Start Here: It’s been a few years!
It’s been a few years, and life looks very different now.
The last time many of you heard from me regularly, my days looked quieter on the outside. I was recently married, navigating the podcast, work, and home life. Since then, life has unfolded in ways I never could have planned and definitely didn’t anticipate.
Welcome to the first issue of Doing Life Meaningfully.
This is a living journal, with a few entries each week. A place where I document what I’m learning, cooking, building, and becoming in real time. Think of it as my version of Martha Living or Magnolia. With a little more grit.
I want this to feel fun, like your favorite publication, but human. Home-cooked meals are beautiful, but the conversation around the dinner table means so much more.
Before we jump into recipes and everything else, I wanted to give you an update on where I’ve been. Let’s talk about the valley season. I won’t stay here long, because this season eventually led to a happily ever after.
In October of 2023, I experienced my first miscarriage. It was the kind of loss that doesn’t always have words. While I was just 10 weeks, I needed a D&C and that alone is a memory I don’t think I will ever forget. Life keeps moving, but something inside you pauses, recalibrates, and learns a new kind of faith.
In February of 2024, I officially passed the torch on the greatest work of my life to date. The My Morning Devotional Podcast. That decision came with a mix of peace and grief. It was time, but it also marked the end of a chapter that shaped me deeply.
A few months later, in July of 2024, I experienced another miscarriage. This one was much shorter. I was pregnant for less than a week. If the first left me with me grief, the second taught me endurance. I learned how much strength can exist quietly. If I am honest the months of trying to conceive cycle after cycle were harder on my heart than the second loss.
Then things began to turn around.
In August of 2024, life surprised us again. The very next cycle, I got pregnant with Millie. After so much waiting and hoping, that news felt both joyful and fragile all at once. I will always be grateful for my community, answered prayers, and tools like Inito and Doctors that listen which played a role in our story (more on that sometime in the future).
That same fall, in October of 2024, Manny and I made one of the hardest but wisest financial decisions of our lives. We sold our first home. We loved that house deeply. It represented independence, early marriage, and a lot of dreams. But it also carried lessons we had to learn the hard way. We had some debts begin to climb and ultimately made the call we thought was best for us. Selling wasn’t failure. It was learning how to take responsibility. And that brought a kind of clarity that changed how we think about money, ownership, and long-term decisions forever.
In March of 2025, I returned to corporate America after a year of planning weddings and building creatively. It was a dream job on paper. But the truth was simpler. We needed stability to get back on our feet and move closer to family and to eventually buy a home where we could raise Millie surrounded by people who love her.
The next few months changed my life forever in the best way. I felt His grace in the valley but I saw His mercy on the mountain top.
That same month, I was surrounded by love at my baby shower. Millie Mae Café will forever be one of my favorite memories. It felt like a celebration not just of a baby, but of everything it took to get there.
In April of 2025, Millie was born. My water broke on Saturday 4/26/25 at 5:20 PM and after 24 hours in labor, she was born on 4/27/25 at 5:00 PM. Life before her feels like another lifetime. Life after her feels fuller, louder, more meaningful, and more grounding than I ever imagined.
That summer, we sold our townhouse and spent three months living with my godmother and my cousins. It was such an unexpectedly sweet summer. I learned that it truly takes a village to raise a baby and I will forever be grateful we were surrounded by so much love and help in her infant days.
In August of 2025, we signed on our dream home and some small renovations went underway. In September, we moved in. In December, we celebrated our first Christmas with Millie, surrounded by love, and the kind of joy that only comes from hard-won gratitude.'
And now, here we are. February 2026. I finally feel ready to share again.
Not because life is perfect or settled, because that is far from the truth… but because I’ve lived enough in the last few years to know what matters and what I want to carry forward.
There truly is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and I am so humbled the Lord guided my every step through this past season. What all of this has taught me is that meaningful living doesn’t wait for perfect timing.
It happens in the middle of change. In the years that stretch us. In the seasons where nothing looks the way we thought it would.
If you’re reading this and your life feels different too; maybe heavier, maybe fuller, maybe quieter - I hope this space reminds you that there is still so much intention to be found right where you are.
Doing life meaningfully doesn’t mean doing more. It means choosing presence.
Choosing prayer, even when the words feel simple.
Choosing to work on the dream that keeps tugging at you.
Choosing to invite people to the table.
Choosing to have the hard conversations, because love matters more than comfort.
This journal is a place for that kind of living.
Some days it will look like reflections.
Some days it will look like recipes, routines, or lists I keep coming back to.
Some days it will simply be a reminder to slow down and show up for the life you’re already living.
If you’re new, welcome. This is a place for living thoughtfully and with intention.
So let’s have some fun!
Let’s talk about home, marriage, motherhood, hosting your friends and family, building a life and a brand at the same time, and the small choices that make everyday life feel meaningful.
I am so excited you’re here.
With love,
Alison