March WELCOME Check In

In case you missed it, my word of the year is WELCOME, described by the acronym below. For more details on why I chose this word go here.

Worship – Making room for God
Embrace – Making room for my family
Learn – Making room to grow my mind
Care – Making room for my health
Offer – Making room for others
Minimize – Making room by clearing a thing or practice from my life
Everyday Blessings – Recording the little joys that occur when I make room

WORSHIP
Goal: Add intentional praise to my prayer time.

Due to some promptings from sermons at church this month, I’m trying to add in more gratitude to my time with God. Before I pray a request for someone, I am trying to also thank God for them in specific ways. If it is a situation in which I need His help, I am trying to first see and praise Him for how He is working.

Our pastor preached a wonderful sermon series on the Beatitudes, presented in a fresh way. I gained a lot of new insights from it and will be reviewing my notes again and again during my devotional time. He also had a few sermons on how to ask the right questions that was thought-provoking as well.

I’m still following this Bible reading plan. One thought-provoking devotional book I read during my time with God was Culture Making: Discovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch. Another that stirred my heart was Loving Well in a Broken World by Lauren Casper. Both of these had elements with which I disagreed, but I found them useful springboards for thoughts in the areas of how to be more empathetic on behalf of my Savior and of how to create in His world for His glory.

EMBRACE
Goal: Spend time and offer help to family members.

Our family is going through a lot of transition right now, so our focus has been to help each other through things this month. I did get to spend some one-on-one time with each of the kids and my husband. However, most of our days are a weird in-between the finishing of one life stage and the beginning of another. One special thing we fit in was a Christmas gift to our third child who is very fond of music. We took him to his first Gospel concert to hear Brian Free and Assurance, and he was beyond thrilled (or should I say “Beyond Amazed” Ha!).

LEARN
Goal: Finish Your Story Matters assignments. Review “Rhapsody” sections already finished.

I think I played through “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin
once this month. I will get back to it. Learning new music just isn’t a high priority for the next few months.

I did finish Your Story Matters by Leslie Leyland Fields and the accompanying assignments. I wrote several scenes for a project I’m working on through this exercise, so I hope it proves to be useful.

Always, I’m learning through reading – one of my favorite pastimes. Anytime I recommend a book (or anything for that matter!), remember it is not infallible and I’m not recommending or endorsing every part of it. With that caveat, here are a few good books I read this month:

Non-Fiction: Centered: Trading Your Plans for a Life That Matters by Jason Brown and Girls’ Club: Cultivating Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World by Sally, Sarah and Joy Clarkson

I am so very much not a sports fan! However, Jason’s story of being one of the highest-paid linebackers (don’t ask me what they actually do!) in the NFL before walking away from it all was so inspiring to me. He seems to be doing great things on another type of field!

Anything the Clarksons write is so exquisite, but I really enjoyed their sharing of their hearts on the friendship the three of them maintain, other meaningful friendships they have and how to cope with loneliness. The practical aspects of how to welcome others in were very helpful.

Homemaking: She Made Herself a Home by Rachel Van Klyuve
I enjoyed the beautiful photos and simple how-tos of this book. It is certainly inspiring and also mostly practical and attainable for organizing and decorating our spaces.

Fiction: The Printed Letter Bookshop and Of Literature and Lattes by Katherine Reay
A lovely two-book story about the important things of life. I enjoyed the “realness” of the characters.

Children: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
I have a soft spot for a well-written children’s book, and this one was just beautiful to me. Mackesy is a cartoonist, so he includes adorable drawings and even the font is lovely hand-lettering. But the simple conversations between the three animals and the boy are so profound, I just wanted to sit and ponder each page.

CARE
Goal: Add movement and more consistency to 16:8 fasts.

There were good weeks and bad weeks. I’m hoping to set up a new walking routine once things are more settled for us.

OFFER
Goal: Participate and finish co-ops. Get with people who need goodbyes.

This is both the beautiful and heart-wrenching part of moving away. So many sweet gestures offered to us by friends! A dear lady with a wonderful gift of hospitality had our family over for dinner. We said goodbye to another dear friend who made her exit to Heaven. I’ve tried not to say “no” to anyone who attempts to meet with us to say “goodbye”, so we’ve fit in parties, afternoons with friends and youth groups, coffee shop meetings and dinners out. Dear friends have offered gifts, cards and kind words. We feel incredibly loved and blessed! Plus, we are spending as much time as we can with our beloved family here before we see them less frequently. We made cookies for our neighbors and thanked them for being good neighbors for the years we’ve shared the street with them.

MINIMIZE
Goal: Finish decluttering home to make room for new home.

This is a slow, arduous process, but we are chipping away at it!

EVERYDAY JOYS
Most of the joys this month were images. I’ll include a few highlights from our everyday below.

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QUOTES OF THE MONTH:

…family, so seemingly insignificant in an age of technology and celebrity, is still the heart of culture, the primary place where most of us are called to cultivate and create….Family is culture at its smallest – and its most powerful.

Andy Crouch, Culture Making

In each of my friends is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity. I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.

C.S. Lewis, as quoted in Girls’ Club by Sally, Sarah and Joy Clarkson

‘When the big things feel out of control…focus on what you love right under your nose.’

‘What do we do when our hearts hurt?’ asked the boy.

‘We wrap them with friendship, shared tears and time, till they wake hopeful and happy again.’

‘Home isn’t always a place, is it?’

Assorted quotes from The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

I hope you all had a lovely March and have begun to welcome spring! I’d love to hear some of your goals in the comments or in an e-mail. I’ll be crafting my new goals for April in between settling into our new home, and I’ll update you on my progress next month.