Personal Essays

Loudoun’s (Possibly) Most Haunted House in 2024

/ Katie / 11 Comments

Another year, another visit to Loudoun County’s (maybe) most haunted house! And this one might be my last, for reasons that I’ll talk about in an upcoming post. (Are you curious? I hope so!)

Anyway…

Here she is, in all her crumbling glory, as of October 2024:

And here’s last year’s post, for comparison: https://myvirginiadiary.com/2023/10/30/this-years-visit-to-the-maybe-most-haunted-house-in-loudoun/

They say nothing lasts forever, and this house certainly won’t. In the years that I’ve been visiting, I’ve watched the old girl deteriorate a little more each season.  

And who knows if the house’s story will outlast it. I hope I’ve done my part, at least, to capture some of the mystery. It will never be anyone’s home again, but perhaps it can be someone’s memory. Even if it’s only mine.

P.S. As I do every year, I’ll add this disclaimer:  This house is on private property, and there are no trespassing signs posted, so please don’t go poking around where you’re not welcome. It’s easy enough to take a picture from the road.

I’m (Not) Back (Yet)!

/ Katie / 14 Comments

But I will be soon!

This is just a quick post to say: Hi! I’m still here. I miss all of you something fierce! Things are happening around here in my little corner of Virginia, and I’m planning to be back in October with a weekly post. I’ve got a lot to share, let me tell you.

In the meantime, how are you? How are things? How is life?

All good here, if a bit crazy. Lucy’s good.

Pets are good.

Graham and I are tired. But good.

I can’t wait to get back to creating soon. I hope you’ll be here when I do.

Stay tuned and happy writing, y’all!

Mayhem and the Mandolin

/ Katie / 8 Comments

Y’all, my heart is so happy.

My parents came to visit last week. Graham’s work has been insane, and some nights he’s been up until 3:00 a.m. or later. We were struggling. We were both tired, our house was a mess. The cat’s feeling neglected. I don’t even want to talk about laundry.

We needed help. And we got it, and more.

My family has always done music. I’ve posted about it a lot, and I’m just so elated that Lucy seems to love music, too. My dad brought out his mandolin, and she was just fascinated.

Absolutely entranced. And she wanted to try it for herself.

She cried when he put it away. She’s never done that before, with any toy. (We got it back out and gave it back to her, of course.)

These little moments, they just keep coming. Lucy is an easy baby, but life around her has been generally chaotic. These sweet new memories make all that chaos seem like nothing at all.

Lucy Blue’s Big Debut

/ Katie / 6 Comments

How’s this for some Monday cuteness:

It’s a blurry photo, I know, but too good a (new) memory to not share.

Our sweet Lucy Blue-Eyes made her big debut over the weekend, and we’re so excited to start getting her out and about to meet out friends and see our community. She had a good time, I think, and was very relaxed about the whole thing.

Mama, on the other hand, was an absolute mess. I know she can’t live in three rooms of our house her whole life, but going out where the people and the germs are makes me so nervous. I want her to know the world, but I also want to keep her safe from the bad things. This, I’m sure, is a parent’s ultimate dilemma.

At any rate, we went to one of our favorite places, and Lucy got to show off a shirt from one of my very best friends, and we had a chance to catch up with a few people, and Lucy took a big nap in the middle of all of it, and it was good. We’ll do it again, I’m sure.

For now, snuggles.

My 2024 Word of the Year

/ Katie / 4 Comments

Okay, so I’m a little late on this. I’ve been busy, you know?

Normally, every year, I set very specific goals and make plans for how I’m going to accomplish them. This year, things are a little different and my only goal is to be a good mom to Lucy while I figure everything else out. So, I’m trying something new. A lot of my friends choose a “word of the year” every year, and I’ve never done it. But new year, new things to try. So, here we go. My word this year is:

EMBRACE

Embrace this new life. Embrace these new challenges. Embrace the joys and the hardships and the highs and lows. Embrace myself, and Graham, and most especially, baby Lucy, who is so fun to cuddle. Embrace all the changes and embrace every moment, and hold these precious, brief days with both arms.

I shall try.

How much can change…

/ Katie / 6 Comments

…in a year.

A 3:00 a.m. thought. But also a post I’ve been meaning to write.

It’s hard to believe that this time last year, Lucy was not even in the plan. Now she’s here, and she’s my whole life.

This time last year, we’d just gotten Merlin. Now he rules the house. Don’t tell Annie.

This time last year, we were in the middle of renovating and updating and the sounds of construction were the constant soundtrack of our days. It’s quiet around here now, except when Lucy cries, which is not often.

This time last year, I don’t think I could have imagined what things would look like today. How tiring and wonderful and short the days would be, and how much love my heart could hold, and just how happy we could be in our cozy little farmhouse, the three of us and our crazy pets.

I wonder what things will look like this time next year. I’m excited for all the joys and memories to come.   

Two Months of Motherhood (Or, What Is Time?)

/ Katie / 6 Comments

Our sweet Lucy Blue-Eyes is two months (and two days) old!

She surprises me every day. Every day, something is new and fascinating. She’s learning to hold up her head, making lots of new noises, and looking more and more like her daddy. She is beautiful and strong, and I’m the luckiest. I love being her mom. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

BUT…

With Graham back at work and his work being about as busy as one would expect after several weeks away, being Lucy’s mom leaves me very little time for much of anything else.

(And what is time anyway? Wasn’t it midnight two hours ago?)

Anyway, I haven’t even had a minute every day to brush my teeth. We’re doing well, all of us, and we’re figuring things out, but we have no set routine at the moment. It’s not quite chaos, but it is very different from how life was before. That’s not a bad thing, I think. Just new.

So what does that mean for this blog?

I don’t know.

I’m planning to keep writing, at least once a week. I haven’t been keeping up with everyone’s posts, and I’d like to do that, too, because y’all inspire me to create and push myself and enjoy the process. But for now, I’m doing what I can.

And that’s enough.

Lucy’s First Snow Day

/ Katie / 14 Comments

If you’ve been here for a while, you know that I love snow. I love winter, and I love snow. I’m not so keen to get a big snowstorm this year, given that we’ve got a newborn, but I am happy to report that we did see a nice, gentle snowfall for the last couple of days.

Enough to blanket the ground without causing major chaos. And Annie has enjoyed it, which is so wonderful to see.

Lovely, right? And Lucy’s very first snow day! She has no idea what that means right now, but one day, she will.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks around here since Graham went back to work on January 8th, but we’re doing okay. We’re figuring things out as we go, and I think that’s the best we can do. Unfortunately, it means that at this moment, I don’t have a ton of time to devote to writing and blogging and such, but that will change eventually.

It’s just nice that amidst the stress and change, we’ve gotten to see some actual winter weather. Even if this is all the snow we get this year, I can say that I’m happy. 😊

Six Weeks of Lucy

/ Katie / 73 Comments

Y’all. This baby.

She’s incredible.

Wednesday marked six weeks since my sweet Lady Lucy’s arrival, and we are in love and elated and tired and busy and just so, so happy.

And tired. So tired. Very tired.

But she’s worth it. Every exhausted minute of it.

Honestly, it’s so much more easy than I worried it would be. And also more challenging. And just amazing.

One of these days, I will sit down and write about this whole experience – birth and postpartum, being a new mom, learning how to care for a tiny, perfect human. But right now, I’m all about the baby snuggles.

She’s growing and changing every day. She’s making eye contact, lifting her head, grasping at our fingers, staring at Merlin (who is patiently trying to teach her exactly what human hands are for, which is petting him, of course!), listening, watching, stretching, wiggling, and just being the most fascinating little creature I have ever encountered.

I won’t overshare about her here, because I’m sure you’d all get tired of it and wonder where all the poems and short stories went. And I will get back to writing those! Soon, I hope.

But for now, more snuggles. And coffee.

This is the life.