I have loved hand lettering and calligraphy for some time now. I love the feel of the pen in my hands and the sound of the brush on paper. But lately, I have been exploring digital lettering and I am equally enjoying it. Here is one of my go-to prayers in times of anxiety and especially when I am having trouble controlling my emotions.
I hope you enjoy this hand-lettered prayer as you go into the weekend. Happy Friday!
Read MoreNow, I know there is a contentious battle between those who decorate for Christmas after Halloween and those who decorate after Thanksgiving. Growing up, my family would decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. We would decorate the tree, listen to Christmas music, and jump into the Christmas spirit, but we always waited until after Christmas.
But since having my own children, I wanted to place more focus on the Advent season leading up to Christmas and then keep the Christmas spirit going well after the stores put the decorations on the clearance shelf. Where does that put Thanksgiving and the remnants of autumn? Well, sometimes it gets pushed to the side.
So in honor of poor, forgotten Thanksgiving, I wanted to write down a few things I hope to do during the remainder of fall.
Spend a few hours in a tea shop reading books and having a pot of my favorite tea.
Sipping hot apple cider and going on an afternoon walk in our neighborhood.
Raking leaves and letting the kids jump in a big pile of them.
Making a Thanksgiving meal for our little five-some (well, Theo will be having milk from the tap).
Taking a family trip to Lake Tahoe.
For those of you who have been following along for a while, you may recognize this post title. I wanted to resurrect an old favorite series of mine — awkward and awesome. It’s been over three years (<— WHAT?!) since my last post. I always had fun with these posts, so I hope you will too.
Awkward
- Really tone-deaf online voices. I’m sure I’ve been one multiple times in my life and I’m sure it will happen again, but man, do I cringe when I read people’s posts sometimes.
- Trying to decide whether to decorate for Christmas this week or not. I want to maximize my Advent and Christmas joy but we haven’t had Thanksgiving yet. Hmmm.
- Ill-fitting clothing and my postpartum body.
- Serious sleep deprivation causing me to have permanent eye bags.
- I am out of wine.
Awesome
- Theo rolled over for the first time on the 11th. He was on his tummy and yelling at us like he does and boop, he rolls over.
- Emma and Henry playing with each other in the evenings and their squeals of delight.
- Cold brew coffee. The weather is getting chilly but I just cannot resist a good cold brew.
- A renewed enthusiasm for my reading list and a challenge to myself to read at least 26 books in 2019.
- Getting prepared for Advent with my Jesse Tree Calendar from My Catholic Kids and my Advent devotional by Blessed Is She.
Alright, I had a lot of fun with this week’s spread in my Blessed Is She mini planner. I ordered some new skinny wash in a ton of colors. I’m all heart eyes over in planner world.
We are planning on doing some traveling during December so I will likely be decorating for Christmas this week so I can maximize my yule tide joy as we celebrate Advent and Christmastide. So I wanted this week’s planner spread to be all about that autumnal feel.
Don’t forget to #showmeyourplanner too!
Read MoreToday over on the Blessed Is She Instagram taking over the Instastories to talk about this month’s virtue: self-control. I felt called to expand a little on what we were talking about over there.
I’m going to admit something to you. It may be no surprise or a complete shock or somewhere in between to read this. But, I have trouble with obsessive compulsive tendencies and controlling my environment. It has manifested differently over the years and depending on what life state I am in at the moment.
But I thought, if I’m going to talk about it, then let’s really talk about it and dig in. Now, in regards to self-control, I have not struggled with issues with food or substances or other addictions. But I do struggle with the need to control what is going on around me.
Someone once asked me, “How do you keep your home so organized and clean with young kids and working full-time?” Well, when I’m being superficial or blasé about it, I’ll say something like, Oh you know, everything has it’s place and I do a little every day so it doesn’t become too chaotic.
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