It’s Been Four Years of Blogging…

That is hard to believe! Over four years ago, February of 2014, I published my first-ever blog post with no idea what I was doing, what I would write about, or if anyone would even read it. It was a journal, of sorts, of the start of our adventure as newly-weds and home ownership. To be honest, it didn’t and still doesn’t make a difference if anyone reads or doesn’t because the gift of having words, pictures, and videos to document our adventures these last four years is gift enough. The fact that you all care enough to walk with us on this road, both in the best and worst seasons, blows my mind. It is the icing on the cake. We have felt so much love, so much support, and so much enthusiasm for wanting to know how we’re doing and what we’re up to through your interactions with this little blog of ours. What a gift you have been, one that we continually thank God for.

So, the blog. The blog itself has gone through many different seasons and changes over the course of its lifetime. It started entitled as “Oh, the Fun Of It”… a nod to the fact that this adventure of life is, in fact, fun if we let it be. That title eventually got shortened (because, come on… that’s a mouthful) to “Oh, the Fun”. Same meaning, same philosophy. We celebrated a few “blogiversaries”, commemorating one year, two years, etc. of blogging. We shared SO MANY house projects from our first house, worked with wonderful companies, put together recaps of holidays and milestones and how we celebrated, documented family vacations, and shared moments from our personal life like selling our first house and moving, the video of when I told Mitch we were pregnant with Kam, and the news that Holden was going to make us a family of four. This blog has become home to all things “Thomas family”.

And then of course, over the last year, it became the lifeline of communication through our journey as parents of Kamri and Holden. The blog served a very different role in this last year than every other year. During the month that Kamri was alive, it was the home base for every medical update and prayer request as we battled for her life. In the months after her death, it became the “check-in” point as we navigate through the waters of losing a child and all of the many, many facets of grief that come along with it. It was where we shared our hurt, anger, sorrow, confusion, joy, peace, trust, and hope… all with the thought that in addition to having those words in black and white somewhere for our own records, maybe… just maybe… our choice to share our own experience would be a blessing to someone else in their own walk through grief or relationship with Christ.

In the last month, the blog has served as a personal journal of our world as parents of two children- one here with us on Earth and the other in heaven with our Savior. It is parenthood like we never imagined, living in a house that has faithfully held us this last year, looking to a future that is uncertain and uncharted… a continuation of our adventure, if you will. Because that is ultimately how we see our lives… one remarkable (in both good and bad ways) adventure until the real party starts and we get to enter into an eternity of beauty we cannot imagine, people we have been yearning to be with again, and love like we will never be able to understand here on Earth. Now, if we’re talking about fun, that is what sounds like fun to us.

So what happens to the blog now? We’ve talked about this a lot and have done some pretty serious thinking about the role it has played in our lives to this point and what that does or does not look like moving forward. The fact of the matter is, this blog holds so many of our precious memories and moments and for that, it will always have a piece of our hearts. This year, I made a conscious decision to allow myself a break. I did not post anything about the house, anything about projects we’ve done, and did not hold myself to documenting any of our day to day life. I just couldn’t. It felt all wrong, like in some way all of what I used to write about felt meaningless given our daily struggle just to get out of bed and put on clothes and miss Kamri. Taking the year off felt like the right thing to do and we just figured that we would know when the time came to revisit that decision.

I think we’ve reached that point in time. There have been moments over the last year where I felt twinges here and there to jump on and share a quick update, apart from what we were already sharing of our journey in grief. Surprising to no one, we’ve made a lot of house changes over the last year. 🙂 For the most part, those moments of wanting to share would be fleeting and followed by the more familiar “nah, actually I can’t. I don’t have it in me. That feels like too much.” thoughts. Slowly but surely, though, I have felt more and more interested. More and more open to parts of what this blog used to be. So, we’re going to test it out…

It seems as though the nature of this blog is shifting, yet again. If you’ve been following from the beginning, you’ll start to see some of what you were used to from before. If you found and joined our little family sometime over the last year through Kamri’s story, welcome. It may start to get a little crazy up in here. 🙂 At least different than what you’re used to. As we’ve learned, there is just no predicting what is to come… but in terms of the blog, we’re thinking that some things will remain the same and some things will change.

As for things that will stay the same… we will continue to talk about Kamri and Holden. They are a part of our family and that is what this blog has always been about. We will continue to talk very bluntly about grief, our experience with it, the stages we find ourselves in, etc. It is now part of our story and part of our lives. We will continue to talk about Jesus. If that’s not cool with you, I’m sad about that, but not sorry. Nothing about this Earth or this life really matters if it weren’t for Christ. He has sustained us through both the wonderful and heartbreaking seasons of our lives. So yeah, He’s here to stay. 🙂

In terms of things that might look a little different… we’ve got HOUSE STUFF to share with you! I mean, last we checked in about house stuff, the kitchen cabinets were wood-colored, we had ONE area rug in the whole house, our side yard was a jungle, the front yard was garden-less, almost our entire house was white, and there was not a decorated nursery in sight. Now… oh boy, strap in friends because we’ve got gardens, rugs, and nurseries galore! Ok, two. There are two nurseries. In short, we’ve got things to share with you about our little house on the hill!

Something else that may look different is the blog name. “Oh, the Fun” has run its course and our site is now officially called “Mitch & Leslie” and you can find us at mitchandleslie.com. While this surely has its ramifications on the blog-end of everything (all links and pictures are now “broken” and have to be updated because the previous domain name no longer exists… ugh), the change felt right. It really hit me one day when one of the grief posts was published and I saw the title of that post, directly under “Oh, the Fun”… it just no longer seemed to fit.

While life is and can be fun, it’s not all fun. Fun isn’t the only descriptor and it’s not even the most prominent all of the time. A switch felt right. Our faith, our home, our kids, our travels, our joys, and our hardships will all fall under who we are, so “Mitch & Leslie” it was.

In terms of other things to note, you can still find us on social media… we’re on Facebook if you search “Mitch & Leslie” and Instagram if you search @mitchandleslie. These two places are where you’ll be able to see updates about when blog posts go live. Before Kamri was born, we had stopped using our personal accounts for blog purposes and we’d like to get back to that. The “Mitch & Leslie” Facebook page will have all post links and details, so if you go and “like” that page, you’ll get the notifications.

UPDATE: Our FB page is still pending a name change from “Oh, the Fun” to “Mitch and Leslie”, so while the change will happen eventually, for now if you’re trying to find us… we’re still “Oh, the Fun”. We’ll let you know when the change is official.

Ok, pay attention to this next part because we’re really excited about it… In terms of Instagram, we’ll be doing a lot more posting over there than we ever have before (more than just letting you know when blog posts are published). We’ll also be chiming in OFTEN on Instagram stories because… well, how stinking fun are they?! If you’re into the little day to day moments, mini projects that won’t make it onto the blog, going treasure hunting at Goodwill with me, and smaller updates (ahem, we’re starting a veggie garden and Holden, Kamri, and I will be monitoring the progress closely while Daddy is at work. 🙂  ), then Instagram and Instagram stories is the place to be. Again, we’re @mitchandleslie.

As for Twitter, I can’t be bothered… that is one too many social media sites for me and it’s my least favorite, so… gotta go. And, as always, you can reach us via email (it is now mitchandleslie921@gmail.com). Shoot us a message and say hi- we’d love to hear from you. 🙂

In many ways, it felt like we pushed pause on our lives this last year (more about this in another post). Every single thing came to a halt while we scrambled to figure out which way was up. It is a slow, slow process, but we are relearning what it feels like to be us again. We are different and better for this last year, but it feels good to be cautiously getting reacquainted with the things we used to love. Again, it is a very slow process. But it feels good to want to feel good again. Here’s to whatever year five of blogging throws our way… how about we just take it one post at a time? 🙂

Lots of love,