Archive of ‘Familia’ category

Bringing Puerto Rico Home

By Natalie

My sisters and I visited Puerto Rico in February.

Revisiting the island with my sisters was a sweet experience. We found healing in the waters from our homeland and discovered pieces of our identities that we didn’t know were missing. I reconnected with my sweet cousin Lourdes. We fell into lots of silly moments with each other. Dancing in the streets in San Juan, practicing our synchronized swimming in the ocean and just general quirkiness. We spent our entire childhood apart so it seemed we were making up for it in a way. It’s absolutely wild to me that this part of me was here on this Earth, miles away, our relationship dormant until I reached for it. It’s never too late.

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An Open Letter to My Cousin

By Natalie

Zaul,

I thought I’d write this note to you at home and send you some snail mail but I couldn’t think of anything else on my flight home from Texas so I began writing this to you on the quiet plane. But then midway through writing I started tearing up and felt quite awkward crying on a plane so I had to pause, chug my water, blow my nose and pick it up later. I’ve since taken some time to process and I felt that this was definitely something that I wanted to share with you, and I felt it deserved to be an open letter because this space and audience has become a part of my journey.

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A Slow December

By Natalie

Our family has chosen to celebrate this festive season by slowing down. A few weeks ago I sat down to discuss our Holiday plans with Brandon. “What Christmas activities do you want to do this year?” I asked. I went rambling on about how I didn’t think we needed to drive through the Charlotte Motor Speedway Lights again, but maybe we wanted to try the light show in Ballantyne this year. And should I plan to take Felicity to Gingerbread lane again the gingerbread house competition nearby and a number of other events in our area. There’s so many things to do this time of year in Charlotte. There’s almost too much. In one sense it’s nice because not one event is crazy crowded. But at the same time it feels like you’re missing out on something.

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Advent Calendar 2023

By Natalie

Happy December 1st! How sweet are these pink bags? I ordered them for my vendor markets this season. When they arrived I thought they would be such an adorable upgrade to Felicity’s advent calendar. I set 25 of them aside and stamped the rest with my Lux logo. Luckily I printed the number cards on cardstock paper 2 years ago so they’ve been holding up over the years and I was able to easily transfer them to the pink bags. The calendar has gotten alot easier over time now that I have such a good base to work with.

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Margins

By Natalie

Years ago Brandon and I heard a sermon on margin. Margin in a nutshell is leaving space and time in your life and schedule, to prevent overwhelm. Margin for us over the years has grown into more than leaving time in our schedule, it’s having margin in our finances for those in need and in our case space in our home as well. This margin we had created was exactly why we could say yes to inviting Zoe into our home. Margin is key so you have time to breathe, you’re on time and so you have enough energy left for your family. It has allowed us to say yes to people in need and it’s something we’ve always tried to incorporate in our lives. Since Felicity started kindergarten I’ve juggled, balanced, scheduled, whatever you want to call the way that I try to manage our lives all while keeping margin. Not having a 9-5 job means that I have the flexibility to do what I want with my schedule, yet I’ve been finding myself trying to fit a whole load of things into my schedule. I’ve realized that I need to sit and revisit my margin for this season of life.

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Tschüssi

By Natalie

Zoe. Our dear sweet Zoe. Confident, intelligent, thoughtful, driven, funny, honest, Zoe-oh. I miss you sitting on the floor. I miss you bringing me my refilled water bottle. I miss your laugh, our late night card games, the coffee you made me every morning. You standing in the early  morning glow of the kitchen, your German cooking, your truth, your hugs, everything about you I miss with an intense ache.

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Disfruta

By Natalie

Walking into the airport after 9 beautiful days in Puerto Rico was nothing short of heartbreaking. This was so much more than a vacation, it was a homecoming.

Brandon and I had hoped this trip would happen at least 5 years ago, but for one reason and then another it never worked out. As I approached 30 I recognized that something in me longed to connect more with my heritage. I wanted to see where my family and ancestors were from, to experience Puerto Rico for myself. (more…)

Christmas Celebrations

By Natalie

Something rolled out from the clothes that I was folding. I turned to find a letter X bead lying on the floor. It stared back at me beaming. I knelt down to pick up this little treasure. This little bead rolling out of my laundry.. it took me straight to yesterday morning when Felicity and I were making necklaces together with a kit she got for her birthday. She loads up letters and shapes onto the string in no particular order. Brandon and I wear them around the house. Sometimes Bingley even has one around his neck. The bead. These small reminders that I’m a mother. The candy cane jammies that I folded and set on the washing machine. The dirty clothes on the bathroom floor. The unicorn water cup that never seems to make it back to the table. The toys that are pushed to the edge of the playroom so that she and her daddy can play Saratops which is basically a very silly dinosaur head fight on all fours. The toy horse that she’s always looking for that I found in a basket. The pink towel that was draped over the banister upstairs. I tidy up, put the letter X bead back in the kit, fold her towel and set it back on her towel rack. Motherhood. (more…)

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