Blog
Fall in Pennsylvania | Miura Family | 10-8-2022
It’s been brought to my attention on several occasions that I never officially blogged about how my surgery last year turned out. Fair enough…
We have a surgery date!
After a long conversation explaining all of the scans and tests I had completed in the last 4 months since we saw him last he was turned away from us looking at his computer, scouring his calendar for a date. THE DATE we have all been waiting for….a surgery date.
The Day That Changed Everything
“I’m going to disappoint so many people.” I said as my voice cracked. I couldn’t hold it back anymore — my chest heaved, my face contorted and the tears overflowed. It’s what they were all waiting for…my reaction to the news.
2020 in the Rearview
I’ve been quiet the past few days. It hasn’t really been on purpose but I’ve allowed myself to slip into full family mode over the holiday. We all needed it.
MHP Winter 2020-2021 Updates
Things are looking a little different over here in the Hoffer Household.
Moving into 2021 with a Plan
There’s a lot of talk going around right now. A lot of uncertainty in the air. It feels heavy. It feels a little scary even. The unknown. It has been a stressful year…a sad one too. I have four kids and they miss their grandparents. They miss their friends. I miss dropping the little ones off with my parents to run to the grocery store for a quiet, thoughtful trip. I miss stopping in at their house and tearing up their living room and the last-minute invites to dinner together in the kitchen I grew up eating in. I miss not breathing through a mask. I miss greeting my clients with a ginormous hug of excitement. I miss having a generous reschedule policy. I miss gathering. I miss community in person. I miss offering free events. I miss packed restaurants chattering with life.
“I Because I” and “You Because You”
In these moments that feel so out of control, the key is realizing the difference between the emotion and the need.
The Orange Story
The customary advice for wedding reception speech-givers is to say something nice, something funny, tell a story from the past and to end with a piece of advice for the future. I hear a lot of wedding speeches…2-5 at every wedding so I’ve heard a lot of marriage advice in my career (a perk of the job). Most of them start with, “When the inevitable disagreement comes up…” “When the honeymoon phase is over…” Then, the advice is given… “Remember this day” “Don’t go to bed angry” and many others.
I often think about what advice I would give during one of these speeches. What I think I would say isn’t
Hoffer Vacation 2020 | Adventures off the Grid
While the lure of a fancy, Instagram-worthy vacation was strong (especially for a wedding photographer trying to keep up with the Joneses) and we could actually afford a great vacation this year, my heart pulled me in the opposite direction. I felt a yearning to simplify, do LESS and mostly to disconnect from my 24/7 job, screen time and to reconnect with my family and nature.
In my world of having two sets of children, ten years apart, I have the luxury of standing back to see my two older boys interacting while watching the younger ones play right beside them. It gives me flashbacks to when Andrew and Isaac (the older ones, 16 & 14) were the same ages as Finn and Rita (2 & 4) and enables me to have incredible perspective of the “it goes by so fast” epidemic of our too rushed/time wasted culture. I wanted a vacation that forced us to put down our devices. A vacation that released us from the “must happen right now” normalcy of our everyday…to have real conversation and lean into each other and live in the moment. I wanted to be forced to talk about the “behaviors” and “tantrums” and decide on solutions instead of turning on the TV to distract from them for a few more minutes of time to get stuff done or race off to the next activity on an over-packed trip.
All of this was painful.
It was painful to realize how many times a day I mindlessly reach for my phone and tap in the Instagram app even though I try so hard to be mindful and set limits.
It was painful to watch my kids cry and whine to go home because they wanted their favorite
A Moment, Please, to Interrupt Your Highlight Reel
For most of my life I have wanted to get to a place where I could say “I’ve made it.“ And, shine like a beacon of hope to all other people that have struggled in their lives. I have wanted to stand on some sort of pedestal to show people that “you can do it too.“ I have yearned to give advice from a place of authority and also to show people that didn’t believe in me from the beginning that I DID IT.
Superwoman Syndrome
Balance baby! Balance. People talk about it all the time but what I want to stress to you is: make sure you are balancing the right things.
