This post has been a bit of a surreal one to write. Because, to be honest, I still can’t quite believe where life has us currently.

Nine months ago, we were newly pregnant and over the moon to be expecting a second IVF baby around my birthday at the beginning of May. We were celebrating our 5th anniversary of living in Spain, applying for permanent visas to be able to stay much longer, and looking into purchasing our first home in the city. We found ourselves in such a sweet spot of daily life here in Barcelona surrounded by dear friends (including the cutest little circle of buddies for Teo), fulfilling work we both loved, and a happy return to post-pandemic traveling around Europe.

But shortly thereafter, our hearts broke when our doctor suddenly went quiet during an ultrasound one day. We ended up having a d&c just down the hallway from where we delivered Teo, which was unfortunately followed by months of additional complications, a barrage of doctor’s appointments, some truly awful medications, and ultimately one additional surgery. For months it felt like we were stuck in this frustrating grief time warp, finding it difficult to move forward emotionally while my body was still clinging to the pregnancy physically. Thankfully we eventually made it to the other side of things and were given the green light to continue again with fertility treatments if interested. So after talking with our doctor and giving things a lot of thought, we decided this spring to undergo a second full round of IVF in the hopes of bringing one more babe into our little family. (More on that below.) But in the midst of all of that, life took another sharp left turn that we didn’t see coming…

Our family is now moving back to Kansas City in June. ♡

To say this move is unexpected and bittersweet would be a understatement. I have to admit I’m still working to wrap my mind around it most days, since it’s just such a complete 180 from what we had envisioned for these next few years ahead. But Barclay and I have always said it would likely be our parents’ health that eventually drew us back to the United States. And when things recently took a difficult turn for one of our families, it felt clear to us that we wanted to be back as soon as possible to help. So after taking turns making a number of trips back to the States over the past few months, we now have one-way tickets booked for our entire family in less than two months.

Our days are currently spent swimming in a sea of logistics, trying to piece together the puzzle of an international move with two adults, a toddler, our sweet elderly pup, and all of our belongings. It has been…a lot. (Especially in the midst of IVF plus everything else going on.) But our friends and family back in the States have gone above and beyond to help us sort through various details of getting resettled and have generously welcomed us back with such open arms. And our wonderful crew here in Barcelona has firmly decided it’s not a forever good-bye and that we’re simply going to squeeze in as many good times as possible together here before we leave. So emotions are running high in our home right now, but we’re trying to remind ourselves when logistics get overwhelming that everything will somehow eventually sort itself out, and above all, we are counting ourselves enormously lucky to be surrounded by such a loving crew around the world.

Anyway, clearly, lots to catch up on! So for anyone interested in reading more about the latest chapter of our IVF journey, adventures in purchasing a house (and all the things!) from overseas, plans for our remaining seven weeks here in Europe, plus a special garden update from Mali, here’s the latest and probably final update I’ll probably sharing from here in Barcelona.

Our embryo transfer two weeks ago was such a happy day.

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Happy Giving Tuesday, everyone! ♡

Over the past few years, the Gimme Some Oven community — as in, you wonderful readers — have given over $30,000 to help create large-scale gardens (plus build a life-saving bridge) to support over 500 local women working in rural Mali to grow healthy produce for their communities. These community garden projects continue to flourish and generate even more income than expected for these women and their families. So this holiday season, I wanted to share with you about a very special new group of women who have asked for our support.

For years in the town of N’Korobougou, a group of 91 women have been tending small plots in their local community garden, trying to grow as much produce as possible during the 4-month rainy season each year. They are a multi-generational, tight-knit, incredibly-hard-working group of ladies who do this work to support their families, but they face a number of obstacles. At the end of their workdays, like most gardeners in this region, they have no choice but to take shifts sleeping in the gardens at night to try and fend off the local animals who destroy their crops (due to a lack of strong fencing). And once the rainy season ends, they have no choice but to abandon their gardens for 8 months (due to lack of water access) and try to earn income instead by cutting down trees in the local forest to sell as firewood for cooking stoves. Unfortunately, the resulting deforestation has led to a vicious cycle that ultimately harms their gardens — because when the trees are cut down, the bare land can no longer soak up the rainwater, which reduces the local water table, which makes it even more difficult to grow crops, which forces them to return to cutting down more trees — that has been nearly impossible to escape.

This particular group of women also had to deal with an additional obstacle this past year when a local man bribed an official to claim that he had “ownership” over their land. All plans to improve the garden were put on hold and the women had to instead spend their days waiting outside the the local court, petitioning the judge to hear their case week after week. The judge clearly hoped to avoid the trial and kept delaying and delaying, assuming that the women would eventually give up and relent. But they not only persisted and showed up by the dozens each week to protest non-violently until their case was heard, they eventually full-on WON THE CASE, which was a huge anti-corruption victory for their community as well as for marginalized women across the region. Talk about inspiring.

Anyway, now that they are back on their land, these women are understandably eager to make up for lost time. So this holiday season, I would love to invite your help to again partner with The Wash Project to expand the N’Korobougou garden into a large-scale space that can support 271 women working in their gardens year-round, thanks to a brand-new well that will provide safe water for the entire community. In addition to the other start-up equipment and resources provided to help develop the garden (i.e. fencing, shelters, toilets, training, see more details below), we will also be offering to build a fuel-efficient stove in the home each local family that would like one, which will take critical strain off of the local tree population and also help create much safer cooking conditions in local homes.

All of this can happen in a short amount of time and will have an enormous impact on this community. So let’s help these amazing women create the garden they deserve!

What We Need

Short answer — $25,000. (Here is a link to donate.)

This divides out to around $100 to launch each individual garden. Which, again, will also launch a year-round job for each woman to support her family.

These funds will cover the startup costs necessary to build a sustainable garden of this scale that will create year-round job opportunities for the 271 women who will be working there. (So many jobs!!) You can see photos and read more details about the full 14-step garden startup process that The Wash Project has tested and developed over the years, but here is a brief overview of what these funds will purchase:

• Garden plots for 271 women: Membership will increase from 91 to 271 gardeners, and the existing garden plots will also double in size.
• A year-round fresh water well: This is definitely the largest expense (~$17K). Local engineers will perform complete groundwater tests to ensure responsible and safe extraction, then a well will be drilled to provide water to be used in the garden and local community year-round.
• Water taps: Water taps will be installed in the garden and surrounding community to easily access the water.
• Water tower: A water tower will supply critical storage and water pressure to the taps.
• Solar-powered water pump: Taking advantage of the intense sunshine in the area, a solar-powered pump will help fill the water tower.
• Fencing: Strong and sturdy fencing will be installed to provide 24/7 protection for the crops from animals.
• Shelter: A large shelter will be constructed to give women rest from the intense heat, and also serve as a place for meetings and celebratory gatherings.
• Toilets: Toilets will be installed on the grounds, which save valuable time (as the women used to have to walk back home to access restrooms).
• Training and equipment: All of the gardeners will be equipped with the equipment and training needed to make their businesses a success, in addition to training about building healthy soil and reforestation.
• Fuel-efficient stoves: A team of professionals will come to construct a fuel-efficient cooking stove in the home of every local family who would like one, which reduces the need for local firewood and creates much safer cooking conditions.

How To Help

We know that this is a huge ask, but we would really love to make this garden happen! Here are three ways to get involved that would be hugely helpful:

• Donate: Click here to donate. 100% of your donation will go directly to this project and will be tax-deductible.
• Share: If you’d like, you can create your own mini-fundraiser to invite other friends and family to donate to this cause. Or of course, any shares that you can give this fundraiser on social media would be incredibly appreciated!
• Stay informed: Sign up for our monthly emails with The Wash Project to stay updated. And please keep an eye out for updates on Mali in the news. It’s been an especially challenging year for this beautiful country (terrorist groups are closing in on the area where we work), but headlines of these sorts often get buried.

FAQ

What is The Wash Project? The Wash Project is a community-led initiative in Mali focused on developing economic opportunities for women through garden-based food production, access to clean water, and a commitment to environmental stewardship. Here’s a 4-minute video explaining a bit more about The Wash Project and what we do. And yes, full disclosure, my husband and I both work with this organization! Many of you know that, after full-time blogging for over a decade, I recently made a transition and now split my time working part-time with The Wash Project too. And I can’t even tell you how wholeheartedly I believe in the work this organization is doing. After having spent time working with a number of non-profits over the years, I just appreciate so much how TWP always follows the lead of the community (since locals are always the ones who know their specific challenges and resources best). And I appreciate that TWP intentionally keeps the organization small, in order to properly invest in relationships with each of our partner gardens and have the agility to respond to needs quickly. If you have any questions about TWP and how we work, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comment section below.

Is my donation tax-deductible? Absolutely. The Wash Project is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization, and you will receive a tax-deductible receipt for all donations.

How much of my donation actually goes to this project? 100%. Gimme Some Oven has been covering all of the overhead expenses of The Wash Project for a few years now (including all staff salaries) so that 100% of your donation can go directly to projects on the ground. For me, it’s essential that my work creating recipes here for people who have access to food is also balanced by supporting those who struggle to have access to food. So we invest a portion of Gimme Some Oven’s profits back into The Wash Project and other organizations helping to target food insecurity around the world. It’s truly your clicks here on this website that help to make all of that possible — so thank you!

How does the budget divide out? It will cost roughly $17,000 for the water system (well, water taps, water tower, etc), $6,000 for the garden infrastructure (shelter, fencing, toilets, etc) and $2,000 for the trainings and equipment.

Is The Wash Project a religious organization? No, it is not affiliated with any specific religious organization.

What do women grow in their gardens? Up until now, the 91 gardeners have had very small plots and have only been able to grow crops that can be harvested in the 4-month growing season. But once the water source is installed and they can garden for 12 months of the year, they will be able to diversify and grow much higher-value crops.

Is this garden sustainable for the long-term? Yes, it is built to be. One of the primary responsibilities of anyone extracting groundwater through drilling is ensuring that the water table will be replenished. If more water is taken out of the ground than is put back in, the water source is simply not sustainable. So we work with every garden partner to use all appropriate water harvesting techniques to ensure that the rainy season replenishes the water table, ensuring a reliable water source for years to come.

Additionally, the women of our partner gardens have organized small-scale loan programs that allow women to access funds for unforeseen expenses. As part of the savings program, they also have money set aside for the maintenance and repair of their garden as needed. This gives each gardener the resilience needed to navigate the uncertainties of each growing season.

How can I follow along? Sign up for our monthly emails with The Wash Project (which, hi, I help to write!) to follow along and learn more about this project. We would love to have you follow along on Instagram too!

A Word From Ali

I always struggle to find the words to say how grateful I am that you all continue to express an interest in partnering together for initiatives such as these. But from the bottom of my heart — thank you.

Thank you for being kindred spirits who care about good food and making sure that people have access to it all around the world. Thank you for your continued clicks and support of this blog, which also help to make this work in Mali possible. Thank you for generally just being such generous and awesome people over the years. It means so much to me that we can all join together — somehow amazingly united by screens all around the world — to help make a beautiful garden such as this possible. I look forward to coming back to share more updates with you soon.

Much love to you and yours this holiday season. ♡

Abrazos,
Ali

A “before” pic of the land before it is divided into 271 plots and developed into the full-scale community garden.

Happy Friday, everyone! ♡

I realized the other day that it’s been over a year and a half since I’ve done a day in the life post on here…and I kind of miss them! So now that we’re back home in Barcelona and getting settled into our usual routine again, I decided to snap my way through our day yesterday to capture a bit of what life looks like lately with our little guy (who just turned 18 months today, time is flying!).

We’re settling in here for a cozy almost-fall weekend ahead with a few toddler playdates, lunch with some Kansas City friends who are passing through town, maybe a little fall baking, and then I’m excited to dive into this new book. Wherever in the world this finds you today, I hope that you’re all doing well and wish you a lovely and peaceful weekend ahead, xoxo

7:00: Muy buenos días. ♡ An iced latte to start the day, courtesy of my favorite barista.

7:30: Teo’s turn to rise and shine! This busy little dude doesn’t want to stay still for a single photo lately, so my camera roll is full of lots of blurry cuteness right now.

7:45: Quick clean-out-the-fridge egg scramble for our desayuno (and plain scrambled eggs, PB toast and banana for Teo’s).

8:00: He’s now tall enough to press all of the buttons…which means that we occasionally now return to a mysteriously paused laundry cycle an hour later.

8:30: And off they go! Teo just started attending a sweet little Montessori guardería (daycare) last week and, like most daycares here in Spain, they have a lengthy “adaptation” period during which the parents are encouraged to stay with the kids to help ease the transition. So we’re taking turns spending our mornings there with Teo until the teachers think he is ready to stay on his own. (more…)

Happy August, friends!

Teo and I are comin’ to you live kiddie-poolside this morning from our back terrace, where we’ve been splish-splashing around (or as they say in Spanish, chapa chapa) multiple times a day lately to try and beat the heat.

Not gonna lie, our first summer with a toddler here in Barcelona’s beautiful-yet-severly-lacking-in-green-spaces city center has definitely had us missing the grassy backyards and modern playgrounds and easily-accessible swimming pools that we always used to take for granted back in Kansas City. But I feel like we’ve made some good headway in learning the tips and tricks of urban parenting here in Barcelona lately, especially using our new baby bike seat to adventure to more kid-friendly spaces around the city. And we’ve done what the locals do and escaped a few times to the Costa Brava with friends, which is always a welcome breath of fresh air and great chance for kiddos to run wild. There’s no doubt now that our little guy is being raised with very different kinds of summers here than we had in the Midwest growing up. But I have to say, this one overall has been incredibly sweet.

From watching Teo’s sheer delight biting into a fresh peach for the first time as the juice dribbled down his chin, to splashing through the adorable chaos that is baby swimming lessons, to putzing all around Barcelona together with his new patinete (scooter), to playing with countless new friends during our daily playground routes (in baby Spanish, extra cute), to teaching him to build his first tiny sandcastles by the sea…all of the summer toddler “firsts” this year have been even cuter than we had imagined. We’re also now card-carrying zoo members who frequent the Barcelona Zoo multiple times a week, partly because Teo is obsessed with the giraffes and Pedro the Rhinoceros, but mainly because the it’s one of the few shaded green spaces in the city center where kids can run around safely without traffic. And during this year’s record-breaking heat wave, lol, shade is everything.

Another surprise highlight of our summer has been getting to host two guests here in our home from Ukraine — a mother and her 14-year-old daughter — while they have been awaiting paperwork for their temporary protection visas here in Spain. We all knew very little about one another before they arrived. But it turns out that these two couldn’t be more wonderful, and getting to sit around the table together in the evenings and eat together and Google Translate galore and laugh and tell stories and learn more about one another’s lives has just been so special. I’ve especially loved the time we’ve spent together in the kitchen introducing each other to traditional Ukranian dishes (their buckwheat soup is a new fave) and American dishes (the 14-year-old wanted to learn how to make a layer cake, so we decorated one with alllll the sprinkles, which was the literal sweetest). Today we’re all going to have to say goodbye as they bravely take off for the next stage of their journey in Poland. But we are so grateful for this summer together and know for certain that these two will be part of our lives for many years to come.

Anyway, on the traveling note, we’re actually headed to Italy today for the month of August and couldn’t be more excited. But before we leave town, I wanted to pop in with a few updates and just say hello. ♡

Wherever in the world this may find you today, I hope that you’re doing well. And especially during these final days of summertime, I hope that you’re bringing home that extra watermelon, squeezing in a few final swims, lingering in the evening light a bit longer, and saying yes as often as possible to time together with those you love. Life just feels like it’s moving so quickly lately, and the world around us is getting so heavy, and cultivating moments of joy seems increasingly like one of the most helpful, human things we can do right now. So as Mary Oliver says, whenever that joy can be yours, “Don’t Hesitate. Give in to it.”

Wishing you all the end-of-summer joy and sunshine and peaches that you can find today. And without further ado, here’s the latest from our corner of Barcelona.

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Bon día from Barcelona! ♡

I’ve been looking forward to sitting down and writing an update here for ages and somehow kept getting pulled in other directions. (Seems to be the case with most of the things on my to-do list right now while chasing a very cute and very speedy 13-month-old around all day!) But this morning, I’m sitting next to our sunniest window with an iced pink latte in my hand, a snuggly pup in my lap, and Barclay’s out for an adventure with Teo and the pups…so I thought it was time for a chat!

I don’t know about you all, but this spring feels like the first time I’ve been able to get outside and take a deep breath and fully enjoy this beautiful season in years. Two years ago, of course, we were trapped inside our tiny flat all season long during Spain’s strict lockdown. One year ago, we were sleep-deprived zombies navigating life with a newborn during the pandemic. And just one month ago, we found ourselves quarantined yet again after our whole family (and nearly all of our local friends) caught the new subvariant, which hung on for quite some time.

But today, Barclay, Teo and I are all symptom-free and finally back to feeling better. And for the first time in over two years, Spain officially just lifted its mask mandate this past week…which feels downright surreal. People have been extremely diligent here about masking up during the pandemic, so this is literally the first time we’ve been able to go places and actually see people’s faces in what feels like an eternity. It been so refreshing. And while we all obviously still have a long way to go before we’re completely out of the woods with the pandemic, this spring feels like the recharge everyone in Barcelona has been waiting for. So as they say in Spanish, hay que aprovechar…time to take advantage and soak it up!

Our plan for our little familia this season is to do exactly that. We’re actually taking off for Paris tomorrow (our first time there together as a family since we’ve lived in Europe!), then I’ll be heading out on a solo trip to see some dear friends in Bucharest next week (my first time in Romania), followed by a long family trip back to the States in May (we’re changing things up and including a stop at my sister’s in Chicago, which I’m super excited about), then we have a summer full of hosting and adventures around Europe ahead. Our travel-loving hearts couldn’t be more thankful and happy to be getting back out about again. And while we’ve learned over the last year that traveling with a baby is definitely a very different ballgame, we’re pumped to bring our little dude along for the ride too. So excited to have a calendar full of things to look forward to again.

Wherever in the world this may find each of you today, I hope that you are well and that you’re able to soak up a bit of spring sunshine this week. And without further ado, here’s the latest from our little home here in Barcelona.

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March 5: People wait to board an evacuation train at Kyiv central train station. (Source: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP)

Like so many of you, I’ve been able to think of little else these past few weeks than the nightmare currently unfolding in Ukraine. Barclay and I feel like we’ve been holding our breath each time news alerts pop up on our phone, afraid to look yet anxiously hoping for some miraculous turn of events that bring an end to the war. But as you well know, the headlines just continue to get more devastating, the death tolls and numbers of perfectly innocent people fleeing for their lives continues to mount, the political tensions rapidly continue to deepen and complicate, beloved family homes continue getting destroyed, and there still seems to be no end in sight.

In this season of life, especially, I can’t help but see our Teo in the faces of all of the sweet little ones from Ukraine whose images we scroll past daily — the children in train stations bundled up in their warmest winter coats clutching tiny backpacks, the children crammed in subway bunkers singing songs and trying to sleep amidst the raids, the children hooked up to IV poles in makeshift basement hospitals while terrified parents remain by their sides. It feels incomprehensible that we somehow get to feed our baby a warm meal and tuck him safely into a warm bed tonight when millions of parents suddenly, shockingly do not. The more we come to learn about the reality of what they — plus the millions more around the world affected by other humanitarian crises — are carrying right now, the more impossible it all feels to imagine.

But of course, the work of empathy for all of us right now is to try and imagine. To keep paying attention and bear witness to people’s stories, even when the news absolutely breaks your heart. To put ourselves in the shoes of our neighbors and genuinely ask what it means to love them as ourselves. To recognize what an undeserved privilege it is to have food, shelter and safety, especially in moments such as this. And to recognize the accompanying responsibility that is ours to do all we can to help. ♡

I know that you all care deeply about people and have likely already jumped in to help in countless ways over the past few weeks. But for anyone today who might be feeling “stuck” or helpless or unsure what else you can do next that might genuinely make a difference, I wanted to take a break from recipes today to offer some ideas for ways to:

• learn more: articles and videos to better understand what led up to this conflict and the impact the war is having in lower-income countries around the world, especially related to issues of food security
• act: a few do-able action steps (including some related to baking/cooking!) that can make a genuine difference
• donate: while countless organizations are doing amazing work right now, I wanted to highlight three trustworthy orgs who are specifically doing the work of feeding people right now

A mentor of mine once said that one of the keys to endurance with social justice work is to regularly rotate between all three of these areas — learning, acting, donating. So if you’ve donated to an organization and now find yourself asking, “what next?”, take 5 minutes to call your local representative to advocate for refugee resettlement. If you spent the week organizing a bake sale at your kids’ school, take a quiet evening at home to study why wheat is such a critical topic right now. If you’ve been glued to the news cycle 24/7, take a pause to ask which article impacted you the most this week and donate the cost of your next meal (or much more) to a related charity.

On that topic, I wanted to let you know that Gimme Some Oven donated $5,000 to World Central Kitchen when the war began — an organization on the frontlines feeding people (while also still continuing other emergency and development initiatives around the world) whose work we have followed and respected for many years. And locally, here in Barcelona, Barclay and I are donating and working with various organizations and grassroots groups helping to support the hundreds refugees who have started arriving in the city this week. The crisis is basically all that anyone is talking about right now here, especially as thousands of Ukrainians are expected to settle in Spain this month, and it has been deeply moving to see how instantly and generously people all over the city have jumped in to help. I hope that continues on for many, many months to come.

Anyway. ♡ I am of course no expert on any of this, but if you’re also looking for new ways to stay involved, hopefully some of these resources might be helpful. As Glennon Doyle always says, “we belong to each other.” So here’s to doing all we can right now to take good care of each other. (more…)

Tap tap — is this thing on?

Hi, hello! I’m so sorry that I unexpectedly went MIA here these past few months. I had initially just planned to take the last few weeks of December off from posting while we were traveling back to the States to visit our family. But then one thing after another came up after we made it home — childcare starts and stops, relentless winter colds, website redesign deadlines — and anyway, I feel like I blinked and it’s somehow already February!

I’m happy to say that tomorrow we will officially be getting back into the rhythm of sharing new recipes here again. (So many good ones ready for you this month!) But today, I wanted to pop in first to share a few personal updates here regarding the new year ahead. (more…)

I don’t know if I’ve ever been so excited to write a blog post and share it with all of you. ♡

So, so, so much good news to share today about the community garden project in Mali that you all helped to fund nearly a year ago.

For those of you just tuning into this story, last December, the Gimme Some Oven community generously gave more than $28,000 (nearly four times the amount we had hoped to raise) to help launch a large-scale community garden named Benkadi in the village of Morodjambougou, Mali in partnership with The Wash Project. This small village in rural Mali has long faced challenges with poverty and food insecurity, especially during their annual 8-month dry season when there is no water to grow crops for the community, and where opportunities for women in particular to earn a steady income are scarce.

However, the women of Benkadi garden had a big dream of creating an enormous new garden that could provide an abundance of fresh, healthy, produce for the community and create brand-new jobs and steady income for over 200 women. So they worked with local experts to draw up plans for the project (it was 100% community-initiated and designed), they persuaded the local government to officially allocate a large swath of brush land for the garden (which was abundant but needed significant work to be cleared), they surveyed all of the surrounding villages to learn exactly what types of produce were most needed, they developed an economic plan so that the garden could be financially self-sustaining in the decades to come, and they identified hundreds of the most highly motivated women in the community who could work hard to make this garden a success. The catch was that the startup cost to launch such a garden — initially around $18,000 — was prohibitively steep and would take many, many years to save in a region where most women only had the opportunity to earn around $3 per month.

This is where you all stepped in to stand alongside them. ♡

Thanks to your above-and-beyond donations, the Gimme Some Oven community was not only able to entirely fund 100% of the initial start-up costs for the Benkadi Garden — costs such as drilling and installing a solar-powered fresh water well for the garden, building permanent shelters for the ladies to have a place to assemble and rest, constructing multiple toilets for the area, installing a fence and gate around the garden (critical for keeping animals out who eat the crops), providing tools and high-quality seeds for the gardeners, and equipping the women with agricultural education as well as small-business financial training — but your donations made it possible for a water tower to be purchased that was double the size that was initially budgeted, which allowed for many, many more clean water taps to be installed around the garden and local community. Plus, the extra donations were able to cover the start-up costs for even more gardeners than we had anticipated, so the team is proud to report that there are now over 350 women (!!!) working full-time in Benkadi Garden. Amazing.

Today, nearly a year into the life of Benkadi Garden, I’m thrilled to pass along the report that the garden is absolutely thriving, and the impact it has already made in this community has been remarkable.

Here are some of the updates (including a special 5-minute video) that the women of Benkadi have asked us to share with all of you… (more…)

A long (long, long, long) overdue hello from Barcelona! ♡

Can’t believe it has been over half a year since I shared one of these updates. I actually sat down and started writing this post three months ago, back when I was preparing to return to work after maternity leave. But then our life got turned upside down when Teo was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital for a week with — not one, but it turned out — two serious tummy-related issues. And to make a very long story short, we basically ended up spending the rest of our summer in and out of doctor’s offices trying to figure out exactly what was going on and how to help him feel better. It was a hard and exhausting stretch for our little family, watching our brand-new baby get poked and prodded and scanned galore, having to take turns being with him at the hospital because of pandemic rules, all while the three of us were still in the thick of the sleep-deprived new parent fog. But Teo was a brave little campeón (a champ, as the nurses always called him) through it all. And while we have decided to keep his medical details private, I’m so thankful to report that he has now recovered from both issues and is currently doing so, so, so much better. (Big exhale!)

He went from being quite colicky and not feeling well during his pre-hospital months to now being such a smiley and easygoing and happy little camper. And now that his tummy feels better, his appetite has skyrocketed along with his percentiles on the growth charts, and we can’t get enough of those sweet chubby cheeks and ever-multiplying little rolls that are growing by the day. He’s 6.5-months-old now and currently obsessed with broccoli, being outside, trying to pet (more like swat at) our two dogs whenever they come near, reading-slash-trying-to-eat all of his books, “playing” Dad’s ukelele, and charming all of the passersby during our daily strolls around Barcelona. He was decidedly not a fan of sleep until just recently, despite all of the experts’ advice, so there has been a record amount of coffee consumed in our casa these past six months. But we’ve been doing our best to soak up each of these different phases of babyhood with their ups and downs while they last, because what everyone told us is proving bittersweetly true — it really does go SO FAST.

Anyway, I’m finally back to work part time and am slowly — make that, very slowly — getting caught up on things around here. Fall is always my favorite time of year to cook and I have a bunch of cozy new recipes coming your way this month that I think you’re going to love. I also have some long-overdue and incredible updates to share with you about the community garden project that you helped to fund in Mali, so be sure to stay tuned for more news on that coming next week. As for today, though, it’s been forever since I shared with you about our new little family of three. So here’s the latest on life here in Barcelona currently…

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Hi friends! Just wanted to pop in briefly from maternity leave to share an update today, because there’s someone very special I’d love for you to meet…

…our sweet Teo!

Our son, Teo (pronounced the Spanish way, “tay-oh”) Elliott Martin, was born on March 16. And for those of you who have been following our story, I’m thankful to report that the epidural that we had been praying might work despite my back issues (I shared a bit about this in my last post) mercifully took hold on the very first try, which meant that both Barclay and I were able to be there together to hear Teo’s first precious cries and welcome him into the world. Goodness…what a moment.⁣⁣ ♡

After so many ups and downs this pregnancy, we’re still in awe that our little boy is finally here. He’s perfect and healthy and super-snuggly and outrageously cute…and we feel like the luckiest parents in the world. Truly can’t believe how much we love him and how sweet and natural life together as a family of three already feels. We spend a record amount of time each day just staring at him and soaking up his sweet newborn cuddles and showering his yummy cheeks with a million kisses. And we are loving this opportunity to finally learn how to be parents — even sleep-deprived, sore-in-all-the-places (hellooo, postpartum), often-hilariously-trial-and-erroring-our-way-through-each-new-day and all. This tiny little human has captured our hearts in the biggest of ways, and we are just so happy that he’s ours.

Anyway, I can’t wait to share more updates with you once I’m back from maternity leave. But in the meantime, feel free as always to follow along on Instagram for more behind the scenes updates from our lil’ newborn bubble over here. And thank you again for all of the love and prayers and encouragement you’ve been sending our way these past few weeks especially. We feel it and are sending you back so much love from Barcelona today.

Here are a few pics from these first few weeks together with Teo as a family of three! ♡ (more…)