Tuesday, January 07, 2014

A Year of Learning to Balance

Happy New Year (again)! There's something about a fresh start to the year that has me excited! I have to say I am so happy to say goodbye to 2013. It was not the best year for me. Without going into too much detail, I went through some health issues that have caused me to make some major changes in my life. I found out that I am gluten intolerant and fructose intolerant so the most significant change I have made is to my diet. It has been a long road of trial and error discovering what I can and can't eat. I had many, many days last year where I just felt sooooo sick and couldn't do much of anything. You might remember me posting last June how I was experiencing vertigo. Well, that vertigo lasted the better part of four months. It was not a fun time in my life and it caused a lot of anxiety that I am still trying to process. 


I spent a lot of time praying and trying to figure out what God was trying to teach me through all of this. I came to the conclusion that God wanted me to be more intentional in how I was spending my time. I have always been a "go, go, go" type of person and I firmly felt God telling me to slow down. I don't need to do everything. I don't need to be superwoman or supermom. I don't need to be "crazy busy". My kids don't need to be involved in every activity or have play dates all the time. (They are only four and even still, we need to be protective of the activities they are involved in). I don't need constant obligations that take me away from where I am needed most.

What I have discovered is what I do need!

1) I need regular dates with my husband and time discussing our life as a family.
2) I need to stop and PLAY with my kids. Be less distracted and more engaged.
3) I need to take care of myself. Eat small meals consistently throughout the day and focus on protein. I need to moderately exercise - I just can't handle high impact exercise. Completely cut out gluten and sugar (or at least learn to suffer the consequences if I indulge.)
4) I need to start my day reading God's Word. It helps my focus and gives me strength for the day. This fall, I also became a part of a women's Bible study group. I had not participated in a Bible study since before the girls were born. It's been a much needed experience for me and I really enjoy our discussions. 
5) I need to continue making healthy meals for my family. I love to cook and bake and my new diet has been great for helping us to eat better. I am making more changes to what we are eating and trying a lot of new recipes and modifying them to meet our needs.
6) I need to be okay with saying, "No!" Part of saying "no" includes saying it to myself.
7) I need to be okay with staying home. I can't focus on what I need to do if we are constantly gone.
8) I need to read books again. I have always been a voracious reader but somewhere in the last year or so, I stopped. The past few months have been full of reading and I have loved it. (Along with great fiction titles, I have been reading a lot of Christian parenting books and learning so much. Books I wish I had read two years ago!!)
9) I would like to pick back up hobbies I used to enjoy - crocheting and embroidery. It's been way too long since I have made anything!
10) I want to take better care of what we have been given. We have some rather simple improvements we want to make to our home - painting, etc. and work more on organizing/purging/maintaining our things. Less is more! And maybe leaning towards being a minimalist is not a bad idea.
11) This year we will be making a major decision on what to do for the girls' first year of school. Part of our discussion has been about homeschooling. I knew that if we even considered homeschooling, I would need to prioritize my life even more. 



I don't necessarily consider these resolutions for 2014 but rather goals. And I began implementing almost all of them this fall. I cannot even begin to tell you the difference making these changes have made in my life. I am much happier, more focused and less stressed! My husband has noticed a much improved change in my attitude towards him and my kids that came mostly in how protective I am of our time. I want to focus my life in terms of QUALITY instead of QUANTITY. Part of that focus included me resigning from a couple design teams. I am continuing to design for a few companies because I do really enjoy it but keeping my commitments to much less. I will weigh any future opportunities if they come about and see how they fit into my life. 



I want to do less WELL instead of more at a hectic, crazy pace. I would love to share more about my journey at a later date and maybe do more recipes and reviews of books I am reading in a future blog post. Even though it took a health scare to wake me up and give me a reality check, I am thankful to God for every valley He brings me through. He has shown me time and time again that He is faithful and that His plan is much better than any I have for myself. 

**Layout created with the Gossamer Blue January kit**

14 comments:

  1. I think you have very positive goals, and some I've even applied to my own life. Slowing down is HARD for a mother to do. The constant demands of every day life force us to keep going and going and going- and I too have to just remind myself that it's okay to sit down and RELAX. Enjoy. It's so hard.

    I've found too that reading the Bible in the morning and praying in the morning results in a much more positive and focused day than if I don't. I also do a Bible study with a few women on Monday afternoons for 3 hours or so while the kids are napping. This is my favorite way to start out my week. Study tools are awesome too- I have a printout for reading the Bible in order in a year. And I have a calendar that provides a daily study on how to handle stress relief via the Bible. All these things help SO much and motivate me to be a better mom, wife, and person in general.

    Good luck to you in this year! I hope your diet helps the health problems- one of my Bible study gals has struggled with the same and has seen drastic differences since cutting gluten and any corn products from her diet. I personally wouldn't know where to start! So good luck to you :)

    xErin

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    1. Thanks, Erin! I appreciate your comments and perspective so much!

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  2. I love the layout Jill, and how you used it to document your goals! And I agree with all you said. I think a lot of parents are over committing small children these days, and when they ask how they grew up so fast, I think that's a part of it. Our oldest is 7, and she does one activity, piano. Our 6 year old didn't want to do anything this year, so we didn't push her into anything. We also keep them home and only let them have occasional play dates with friends....there will ve plenty of time for stuff like that when they are older. We have been homeschooling for 3 years and love it. It does definitely take balance and some days it's just mass craziness, but I think it's worth it. If you have any questions, I would be happy to help, if I can!

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    1. Thank you, Ashley! I grew up in small town where everyone was involved in EVERYTHING and so it's basically all I know. It's been a major change for me, for sure. When the girls started preschool this year, I was getting approached about play dates and it was stressing me out! At this age, three days a week of preschool seemed to be plenty of play time outside of our home. We do AWANA at our church once a week too and that's a great time with friends. One of the parenting books I just read asked some good questions about how to weigh the value of outside activities and we are definitely taking that to heart! It's so funny but if you had asked me 4 or 5 years ago if I would homeschool, I would have said "no". My excuse (albeit selfish) was that I just didn't have the patience or personality to do it. And now I feel like I am the one who is really feeling called to do it! And how much it really is less about me and more about what is best for my kids! Another great wake up call for me! :)

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  3. Beautifully written post. My son is the same age as your girls and so I feel very connected to a lot of what you wrote. Love the layout too!

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    1. Thank you, Izzy! I think age 4 has been my favorite age so far. More and more I just want to soak up every moment! :)

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  4. Amen Jill, I hope to slow down (somehow) this year too.:) I love to chat with you face to face soon!!!

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    1. Thanks, Carrie! It's been surprisingly easier than I thought to let it all go! :)

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  5. Thanks so much for sharing your process with us, Jill! I pray that you will continue to reap the benefits of what you have been sowing... Isn't it awesome how patient God is in pursuing us, so we can truly live the abundant life He intends for us?! I'm so grateful for that!

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    1. Thank you so much for your sweet comments, Sara! God is much more patient than I am, that's for sure! I'm grateful too!

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  6. First and foremost I love your LO. I too suffered vertigo in 2013, from Feb to the end of April phewww!! so I can totally relate! Take care! TFS

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    1. Isn't vertigo horrible? I didn't drive either during that time so that made life pretty difficult. Hope you were able to figure out what caused it! Thanks for your comments today!

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  7. another beautiful LO!! Hope your 2014 is much better..x

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    1. Thanks, Leanne! I'm looking forward to a better year! :)

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