We went on our last ski trip of the year this past week. Its been a great way to actually enjoy winter and since learning how to ski last year, I haven't actually felt depressed at all when the snow hits & the flip flops migrate to unknown areas of the closet. I'm almost a little sad to see it go.....but then I think about summer & warm weather and going to Texas in a few weeks and I'm really not that sad haha! Anyway...I couldn't believe how beautiful the scenery was while we were on our trip. We got to see the last sunset before daylight savings & then the first sunrise after the change, so I feel like Spring is here. (I realise its not yet official, but the clocks changing totally makes it feel like its here) Isn't God's creation beautiful? Hope your beginning to Spring has been awesome!
watching:I finished watching multiple seasons of the Vampire diaries while crafting. Since I have been working hard on all my store products. Since finishing that, I've been having several throwback moments and watching Dawson's creek haha! I don't usually watch that much TV, can you tell?
listening:I have been trying to listen to my new cds I got over Christmas, but lately the two songs I have had on repeat are A Thousand Years by Christina Perri and Hide Your Love Away by Anthem Lights. reading:The hubby and I have been reading Forgotten God by Francis Chan with our small group which has been such a great book to go through with others. To share thoughts and hear others perspectives on the topic. I've also been busy reading through some photography books to improve my skills there. eating:Lots of fruits and veggies for us. Part of my #30daybuttkick has been to eat healthier as well. So more of our food budget is on those, when hungry I have been munching on those yummy healthy things instead of snacking on junk food (which I've actually stopped keeping in the house). Avocados as well are one of my favorites. looking forward to:Summer. Definitely. Spring is teasing us here in the midwest right now with a beautiful sunny day with weather in the 40s. Gorgeous! And you can see all the buds appearing on the trees. Might I add we are all on winter storm watch too over the next few days. Sigh. But hopefully it will be the last snow of the season and then spring will appear. I'm hopeful anyway. thinking about:Summer still. And volleyball tournaments, softball too. I can't wait to get back outside again. Playing in the sun, having more daylight hours. Still thinking about it. loving:The beautiful friendships I have found here in the blog world, new friendships I have found at church and the long lifetime friends who I have been able to talk to lately.
How are you guys doing? Sorry I haven't been around much!
Once my stores are in full swing again, I hope to be back here more often.
As I bend down to pick up yet another scrap of wrapping paper left on the floor from a flurry of wrapping presents which just took place, I notice the needles underneath the Christmas tree that need sweeping once again. Then I think how the tree probably needs more water, and while I'm thinking about that I remember the presents which I should have wrapped first because I'm going to be seeing that particular family tomorrow.
Then while thinking about the presents that need wrapping my mind wanders to the list of gifts I still have yet to get, and remember that Christmas is only five days away. I ponder how before I know it we will be in the car on the way to a party and I won't have had time to wrap our white elephant gifts.
Evenings become filled with wrapping presents and food prep for parties, along with everyday meal prep that needs to take place. All the regular household chores still need doing and now there's Christmas decorations to be put up still or dust around.
At the beginning of December, we had wonderful plans of taking time out every evening to read an Advent plan together enjoying this season. Instead we almost collapse into bed ever night after another meeting or party and I barely have time to silently pray before I drift to sleep.
Sound familiar to anyone else? When did Christmas get so busy? When did it become more important to make sure that Christmas cards get to people on time and no one gets offended because you forgot to give them a gift? Why is it so hard to find time to do the most important thing? Quiet our hearts in preparation for the gift which was given to us thousands of years ago in the form of a baby wrapped in rags.
That first Christmas wasn't extravagant, it took place in a stable of all places. And after having just given birth, I'm pretty sure Mary wasn't concerned with hanging up their stockings, making sure her tree looked perfect or that a garland was hanging straight. Her heart was focused entirely on the gift she have just been given and her God-given role of caring for God's son.
I love the Christmas season, don't get me wrong. It does seem like such a magical beautiful time of year. It's cozy, beautiful and has the potential to be healing to the soul as we embrace the gift God gave to us two thousand years ago. But often I just feel tired and worn out from the necessary 'responsibilities' by the time Christmas day rolls around. A far cry from the point of the season.
Perhaps its time to refocus and realise what is truly important about Christmas. To invest more time in relationships than the materialism of the season.
Perhaps also to remember that if we do forget something or accidently offended someone in forgetting to do something, we have been given a gift.
Grace.
We haven't failed if we can't do it all. No matter how good or worthwhile something may seem. We've only failed if we fail to see what is most important this season.
As the car sits on quiet tarmac on a busy highway, the sights of downtown Chicago fill the windows. While we watch the fog block the skyscrapers from sidewalk view and press on through the traffic hoping to press forward into the city one's patience is tested.
I have never been one to enjoy sitting in a traffic jam.
The car inches forward surrounded by other frustrated drivers and I find my renewed sense of thankfulness being tested.
Really....why is there a need for traffic jams? What purpose do they serve except to make everyone frustrated, angry with each other and late for wherever they are trying to get to.
Then when you are stuck in one. You finally have space to think. Space to breathe a while.
As though God is saying....take some time with me child and just be.
Just be in this traffic jam. Stop thinking of all the things you need to do when you get where you are going. Stop looking at the clock, you can't change the traffic and looking won't help you get there any faster.
Just be here. Take a moment and pray.
Traffic jams actually force us in the busyness of life to slow down. We don't have a choice. We have to sit. And the majority of the time, I really don't like it.
But when I choose to spend that time worshiping in the car with a CD or enjoying the Lord's presence, they become something else entirely.
I am beginning to agree with Ann Voskamp when reading through Chapter three of One Thousand Gifts, there is a change that comes from counting everyday gifts.
All of a sudden things that were mundane become gifts from the Lord.
It's as though we begin to see clearly.
Its a real change, we are intentional in our search for joy when we choose to see things as gifts. Through eucharisteo we overcome our habitual ingratitude, like the traffic jam attitude, and we see things we already have instead of what we want.
'I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.'
{Philippians 4:11-12}
But as Paul says, contentment is something he learned. It didn't come naturally. We have to be intentional at seeking to learn this attitude.
To battle the discontentment and fight to see the joy and contentment in life.
As Ann says, there is something to be said about the act of naming a specific thing we are thankful for. For in naming it, its almost as though we fully receive it as a gift. It works its way into our heart slowly through each gift, creating a habit, instead of just being thankful for everything in general which is easy to forget.
This habit of thankfulness, it really does require persistence and practice even when it seems silly, like being thankful for a traffic jam. When it doesn't even seem to make sense.
This gift of thankfulness, its a battle.
But its a battle worth fighting.
Lyrics: Hillsong United, Lead Me to the Cross
Thankful//for traffic jams.
Thankful//for foggy days.
Thankful//for being stuck in the car with friends on the Chicago highways.
Thankful//for pictures because the car wasn't go as fast as usual.
I like to write things down so they won't be forgotten.
I stay up late to list the things that need doing the next day.
Then I have the immense satisfaction of being able to cross out tasks as I accomplish them.
It brings me great feelings of achievement.
I have even been known to add things done prior to writing my 'to-do' list, just so I can cross them off already.
Yeah, I'm one of those.
Whenever I have a 'day off' or 'day when I don't officially work' I like to write lists so I feel I accomplished something with my day.
The problem with my list days is that I find I'm pretty clingy when interruptions try and take away what I planned to do that day.
See having the list usually leaves no room in my day for doing things on God's timing.
For seeing people and interactions through His eyes.
I'm all about trying to maximize my precious free-time to get as much done as possible during my 'day-off.'
Sometimes I have even managed to be so into a task on my list, that I feel needs doing, that I have not answered my phone because I felt I was too busy.
This kind of thinking has been leaving no time in my precious days to accomplish the Lord's plan for my day.
(Don't get me wrong, I totally think there is a time and place for my lists. A lot of time the tasks on them are honoring to the Lord. But I hold to my own plan of how my time should look too tightly.)
For instance, instead of feeling the bathroom had to be scrubbed from floor to ceiling because the mess was becoming embarrassing (or just driving me crazy), I could have done something more meaningful. I could have perhaps taken a call from a sweet friend who needed to talk about something and encouraged her in her walk with the Lord.
There is nothing wrong with keeping a clean house, in fact I feel it is a very good thing.
But perhaps not to the point where that task is interfering with more important things.
Lately, I've been even more demotivated than when I started after a 'List day,' as I climb into bed exhausted from the number of tasks I tried to accomplish in my 'rest day.' I may have written five items on a list that morning and only accomplished two because life got in the way a little.
a friend called to have lunch.
my parents called from across the world to say hi.
I received an urgent email that needed replying to.
I realized I forgot to pay the heat bill.
Then I was on my computer already so I checked my email.
Interruptions are a part of life.
I'm trying to learn that before we have kids too. Because as I have heard & learned from some experiences it will only get harder to try and get some things done.
As I was reading a section similar to this topic in Grace for the Good girl by Emily Freeman, I came across this:
'To accept the lovely, the messy, and the unexpected things in our days, knowing that God sees them and has an eternal perspective, is to say with confidence I receive your timing. I accept that you know so I don't have to. Even when it all goes wrong.'
I'm learning that in this rapid-paced, always-in-a-hurry culture that I have adopted some of its tendencies to feel the need to be on the go all the time.
It's no wonder I feel tired a lot.
I'm (trying) to learn that it's honestly ok when (often what seems to me) like an essential task gets put off for a few days, like cleaning the bathroom.
I hope I will learn to have an eternal perspective someday where I will regularly take time out of the busyness of emails, social media and just lie in the grass staring at the stars praying. Knowing that this is a far better way to spend a free hour.
Learn to do what matters most.
Time with the Lord matters most.
Writing tomorrow's blog post is less important.
Relationships matter most.
A clean bathroom is less important.
Learn to see that sometimes good things get in the way of great things.
God's timing is a much better pace for my life.
Even if at first it feels weird & uncomfortable.
I hope someday I get to the place where I can wake up on a 'day off' and start the day without a schedule by saying 'Lord, show me what you want me to do today.'
Wouldn't that be an exciting adventure? Who knows where He might lead.
