some real talk with the chappell family

It’s time for another personal update! And from the start, I just have to say how much it makes me laugh…every time I share a personal blog, it gets more attention than anything else! Y’all LOVE when I post photos of my adorable children, which in turn makes ME happy! I’m pretty proud of those little boogers, after all! But today, I might be getting a little more real than expected…

I’m actually posting Halloween photos.

This isn’t because I took the photos last October and am just now getting around to sharing them. It’s because last Halloween, we actually cancelled Trick-or-Treating. That’s right. Insert crying emojis here, and not of the laughing sort!

I have found as my kids get older, one of the hardest thing about parenting is sticking to my guns. No matter how sweet they are, all kids will inevitably act up. On this particular day, there had been too much talking back, too much whining, and not enough listening. So we officially announced that there would be no Trick-or-Treating for Austyn and Lincoln, followed by the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I mean it when I say this was a seriously hard call to make. Dustin and I had spent more money than we probably should have on matching Mickey and Minnie costumes. Y’all, they were precious. I was so excited to see them hopping from door-to-door dressed with their coordinating Disney candy baskets held out. Since I had to miss our church’s Trunk-or-Treat due to a wedding, the actual Halloween evening was the one chance I’d have to see them all decked out. How quickly that was taken away, and of my own doing, nonetheless!

What a balance we have to strike as parents – exercising grace and patience, but disciplining in areas where our kids need guidance. I am now learning exactly what my mom and dad meant when they would sometimes express how much more it hurt for them to discipline me. It sucks seeing your kids upset – as in, it physically pains me. Add in the mommy guilt on top of it all, and that made a recipe for tears of my own. Not exactly my favorite memory to date!

Fall went by in a flash, filled with tons of weddings, school happenings, the holidays, and more. I kept telling myself that I would absolutely, definitely, 100% get photos of them in their costumes before they grew out of them. Well, the weather finally got better this past week, which means we were able to snag a few quick photos of my little Mickey and Minnie Mouse! And now, I’ll always look back on these photos and remember that in the moment, parenting is hard…but the big picture of it all is that we continue learning, stretching, becoming more of the individuals God meant for us to be.