Pep Talk

I love the time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the atmosphere of this time of year: everything from Christmas cookies to finding and wrapping the perfect gift to driving around looking at Christmas lights to receiving Christmas cards in the mail to traveling to see family and friends.

Time seems to fly more quickly these days, especially as I watch my children grow.  We haven’t even reached Christmas yet this year, and I already feel like this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has passed too quickly. Throughout this time I’ve felt a bit too spread thin, and, not only have I felt like I haven’t had much time to relish the season, but I have also felt like I haven’t been able to do many of the things I’ve wanted to accomplish. I had great plans to do lots of fun Christmas activities with Ella (who is really getting engaged into the whole idea of Christmas), but we’ve only managed to do two of the many fun ideas I’ve found.  After three Christmases searching, I finally bought material to make Christmas stockings, but I didn’t even make it to the point of pulling the sewing machine out of the box.

This post isn’t about complaining, but simply a reality check for me. I can’t be everywhere at once. I probably won’t get everything done on my to-do list because it is too long and unrealistic in the first place. With two little ones in the house, projects will inevitably get put off and plans will change. Ella and Troy were both sick for a week (my husband and I didn’t feel great either). And, besides actually dealing with kids that didn’t feel good, we also had to deal with the severe lack of sleep (the kids don’t sleep well when they are sick and they share a room which only complicates that problem). On top of sick kiddos, I almost sliced the tip off of my index finger (so, please ignore any typos in this post), and was out of commission for an entire evening after that incident (what can I say, I have an extremely week stomach for almost slicing the tip of my finger off). Things types of things are not things to be worried or bothered by; they are simply things (and not really big things) that happen in life from time to time. But, I need to give myself that pep talk when I get bogged down by these things. And, when I say that I need to give myself a pep talk, I really mean that I need to listen to my husband’s encouraging words (because he is always the one who realizes I need the pep talk).

Hopefully this last week before Christmas will be a chance for me to slow down and breathe a little. As long as I actually figure out what to get for the last few folks on our Christmas list . . .

Snail Mail

I am terrible at sending anything out in the mail. I don't even have a good excuse as to why I'm so terrible. It takes me less than a minute to walk out my front door to my mailbox, raise the red flag, and walk back into my house. I could say that my problem is that I don't know what to say when I need to send out a thank you card or a note of encouragement, but that really isn't true. If I have the exact same task to do as an email, I have NO problem getting an email sent.

In a book I was reading through recently, I read something about changing habits. The author contended that most people don't give themselves near enough time to change the habit before giving up. He suggested writing down the things you want to change, and then revisiting the list, making sure that you are sincerely trying to make the change. I know I need to listen to this advice on many different levels (physically and spiritually). While my difficulty with actually sending out cards may seem like such a little thing, it really is representative of the way I handle other things in my life that I need to change as well. Here's my attempt writing down what I want to change.

I really want to be the lady who gets the thank you cards out promptly, whose anniversary and birthday cards always arrive before the special day, and who sends a card of encouragement to a new brother or sister in Christ. I want to be the one that already has a stash of cards on hand to send out at all times in whatever situation. I want to be the one who'll send a nice note "just because."

I have a few goals for myself over the next few weeks:

1. Mail a thank you card to a couple to whom I am really, really thankful - and to whom I've been meaning to send a thank you card to for many weeks now.
2. Mail a note of encouragement to some visitors who came to our congregation on Sunday.
3. Mail Christmas cards this year. I don't know how many years in a row now I've actually bought Christmas cards and not sent them. They are making it into the mailbox this year!!