Friday Favorites Vol. 4

Hello Hello! Happy Friday to you all!  Fridays are all about blogger love and all the little gems that I came across this week.  The blogging world has really been closing in on me and I couldn't be happier about it!  I feel like I have found my niche in the blogosphere with an amazing community of other bloggers to share in life with.  Here are just a few posts that I loved this week.:

1."Dinner and Eight-- The Pencil Path
2."Guys Behind the Blog"--Heavens to Betsy
3."The Lens Revolution"--Rivers and Roads
4."Faith and Depression"--Coffee With Summer
5."Spring Essentials"--The Wetherills Say I do


What did you read this week that really stood out?  I would love to hear!

How to Relax--5 Things to turn to before turning On Netflix

I often find myself at the end of the day wanting to decompress a little. Like most people, after dinner,  clean-up, and or putting the kids to bed, we often want to 'relax' with a little t.v.  Growing up television was a huge part of 'family time.'  We would all gather around and sit down on the couch to watch Seventh Heaven or some other show like VH1 'Pop Up Video.' I am not going to try to argue that t.v is bad, or we should completely ban it from our homes or anything, however I do think we need to reevaluate how we are relaxing, and if what we are actually doing is achieving that.

Television is a stimulant by nature.  The fast paced commercials and colors, sounds and images being flashed right before our eyes.  Comedy, drama or action-filled shows or movies fill up the channels between all the popular networks.  In our world television is the go to activity for evening time.  People long to dive into another scenario and forget the current stressors and worries in their own lives.  Now, is this bad to do this once in awhile?  No.  But are we really relaxing while we indulge in the world of television?

The average American watches 4 hours of t.v a day or 28 hours a week. Or think of it this way-a typical work day is 8 hours, which means that if you went to work for three days and all you did was watch t.v, that would equivocate to the average.

I literally cannot watch t.v and not have some thought pop in my mind like what are you doing right now?  You could be reading or writing or crafting or cleaning!  But the thought gently drifts away as I really think of the effort involved to do those tasks!  Ha!

 I think t.v does something to us that we don't really like.  It connects us to people we do not know, jokes that are really only funny for a moment, and honestly gives us false connections to made up characters. I absolutely love Glee, and honestly I sometimes may or may not talk about certain character like I know them!

We as a people long for community but don't get it, we long to relax from a day full of stressors, but don't quite know how to relax.  We long to cultivate friendships and build lasting relationships, but don't know how.  I have made a short list of some things that I will really try to do this weekend.  My go-to activity is watching t.v but I really want to try to switch it up.  

1. Light candles, and pray over day and week // meditate

2. Do yoga.  Get moving and stretch

3. Read a compelling interesting book

4. Craft-hand make some cards for people

5. Practice relaxation techniques

I completely recognize the relaxing part of turning on the t.v sitting on the couch after a long hard day.  Its one of the best parts of television, the mind-numbing, do not have to think, shut my brain off mode.  I guess the whole point of this is to truly find the way to relax and maybe really asking if watching t.v is really accomplishing that.  I am not even close to doing these five things in the evening time and I definitely have my shows that I like to sit down and watch.  I just wonder if I would feel more relaxed and revived in the mornings if I chose some different evening activities. 

What activities do you do besides t.v?  

5 Symptoms you may be experiencing if you have shut out your Passions.

When 2015 hit the ground running on January 1st, the majority of people were bursting at the seams with excitement and zeal.  Many people posted on pieces of paper or in their phones a few goals they wanted to accomplish for the new year; or like many people still had from the last year.  That is where I want to focus our attention today.

The goals from the previous years that were not fulfilled, and the consequences being experienced. 

Now I say consequences, and that sounds kind of harsh and scary, but what I really am saying is that when passions, dreams and goals that you find yourself thinking about and feeling when you are alone are not pursued and sought after, things happen to our souls.  This list could be a mile high with reasons and consequences to not pursuing a dream, but I want to focus on a few, and then give reasons how we can jump in to pursuing them!

1. You are anxious

Chances are pretty high that you are anxious from time to time and maybe a little more, if you are not in some way pursuing that one thing that makes your heart leap.  Chances are moments when you are pondering your day or the next week or month something tells you to make that phone call, sign up or send that email to start the thing you know you need and want to do. Being anxious is based solely out of fear-fear that you will have no control. Control always goes back to love, and love is what fuels passions. 

    2. You Frequently feel off balance

Now I am not talking about vertigo here, I am talking about the balance of time, relationships, money, and church.  Maybe if you are like me, you often find yourself writing your check lists down different ways each month, trying to see if why you are off balance is because of the type of planner you use.  Planners, organized sheets, and charts and great ways to stay organized and balanced in life for sure, but if you aren't balanced in your soul, those charts and graphs and check lists will never work.

    3. Few people know of your passion

This one sounds super obvious to me, but being in a post graduate life away from my college town was a very difficult transition and one that I am still trying to maneuver through.  I recently heard a sermon in which the pastor said promise does not triumph purpose.  You see after college my life really was a whirlwind. I made many promises without truly doing a whole lot of foundational work. Being in community with people takes work and sacrifice, but it is well worth it.   In retrospect I see how quickly time flew and decisions made that I was not balanced fully. People we invest in, and they invest in us, know our passions and goals and dreams as well as we know theirs.  Find your people. Invest. Know.

   4.You often make excuses and have reasons why now isn't the             right time

I am too young,
too old, not enough
No money
I have a kid
I dont have a kid
I am single
I am married
I haven't been involved long enough
I am not good enough
I am not fit enough
I am socially awkward
i have nothing to offer people
I only have a bachelors
I only have a highschool diploma
My personality is too weird
I am too short, too tall, too skinny too fat
I am a flake
They wont like me
I will do it next year
It wont work out
I will probably fail
So and so will not approve
It will make life harder
---------------------------------Literally stop right now.---------------------------------------------------

   5.  You feel incomplete

Going on a spiritual perspective I believe there will always be some sort of incomplete feeling deep within us that is healthy.  This hole is what drives us to learn more about ourselves and how we can emulate Christ while we are living. However, there are holes in us that we create by stifling our creativity saying no when we should say yes, feeling jaded because we made excuses and not sticking to our guns, going for it and living out that deep welling firey passion that is screaming to be let out! The world needs to see us  burning bright the way God made us--glorifying him with our being.
We are human 'beings' first, and then we are human 'doings.'

Find what makes you 'be' so you can go and 'do.'

Friday Favorites Vol. 3

Each week I try to share some of the awesome blog posts and businesses that I have found during the week.  I love being able to expose the awesome bloggers and creatives that I have found and supporting them in small ways.

This week I discovered via a peony project girl: The Pursuit Community ---This website was seriously God-sent.  The group exists to strengthen and empower women to find balance in home and business. To connect women in real life that they may find and expose passions that live deep within. Their website shares so much more and has a ton of resources.

Daisy from Simplicity Relished Blog shares a few benefits of having unstructured free time. This post was such a great reminder that free time, getting unplugged, and really resting refuels us.  It wasn't some random by chance incident that God took a day off to rest from creating the world!!!

Susannah from Simple Moments Stick wrote about her husband and how the transition between married to first kid can be such a crazy time! She really gave some serious shout outs to how great her hubs has been during this time and really emphasized the 'team' work it takes.

Bobbi from nhershoes shared a super yummy recipe: "Sweet Potato Kale and Goat Cheese Pizza"

This sermon: South Hills Church

I would love to hear what you read this week~comment below