Skip to main content

Intentional


Nothing about this holiday season went as planned.

We started the stomach flu in our family of six a couple days before Christmas and it finally took down the last person a week later. It was exhausting but also forced a major slow down, in a good way.

Traditions got pushed aside to make room for illness, plans were cancelled, all expectations of holiday celebrations went out the window.

There was a time when this would have destroyed me.

Several years ago, my plans for New Years Eve were cancelled due to a snow storm. I pouted and cried, I believe I may have even wailed "Why Me?" and I know for certain that I made the evening miserable for my husband. All because my expectations had been set too high and I couldn't see what was still possible.

I don't know if it's age, experience, maturity, or a glorious combination, but this holiday had all the makings of an epic temper tantrum, yet it never happened.

I wasn't Mother Teresa, let's be real, but I sort of just rolled with it. When the first kid got sick, I just adjusted, and the next and the next and the next.

Somehow, miraculously, it all was just fine.

Christmas still came.

The world did not end.

Time moves on, whether we are sick, ready, sad, happy, or otherwise.

As we head into the new year, I am sitting at my desk, with my hair and makeup all fancy, just to stay at home. We are finishing up the stomach bug, so we won't be going out.

I have painted the girls' fingernails, we put on dresses, we made classic junk food snacks (for those of us who are up to eating) and we will watch movies and be together.

I do not set goals for the New Year. That feels way too much like expectations, but I like the idea of choosing a word for the year. A theme to set the tone for the year ahead.

Intentional.

Thats the word that kept coming to mind as I tried to make the most of the time we did have with family and friends over the past week. I knew we wouldn't make it to many get togethers, so the ones that we did get to, I wanted to really be present and enjoy it. I was intentional about the time spent.

It felt really good.

It felt quiet.

It felt comforting.

It felt right.

Happy New Years friends!



P.S. The first year.

The second year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changes

I was cleaning today, which gave me time to think, and thinking always leads me here. The house is 'weekend messy', so decided to clean my floors, because The Nester says if your floors are clean the rest of the house feels clean too, even if it isn’t.  I have found that it is pretty good advice, so when everything else feels chaotic, I clean the floors. Of course for me, cleaning the floors also means picking up the toys, shoes, clothes, etc. so that I can even begin to vacuum, which naturally leads to a cleaner home as well.  While cleaning up I began to think about how this blog has evolved over the years, from a desire to write like The Nester about home, into what it is now.  I started writing this blog when I was dreaming of building a new home. Then plans changed, life took turns, and we ended up in a home so different than I expected and so perfect for our family. Somewhere along the way I realized that home wasn’t in the walls that went up or in ...
2 comments
Read more

Summer Lessons

Making our house feel like home in the summer feels more chaotic to me than the slower months. November through March, when its dark early and bedtimes come swiftly, meals are slow cooked all day long, and warm light comes from houses in the evening hours, just naturally lends itself to an aesthetic of quiet and calm. At least for me. Summer lends itself to late nights out, days where we are only home long enough to drop piles by the door, eat and leave a mess on the table, dirty more clothes than a small country in a matter of days, and the chaos of home just seems unsettled and rushed. I am going in circles most days, feeling like I am not accomplishing anything and yet spinning and spinning and trying to not tip over.  And yet... And yet, a couple times a month someone asks me “How do you do it all?”  I feel like I am that analogy of a duck on the pond, I look calm on the surface, but underneath my feet are kicking like crazy. And really that is just o...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Farmer

I trust that, by now, you have all seen the commercial heard round the world. You know, the one that stopped all action and silenced a nation when the soft rumble of that voice drifted into living rooms on a Super Bowl Sunday. Yes that commercial . Paul Harvey's voice, unmistakable in its sincerity and beauty, spoke of a people whom work from sun up till sun down with no recognition. He spoke of a people whom care for their baby animals and pour their blood, sweat and tears into helping them grow. He spoke of a people, so foreign to many in the world today. He spoke of a people whom many have forgotten. He spoke of a people; my people. The farmer. I am a fourth generation farmer married to a fourth generation farmer. Together we are raising the fifth generation. We don't do it because its easy, it's not. The hours my husband spends working rival that of any doctor or lawyer I have ever met. We don't do it because it's profitable, some years it...
4 comments
Read more