All The Things I Hope You Know

When you were little, what did you dream of becoming when you grew up? Did you want to be a police officer, an artist, drive racecars, or become a doctor? As children, we are taught to dream about what we want to be, and we envision careers.                                                  We begin from an early age believing that what we do defines us. Don't get me wrong here, there is definitely some truth in that. What we do says a lot about the kind of person that we are. But we are not simply a police officer or a doctor, those things are not our identity or at least not the entirety of it. There are good and bad police officers, good and bad doctors, good and bad teachers. I think the idea that our career defines who we are is one of those ideas that we should develop over time with our kids, and even with ourselves. We need to conti...

Don't you just love old houses and buildings? I sure do. I love the stories that I know they hold within them. They stand as silent witnesses to the lives that have come and gone, the heartache and the joy they must have been privy to. I always wonder what they would tell us about the people they have seen, the secrets that have been locked away within their now empty rooms. Who lived in them, what were they like? What did they love? Who was this home built for? I love the detail in their structures, the quirks in architecture and imperfections that are found when you begin to renovate them. Why in the world was this window covered up? Why did they move the stairs over there? What on earth were they thinking when they covered up these hardwoods?  I always find myself wondering about these and other similar things when we are doing a renovation. It is a privilege to restore something broken into something beautiful and useful again. It is part of our mission statement as a family, t...

   Photo by Meghan Hessler on Unsplash Sometimes, you just have to chase the rabbit down the hole. I am convinced that some of the greatest discoveries and grandest adventures are a result of chasing rabbits down holes, and if you don't believe me, just ask Alice.   Anywho, today I was challenged to write about routines. A quick Google search later and here I am thinking about "sequence(s) of actions (that are) regularly followed; a fixed program". Which got me to thinking about rhythms, and habits. Then I got to thinking about what the regular routines, rhythms, and habits of my life are.  In the book Atomic Habits James Clear teaches so many practical principles about this and I just recently started re-listening to this on audio so it has been really on my heart and mind lately. The idea that I have clung to the most out of the whole book is presented in chapter 2. Where he talks about your habits and your identity and how our habits tell a lot about the kin...

Audiobooks. Y'all, I hate to admit that I am late to the game on this new life changing way to consume information.  Also, I am a little ashamed to admit this BUT I am even later to the game out of my own stubbornness.  My husband has been listening to audio books for a while (insert deeper level/layer of shame here) and I actually enjoyed teasing him and making fun of him for it. He also likes to read real life hold in your hand books on a regular basis, not fiction books to escape reality for entertainment but books to better himself and grow his business (even more shame) I referred to them as his "self-help" books and would tease him constantly  (I am not a nice person sometimes people 😳). He in his very steady way would simply encourage me to read different books that he thought I would enjoy or could get something out of.  Of course, I had no need for these silly self improvement books. I was too busy to be bothered with working on anything else, let alone bet...