Little Things I Do Daily

Phew, what a week!

I am sitting here feeling like I just went through a war in this past week. Anyone else feel like this when their kids have been sick? We had a nasty bug go through our house and it’s been absolute survival mode over here. I’m bummed because I had some really fun blog posts planned for this week and some of them were fun link-ups that I completely missed… bummer! My Friday review didn’t happen last week, I had wanted to join with 10 on the 10th, Share Our Lives, and today’s Let’s Look link-up is a bit later than I would like it to be.

Here is the thing about my life right now…it is very full. I know that most people would describe their lives in the same way. Full. Busy. It’s not all bad…in fact, most of it is GOOD! But I feel like we have no margin in our lives. So when things are going “well”, we can maintain our equilibrium, but as soon as something out of routine happens, we are all knocked completely off kilter. But the problem with having so many small children who get sick when someone *looks* at them is that it feels like we are always spinning off kilter.

And then I feel this self-inflicted guilt that it’s my own fault that our lives are so full and if I just did x, y and z I wouldn’t have to struggle so much through the hard weeks. But if I was talking to a friend, I would be giving them compassion and grace and trying to support their needs as things that are completely out of their control whack them off kilter, so why can’t I tell myself that, too?

Anyways….onto way more fun and lighthearted topics!!!

Today’s Let’s Look Topic is….Let’s Look at the Little Things I Do Daily.

I have a strong opinion that consistency is what builds the foundation for change and for excellence in all areas of life. We don’t all have the same circumstances, and with all the things that I currently have on my plate I just cannot do all that someone else may be able to do. But if I continue to consistently do what I can do, this will make a huge difference over time. I also think that it’s all these little moments and habits make the safest and most stable childhoods for our kids.

Now. See my above rant. It currently feels like every time I almost get a good daily routine down, something happens and I am knocked completely off. So I honestly can’t say that I do all of these things daily…but I do most of these things consistently.

• Read a book
• Read my Bible/daily devotions
• Cook dinner
• Brush my teeth
• Talk/chat/spend time with my kids
• Text someone
• Talk with Theo – whether in person or through text/phone call
• House chores and 1 load of laundry
• Dishes
• Feed/water the animals
• Very consistently I spend time outside
• Scroll social media
• Worry about things I can’t control

Things that I really wish I could do more consistently on a daily basis

• Work on my blog
• Work out or at least go for a walk outside
• Work on my cross-stitch
• Encourage/help someone (hi, I’m an enneagram two)

I’m really interested in reading all the other responses to this prompt!

Since today is Valentines Day, I am joining (late) with the Share our Lives link-up and sharing how I met Theo!

The short answer is that we met at while attending college at Cedarville University. The long answer is way more fun, though…

Our freshmen year of college both Theo and I were in a biology class taught by the same professor, but during different class times. The class was very tough and the exams were worth a lot of our grade, so the professor offered study sessions outside of class time to both different sections of his class. I arrived at the study session and sat in the back with one seat open next to me. Lo and behold, this tall guy rushes in a bit late and takes the last remaining seat. Throughout the study session, we introduced ourselves and found out that we had some things in common. We continued to attend this extra study sessions and managed to continue to sit next to each other. We then arranged to study together outside of the extra study sessions…and then we began texting (back when you had to pay per text LOL), then emailing, and then getting together outside of anything related to studying. By April of Freshmen year we were officially dating and got married the summer of my junior year (Theo graduated college in 3 years, so it was after his senior year, even though we were both freshmen at the same time). What is funny is that both of us came to college NOT interested in a relationship. HAHA. We will be married for 12 years this summer! About 5 years into our marriage when we had a couple of children, we were eating at a Chipotle when we saw the biology professor eating with his family. I had never actually spoken to the guy, but we walked up to him and introduced our family and told him that our sweet little family would never have come to be if his class hadn’t been so dang hard! He really got a kick out of that- probably tells the story in his classes nowadays haha.

Ok, if you are still here by the end of that….bless you! I hope that you can receive some encouragement from the fact that sometimes life is just a little bit more challenging than we would like it to be.