DAY 7: LESS IS MORE

Autumn is in the air, my friends! Autumn is in the air! It's so exciting to starting to decorate and immersing ourselves in everything we love about this time of year, isn't it?! I've come across a couple of posts recently that have talked about decorating simply. Check out these two lovely ladies:

The Nester had this post called "Copy It With What You Already Have". I love how she talks about spending the most money on the pumpkins and gourds she buys and just using everything else that she may already have around the house.

Photo courtesy of the Nester

Melissa at The Inspired Room has been posting lots about how she decorates her house on a budget using more of nature, which I LOVE! Isn't the picture below brilliant!

Photo courtesy of The Inspired Room

This is my own attempt at simplicity in decorating for the fall, so far. Now, we have plans to change our mantle itself completely, but for now, here is how everything looks:

Hopefully, you can see here, that I used three gourds I got for $0.69 each (next year I think I'm going to try and grow some, though), and some whole coffee beans that we bought over a year ago that I've kept in a Ziploc bag and pulled out for decorating. I love the coffee scent and the rustic quality it brings. 

Here, I just put a pumpkin on an extra pot I had and put some pine cones we found out hiking around it. The possibilities are really endless. I'm hoping to bring in some branches I've found out and about, too, but I'm letting them dry out a bit. =] There are so many aspects of fall to draw from, and these two women, especially Melissa at The Inspired Room, have done a great job so far of pinpointing those aspects and helping us all breathe a little easier knowing it's okay not to go out and spend a fortune. Hope you enjoy their sites!

DAY 6: IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS

This morning, I came across a neat video by Ann Voskamp found on Emily's site at Chatting at the Sky. It's fantastic! Please take the time to scroll down on Emily's post and watch the video. You won't be sorry. In it, Ann talks about living life moment by moment and not rushing so much. Can you relate to the rushing around? And I don't just mean physical rushing, but also mental rushing. I sure can! My goodness, can I ever! I am not a moment by moment person. I'm an 'if only' person. If only this happened..... If only I had..... If only I was better at..... If only, if only, if only. That's an exhausting way to live.  It's a life of shallow breaths, an aching heart, and a weary soul.

Mr. N. once asked me if I thought I was an envious person. The answer is complicated. Or is it? I'm not really into "stuff". If people have nicer clothes, nicer homes, nicer cars that doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is when they have something that is a deep desire in my heart. It used to be a husband, now it's children. Especially if, in my limited and blinded judgment, it doesn't seem like they "deserve" it. Who am I to know that?! Epic fail on my part. So, yes, the envy is there and makes me constantly look forward to the day when I have that particular thing. It's hard to keep looking towards that moment and still appreciate the here and now. It's nearly impossible to look back on the day I just completed and list off the things I am most thankful for. That kind of existence is NOT what God intended for us. Yes, He has placed certain desires in our hearts. Yes, He has His own timing for when and if those are given to us and just how they'll look, which may not always be how we'd imagined them. But He has also commanded us not to worry about tomorrow. 

 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6: 25-34

 It can feel almost impossible not to worry each day, but it's a worthy battle to fight. We know God is faithful and that His character is absolutely trustworthy, so let's unclench our fists around those dreams we're sure will disappear if we hand the control over. Who are we kidding, really? We know that holding those things so tightly is more of a security blanket for us than something we're able to control. I can't magically put a baby in my uterus (that would be creepy and weird, p.s.) or know exactly where the child we're eventually meant to adopt is right at this moment, but I hold so tightly to these desires that you'd think I actually did have magical powers. Again, exhausting. 

Will you try some things with me? Try listing the things you're thankful for, no matter how small they may seem. Check out Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts, if that will help inspire you, and take a look at her blog, just to see what in the world she's talking about. Keep things simple. Enjoy right here, right now. Take a deep breath. Try to soak up every moment of the story God is telling in your life right now, whether you feel like you're on board with it or not. HE LOVES YOU! It may not always feel like that, but that is a fact.  

DAY 5: MORE SIMPLE CHANGES

Photo courtesy of Trinity College Library

I have one word for you today: LIBRARY 

Have you been to your local Library lately? Have you tapped into the magic that it possesses? The endless possibilities? If not, then you are truly missing something in your life, let me tell you. =] 

When Mr. N. and I got married, we decided to forgo getting cable television and opted for the rabbit ear antenna and watching our favorite shows online. After the initial crumbling of my world, I realized that this was perfect for our lifestyle and was MUCH less expensive (Free always is). We also started using our local Library as a resource for renting movies. Did you know:
1. That you can get a sweet library card key chain now!
2. You can check out magazines......this must be new, because back in the day this was not allowed......seriously, my world is a better place because of this addition
3. Some Libraries have kid's story times and fun crafts for kids of all ages, as well as for adults
4. It's a swell place to have a mini date with the hubby
5. You can put various cds, dvds, and books on hold on their websites and be notified when they come in, and they have a current selection of movies. It's good not to be caught in the 80's. =]
6. You can have your choices of the above sent to the Library closest to you
7. They have fun and educational events that you can attend for free. We went last year for Halloween and they talked about the haunted parts of our city and had Librarians dress up as some of these local, but long since passed, figures
8. All the cool kids are using the Library (okay, I don't know this for a fact, but we use it and we like ourselves pretty well, so there ya go) =}

These are just some of the wonderful things I've learned about our local Library. Be sure to stop in some time and see what magic awaits you and your family!  

DAY 4: IMPROVING OUR OUTLOOK

It's funny how sometimes when you set out to do something it can seem incredibly scary and exciting at first, but the farther in you get the more defeated you can feel and sometimes just want to give up. Honestly, that's the way I'm feeling about trying to write 31 ways to improve right now when I'm not sure I'm the best one to talk about improvement. It's not even a full week into it, but I'm realizing just how difficult it is and how much I have to learn. My goal has changed from writing every single day to making sure I have 31 posts, period, regardless of if it takes me into November to do so. By golly, this will happen!

I don't want my attempts to improve to seem trite or sugar coated. Lord knows, there are more days than not that I want to stay in bed with the covers over my head. I'm reading Grace for the Good Girl right now and Overcoming Fear, Worry, and Anxiety: Becoming A Woman of Faith and Confidence while I'm reading Kathy Reichs murder mysteries and going through the Harry Potter series. I struggle with going to church every single week and with planning my day so that I make the most of my time. And I never feel like I'm really succeeding at anything, which doesn't mean I'm not, of course, but it would make things simpler if the feeling was there sometimes. All of that to say, sometimes improvement doesn't have to be huge. It can be blasting Christmas music on your ipod in the beginning of October to brighten your mood enough to get you through your tasks. It can be memorizing a scripture every couple of weeks. It can be choosing to do laundry on one day a week rather than doing tiny loads all throughout the week to save water and energy. It can be incorporating your crock pot into meal planning more so that you get four meals for the price of one. It can be telling a friend how much you love them or giving your spouse an extra squeeze. It can be going to God with your struggles to trust Him in every situation, allowing those struggles to push you towards God rather than away from Him. It can be cutting yourself some slack sometimes and realizing that you don't have to do it all or reach this unattainable goal of something near perfection to be beautiful, or loved, or to matter in general. It's not easy, but it's not impossible. And every improvement, no matter how small, is a victory. 

DAY 3: SIMPLE CHANGES

Photo courtesy of Pottery Barn

A few months back, Mr. N. and I were brainstorming about some simple changes we could make in our home/life to improve the way we use our resources. In particular, we realized that every day, right before bed, we would take the glasses on our night tables, dump the old water in them down the sink, and fill them up with fresh water. Not to mention, looking around the house we found that there's at least always one or two old water cups from the day before. We started thinking about how much water that's actually adding up to in the long run just being wasted. Mr. N. had a fantastically simple idea: To place a pitcher next to our sink and poor the old water in that and then transfer that water to our watering can outside to use in the garden. We found a pitcher very much like this one at a garage sale for about $2. It's decorative enough for us to leave on the window sill above our sink, but fully functional enough to hold the water we need. It has been a great success for us so far and it's another small step in making the most of the resources God is giving us. 

DAY 2: OUR HERITAGE

This weekend, we had the chance to visit with Mr. N.'s parents for a casual dinner. We haven't had much of an opportunity to just go up for the day and relax with them, so this was a nice change of pace. My mother-in-law had scanned in some family pictures for me, so that I could start incorporating Mr. N.'s family into our gallery walls and such. She knew how important this was to me, and in talking to her I began to realize even more just why remembering our family matters.

 This is my great grandfather. He was killed when he was about 22 years old, so he lived just long enough to get married and have my grandmother before he died. It was in 2009 that after years, and years, and years of searching we found the rest of his family and were able to piece together the story of his life and discover what a remarkable man he really was. It made me realize that without all of these individuals in our past, take away just one, we would not be here. They had hopes and dreams and loves, too. And it's important to remember their humanity and continue to honor them in passing on their memory to future generations. We have a couple of small gallery walls in our hallway where we display old and new family photos and it's a neat thing to be able to share with people as they take a turn around the house. 

Now, maybe you don't have any old photos from your ancestors for whatever reason. Not everyone does, and not everyone can trace back their family history. If that's you, maybe just thank God from time to time for the people in your past, whether you know their names or not. Thank Him for each of their lives. If your past is a more painful one, maybe thank God for redemption and forgiveness. I don't say this lightly, because I know that some family wounds can run extremely deep and last for some time. However, God is a God of restoring the broken and He can use the past for good. Do you have children who you've adopted? Maybe teach them about their country of origin if you have no record of their birth family. We have no control over where we come from or who helped to put us here, but God knows. Each life is precious and is worth remembering in whatever way we can.

One of the things I'm looking forward to when we have children, is teaching them about all of these people in their past. It's important for us to honor them. I like to think that maybe somewhere they can see us and know that they're not forgotten. That their lives mattered and matter still. 

31 DAYS OF IMPROVEMENT

Photo courtesy of Pottery Barn

Happy October!!! Well, not only is this the beginning of glorious October, but it's also the beginning of the 31 Days challenge. My goal is to post 31 ways to improve, both in your household and personally. I'm finding that I'm learning a lot in my own life lately about ways to frugally decorate, new recipes, and not to mention lots about who God is as He unfolds His own story in my life, so hope to share some of these with you.  

I'm still learning how to make all the fancy buttons and such, so there may not be too much technical savy over here, but perhaps that can be one of my posts later in the month, "How to make fancy blog buttons". =] You just never know.

Be sure to check out the blogs to the right and see what they've got going on for the next 31 days, as well as this link to a whole lot of other talented people out there. Enjoy!