Eight years ago, my word of 2013 was light.
Seven years ago, my word of 2014 was release.
Six years ago, my word of 2015 was nourish.
Five years ago, my word for 2016 was presence.
Four years ago, my word for 2017 was authentic.
Three years ago, my word for 2018 was hygge.
Two years ago, my word for 2019 was no.
Last year, my word for 2020 was faith.

Several months ago, I had a possible word picked out for 2021. A few days ago, I decided that word just didn’t fit anymore.

2021? I have no word.

And that’s OK. I do know that I want to continue to live with light. I want to release things that I don’t need anymore. I need to nourish my body and soul. I need to be more present. I want to continue to be authentic. I’d love to cultivate an atmosphere of hygge in my home. I’d like to continue saying no to things that aren’t necessary. And of course, I want to continue living a life with faith! I suppose you could say that my ‘word’ this year is just to bundle together all the words I’ve had!

I’d like to be intentional with my time, energy, and resources. Stop acquiring stuff I don’t need. Strengthen relationships. Simplify (again). Step away from the noise. Be content, but continue to grow and improve myself. And above all, live for God.

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Romans 14:7-9

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Colossians 3:1-4

Cheers, friends.

If you recall, my last post on this blog was in January — in which I mentioned wanting to spend 1000 hours outside. Well. We spent a lot of hours outside. A lot. At some point, I had tracked up to 600 hours on our tracker sheet. Then one day, I got tired of tracking hours, took the sheet off the fridge, and tossed it out. It didn’t matter anymore. I didn’t need to keep counting. I didn’t want to obsess over that sheet anymore. We just wanted to be outside. I actually don’t think that we will meet the thousand hours goal, but that’s OK. We spent as much time outside as we could and we had a swell year with the outside adventures we could do. And we were intentional about it. That was the point anyway — be intentional about spending more time outdoors. And we loved it. Cheers.

Since we love to be outside, I figured it would be perfect! The challenge encourages all of us to to step away from screen time — because it is very prevalent among children and adults in today’s world — and spend 1000 hours a year in outside play. Screen time isn’t really an issue in our house, but pushing ourselves to be outside more (my son loves to spend a lot of time inside playing with his cars) will be good for us! Thankfully, we all enjoy the outdoors and my son loves hiking!

1000 hours a year averages to about 2.74 hours a day.

You can kind of tweak this to fit your life. My husband and I both work full-time jobs during the school year while my son is in school. There aren’t enough outdoor weekday hours available to play (especially in the winter). I decided to focus on 1000 hours of being outside — whether this be through play, eating our meals outdoors, BBQs/bonfires, car shows, going to the zoo, swimming, camping, anything that happens outside. I am not counting when my child plays outside at school (I have no way to track that).

It is January 20th around noon and we have only logged 8 hours so far. Two hours were from a car show (yes — in the winter!), an hour was from hiking on a warm day, and the rest were from just playing outside in the yard at home. It’s not a lot. But it is January — a cold month when the sun sets early and all we want to do is hibernate.

By calculations based on a daily average, we should have logged 54.6 hours already. Whoops. No worries. I know we will get plenty of hours caught up once the weather warms up. Or if we ever get enough snow to actually play in!

We have a tracker on the fridge where I color in how many hours we have done so far. And yes, even if it’s a half hour, I just color in a half a circle and fill the other half with the next half hour. You can print your own tracker from here. I plan on color coding mine for each month to see how many hours we get each month. January is a light blue.

I also plan to track my son’s screen time (starting today — it’s an idea that just popped in my head) to compare to his outdoor time.

I’m excited to intentionally spend a lot of time outside this year!

Can you spend nearly three hours a day outside?

It’s not too late to try this challenge!

Last year, my word for 2019 was no.

This week, I pondered whether or not I even wanted to do a word for 2020. I’ve not really been paying attention to the words I used the last few years – sometimes doing the opposite of what I had hoped. Then this word showed up in several places and I decided to keep a word for 2020. This might be my last ‘word of the year.’ And it is a word that I want to keep for the rest of my life.

This word?

Faith.

The last few years have not felt as joyful as years prior. The last few years have felt more bitterness, stress, doubt, exhaustion, chaos, discontent, anger, and disappointment than years prior. They have been good years. Nothing terrible has happened to me. I’m healthy and well. But my soul is restless and drained.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. – Hebrews 11:1

I need to have more faith in God.  In everything that happens in my life.

For me, FAITH is:

1. putting God first.
2. trusting God with everything.
3. not worrying because God has a plan that is greater than mine.
4. knowing that there will be hard times. we are not promised a happy life on Earth.
5. staying away from things that aren’t beneficial to my growth (whether this be certain foods, social media, movies, whatever).
6. peace.

Here’s to having more faith this year…..

I thought I would take the time to post a mini-update at the end of the month to share things I have been up to, thinking about, etc. My intention is to do this at the end of every month this year, but we know things don’t always go according to plan.

• I finally finished my classes back in December!! Because of this, I feel like I have more time on my hands. I’m also getting the paperwork done to officially earn my certificates in this state and get my Rank I! Woo-hoo!
• I have been going to the gym regularly, aside from a few missed day due to weather. It feels so good to be back into that routine. (And no, this wasn’t a ‘new year’s thing — we have been going since November.)
• Jigsaw puzzles are my addiction. I think this happens every winter season but I’ve been especially addicted lately. I’ve already re-done all the ones I have (about five) and bought a few more.
• The child is at an age now where he wants to do things independently, and can do it. This adds to that ‘feeling’ of having more time on my hands. Although I’m still running after him all day long, he is able to take care of some things for himself (cleaning up, throwing things in the garbage, etc.) and that helps so much. I’m also so proud of him for being the awesome kid he is.
• Speaking of my kid, I am still marveling at how fast language acquisition is and how well he can string words together into multiple sentences. I love that he can answer questions, ask me for things, tell me things he sees, tell me things he hears (this helps me a lot!), etc. We still need to work on his signing, though.
• There is a lot of sickness going around. I was planning to write that we’ve avoided it this month and are anxious for February to see if we continue to avoid it, but the little one woke up miserable with a fever today. He was tested and sure enough, has Flu A. At least he’s handling it really well!
• Most of the area has been impacted by the crazy sub-zero temperatures this week. We’ve been keeping warm but also going out to get some ice cream from Dairy Queen!
• Let’s talk about Sabbath. The Lord commands that we rest on the seventh day of the week. Some of us are really good at resting a lot, and some of us, not so much. This is a commandment we are breaking all the time! As much as I like to rest, I always have something that needs to be cleaned, taken care of, whatever. Lately, I’ve been more intentional about completing tasks during the week and on Saturdays, to leave Sundays open to whatever. Each Sunday this month has been a restful day with my family — playing, exploring, being together. We even found a few geocaches, which we haven’t done in awhile! These Sundays have been marvelous and precious. I pray this pattern continues. Thankful.

Things weighing on my heart:

• Missing people. I don’t know whether it’s the age we live in with the increasing ‘connection’ in social media or what, but it appears as there are more and more people missing each day.
• So many unkind words, locally & nationally, from all kinds of people. I am disappointed with friends, colleagues, acquaintances, society, etc. (This is also making me look at myself more critically. We must remove the log from our own eyes first.)
• Pro-abortion laws. There is no justification for an abortion. I have prayed for the women who consider this decision. I will continue to pray for them.
• “American Christianity.” False teachers of the Bible. These teachers and teaching are infiltrating our churches and our society more than we know. I see it in my own church too, and struggle with it constantly.

Cheers, friends.

Six years ago, my word of 2013 was light.
Five years ago, my word of 2014 was release.
Four years ago, my word of 2015 was nourish.
Three years ago, my word for 2016 was presence.
Two years ago, my word for 2017 was authentic.

Last year, my word for 2018 was hygge.

A few months ago, I knew exactly what word I wanted for 2019.

This year? The word for 2019 will be NO.

Yep. You heard that right. NO.

It’s a bold, powerful word. For me, NO is:

1. saying “not right now” to potential commitments.
2. being more intentional about how I spend my time.
3. allowing for better quality when I say, “yes.”
4. avoiding purchases to cut back on my debt.
5. refusing to conform.
6. staying away from things that aren’t beneficial to my growth (whether this be certain foods, social media, movies, whatever).
7. peace.

I’m tired of feeling overwhelmed. I’m tired of constantly comparing (even when I don’t intend to, I still do). I’m tired of wasting my time. I’m tired of forgetting to focus on what does matter: my relationship with God, my family, and relationships with people. I’m tired of being tired.

I’ve been reminded more of how short life is. Death has been on my mind a lot lately. I’m not sure why, but regardless, it is prompting me to be more intentional about how I use this life that I do have — whether it’s fifty years left, five years, five days.

This word is also a reminder to myself that I don’t need to be/do/consume all.

Less commitments, less business, less stress, less mess, less debt, less distractions.

More space, more time, more room to breathe. More life.

Cheers to your year, friends.

Well. As in recent years, I kind of forgot hygge was my ‘word of the year.’ Although I began the year with a spirit of hygge, I wasn’t intentional about cultivating it the rest of the year. I’m sure the hygge moments existed, the cuddles on the couch, dozens of cups of coffee, board games, laughter with people, and so forth, but I forgot to try. It was a good year, though. My family is happy and healthy. We lost a few chickens (as expected) but otherwise, we are all good. God is good.

I’ll have another update with my plans for 2019 soon. Cheers, friends.

The ice of winter has finally thawed. I have thawed.

We seemingly skipped spring and have already arrived at summer.

I intended to write more in this post, for my sake (and yours, I suppose), about our days, but to sum it up, in no particular order: we got our roof replaced (there goes our tax return – whee!), we fixed and replaced our kitchen floor (with a wonderful visit from my in-laws!), we had a wonderful weekend visit from some dear friends from Illinois, we all got hit with mono in different forms (and way less severe than I remember mono being when we were kids), I am in desperate need of new hearing aids (remember these? they’re almost ten years old and yes, gave me the same problems for the last ten years) at about $3K each, I watched a few more Best Picture Winner movies (I have a goal of watching all the films that won the Academy Award and have nearly finished the list), I am finally finished with my spring courses and only have two more classes in the fall before receiving my official DHH teacher certificate, we got rid of our crazy rooster Bob, school is nearly done for the year, and we are gearing up for summer! As I already mentioned, summer apparently arrived already. Our family has already enjoyed several dinners on the back porch, BBQing, homemade lemonade, splashing in the water spicket (and kiddie pool), blowing dandelions, running around outside, etc. I’m so excited to explore more of the outdoors with the child — we will even attempt tent camping!

On a personal note regarding my faith, I realized a majority of books, studies, messages, etc. from people who call themselves Christians are not always theologically-sound and may have been entwined with false teachings. Due to this realization and my desire to know God as much as I can, I have been incredibly focused on studying the Word more in-depth than before. I set up a separate blog detailing my realization/journey and guidance for other women to discern for themselves, but won’t publish/share it until I feel ready. I’ll continue to write in both spaces.

books read since the last post:

Counter Culture by David Platt
Growing Up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World by Gary Chapman
The Life-Giving Home by Sally Clarkson
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.

That’s all I feel like writing about today. Love to you all.

Today, Nolan is one and a half years old. One and a half.

What. I feel like it was yesterday that he was nuzzling my neck with baby breath.

It’s also strange because I feel like every month he is a different person. Yet, this entire time, he has been the same person. It is a blessing to watch him grow and learn about the world around him, delighting in the smallest things and being such a content, observant kid.

I have this five-year one sentence a day journal for mothers that I try to write in every day (unfortunately, there are quite a few days with nothing written in it…. I even fail at just writing one sentence every day), but it doesn’t allow for a lot of expansion. I wanted to take the time to write about Nolan in this post. I want to remember him as he is right now, today. I’m already struggling to remember him at six months ago. If you don’t want to read me go on and on about my awesome kid, feel free to skip this!

So. Nolan. Gosh. He loves balls (baseballs, basketballs, giant inflatable balls, little light-up balls, cat balls, all balls), trucks, cars, and animals (owls!). He is slightly obsessed with keys and hats. He delights in tickles, bubbles, being chased, splashing in water, dancing, clapping, ball pits, and running away. He especially enjoys running and being chased. Mommy doesn’t enjoy that part as much.

Nolan is also a talented dancer – bouncing, spinning, and clapping to music the instant he hears it. Music is mesmerizing, he has enjoyed a few small concerts and seems fascinated with guitars. He can also throw a ball with a lot of strength, and frequently makes baskets in his basketball hoop. He enjoys coloring (thankfully, he has stopped chewing the crayons), putting blocks together, brushing his hair and teeth. He loves to help bring shoes, put things in the garbage, move clothes from the washer to the dryer, close the dishwasher, turn on and off the heater, and put away random objects. Nolan is also learning how to pray, often saying, “Amen!” at the table before we have a chance to bow our heads. Silly kid.

Nolan loves being outside, frequently running to the front door asking to go out and play, and/or throwing a fit when I tell him it’s time to go inside. His favorite things to do outside are playing with the leaves, collecting flowers/dandelions, picking up sticks and acorns, looking at (and throwing) rocks, finding bugs, chasing chickens, watching birds (and hawks) fly around, and pointing out everything he sees. The moon is delightful! He often gives me blades of grass so I can blow on them to make noise.

Nolan has a great sense of humor, often sticking out his tongue and making silly faces. He loves to hide behind curtains and pop out in surprise. The other day, he tickled me with a feather and thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. His laughter is contagious!

He also talks a lot. Words he can say: mommy, daddy, cat, dog-dog, duck, owl, (and can say animal sounds for cow, horse, sheep, pig, duck, etc.), apple, banana, bib, cheese, water (“wawa”), cookies, milk, cracker, pizza, pasta (“pada”), more, ball, baseball, please, thank you, bye-bye, hi, all done, Danny (Daniel Tiger), hot, beep-beep, flag (“fla”), purple, blue, yellow, moon, star, book, potty, poop, “oh no,” “uh oh,” hat, shoes, socks, help, hug, happy, yes, no, mine, this, up, light, bell, bubble, play, outside (“outsize”), throw, rock, go, I don’t know, and a variety of names of friends and family members. Honestly, I’ve lost track. He can say so much more now than he did a month ago when I started writing this post. We are delighting in his ability to put 2-3 words together (such as “blue ball,” “big truck,” and “outside dog-dog”). He can sign consistently: more, please, milk, ball, book, banana. I’ve seen him sign: tree, big, home, grass, cracker, cheese, wet, wind. We don’t work on this as much as we should, but he is interested. And of course, he can understand much more than he can say. Sometimes he even yells at the rooster when he hears him attacking chickens (“no-no, Bob!”).

Reading is another favorite thing to do. There are some books he doesn’t want me to read at all, and there are some books he puts in my hand to read and over and over (literally, grabs my hand and places a book in it). Right now, he really enjoys:

• Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me
• Little Green Frog
• Everyone Poops
• Llama Llama Red Pajama
• I Am A Bunny
• Moo
• God Bless You & Good Night
• Dada
• Dream Animals

He loves to eat. Recently, though, he’s become a little bit picky but is still willing to try everything I give him. He loves cheerios, carrots, black olives (and he even puts them on his fingers like I did as a kid!), all kind of fruits, crackers, cheese, pizza, green smoothies (need to get that kale in him somehow!) and of course, cookies (which we rarely keep in our house).

Of course, he throws tantrums when it’s time for bed, when mommy or daddy go outside without him, when dinner isn’t ready yet,…… patience is something we need to work on! He is showing signs of knowing the difference between the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do, often with a sly smile and sideways glance before throwing the rock he knows he shouldn’t throw (this is something else we need to work on). Nolan has also mastered telling us “yes” and “no” very appropriately. Thankfully, he is often agreeable. His enthusiastic, “YEAH!” is the best.

He also gives the best hugs ever. He’s my favorite tiny human.

We love this little boy to the moon and back and beyond.

So, so thankful God choose us to to be his parents.