1. I have never had my hair professionally done. Yes, you read that right. I have always gone to Great Clips or First Choice, or whatever cheap place is in town. I usually wait until I have a 9.99 coupon too. I promised myself and Matt that I wouldn’t dye my hair until I started to go gray. Well, I have started getting gray hairs. Not only that, but after Abi was born I decided that I needed a change. Not a little change, a big one. The kind of change that you are willing to pay decent money for when it comes to your hair. You know what I discovered?? I realized why so many women make this a priority in their lives. It felt so good to be pampered! And I love my new look.
2. I rarely get my nails done. I mean maybe twice a year. I know some women make this a priority weekly. I am not one of those women. I really enjoy a mani/pedi, but I am more of a grab a starbucks and shop at target for an hour alone kind of girl. The last three times I went to Target by myself, I didn’t even get anything for myself. Just walking around alone with a coffee in hand is usually enough for me.
3. I haven’t seen a dentist in over a year. Yikes! What? Yes. I just haven’t made time for it. You are probably wondering why. My reasons are simple… I just haven’t made the time. There always seems to be something better to do, or maybe I just don’t love myself enough. I know what seems extravagant, but maybe do I really love myself enough to make the appointment, find childcare, and pay the bill and so on and so on? Sigh. Sadly, self care has not been a priority for me for a very long time. The truth is, I am worth it. I am so worth it.
4. In the last twelve months I have read over twenty books. Mostly, I have listened to them (thank you Jesus for audible). At one time, I did not consider myself a lover of books. I actually started becoming interested in books in middle school. Back then, I loved reading R.L Stine. Yep. I loved a good mystery or a cheesy love story. In high school I had an amazing lit teacher and in her class I started to enjoy the classics. I am thankful I had her both junior and senior year of high school. That is the pivotal moment when I started to enjoy reading. In college, and for a few years after, books just got put on the back burner. When we started packing up our house in Georgia I finally decided to give audible a try. Love it. Life changing. Life giving. I would say half of the books I read are “self help”/parenting books and the other half are just good love stories. When I say love stories, I am talking about all kinds of love stories. Futuristic, post-apocalyptic, classical and so on. Give me some sappy words and a few broken people bound for each other and I am sold. Swoon.
5. I am too busy. I made this declaration to start homeschooling and well, you can’t homeschool if you are never home. Duh. News flash, I am making it a priority to be home MWF starting in January. No play dates, no errands, no craziness, Just home. I love being with people and I love doing things, but this mama needs to rest. I also want to devote the time to homeschooling that it deserves. I want to give it a good ole’ college try to see if this is something I want to do next year, meaning when Kat goes to Kindergarten.
6. I love British television. Or should I say tele? I have always been a sucker for some Jane Austin, or any period drama. And by period I mean time period. Once I was telling a friend how I love period dramas and he thought I meant period like the “time of the month”. What??? Yes. I was so embarrassed. So, I thought we should clear that up just in case you are confused. Matt still gives me a hard time about that epic moment. Anyway, in my adult years, my husband has brought out this inner nerd that I was always suppressing. It is there. She is there. I am there. So, confession… I love really geeky British shows like Doctor Who, Top Gear, Being Human, and we just discovered The IT Crowd. Hilariousness!
7. I am not one of those people who listens to Christmas music right after Halloween. Or right after Thanksgiving for that matter. I used to wait until December 1st to listen, but now I am blasting tunes on November 30th because I like our tree to be up right before December 1st. Christmas is hard for me. Actually, it is hard for a lot of people. If you have lost someone and they aren’t here to celebrate Christmas with you, it can be very painful. In my experience, it does get less painful as time passes by, but Christmas time will always be a hard time of the year for me. I try my best to focus on my children and that helps. I try my best to teach them why we celebrate Christmas. I also cannot dull the feelings that I wish my mom was here. I wish this time of year didn’t bring such sorrow, but knowing that I feel pain means my mom is still missed. The whole world can seem like it has moved on, it has forgotten her, but I know that is not true. I know there are a few people who still miss my mom and I am one of those people. So, there is a strange comfort in the pain that Christmas brings. Please pray for those around you who may be hurting this year because of loss. Pray for them and give them an extra dose of grace if they are struggling. Maybe a big hug too.
8. These are some things I love: Movies. Disney. Chocolate. Cheesecake. Chocolate cheesecake. Vanilla cheesecake. Oreo cheesecake. Ok, ANY cheesecake because you just can’t go wrong with cheesecake. Seafood. A warm and cozy sweater. Netflix. Dance. Photography. Traditions. A clean house (which lasts for like 5 minutes).
9. These are things I don’t love: Doing dishes. Cucumbers. PT Cruisers. Winy people (big or little). Horror movies. Disrespect. Licorice. Gossip. Hatred. Road rage. Bowling. Miniature golfing. And if you must know, it took me a long time to come up with this list because there are few things I dislike. Call me an optimist, a dreamer, or whatever. I’ll take it.
10. I am a Christian. I am not sure what you think that looks like or should look like but for me it is all based on love. Loving God and loving others. I am not in this to push my beliefs on people, but if you know me then you already know what I believe. If not, I would be happy to talk with you about it.
Here’s the deal, my main priority isn’t to hit you over the head with a bible. I just want to love people like Jesus loved people. He loved the good and the bad. He sat with all kinds of people and loved everyone. For me, loving others is all about your walk and not your talk. I am not going to post my feelings about hot topics on facebook, nor will I try and engage with anyone on a right or wrong debate.
I am simply in this world to love people to the best of my ability.
The thing is, sometimes I can love too much. That statement might not make sense to most people, but I have to be careful. At times I care so much for others, I care too much for others. I have the ability to care so much that I end up getting hurt. Like deeply hurt. I am learning how to love others well, love them to the best of my ability. That means I cannot try and fix or save anyone. I mean, I am not Jesus! I just want to love like Him, but I am not Him and I do not have the ability to help everyone, all the time, everyday, everywhere. However, I want to be myself and love those who are in my circle. Please do not take offense if you are not “in my circle”. I wish I had more room, more time, more energy, but I don’t. That is where the whole “learning not to be so busy” thing I am working on comes in. I need to see what is in front of me, who is in front of me and figure our where I can best spend my time. What is most God honoring? Being busy all the time and leaving very little of myself for my family? Nope. Texting long messages or having long phone calls when I have little people wanting my attention (and rightfully so)? Nope.
I can do well with what I have, as long as I don’t take on too much. And that is on me. Nobody can make me do anything. I have to take this “learning not to be so busy” on myself and put on my big girl pants. Sigh. So, I am making some changes. I am working on being the best me, the woman who God has created me to be. Not some overwhelmed, worn out, sleep deprived, stressed out, crazy person I have allowed myself to become.
So, here is to getting my hair done. Here is to walking around in Target a few times a month, with a coffee in hand (a-l-o-n-e). Here is to reading more books, or should I say listening to them? Here is to going to the dentist. Here is to being less busy. Here is to doing the things I love.
2017, you have to be better than 2016. It just has to be true. I am choosing to make this a better year. I am excited about it. And for those of you who read this to the end… Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Just making silly faces with my silly girls. And I have an unusually long tongue…
And a not so silly face picture of my big girls and I.
This is typical Ella. She wants to watch Kat in ballet every lesson. We may put her in ballet starting in January but that doesn’t really jive with my “less busy” attitude. We’ll see.
Date night with my main squeeze.
This was the week of Halloween. Ella got to go in and take a picture with all of the girls in Kat’s ballet class. In case you missed it, we were all Barbies for Halloween. It was precious to see Ella’s face light up when she got to go into Kat’s class. I love her smile.
We made a Halloween gingerbread house. Thank you, Trader Joe’s!
Here you have my littlest girl who literally lights up with the worlds biggest smile about a thousand times a day. She is wonderful. I adore her!
Kat drawing a nativity scene. She does this kind of stuff completely on her own too. I keep wondering, where does she get this from?? Her heart is so kind and so genuine. She melts me. This moment melted me.
Ella decorating our window. She decided to make these her play toys and wants to rearrange them instead of eat her breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Yeah, these had to go… Haha
Just before she went to the Snowflake Ball with daddy. And for all of you mama’s who are thinking that she has on way too much makeup… who cares? Yes, she is just a kid, but let’s be honest. You are only 5 years old once and she felt like a million bucks. I spent lots of quality time with her doing her hair and makeup and we both loved every second of it. I loved pampering her. I loved “dolling” her up and I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything.
Same with this little darling girl. She was anxiously waiting for her turn. She was blown away with her hair and her makeup. I wanted to make her look different than her big sister because she is unique and special. Ella has my heart wrapped up in her little sticky fingers. I say that because just today, I found her eating a secret bar of chocolate. She had devoured half of it before Kat tattled on her and there was chocolate all over her face and fingers. When things like that happen, you just have to laugh. This girl is sneaky and she really does make me laugh every day.
All three of my lovelies with Santa. We have such a beautiful life. It is messy. It is crazy but it is truly beautiful.
