hike it baby 30 | september 2019

Another September comes to an end today, so you should know what that means...

We just completed our S I X T H Hike it Baby 30 challenge, wahoo!

I've said it before, but I'll repeat it any way - Hike it Baby 30 is an initiative to get families to spend more time outside. So simple, right? These challenges are always so much fun for us, because we keep a detailed record of all the memories we're making. I don't always keep track of how long we're outside on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis -- but I always do during challenge months. This particular challenge was our most successful one yet, and I'm still AMAZED at our incredible results!

We opted for mostly walks around our neighborhood to log our miles, but we did adventure to a few trails -- all of which were some of our most favorites! And when we weren't racking up mileage, we were posted up on the pavement playing with chalk or at the park, playing our hearts out. The weather this month has been so great, which definitely helped us surpass our goal in such a huge way. It's been a HOT September, but I haven't minded. An extended summer is right up my alley! ;)

The challenge, itself, is this: hike/walk/bike 30 miles with your kids and/or spend 30 minutes outside 3 days a week with your kids. For us, we logged a total of 56 MILES between the trails and the pavement AND spent a whopping total of 134 HOURS outside during the month of Septemer! WOWZA!! That time outside breaks down to an average of 4.5 hours of outside time each day. I am SO proud of us! I'm especially proud that I have this sweet tradition with my kiddos (and husband, when he's able to join us) that keeps us active, healthy, and constantly adventuring. I hope they remember these days. But if not, I've got picture proof. LOL!

I've got a major travel itch currently, and I've been mapping out new-to-us hikes that we could write down and cross off in a few new-to-us places. TJ hasn't exactly signed off on all this yet (aka he's more present-minded and detail-oriented than his lovely wife), but I hope he will soon. I'm not asking for anything tooooooooooooo crazy (*insert evil laugh here*), I just want to see places that I've never seen now more than ever before.

These challenge months help scratch these itches I get from time to time. This particular challenge, however, was a bit of an emotional one for me, because it's our final September edition where Braxton is with us at all of them. Next fall, he'll start kindergarten and our days will change a whoooole lot. I may have cried about it, but I'll never tell. Teesh and I had planned to put him in a MMO program this year to "get him ready" for school, but we changed our minds when we thought through what our days would look like. He will have the next however many years of his life dictated to him by school and work, so we decided to hold off on preschool to give him (and us) one final year of flexibility and explorations not determined by a schedule. I'll never regret this decision!

I hope my babies are proud to tell their friends about their childhood when they get older, and I hope that they always want to show their photo albums of all our fun to everyone who comes to our house (that's currently Braxton's favorite thing to do, and it is so precious!). I can't give them everything they want or maybe even all that they need, but I can at least try my best to help them grow and become the people God had in mind when He created them to be. The best way I know to do this is to show them the world and let them run wild in wide open spaces.

I believe that to see the Earth is to get a glimpse of Heaven, and I want my family to know Heaven through and through.

Trail Hikes: 4

Trail Miles: 8

Total Miles: 56

Total Minutes Outside:  8,060

April 2016 // September 2016

April 2018 // September 2018

April 2019

new fence, who 'dis | home sweet bargeron.

As of last week, we have checked off another item off our wish list for our beloved home! Our to-do list keeps shrinking, and it's quite thrilling to watch so many of our hopes come to life. We dedicated most of our savings to adding curb appeal to our sweet house, and we've still got a good ways to go before our vision is complete. Here's the thing, though -- we are SO PROUD of all we've accomplished in such a small amount of time. Since becoming debt free and changing our mindset / methods around our finances, we have done so many things we thought would take us a decade. And we've found this to be true this year: the more we accomplish, the harder we work / plan to complete our next task.

Our most recent reason to celebrate is this -- our backyard is now fenced in! Wahoooo!

We opted for a picket fence instead of a privacy fence so we could still see our neighbors, and we went with white to match our new front porch. Our original plan was to install a wooden fence, but when we saved about $1,500 on our porch by doing it ourselves we asked for a quote for vinyl. The quote was below our max budget for this project, so we went for it. We were VERY happy to not have to paint / stain a whole bunch of pickets. LOL!

Here are a few before / after shots of our home that we are SO proud of and grateful for:

Next up: let's see if we can get grass to grow!

p.s. Our friend, Ronnie, installed the fence in about three days, and he did a FABULOUS job. We highly recommend First Rate Fence, LLC for all your fencing needs. Ronnie and his team did an excellent job throughout the whole process!

summer highlights | the summer of adventure.

J U N E

Two new-to-us beaches in Florida / Crescent + Cocoa

A cruise with the Bargeron crew aboard the Disney Fantasy

Port stops in Tortola / St. Thomas / Castaway Cay, Bahamas

Annual trek to Table Rock / Year 8

Lots of trips to the pool

A handful of day dates with my man

J U L Y

More trips to the pool

More day dates

A few hikes

Annual Halteron / Calteron each trip /  Surfside Beach

E I G H T H wedding anniversary / Celebrated at Carowinds

A spontaneous trip to ATL with my girl + her boy

My F I F T H trip Haiti / Hope Vision Ministry has my heart

A U G U S T

A day at Lake Hartwell

Birthday celebrations

A spontaneous trip to HHI / our seventh beach since May

A new school year / new school / new grade level for Teesh

A Greenville Drive game

A few final pool days

Dancing in the rain

A new fence

Friends

Oh, summer, how I hate to see you go. I don't know if we can top the season we're leaving behind, so I'm storing it all in my mind (annnnnd on my hard drive) so I can always go back and look at our smiles.

A summer to remember forever!

grill shed | home sweet bargeron.

Projects, projects, projects. We love them! We've had a list of projects we hoped to complete since we first moved into our new house in December of 2016. When we first wrote the list, we joked that we'd probably get to the end of list when it was time to move again; but, here we are just over two years later with more things checked off from that list than we dreamed would be at this point. We are so proud to call this home ours, and we have no plans of moving any time soon - if ever. That makes checking things off our list especially thrilling!

The latest project to be checked off is one that wasn't a "must have" when we first made our list. It wasn't even on it, honestly; our initial dream was to have a haven space in our backyard where we could have bonfires and have friends over, and this project was birthed out of that. Most of the material was gifted to us to get it out of their way, so we spent roughly $60 to make this thing come to life. It pays to have a handy husband and a dad-in-law who checks in, y'all! This took us two days of work, and we still need to stain the wood before it is complete. I started to stain it with the little amount of stain we had leftover from our last project, but only made it about 1/3 of the way through before running out. Disclaimer: I am not a fan of staining or painting, but I do love the finished look.

So, here it is, folks. A one-of-a-kind Teesh-made cover for our grill!

The top is what this space looked like last summer when we first completed the stone pad and added the picnic table, and the bottom is the current view:

Every time we mark off a project on our list, I do a little happy dance! It's so exciting to me to make our house a home, a place where we can rest and enjoy each other company, while also being a place where others can come in and feel like they're home, too.

We still have a few little things we hope to accomplish while TJ is home this summer as well as finish our master list for 2019, and then we'll start saving for a biiiiiiiiiiiig project for next year (that will most likely take all year to complete). After that, most of our list will be done! It's hard to imagine that, but I can hardly wait. Before we made our big mindset change in regards to our finances last year, we never dreamed that we would accomplish so much in such a small time frame. It still amazes me! We used to have hopes and dreams, but now we have a plan. That's all it takes! Well, that and a whole lot of hard work and discipline.

One of the financial podcasts I listen to regularly bases her theme on this quote: You can't do everything, but you can do anything. We have lived that truth out this past year, doing one little "anything" at a time. When one is complete, we move on to the next one. Two years ago, it sounded simple but not realistic for "our stage in life." Today, it's not only realistic but actually being done a little at a time. On our terms, as we are able.

Makes me wanna shout, you guys!

table rock | year eight.

We made our eighth-annual trip up to the summit of Table Rock last week, and we did so the way we first began -- just the two of us. After spending ten days with our kiddos on a dreamy-but-exhausting vacation the week prior, we decided that some time together was just what Teesh and I needed. And it certainly was! Grandma entertained Braxton and Bethany for the day while we went on our adventure, and we soaked in those hours. They loooove Grandma, so they were probably having more fun than we were. Haha!

It took us two hours to climb up, about an hour and a half to climb back down, and spent about forty-five minutes just soaking in the beauty from the top. This is my favorite spot in the whole world, so I always lobby for more time on the rock. You'd think that after eight straight years of tackling this beast, the awe and wonder would be worn off by now but nope! Not with this girl, anyway. Especially when the sky is bright blue, the temperature isn't too hot, and the sun lights the way for us the ability to see for miles and miles and miles. Swoon!

Honestly, we loved this trek so much that we're already considering making it a day date next year, too. We love our children and taking them on outdoor adventures, but there was so much sweetness to just be together with my man. It was a good reminder for us of how important it is for us to continually prioritize time alone. Especially when creation is involved.

Hiking will always be my favorite way to unplug. I'm healthiest physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually when I am out on the trails; I always have been. I think I always will be.

Have you ever hiked to the top of Table Rock? If not, you should! If so, isn't it lovely? Not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but worth every huff and puff. We joked on the way up that we should have tackled this beast the week before vacation instead of the week after. We totally blamed the endless ice cream bar on the cruise for our huffin' and puffin'!

roof + front porch | home sweet bargeron.

This share has been a long time in the making, and I am SO excited to reveal it to you now.

Before I do, however, I am convicted to speak about this first: this is what a journey eight years in the making looks like. TJ and I had big hopes and dreams when we first got married in the mid-summer of 2011, and we are just now beginning to see the fruit of many of those seeds we first sowed. One thing that I believe has helped get us to this chapter of our story is simple: contentment. And what's the opposite of contentment? Comparison.

The last thing that I want this to do is compare your story to ours. Mainly because our stories are different because they are meant to be different. Posts like this don't show all the hard work that got us here, the saying "no" to things that would have held us back, the saying "yes" to other things that were uncomfortable and scary, or the patience that was certainly required. So, while I genuinely hope you're excited for us as you look at the pictures below, I also hope that it inspires you to keep chasing whatever dream God has placed in your heart. Even if it takes you eight years to get there!

********

Now, on to our big reveal!

I wrote this nearly two years ago when I shared about our first work days in our new house:

"My first thought when we pulled into the driveway of this particular house after our realtor said we should was, "It's got potential." The yard didn't take my breath away like the inside did, but it did make my eyes light up and channel my creative juices. Potential is exciting, but it is also quite exhausting, to be honest."

That has been our life for the past two and a half years, and we still have work to do. The progress we've made, however, definitely deserves to be celebrated! A big part of getting us to this particular milestone was the major changes we made last year in our family in terms of our finances. I've shared our journey with y'all a lot over the last six months, never so you'll pat us on the back but rather to be a tangible source of encouragement for you as you chase your own dreams. Sure, we had hoped we would be able to make these improvements to our home, but it wasn't until we saw the fruit of being better stewards that it became something we were confident we would accomplish sooner rather than later. True story: we've never been more excited to write one of the biggest checks we've ever written!

It, also, helps having a handy husband who loves to put feet to your dreams. We left the majority of this process to the professionals, but we looked to Home Depot and YouTube to save us about $1,500 by doing the minor things ourselves. Wahoo!

Shall we begin? Here is our house in February 2017, two months after we moved in (note: the bushes were muuuuuch larger once they bloomed later that spring):

This is what our house looked like in February 2019, right before we started our latest project. This is how it looked for about a year and a half, after around two dozen outdoor work days to dig up all the overgrown bushes/brush around the house:

This is after the first phase of our renovation happened in late February 2019. We hired a contractor to 1) remove the small covering over our front door, 2) extend a covering over our porch base (front porch and side porch), and 3) install a new roof. This was Phase One:

This was early March 2019, after Phase Two: the roof was replaced. It changed the entire dynamic of our house, and I am STILL giddy about how amazing the darker shingles made our house look!

And (...drum roll please...) here is Phase Three, aka the finished product as of mid-April 2019. White railings, oh my! Finishing the porch was our (aka TJ's, LOL) big project over spring break, and he did SUCH a great job with everything. We tweaked our plans a few times before we made our final decision, and we are both ECSTATIC with how perfect it turned out!

For all of you who love "Before and After" shots (like me), here is a side-by-side view of what it looked like pre-project and post-project:

I mean, how good did my man do? Yay Teesh!

When we made a list in December of all the things we wanted to accomplish this year, we both agreed that improving our yard and adding more curb appeal to our home was what we most hoped to check off. True story: not once but TWICE last year, people pulled into our driveway because they thought our house was a "rental" and looked "empty." After a gave them both a confused look and rolled my eyes (sorry, not sorry), I confidently told TJ that people need to know that HAPPY PEOPLE LIVE HERE! LOL! Basically, give me alllllllll the curb appeal.

We still have three big things to mark off our list to complete all of our pending outdoor projects, and we've got a tentative plan for all of them. The three major things we have left to accomplish are: 1) fence in the back yard this fall, 2) save for landscaping this year and plant next spring, and 3) begin the process of restoring the old barn/building in our backyard. Our hope is that by the end of next year, we'll have them all done and can kick our feet up for a while to enjoy all of the fruits of our labor! Just in time for our 10th wedding anniversary, Lord willing.

2019 has been a big year for us already, and we are so motivated to replace all of the grey check marks with green ones in our shared note via our iPhones. A couple who dreams together, right? TJ and I are a great team because I am usually the one who believes that we can do amazing things, and he is the one who puts together the best plan for us to attack it. We both love to finish projects, and we're pretty aware of whether or not it's a good time to start something. Our family's motto is simple: team work makes the dream work! And we're definitely living by it.

Stay tuned for what comes next at Home Sweet Bargeron! We are loving every minute of livin' that budget life, y'all. It really is amazing what happens with intentionality and hard work collide!

reflection | the last year.

This place started out a place that no one knew about where I would journal things I was thinking about.

About a year later, it evolved into a place where I could share words and pictures at the time time with still only a handful of faithful followers.

By year two, it had completely turned into a place where most of my world was watching everything we did, from the little things to the big things.

Then, last year happened. I realized that I had started this blog for myself, but over time I had gotten caught up in sharing for the sake of the world, my world, instead. Somehow along the way, I started to share mostly for the world and a little for myself, rather than the other way around. But it wasn't until I was in a season of darkness and struggle that I realized what had happened. Instead of wanting to sit and think and write about the day's fun, I found myself feeling like I had to. Why did I feel like I had to? Because then the world would know something was wrong.

When I wrote my first blog post after Braxton was born, a lot of people said these words to me: "I'm so glad to see you writing again. It shows that you're healing."

I can remember how good I felt when they said this to me, especially after only being less than a month following the worst trauma I've ever known. If I could get through that in no time with a smile on my face and genuine joy in my heart, I thought to myself, I could get through anything. Sharing our adventures and lessons learned in marriage, parenthood, and all-things-us was something I enjoyed, and still do enjoy, so much.

It's just that all last year, for one whole year of my life, I shared because felt like I had to. Because if I didn't, people would notice. And they would know, y'all would know, that I wasn't as strong as you thought I was.

It might sound ridiculous to you, but that's the truth.

It's easier to share these things on the other side of the fire. My closest, most trusted friends knew I was struggling to put one foot in front of the other, but even they didn't know how deeply my soul was aching. I didn't want my world to know that things had taken a turn for the worse since welcoming Bethany into the world and into my arms. Mainly because no one expected it to.

But it had. And I was being affected spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally I was under attack, and it was the most brutal, gut-wrenching thing I've ever been through.

Adoption can't be that tough, because of how "beautiful" it is. That's what I'd always believed, and I knew that most others were of the same conviction. But I was caught off guard by the size and weight of the emotions that came with another woman choosing me to be the woman her daughter would call Mommy. I knew it would be intense, but I didn't know it would knock the breath out of my lungs. Add to it the lack of sleep and endless cries for months and months and months on top of the other daily responsibilities I had, I was a mess. An absolute mess who was hoping that everyone would stay in the dark concerning my own dark season.

I honestly don't think people were blind to it, but no one ever said anything.

I posted every month on the seventeenth for Bethany because I had done it for Braxton, and I tried my best to do all the same things for her that I had done for him. I had seen plenty of other mamas do it, and this was a real thought I had more times than I can count: if they can keep up, then so can I. Even if I could've be (and probably should've be) sleeping and resting instead, I could do it.

I'll spare you further details that lead to my breaking point that happened just several months ago (unless you want to grab an ice cream one day and swap stories, of course), but I heard this quote while listening to a podcast that left me weeping for days:

"You would never have believed your own weakness had you not needed to pass through trials. And you would never have known God's strength had His strength not been needed to carry you through."

That quote mixed with Psalm 28:7 was all I needed to break. Honestly, I was already broken. But it took me a long time to confess it. To share it. To not be ashamed of it.

Part of my healing included taking a sabbath from this space here, a place that has been so fun for me for a decade. I resolved to begin to say yes to things that gave me life instead of heavier chains, and I also resolved to viewing life in terms of seasons. Meaning that just because something is present for a season, doesn't necessarily mean that it will follow me into the next. These things started happening in January, and it has taken me three months to get a place where I feel like I'm breathing deep again.

Not for the sake of anyone or anything else, but for myself. A healthy version of myself who isn't faking smiles and hiding behind posts.

I've been on a journey of self-discovery for the past couple of years, and I've just started to get to the core of who I am. I've always believed that as long as I know Whose I am, knowing who I am didn't matter that much. Now I know that was a lie, because the more I press in to Who made me the more He shows me who He made me to do. The two can't be separated.

I suppose the darkness showed me what real light was.

A deeper, more intimate knowing of and confidence in Who the Light is.

And the light that shines in me, too. A blazing fire, not just a picture of one.

I'm grateful that the heavy season I've just shared about is behind me, but what kept me there isn't lost on me. The enemy stole from me, destroyed parts of my memory, and sought to kill me -- my spirit, anyway. But praise be to God that He is a RESTORER, a COMFORTER, a HEALER, and a REDEEMER. I am living in abundance with eyes wide open for the first time in a long time. And I believe that all that has been stolen and destroyed will be returned and put back together again.

This space, my beloved blog, is one of those things. The different between now and before is that I'm more aware of who I am. I'm not the picture of strength, perseverance, or all-things-good.

I'm me.

And this space is a place for me that I also invite others into, not a mandatory picture of perfection and fun, constant transparency and life lessons. See how powerful expectations are? My own expectations have kept me in shackles for more times than I can count. When I think on idols I have in my mind, my expectations are always on that list. Less than before, but still crippling nonetheless.

I want to be a picture of progress, not perfection. Believing all the while that I am beautiful because I was made to be beautiful. That I am enough. That I am strong. That I have hope. That I can know healing.

That we all are. That we all can.

So, let's start over, shall we?

Hi, my name is Anna. It's nice to know you. And it's absolutely wonderful to be known.

"...Here I am, pry me open.

What do you want to know?

I'm just a kid who grew up

Scared enough to hold the door shut

And bury my innocence.

But here's a map

Here's a shovel

Here's my Achilles Heel

I'm all in, palms out

I'm at your mercy now

And I'm ready to begin.

I am strong

I am strong

I am strong enough

To let you in..."

- Sleeping at Last, Eight -