{Worldly Detox: Step 2} Clothing

Ok, so I am officially off of Facebook for 4 months now. After the initial transition stage of breaking a habit, I can truly tell you that I don't miss it. Im over it. ;)

But, of course God didn't stop there! Facebook was only the first of many areas the Lord began to ask me about in my life.

 "Do you NEED this?"
"Does this distract you from me?"
"Isn't your resistant to giving it up enough to show you how it's separating you from me?"


Ouch. How do you say no to that? Well, I can tell you how....you say no. You justify. You try to distract God with the other GOOD things you are doing. You think he'll give up eventually if you put enough other stuff into your life to draw closer to him. Reality? This nudge is not for him, it's for YOU. The blessing that awaits us is so huge and God knows that! It's our silly narrow human view that makes us think his way is just going to deprive us of something we really want. Wrong. His way will bring blessings abounding....in lasting ways. In ways that don't need to be filtered by Most Recent of Top Stories. If we can take our eyes off the things of this earth and set our gaze on him, the stresses, failure, guilt, shame, frustration, anger, impatience, pride, searching.....you get the idea....it all begins to melt away. The God of the universe has SO much more for us than this world is trying to stuff us with. But I will tell you what Im learning....you canNOT have both. You can't. Im not saying it's all sinful. Im just saying moderation is PIVOTAL in keeping your heart open to the Lord. There is just too much out there, so easily at our finger tips, that we don't leave room for the Lord to speak and show up. We might bring our prayers to him daily, even all through out the day, but than we hit refresh and are onto something else.

We aren't being still and silent. We aren't waiting to hear him answer.

What sort of spoiled teenage attitude are we showcasing when we send a shout out to God asking to be delivered from that circumstances and feelings we are drowning in and than shut the door and invade our mind with something else. Literally, you are asking God to work miracles and than sliding your thumb to see some college friend's picture of freshly organized desk or their kid looking exceptionally cute, a random status about some irritating person on the drive to work, the funny thing their toddler started doing, a political rant, or even a praise to God for showing up in THIER life. These are the things we are blocking God with. HOW STUPID???!!!!??

Think about your daily routine. What things are consistent is distracting you, stressing you out, making you feel depressed or disappointed, or disconnected you from the people around you? What are things you think about daily that have no connection to your eternal salvation or other's? We all have things. They may be different, but we all of them, and we HAVE to start filtering them out.

Through this journey God has put several things on my heart. Yes, I could be a saint and say, "Take it all God! All I need is you! I dont need anything but to bask in your presence!" And I wish I could. But God knows my resistance. He knows my journey. So instead of asking me to give it all up at once, he has been so tender in giving me a heads up and then calling me to things specifically in steps. The next step he called me to was to simplify my wardbrobe.

A friend of mine read a book on simplifying and stripping away material items in her life. To be honest, I haven't read the book or have any idea what it's called. But, the idea stuck with me. Im a bargain shopper. My clothes are probably 80% clearance rack or Goodwill. This is all good and well, but it tends to make you think you can get more. I have so many clothes in my closet its ridiculous. Not to mention the 4 tubs I've had stashed over the last 7 years that have rotated through. I have a 10 size range through my pregnancy journeys so I had tubs from size 4-14, Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Plus a maternity tote. It was insane. It has felt so good to detox by getting rid of a lot of those tubs and shrinking down the ones Im keeping. But still, my closet is insane. And like most girls, I stand in front my closet depressed and stressed because "I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR." Oh please, woman. The problem is I have too many options its overwhelming. And how many times has this stress carried into the rest of my day, effecting how I treat my kids, how confident I am out in public, or whether or not I attend certain things? How is that glorifying God or drawing me closer to him? Right, it's not. So here is my next detox.....

Going parallel with the idea of the book, I am limiting myself to 12 items (I think the book says 7, plus Im giving myself a break because Im including 'public appropriate sweat's for morning drop off :-)) for the next month. I can only wear these twelve items. I also pulled out a shirt for Levi's birthday party and an outfit for Easter.

For the next month I have:
-2 t shirts
-2 tank tops
-2 button up shirts
-2 cardigans
-1 sweatshirts
-3 jeans

-3 pairs of shoes

Drop off clothes:
-1 pair yoga pants
-1 sweatshirt

I am also not buying any clothing items during the next month and at the end of the month will get rid of at LEAST one tub worth of clothes (hopefully more).

I bagged up all other clothes in my closet and covered up my shoes.

I will be starting this tomorrow and going through the whole month of April. I feel motivated, but Im sure it'll get hard. I have never been one to wear the same thing twice, so this is stretching me. But I think it will be freeing and I know with complete certainty, God will meet me in my journey.

Anybody want to join me?!

{Worldly Detox: Step 1} Facebook

As the new year began to turn over, I, like everyone else, began to ponder the age old (*ahem*...stupid) question: What should my New Year's Resolution be?

I say stupid because, come on people, what is the point of setting a goal you know you will end up not keeping or succeeding at? It's just a way of setting up a time of guilt somewhere in the near future. Let's be honest- if you are the type of people to set goals and honestly achieve them, you don't need the flip of a calendar to give you a reason to do so. You do this sort of thing all year round. The rest of us who desire change but aren't necessarily the self motivated, bring it on, conquer it all type are merely setting up a goal that will NOT be lived up to. However....

Several years ago on the first Sunday of the year our pastor preached on... (ok I don't remember the actual sermon, but this one statement stuck with me.....for the long haul). He said something to the effect of, "Forget about New Years resolutions. The only thing that should matter at the turn of the year is that you are closer to God now than you were a year ago." This is the only resolution I will ever commit to. Every year I ask myself , 'What can I do this year to draw me closer to God so that when I enter the next year, I am that much more in tune with the spirit, that I recognize God in my life more than before, and that I am giving Him even more of my life than I had been previously?'

All that to say, at the turn of the year I asked myself that question once again. The last year was a doozy; I held my best friend's hand as she walked the loss of her 4 year old son. I gave birth to my third child and bared the exhaustion, sleepless nights, and stress of all that comes with having a newborn. My oldest started first grade in public school. My middle started preschool. It was a LOT in one year. But also in that year, I experienced so much of God's beauty it would take a whole other (long) post just to pour all of that out. As I reflected on all of this I felt the weight of it all come crashing down. I felt so wiped out I could hardly function. It was as if in the moment I finally said it all out loud, the reality of it hit me like a wave. I realized how exhausted I was and I cried out to the Lord for strength. I knew that God would sustain me as he had over the last year, but I felt like there was a part of the weight I was bearing that I didn't need to be. The reality of the life situations that I faced every day was soul tiring. If I was going to battle these things with strength and wholeness, I needed to rid myself of anything that did not need to be there. The inevitable weight was enough by itself. I needed to start stripping away unnecessary weights and stresses.

Going into the New Year I had already decided to officially end my 7 year photography journey. I was currently on a 'break' after having my son last Spring so luckily it didn't feel like a night and day difference, but this was the real thing. It wasn't a break, it was the end. I took down my photography Facebook page and deleted my website account. Completely gone, no turning back. I enjoyed my journey while it lasted and am so grateful for the experience God gave me, but I felt assurance on my heart after much prayer over this decision. Check! Deep breath.

Next I began to question Facebook. The amount of time I would spend quickly paroosing my newsfeed was ridiculous. I didnt sit in front of my computer all day or anything, but even just having it on my phone, I found myself clicking on the app out of habit. And even more, I would realize that I really didn't care or need to know and see ANY of what I had just spent the last few minutes scrolling through! I would get on when I was nursing my baby when I could be spending that time quiet and praying over him. It was enhancing this instant update need our culture is developing. These reasons and more were enough to convince me of the obvious: I didn't need Facebook. Account ->deleted. Check! Deep breath.

(Update after being off for 4 months.....)

I can tell you a few things about getting off of Facebook:
1.) There is a detox stage where you go to the icon on your phone by habit (luckily I had replaced it with my bible app....how's that for perspective?!) This last about a week. Maybe 2 depending on what you replace the icon with.
2.) Once the detox stage is over it will hit you as to how addicted you really were....and how it was so pointless and unnecessary. You'll feel encouraged.
3.) It's freeing.
4.) The world runs on Facebook. You will miss out on news in your friend's lives. You wont be included on group messages. You wont get to see fun pictures or know about special deals company are running. It's okay. The people you really care about will keep you in the loop when you need to be. Filtering true friends....a bonus!
5.) I wont lie- I have hopped on my husband's from time to time to check my close friend's personal pages for pictures posted and to check our small group's page to find details on our weekly meeting, etc. As much as I wish everyone would get off Facebook, it's not happening. So, I am thankful that I have access to it for a few reasons, but even if that wasn't the case, I WOULD SURVIVE. Crazy, right? :)

If you have been feeling this same pull to detox from Facebook, I encourage you to give it a try. Give yourself a week- it will expose to you your addiction. Give yourself a month and you'll realize you don't need it. Don't feel convicted over this? No problem! But I know with absolute certainty there is something God wants you to give up. There is something in this constant, busy, instant world that he wants you to strip away. You can shrug off the Facebook challenge, but don't close your heart....God wants to call you out on something, Im certain of it.

Will you listen?

I'll post when my next detox area starts up and share my thoughts and process on that as well! If you're feeling some of these same convictions, join me in this journey!

Scratch it Valentines

Pinterest is saturated with little Valentine ideas. In fact, its pretty hysterical that all these preschoolers across the nation have these super fancy, creative valentines when really what they really want is Toy Story or Barbie ones with a box of candy hearts. Maybe next year, but for now I decided to join in with the other Pintermoms (I just made that up) and make some fun creative cards for Landon's classmates.

I decided on the scratch it valentines. It was SO easy (like, seriously if you are an actual friend of mine, not just a reader, just know you will be getting some form of scratch it gift for your birthday.)

Here are my 'pretending to be a How To blogger' photos.

(***I totally don't want to be stealing someone's idea but I cant figure out how to link the Pin here. If you go to my Pinterest its on there. I promise)

How To:
*Design/print your scratch it
*Mount onto cardstock
*Cover with some form of sticky plastic (the tutorial said contact paper, but I didnt have any so I used packing tape. Worked great.)
*Mix 2 parts metallic acrylic paint with 1 part dish soap.
*Paint over scratch it section. (you could probably be a little neater with your paint but Im so not a perfectionist I didnt take the time. And, it was for kids.)
*Let dry...and scratch away!

Here are Landon's

 He signed the back of ALL 24 of them! And, we added a penny to the baggy so they could scratch them.

 Action shot (ignore my nail polish)

 Ooooo so close.... (teehee)

 Voila!

I also made a few little scratch its for the Mr. with the left over paint.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

Weekly Cleaning Schedule

A friend mentioned to me awhile ago about this site that you could personalize and purchase a daily cleaning schedule. The idea is to never have to spend the whole day cleaning, but rather conquering specific tasks each day and staying on top of it. Since she mentioned it to me I have on more than one occasion text her asking, "WHAT WAS THAT SITE AGAIN?!" (each time following a crazy person meltdown after cleaning my entire house all day long, only to have it destroyed in a days time.) Now, I've decided to come to terms with the fact that my house will never be 'clean' in the sense that every room is dusted, clean, organized, folded, etc. all at once. And if it is, it wont last that way through the afternoon. And you know what? That's ok. It means little lives are happening in our humble abode.

That said, there are certain tasks that just HAVE to be done, even if it feels like I never stop cleaning-EVER. I recently had one of the said breakdowns and went to text my friend (having forgotten the site yet again) only to remember she was IN LABOR. I figured I wouldn't bug her with a menial question. (I know, I know...I'm an overly thoughtful friend, what can I say?)

So, what's a girl to do? I sat down and made a list of each room and ALL the tasks that need to be done in those rooms. I then typed them out and assigned them a day of the week. Funny thing, as I looked over it I realized that doing one room a day would take no time at all! (It's that Everyday section that still makes me fight off tears of exhaustion).

 Anyway, I decided I would post it here incase it would seem helpful to any of you. Everyone's house is different but it could at least give you a start.

And, if you want a personalized version in this format to frame or do something cute with, email me!

(Dont mind the made phone pic. My camera is packed up from a shoot and I didn't want to dig it out.)

Happy Cleaning!