Wow, it feels good to be back writing to y’all!!  It’s been little while and I wanted to keep it real  today, so there’s lots of honesty and vulnerability in this post!!!  But! What better way to start off the year than with a little heart to heart?!

I’m anxious to begin sharing client images from last year that have yet to make an appearance on the blog.  I just feel like this has been laid on my heart to share and is much needed before diving into the other good stuff!

I’ve been putting off this post for a while.  I knew I needed to share it, but its a bit difficult sometimes to share with the world that you don’t have it all together all the time!  This isn’t your typical “New year, new me because its January” post, so bare with me!

2017 was such an amazing year for Abby Hudson Photography.  46 senior sessions, 15 engagements, 10 weddings, 41 families, 23 small business sessions, 1 boutique sponsored styled shoot, and 3 real estate jobs.  What a BLESSING, y’all!!!!  Shew, I am grateful!  I felt like I was on fire and it was amazing.

That is, until I realized that I literally felt like I was on fire and it never ended.  One crazy busy “season” lead to another crazy busy “season” and next thing I knew, my “seasons” had transformed into a life where everything needed to be done yesterday, I needed three extra sets of hands, I wanted to hire everyone under the sun to do anything for me to give me time I didn’t have in order to work on the other 300 things that needed to be done, and I was n e v e r caught up.

No matter how much I “deserved a break”, I never really got one because even when I was attempting to take time off, I was so far behind that it just consumed my thoughts.  I felt like I was constantly choosing between my business and my family because I had the choice to “take 20 minutes to sweep the floors and do laundry or 20 minutes to edit part of a gallery, so which was it going to be today?!”  And that, my friends, is not a very healthy way to live.

With this in mind, I am hoping you’ll realize why, after consistently blogging for years, my blog became silent more often than not in 2017.

Am I complaining about my business??  NO!  Not at all!!  The sweet Lord above blessed me with everything I have ever prayed for and this business has been just that- a blessing both to me and my family.

2017 was, however, a year full of lessons for me and a lot was learned.

Lessons, for instance, like how much I can realistically do in a days time.

Here’s the thing I want to remind us today… We can’t keep running a marathon at the pace of a sprint… We can’t.  Its physically impossible, its emotionally draining, and its not healthy.  Yes, there are seasons when we need to go full force and hustle hard.  But that should only ever be a season, friend!  Not a life!  I realized this once I was knee deep into busy season with no end in near sight and thats a not so glamorous place to be in, y’all.

I still am so grateful for the clients that trusted me to work with them in 2017.  I still showed up to every session with a thankful heart and a smile on my face because I seriously LOVE what I do!!!

But last year just when I felt like I was really about to drop all the balls that I was juggling, I learned just how much I can take on and manage on my plate at once in order to still be the best version of myself for my family and my clients.

I share this with you today not as a complaint, but as a standing reminder to myself and to us all that as we dive into 2018, let us not forget that we are only human!!  There is only but so much that we can do in a days time and if we try to do all the things, we’ll lose touch of the things that really matter.

Things like going outside to swing with our babies and trying that recipe we’ve had pinned on Pinterest for far too long and putting our phones down and keeping our eyes up because there is SUCH a beautiful world around us.  There are so many blessings that we live through each and every day and we will be miserable if we become blind to them by trying to keep up with 24/7 hustle.

As we go about today and tomorrow and this month and the entire year, I challenge us both to start saying NO to the things that don’t light the RIGHT kinds of fires in our souls so that we can say YES to living out the most fulfilling lives we’ve ever hoped for without constantly feeling stretched thin.  Are you with me??  K, good!

Abby Grace shares about this a lot, and I always thought “Well its easy to say no when you’ve already made it!”.  But last year definitely opened my eyes and proved that statement wrong.  What I learned is that its actually easy to say no to the wrong things, when you know that the right things are waiting for you and going to keep your heart fueled at all times.

Its such a fad to be living a fast paced life.  The world tells us that if we aren’t going full speed ahead at all times then we aren’t really living.  But!  Thats such a lie and I hope that you find the strength with me to go against the grain here.  I also really hope that this post speaks to someone out there that needs to hear it.  If you’re that person, will you just shoot me a quick message so that I can cheer you on in our quest for a healthier, more present year?  I’d love to help encourage you!

Cheers to 2018. Talk to you soon friends!!

Image by Kirstyn Marie Photography