Pep Talk

I love the time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the atmosphere of this time of year: everything from Christmas cookies to finding and wrapping the perfect gift to driving around looking at Christmas lights to receiving Christmas cards in the mail to traveling to see family and friends.

Time seems to fly more quickly these days, especially as I watch my children grow.  We haven’t even reached Christmas yet this year, and I already feel like this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has passed too quickly. Throughout this time I’ve felt a bit too spread thin, and, not only have I felt like I haven’t had much time to relish the season, but I have also felt like I haven’t been able to do many of the things I’ve wanted to accomplish. I had great plans to do lots of fun Christmas activities with Ella (who is really getting engaged into the whole idea of Christmas), but we’ve only managed to do two of the many fun ideas I’ve found.  After three Christmases searching, I finally bought material to make Christmas stockings, but I didn’t even make it to the point of pulling the sewing machine out of the box.

This post isn’t about complaining, but simply a reality check for me. I can’t be everywhere at once. I probably won’t get everything done on my to-do list because it is too long and unrealistic in the first place. With two little ones in the house, projects will inevitably get put off and plans will change. Ella and Troy were both sick for a week (my husband and I didn’t feel great either). And, besides actually dealing with kids that didn’t feel good, we also had to deal with the severe lack of sleep (the kids don’t sleep well when they are sick and they share a room which only complicates that problem). On top of sick kiddos, I almost sliced the tip off of my index finger (so, please ignore any typos in this post), and was out of commission for an entire evening after that incident (what can I say, I have an extremely week stomach for almost slicing the tip of my finger off). Things types of things are not things to be worried or bothered by; they are simply things (and not really big things) that happen in life from time to time. But, I need to give myself that pep talk when I get bogged down by these things. And, when I say that I need to give myself a pep talk, I really mean that I need to listen to my husband’s encouraging words (because he is always the one who realizes I need the pep talk).

Hopefully this last week before Christmas will be a chance for me to slow down and breathe a little. As long as I actually figure out what to get for the last few folks on our Christmas list . . .

Trying to Do Better Everyday

I guess now isn’t the appropriate time to write a New Year’s Resolution post, considering we’re a week into February, but I guess the thoughts behind this post really are a resolution of sorts.

For a long time, I’ve made major goals that require serious lifestyle changes all at once. I’ve finally recognized that I don’t ever achieve those goals because they require too much change at one time.  I’ve come to realize that I need to take little baby steps everyday in progression to an ultimate goal. I’m thankful to the Flylady and her methods for pointing this out to me within the realm of taking care of my home. I still have a long way to go when it comes to taking care of my home, but I have come such a long way – by taking baby steps rather than a giant leap. Sure, I could spend a weekend crash cleaning my home, but without putting good habits into place, I’ll need to do that cleaning again because it will just go back to the way it was before.

There are lots of areas I want to improve upon in my life and one of the main purposes behind starting this blog was to keep myself accountable and to push myself in those areas. Along the way I’ve learned that my focus should be to do a little better than the day before, and I’ll be making good progress whether that be in keeping my house in order or eating healthier or going to bed earlier or doing a better job budgeting or having more patience with my kids or having a stronger prayer life. By doing a little better everyday, I’ll be hopefully changing my life in such a way as to embed good new habits that lead to the major lifestyle changes I really want to make.

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On a completely unrelated note, my photo of Ella that won first place in the Paper Mama’s Photo Challenge is in a vote-off for the best photo of the month. I’d love a vote if you like my photo! :)