2015 Challenge: Being Mentally Present

What a beautiful day MLK day was! Matt and I took advantage of the sunshine and went for a bike ride down to Matthew’s Beach. Blue skies and white puffy clouds was a welcome change in weather after a week of rain. We haven't gone on a bike ride together since August so we jumped at the opportunity to explore the Seattle area more. 

For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to form a new year’s resolution for myself – a phrase I could focus on that would effect several areas of my life. On Sunday I heard the phrase "mentally present" and I knew it was something I could work on. Our bike ride was the first step in meeting my challenge of being mentally present. Sounds kind of weird right? 

Too often I find myself on my phone mindlessly perusing Facebook, reading random articles on my laptop, or binge watching Netflix all day. When I'm not engaged in these activities I plan - I plan out my to-do list, grocery shopping, potential meals, fun vacations we'd love to take but can't afford right now... etc. All these things aren't bad necessarily, but the amount of time I spend on them prevents me from living in the moment and accomplishing my priorities like exercise, bible time and spending time with family and friends. I want to break my habit of pushing things off and telling myself I'll do them later, because I don't. Which is why I'm challenging myself to form new habits that will make me a more joyful person who is engaged in the moment.  

Here are my initial baby steps to living mentally present! 

1. I did not ask my parents for the new Netflix password :) I removed the temptation (even though I'm really sad that I cannot watch Friends..) 
2. Join the Bored and Brilliant: The Lost Art of Spacing Out project. It's a challenge to help you detach from your phone and spend more time thinking creatively. 
3. Find an accountability buddy to stay motivated. So far I have two! One for exercise and one for bible time. 
4. Say "yes" to time with friends and family. Hence, the bike ride on Monday. 

Did you make any New Year's Resolutions or challenges for yourself? 

White Christmas

Oh man, did I take my sweet time getting my thoughts down. I swear 2/3 of this post was done in December! 

Holidays bring mixed emotions for me, now that I'm married and have two families to spend time with. No matter where Matt and I go, one of us has moments of grief for the traditions, relationships and memories we had with our families before marriage.

Before we left for Boise, Pastor Richard Dahlstrom gave a sermon on the upcoming holidays and the frustration that comes with them (1Thes 5:16-18). He explained that many of us look forward to the holidays and the joy they bring, but holidays may also reveal the disappointing gap between our expectations and reality. For Matt and I, most of our disappointment during the holidays stems from experiencing unfamiliar traditions and missing others. Overall, Matt and I are still learning how to adjust our expectations as we alternate holidays and try to blend our family traditions together. 

When we booked our plane tickets for Boise I was pretty nervous. Through a few life events, our two-week trip was extended to three weeks, and I was concerned about spending that much time with my in-laws, and the grandparents in a city I wasn’t familiar with. Matt was planning on studying a couple hours every day so I was left to wonder what on earth I was going to do to occupy my time.

Luckily, the break went much better than expected. The first few days were pretty rough as we adjusted into the family routine surrounded by the chaos of remodeling. Many tears were shed and lots of chocolate was consumed J But as the days flew by, things got better. We did had a few ups and downs as we handled the gap between our expectations and reality of being home for the holidays, but that's family. There were moments when we reminisced for the holiday traditions we had growing up – it's hard not expecting them to be the same, and when they don’t go as planned, it's even more disappointing.  

I think it will be a few more years before we embrace alternating holidays because we’re still acclimating to different holiday traditions.  Currently we try to blend our family traditions by including special food items or family activities that are important to Matt and I. For example, Matt lamented (a lot) about missing his mom’s sausage stuffing at Thanksgiving, so I made it for him at my parents’ house. Similarly, my family always watches the Disney Christmas Parade, so Matt made sure to watch suffer through it with me on Christmas morning, haha. However, the best part of alternating holidays is the late night conversations spent planning our own future family traditions based off our favorite memories.  

Despite the bumps along the way, Matt and I were blessed to take full advantage of the holidays by spending them all with family thanks to my flexible work schedule as a nanny. Last year, my work schedule only permitted us a few days off, so time with family was short-lived. We love our families and the time we have to spend with them; spending a week with my parents in Salem for Thanksgiving and three weeks in Boise with my in-laws was wonderful. I’m thankful we used all the time available to see our families because we’re not sure if or when we’ll have this much time again.

I hope you also had a wonderful and memorable holiday season with your family!

Here are some of our favorite 2014 Christmas memories.

I loved watching home movies of Matt when he was little

Cheering on BSU to win the Fiesta Bowl!

So much fun playing with Moki 

First time snowshoeing

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, 

give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18