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Alright...nothing says mid-30s more than what I'm about to write in this blog.

Are you ready, 20 year olds?

This year I asked for a mop and some dishtowels for Christmas.

I know.

Now to be fair the dish towels are those beautiful Liberty Fabric ones from Anthropologie. And I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand why my family thinks these towels are to be used on dishes and countertops. These are for aesthetic beauty in the kitchen and an occasional hand wipe! 

Moving on...

So this post is going to be a little bit light-hearted...but one of my favorite things about the Internet is crowdsourcing before I make my own decision. I have a bit of a problem with decisiveness, so yeah, I'm a fan of crowd sourcing. I love reading reviews- despite some of the grumpy reviewer's out there who feel it's their duty in life to complain about everything and are basically impossible to please. Weed 'em out...You have been warned.

I love getting input and hearing the experience others have had. There are so many choices for basically every decision and sometimes I just want to know "who's already tried it?" and "which one is the best?" I also think for the most part that most people really like to help. Or at least most people like to give their opinions about things.

So I thought I would write a blog post about the newest love of my life, which my 20 year old self, I'm sure, would totally make fun of.

Those of us who are mothers or fathers have actually lived to experience the capacity of your own heart expanding when a new child enters your family. One day your heart was completely full and then the next, you met this new child who would be called your own, and the capacity to love within your heart expanded right before your eyes! You loved your spouse and older children with your entire full heart, but now...now there was more room and you loved another person fully too.

This isn't exactly the same thing...

But it's pretty close.

We recently added to our family the Oreck Steam-It Multipurpose steam wand. Now rather than claiming that I was completely full and content in this area of life, I'll be honest and say that cleaning my floors was one of the tasks I dreaded most within the four walls of my home. There was a void. 

I even conducted some unofficial market research with my girlfriends and they all agreed. Floors stink.

I tried one product recently that I was super excited about- the Hoover Floormate Deluxe...my actual Christmas gift. It sounded pretty cool in theory and I had TWO friends with personal raving reviews...an obvious indicator of success! It's just like a vacuum with two water tanks- one for clean water and one for used/dirty water. As you vacuumed, you could dispense the clean water for the spinning brushes underneath to scrub your floors. The great thing about it was the Hoover sucked up that dirty water and you could see dirty water in a separate tank. Very satisfying,

However when I looked at my floors they weren't really that clean. And one of the tanks was dripping water everywhere making me think an electrical shortage was imminent. I boxed it up and send it back to Amazon, despite the fact that I really wanted to love it. 

However I didn't mourn long. 

The steam mop is incredible. Just look at all the things you can clean with it! 

Y'all just being real...its way awkward to take a photo of your mop WHILE you are using it!

But apparently in can steam your curtains and clothes. It can steam your shower (is this a thing?) It can steam your grout, your cabinets, the space on the floor where the toilet meets the tile. The Oreck lady told me it was really "up to the limit of my imagination" on what I could clean with it. I immediately felt a strong connection to her as a new friend. #sue

So there's my helpful tip for the week- get yourself an Oreck steam mop! And tell them I sent you so that they might decide to give me an endorsement deal. Anthropologie too. 

And it's quiet, except for that gentle steam sound (like an iron x 1000), so you can use it while your baby naps. Because if you use it when he's awake, you should fully expect for said child to only want to walk/crawl on the area that you just completed and is still wet. You have been warned.

This Year in a Word

It seems like the "Choose a Word for the Year" has become a bit commonplace and I'm even seeing some people knocking it with a number of "better ideas". I say...whatever, Batman Forever. I love this discipline and have found it to bring about an increase in joy and focus, while also providing a suitable alternative to NY resolutions which highlight our failures, seem to keep us focused on the temporary and remind us of our personal brokenness. 

To Invite: to request the presence or participation of in a kindly, courteous, or complimentary way, especially to request to come or go to some place or gathering

When thinking over what I'd like to choose as my word for 2018, I kept coming back to one particular word, invite.

I love picking a word for the year. It helps me to reset, refocus, remember and re-prioritize. And as I've said before, I don't marry this word. I've never once chosen a word in January and ended the year with the same word. I love watching how God takes something I offer or choose and makes it better...even if it's harder, less romantic and less enticing by the standards of human eyes.

I don't even particularly love the above definition of this word, it doesn't feel complete to me. I'd rewrite it something like this:

To be brought in, physically and emotionally; to be welcomed, to gather together, to include and offer safety, to walk through life together deeply and to never feel alone, to pour oneself out by facing outward, to be available, to engage one another in a new way, to support and believe in one another, to show hospitality to the Spirit of another

I am a relational person to a fault. There's truly never been a time in my life when I could identify ONE best "girl" friend. I am energized and encouraged by time hearing stories, sharing experiences and learning in community. So the word "invite" excites me to my inner core. What could this actually look like? How many tangible ways can I make this happen in everyday life? Let's get started RIGHT AWAY!!!

But thinking practically...what will it really take? Remember...there are three tiny humans who depend on me 24 hours a day? And a husband who I promised my life to. How can I live a life of invitation to those outside the four walls of my home while remembering to invite WELL those inside those walls too?

The way I see it, invitation comes in layers. The goal isn't to spread myself too thin.

I think ONE, I can intentionally engage others who cross my path daily or weekly. Strangers, acquaintances and new friends who have no history. This looks like PUTTING DOWN MY PHONE at in the waiting room, following up the polite "how are you?" question with a more engaging question, remembering the names of people I meet. These are things I used to do much more naturally before I had 3 children to keep up with.

TWO, I can love "my people" better. These are family and friends who we are doing life with. Truly, this takes humility, accountability, vulnerability and forgiveness. This means walking through the valley. This means bearing one another's burden while still carrying your own cross. To be inviting means that you're safe and welcoming. I don't know if I've ever been very good at this in my life. But I know this is what Jesus was all about during his years on earth. Loving his people well.

THREE, I can invite myself into the lives of others. Not in a weird way, but in a way that shows I am available. Aren't we all so incredibly busy these days? Don't we all stay to ourselves, refrain from asking for help, go about life on our own because we don't want to bother anyone? We NEVER ask for help. We don't want to burden one another. This includes my kids. I wonder how they see me through their eyes sometimes...sitting at my computer, checking my phone, doing chores, cooking, cleaning, shouting orders. Multi-tasking is king. "Oh you want me to read to you? How about I check my email while we do that?" I don't think this would have been very difficult to do 10 years ago, but with my phone basically glued into my hand or pocket, this will take discipline on the daily.

So truly, I know this one may sound good in words, but actions are always louder. And behaviors don't change overnight. But I love the direction this word is taking my thoughts and my perspective. And I love that we have a Savior who modeled this perfectly. I plan to write some posts about some of the times when He did this well and how it makes me love Him so very very deeply.

Peace out 2017

I've been spending today reflecting on my word of the year. It's an exercise I've been doing for at least for five years now...not counting last year. 

Last year I did not come up with a word of the year. Last year on January 1, I was barely surviving life with a newborn. 

A newborn with silent reflux...which I didn't even know was a thing. 

One thing I did know, I knew I didn't have the capacity, strength, patience and some days, even the motivation to care for that sweet baby. And I was completely blindsided by my unraveling because I had raised two happy and healthy newborn's within the past four years, so I should know what to do right?

Oh the pride that comes before a fall. 

But all that to say, I never sat down and came up with a word for 2017. I'm honestly still processing a lot about this past year. General themes were uncertainty, food intolerances, cancer, control, and also, amidst those hard things, some really deep joy and deepening friendships

I always like to think back on a year and ask God what my actual word should have been, what He had in store for us. And I've already got that word. And really, no matter what word I would have picked 12 months ago, it wouldn't have changed that 2016 was the year of unveiling.  

Unveiling of truth. 

Unveiling of evil.

Unveiling of false contentment and misused favor. 

My friends, we are living in a world that's trying to deceive us. We are tricked into seeing certain things as good that are truly evil. We hold fast to things that distract us and steal meaning and joy and fullness of this life. We find security and safety in things that are fickle and won't last. 

We turn away from things that are too hard or too uncomfortable to maintain our own sanity and personal comfort. 

As CS Lewis wrote "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

But Jesus didn't turn away from the uncomfortable or the undesirable. He didn't leave us in our sorrow so that he could secure his own comfort and safety. In fact, he did the exact opposite.

Unveiling in 2017 has shown me all the ways I'm not like Jesus. His Spirit dwells in me but I walk along on my own terms. 

Unveiling is good. A friend of mine always says "ignorance is NOT bliss". But unveiling isn't necessarily comfortable, because you see things in a new way that reveal previous deception. You see you've spent your life making mud pies. You find that you've been walking along a path and suddenly you're required to stop and turn around. 

Stop and turn around.

That takes contentment with looking different. That takes humility to accept that you were wrong. That takes confidence in the source of the unveiling. 

More to come. 

Including how my word for 2018 is a continuation of "unveiling".