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Welcome to my weekly post where we take a break from money-related posts and I share about what I'm loving right now and give you a little peek into our life from the past week.
After a very long and full week, I came home from church last week and Jesse said, "Why don't you just stay home and rest the rest of the day?"
"But I really should go and do those other things I'm supposed to do today!" I responded. He looked at me gently and said, "You need to give yourself some grace."
You guys. I preach giving yourself grace and I believe in the concept, but when it comes to actually walking it out for myself, I struggle. My Type A/driving personality often tries to convince me I don't have time to slow down or I feel guilt over letting go or saying no to people.
I've gotten better over the past few years, but I still have a long way to go.
"Be excessively gentle with yourself." I heard @emilypfreeman say this quote on the The Next Right Thing podcast and it hit me square in the forehead. I am usually gracious and gentle with others, but I often heap all sorts of guilt on myself.
I've been mulling over this quote, thinking of how gracious and gentle my Heavenly Father is with me and how often I forget that He wants me to stop striving and pushing and trying so hard and just rest in Him.
What would it look like to be excessively gentle with yourself? That's the question I'm pondering today.
Quill is getting SO big! Kaitlynn has done an amazing job of taking care of him! I told the kids they could get a pet as soon as they could take care of it (and I wasn’t allergic to it — which ruled out most pets, unfortunately). Well, they have taken that to heart because I have done literally nothing to care for Quill other than just to get to enjoy him!
This Past Week Was a Doozy
We’re almost to the Christmas lull that we get to enjoy every year mid-December through the end of December — when the internet is really quiet and I get to just step back and savor the sights, smells, tastes, and sounds of Christmas. The fact that my job slows down to an almost-halt midway through December is one of the BEST parts of the holiday and something I look forward to every single year!
But before we can get to that lull, it’s usually a little on the crazy side — and this past week was a doozy! And most of it wasn’t business related, but it WAS stuff we needed to or wanted to get done before the end of the year!
Here’s the rundown:
- We signed a contract on a new house (!!).
- We went through the application process for both girls to start at new schools in January (long story — we have a real peace about it even though, if everything works out, it will mean all three kids will be in different schools!)
- It was Silas' Presentation Week at school and Kathrynne had half of her mid-terms.
- I also underwent skin patch testing for my recent severe eczema outbreaks — and that involved multiple doctor's visits, wearing patches of 80 chemicals on my back, and not being able take a shower for 5 days… oh and dealing with a nasty, itchy outbreak on my back. But I’m SO grateful I did it because we got some very definitive results from it that I think are going to make a difference — after over 30 years of suffering from eczema!
- We launched a new blogging course — Branding Basics 101.
- And to top it off, we all came down with colds and I got really sick with a fever and have been in bed most of the day. (I think my body was just d-o-n-e.) Some weeks, you just do the best you can do… and you hold on and make it through!
Guess what? I ended up having a rare completely free weekend and I got to spend it just chilling with my people and watching some movies and shows, as well as reading good books. It was bliss!
What I’m Reading, Watching, & Listening To
Jesse and I got fully caught up on This is Us this week — only to discover we should have spread things out more because the next episode doesn’t come out until January 2. 🙁 Needless to say, we’re really enjoying this show and how it portrays real-life, real struggles, raw and honest conversations about the hard stuff, and the beauty of family.
We’re almost finished with watching all of the Gilmore Girls episodes. I’d say that we’re committed now so we want to make it to the end, but we’re not really enjoying the final season as much.
And we also got caught up on episodes of Designated Survivor this week — a show that we really love!
I enjoyed listening to Cultivating the Lovely podcast episode #44 with Kat Lee this week and also The Simple Show episode #105 on What’s Saving My Life.
And I read Loving My Actual Christmas and Hope Prevails. Neither were knock-out books, but both had some good reminders/encouragement in them that I gleaned from.
Links You Should Check Out
