Giving

 This time of the year everyone is always rushing around, stressing about the countdown til Christmas. I hope you take the time to be still, pause and appreciate what you have instead of always wanting more. Do for others this holiday. Donate your time and volunteer for something. Don't let it just end at Christmas time. Let it be an all year thing.

7:00

 Once the weather changes I live in this jacket! It's been my favorite since I bought over a year ago! If you can envision wearing a blanket out in public that is socially acceptable. That's what you get with this jacket. Can't beat the neutral color because it can be paired with literally anything. 

I added this band tee, mini skirt, cabbie hat and over the knee boots. 

Here we go again

As I’m writing this my room is a disaster. Full of clothes, suitcases, gear, etc. I can’t even see the floor.
I’m checking off things off the list and stressing and worrying about what is going to go wrong while I live that single mom life…. Again.

No this is not a divorce post, or even a deployment post. This is just a weird chapter in our lives that we swore we would never do. We chose to live separately while he does the Sgt Major academy. A year long school in Texas.
We never would’ve chose this if our lives weren’t where they are now.

The kids are getting older and have a routine, a system. And on the backend of covid and remote learning and all that came after that. Uprooting and moving for a year just to turn around and move again.

So, here we are. Dreading the move, yet wanting to get it over with. I am treating it like a deployment in my head. It makes it easier that way. But also planning out our visits through the months, busying our schedule with activities and what not. It definitely makes the time go by faster.

Now I’m off for another getaway. Going to the mountains with my man for an early anniversary trip.

I highly recommend doing that with your spouse. Prioritize your time alone together. Even if it’s not a big trip just a weekend or week or whatever. Even if you need to do a "stay-cation". Go someplace within a couple hours but do something you’ve never done. Life is too short to just sit at home doing the same old thing. We already did that during quarantine right?!

Love/Hate relationships

 

The older I get the more this becomes apparent. The more that I see the effects of social media makes me want to break up with it once and for all. I may have spoken on this topic already. The changes never stick because we aren't retraining our brains to think differently. Whether you are addicted to the scroll or constantly being made to feel bad about yourself from the constant comparison.  We can't stop we love to look at the pretty pictures. The places we want to go. The houses we want to have. The clothes we want, the body we want. The social life that seems to be more interesting and entertaining then our own. The personality that we wish we had if we could just get over the anxiety. The creativity we wish came so naturally.

What does all this do?

Leaves us wanting. Forces us into discontentment. Nothing is ever enough for us. It's a struggle even for the most content person. It's been around for ages. Since pre-school days. You wanted the toy that the other kid had even if you had a handful already. "Keeping up with the Jones's" was relevant in the early 90's. It made those housewives and middle age guys go crazy. 

We desperately need to put on this armor every morning. Finding joy and contentment in our present life. "Comparison is the thief of joy". That phrase is pure truth. It threatens to steal our identity, our mental health. Isn't that worth protecting. 

I encourage you to take your time to really take a look at your habits. Really try to understand what your triggers are and take those social media breaks. A life of peace, contentment and joy is worth way more than keeping up with everyones' false, perfectly curated content.

Philippians 4:11. “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” 

Matthew6:25-26  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 

 

 

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  

 

{Fashion} Floral Peasant Dress/ pros and cons of listmaking

 

 You know what has been in my head a lot lately. Lists. Always with the lists. It came to my attention last night and into this morning as me and the hubby finished a show on our Netflix list and I was able to take it off. I'm not sure why I am this way actually. You put a list in front of me and I have to do those things on the list. Netflix titles it "My list" well that just makes me want to watch everything on there so I can check it off. This can be good and it can be bad. I did a little research on it. The positive is making lists motivate you. It helps you focus and when you cross those things you feel a sense of accomplishment. A visual, tangible thing that you can see. Also, it's a great way if you are feeling stressed by all the tasks you have to do, it really helps to be able to brain dump them on a piece of paper so you can easily see them and get them done. I feel like those are the main reasons I do the lists. 

The bad however, it's hard to be present. You are always thinking of either making lists or checking things off your list. It's easy to become obsessed with feeling productive. I am definitely guilty of those things. It's hard to stop in the middle of being productive to eat food, or go to the bathroom. You feel like you are on a roll and you can't stop. You want to keep the flow of thought, creativity, and all those great things. If it gets interrupted you lose it all. 

That can also be the result of a creative person though too. Still figuring that all out. 

Some good advice that I did hear in terms of being productive and list making. Is make shorter lists. A list of 3-5 things to only accomplish that day. That will help to make the list less overwhelming as well. Have I taken this advice yet? No ...not at all. My list just keeps getting longer. I even find myself doing things and getting them done but they weren't on my list. So I will actually write them on my lists just so I can check them off. It's still being productive right? So, why not?

Are you obsessed with making lists like I am?

Or are you normal? Please tell me I'm not the only one?

Side note:

I wanted to add more interesting content with my outfit posts. So this is todays outfit. A floral peasant dress. Paired with a leather moto jacket, faux leather booties, and fedora fat.