A New Kind of Storytelling: Twenty-eight Days of Music and Words

My dear friend Heather suggested a wonderful new creative idea: what if you could post an entire short story on Instagram, a snippet each day, over the course of a month? How cool would that be?! So I decided to give it a try. Who knows, maybe nobody will care except me, or maybe it will be a bore, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! I'm am all about sharing creative work with others and finding inspiration in what others share!

The story I'll be posting during the month of February (woohoo, only twenty-eight days in that month!) is called "The Jazz Singer". I shared it several months ago on this blog, but have since taken it down in order to revise it a bit. After the entire story is finished on IG I'll re-post the whole thing here. Since IG requires a picture to post any content and my story is about a jazz singer, I will be sharing pictures of musicians and musical instruments (not related to the storyline) over the course of the month. I am always seeing gorgeous instruments everywhere, or amazing musicians, and this will give me another chance to share those with the world! There might even be some videos of live music... you'll have to wait and see!

I'll be tagging the story under #jazzsinger #instagramstory and #writersofinstagram, along with a tag for whatever particular musical picture I take for the day. My name on Instagram is Lyssagirlloveslife. Come along for the journey! Better yet, I'd LOVE it if anyone else wanted to join and post their short story over the course of twenty-eight days too :-)

Let me know what you think in the comment section!

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Start Your Week Off With Inspiration and Thoughtfulness

Sometimes the beginning of a week can look daunting, especially if you're facing a tough job, a hard situation, a difficult relationship, or an overwhelming schedule. I like to give myself some inspiration, ask myself questions that make me think, and consider interesting ideas on Monday so that I can enter the new week with the energy that (for me) comes with a stimulated mind!

Do you like Doctor Who? What is your morning routine, or do you wish that you had one that served you better? Do you mind being alone? Ever wanted to paint some watercolor flowers? Do you feel like you have a messy mind? Need tips for dealing with the toddler(s) in your life? How was your experience in high school? What kind of insecurities do you have, and what helps you deal with them?

Hope you enjoy these links!

10 Lessons We Can Learn from Doctor Who

The Morning Routines of Many Different People

How to Be Alone: an Antidote to One of the Central Anxieties and Greatest Paradoxes of Our Time

When Talk of Racism Centers on Black and White, What Does a Brown Parent Say?

Learn to Paint Watercolor Flowers in Fifteen Minutes

The Messy Minds of Creative People

Seven Tips for Surviving the Terrible Twos

Why I Don't Believe in Grace Anymore

Why You Never Truly Leave High School

30 Famous Women on Overcoming Their Insecurities

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The Greatest Mystery

When you're a child, you usually believe most of what you're told, especially when it's told to you by an adult in authority. So for the first sixteen years of my life, I didn't question what I was taught about God. My family attended church from the time I was about four years old or so. The churches we were part of over the course of my younger years had various denominations, but the majority of them taught roughly the same doctrines. I grew up sitting in Sunday school classes and taking notes during sermons. I was never under the impression that you had to be perfect to be part of a church, or that anyone who went to church was perfect, but it was clear that there were some pretty high standards for anyone who wanted to call themselves a Christian.

All that I learned in this time made me think that I had a pretty good grasp on who and what God was. I didn't have a lot of questions. I was satisfied that I had a good relationship with God. I prayed often, on my own because I liked talking with God, and I read my Bible so that I could understand His character better. It was a comfort zone. I was happy.

It wasn't until I went to college at sixteen that I began to think that maybe God couldn't be wrapped up in such a tidy box. Part of it was that I began to hear questions from my college friends about religion. Part of it was that I began to tackle issues that I hadn't thought of yet in my short time on earth. And part of it was that after I moved to a large city (from Idaho to St. Louis) I was exposed to much more diversity in Christian beliefs and in religions. I met people who called themselves Christians, and even though they were lovely people, they didn't dress or behave like any other Christians I'd met. Some of them *gasp* had tattoos! Or dreadlocks! It changed my perspective both on who God could be perceived to be and my perspective on who were His followers.

Also, when I was seventeen, several other events occurred: my parents separated and got divorced, our current church fell apart underneath us (not the first time this had happened), several good friends betrayed our family, and I was very sick after having what was supposed to be minor surgery. Long story short... all these terrible things did not shake my faith in God, but they definitely shook my faith in the institutional church and people. I began to do more thinking on my own, not relying so blindly on what I was taught, but reading the Bible on my own with more intensity, listening with open ears to others even if what they said contradicted what I believed, and listening to what the Spirit was telling my heart.

Slowly I began to realize that God was bigger than my own personal beliefs.

I still believed that God's Word was the Bible and that Christ is the way to salvation, but there were a lot of other ideas that were actually compelling on both sides of the arguement, instead of being set-in-stone doctrines. I stopped thinking I had all the answers, or even that I could find all the answers. It was a humbling yet beautiful realization that God was bigger than my human mind could grasp! In way, it is comforting to know that the Maker of Life cannot be completely understood. He is God... I am not.

Now I am learning to sit with the Mystery that God is. Every year I learn and grow and change in my relationship with him, but I will never stop wondering. There will never be an end to discovering who He is. There will never be an end to discovering what His amazing creation, our universe, contains. He will continue to speak through His Spirit to our souls. He will continue to reveal truth through His Word. And yes, God continues to work through people in our lives and through the church, both as the individual people of God and the institution, despite their flaws. That's the beauty of the Gospel, that God loves broken folks, and we can love others because of His love for us.

In the end, what does God require of us, even if we have questions or confusion?

In the words of Micah 6:8, "to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God".

{Linking up with Shelly's "Write or Die Wednesdays"}

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In(tentional) 2015

One of my favorite pictures in my folk's home, that my mom made. She's such an inspiration to me as an artist; their home is gorgeous, and has artwork everywhere! I love thinking about choosing joy in the new year. It's also a reminder that I have choices in what I hope to see in 2015. I ask myself the important question: "What does {THE DEEPEST PLACE} of my soul desire, need, and wish for?"

Beautiful words from Rachel.

For the past four years, I've been using Susannah Conway's lovely free workbook called "Unravelling the Year Ahead" to think through the past year and set intentions for the next year. I love that she calls them "intentions", because the term "goals" feels too solid, and it would be disappointing if I didn't completely accomplish them! With an intention, I can adapt it, do just part of it, or make it suit my needs and still feel like I've succeeded. Yeah, goals and intentions are pretty much the same thing, but it's the thought behind each of them that makes my mind feel like they're different ;-)

Here are a few of the intentions I've set for 2015:

~ Edit my novel, "The Naming of Fio Re", and have a few folks read it and give feedback. 

~ Meditate on Scripture every day, at least one verse. Learn more about Scripture meditation, too.

~ Deliberately make time to be face to face with friends and build relationships.

~ Go outside every single day. Every day. No exceptions. Even if it's just for a five minute walk or to sit in my yard on the grass. 365 Days of Nature, commence! More on that below.

~ Plan a creative retreat again similar to the one my lovely friend Heather and I had this December. Maybe it could be an entire weekend instead of one day? Maybe we could invite more friends? Do more art together? Cook meals? There are so many possibilities! 

~ Finish memorizing Romans 8. I got super close to accomplishing this last year, but it just didn't happen. Now of course it's only vaguely in my memory. I want to have the entire chapter down!

~ Record a CD of my favorite guitar pieces that I've learned in the last twenty years. Sheesh... I am OLD. I have been playing guitar for a freakin' long time!!! I might as well sum it up with some kind of recording after all these years. That will require practicing. If there were only a few extra hours each day...

~ Read all the books in my house that I have not yet read. There are actually a decent number of books that fall under this category. I may or may not make an exception for the Dostoevsky novel that even Chris hasn't been able to finish... *sigh*. This past year I tried to read one book a week, and considering that I forgot to log any of the books I read in November or December on my book list page here on the blog, I'm fairly certain that I hit that goal! Yay!

~ Fresh flowers every week. My mood and attitude are so brightened when flowers are present in my home! I don't need to buy new flowers every week; they last about two weeks if I take care of them, and it would be just five dollars or so from my grocery budget every other week. How about yes :-)

~ Go back to Lambert's Restaurant, the home of the "throwed rolls"! I was there during my senior year of college: it was AWESOME. Gotta go again, even though it's a bit of a road trip!

~ Read aloud with Chris more. We're mired in the weirdness of the "Arabian Nights" right now. It seriously seems never-ending. We may end up just reading it separately so that we can finish it and move on to something a little more manageable!

~ Give another shot to writing down 1,000 gifts. I got really close, over the last two years (even though you're supposed to write down a thousand gratitudes in only one year, not two), but made it to about eight hundred and faded out. It's always worth another try! This time I'm tracking it on my smartphone. I hate putting important things in my phone, which is why I still have a paper notebook and calendar, but my phone is almost always on hand to quickly jot something down, so hopefully this method will help keep me more on track. I love that Ann Voskamp has the "Joy Dares" available for free download in each month so that you have a bit of direction when looking for blessings in your everyday life!

~ Send more postcards. I love letters, but with the busyness of life, sending a postcard is going to be more doable than sending a full-blown letter, I'm thinking. Plus, postcards are art-in-the-mail! Win!

~ Get a perfume I really like. I've had only two perfumes, both of which I liked, but haven't yet found a perfume that I truly LOVE. I'm not gonna push this one too much; perfume is expensive! If it happens miraculously, it happens. If not, hey, I can wait.

~ Explore HONOR as my One Word. "The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be." - Socrates

~ Watch the entire series of "Avatar: the Last Airbender". OH NO NOW EVERYONE KNOWS HOW MUCH OF A NERD I AM. One of my best friends just introduced it to me last week (read: basically held me down and forced me to watch the opening episode because they knew I'd like it even though I was all "noooo I don't want to watch anything new") and I was instantly hooked. It's just the right kind of show for a girl who has watched almost all of the Naruto Shippuden... um, I mean, *cough cough* I totally have never watched anime before. 

I can't wait to see what growth and change this year will bring for Harmony. She is so verbal for a two and a half year old. The other day she and I ran errands all morning, so I made sure that our last stop was at a coffee shop where we could share a fruit smoothie. We sat at a table together, sipping the smoothie, people-watching and talking about the decor of the shop and noticing what folks were eating and discussing the day. That was the first time I realized, "hey, my daughter and I can have conversations now! There's finally someone in our family who talks just as much as me!" and I had a good laugh. My daughter is awesome.

Yes, I truly do want to go outside every day. So far, for the first four days of this new year, I've succeeded in getting outdoors for a few minutes, despite a sick toddler, a messy house, a busy schedule, and frigid weather (with snow today). Each time I made myself get my act together enough to go out, I was always grateful that I had! Being in nature, even on our little dead-end street or sitting in our yard, is grounding, refreshing, clarifying, relaxing, calming, energizing, and so many more things for my physical and mental health. I come back inside renewed and ready to face anything. There must be magic in a breath of fresh air ;-) I'm recording this journey on Instagram with a picture every day under the tag #365daysofnature.

I can tell that even though there will be more days where it will be difficult to get myself out the door, it will be for the best. Many thanks to my sweet husband and sister who have either sat with Harmony or just kept an ear out for her while she slept so that I could escape for a little while! I am SO very blessed to have my supportive family around me. 

Love these daily prompts from Write Alm!

I definitely want to continue to write often, here on the blog, in my personal journal, in postcards and the occasional letter to friends and family, and on Instagram. I've very much enjoyed the little snippets of life I can share on Instagram to accompany a picture, and even more have loved seeing others' lives through their own lens on IG too!

Facebook was de-activated yesterday, as planned. It feels weird not to check it, but I am already appreciating the social media silence that it is allowing. Yes, I'm still part of social media here and on Instagram, but it feels more manageable, if that makes any sense. 

The picture above was taken after I was awake for almost forty-eight hours straight. On new year's eve, half an hour before midnight, Harmony suddenly and violently came down with the stomach flu while we were at my folk's home. She had been sleeping in their guest bedroom as we got ready to celebrate the new year's arrival. Instead of ringing in 2015, we spent the rest of the night caring for her, with barely any sleep. When we finally got her home the next day, I fuzzily remembered that one of my intentions was to get outside every day, so Chris sat with her for a few minutes while I laid in the grass of our front yard, which was all I had the energy to do. It was a good reminder that "the best laid plans of mice and men..."

If all my intentions are not realized in 2015, IT WILL BE FINE. I will be okay. Nobody/nothing will explode, my dreams won't be shattered. Sometimes we have hard times; sometimes our lives are rocked to the core by terrible news. With that in mind, I'm trying to hold my plans loosely, knowing that only God sees the future. I hope that no matter what the coming days hold I will be able to trust in His plans for me even if it means that mine go out the window. My favorite Bible verse from year to year continues to be from Micah 6:8: "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" That is what I truly want to be the desire of the deepest place in my heart!

So here we go, 2015! What do YOU wish that 2015 might hold for you? Let me know in the comments! Did you choose a Word? Do you have goals, or intentions?

{Writing prompt THE DEEPEST PLACE from Write Alm's January prompts}

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The Ultimate Holiday Gift and Advent Guide

Advent has already begun, Christmas is a few weeks away, and the new year is right around the corner. Wow! If you're anything like me, you have definitely not finished your Christmas shopping yet, so here are some great ideas that I've found online to help us all along in this endeavor : )  Let me know if you have any other links to add, or if you found any of the ones listed here helpful!

Here are some articles about this holiday season that I am excited to share:

I love this article on how to respect children during the Christmas season. {A must-read for parents!}

A List of What NOT to Buy for Children {please read if you're buying any child a gift this year!}

A Return to Simple Holiday Pleasures {many more useful links here}

Five Steps Towards a More Meaningful Holiday Season {LOVE this!}

Christmas, Giving, and the Year I Became a Grown-up

Are Children Given Too Many Toys?

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Here are home-made gift ideas for children and adults:

Easy Hand-made Hands-on Toys for Babies and Toddlers

Little Lantern Child {free knitting pattern, perfect for Solstice}

Do-It-Yourself Holiday Gift Ideas

Wurm: the Best Winter Hat {free knitting pattern from Ravelry}

For children ages 3-7ish: put together a small box of seasonal, personal, and unique items so they can start their own Nature Table (check out more ideas here).

Make these cute crafts as gifts to give or put together a kit for a child to make later.

Bluebird of Happiness {free knitting pattern from Ravelry... I just want to make a ton of these and give them away to my friends for New Year's gifts!}

Tiny House Art: create a kit with all the necessary items and then plan a special time to make these together!

Sew-It-Yourself Tea Wallet, for the die-hard tea drinker in your life.

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Here are other wonderful gift ideas for all ages:

Simple Stocking Stuffers

6 Gifts That Encourage Child-Directed Play

The Ultimate Ethical Shopping Guide: a List of Good Companies with a Conscience {PLEASE read!}

62 Educational Toys and Games, divided into age groups

The Best Gift Guide EVER for Artsy People

Shirt of the Month Club

Gift Ideas for Journal Lovers

Gift Ideas for Book Lovers

Gift Ideas for Writers  {and book lovers too!}

Battery Free Toys for Babies and Toddlers

Non-toy Gifts for Children

More Excellent Gifts for Children That Are Not Toys

101 More Toy-free Gift Ideas 

Issues from Kindred, a beautiful magazine "that uses the power of story to bring people together".

Issues from the delicious seasonal series of Taproot, a magazine that explores "living fully, digging deeper". I received the first year's magazines last Christmas from my sweet husband, and I'm absolutely asking for another set of them this Christmas too, because they were just that amazing!

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Here are several great ideas to celebrate and count down Advent:

Simple Advent Calendar with Holiday Activities

The Giving Advent Calendar: a Meaningful Christmas Countdown

Family Advent Art and Reading Guide

The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas {the book comes with a free online download of Jesse Tree ornaments}

Celebrating Advent with the Jesus Storybook Bible {This is the plan that we're using for 2014, because Harmony is just at the age where she is beginning to enjoy and understand this book. We read the story for the day at breakfast with the advent candles lit, then afterwards open up the drawer for the corresponding day on our advent calendar. Each day there is either a tiny piece of candy (like a chocolate coin) or a piece of paper with instructions on it for a gift or an activity, for both my sister and Harmony. So far it's been a hit!}

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DIY Moleskine Daily Planner

This year I finally realized/admitted that I can't keep track of everything that I have on my schedule just by remembering it, plus my husband, sister, and parents have their own schedules as well, meaning that it is useful for me to keep track of everyone so that we can make sure we're all on the same page. Family meals, baby-sitting, days off of work, etc. are much easier to plan when we all know each other's calendar! 

For the longest time I used a calendar that I hung on the wall. Everyone would write their schedule on it. But sometimes we (mostly me) would forget to write something crucial down, simply because we weren't within easy reach of the calendar when making plans, and that was no good! Also, if I was out and about, I had no idea what was on the calendar. I realized that the calendar was mostly for my sake since I was the main coordinator for my family's plans (my folks have their own online calendars that work really well for them). So I decided to get a planner to keep in my purse instead.

By the time I realized this, though, it was almost September. The vast majority of planners had been sold in the stores already! There were one or two available but nothing that came close to what I was looking for. 

In the end, I decided to buy a Moleskine and create my own planner. It is a soft-cover, blank page (non-lined) notebook. My inspiration and initial ideas were taken from Mike Rohd's Moleskine Planner Hack.

Now I can sit down every day and make sure that I'm on top of my schedule, and it comes with me everywhere! Confession: twice I have written down an event IN THE WRONG PLACE, resulting in missing a fun lunch with a friend and almost missing a performance I was supposed to play guitar in, which is proof that having a planner is not foolproof for people like me who are terrible with numbers. I am now being extra cautious to write down the correct dates for everything!

There are large sections for each day, with smaller ones for the weekend; the space below is completely free for notes. It will last until July 2015.

I didn't feel the need to have a full page showing the entire month like a regular calendar, but I did want to have a page just for notes for each month. That's been a valuable addition.

Quite a bit of the notebook is dedicated just to blank pages for notes. I've been writing down song lists from rehearsals, knitting notes, tips from friends, ideas, cooking recipes, and many other things.

Of course there is a specific page just for books that I want to read eventually ; )

The built-in folder on the back cover has been invaluable for storing receipts, sticky notes, and business cards that would otherwise be lost in the recesses of my wallet!

I love the built-in bookmark and band to keep the notebook closed. The paper is strong, and my pen (I use Sharpie fine and medium point pens) does not run through the pages.

All in all, this has been the best planner I've ever had, and I'm loving how much space there is to write down everything I need to keep track of!

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Life is the Teacher

All right, ya'll... even though I've been more silent on this blog, more plans are brewing with my blog about education, Life is the Teacher. If you're interested in checking it out, please also like the new Facebook page I've created for it! On Facebook I'll be posting links of articles about education, fostering discussions, asking questions, sharing quotes, and spreading the word about alternative education methods. Hope you'll join!

This is what I hope to do as I study education!

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Harmony's First Music CDs

When we ride in the car, the classical station is usually turned on, us being classical musicians and all since we were eight years old. Side note: YIKES I AM OLD. Moving on. Harmony can take about ten or fifteen minutes of this. The classical music, I mean. Soon she starts to whine. There's something about being strapped into a car seat, I guess, that makes her uninterested in listening to non-vocal music for long periods of time (a captive audience?). At home we generally keep the local classical station (or a similar Pandora channel) playing quite a bit, and she seems fine with it then. So I end up either singing to her or trying to find a station playing a (not inappropriate) song I can sing along to. If I sing, she's happy.

Or I'll put on a CD. But she doesn't like super loud music, hard rock, super fast music, or anything opera-like for more than about forty minutes. Yes, forty. I timed it on our last road trip. Chris and I like to sing along to the first half of Handel's Messiah or other things like that, in English or Latin, and Harmony will only stand it for a set amount of time. Heh.

Soooooo our CD choices are limited, considering that 90% of them are of classical music.

We have a few kid's CDs with nursery rhymes, but I tried those and almost went bonkers. I also vetoed any kid's stations on Pandora after trying that out. The only musical groups specifically for children that I have enjoyed so far are G.T. and the Halo Express and Rain for Roots, which we currently do not own (they are going on the wish list for Harmony's birthday!), so yeah. Oh, and the Wee Sing albums are great, but they're also going on the wish list.

Do you have any suggestions for other non-annoying, non-nasally-sounding, non-pull-your-hair-out-this-is-so-boring music for kids? I know there has to be more out there!

It was time to make mixed CDs of adult AND child acceptable songs where we can ALL sing along : )


Happy Harmony Mixed CD

The Wall ~ Kansas {Because epicness.}

Tom Sawyer ~ Rush {Because double epicness.}

The Fox ~ Nickel Creek {All kids love this fun folk song!}

Go Home, Girl! ~ Gaelic Storm {Chris likes singing this and playing his bodhran.}

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) ~ The Proclaimers {An old favorite of ours.}

Brave ~ Sarah Bareilles {I appreciate the message in the lyrics.}

This Good Day ~ Fernando Ortega {One of my favorite singers, and he's a great person! I knew him when I was a kid. This song never fails to put me in a better mood.}

Green and Blue Lady's Song* ~ ? {See below... help! It came on a mixed soundtrack from one of Chris's friends years ago, and we have no idea who it is.}

Wild Child ~ Enya {Who doesn't love Enya? Harmony is our wild child!}

Creation Song ~ Fernando Ortega {Another favorite.}

When You Come Back Down ~ Nickel Creek {I always melt when I hear this sweet song. I will be singing it to all my children as they grow up!}

The Neglected Garden ~ Cecile Corbel {The gorgeous theme song from the Miyazaki movie "The Secret World of Arrietty". Someday I'd love to have the entire soundtrack from this movie.}



Chillin' Harmony Mixed CD

Kisses from the Sky ~ The Green Children {My current favorite band.}

Sailor ~ The Green Children {Harmony's current favorite song; we sing it every day.}

Mourning Into Dancing ~ The Crossing (Celtic band)  {Beautiful Celtic melody and lyrics.}

Dream a Little Dream of Me ~ ? (not sure who the artist is here) {An old favorite first sung to me by a friend and musician at a concert years ago.}

Friendly Jas ~ Cool Hand Luke (band, not movie)  {A favorite since I was sixteen years old!}

Lord of Eternity ~ Fernando Ortega {One of my favorites that he performed in concert.}

Kite ~ Copeland {A special favorite that I used to sing to my sister when she was little.}

Staring Down the Stars ~ Nickel Creek {Beautiful melody, sweet words.}

Pilgrim ~ Enya {Love this one! Just have to finish memorizing all the words.}

Hide and Seek ~ Imogen Heap {Weird lyrics, but one of my favorite pop pieces of all time.}

Throwback to almost a year ago! Craziness!

*Please help me find out what song this is! Haven't had any success looking up lyrics on Google. Here are the lyrics of the first few verses and the chorus:

My cousin and his young bride left home a year ago
they sailed to Regal, England, for the little town of Norfolk
and found a thatched-roof home
now I get a post-card every month or so

They tell me it's endearing though it rains most every day
they're attending a cathedral built in 1528
and afternoons at three
they take a cup of tea or two

They write, "dear cousin, how are you,
is life exciting? what is new?"
"Well, last night I baked a cake."
What more can I say?

We're doin' fine here in lovely scenic Springfield, USA
Having quite a time here, in lovely scenic Springfield, USA

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Looking Ahead to 2014 and My One Word

Daily prompt #30: looking ahead

If I've discovered anything about myself this year, it's that I am way more organized and able to follow through with goals if I write them down, figure out the steps needed to accomplish them, involve others, and set specific times to do specific steps.

A lot of ideas came into fruition in 2013 because of this: a fundraising concert on my birthday for Compassion International, a novel written during National Novel Writing Month, letters sent all around the United States to friends, family and strangers, more mandolin playing, poetry published for the first time, daily writing habits established, health back on track, apartment organized and re-organized, and half of my 1,000 gifts list completed.

This isn't an I'm-so-good victory list: it's a sigh of relief and happiness that I had the support of loved ones and the energy to make my dreams come true! I couldn't have done all these things on my own.

For 2014, here are a few hopeful goals. If they don't all get accomplished, THAT'S OKAY. The world won't end. But it would be great to see these to completion!

~ Finish my novel (it's about 3/4 completed, and I did write 50,000 words, but it needs to have an ending, and I have promised a few people that they could read it)

~ Record a CD (with my family, on all our instruments... this is the crazy, insane, I-must-be-dreaming goal!)

~ Learn how to can food (my mom used to do this with us, so I'd like to make some tomato sauce, applesauce, etc.)

~ Finish memorizing all of Romans 8 (I'm about halfway there)

~ Go to the Botanical Gardens once a week (we were gifted a family pass, so it's free anytime now, woohoo!)

~ Publish more poetry or writing (in a magazine? in a book? who knows)

~ Write letters to the Compassion International child I help sponsor, every other week (I've fallen off the bandwagon badly with this, so it's definitely a priority)

~ Finish out my 1,000 gifts list by my birthday (it's taken me almost a year and a half to write down 500, but I'm intent on finishing this, and then starting a new list on my birthday, Lord willing)

~ Keep a list of all the books I read during the year (hoping this will help me keep track of progress, avoid reading too many of the same genre of book, and keep me motivated to read more)

~ More dates with Chris (once a week, hopefully? at the Botanical Gardens, preferably, since that's one of our favorite places to go)

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Grace was my word for 2013.

It was hard.

I learned how to show Grace to others, myself, and my family. I learned that if we do not give Grace to others, we cannot accept it for ourselves. I learned that if I do not believe in Grace for myself, then I cannot give it to others. It goes both ways.

It was good.

I feel less guilty, more free. I feel more aware of my twisted nature, yet more grateful for Grace that covers all my sins.

Grace.

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My word for 2014 is Deeper.

I've dipped my toes into a lot of ideas. A lot of projects, a lot of relationships, a lot of space. Now I feel ready to dig in a little. Or a lot. To refine my thoughts into more focus. To deliberately spend more time on specifics instead of generals.

This might look like more time away from this blog. Not sure yet.... it might look like more time writing through my pondering, here or less publicly.

I want to get to know and be comfortable with myself. Lately I've realized that I can categorize a lot of what I say into "Ego". I don't want that. I want to be genuinely Me, without feeling like I have to impress anyone, or stand up for myself against anyone, or pretend like I'm better than anyone. It's silly. And lame. I just want to learn Who I Am and then be able to sit back and Be, not Prove. There can be humility and happiness in Being; there is very little of either in Proving.

I'm also going to spend more energy on certain relationships, certain projects.

Especially God.

The older I get, the more I realize that I don't know exactly what I believe about God.

There are a few things that I do believe for sure. Those things would categorize me under the heading of "Christian".

But I don't truly belong to any denomination, even the denomination of the church I call home.

Maybe someday I'll be more brave to write about some of my wonderings. I have several friends who inspire, encourage, and embolden me to question what I believe while continuing to rest in God's unfailing love. As one of them wrote today, "when you feel safe, feel really safe, then you are not afraid to ask tough questions. [We] have found safety in Father's love. That is a great place to be. Because it is Him not our answers that make us safe."

So I'm going to ask my Father and trust my Father and learn more about Grace from my Father.

I want a Deeper connection with Him.

I want a Deeper connection with my husband.

With my daughter.

With my family.

With my music.

With my friends.

With nature.

With myself.

So here's to a new year, everyone. May 2014 bring renewal, lessons learned, and loving hearts!

Finishing up the daily prompts from December Write Alm! Thank you again, Amanda! Now I'm jumping into exploring my One Word. There will be more posts as I discover what Deeper has in store for me this year. I'd love to know what your One Word is!

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Looking Back on 2013

As the new year peeks around the corner, I'm doing a lot of writing, both on the computer and by hand, as I wrap up 2013 and prepare for 2014.

Here are the top posts on the blog for this past year, both in hit popularity and because I like them! I didn't include any of the "This Moment" posts, even though many of them were high on the list, because you can always click on the sub-category list at the side of the blog and scroll through the pictures if you'd like ; )

Harmony Emelia's home birth continues to be the top post of all time here!

Goodbye Facebook was also a hit, along with part two and part three. It was good to give Facebook up for a while. I'm even more determined to not let it take over my time in 2014, especially as I see how much the internet can suck our lives into its grasp!

A Christmas Miracle: Finding Jane is my personal favorite. Such an incredible true story.

How I Almost Ruined Christmas Eve will be the reminder for me to have the right priorities as a mother.

If you knew me when I was a kid, or a high schooler, or in college, then you should (please) read this post called Letter to My Past.

Okay, here's one "This Moment" post, because I also wrote about doing something that took me far out of my comfort zone. And I'm so glad that I did, because it's been a BLAST!

The series of questions I've posted has been very popular with viewers, though not necessarily with commenters. Hopefully more people will share their opinions this year when I ask questions! One of the most viewed posts was this: Should I Let My Daughter Listen to Music with *#^%*$ in the Lyrics.

Ten Things I've Learned in the First Year of Motherhood was so helpful for me to write down that I will definitely be doing this again when my daughter turns two.

I'm going to write a letter to my child(ren) each year on their birthday, which will be kept in a special keepsake box for them. A partial version of each letter will make an appearance here, and this one was the first installment.

After reaching the 100th blog post milestone (again), I celebrated!

Daring Greatly is what I hope to do in 2014 as well as 2013.

GRACE was my word for 2013. It has been a wonderful (and hard) year of learning Grace for myself and others. Stay tuned for an upcoming post where I'll share my word for 2014! Have you chosen a word yet?

This is the last prompt from December Write Alm: day #31, toast yourself! I missed writing yesterday as we drove back home from visiting family, but I'll be writing on yesterday's prompt a little later today : )  Thank you very much to Amanda at Write Alm for her lovely daily prompts! I've so much enjoyed using them as a spring board for inspired writing almost every day.

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My Ultimate Christmas and Holiday Guide!

Here it is, folks: all my favorite Christmas and holiday and gift-giving and Advent links! You'll probably notice that this is in no way ultimate, like the title says, and that I didn't give any links for Christmas food or drink recipes, alternative Christmas celebrations such as solstice, hand-made ornament patterns, etc. I just like the word "ultimate" and wanted to share these links since they're my own personal favorites : )

Oh, and just for the record, I am NOT making/buying all the things listed here!


For my local friends, here are some links:

2013 St. Louis Holiday Events Guide

Amy's 2013 Small Business Gift Guide

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Here are home-made gift ideas:

Easy Hand-made Hands-on Toys for Babies and Toddlers

Little Lantern Child {free knitting pattern}

Do-It-Yourself Holiday Gift Ideas

Wurm: the Best Winter Hat {free knitting pattern from Ravelry}

For children ages 3-8ish: put together a small box of seasonal, personal, and unique items so they can start their own Nature Table (check out more ideas here)

Make these cute crafts as gifts to give or put together a kit for a child to make later

Unravelling the Year Ahead: say goodbye to this year and prepare for the new one {print out and gift to a friend along with some nice pens and a journal, maybe?} Side note: yes, this is the 2013 guide, but check back soon for the 2014 update!

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Here are other wonderful gift ideas:

Simple Stocking Stuffers

6 Gifts That Encourage Child-Directed Play

The Ultimate Ethical Shopping Guide: a List of Good Companies with a Conscience {PLEASE read!}

62 Educational Toys and Games, divided into age groups

Gift Ideas for Journal Lovers

Battery Free Toys for Babies and Toddlers

Issues from the first year of Kindred, a beautiful new magazine "that uses the power of story to bring people together"

Issues from the delicious seasonal series of Taproot, a magazine that explores "living fully, digging deeper"

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Here are some other holiday articles that I am excited to share:

A List of What NOT to Buy for Children! {please read if you're buying any child a gift this year!}

A Return to Simple Holiday Pleasures {many more useful links here}

Five Steps Towards a More Meaningful Holiday Season {LOVE this!}

Christmas, Giving, and the Year I Became a Grown-up

Are Children Given Too Many Toys?

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Here are a bunch of great ideas to celebrate and count-down Advent:

20 Simple Ways to Count the Days

Simple Advent Calendar with Holiday Activities

The Giving Advent Calendar: a Meaningful Christmas Countdown

Family Advent Art and Reading Guide

The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas {the book comes with a free online download of Jesse Tree ornaments}

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The Tradition of May Day Baskets

Several people have expressed interest in hearing the history behind my family's May Day baskets. May Day is an ancient tradition dating back thousands of years, to the once pagan-then secularized celebration of spring on May 1st. Like many holiday traditions, various aspects were adopted by Christian communities with activities such as "May crownings" of the Queen of the May, Maypole dances, handing out flowers, etc.

Back when I was still pretty young, my mom would gather flowers from our yard and around the neighborhood (we had several sweet neighbors who always gave us free reign of their flowers in the yard and on the trees), draw and decorate small cards saying "Happy May Day!", and arrange the flowers in small green strawberry baskets.

Side note: Remember those strawberry baskets? Whatever happened to them? We haven't been able to find them for several years.

Then we would take the flowers to our neighbor's houses, put them on the doorstep or hang them on the doorknob, ring the doorbell, and run away to hide around the corner and watch with delight as the neighbors would open the door and exclaim, "Oh, what beautiful flowers! I wonder who put them there?" And then we would jump out and shout, "Happy May Day!"

In later years, we began delivering baskets to retirement communities, or making trips to friends who lived a short distance away. The element of surprise didn't matter too much; it was fun just to give flowers away as a celebration of springtime!

When I went away to college, my sister was a teenager, so the tradition came to a close as we busied ourselves with school and other pursuits. Now, we are beginning again during Harmony's first experience of spring. She was still a bit too young to help out with any of the creative fun, but we had several lovely friends over from church who were happy to help decorate the baskets that we made from craft supplies that we already had and left-over paper plates. We found printable tags with a May Day poem online. After decorating the plate cones, we attached the tags with our names on the back and a loop of ribbon to hang the baskets up, then put a coffee filter inside it. The flowers were in small bunches with the bottom stems wrapped in a wet paper towel, tucked inside a plastic bag.

Then my mom and I delivered the flowers (some from the yard, some bought on sale) to our friends who live in the local area. We wished that we had enough time/flowers/resources to take flowers to more people, but maybe we'll be able to distribute to a wider range next year!

We so much enjoy bringing a little joy of springtime to our friends. Does anyone else take part in spring traditions? Do you hand out May Day baskets? Tell us about it in the comment section!

My "moment" from this week is from our distribution of May Day flowers : )

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Homeschooling 101

Ever thought about home-schooling? Do you have questions about it? Or are you just curious about the perspective of a former home-schooler who is planning on home-schooling her kids?

Today I'm over at my other blog, Life Is the Teacher, talking about the basics of home-schooling, as seen in an article with hilarious pictures. Join me here!

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NaNoWriMo

What is NaNoWriMo? Anyone have a clue? Unless you're a contemplative writer, an aspiring author, or a nerdy person like me, you probably haven't heard of it before. It stands for "National Novel Writing Month". Last year, over 250,000 aspiring authors banned together to work on writing an entire novel during the month of November. 843 people succeeded in penning a book at least 50,000 words long!

Everyone who participated joined up on this website, which explains NaNoWriMo more thoroughly. What's the reward? Well... not much, usually. A few brilliants will have their edited works published later on. For most, though, the knowledge that they have accomplished writing an entire book is reward enough. Perhaps the book will be shared with a few friends and family. Or maybe personal development is the key goal. It certainly takes a lot of patience, endurance, creativity, and determination!

I've known about NaNoWriMo for several years. Each time the month of November rolled around, I was always too busy with life and other hobbies to think about writing a long novel. But this year... hmmm. Maybe it's time. I'd love to push myself to actually finish a story for once! I've started out writing down various stories quite often, only to get side-tracked or bored or lazy, and none of them have ever been completed. In order to finish the minimum requirement of 50,000 words, I'd have to write approximately 1,667 words per day, which is about three essays worth of material! That is an intimidating number already. My reasons to write would be simply to follow the journey, complete a life-time goal, and see where the story goes.

Creativity itself doesn't care at all about results - the only thing it craves is the process.  Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it.  Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence.  Love the work. - Elizabeth Gilbert

There are a few options as to what I could write. There are old story ideas, but they feel slow. Something new and exciting needs to happen. My dream about the people with two hearts has been rolling around my head for weeks, developing more characters and beginning to turn into a world of its own. This would probably be a youth or young adult novel.

The other idea is to write a story based on Chris's ancestors. He has been doing genealogical research lately, and has discovered some intriguing history about his long-ago relatives, too. There are stories of a rich accountant's daughter, who always wanted to be a teacher but was forbidden to because she was female, marrying a coal miner, despite her family's disapproval and her father's attempt to bribe her away with a diamond ring. Doesn't that sound interesting? Even though I couldn't find out all the details, of course, I'd love to take the true parts of the history and let a new story blossom from its roots.

So... am I crazy? Are these ideas lame? Is my writing lame? Could I make enough time in my daily life for a month to write a whole freaking novel? Am I dreaming out of my league? AM I CRAZY?

Those are the questions I have.

Anyone else crazy enough to try NaNoWriMo?

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What Do We Really Want?

There was such a good article in today's church bulletin that I had to post an excerpt from it here. It's from "Heaven: The Heart's Deepest Longing", by Peter Kreeft (1980). I've been thinking about it all day, and I hope it will provoke as much thought in those who are tolerant enough to read my blog : )

"There is a very old wisdom, quite out of fashion today, that says we are not supposed to be happy here. In fact, no one is really happy here, and the "pursuit of happiness", which the American Declaration of Independence declares one of our "inalienable rights", is in fact the silliest and surest way to unhappiness. This is a wisdom...not just from the past but also from within, from the soft spot in us that we cover up with our hard surface, from the vulnerable little child in us that we mask with our invulnerable adult. Our adult pretends to want pleasure, power, wealth, health, or success, then gets it, then pretends to be happy. But our child knows what we want- nothing less than infinite joy- and, as children, we know we don't have it.

No one is really happy. The phenomenon is universal, not peculiar to some temperaments, for it is not a matter of temperament or feelings, which always undulate like waves. (We are all somewhat manic-depressive.) Beneath this surface, beneath the waves of satisfaction alternating with dissatisfaction of surface desires, the deep hunger of the heart remains unsatisfied. ...It is precisely when life treats us best that the deepest dissatisfaction arises. As long as we lack worldly happiness, we can deceive ourselves with the "if only" syndrome: if only I had this or that, I would be happy. But once we have all our thises and thats and are still unhappy, the deception is exposed. That's why rich and powerful modernity is not happier than previous cultures. That's the answer to Freud's question: "Why aren't we happy?"

Our greatest bitterness comes not only in the sham sweetness of riches and power but also in the middle of our truest earthly sweetness: hearing a symphony, seeing a sunset, complete sexual love. It is highest life that sets us longing for something more than this life..."

Also, there was an awesome quote in church today, by Confucius. "There are three ways to wisdom. The first is by reflection, and that is the hardest. The second is by imitation, and that is the easiest. The third is by experience, and that is the bitterest." Then my pastor added, "but I would also add that wisdom gained by experience is by far the most precious".

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