the year of: no.

Six years ago, my word of 2013 was light.
Five years ago, my word of 2014 was release.
Four years ago, my word of 2015 was nourish.
Three years ago, my word for 2016 was presence.
Two years ago, my word for 2017 was authentic.

Last year, my word for 2018 was hygge.

A few months ago, I knew exactly what word I wanted for 2019.

This year? The word for 2019 will be NO.

Yep. You heard that right. NO.

It’s a bold, powerful word. For me, NO is:

1. saying “not right now” to potential commitments.
2. being more intentional about how I spend my time.
3. allowing for better quality when I say, “yes.”
4. avoiding purchases to cut back on my debt.
5. refusing to conform.
6. staying away from things that aren’t beneficial to my growth (whether this be certain foods, social media, movies, whatever).
7. peace.

I’m tired of feeling overwhelmed. I’m tired of constantly comparing (even when I don’t intend to, I still do). I’m tired of wasting my time. I’m tired of forgetting to focus on what does matter: my relationship with God, my family, and relationships with people. I’m tired of being tired.

I’ve been reminded more of how short life is. Death has been on my mind a lot lately. I’m not sure why, but regardless, it is prompting me to be more intentional about how I use this life that I do have — whether it’s fifty years left, five years, five days.

This word is also a reminder to myself that I don’t need to be/do/consume all.

Less commitments, less business, less stress, less mess, less debt, less distractions.

More space, more time, more room to breathe. More life.

Cheers to your year, friends.

hyggelig year? maybe.

It’s late December. The holidays are over. The last time I wrote something here was early this summer and now we are in the beginning of winter! Gah! I’m at the library with a couple days to myself on winter break from work while my son is at daycare (don’t judge — he stayed home with me yesterday and we have to pay for daycare whether or not he goes!). When I’m here at the library with this blank white space in front of me, I just don’t know what to write except perhaps a few concrete details about my life. I’m just tired. This seems to be a new pattern — I only have moments to write on my days off, which, as most moms know, aren’t real days off but time to check off items on the to-do list. So, I’ll make this quick and head out to do some errands.

Well. As in recent years, I kind of forgot hygge was my ‘word of the year.’ Although I began the year with a spirit of hygge, I wasn’t intentional about cultivating it the rest of the year. I’m sure the hygge moments existed, the cuddles on the couch, dozens of cups of coffee, board games, laughter with people, and so forth, but I forgot to try. It was a good year, though. My family is happy and healthy. We lost a few chickens (as expected) but otherwise, we are all good. God is good.

I’ll have another update with my plans for 2019 soon. Cheers, friends.

 

spring thaw.

The ice of winter has finally thawed. I have thawed.

We seemingly skipped spring and have already arrived at summer.

I intended to write more in this post, for my sake (and yours, I suppose), about our days, but to sum it up, in no particular order: we got our roof replaced (there goes our tax return – whee!), we fixed and replaced our kitchen floor (with a wonderful visit from my in-laws!), we had a wonderful weekend visit from some dear friends from Illinois, we all got hit with mono in different forms (and way less severe than I remember mono being when we were kids), I am in desperate need of new hearing aids (remember these? they’re almost ten years old and yes, gave me the same problems for the last ten years) at about $3K each, I watched a few more Best Picture Winner movies (I have a goal of watching all the films that won the Academy Award and have nearly finished the list), I am finally finished with my spring courses and only have two more classes in the fall before receiving my official DHH teacher certificate, we got rid of our crazy rooster Bob, school is nearly done for the year, and we are gearing up for summer! As I already mentioned, summer apparently arrived already. Our family has already enjoyed several dinners on the back porch, BBQing, homemade lemonade, splashing in the water spicket (and kiddie pool), blowing dandelions, running around outside, etc. I’m so excited to explore more of the outdoors with the child — we will even attempt tent camping!

On a personal note regarding my faith, I realized a majority of books, studies, messages, etc. from people who call themselves Christians are not always theologically-sound and may have been entwined with false teachings. Due to this realization and my desire to know God as much as I can, I have been incredibly focused on studying the Word more in-depth than before. I set up a separate blog detailing my realization/journey and guidance for other women to discern for themselves, but won’t publish/share it until I feel ready. I’ll continue to write in both spaces.

books read since the last post:

Counter Culture by David Platt
Growing Up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World by Gary Chapman
The Life-Giving Home by Sally Clarkson
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.

That’s all I feel like writing about today. Love to you all. 🙂