Edit Your Life ~ January 2014 Edition

Image here: theatelierblog

Gracious I love the first day of a new year.

I am all about new beginnings. Fresh starts. Clean slates. A chance to start new.

One of the ways that I have already prepared for the start of a new year was using one little word in a very big way.

EDIT.

This word is our new best friend.

Less is more. Let it go. Simplify. Pare down.

I prefer the word editing the best since I am a stylist at heart!

I have already started the process of true editing a couple of months ago.

Things, papers, books, magazines, pictures, cards, toys, emails as well as unsubscribing to loads of things that just create clutter and noise in my life.

When things go missing, it creates a morning of chaos like you wouldn't believe around here and I start the day out feeling like a failure.

I am editing and organizing with great purpose and intention to create a calm and happy space for each one of us this year. One room at a time.

Here is one category to start with today! 

THE PAPER SITUATION:

Clutter and tchotchkes makes me break out into hives.

Now please hear me, as a mother of six children, there is always clutter….

But it drives me to the brink and I am constantly fighting my way through it and trying to organize the best system for our family.

Sometimes, out of exhaustion, "my system", is to pile every single thing in the corner and go through those piles later, so that the rest of our space is clean and organized.

The kids artwork, school papers, mail, bills, magazines, all of these things within a family of eight people can be overwhelming.

So here is what I have found in my own search for helping to bring order to the house...

There are so many incredible and really beautiful options for organizing the home office that it will actually be something you look forward to doing.

Basically…I'm not sure how I am going to choose using a very small budget from all of the beautiful options below.

The Container Store

 Ikea

 Poppin.

 Rusell and Hazel.

You may actually need to belt out a couple of verses from the song  Jesus take the wheel  while looking at their websites. :) 

The good news for those of us on a tight budget is that you can also find some really beautiful and functional things at discount supply stores and even Goodwill! 

I have found many a fine object at Goodwill and they even have .99 cent day.

I am not even kidding.

You can get yourself a filing system for under 1.00. Especially during this time of the year when everybody and their Mama is clearing the clutter. And then you can paint it gold and be the envy of all of your neighbors.

Throw stuff away. Give stuff away or donate it.

We have to be willing to let go of some of the old to make room for the new! 

If you do not love it, get rid of it.

Clutter blocks creativity.

And the world needs your creativity beautiful friends.

Here's to the start of editing your life to make room for every good and perfect gift that God has for you this year.

There Is Wonderful Joy Ahead

Source: Pinterest

Happy New Year!!

We made it!

I am so grateful and so thankful for making it through this year. 

I know there are many of you who feel this same way.

One of the frustrating things of walking through a really hard year, is that you will inevitably be surrounded by people who had their best year ever….

Which is awesome. We all hope for years like that!

But it can magnify your really painful year.

And it may cause you to wonder what on earth you are doing wrong. 

I know I have felt that way many times over the last five years.

This is when I cling to Him and hold on for dear life.

Many times, we aren't doing anything wrong, we are just walking through the refining fire. 

We are being molded and shaped for purpose.

We are being set apart and taught by the Lord.

We are being stripped of anything and everything that would hinder His work in our life.

This process is really painful.

I don't know of an easy way to get through it. They call it the threshing floor for a reason….

But I do know that tomorrow is a brand new, beautiful start to a glorious new year and we can 

do our very best to make it the best one yet! We can all make changes and lots of them.

I have a huge list of changes we've already started making. And we are also beginning to see

some fruit from our hard work and countless prayers over the last few years.

There is wonderful joy ahead…. for each one of us.

I wanted to share this awesome video with you all. It was shared on FB this week from the beautiful Kristin Wohlust. Thank you again for sharing this Kristin! 

I am not a huge sports and fitness fan but this video was so encouraging to me anyway. Just close your eyes and listen to the words! It sounds like a combination of coaches and pastors talking. Really good ones:) There are a blue million awesome quotes in this clip!

I hope it blesses you! Here's to a glorious 2014! 

I Give Thanks

I wake up this morning to the glorious.

The sun beaming. Fireplace burning. Coffee brewing. Five babies stirring, scattering, calling for me.

In ten syllables they call for me. Again and again.

I breathe it in and breathe it out.

These days are precious. I'm going to long for them one day.

This I know.

The phone rings and proves me right.

It is my girl.

My Macey girl calls. She is so grown up. A college graduate. Living and fully supporting herself.

She is beauty and brains and a heart that overflows with compassion.

She is a gifted creative and has a razor sharp quick wit. She is hilarious and fun and she gets it.

She gets me. I am fully known by this child of mine.

She has seen the best and the worst of me. And yet. She chooses to love me…

I breathe in her laughter and the sound of her voice.

I can't believe that she is mine. 

She is glory and grace and goodness in 5 feet 6 inches and I'm humbled every time she calls my name.

Mama. 

This is my name. It is all I have known for nearly 24 years. 

I love that she is the one who made me a mother. Two least likely's in everyone's book but His.

My husband of almost 14 years is home. He is here with us. 

We have survived much.

We have lived out our vows in long days and long years.

For better. For worse.

For richer. For poorer.

In sickness. In health.

We know the words well. He has carried us through seasons that I never knew would be ours.

I am humbled and grateful and thankful.

I breathe in what we have created together and I can't believe we can call this our own.

Five scrumptious babies and an incredible 23 year old gift that we do not deserve.

We sip our coffee and inhale the beautiful exhaustion that is our life, every, single, day.

My heart - singing.

I am thankful.

Not for things. Not for stuff. 

Stuff is meaningless. 

I am thankful for the sound.

The sound of six children breathing life.

The sound of their voices calling for me. 

The sound of their feet bringing me the gospel. 

Bringing me living proof that God is good and that He is Who He says He is.

No matter what it looks like. Or sounds like right now.

The sound of prayers being prayed. Thanks being given. His name being lifted up.

The sound of freedom in this place.

The sound of a husband who would move heaven and earth to provide for us. Love us. Protect us.

The sound of two wedding rings that clink against coffee cups. Even still.

I am thankful.

We reminisce about many years. Many Thanksgivings. We have known plenty and we have known less than. We are thankful for the refining fire and for the unraveling. We thank Him for how He's changed us. Humbled us. Processed us.

We know that after pain comes purpose.

Just as it is with labor and delivery.

9 times I have carried life. 

Three times we've lost.

And I look at all we've gained. 

He has given us our inheritance in children.

I can think of no greater riches. No greater gift. 

We talk about all that we have overcome. We can hardly believe it all. 

But we know Him now in ways in which we've never known Him before.

I know that must have been part of the plan.

He is always trying to reveal Himself to us. Sometimes the only way is through suffering.

The scripture may the Lord bless you and keep you has new meaning.

If He blesses us, can He truly keep us?

He had to unravel us to fully get to us.

I am thankful.

We have known Him as Provider. 

As Redeemer.

As Restorer.

As Healer.

As Protector.

As Comforter.

Again and again and again.

He answers. He reveals.

Sometimes with a closed door. An answer that sounds like no. A period of time that is worse than wait. It is simply to wait without a date. Sometimes with a whisper of hope. Through a drawing from tiny hands. Through the rocking of worry in the midnight hour, I hear Him say…."Do you trust me?"

I nod and rock and think and I thank Him that I do not have to know the end from the beginning.

I give that piece back to Him.

I can just be.

I can just be thankful that He is the author and the finisher and He sees and He knows and He has a purpose and a plan and it is not anything I could have written for myself.

My pen could never have filled the pages in this way.

I would have left out all the pain.

I breathe it in today.

The years the locust have eaten and the years that He has restored.

I give thanks for every sound today…..

I give thanks for Who He Is.

For His Pen. For His Glory. For His Purpose. For His Plan. 

Breathe Him in today beautiful friends and give thanks...

No matter what. 

I pray this song blesses you. It is one of my absolute favorites….

Photo Credit: Paige Knudsen

A November Update

Morning Glories,

I hope that you all are doing well and enjoying the start to a beautiful holiday season!

I will be finishing my 31 days posts behind the scenes and once finished, adding it as link on the side bar.  It was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be but I am so glad I took the challenge! 

I had to stop mid month to focus on preparing a few talks.

God has been so incredibly gracious to me and offered five speaking opportunities in a 17 day time frame.

I am so grateful to my sweet husband and Mother (Nana!) who have been holding pillar and post together so that I can travel and do this.

I would not be able to travel at all,  if it were not for their help with the children. Thank you both so much!!

I am so grateful that He has made a way where I can contribute to my family financially doing something that I absolutely love to do!

A huge thank you to my beautiful and long time friend Maggie who hosted this special kick off to
The Advent Season.

There is something incredible about the first time a close friend invests in your calling and asks you to share with her community.

It is incredibly humbling.

Thank you Maggie for investing in me. I love and adore you.

My heart is forever grateful and forever marked.

I just returned home from two events this week in PA.

The women were amazing and filled my heart with such support and encouragement! So incredibly thankful for this time with each one of them.

I was so excited to also have the chance to visit with my precious friend Tracey Dugan while I was there.

Grateful me.

Our little ones are thankfully out of school for a 9 day break for Thanksgiving and we are looking forward to enjoying some family time together.

I have written here before some thoughts on Thanksgiving and wanted to share the link to a past post that still holds so much of what my heart feels this year.

Thanksgiving Is A Place.

I hope it blesses you.

I hope your holiday week is surrounded by a bounty of family, friendship and sweet potato cupcakes! 

Happy Thanksgiving sweet friends.