You all! I’m so excited to FINALLY launch my new blog!

This is two years in the making, and I’m SO excited to finally make this dream come true!

For those of you who don’t know, I blogged for years at Life On The Homestead Blog. It was a modge podge of things I was interested in at the time: clothes, DIY, life, but most recognizably for our story with infertility. I blogged throughout our infertility journey, my pregnancy with our first, our birth story, and after Austen…I stopped. For no other reason than I was just tired! I always intended on blogging again, but never took the time to sit down and DO. And I’m forever sad I didn’t! So many posts have been written in my head that probably could have helped someone. Could have inspired someone. Could have helped ME. Could have inspired ME.

And why didn’t I just start blogging again?

Perfectionism

I’ve always been a perfectionist. My first memory of perfectionism is from kindergarten when I couldn’t perfectly color in a bear for my “homework” and ya’ll…MY MOM COLORED IT FOR ME. My sweet mother, rolling her eyes and exhausted from a long day at work, colored my bear for me to get through that evenings list of to-dos.

I have been paralyzed by perfectionism. I remember in our early marriage I was trying to make a super simple piece of art work, and Alex left me with a blank canvas and two hours later came back and it was still empty. He asked why it was still empty and with tears I said “because I just knew it wasn’t going to turn out perfect.” Ya’ll…how sad is that?

I don’t want to live that life! I don’t want to live life perfectly. I want to live life with grace and freedom! I want to live a life of love. I want to love life.

Perfectionism is one of the biggest reasons it’s taken me this long to start my blog again! I couldn’t find the perfect blog design. The perfect logo. How will I produce perfect pictures for each post? It was exhausting.

So I didn’t start it.

I kept writing blog posts in my brain, and never started.

I wrote blog posts in my brain through hard mom moments, through fun trips, through renovating a house, through parties planned, through house projects. So many blog posts I’ve written in my head.

I’ve shared a lot on Instastories…and finally I had a follower just say it. Start a blog! Just start it!

So here I am. I’m doing it! It’s not going to be perfect friends. It’s going to be messy, and imperfect, and I’m going to need so much grace. I’m going to need to give myself So. Much. Grace.

So what’s with the name? I was trying to figure out what to name this little part of the internet and was coming up short. Alex actually came up with our sweet blog name. Wendels Love, comes from our family mission statement. The first and last items in our family mission statement are “Wendels Love”

Why do we have it twice? Because that’s the legacy we hope to leave. We hope that people feel love from us. Feel loved by us. We want to teach our children that loving people is the most fulfilling thing you can do. It’s what God called US to do.

And to be honest, in today’s world…I feel it’s a huge burden we are putting on our boys’ shoulders. But we are praying over, modeling, and guiding our boys to react in love. Every morning, I ask Austen how he can love someone today. When he leaves my arms, and heads into school…I have no control over him. I pray that over time, we can teach him to love himself, love others, and create a life that exudes grace and love.

So that’s what we hope for this blog. We want to inspire you to cultivate a life that you will love…just as we are doing every single day.

What’s my goal with this blog? It took me SO long to actually admit my long term dream. I adore being a stay at home mom…but that will end one day. And what do I want to be doing when our kids are in school? I want to be doing just this…inspiring and sharing my life and my journey with women everywhere. I want to have a platform to motivate and encourage women to live a life of love. Because when we live a life that we love, it impacts everyone around us for the better. I hope to speak to moms groups, and at conferences, and who the heck knows…write a book one day. My goal is to fill you up with inspiration and encourage you to push towards cultivating a life you will love. I will be walking the walk…and talking the talk. So call me out if you see me acting otherwise!

But don’t worry…a huge part of my journey is our normal life of home, raising kiddos, fashion, and I’m all the flip over the place so I’ll be sharing ALL the things I’m passionate about!

Friends…I’m so excited for this journey! I hope you stick around. I pray you find that nudge that you need. I can’t wait to hear from you. Let’s do this friends…let’s cultivate a life that we will LOVE. One imperfect day at a time!

Show me a little love friends…comment below! Tell me where you’re from and what is your favorite holiday! Can’t wait to hear from ya’ll!

Make it an amazing day friends!

{Pictures by Tasha Pinelo Photography}