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Marybeth Hancher

Marybeth Hancher

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January 2021 Recap | 365 Photo Project

February 5, 2021

I’m not sure I could have asked for a better January.
Snow.
Books & Blankets.
Girls baking and playing all day.
All day.

The year has begun, and we’ve made it a point to seek and share the happiness this world needs and find the strength we once lost. Some changes have been made in our home— for one, our television is finally off more than it’s on. Believe it or not, that minor switch actually opened up an entirely different realm of possibility in our lives. Natasha almost immediately began speaking in significantly longer sentences with more clarity, and now expresses herself and her needs outside of the, ahem, stereotypical “terrible two” way we’ve all grown to accept. (A parents rite of passage? Maybe. But excuse me for not being willing to accept that and saying what we’ve all thought at some point in time: “Get your tush off the floor and tell me what you want!”) Turns out, less Daniel Tiger = more talking, less tantruming. Yes, that’s a word now.

And that’s just Tasha. Without the chatter of the TV, Nadia picked back up on the things she used to do often— drawing pictures and making up stories, in particular. She has created hundreds of adorable illustrations of her dancing ballerina characters, and on the daily, I’ve been gifted a beautiful portrait of myself. Where Nadia goes, Natasha does, too, so I also have many precious scribble drawings that have been given to me by way of pattering little toes racing across our hardwood floors with a big announcement and song: “Mama, a picture! A picture for you. Find you own way to saay, I love ‘ooou.” (Well, gosh, I suppose a little Daniel Tiger ain’t never hurt nobody.) I’m going to bind all of their artwork into a volume or three of books… because our refrigerator is officially out of real estate.

I never thought we had too much screen time going on in our home, but I started to realize that over the past year I had begun to rely on devices more than I had previously. Myself included. At the tail end of January, I decided that enough was enough with my social media use because:
1. I’m under no obligation to share every story I have and every photo I take.
2. I’m absolutely not cool with Zuckerburg and Co. of the social networks taking ownership of my devices, photos, etc. and would much rather put the bulk of them on the website I own vs. the one THEY own. (But I won’t dive into all my feels about that right now. You’re welcome.) 😉
3. Time with family & friends and doing the things I love without the distraction of a screen beckoning me to check, scroll, check, share will ALWAYS feel more fueling and life-giving.

And you know what? My productivity, creativity, energy, happiness, ALL the good things has skyrocketed over the past week or so, just by making that one little change to ditch distracting apps from my phone and not feel the need to “make sure I’m not missing anything.” (Yo, it’s 2021. If there’s something super important you need to know, people will figure out a way to get ahold of you outside of you having to search for the info on Facebook. Seriously.) Also, personalized check-ins and photo shares via text are more special because it shows the people you love that you’re thinking of them individually, not just linking them in with the group of acquaintances you met at a bar in your 20s and have, for whatever reason, kept on your “friends list” for a decade or more. But anyways…

I’ve given myself some grace because, let’s be real, 2020 was bogus. Now that I’m feeling better and more energetic (thanks to the ridiculous amount of Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs I take on the daily- ha!) and have begrudgingly adapted to life as we now know it, I have noticed that my lack of presence has directly affecting all of us. And I’m changing it. If I may toot my own horn for a minute, I’m actually a fairly decent mom that is more entertaining than anything PBS Kids could offer my girls. I’ve got my own set of characters I perform on the daily, and if they want a familiar one, I’ve nailed Super Grover and Ernie. (Or Bernie, as we jokingly call him here at the Hanchers.) So away with you, television. And phone. After one week without turning it on (and later realizing no one even asked for it!), I put on an episode of Daniel. Tasha clapped and Nadia joined her on the couch. They sang along and enjoyed it immensely— it’s cute how Nadia quit watching that show once she hit a certain age but then had no reservations about hopping back on the Daniel train (or Trolley, rather) after her sis came along. Still, after those 30 minutes were over, they were fine going back to drawing, building towers with blocks, dancing ballet, and, well, coloring on walls & scattering puzzle pieces all over the house. Some things never change. 😉

As for Dana and I, we high fived to our health and joined a gym. I’ll repeat that. We WILLINGLY joined a gym. And here’s the real kicker: I 100% LOVE IT. I’ve bought into the convenience factor of the home workout programs for years, but the problem is, they’re only convenient if you don’t have a toddler standing in front of you when you’re trying to do roundhouse kicks. I don’t know if you’ve ever done an ab workout with a jumping body on your belly, but it’s not as much fun as it sounds. And don’t get me started on planking with cats who suddenly decide they need to lay down underneath you at that very moment your arms begin to shake. So, yeah, that gym, huh? Throwing in a good sweat and some heavy lifting is exactly what the doctor ordered for me. (Or acupuncturist, if we’re being exact.) It’s been such a gift to me, and what’s a gift to me somehow translates to being a gift for all of us… because happy moms, right?

We’ve built snowmen, read library books, hit up Starbucks at the bookstore and made hot cocoa and muffins at home. There’s been a lot of ballet dancing in the Great Room and Billie Eilish dancing in the kitchen. And this photo project I’m doing?

Loving it.

Here’s to January. May we continue the year strong with love and laughter just the way we started it.

(Click to scroll through the photos or to view in a larger size.)

in Misc.

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with love
Marybeth

Family Storyteller + Illustrator here to support you & your creativity. Thanks for joining me!
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marybethhancher

I anticipate December being our best homeschool mo I anticipate December being our best homeschool month yet. Kinda easy when the curriculum is adorable & fun and the activities are endless! ❤️Last night as I was planning the week, I came across a shop on Etsy called @noahsschoolhouse that has the cutest little Nativity Story set with character study cards, word scramble activities, a booklet with the story that includes questions and a glossary, and more. It’s going to be so sweet to get this out each day as we learn.I laminated them so we can use dry erase markers to dig in a little more. Today she underlined every time we came across a name so we can study the people first. (We learned all the times in the Bible the angel Gabriel appeared to someone with a message from God, along with his name meaning so that was fun to talk about.) Next I’ll have her underline some of the places and events to study those, too.Our copywork includes Christmas songs and verses. We’ve got poems and lessons to learn about how others celebrate Christmas across the globe. She gets to practice for her little church performance which will be so cute to see! We’ll be making decorations and baking and calling it math & science and being ok with that. 😉 Like I said, it’s gonna be a great month. 🎄Fellow home-teacher-moms… what are your plans? 🥰
❤️ Thanksgiving 2024 🦃 I’m so happy my pa ❤️ Thanksgiving 2024 🦃 I’m so happy my parents could join us this year! I loooove hosting Thanksgiving & I actually really enjoy the many hours (or days 😆) of prepping and baking and creating the very best dinner I can serve the people I love… in the prettiest way possible. This year, Dana spatchcocked the turkey (which freaked Natasha out when she saw what looked like him performing a very sloppy CPR on the bird 😂) and it turned out great! I realized we no longer had the charcuterie board we once had, so Dana said, “Give me 20 minutes” and emerged from his woodshop with a fine slab of cherry wood and the most beautiful peacock shaped handles to adorn it. (Matches all the other peacock decor in our house. 😍) It’s funny how we’re typically not fancy people until I host a dinner night, then suddenly it’s all table runners & cloth napkins. But even if all we had that evening was canned corn and the cranberry sauce that never loses the shape of the can eaten on cheap paper plates in the middle of my living room… well, that also would have been enough. I have been blessed in abundance my entire life, not necessarily in riches but always in love. On Thanksgiving and every day, I am so grateful! ❤️I hope you all had a lovely one, too! 🥰
“Then if my people who are called by my name wil “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14Humble. Pray. Turn. Seek. Heal. ❤️
We prayed. We voted. We wait. “As for me and my We prayed. We voted. We wait.“As for me and my house…”No matter the outcome, we serve the Lord & we trust Him.Your will be done, God. ❤️
Every second I get to spend with my sweet Natasha Every second I get to spend with my sweet Natasha is a gift like no other. She is growing quickly, and while I may feel sentimental and a little sad at times about how fast childhood goes, I’ll never be sad about seeing the beautiful, intelligent, Jesus loving, cat cuddling big kid she’s becoming. She gives the most heartfelt handmade gifts, draws the cutest and funniest pictures, asks the best questions, plays the silliest games, has the wildest imagination, feels everything deeply, is the very best little sister to Nadia, and makes friends everywhere she goes. I couldn’t be more proud to be her mother! So on her 6th birthday, we’ll eat cake, decorate with all things unicorns, and Dana and I will (as we do every birthday) end the night smiling, maybe a little teary eyed, and feeling unbelievably thankful that we were given the best gift of all. Raising this girl is such a joy!Happy birthday, my darling Tashie! ❤️
The other day I posted a story asking if anyone wa The other day I posted a story asking if anyone wanted to form a bookclub of sorts and read this with me… I didn’t anticipate that @lisabevere would share it to her own stories and that I’d receive a big YES from more than my local friends! 🙌🏻 Truthfully, I was really only thinking of my church sisters since I don’t necessarily hang out on social media much these days 🫣, but the Lord is pressing it on my heart to go for it and take the lead because this is a battle both near and far, and we have to fight it together. So for those that didn’t see my story, if you’d like to join a small group of females ready to fight the good fight to take back the identity God has given us since the beginning— grab this book! Let’s kick off next week. Read at your own pace but plan to discuss about 3 chapters each week (the chapters aren’t long but man are they powerful!). I’ll share some posts here on IG to get us talking, but if there is any interest in a Facebook group for easier (and more!) discussion, I’d be happy to make one of those, too. Share your thoughts on that, will ya? ⬇️
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