Savoring motherhood, building marriage, and living simply
At the end of every month, I always wonder where in the world the time went. Does life ever feel like it’s moving at an appropriate pace? While parts of April dragged by, I still just can’t believe May is upon us. I think the expression is true that the days are long and the years are short. Let’s hold on to our daily memories and tattoo them on our minds and let them sink into our hearts so they’re always accessible.
This is part 5 of a TBT Travel Series: A Taste of California. Check out these posts on why I picked California, how I saved money on travel, the magic of hiking in Malibu, why you shouldn’t miss the Getty Villa, and the sacredness of friendship. You know what they say about the best-laid plans, right? Well, I’m a master of creating no-wiggle-room, down-to-the-minute, grand plans. And sometimes it feels like Dan and God are in cahoots to subvert my brilliance. Sometimes these are big plans—the timing of our engagement or deciding when to have kids—and sometimes they’re small plans—exploring off the trail or taking a different… Read More
Let’s do a little exercise together. Turn off your music. Turn off your TV. For real, do it. Now put down your phone, close your eyes, and just breathe for about a minute. Don’t count, just estimate. How long did it take you to feel awkward? Bored? Itching to pick your phone back up? If you’re anything like me, perhaps all of 7 seconds.
I’m going to come right out and say it: You are worth celebrating. I get so caught up in alarm clocks and checklists, coffee and rushing out the door, working and writing, cooking and exercising, and small grouping and talking. We do important work. We talk about important things. Matters of faith, growth, vulnerability. We do life and we admit our failures and we try to be better. We keep on reaching and doing and growing. And it’s good. We should be growing. We were not made to be stagnant. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do a little celebrating… Read More
This is part 5 of a TBT Travel Series: A Taste of California. Check out these posts on why I picked California, how I saved money on travel, the magic of hiking in Malibu, and why you shouldn’t miss the Getty Villa. Assuming that Los Angeles would have the most to see and do, we made this the longest leg of our California trip. We allocated 3 days to LA, 2 to Yosemite, and 1 measly day to San Francisco. I’ll weep about this another day. As it turns out, I am not an LA person. I’m not sure what makes one an LA… Read More
I think by now we’re all aware that I love a good purge. There’s something incredibly refreshing about cleansing my home from the extra stuff and clutter and junk that was weighing me down. Sometimes I look at the giant pile of stuff I’m getting rid of and I have to wonder, Where the heck did all of this fit before? Real answer: it didn’t. I had just stuffed everything further and further into the cabinets or put things where they didn’t belong. For many years, I was stuck in a cycle of of purging, accumulating, snapping, purging, over and… Read More
I have a love-hate relationship with all-inclusive resorts. I’ve stayed at two, both in Mexico—Dreams Puerto Vallarata and the Valentin Imperial Maya in Riviera Maya. Both resorts were truly top-notch in almost every way, so the “hate” part of this equation is not at all based on a negative experience at either resort. On the contrary, most of the reasons why I love all-inclusives come from the fact that both resorts were remarkably pleasant and luxurious.
It’s usually not until the first rays of spring sunshine come streaming through my window, until I feel the first bit of warmth on my skin, that I realize just how low my spirits dipped during the winter. I tend to let my home get a little dirtier in winter because I just don’t have the energy or motivation to keep it all together. The darkness hides the dust anyway, right? But what about my heart? Does the darkness of winter hide the cobwebs that creep into my soul? Or do I just choose to ignore them, hoping that no… Read More
