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Another year, another attempt…

#momlife, Cancer journey, Crafting, General life, Health/wellness, Kids, Planners/stationary, Self-care

How has it been almost a year?? AGAIN?

I felt it was my time to share last year, but apparently it was still not quite time. I hope to share more one day, but for now, all I have time to do is write a quick post. It’s driving me a little insane to leave this website all wonky, unfinished, pages askew… oof. But it will have to wait.

So, then… the reason for this post?

My best friend and I have had many many talks about self care. We’ve had many talks about a lot of things lol, but as we’ve grown, gotten married, and had kids, mostly on similar timelines, we’ve learned a lot, and one of those things is that self care looks a lot different than most people imagine it to be.

When you’re on a budget and a 24/7 caregiver for very young children, it’s not exactly possible to go take a weekend trip to a Cali vineyard, or even go get a pedicure alone, lol! So what does it look like, to refresh and energize one’s self? To pour back into our cup that gets drained in just 47 minutes every morning from changing diapers, cleaning up endless messes, balancing budgets, chasing after kids, running a household, scheduling appointments, grocery shopping, cycling through mounds of laundry, changing out seasonal clothes, changing out outgrown clothes, buying new clothes (see a pattern?), wiping noses and hands, calming big toddler emotions, and on and on. Phew! I’m exhausted just writing that, hah….

So we’ve talked a lot about things we do for ourselves, and also things like insecurities that have been around since childhood. A recent topic was creativity. We both have some insecurities about creating… it always feels “not good enough.” After all, we’re no pros. There’s always someone else better. Many someones.

But it makes us HAPPY. Heck, there’s even information out there about the benefits of just exercising the creative part of the brain! Even if we suck at the output, we enjoy the process, and that’s all that matters.

So here I am, on a challenge 🤣, posting some of my recent creative projects.

A bit of background is that I got into digital planning last year. I’ve always been an avid planner, using paper planners of all kinds, and becoming increasingly more picky about my planners over the years, until I came upon Happy Planners several years back, and then refused to use anything else. I LOVED customizing them with stickers, markers, and more. Well, digital planning has digital stickers, and I thought it would be cool to learn to create my own…just for fun. I’ve been messing around on Procreate on my iPad, though I really am not artistic at all lol! I also have had almost no time to learn or practice different techniques or functions of the app, since I usually only have a few minutes at bedtime to play around.

I also love coloring, and when adults coloring came into style (haha!), I thought it was the best thing ever! I loved getting adult coloring books and using markers, colored pencils, and even gel pens to color them in. It was so relaxing, and I loved listening to music or an audiobook while coloring to calm my brain. Well, I thought it would be fun to create some pages to print and color! (you can also import them into a coloring app and color digitally)

So I made a page of free downloads, which you can find in the top menu, or by clicking here.

I hope you enjoy them, or if you’re an artist, I hope they make you feel amazing about your art 🤣 haha!

I’m off to bed, so goodnight for now!

~Jess

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Word of the year: 2021

#momlife, All things Jesus, General life, Planners/stationary, Self-care

Ahhhh the “word of the year.”

The funny thing is, I used to make New Year’s Resolutions lol! Then one year, God gave me a word for the year instead. I didn’t even know it was a thing, I thought it kind of sounded silly. So I didn’t even tell people. But apparently it’s like…a thing. 🤣

Anyway, it ended up being really powerful! This year, I’ve been praying over my word for 2021. I’m facing a LOT in 2021, and so no word seemed to capture enough. I did this awesome 2021 Year Prep Workbook from Creating With Lucy, and after just writing words that came to mind on the brainstorm page, I prayed and listened, and narrowed it down to 5:

They all seemed applicable, so I prayed over it some more, for several days. Finally, “courageous” seemed to be what God was whispering to me. I began to look up some bible verses, and discovered why, when I looked up the original Greek and Hebrew to understand more of what the word meant in the Bible. But first, let’s look at even the world’s simple definition of courage…

These seemed SO applicable to my life. The whole idea of facing some seriously rough stuff, still having strength. I feel anything but strong, though, so this is definitely a hard one, right? So let’s look at some verses that I feel God gave me to accompany this word of the year, and we will dig into the original text to understand them better.

Matthew 14:27, NLT says “But Jesus spoke to them at once. Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!”

On the surface, this sounds very typical. Great, Jesus is here, guys, it’s ok!

The Greek word for “Take courage” is “tharseo.” It means “to be of good courage.” “Bolstered within which supports unflinching courage, literally, to radiate warm confidence (exude “social boldness”) because warm-hearted. Refer to God bolstering the believer, empowering them with a bold inner-attitude (to be “of good courage”). For the believer, tharseo (showing boldness) is the result of the Lord infusing his strength by his in working of faith (inbirthed persuasion). Showing this unflinching, bold courage means living out the inner confidence (inner bolstering) that is Spirit-produced. Tharseo means “have confidence, courage, be unafraid.”

Another couple of verses in Psalms are what really stand out to me. The first one, Psalm 27:14, NLT, says “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”

When you look at the Hebrew, “wait” is “qavah,” which means “to wait for. A verb, probably originally twist, stretch, then of tension of enduring, waiting.” What’s interesting is that in the Hebrew, it says “wait on Yaweh,” and “on” is “to, into, towards.” That’s not a passive waiting if I ever heard one. That is an active leaning into the Lord and “waiting” on him. Waiting expectantly, being ready, enduring, patient for his timing, but ready for when it comes. Wow!

Next, “be of good courage” is how the Hebrew is, and it is “chazaq,” which means “to be or grow firm or strong, strengthen.” But then the next phrase in the Hebrew is “and he shall strengthen,” “amets,” which means “to be stout, strong, bold, alert.” More in depth: “confirm, be courageous of good courage, steadfastly minded, strong, stronger, establish, fortify, harden, to be alert, physically (on foot) or mentally (in courage). Increase, prevail, strengthen, make strong.

The next phrase is “your heart,” which is “leb.” So, “Wait on Yaweh, be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart.” Leb means your inner man, mind, will, heart.

Psalm 31:24, NLT, is similar— “So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord!” With the same words for the courage and heart. The word hope here is actually “yachal,” which means “to wait, await.” Lol isn’t that interesting?

So this year, my word is “courageous,” and it turns out, it encompasses most of those other words. God’s kind of clever like that lol!

Here’s to 2021! Do you have a word of the year for 2021? Share with me! <3