HELLO MONDAY…ANXIETY, GETTING RID OF STUFF AND FUN HOLIDAY SURPRISES

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{my friends have no idea I’m posting this.  sorry guys!  you look lovely!}

Whew!  What a weekend!

The Kilgoris Marketplace was a lot of fun and a lot of work.  I loved getting to meet new handmade folks and connecting with other handmade friends.  We ooh and ahh over each other’s work, trade and shop,  give opinions, discuss pricing and strategies, pick each other’s brains for new ideas and make plans to keep collaborating.  And, of course we sold stuff.  It’s what I love to do.

Another sweet highlight was meeting several readers and IG follower friends in person!  Sometimes it’s scary to put your life online and it’s not always clear if it’s worth it (or if anyone is out there) , so if you introduced yourself to me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I had to fight tears back a few times.  Grateful to meet you.

And I now I’m trying to recover from it all. 😉

Hello November (!)

Holy crap, where did you come from?!  You, the official start to the holiday season, are also the month of our 10 year anniversary!  I thought we would have some grand trip planned by now, but you have taken us all off guard.  No matter what we do, grand or small, I will celebrate that precious man and he will celebrate me.  Thank you, Lord , for 10 years of sustaining us, sanctifying us and keeping the sweet friendship that started it all, in tact.   So, SO grateful.

Hello laundry and dirty bathrooms

I’m actually looking forward to getting them done after putting them off all last week.  I need order restored and to feel like a normal person again.

Hello Changes

So last week (the last several really) have been revealing.  I can’t put my finger on why yet, but I’m consistently fighting anxiety for the first time in my life.  I can’t calm my mind down and the stress feels crushing sometimes.  Tension headaches, feeling super hot all of a sudden, craving fresh air like I can’t breathe….just panic-y about so many things.  So there are lots of conversations between me and Josh right now about the structure and rhythm of our life and home.  Could you pray for us to have wisdom and discernment on what to change and how?

Goodbye Stuff?

On a related note, I talk a lot on here about our small house and getting rid of stuff.  I think it’s one of the top 5 contributors of my anxiety.  And this question keeps rolling around in my brain, “what if we got rid of half of our stuff?  what would change about our lives?”  That might sound extreme, but I can’t get away from it.  I talked to Josh about it and together, we think that getting rid of at least 30-50% of it would greatly improve our quality of life.  It would have to be ongoing of course, because stuff constantly finds it’s way back in, but I think we would start with a big purge initially.  I’m just not sure how to go about it?  I’ve thought about just tackling it room by room, closet by closet, etc.   Have you ever done anything like this?

And then I read The Vanilla Tulip’s post from Friday and my heart cried such a resounding YES.  This is about much more than just improving our family’s quality of life, isn’t it?  I could go on and on.  I get so passionate about how we live here in America…the stark contrast between us and most of the world.  Our richness.  Our consumption.  Their need.  Time to stop dragging my feet.

Hello deadlines and deals

In a brainstorming session this past week, I’ve settled on my shop’s deadline for Christmas orders (Dec 6th!) and came up with some really fun ways to inspire you to shop early.  I want to help you knock it out with  fun packages that I think you’ll flip for and a few extra incentives that I’ve never tried before.  I feel so great about it and can’t wait to roll the first promo out for you in a couple of weeks!  There are also some new pieces that I hope to get in the shop this week before all the fun begins so be on the look out for that.

It’s your turn, friends!  What are YOU saying hello to this week?