Like last year, I want to shine a little bit of light on all different sorts of love this February with a Love Letters miniseries. Every Friday I’m featuring posts about love from some fabulous guest bloggers—and they’re not the typical boy meets girl, cue fireworks kind of love story. These stories show that love comes in all different shapes and sizes—and all of them should be celebrated. Today’s post is from Katie of Simplified by Katie.

Dear Daughter,

With Valentine’s Day steadfastly approaching it seemed appropriate to write you a love letter, as you’re a constant reminder to me that when love is pure and palpable, it manifests into more. While Daddy will always be my Valentine, you join the ranks with the title of my Littlest Love, and I’m proud to be your mama.

While we have yet to meet face-to-face, I anticipate the March day that we’ll become better acquainted. Every day I grow more eager to kiss the hands and feet that politely pound from within me. I daydream about your destiny, and I’m still in awe that I get to be the one to help you join this big and beautiful world.

Since I’ve learned of your impending arrival, I’ve made some great changes in my life. It’s as if the news of you shook my soul and forced me to confront the canvas that I call fate. I’m painting myself a new landscape and my latest space will seek to savor the simple but significant moments of life. I’m so glad you’ll see me work to make myself better, and I’m excited to teach you to do the same.

This week I have a little New Years series for you with a couple of guest posts (yesterday’s was a look at some of 2014’s surprises), some thoughts of my own, and a round up of this year’s most popular posts. Today I have my pal Jac, a lifestyle photographer and the editor/curator of thePfotoShop. Her essays always make me want to write (and live) better. This essay of hers has spawned tomorrow’s post, which is all about my word for 2015.When I was twenty-two, I drove the lonely eight hours to Norfolk, Virginia, where my sister was having a conference. She lived in California at the time and we rarely saw one another, and the road has a history of being therapeutic for me – something that, at that point in time, on the heels of a pretty terrible breakup, I desperately needed.

I passed the time with Elizabeth Gilbert’s own reading of her memoir, Eat Pray Love. The movie was coming out soon, and I have a rule about reading books before seeing their adaptations – something I picked up from my Mom as a kid. I wasn’t expecting to love the book as much as I did – in fact, I half-expected to be one of the many cynics in the wake of its success. As I drove down quiet, rural 13, and she spoke words of loss, and depression, and fear, and spirituality, I heard many of my own feelings perfectly articulated in her words.

There is a part in the book where she says that different periods of life can be defined by specific words, and that the time she wrote about in hers was “attraversiamo,” meaning “let’s cross over” in Italian.

As a new year approaches, I’m spending a lot of time reflecting on the previous one, and with that comes the designation a new word. In the past, I’ve used independence, success, and adventure (a personal favorite), among others.

2014 began with the best thing that has ever happened to me, and was shortly followed by the greatest devastation I have ever felt. The affects of both events are so intertwined, each affecting my approaches to the other. Their togetherness has created in me a balance of extremes. How does one sum up such a year of simultaneous celebration and mourning?

Transition (n.) – change, often major.

I’m about to drive route 13 again. This time though, I’m traveling in the opposite direction, and I won’t be driving it alone.

Maybe 2014 brought you success, or adventure, heartache or healing, or maybe a new found focus on family. Maybe, like me, you find yourself in limbo after a year of transition.  As we welcome a new beginning in 2015, take some time to look back – what word would you choose?

This week I have a little New Years series for you with a couple of guest posts, some thoughts of my own, and a round up of this year’s most popular posts. Today, I have the hilarious Helen from Bubble Gum Chic. Her essays crack me up regularly with their straightforwardness and honesty and I couldn’t wait to hear her take on 2014.

When I look back on 2014 I think the word that will spring to mind first is “homeschooling.” Not because I am foolish enough to even consider voluntarily homeschooling my kids, ha, no. I may be a little bit crazy but I am not totally insane. However, my three young  children had 43 snow days last winter. Being locked in a house in the snow with three young children and five pets is something I won’t soon forget.

But there were other memorable moments that we all lived through. Here are fourteen things I never would have anticipated happening had you asked me a year ago. And, for the record, had I known about the snow days I would have officially relocated to Florida for the months of December through April.

1. Who ever would have anticipated a weather pattern that expanded our vocabulary to include words like “polar vortex,” “cyclone bomb,” and for our friends across the pond “weather bomb”? I didn’t believe it either, but I checked with my friend Lance the meteorologist and it’s real. Who knew weather terminology could rival Shakespeare?

• Emoji stamps? These girls get me.
• I have a bit of a cauliflower problem lately. Between cheesy cauliflower breadsticks and sweet potato cauliflower soup, I’m eating at least a head of the stuff a week. And now this garlic mashed cauliflower recipe with all of the flavor and a fraction of the carbs? I’ll be the crazy lady at the grocery store with the cart full of cauliflower.
• I need to try Nutella hot chocolate.
• This office makeover post had me doing all sorts of swooning. Now I want paint and glitter and whimsy all up in my work space. Only my work space is in the bedroom. I wonder how Bad Dad will feel about that…

Around the interwebs:

• I keep hearing good things about the Serial podcast but haven’t listened to it yet. Have you?
• Oh man. This essay got me right in the heart.
• Winter is prime Netflix binge time. I’m definitely going to check out a few of the documentaries on this list.
• What do you think about our “mommy” problem?
• For any of you ladies struggling with fertility issues, Natalie makes me feel all of the feelings. Her post on chemical pregnancies is so raw and real.

In case you missed it:

• I shared some of my Instagram obsessions.
• I made some pretty cute fall flower crowns.
• I launched my new Girl Boss series with my pal Jackie Foley of JacPfef and The PfotoShop.

Now, I leave you with this (caution: plenty of f bombs will be dropped):