Welcome to my weekly post where we take a break from money-related posts and I give you a little peek into our life from the past week and also share things I'm pondering/learning.
The last two weeks or so, life has just felt loud and lonely all at the same time.
I've struggled with feeling irritable. I've felt emotional and moody and blue. I've snapped at my kids and my husband way more than usual. And I've just felt this frantic unrest in my soul.
I didn't really realize I had spiraled to a bad place until my eye started twitching incessantly — which is usually an indication I need more sleep. Only, I had been sleeping at least 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 hours every night.
I was frustrated that I was feeling frustrated. I felt down that I was feeling down. And I was irritated at myself for feeling irritated.
It felt like a vicious cycle I was trapped in and there didn't seem to be an easy fix.
The last straw happened when one of my kids said to me, "Mom, you just seem angry all the time."
My kid thinking I'm angry all the time? Um, not how I want to live.
So I stopped. I took a few days mostly off. I slept. I prayed. I took email off my phone. I got honest with a few people close to me.
And I took a hard look at what the root of this stemmed from.
I realized that I was craving more consistency and more quiet spaces in my life. That I had let myself get spread too thin and the result had been too much chaos in our schedule and too little calm and breathing room. I also realized I was letting anger and hurt fester in my heart over a situation in my life.
I acknowledged my feelings. I let myself really be honest with God and others about them. I let myself grieve and feel and process.
And then Jesse sat down with me and mapped out a game plan for simplifying our days for awhile. I said no to some things. And I gave myself permission to let go of some things. (Oh and I started taking magnesium this week, too! Because I was told that the eye twitching might be related to that.)
You guys… I can't believe it. I've felt like a completely different person! Calm, cheerful, excited about life… my happy, motivated self is back! And I'm so grateful!
I debated sharing this, but I thought it might encourage someone else who might be struggling, too. ❤️
Our Community Group (5 families from our church) went to La Follette, TN to spend the weekend together at a house we booked through VRBO. We were actually supposed to go camping together (like we had done earlier this year) but then the weather took a big turn and it was going to be really, really cold for TN and we decided to try to find an alternative.
So, three days before we were supposed to leave, we found this big house on VRBO that was beautiful and had 9 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms — and was on a really amazing off-season rate. It turned out to be a fantastic set up for us and we had a great weekend together. So much laughter, game-playing, talking, cooking together, and just being together (including all of the adults staying up until the wee hours of the morning talking and laughing and playing games together!)
There were 15 kids all together and even though it was too cold to go outside most of the time, so they all found creative things to play together — games, treasure hunts, and more. It was loud and they may have gone to bed way late and gotten up earlier than the parents were ready for and they may have eaten quite a bit of junk food (s’mores for breakfast, anyone??), but it was a weekend full of memories and fun!
We’re so grateful for these families and the gift of their friendship in our lives.
We had a little fun on the way home at Cracker Barrel, too! 😉
Did you see that we launched a new line of Thankful Tees? There are 3 different styles to choose from and you can get one for just $17.95 shipped!
I've struggled to patiently parent a child who is extremely creative and artistic.
There have been times when I've done it all wrong — trying to stuff her into my minimalist box, getting frustrated at her artistic pursuits (that just look like cluttered messes to me), and wanting to pull my hair out over all.the.stuff she wants to save and keep and store in bins and drawers and stashed all over her closet and dresser.
But I'm slowly letting go. Slowly learning to embrace her for who she is instead of trying to stifle her into my neat and organized little minimalistic box.
I'm learning to give her spaces and places in our home where she is free to exercise her creativity however she sees fit. And I'm seeing her come alive in new ways as a result.
This is Kaitlynn's new desk set-up. It used to be my very minimalistic office area upstairs, but I felt like it was more important for her to have this space than me.
So we gave it to her last week. And you guys, this girl couldn't have been more excited about having this desk all to herself to store some of her special stuff, work on homework at, and have space to tackle various projects.
All week long, she's been dreaming up ideas for how she wants to decorate it, talking about DIY ideas she's going to try for her desk decor, and planning new touches she wants to add (she made the Tape Art Canvas wall-hangings this week). And it makes my heart so happy!
"Lord, let me let go and stop trying to fix my kids into exactly what I think they should be. Let me instead embrace them for who You have created them to be and love them and appreciate them right where they are at."
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