MOVING DAY

It. Is. Finally. Here!

REJOICE.
   no more camping in the living room of our house
   no more lack of our stuff (yes, this is indeed a first world problem)
   a new house to fill with memories (and hopefully not too much stuff)
   new walls to paint, carpets to spill on, and neighbors to meet
   thankful for the ability to have a new house and the opportunity to move

We close this morning at 11:00 am. Both Marc and I have the day off (because we can) and so this morning we are going to load our stuff into our moving truck (seriously jazzed we got a free moving truck from our Realtor, we only have to pay the gas).

The sucky part is we won't close on our current house for another week due to their loan being stupid slow in coming through, however they are 99% certain it will still close next week. We are fairly confident of that and ready to be done living like we are camping and just want to get on with the process. The nice part is this does give us a little bit more time to move and get everything cleaned out. I have it mostly cleaned, however I would like to run the vacuum through the front room one more time, double check that all the poop is picked up in the yard, and wipe down the bathroom one more time and run a mop over the wood floors. So while in one sense it raises the stress level and on the other it lowers the stress level. Praying that everything goes through next week with the house to close and we only own two houses for a week.

We probably won't move a ton into our new house until Saturday, we have friends who have graciously volunteered to help us haul stuff. So until then we will probably just make small loads to the house and start to think through what we need to do and where stuff will go. The things on the to-do list for right away is: hang a shower curtain, put toilet paper in the bathrooms (yes, bathrooms with an 's' we have multiple), plug the deep freeze back in, we emptied it and put things in coolers but it needs to be plugged in asap), and put our refrigerator stuff in there so it doesn't get warm. Ridiculously exciting.

I am sure there will be a ton of photos to be coming at some point. Watch for them.
I am VERY thankful to be in the new house by Christmas!
I am not very excited to have to switch my address on everything again.


How do you feel about moving?
Do you like where you currently live?

Glorification of busy.

I have seen the sign a few different places and it simply reads "stop the glorification of busy." I am caught up in that glorification all too often, I feel a need to be busy, to have my days programmed to what feels like the minute allowing no time to stop, breathe, and be. I am guilty as charged some days. I have been convicted of this time and time again and yet I love to have days to myself with nothing planned. I love the chance to make a fresh cup of coffee, drink it from a real mug (not a travel mug - I drink from a travel mug 90% of the time due to being on the go), curl up on my chair with my dog in my lap, and either read a good book or crochet for the fun of it.

I have Fridays off, I don't try not to work on that day, I try to make plans with friends, clean my house, get caught up on laundry, go grocery shopping, go for a good run, and whatever else may tickle my fancy that day. I love my day off, usually I can avoid at least going into work. It is a gift for sure.

Post Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas always seems to me like the epitom of busy. There are Christmas presents to make/buy and wrap, there are parties to attend, advent to survive (extra services, bible studies, and an extra book study), on top of it seems unfortunately that we are going to have several funerals at church, get ready for my family to arrive, and send Marc off to a family wedding in Wisconsin (that I can't attend due to it being a couple days before Christmas). It is crazy and I refuse to buy into the glorification of busy and buying more, this Advent season. This advent season I am focusing on those things that matter, relationship, friends, family, training, and my sweet puppy. I refuse to get caught up in the chaos of the season and everything that can and does happen. I refuse to be over run by commercialism and the need to buy.

I am choosing this advent season to be more intentional about prayer, to spend time with family and friends, and to enjoy each day I have been given. I choose to enjoy the season and not get stressed out. I choose to love each and every day and love those who I get to interact with.


What are you finding filling your advent season with?
Are you making any gifts this Christmas?
Does your family have any fun Christmas traditions?

Thursday Fridays

I work strange hours, my call is does not have any typical hours, my days are anything but ordinary. For the most part I wouldn't trade it for the world. One quirk to being pastor is my Thursdays are like everyone else's Friday's sort of, I get Friday as my usual day off (of course pending youth events and other type church related stuff) and so I begin to get my Friday twitch every Thursday afternoon, it is almost time for a day off. A day where I can go to the gym at an odd hour, I can wear my sweat pants all day and not shower till the evening, I can wake up and read while snuggling my cute puppy on the couch, I can crochet till my hand/wrist hurts. I love the potential of a day off with nothing or minimal planned. I love knowing a clean house is around the corner.

I look forward to tomorrow. I rejoice that God hasn't called us to be work-a-holics and values me for who God created me to be rather than by how much I do or don't get done in any given day. I am thankful for a day dedicated to whatever I want, a day dedicated to rest, a day to be still. I am thankful for grace that claims me each and every day so I know I don't have to earn my own worth, rather I have been marked with the sign of the cross and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Tomorrow night's highlight: a pintrest party at my place. I have invited over several people from church and requested that they all bring a "pintrest dish" to share with the group and I have come up with the "pintrest project" for everyone to create, now really I need to limit it to a couple projects because I feel like I have about 10,000 options of great projects. Super excited, I am sure I'll post pictures of it or at least take a billion, be sure to watch my instagram feed, that seems to be where lots of photos are going these days.

What do you enjoy doing on your days off?
Do you loathe or love cleaning?
Any day off rituals?
What's the best thing you have created/made off of pintrest?

Mondays

While working a "non-traditional job" meaning I don't work 9-5 every day with my weekends off, weekends don't always have the same appeal that they do to everyone else. While I do love my day off (normally Friday) and Saturday is a hit or miss day for me if I have to work, and I always work Sundays, Mondays bring on a strange connotation. I don't necessarily have the same hard reaction to Mondays that most people do after having a few days off, however Mondays for me generally mean there is a lot to do.

On Sundays my desk always piles up with all sorts of stuff that needs to be addressed on Monday. At the same time Mondays are liberating for me because it means I have two and a half work days until Wednesday evening and nearly a full week until the next Sunday. I don't dread Mondays, for some strange reason I felt the need to stand up for Mondays, they get such a bad rap.

Although I must confess there are certain things that I favor about nearly every day of the week. Today just seemed like a good day to stand up for Monday.