Taking time to pause

I love being a mom and we all know it has its up and downs, but I don't think I truly comprehended how hard and how humbling it was going to be. I've been on a journey to become more mindful of how I'm parenting and also being more mindful of how I live my life. And so recently I've been doing a lot of meditation and breathing. Let me explain.

I've now learned that we only use 10% of our brain consciously, only 10%! The other 90% is used for our vitals and such but its also used to store habits and experiences that we've gone through whether they've been positive or negative. I'm sure almost everyone has had something happen to them and their first reaction was to get upset, or sad, or depressed- thats the subconscious coming through because thats how it was learned in the past. So in order to prevent our subconscious determining  how we react to our life situations, being mindful of those feelings immediately, analyzing and watching those emotions, why you feel the way you feel is the first step to changing unwanted feelings that are stored in the subconscious.
There is one vital thing to being keep us alive that can be controlled in the subconscious and the conscious mind and that is breathing. Being able to slow down our breathing, and take deep breaths has all sorts of positive affects on our body and our minds. Breathing consciously for 3 minutes a day can rewire habits, beliefs and many other things and I think its due largely to fact that  we are consciously changing it.  So in my room before I get going for the day I've been breathing, meditating, pondering on any scriptures I may have read and allowing myself to think for myself instead of outside influences determine my feelings and thoughts.


Anyway, there is loads I'm learning and I'm not perfect at it but without dumping it all here and going super deep these are just some thoughts I've really been working on lately that I've been wanting to share.

Bed Frame from Humble Dwellings 

Snail mail

How did Christmas get here so fast?! We've been trying to slow down this December but no matter how hard I try it seems to always fly by. We squeezed in family pictures and when we got them back we hurry and ordered our cards from Tiny Prints. I always love Tiny Prints- they're fast, have beautiful designs, good quality and they always seem to have a deal going on which makes it even that much better.  We went with this design, simple and not very distracting. And if you haven't already got your Christmas cards and wanted to I would go with This design for the New Year its sooo good. Anyway, we put on Christmas music, turned on the Christmas lights, grabbed some snacks and all worked together on getting our cards done.

 We've been trying to do more service this season, and trying to do more prompts from the Christmas initiative #lighttheworld and as I was writing and sending out cards I started to think about why I was sending them out. And our big why is to send our love in hopes that families receiving the cards will feel that intention.

Also, going along those line of sending love, I have the hardest time throwing away Christmas cards that we receive. But a friend told me that to make it easier throwing away cards is to take one family card each night off the wall where they are hung and they pray for that family and continue that each night until they're all off the wall. Isn't that such a great idea?! So we will be doing that this year, sending love and praying for those that come into our home. Love and prayer can solve a lot of problems and we can always use more of it.

Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday! Have you guys taken advantage of all the sales? I thought I'd do a little round up of some of my favorite shops because I have a couple of my tried and true places I always shop and since I love me some sales why not share the love. So here you go here are some of my favorite places!
First off my ultimate favorite spot for Home decor is West Elm. They always have good prices for gorgeous pieces. And usually have free shipping on a many items!


I get questions all the time where I get this couch in this picture and West Elm is where I got it and its on sale now!

We just got this bench to go up in our new space  and we love it so much.

We got these dining chairs for Christmas last year and I love them, West Elm doesn't sell them anymore but these dining chairs are very similar. 


Also, Just got this pillow and this one and I'm in love with them! And I alway love my Mudcloth pillows from Mae Woven.

I love ASOS, I get a lot of my clothes there and its now 30% off everything. They always have unique different clothes that are great quality. ALSO a HUGE bonus is they have free shipping over $50 and FREE returns! So try things on and if you don't love them just return it. No worries.

I get questions on my necklaces all the time and I always have pieces on from Made by Mary, they mean the very most to me and they would make for a simple, beautiful gift!

Roolee is another favorite shopping place and for Cyber Monday they are having 25% off PLUS free shipping!!

So there are really a few of my go-to shops I love so much. Hopefully you find something you love and with all the sales going on its a good time to try them out!

C+A Wedding

So I know my sidebar is like 5 years old all those pictures, and my computer is loaded with pictures I've never posted and I'm like 3 months late to posting all these events... but I want to post them because I want these memories and I know I will see them more if they are online than hidden in the hundreds of folders I have on my computer. So look out as I purge through my old photos and post them. First off Chris and Alta's wedding.
How lucky am I?! All these handsome boys I get to call mine.
 

This memory of Daxton I don't want to forget. He a normally shy guy and dancing in front of people is not his comfort zone... and this wedding had THE biggest dance party I've ever been to at a wedding. So as the dancing was going on- he stood comfortably by his mama being an observer and would every so often get his toes tapping and his hands clapping. He's a good little dancer but i won't push him further than his boundaries in hopes that one day he'll break his shell and fly.

Swimmers

We spent a lot of our summer swimming, and a lot of time around water. It was about all I could do when I was so big and pregnant and hot. Luckily its the boys favorite activity. They did swim lessons at the beginning of the summer and it really helped with their stokes and being more confidant. I love watching them play.

 Benson stills afraid of swimming without his swimmer which is good. However he will go underneath the water which is a big step for him.

Tayte looks like he's always struggling keeping above water but its really the way he swims. He spends most of his time underneath and can hold his breath for absurd amount of time. He looks like one of those little water bugs swimming underneath- crazy legs and all. And Mr. Brave took the high dive all by himself this summer and as he was climbing up the ladder- a bunch of older kids were talking and saying how they couldn't let a little kid show them up (since a lot of them were afraid to jump off) so he started a wave of interest in the high dive that day. As he kept jumping off he attracted more and more kids to come over to try jumping off as well.
Daxton all of sudden busted out the breast stroke after jumping off a high dive and completely shocked me as he cruised across the water. He really got the strokes down really well.