Seasonal Living

What Is Saving My Life Right Now 2020

February 3, 2020 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Every year I enjoy linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy to reflect on what is saving my life right now when we are smack in the middle of winter. Although this year has been a little different. We have hardly had any snow so far this winter (although it looks like winter this week). I’ve been in a pretty good place so far this year but maybe that’s because of the things I have been practicing.

Reading! I have really upped my game the last couple of years and read a lot more. It inspires me, encourages me, and entertains me to read a variety of different books. And this year I have made it a goal to read one book a week and to mostly read books I already own. I am keeping a book list of the books I am reading this year. Here is the link if you’d like to check it out: http://mamakay.com/WordPress/2020-book-list/
Exercising in the Morning with my husband. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but truly, I feel more energetic when we do a 30 minute exercise video in the morning. We got a subscription the the Daily Burn channel on Amazon and it has been a great fit for us.
Joining Online Coaching Groups. I joined this group by Crystal Paine and it has given me so much focus and energy to pour into my online work. If you work online I highly recommend doing this! (Registration for this group ends tomorrow, Feb 4th, so hurry if you want to join.)
My morning time. I have had to be flexible with my time but the more consistent I am with doing it, the better my days are. I plan my day, read my Bible, copy a passage and write a prayer in my Write the Word journal and read from a spiritual book. (Right now I am reading Beholding and Becoming by Ruth Chou Simons.)
Baking bread is saving my life right now! I always used to bake bread but had let the busyness of life get in the way. This year I want to reclaim my love of baking. My favorite things to bake are bread and cookies. They are a way I can use my hands to do physical work and my family feels loved (and less hungry) when I make these things for them.

What is saving your life right now? I would love to hear!

Habits Shape Your Identity

January 9, 2020 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Habits shape your identity and your identity shapes your habits.
Atomic Habits by James Clear

Habits are the things we do each and every day for good or bad that make up who we are. They are choices we make each day of what we do and how we think (how privileged we are to be able to have so many choices). The good (and bad) thing about habits is that we often do them without even thinking about it. That’s why it is so hard to change.

As we start the new year we can think of so many things we want to change! But come February we have completely given up the hope of changing. What if there was a different way? And it doesn’t matter what day it is. There is nothing magical about January 1st! Here are some ideas to help you be successful in changing your habits.

Decide Your Identity

According to James Clear if you want to change your habits one of the things you need to need is to change what you think about yourself. By identifying yourself in a different way you will start to do the things that that type of person does

When you think about it — your actual life and identity is made up of all the little habits you practice all throughout your day. If you think of yourself as a healthy person you will choose to do things like exercise, drink water and eat healthy foods. If you think of yourself as a reader you will spend time reading whenever you get the chance.

Start Small

Start small and you will have better success. Pick one thing you want to change. Break it down into small chunks that are easier to accomplish and give you the feeling of accomplishment to help you continue to move forward.

For example, if you want to be more active the first small step would be to put on tennis shoes each morning. Once that is your regular routine add something more like doing some stretches. Maybe buying a fitness tracker so that you are more aware of how much activity you do each day would be a great next step. Next you could walk around the block each day. Each small step helps you to establish good habits that you will be able to maintain over time.

Body, Soul and Mind

I like to group the habits I want to establish in terms of body, soul and mind. Things to consider for the Body are drinking water, exercising, eating a salad, drinking a smoothie, getting enough sleep. For the Soul: reading the Bible, praying, listening to worship music, being still before God. For the Mind: reading, writing and listening to podcasts.

Habit Tracking

Keeping a habit tracker is very motivating for me. I have used many different forms from a hand drawn chart in my bullet journal to the one included on my tending sheet in Powersheets to the Loop Habit Tracker App on my phone. Sign up below to receive a Habit Tracker I created for you. There is something about seeing my progress that makes me want to keep it going.

Resources for Working on Your Habits:

Being intentional about choosing your habits, making sure to start small and then tracking them can make all the difference in creating the life you want and being the person you want to be. Don’t try to do everything at once. Just pick one thing and go from there.

MamaKay

You also might be interested in reading more from my previous posts here:

January Reflections

Hello Mornings

Reflect on What I Learned This Fall ~ 2019

December 3, 2019 by mamakay 2 Comments

I believe that taking time to reflect regularly on our lives is vital to good mental health. Emily P Freeman offers the opportunity to join her and others do just that every quarter. I am linking up with her once again to name what I learned this fall.

Quiet is good but I get antsy if it is too quiet. I also am more overwhelmed by the noise levels when everyone comes home.
I need more active steps in my life. Now that the weather has changed going for walks doesn’t work out so much for me and I have already become more sedentary. I made it a baby step goal to stop at the gym after dropping off my preschooler and do a mile on the treadmill at least 2 days a week. It takes less than 20 minutes so I still have time to do other things but at least I get some movement into my day.
Some friends introduced me to Marco Polo and I love using it to keep in touch with my sisters. We had been texting but I just love getting to see their faces and their lives since we live so far apart.
I need accountability! When I signed up for the Monetize Your Blog course I paid extra for a one month long accountability group. I made more progress in that month than in the 6+ months before that!
Monday mornings at home are necessary for me to get my act together after the weekend. I use that time to regroup, do laundry, do dishes, meal plan and check in with our budget on YNAB. I also get a lot done on my blog work. Mondays are my most productive day of the week.
I prefer going to the morning Ladies Bible study instead of the evening one. Driving in the dark has always been harder for me so the mornings work out much better. I can run a couple errands in town afterwards. Plus it is just much less stressful than adding one more thing into our busy Wednesday schedule.
I’m not there yet and that’s okay. I always want to rush through the hard parts to get to the finished product but I’m an enneagram 9 and slow is a fact of life for me. I am working to be content plodding along. As I reflect on this, I just need to stay consistent and keep moving forward especially when it is taking longer than it is fun.

Do you take time to reflect regularly in your life? What have you learned this fall?

MamaKay

Past Link ups for What I Have Learned: http://mamakay.com/WordPress/category/whatilearned/

Weekly Planning Sessions

September 27, 2019 by mamakay Leave a Comment

My best days start with a weekly planning session on Sunday afternoon. I gather up my google calendar, my Power Sheets, my bullet journal, my Simplified Planner, my favorite pens, a tasty beverage and I pull up some good tunes on Spotify.

It just takes a few minutes to look over what I did last week and select a happy memory from the week to write in my planner. Then I add any accomplishments to my tending sheet in my Power Sheet workbook. I try not to focus too much on what didn’t happen but just move the things forward that still need attending to and let the ones go that can’t be helped.

Next, I shift my focus to the coming week checking my google calendar and writing any events on the daily pages of my planner and any to dos on the appropriate day. Visualizing the week ahead of time really helps me so I am not caught unaware.

I check through my brain dumps in my bullet journal to see if there is anything I can add to my to do lists for the week. Then I write it down on the appropriate day.

This usually takes me about 30-45 minutes. I come away feeling refreshed and confident about what needs to be done over the next few days. I look forward to this time every week and really miss it when it doesn’t happen.

Afterwards, I like to have a family meeting to spend a few minutes talking about everyone’s plans and schedules for the week. That way we all know what is going on. We add everyone’s schedules to our white board to keep us all informed. My ideal is to have a fun dessert to bring everyone together as they usually aren’t that fond of having family meetings.

Do you have a weekly planning session? What does it look like?

What I Learned This Summer 2019

August 30, 2019 by mamakay 3 Comments

It is hard to believe that summer is coming to an end all ready but I am here for it! I am linking up with Emily P Freeman to share my list of what I learned this summer.

The biggest lesson I got this summer was a bit cliche but I learned that I need to take better care of my body. I got my first physical in several years and found out my vitamin D levels were “the worst the doctor had ever seen” and that my cholesterol was too high. I am working to establish sustainable habits to take better care of myself. Focusing on taking my vitamins (including megadoses of Vitamin D), drinking more water, eating salads everyday and getting to the gym three times a week has helped a lot.
Annie F. Downs’ podcast series called the EnneaSummer2019 helped me as I have continued to learn about the enneagram this summer. I highly recommend it if you want to dive deeper into the enneagram. Suzanne Stabile’s book called The Path Between Us really helped me apply the enneagram to help me build better relationships with those I love.
I am totally obsessed with the Caesar Salad Kit from Costco. Throw in some chicken and its a complete meal!
Another thing I learned this summer is that Naan bread (also from Costco) makes an awesome base for individual pizzas.
We got to have a family camping trip with my dad, stepmom, sisters and their families this summer and it was the best! I really want to make this a regular thing!
Air fryers are terrific for making your food crisp and not heating up the kitchen in the summer. This is the one we got. I love that it doubles as a toaster oven. I don’t love the timer so we use a separate timer.

How about you? What did you learn this summer? I would love to hear!

Messianic Passover Seder Dinner

April 13, 2019 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Many, many years ago some friends of ours introduced us to celebrating a passover seder dinner. We have celebrated it every year since. Although the Jewish observance of Passover doesn’t always line up with Easter, we always celebrate it during Holy Week. As Christians we celebrate the Lord’s Supper frequently as a reminder of Jesus’s sacrifice and his last night. A Passover Seder dinner is the full version of what Jesus would have partaken of on that last night of his life.

I found Celebrating Biblical Feasts by Martha Zimmerman to be a great resource. We use her Messianic Haggadah every year. It is a very good version for doing as a family and isn’t quite as long as a traditional haggadah. You can download a copy of it here

Seder dinner is an interactive reading with foods representing different parts of the story. Everyone has a copy of a haggadah that they read from. Some parts the leader reads, some parts are responses read by the rest of the family. Even the smallest child gets a part. I recommend reading through it ahead of time so you will be prepared. The whole reading and dinner takes about an hour and a half. Make sure to have your dinner all prepped and ready to go. The meal is served about 45 minutes into the ceremony.

What you need for the Ceremony:

Place settings for the number of people you have invited plus one more for Elijah
A copy of the Haggadah for each person
A jacket to put on the back of the chair for each person
A pillow on for the seat of the leader
At least two white cloth napkins for covering the afikomen (we use Matzo crackers)
Two candles on the table (lighting them will be included in the ceremony)
A pitcher, bowl and towel are also needed for the hand washing ceremonies.
A small bowl of salt water for each person
Plenty of Wine or Grape Juice

We have found that by practicing Passover we can pause as a family to appreciate the salvation we have received through Jesus. It shows God’s plan all through history to provide a sacrifice once and for all through his Son. So many times in our culture holidays turn into another reason to stuff ourselves with sweets and be greedy. This holiday slows everything down and helps us to focus on what really matters. I hope that it can be a blessing for your family as well.

We who are Christians can rejoice as we keep the Passover in remembrance of our own slavery to sin. We know that with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm the Lord our God rescued us. So that is why, even though we might all be wise, learned, full of experience and understanding, knowing God’s Word well, it is still our responsibility to tell the story of the going out from Egypt and to praise the Lord.
Celebrating Biblical Feasts