I’ve had lots of meetups in the past with people I don’t know in real life. Weddingbee friends, Facebook friends, and blog reader friends. So why is it that making new friends via Instagram feels a bit strange?

It’s not strange Jenna. It’s awesome. I know this because I mentioned on one of my Instagram photos that I was itching to take pictures of someone other than my family, and a woman in the area whom I had never met before spoke up and said she would be interested in getting together so our kids could play and I could take pictures. I took her up on her offer and had a great time. And now we are meeting up at an amusement park (tomorrow) as well!

Moral of the story: Making new friends via Instagram is not weird. And I want to keep doing it.

I’ve been blogging consistently for around 5 years now, and I thought that nothing would ever slow me down. I posted all the way through my first pregnancy, and started up again a few days after the birth. Bloggers come and go, but I thought I would be posting on an almost-daily basis for the rest of my life. That Wife had become an integral part of who I am. Others dropped their blogs completely, or took long month- or year-long breaks, but I assumed that would never be me.

Then I found out I was pregnant, and went back to school, and we moved across the country (in two parts) and I was so sick. Now I’m months behind in relation to things like categorizing receipts on Mint and answering emails and I haven’t photographed anything Jenna Cole related for months and I miss it so. Every day feels like a race and by the time I put T1 in bed the thought of sitting at my computer and drafting a post feels overwhelming. Instead I’ve been spending more time talking to That Husband when he gets home from work and reading (right now it’s Tomatoland, which is appalling and something you should definitely read).

All of the pictures I’ve been using for my posts lately have been on my phone because that’s just how my life is now.  I like this one because it encapsulates the things that have been keeping me so busy: T1, T2 (I’m sleeping around 9-10 hours/night on average), and the picture in the top left corner is something I finished hanging right before I took the picture. Now to tackle the rest of the home decorating, which is very slow going (though I’m not complaining, I love our hardwood floors and being out of an apartment).

Actually, Instagram has turned into a mini-blogging outlet of sorts for me. I’m user @thatwife if you want to see what we’re up to on a daily basis. Read more →

I finished a midterm on Saturday and decided to reward myself with a little time spent sprucing up That Wife. If you’re in Google Reader, click on over to see the beautiful design How Joyful developed for me. It’s completely customized and I think the touch of pink is a good reflection of who I am (I used to sign my name Princess Jenna through high school and loved the color pink).

Joy is offering 40% OFF pre made templates from her Etsy shop with the code ‘JULY4TH’ for this week only. Maybe you’d like to give your site a summertime makeover as well?

I still have a few kinks to work out between readings and papers and midterms. Please feel free to drop by in the comments section and let me know what you think! (Including any issues you may spot while poking around.)

Formspring emailed me to let me know they’ve created a new widget, and I’m testing it out on one of my pages. Look across the top of my site and you’ll see a link that says Formspring. Click on that and you should get a box to load with a box that contains my latest public question. I thought it would be fun for me to take general questions I get in my own inbox, answer them, and then turn them back to everyone else to see what they think. You can follow me on Formspring (a question and answer site) here.

If you’re logged in to Formspring on the browser you’re using, I think you might see your homepage instead. I’m still a little confused about how this works.

I have a favor to ask. I’m going to give That Wife a makeover soon (paid for by my advertising, hooray!) and I’m wondering if you’d be interested in helping me brainstorm a new tagline. Or maybe you think I should keep it as is?

That Wife married to That Husband Living That Life

I came up with that back when That Wife was really new. I had no idea what my blog was going to be like! Even now I guess I still have a hard time describing my site. I’ll meet someone knew and they find out I have a blog and they ask, “What’s it about?”

Ummmm… me? My ideas? Pictures of my kid? Doesn’t really sound like something anyone would want to read, but obviously it’s something people like reading because you guys keep coming back each day (kudos to you for that).

I’ve created a Pinterest board where I’m collecting ideas if you’d like to check out what I’m thinking.  I’ll be using HJD Studio for the makeover, because Joy is the best!