Author: leroyliving

LeRoy Living is the online journal of Lauren LeRoy, a funeral director by trade looking to remember the little moments in her life. In 2012, Lauren started Little Miss Funeral, a blog detailing her journey as an average girl working your not so average job. Finding writing as a therapeutic outlet for her unusual career choice, Lauren decided to create another outlet for her home and travel life. LeRoy Living is exactly what it sounds like; a place for Lauren to share things that fill her life with joy.

family life

Apple picking, baby-wearing, and pies.

September 30, 2018by leroylivingLeave a Comment

Since Fall is my favorite time of the year I try to convince Josiah to do all of the stereotypical things. Apples, pumpkins, Halloween, cold air; I know I sound like every other girl out there but Fall is honestly the best! Before we had Daisy, we would always spend our Sundays getting breakfast at our favorite local restaurant. It seems like we’ve made this our family day. But the thing is, ever since Daisy I’ve been recovering from childbirth and trying to time going places in between feedings and napping for a five week old have proven to be a challenge. Also, add in getting little to no sleep every night because little miss is constantly up makes for a very tired mama who just has no energy! So we’ve been dedicating Sundays to doing one thing (if anything at all). Today Josiah and I went to Blackman Farm to take Daisy on her first apple picking adventure! We’ve been going here for a few years now and taking Daisy has just added to the fun.

Today was a little chilly so we bundled Daisy up and Josiah baby-wore Daisy for the first time. I think it made the entire experience so much easier and she was so snuggly warm and content the entire time we were there. We got enough apples to make two pies. Last year was my first time making a pie all by myself and I actually almost started a fire in my oven. I’m proud to say that this year went much better. No fire and the pie almost tastes like my mama’s. Almost.

family life

A Daisy in the sunflower field.

September 30, 2018by leroylivingLeave a Comment

Recovering from childbirth has been a longer road than I thought. I’ve actually only left the house five times since Daisy was born (and two of those times has been for her doctors appointments!) But last weekend, I asked my husband to take us to the sunflower field. Sunflowers are my favorite flowers (although, they may now be taking a backseat to daisy’s) and we have a few amazing sunflower fields in the Western New York area. This year we may have visited a tad too late in the season, but we all still had a good time! Even with sad looking sunflowers, we still had a lot of fun taking Daisy on her first adventure.

Ever since we had a baby, I am constantly thinking of things that I’d like to do as a family and traditions we can make together. I want to be able to share as many memories as I can with my daughter. Hopefully next year we’ll be able to visit the field a little sooner with some happier looking sunflowers. But let’s be honest, life gets busy so I’m just praying that we can get there at all!

Side note, my backpack is actually a diaper bag. I got it from Freshly Picked, and even though it is a tad expensive, I’m not a fan of traditional looking diaper bags. This one is amazing because it’s my favorite color (black) and it allows me to carry everything we need and have both my hands free. And also, that last photo of Daisy with the sunflowers! Be still my heart! Being a mother to a little girl is the best blessing I’ve ever received. Thank you Jesus.

family life

Documenting growing a baby.

September 16, 2018by leroylivingLeave a Comment

Since Josiah and I decided not to make our pregnancy public, I didn’t participate in a lot of the pregnancy milestones that many people do. We did not have a gender reveal party (we didn’t even find out the gender of our baby until she was born!) We didn’t post weekly bump photos or make boards with the baby’s growth and progress.

But one thing that we did do, and I am so glad we did, was a pregnancy photo shoot. My friend Molly talked me into it after I saw how amazing her family photos came out. So at thirty-something weeks pregnant, I bought a dress on amazon, got my hair done and made my husband dress up in his best suit.

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These photos don’t just mark a time in my life when I was pregnant, they’re also just super cute family photos. I am so happy we were able to take Lindy Ruff along with us, too. Our family just isn’t complete without that four-legged pup. And now that Daisy’s here, our family is even more complete. I’m so happy that we have these photos to remember such a special time in our lives.

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These photos were taken by the amazing Erika Moeller from EMoeller Photography and if anyone is in the Buffalo, NY area I highly recommend her! She made this shoot so fun and made me feel amazing during it. Which honestly was a win in itself since I felt like a huge whale during this stage in my pregnancy. I had such a great experience as a matter of fact, that I will be doing a pregnancy photo shoot again if we ever have another baby!

family life

Welcoming our little flower, Daisy Alice.

September 11, 2018by leroyliving1 Comment

My husband and I decided to keep something very personal offline.

But now that she’s here, I want to share her with all of you.

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On August 24, 2018 Josiah and I welcomed our daughter Daisy Alice into the world. We wanted to keep our pregnancy journey more intimate which is why we decided to not make any announcements until she arrived. Josiah and I also decided not to find out the gender of our baby so this little lady was a complete surprise for us. I’m going to share some photos from our pregnancy photo shoot and I also want to write her birth story, but for the time being, I just want to remember my little flower as she is in these photos. One day old, and perfect at just over 6 lbs.

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essential oils

When the hubby has a headache.

July 16, 2018July 16, 2018by leroylivingLeave a Comment

My husband has always had bad headaches. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to help him with but had no idea how to. I am very lucky, because I rarely (if at all) get headaches, so it’s hard for me to know what he goes through with the pain.

Yesterday was a particularly difficult day, so I immediately went online and started to look up different recipes for my oils. I have the Essential Oils Pocket Reference Book, but yesterday I was at the beach with my husband and my family and didn’t have it handy. A little reminder to me to always carry it in my bag! It’s the pocket reference book after all!

I immediately started to see Copaiba pop up again and again. It has a gentle, woodsy aroma. It’s a product of steam distilling the gum resin tapped from Brazilian Copaifera Reticulata Tree. I learned that it helps to support the body’s natural response to injury or irritation. It also helps to magnify the properties of oils that it’s mixed with. So I added lavender. Lavender is one of those oils that I use for EVERYTHING. Can’t sleep? Lavender. Stressed out? Lavender. Sore muscles? Lavender. I always have lavender essential oil on me and a million backups….just in case.

Lastly, I added peppermint. Since I was making a roller bottle, I knew that when he applied the peppermint oil it would immediately create a cooling sensation that would help. It has such a refreshing smell to it and I use it a lot of times if I feel sick or nauseous, which I know sometimes his headaches can do to him. Peppermint is another oil that I always have backups of. There are just so many different uses for so many oils and I feel confident in my family’s health that we are using all natural products from the earth. I bought these roller bottles off of Amazon a few months back and love them! They are so easy to fill and assemble.

For this recipe, I added:

5 drops Peppermint

10 drops Copaiba

15 drops Lavender

Filled the bottle with a carrier oil (I used coconut oil)

The aroma and healing properties of the oils immediately helped my husband. He applies it as needed to his temples and back of his neck. He was able to take a nap today and get some rest, all while using natural plants from the earth. Gosh, I love Young Living!

If you’re interested in starting your our oily journey you can click here.

essential oils

Lavender, Lindy, & a good night sleep.

April 10, 2018April 10, 2018by leroylivingLeave a Comment

A huge part of my life is incorporating essential oils into our everyday, so essential oils will often make appearances in this space. How I use them, how they’ve helped me, and why I believe our lives are healthier because of them.

I started my journey with no knowledge about essential oils. I had no idea that there were differences between companies and the products that they put out. Somehow, I lucked out and became involved with Young Living, a company that embraces “rigorous quality control standards” by using the seed to seal method. I don’t trust anyone else.

Essential oils can be very overwhelming, at least they were (and at times still can be) for me, so I started as basic as I could; lavender. Lavender has a relaxing and calming fragrance, which is why I found myself grabbing it a few months ago when I first started having problems sleeping through the night. For anyone who knows me, they would be surprised at the fact that I was having problems sleeping, because I’m somewhat of a pro at it. So it was a new experience tossing and turning during the night.

I put a few drops of lavender into my diffuser right before bed and all of a sudden I found myself sleeping like a baby. My husband even loves it. He’ll even ask for oils before bed if for some off-chance he curls up under the covers before I do! For a funeral director and a husband who is unfortunately also subjected to the late night death calls since we share the same bed, anything we can do to improve our quality of sleep is a no-brainer for us! Our pup Lindy Ruff even loves it! I mean, just look at that face!

If you’re interested in starting your our oily journey you can click here.

everyday thoughts

Something new.

April 8, 2018April 10, 2018by leroylivingLeave a Comment

I suppose it’s good to start at the beginning. My name is Lauren and for quite a long time my identity has been in what I’ve chosen to do for a living. Which is a little bit unique, I suppose. You see, I’m a funeral director. I’ve been writing all about that stuff for a few years now. If you’re interested in that sort of thing you can read all about it here.

Writing about death, and my experiences with it, has been very therapeutic for me. So much so, in fact, that I’ve recently found myself wondering about writing about different aspects of my life. Non-death related aspects, like my family. I’ve also recently found my old flickr account. Looking back at those photos, I can’t help but smile and remember that time in my life. I’m glad the internet exists and that I was a goofy teenager who always carried a camera around. Memories are a beautiful thing.

So, my hope for LeRoy Living is to just share the average, day-to-day stuff that I go through, away from the funeral home. Family, food, home life, adventures, outfits; whatever I decide upon that day. I hope you all realize that this is a selfish blog. A memory chest for myself. But regardless, I’m glad you’re here.