Secret Keeper Girls

We had a great time learning all things godly and girlie last night :)

Getting Ready

For our BIG GIRLS' NIGHT OUT!! Whoop whoop :) We are going to this tonight: https://secretkeepergirl.com/events/

First stop... pie for dinner!

Home Life

Just a few pics of everyday life here at the house:) I sometimes forget to post about the simple things that bring me joy like...

-The random places my children eat dinner

-Bug torturing Austin before he leaves for Hawaii

-watching crazy people cut down humongous trees on my street

-admiring the blooming plants in my front yard

-oh and snuggling a precious newborn baby girl at church last night!

A simple life is all about being intentional—with the things you do, with the things you own, and with the people you spend time with. It’s about holding onto the things that matter, and letting go of the things that don’t.

50 Simple Things

Over the years, there have been many quotes which have made a difference in my life. I hope these words inspire you as much as they have inspired me:

1. For the longest time, I thought I needed to be more organized. Now I know I just needed less stuff.

2. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

3. White space is where the magic happens.

4. The best way to get rid of things you don’t need, is to get rid of things you don’t need.
5. Make room for things that matter by removing everything that doesn’t.
6. The greatest thing about a simple life is having one.
7. Busy schedules make busy people.
8. Twenty pairs of jeans is fifteen too many.

9. You might get 85 years on this planet—don’t spend 65 paying off a lifestyle you can’t afford.

10. Abundance is a full heart, not a full house.
11. If you don’t have time to do what matters, stop doing things that don’t.
12. I don’t say no because I’m so busy, I say no because I don’t want to be so busy.
13. If you have to buy stuff, to store your stuff, maybe you have too much stuff.
14. If organizing your stuff worked, you’d be organized by now.
15. Instead of working so hard to make ends meet, work on having fewer ends.
16. Just because everything is crazy around you, doesn’t mean it has to be crazy within you.

17. I learned that thinking about living is not the same as living.

18. Without grace, minimalism is another metric for perfection.
19. Here is the secret to subtraction. It doesn’t matter what you remove. What matters is that you stop adding it back.

20. My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.
21. Your home is living space, not storage space.
22. Decluttering is infinitely easier when you think of it as deciding what to keep, rather than deciding what to throw away.
23. At some point I realized that I wasn’t organizing my life; I was organizing my clutter.

24. Owning less is better than organizing more.

25. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time.
26. Owning less is great. Wanting less is better.
27. You don’t need more space, you need less stuff.
28. If you are not content today, there is nothing you can buy this weekend to change that.
29. Maybe everything you want is underneath everything you don’t.
30. If buying stuff hasn’t made you happy, maybe getting rid of it will.
31. The first step in crafting a life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.
32. The best things in life aren’t things.

33. Addition by subtraction.

34. Forget sale price. Everything is 100% off when you don’t buy it.
35. The things you own end up owning you.
36. Love people, use things. The opposite never works.

37. Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.

38. Stop waiting for the right person to come into your life. Be the right person to come to someone’s life.
39. Slowly cut things out until you’re left only with what you love, with what’s necessary, with what makes you happy.

40. Spend less time worrying about what you might regret and more time doing what you won’t.

41. Simple living doesn’t solve all my problems, it just removes distractions.
42. You are not defined by your stuff—the stuff you keep or the stuff you give away.
43. Being busy isn’t the same as being productive.
44. Small matters, small gets you started, and small adds up.
45. If your stuff isn’t serving you, it won’t be serving you any better packed away in a box somewhere.

46. You’ve already taken the first step toward an awesome life by simply wanting one.
47. Spend money because it’s an investment in your own well-being, not because you’re bored and have nothing else to do.

48. A home that nourishes life embraces the little moments and appreciates the rhythmic seasons of life.
49. Do the choices I make line up with how I really want to live?
50. To realize that the real hidden cost of everything you buy—is how much life it cost you to get it.

READ before every Group

Good, simple, real reminders for me to read to myself EVERY single Wednesday night!

Top 10 Barriers to that keep us from Connection

It is often difficult to engage in conversational talk.

As Counselors when people come to us with a problem, it's easy to lapse into behaviors that—although usually well-meaning—serve to block us from hearing the other person's experience. We'd be better off following the words of this inside-out saying: "Don't just do something; stand there"…and try not to:

1. Counsel. Seek not to advise solutions (until asked) but listen and reflect back the person's experience.

2. Defend. When you explain, justify or rationalize, you invalidate the other's experience. You can create a time to offer your experience, but for now, just listen.

3. Shut down. This happens in parenting when we say things like: "Stop crying. It's not that bad." Children are more likely to stop crying when they feel they've been heard.

4. One-up. Saying, "Oh, that's nothing! Listen to what happened to me!" gives the message, "Your experience doesn't count."

5. Reassure. It's OK for people to feel their feelings. When we try to console ("It's not your fault; you did the best you could…"), we take people out of their feelings.

6. Pity. Sympathy and pity ("Oh, you poor thing!") are very different from empathy, which is simply a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.

7. Commiserate. Sharing stories of your own similar experiences is not showing empathy; it turns the focus away from the person with the problem.

8. Correct. First listen. After the other person feels fully understood, then see about correcting any misunderstandings or inaccurate impressions.

9. Enlighten. Don't attempt to educate unless your opinion is asked.

10. Interrogate. Too many questions distract from the feelings at hand.

Bye Bye Boat

It was time to say goodbye to the bass boat. C hasn't used it as much now that he's working full time. It was a nice little boat for C's first real bass boating experiences. Pretty sure C will buy himself one in a couple of years.

One Important Thing at a Time

Only One Thing

I remember how anxious and worried I would be over each new crisis that erupted during my divorce. After the storm passed, I would feel relieved. I would believe I had dealt with the last major problem and calm seas would now prevail. Wrong. No matter how many times I went through the same cycle, my level of anxiety and worry never lessened. I was always a nervous wreck.

One day in Mass, the Gospel reading was about Mary and Martha. Martha was anxious and worried about having to do all the entertaining and serving for Jesus and His guests (can you imagine the pressure?!), while her sister, Mary, sat obliviously at Jesus’s feet listening to Him teach. I could definitely relate to Martha. My life was filled with anxiety and worry while everyone around me seemed to be skipping through life, humming a tune, oblivious to my pain and hardship. It didn’t seem fair. Martha asked Jesus to talk to her sister and tell her to get up and help. Jesus’s response to Martha hit me like a ton of bricks. He told her not to worry or be anxious and instead to follow her sister’s example. Mary had chosen to focus on Christ. There was my solution to overcoming my anxiety and worry. I needed to focus more on Jesus and trust in Him. He promises by doing that, everything else will fall into place. So, there you have it. When you are anxious and worried, sit at Jesus’s feet in Mass, adoration, reading scripture, and in prayer. He is the only thing you need to deal with life’s challenges and hardships.

The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” – Luke 10:41-42

https://vincefrese.com/only-one-thing/

Desires of My Heart