24 November 2014

Intentional & Essential

Those would be the two words I am AIMING for as we create systems in our new home.  (I love, love, love it, btw!)  I'm not hitting the target every time, but I'm trying.  And there's something to that, no?  

A few weeks ago, I was blessed to speak to the Bellville MOPS group about organization.  Oh, they were lovely, y'all.  So fun, so wonderful, so Christ-centered...they made me want to have another baby (or find one, as my kids would say) just so I can join them.  It took me 3 weeks to follow up, but here's what I sent them this morning:

This is what I really feel called to share with y'all--I'm not thinking we all need to be minimalists, and I do not qualify as one, either. But I do like a LOT of what Joshua Becker posts. His writing (and links) make me think about living more intentionally, and I think that's always a good thing. I think if I were to adopt any "ist" or "ism" officially, I'd want to be an "essentionalist." And "intentionalist." But since there aren't any Facebook groups for those things, Becoming Minimalist will do!
I love having this come across my Facebook feed, where it's so easy to get caught up in the "more is more" mentality of our culture. https://www.facebook.com/becomingminimalist
This is the blog--I love his weekend posts, and look forward to hanging out with a cup of coffee and my thoughts. http://www.becomingminimalist.com
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and as we head into a time of year that can be busy and crazy and waaaaaaayyyyy too focused on "stuff" and keeping up with the moms on Pinterest, I invite you to join me in taking some time this week to think and pray about what we want Advent to look like this year.
I know I want to have less to do--so as a family, we chose a one-night trip to Marble Falls instead of our usual weekend to Marble Falls AND a trip to Santa's Wonderland. At church, we decided NOT to do a Christmas program or weekly ornament crafts, but instead to focus on an Advent curriculum based on a book families can use at home to go through Advent. I've already started shopping for teacher gifts--and I'm thinking 12 days of small, $1 type things for Noble's teacher and 1 $5 gift each for Kayci's teachers. I've purchased the ornament for our Bible Study ornament exchange on the 10th (crazy--I usually stress the day of!). (Lest you start thinking I'm on top of things, I haven't actually figured out how Noble's leaving school TODAY...so there's that. I'm still me.) I'm determined to be less ME and more intentional this holiday season, friends. Sure, I'll probably blow it, but I figure if I start out and I visualize a season of peace and focus, maybe, just maybe, we'll hit the mark some days. And those other days? Well, there's grace for that. And there's grace for you, too, lovelies.
Blessings to you, sweet friends, and big hugs. Kristi