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- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
I changed my closet over today for a new season, since it is our third gorgeous day in a row. What a delight to rediscover a few summer dresses and pretty tops that I packed away last Fall! Going through my clothes was a good exercise, and I managed to weed out some shirts that I know I won't miss. Decluttering is never easy for me, but it is satisfying once I do it. I am always surprised at just how much stuff I hold onto.
I am mulling over an idea for cutting back on my wardrobe, which I will share if I decide to do it :) I think it might be a good next step for me since the clothes I'm left with all fit, and it would be hard for me to decide what to get rid of if I were to thin the herd.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Prayer
Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7 [The Message]
I was really blessed by the love and grace in the responses to my post yesterday. My intention to draw near to God during this month is not from a sense of guilt or failure, but knowing that things could be better than they are and honestly desiring that. I'm not trying to set myself up on some legalistic plan that is doomed to fail, but to make the most of each day, whatever that looks like. Yesterday I was blessed with a great time of prayer while Torre had a long nap. Today the weather was beautiful, so I went on a long walk with the dog and the stroller, and spent the afternoon visiting with a friend. I didn't feel guilty for not praying, but when I saw an opportunity to read my Bible I took it, and loved this passage from Philippians. Anxiety has been a defining attribute for me most of my life (an observation that was confirmed by learning my enneagram personality type last summer - so interesting!), so this passage stuck out to me, bracketed as it is by "worry."
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Prayer
(For the record, the catchy title to this post was that last thing to be written before I hit publish. I do love a good rhyme almost as much as I love alliteration.)
I discovered while Matt and I were away on retreat that I've forgotten a bit how to pray. I remember the theory of course, but it seems like my quiet times with God have gone the way of coffee visits with friends: we still get together, but part of my mind is always on stand-by, ready to leap from the conversation into mothering at a moment's notice. It's hard to achieve any depth.
This isn't a challenge that I saw coming. Sure, there are a ton of resources and articles out there about all the other relationships that change when you have a baby, from your husband to the family pet, but no one warned me it would be harder to connect with God.
One of my challenges now is that I expect to fail at really connecting with God, and so I hardly even try. I do pray quick on-the-go prayers, and I do occasionally flip through my Bible. I even started working to re-memorize Hebrews 12, but all in all I feel my soul getting a little bit malnourished. I don't want to wait for things to go completely off the rails before I give my best effort to connect with God, and I don't want to give in to the nagging voice that says spiritual mediocrity is something I just have to settle for in this season of my life.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Parenthood
Matt took a course on family ministry this semester, so we now have a 650 page textbook on the topic. I have been out of school for long enough now that I can read through academic material without my brain and soul shutting down, and as I was flipping through Matt's textbook (Family Ministry: A Comprehensive Guide by Diana R. Garland), I came across this excerpt which was, shall we say, very timely :)
Despite what the commercials and movies tell us, love is not a feeling. It is a way we decide to act. We cannot force ourselves to feel love - we can't force ourselves to feel anything. A baby crying for the third time since parents went to bed may not invoke feelings of love, but parents do not wait to act until they feel like doing the loving thing. Instead, they choose to act in love. In such ways, children "discipline," or influence, the behavior of parents.
Maybe one of the reasons people think it is wise to wait a while after getting married to have children is not just so you can travel unhindered but because it gives you practice at acting loving when you don't feel like it. Just as it can be a rude awakening the first time you don't feel lovey towards your spouse, it can be scary to not feel lovey towards a tiny infant who depends on you for everything. I have a really easygoing baby, an extraordinarily supportive spouse, and a great network of people who sincerely care about me, but there have definitely been times when Torre has needed more from me than I had to give. I expected motherhood to stretch me, and it has, but it has been different than what I expected - both harder and easier than I thought it would be.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
Matt and I were driving in the country this week and passed a little church with a sign out front that said, "Trouble in this life is a guarantee, but misery is optional."
The saying has stuck with me, and I've been reflecting on the difference between trouble and misery. It can be very easy for me to have a bad attitude, and this has caused me to be miserable in troubled times and also in not troubled times! I'm working to change that though, and a big step is remembering that most times I am miserable it is because of a perspective I've chosen to embrace (and can change!). Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts was very inspiring to me in that regard, and the value of thankfulness still resonates with me.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I was struck by this verse in 2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty may become rich.
I forget sometimes that Jesus coming to Earth wasn't just a publicity stunt to get the word out that God loves us and wants to be in relationship - it actually cost him. He became poor, giving up his status and power in Heaven, then giving up even his earthly life. Jesus held nothing back for himself, but the poverty he experienced makes us rich! We can enter the presence of God and we can live without fear because Jesus left the presence of God and was terrorized.
I've been challenged to reflect how far I'm willing to follow in Jesus' footsteps. Can I love my neighbour? Sure. Would I become poor for my neighbour? Not so much.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
I was in our living room the other night and realized it happened: baby stuff has taken over every surface of our apartment. And the worst part is, Torre is way too young for it to be his doing! So every crinkly toy and piece of baby gear (bouncer, stroller, playmat) is where it is because I put it there. The reason music rang out when I sat on our couch was because I crammed a musical toy between the cushions.
One of the reasons minimalism appeals to me is because I know clutter attracts clutter, and the simplest antidote for clutter is not to own anything extra. But extra things can be beautiful and useful, not just clutter magnets, and the fact that we have an extra person in our family now, it makes sense to have some extra stuff! In fact, the reason our apartment looked inside out was because everything was being used on such a consistent basis, it simply never got put away.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: goals
It is half way through the month, which I figure is as good a time as any to check in with a quick goal update. Generally speaking, my three goals are going well:
- I have flossed every single day, and it is starting to feel like a habit, so that is good.
- I have not done an exercise video every single day. I was on a great streak then missed two days in a row and another day the same week. However, I still feel fairly successful because I notice my strength and stamina improving, as well as my posture!
- I filed my taxes this week! This is exciting not only because it's an achieved goal but because my expected refund is more than the balance owing on my student loan. Is it weird to use money the government owes me to pay back the money I owe the government? Regardless, it will be very nice to have that load off our debt shoulders :)
How about you? Are there any achievements or setbacks you want to share on the internet?
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Natural Living
This is a post explaining something called no-poo, but since it's not well known I didn't want to get you all nervous about what the heck you are about to read. It is not advice to eat 3 pounds of poutine and take a nap; it is a crunchy alternative to washing your hair with shampoo and conditioner. It's ridiculously easy to do but not that easy to talk about unless you want to drop the lingo and just say, "I don't use shampoo." Let's go with that for now.
It all started in 2011 when I came across this idea on the internet and thought I'd give it a shot. I generally bought shampoo and conditioner on sale, but it never hurts to save a few bucks, and it never hurts to limit your exposure to chemicals, so I was intrigued and decided to try it for the month of May, after I graduated from university (an event which I rightly assumed would require many photos to be taken). Since then I haven't really looked back - I have used shampoo on the odd occasion over the last two years, and I have tweaked my method over that time, but generally speaking I've been shampoo-free and love it!
My favourite thing about no-poo is that it is not a big deal if I don't get a chance to wash my hair. With shampoo and conditioner, my hair was reliably greasy unless I washed my hair every other day. Last week things got out of hand and I may have passed 5 days without washing my hair. It's not that I want to only wash my hair once a week, but I'm happy to have a method that lets me get away with it if I need to. Let's be here to learn, not judge ;)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Three Things Thursday
I have been a little bit in the trenches this week, trying to remember my own advice and accept that my plans will not necessarily be what determine my days. In between [so! many!] diaper changes and [heart melting] snuggles and taking care of myself, I have enjoyed some hilarity on the internet. Each item honestly made me laugh out loud, and I challenge you to read/watch them to the end without doing the same :)
1. Reasons My Son is Crying
Friends of mine had a son just over a week ago (Congrats, Nick and Ash!), and this site was posted to their wall on facebook. I thought it was kind of cute, but not hilarious... until looking at the same pair of teary eyes and reading the parent's explanations finally got me actually laughing. I imagine that down the road Matt and I will use the same coping skills of just not taking our kid seriously. Because sometimes, "the milk isn't juice," and there's nothing else to say about it.