our family is growing! In such a short amount of time I’ll be in a newborn haze, but I’m so looking forward to experiencing that once again. And this time I’ll have my chunky bangs to hang out with as we navigate another hard season… and also maybe a new stick of raspberry-colored lip stain ;)
Love the “chunky” bangs. I can’t help but think soon you’ll be kissing chubby cheeks. Swoon.
God teaches us so much in the waiting if we’re willing to listen. Sometimes I am not willing which is sad because then I’ll have missed the blessing of learning something from it. I hope his schedule lightens up considerably very soon.
“chunky” cheeks. ;)
In just a few more days it will, and I can feel my body exhaling! Yes yes, thank you Jesus. I’m beginning to notice a pattern in how our prayers are answered, maybe I can tuck that away for next time and let it comfort me a bit as we wait. :)
THANK YOU. i clicked over to read this post cuz i wanted to see your cute new bangs. but as i was reading, i realized i actually needed to read it for other reasons. i feel like my little family is in a similar hard season as you are/have been. except it’s me that we’re praying for a slow down and/or change with work related things. and it’s so true about autopilot – it just happens! we ‘need’ to get so many things done and so in order to ‘make it through’, sometimes we just forget we’re a real person and plow through our days. it’s been taking a serious toll on me personally though. i can feel it. i can feel me reaching my limit, and i need to take a step back and enjoy the time we’re in and know that during our waiting period, amazing things are happening still. again – thank you :)
Hey Maggie, I LOVE how your posts just make me feel better. Just genuinely better! I am having a rough week because I want SOOOOO bad to be a stay at home mom. I am a teacher, but LONG to be home with my twins. Financially, we just cannot live on one income. I have started an ItWorks Global business to make myself healthier and bring in extra income, but I have not gotten where I would need to be yet to become a SAHM. It is frustrating! I also have my little boutique business with my mother in law, but that money is going into a fund for the girls.
So, while I was in tears earlier this week, it is hard to face that staying home is not in the cards for me, at least currently. My girls are 3 and will start school after next year, so my time with them is running out and that sickens me. You are so lucky to have the handmade business work for you and for Zack to be able to provide for you to stay home. I know that must be hard being so ‘lonely’ so often.
So, I will pray for you, if you will pray for me! :) Thanks for the encouragement today!
I’ll be praying there’s some way for this dream of yours to come true. Maybe there’ll be an area you can cut back on, or maybe there’ll be a different way for you to contribute to your families income…. Could you watch another child as well for additional income? I’ll definitely pray :) And thank you for your sweet comment… Encouraging our neighbor is so important! XO
Beautiful post, Maggie. And I love the bangs. :)