• Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Book
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Brittany L. Bergman

Savoring motherhood, building marriage, and living simply

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Armchair Chats // October 2016

Nov 3 8 Comments

It’s already a few days into November, but this still counts, right? I think I can give myself a 5-day grace period on these posts.

As I write this I’m eating far too many Brookside dark chocolates, and Halloween candy wrappers litter my coffee table. It’s been a tough couple of a weeks and I am eating my feelings without shame.

We’re in the middle of home renovations, so the lower level of my house is in total disarray. I’ve been taking Selah over to my mom’s house on my days at home with her (because the workers don’t seem to care that I have a baby who needs sleep!), and I just feel so out of my routine. I’m rereading and reminding myself of my own words from last week: it’s okay if I don’t feel done.

So this month, these are the things I’ve thought about, the things that have grounded me, the things that have brought me joy. I’d love to know what’s happening in your life and what you’re into these days!

Armchair chats

What I’m Learning

  • The sounds I put into my brain have a deep impact on how I feel. (This should have been obvious to me before now.) I listen to a lot of podcasts, but lately I’ve been swapping a few out in favor of classical music or movie scores, and it’s making a difference in how calm I feel.
  • How to edit photos in Lightroom. I’ve been taking a great class through Skillshare and I’ve been learning a ton by following Cole’s Classroom.

What I’m Loving

  • The original score from The Holiday. To the point above, I have been listening to this on Spotify, and it’s making me insanely happy. It’s getting me into the holiday spirit without being overly Christmasy (I love Christmas, but I’m not ready to dive headfirst into Christmas music), and it’s great mood music for creative thinking.
  • LaCroix. It caught my eye at the grocery store last week and I realized that I’d never had one, despite how many friends rave about it. I’m officially addicted and look forward to this as a nightly treat. My favorite flavor so far is mango.
  • The family photos we took a few weeks ago! My mom and I captured the shots, and I edited (also related to the point above!). Here’s a little peek at some of my favorites.

armchair-chats-october  armchair-chats-october-2

armchair-chats-october-3

armchair-chats-october-4

What I’m Doing

  • Watching Gilmore Girls (for the 5th time). Just 22 more days until the big revival, and I might DIE with excitement.
  • Planning Selah’s 1st birthday party. I can hardly believe my little monster is going to a year old this month! I’m partnering with a few Etsy shops to put together a pretty pink party, and I can’t wait to show you what we’ve got planned! You can follow along on Instagram if you like that sort of thing, or if you love newborn pictures. I’ll be spamming some early photos of her as I live in denial about how old she is.

What I’m Clicking

  • The Norwegian Secret to Enjoying a Long Winter: “Norwegians also have a word, koselig, that means a sense of coziness. It’s like the best parts of Christmas, without all the stress. People light candles, light fires, drink warm beverages, and sit under fuzzy blankets.”
  • How to Avoid Overwhelm This Holiday Season: “We can’t force others out of their packed schedules or their family hustle. We can only do what we know is best for us– gifting ourselves a season of quietness, quality conversations, generosity, hope, and rebirth.”
  • This is what work-life balance looks like at a company with 100% retention of moms: “‘We wonder why in corporate America women are absent at these levels,’ she said. But the answer is really not that difficult, or expensive she says. ‘You have to value care-giving.'”

What I’m Writing

  • When You’re Longing to Be Done
  • Welcome to BrittanyLBergman.com!
  • Armchair Chats // September 2016

[clickToTweet tweet=”Grab a cup of #coffee and join us for Armchair Chats!” quote=”Grab a cup of #coffee and join us for Armchair Chats!”]

I’d love to know what’s on your mind this month.

Leave me a comment or send me an email: What are you learning, loving, reading, clicking, or wondering these days?

Share the love:

  • Share
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Armchair Chats Tagged With: contentment, family, home, motherhood, relationships, work

« When You’re Longing to Be Done
7 Ways to Strengthen Your Marriage Before Having a Baby »




I'm so glad you're here. This space is all about encouraging women to live simply and intentionally, savor motherhood, choose gratitude, and find sacredness in the everyday moments. I hope you'll grab your cuppa choice and stay a while. I'd love to get to know you.
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
Do you want to be more intentional about how you mother and how you care for yourself?
Subscribe today for encouragement and support!


brittanylbergman

Brittany L. Bergman
What a beautiful, exhausting, festive, heartbreaki What a beautiful, exhausting, festive, heartbreaking, cozy, chaotic-but-strangely-quiet Christmas we had. ✨🎄✨

That’s a wrap for me on 2020—I’ll be off social media until sometime in January. May you be filled with peace and hope as we close this year but still wait for the close of this chapter in our history. 💜
I have faced Christmases full of grief and loss; d I have faced Christmases full of grief and loss; depression and rage; exhaustion and loneliness. But I can honestly say this is the weariest Christmas I can remember. I say that not to shine a spotlight on me, but to say that I have a feeling this might be your experience too. I’m with you.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And so the words to my favorite Christmas hymn hit me different this year. They resonate in a place much deeper, more tender and true than ever before. I rejoice in the giggles of my meltdown-prone child. I rejoice in stolen moments alone in the dark, the room lit only by the glow of the Christmas tree. I rejoice in every video and every social media post I see of a frontline worker receiving the COVID vaccine, our ticket out of this nightmare. I rejoice in the vision that next Christmas might look more familiar than this one does. I rejoice in the hope of Christ, whose universal, creative, motherly love holds the whole universe together.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
On this Christmas Eve, I’ll leave you with this quote from Howard Thurman. I hope these words bring a slant of light to your day.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“The symbol of Christmas—what is it? It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when the clouds are heavy with foreboding. It is the cry of life in the newborn babe when, forced from its mother’s nest, it claims its right to live. It is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked paths straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life. It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Whatever and however you celebrate at this time of year, I’m sending you all my love and peace. 💫
I found my Christmas spirit this weekend, just in I found my Christmas spirit this weekend, just in the nick of time.

I baked cookies with Selah without getting frustrated (first time ever?), took the kids on drive to see Christmas lights, and wrapped a bunch of gifts.

But here’s what I think did the trick, and please do steal this idea (because I stole it from someone else but have no idea who): Magical Movie Night™️.

On Saturday night, I stealthily placed a golden ticket under Selah’s pillow (which I printed from the internets and colored quickly with a yellow marker; good enough is good enough for Magical Movie Night!). We put Eamon to bed and got Selah ready for bed too, going through all the normal motions of brushing teeth, putting on pajamas, picking out a book. When we climbed into bed, I told her to look under her pillow.

She was confused when she found the ticket, and I told her it was for a Christmas movie night. “When?” she asked. “Right now!” I said. “What do you mean ‘right now’?” When it dawned on her that she was going to stay up past her bedtime to have a special movie night with Mommy and Daddy (sans Eamon), she lost her mind with excitement.

Bonus: Gramma was waiting downstairs with a bag of popcorn and Swedish Fish!

We snuggled under blankets, turned on Elf, and laughed our festive butts off. (This was her first time watching Elf, and it felt like the dawning of a new era. It’s such a big kid movie! And she loved it! Hold me. 😭)

Deck the halls, bring on Christmas, fill my mug with holly jolly goodness. 

I also acknowledge this has been a crappy year in so many ways, and I know many of you are not going to be able to access Christmas cheer this year. That’s okay. The real spirit of Christmas is light breaking through the dark, love making a way, and the beauty that can’t help seeping through the dirty, messy, horribly human moments of our lives. So you’re covered.

(And if you want to fake it ’til you make it, give Magical Movie Night a try. It’s the actual easiest.)
In which I couldn’t come up with a clever captio In which I couldn’t come up with a clever caption. There are signs of life but my brain is dead. 💀
“This is what I find most mystifying about Adven “This is what I find most mystifying about Advent: the period of waiting ultimately ends in great joy, but we can’t get to that great joy without intense, active, unbearable pain. In Advent we sense the mingling of anticipation and anxiety, excitement and disappointment, joy and pain, hope and fear.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“On this side of history, we have the luxury of waiting with great hope, great joy, and great expectation. We know Jesus will be born, we know he will save us and redeem us, we know he will die and rise again, and we know he will set all things right one day.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“But before Christ came, Advent was dark. It was lonely and unknown, as the Israelites waited in faith to hear from God, and all they got was… nothing. Silence.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“Isn’t this more characteristic of the waiting we usually do? The waiting seasons of our lives are less often marked by joy and hope and more often marked by pain and fear. They are not often cozy or comforting but difficult and dark and even laborious.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“We wait as a pregnant mother waits for her child to be born—there’s a vision of the joy to come, to be sure, but in the throes of gut-wrenching labor pains, we think we might actually die before we see that joy fulfilled. After a long season of pregnancy, when the fullness of time has arrived, the advent of labor ushers in the real period of waiting—and it is active and painful and raw.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
// From “In the Fullness of Time,” a new blog post on @first15. There’s a link in my bio to the whole piece, with thoughts on pregnancy, Advent, and waiting well in an exceptionally hard year. 💜 Thank you so much to @first15 for publishing this post!
We’re in the thick of a collective physical, spi We’re in the thick of a collective physical, spiritual, and emotional season of waiting. A nonexhaustive list: Waiting for a vaccine. Waiting for the pandemic to relent. Waiting for test results. Waiting to hug and kiss and hold the hands of our loved ones. Waiting for children. Waiting with children. Waiting on children. Waiting for rescue. Waiting for rest. Waiting for the birth of Christ. Waiting for the birth of a child. Waiting for a new revelation. Waiting for 2021. Waiting for January 20. Waiting for justice. Waiting for movement. Waiting for stillness. Waiting to be seen. Waiting to fade away. Waiting with hope. Waiting with heartache. Waiting with anticipation.

Whatever you are waiting on today, may this prayer be a companion and encouragement to stay the course. You are not alone. We wait with you. 🌈
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Disclaimer

Brittany L Bergman is a for-profit blog. Any company that I collaborate with is chosen by me and fits the theme and readership of my blog. At times, posts may contain affiliate links or sponsored content, which is never at any charge to you.

Archives

Copyright Brittany L Bergman © 2021
Blog Design + Development by Grace + Vine Studios

This website uses cookies to provide you with the best browsing experience.

Find out more or adjust your settings.

Brittany L. Bergman
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.