It's Officially Winter

Hej Mamma, Paul & I went shopping and decided to buy you a "small" Christmas ornament. "Go big or go home", they say. In North America we have BIG Christmas ornaments.

We also bought you six of these big red & white balls that are meant for outdoor use. You can hang them in the apple tree or somewhere else in the yard. Now all you need to do is come visit us in Canada so that you can bring your Christmas ornaments home. :)

Today we had our first snow storm in Toronto and during the weekend I got my first cold. It's officially winter! I guess the upside of having a cold is that I keep all the tea companies in business. I drink 3 cups of Echinacea tea per day to fight off the cold. Well, pretty much all I drink is tea since I can't have coffee at the moment. It's torture for a coffee-lover like me but milk and a cold is a bad combination, and I refuse to drink my coffee black! I'm grateful that I got a cold now, because last year I was sick all throughout Christmas. I believe that this cold will be long gone once Christmas comes.

Our home has been transformed into a gingerbread factory.

During the weekend we celebrated Second Advent. I can't believe that it's less than two full weeks left until Christmas!

Is it just me or does time start to go a lot faster after you turn 30?? I feel like it wasn't long ago that we took a drive to Cobourg Beach and now we have 12 cm of snow in our yard! Time sure doesn't stand still, we better make the most of each moment!

I'm on a Diet

It’s the week after Thanksgiving and I’m currently on a diet. I took some time to reflect last week and concluded that I need to go on a diet, a social media- and Netflix-diet. Social media and Netflix bring joy to my life but I need to control the number of hours I spend staring at a screen. When I was 12-years old it was easy to avoid watching too much TV or spending a lot of time online. The internet used to cost a lot of money per hour back then and my favorite TV shows only came on once a week. I had to wait a whole week before I could watch another episode of my favorite shows. Today we have constant access to a never-ending stream of entertainment, which makes it easy to spend too much time looking at a screen.

I have counted how many hours I spend online per week and have decided that I need to cut that number in half. I don’t spend that much time on one form of social media, but when you add up the time I spend on all different types of social media it becomes a lot of hours per week. I write a blog, read other people’s blogs, watch Netflix, follow people on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook etc.

Life is short. I want to make sure that I spend enough time in my life on loving God and loving people, not on staying updated on what everyone is doing on social media. Real love still happens in real life. I will continue to enjoy the benefits of Netflix and social media, but hopefully I will be able to spend less hours on these things from now on. Cutting my social media and Netflix intake in half will be a challenge for me, but I’m looking forward to having more time leftover for face to face conversations with friends and family. Jennie Allen’s words from her book “Proven” inspired my social media- and Netflix-diet:

“Friends, what if abundant joy, bliss, wonder and pleasure were ours, but we just kept missing those things because we’re either trying to work our way to God or numbing ourselves with fleeting entertainment?
I am learning to pick up books that show me more of Jesus, instead of turning on Netflix. I am learning to call friends over for chili instead of surfing Facebook. I am learning to look my kids in the eyes instead of stare at my phone. Our family is choosing to eat outside and laugh and have game nights and I am learning that the rhythms of gracious living are sacred and pleasing to Jesus. I want to enjoy God’s gifts but never give them too much power in my life. I want to see that Jesus is better, better than any cheap substitute I may crave.”

Jennie Allen, in her book Proven

A Slow Sunday

On Sunday afternoon I treated myself to a chocolate cupcake and a homemade latte. I love cupcakes, they always make a regular day feel special.

It was surprisingly warm and sunny on Sunday morning so my husband and I decided to go for a walk in the park.

We had our breakfast on a park bench in the sun, I had coffee and a Maple Pecan Danish.

It became a very relaxing and enjoyable Sunday. We went to church but other than that we didn't have anything planned. Sunday is going to be our rest day of the week from now on. We usually make Saturdays our rest day but this school year we have commitments on Saturdays so we're bringing back Sunday as our Sabbath day.

I love the fall because it's the time of year when many new programs and volunteer opportunities open up, I like to try something new every year. My only problem is that I tend to commit to too many things. Lately my husband and I have come to the conclusion that our weekly schedule has become too full, something has to go. During the last couple of weeks I have tried to figure out what we could skip but I've felt like we have to do everything that we have committed to at this point. I finally decided to write down everything we have committed to on a paper to get an overview of our situation. Once everything was written down it became easier to notice what we can skip and which activities we can put on hold until next year. Some projects we need to put on hold for another three years.

We live in a world with more opportunities than ever and it's tempting to want to do it all at the same time, but that's not the wisest approach. Every year I'm noticing that I get better life quality when I avoid doing too many things and rather choose to focus my efforts towards a few things per year. Toronto is a huge city with so much to offer, but there's no need to cram all the things I want to do into one year. Nowadays I write down 3-year plans, 5-year plans and 10-year plans in my journal to help myself see what I need to focus on this year versus what can wait. I don't want to rush through my life, I want to be able to stop and be grateful for everything I get to experience. I want to be able to focus more time on all my relationships; God, my marriage, friendships and family members. I need a slower paced lifestyle to be able to live a meaningful life.

My husband and I decided to cut four different things from our schedule so now our life is less full again. We also decided to make Sunday our new rest day and keep this day free from any other programs than church. I look forward to a less busy November because the month of October ended up being too busy. I tend to need to suffer a little bit before I learn what I need to change in my life. I've learned most of my life lessons through doing the wrong thing first (and feeling the pain) before I learned to do things the right way. Life is all about growing and learning new things and every year we become a little wiser. It's not fun to make mistakes but I don't think it's possible to learn anything important without making some mistakes. there's a lot of hope in that.

Minimalism and the Important Stuff

Colin Wright talks about minimalism and how simplifying and focusing our time and energy in life can help us get more out of life. Minimalism isn't about owning as few possessions as possible, but rather about owning the right possessions, it's about focusing on what matters to you.

When it comes down to it, a lot of what we buy, do and spend time on in life is what we think that we should be doing because it's the norm in our city or it's what our friends are doing. When we take a closer look at our lifestyles we might find that a lot of what we are spending our time on doesn't really line up with our values or what we believe about life. When we simplify our lives we will always have time left over to spend on what matters the most to us.