Light. (a word for 2021)

  Light.

: having little weight : not heavy

: designed to carry a comparatively small load

: not dark, intense

: something that makes vision possible

: a particular illumination

  Who knew the world light had so many definitions? It is my word for 2021 (see more about words from past years here! 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015) and when Justin asked me which definition I was intending, I literally said 'all of the above!" I've chosen words like committed, steady, quiet, rooted, faithful, hallelujah and abide. And its pretty cool so see the impact those words had (and still have!) like having read through the Bible a few times, taken up new prayer routines, learning to be intentional with community and community building, picking up the regular practice of thankfulness, and learning about a long obedience in the same direction. But this year felt different for a thousand reasons. For one, I didn't even care to chose a word. But let me back up.

  Somewhere along the past three-ish years, the feeling of lightness, of being carefree, has not come easily to me. I feel bristly most of the time, hardly ever laugh, and everything seems serious and heavy. Melodramatic much? Ugh, I know. But it's as if I've just put on some sort of weighted coat and can't shake it off. 

  I have always been a more serious person, and that has slowly intensified these past few years. It isn't a huge surprise and when I consider what life has looked like lately, I can draw some correlations. In a matter of three years, I lost my naiveté as a parent when we experienced medical trauma, uprooted our lives near family and friends and really healthy community and moved 5 states away, have spun my wheels so much to try to establish new, deep connections in our new home (without success), endured a global pandemic that made life in a new place feel even more lonely, and grieved the loss of my dad far away from family and friends. Sort of like gut punch after gut punch, you know? I think what has made each of those seem extra heavy to me is that they all happened when I was being obedient to things I knew God was calling me to. It is impossible to not feel bristly when you are open handed with all aspects of life (especially when it doesn't always make logical sense, but you're trusting God to work out the details.). And then time goes by, but those 'details' just feel hard and heavy and not at all anything like what you left behind. It becomes really easy to 

BUT. But, isn't that part of Satan's cleverness? To help us forget in the dark what was so clear in the light? When things get heavy or hard or we find ourselves not in a season of fullness, it is pretty clever of him to gently, slightly shift our focus to the weight of things until eventually it is all we can feel or see or hold onto. One of my favorite songs this past year from NeedToBreathe has this line that keeps rolling around in my head

 "hang on to the light in your eyes and the feeling, hang on to your love-drunk original reason, all these things I've learned, it's never a straight line, cause all these things take time, these things, they take time."  

  You guys, I've done exactly that. Slowly over the past few years (and then a bit quicker since the pandemic started and the gut punches really rolled in), I've forgotten that light, the love-drunk original reason for why I so happily opened my hands and asked God to show me his faithfulness in big ways and jumped to move across the country and have tired so hard to keep building community in our new home (can I keep saying that though we've been here for two years??). Probably even a year ago, light didn't feel as foreign as it does to me now. It seems the past year (global pandemic, anyone?) has just put a big 'ole exclamation point on anything that felt hard or heavy over the past few years. 

So here we are, with a fresh determination to shake that off. I can literally feel my need to find the light and shoe off heaviness. So, light it is. My word for 2021! I still actually have zero idea what God is up to and, if I'm honest, I feel a bit more hesitant about staying open-handed. Obedience seems a bit tender to me these days and not I don't feel quite so eager to pray bold things right now. But light- I can start looking for that. I wrote this in a blog post from last Spring and the words hit home today for me... 

"In the meantime, I’m a firm believer that he gives us things like sunshine and snail mail and innocent kids with their fart jokes and the occasional glass of wine and pizza and FaceTime and the ability to go for a run to help us move through the days until we’re on the other side of whatever feels heavy." 

Preach to myself much?! So, here's to 2021 being a year where (even if I still don't feel clued into what God is up to) I shake off some heaviness. Laugh a bit more. Give less thought to how awkward I am. Sit with the good lists longer than I give thought to the hard stuff. Let the light in, let the light in. That's my motto for 2021 😌✨

Hallelujah.

  I'm fully on the 'word of the year' bandwagon. I'm less of a lofty-goals-hustle-more girl, so picking a word to sort of focus on is more up my alley. Quiet and simple, steady, faith- those sum up the last few years for me. This time, I'm holding tight to Hallelujah. And, as usual, I have ideas in my how how that looks or why that its important for me to focus on. I'm also confident that, just as it always goes, those ideas will be turned upside down and I'll be surprised what God actually ends up teaching me from my word for the year.

  I could go on for a long time about how this word stuck for me (just sit and read the book of Psalms for a few months and it will probably stick with you too!). But it really all comes down to wanting to get better at looking up more and spend less time looking down and around myself. Practicing praise always, not dependent of what life looks like or how the world tells me it should. And being really, really intentional about the whole thing.

  What about you? Do you pick a word? Resolution? Goals? Nothing at all? I'm all for doing (or not doing!) what works and makes sense for you. Wherever you fall on this whole New Year's thing, here are few of my favorite things for a fresh start or to kick off some fun things for the new year.

Podcasts:: this interview with Lysa Terkeurst will give you a swift kick in the pants on how to view disapointment, this one is good for reconsidering what contentment means (especially good for empty nesters!), and Aaron gives some amazing insight here on growing your faith here.

Decluttering:: I hear Emily Ley has a really good (and pretty!) book all about this and I love this book for its tips on decluttering more than just your home (It's technically about parenting, but I would recommended it for anyone!).

Goal setting:: Lara Casey is the pro on all things goal-setting! Other than that, the counselor in me wants you to know that whatever goals you set- make sure they are measurable, attainable, positive (ie. instead of lose weight, make it feel stronger!), and specific!

Songs:: Marching On, Counting Every Blessing, I'm Walking, Put It On the Altar

Fun habits to try on:: One Second Everyday (I will forever talk about how fun this app is!), pick a monthly memory verse (if you need a cute motivator these are cute!), send more snail mail to friends, start something (like a book or cooking club or monthly neighborhood hangout or a new workout class or a new hobby), sign up for chat books (make a series so it automatically prints and ships to you once the book is full! I can give you a code to get your first book for free!), read through the Bible this year (I'm loving this REALLY brief daily podcast to go along with this habit)

Ideas for the new year.

My RushLittles chatbooks series

With only 3 days until the New Year, I thought I would share some of my favorite year-long habits/projects/ideas. Not so much goals as they are projects or activities, these are all useful things to start and keep working on for the next year. What are you setting out to do? Do you have any little projects you work on each year? I know I'm missing lots of good stuff from this list like organized, minimizing, creating, etc. Give me all your tips!

1SE: My favorite discovery of 2017! Have you seen this fun app? Such a great way to document your family and your year. It seems insignificant at first (1 second movie clips are so short!), but they add up and are so cool to look back on. The app is inexpensive and really easy to use. If you forget a day (or 10!) you can easily import a video from a different day. I love it! (See some of my 1SE videos from the year here)

Project life: I may be super behind on mine, but I really do love Project Life books. When I'm on my game, I print a large set of photos each month (Shutterfly and Snapfish always have good deals for 4x6 prints) and then put them in the photo sleeves. I wrote more about that here! (There's also a handy app you can use to make it all even easier and digital- I'm just a sucker for printed photos in photo sleeves)

chatbooks: Clearly I love photos! This year I discovered Chatbooks and how easy it is to create an ongoing book series. I use a unique hashtag on my Instagram photos of the boys and then Chatbooks pulls those specific photos to create a book. Once the book has 60 photos, it ships to me. SO easy. I can go in an edit (I leave all my captions out and choose 5 pictures to have printed in addition to the book). You can see some of my Chatbooks here!

Organize photos: While we're talking about photos, I should say that being more organized with mine is my goal for 2018. Anyone have a million photos (digital and printed) that you just don't know what to do with?! I plan to buy this guide from Nancy Ray (I hear amazing things about her tips!), finally figure out how to use the external hard drive I bought 3 years ago (anyone want to help me with that?!), and use some of Valerie's tips.

Yearly Bible reading plan: Hands down, this is my favorite yearly habit. Have you ever read the Bible in its entirety? It's one of those things worth doing once, and then over and over again. You can find endless plans and tools for reading through the Bible in a year, and I've found that using the YouVersion app on my phone is the easiest. It's free and already on my phone, so it didn't take much work to get started. I use a chronological plan (my favorite one builds in one grace day each week!). It tracks my progress for me and, if I don't have my actual Bible with me for any reason I can read straight in the app. I talk more about why I love this discipline here! Even better? Find a friend to do it along with you to help with accountability and encouragement.

Gratitude journal: Tons of research shows that practicing thanksgiving has positive impacts on every aspect of health (physical, emotional, mental, etc). Whether you pick up a cute notebook at Target, a cute one from a small business (I like the customizable ones from May Designs!) or download this adorable free Best of My Days pack for free- it's a really easy way to make sure the new year is intentional and focused on the right things.

monthly photo spot: One of my favorites, Shannan Martin, takes a photo each month in the same spot on her neighborhood. Its a cool way to see how things change and how they stay the same. I always love clicking through her hashtag!

make a book list: I set out to read 26 books in 2017 and, to my surprise, I nearly doubled that! Having a specific reading goal made me more intentional about it and it's been a fun thing to 'work' on. A quick google search with give you lots of lists of the best books to read right now- and you can find some of what I read in 2017 here, here, and here.

Word for the year: you've heard of this, right? It's not a new concept, but way more practical than making resolutions for the new year. This handy site can help you pick a word to focus on this year!

What are you working on in 2018? I'm always looking for fun new things to try!

Steady. (a word for 2017)

  I've shared how 2016 was a year of being quiet and rooted (more on that here). And I feel like I could talk forever about how this verse has changed my heart and my pace. It probably has a lot to do with this season of life- home full time with two really little kids, but I honestly think it pertains to every person and every season. Being drawn into the folds of God, whether life is literally busy or not, is life changing. Learning to be more quiet and less concerned with what others are doing (not in an ignorant way!) is so good.

  So as I've thought and prayed and worked through my hopes for this new year, I keep coming back to one word. And I've sort of fought it because it isn't crazy exciting or cute. My friend Caitlin shared that her word for this year is Hallelujah and I so wanted to copy her! What a great focus for the year! But still, I keep coming back to this word- Steady. 

  Steady: firmly fixed, supported, or balanced; not shaking or moving. If 2015 was the year of diving into the Bible and 2016 was a year of committing to more prayer, I hope 2017 is a year of remaining steady in both. I hope 2017 is a year of remaining steady in loving Justin well, of working on being a better friend and family member, being more present and engaged with my kids. Of valuing my health and making it a priority. I hope 2017 is a year of continuing to say no to lots of things and yes to the best things. 

read through the bible. I don't think I can ever say enough about really, truly digging into the Bible. (this book is a great place to find direction on how to begin!) This has become really important to me and I'm excited to read through it again this year, and I'm trying a chronological plan. (It's on Jan. 10th- not too late to join me!!)

run one 10k. Pretty self explanatory :) 

date nights. It wasn't until mid-2016 that we realized how far out of date nights we had gotten. We made a real effort to spend more one-on-one time together these last few months and its been awesome. Babysitters are expensive, but 100% worth it. Now that Tyler is done nursing, its even easier to get out without the kids. So this year, I want to intentionally have monthly dates!

family bucket lists. Maybe this is silly, but lists help me be more intentional with the boys. I want to be more consistent about routines and actually doing the things we talk about doing together. More specifically, I'm writing a small list of big and little things we want to do together each month and then putting the activities on the calendar. (ie. go the the zoo, finger paint, work on shapes, make valentine's)

ride out noonday. Long story short, I love Noonday Collection and am passionate about its mission. But I go back and forth on whether I'll continue on as an ambassador bc I haven't quite gained traction with it. So we'll see!

read books. I'm shooting for 2/month, so 24 total by the end of the year.

girls trip. I don't know exactly what this looks like, but I'd love to go away with some girlfriends to just do something fun!

host. When we started just thinking about moving last year, the heart of it for me was to be able to host more. And we've done that a ton in the new house! A lot of it has been sort of happenstance (holidays, birthdays, etc) and this year I want to be prayerful and open to really opening our house to hosting in other ways too. Not sure what that looks like, but I think just being open about it is the best place to start.

Habits for the new year.

  Happy New Year! Are you making any resolutions or choosing one word to focus on or setting some goals for yourself? I'm sure I'll do some version of those (but I don't feel terribly pressured to do it by Jan 1st). I'm still thinking about 2017 and how I want to be intentional with it, still firming up all the thoughts floating around in my head.

But in the meantime, I wanted to share some fun things I'm hoping to take on and try this year. You know, in case you want some fun ideas for yourself!

.Courtney did a video diary with this app last year and I LOVED seeing her clips each week. Just downloaded the app (only $5!) and I'm starting today.

.Reading through the Bible is a goal again this year, and I'm using this chronological plan to help me. I like having it on my phone (in the YouVersion app) to track my progress and let me know the readings, but I typically read from my actual Bible.

.Having read through the Bible before, its not so daunting this time around. I know I can do it and how much I'll love it. So I'm adding another, bigger goal of memorizing more Scripture. I love Beth Moore's trick of buying one of these to keep track of your 24 verses throughout the year!

.I think I want to read more in 2017 (no real number of books, just a lot!) and this list seems like a good place to start (I'm sort of mostly anti non-fiction).

.Printing more photos. This deal for free prints definitely helps!

.I'm excited about being back in the swing of things at the gym, but for those mornings when I just can't make myself leave the house by 5am this (free!!!) website seems amazing!

Here's to 2017 and trying some fun things this year! What's on your list to try?

Ready, Set, Back to School.

And one month later, I'm diving back into grad school. 

head first.

4 (harder) classes.

1 (seemingly wonky...so far at least) practicum.

Lots of homework.

Still selling bras and panties.

Trying to get back in shape with the hubs.

and also trying to keep quiet in the meantime.

woooooweee. 

I.will.not.be.overwhelmed.

(repeat to self x5)

Anyone else feel like this new year is coming in full force? eek!

Cheer up pup! Only 1 1/2 year left!