the Lovely Life: a mindful new year

Happy New Year, y’all! I had every intention of sharing more about being a keeper-at-home — I even had part of it written — as well as a year end review/meditation for the New Year…. and then a whole lot of life happened all at once.

Lucy Mae totally changed up her everything on me, and it kind of turned our world topsy turvy. Learning to walk, teething (ALL the teeth. ALL OF THEM.), sleep interruptions, separation anxiety, and weaning abruptly. Sleep deprivation + mastitis + nasty cold + hormone crash + holidays = crazy mama! Needless to say, I’ve been trying to take it really slowly and just get back to feeling better. We’re finding our new rhythm and Lucy Mae is thriving.

A whole year of Lucy Mae!

2018 has been the hardest year we’ve ever had, but it wasn’t all bad. Yes, there were some very low spots, times I let myself and others down, and plenty of times when I needed to wrestle my thought-life back to God’s truth, and too many times of saying goodbye to friends. BUT there were also sweet moments, too. Coffee’s in America with my mom, visits from besties, Belgium, meeting LM’s cousins, international flights, giant birthday bouquets, a trip to the beach, lots of good food and porch time, being in our own space, and celebrating a whole year of Lucy Mae!

Often at New Year’s I get very nostalgic and sad… but not this year; truthfully, I’m kind of glad to be done with last year. It was hard, but I don’t have any regrets. I did my best to soak up all of the little moments with Lucy Mae, hiding them in my heart, mindful of just how short this time is in hindsight, but I don’t really miss those moments.

I’m a big fan of the “Word of the Year” versus resolutions; it can’t be broken and is less like a list of impossible rules I won’t keep. I kind of started this at the end of last year, but this year I want to be more purposefully and intentionally MINDFUL of my time, my thoughts, my attitude, and my actions. A couple of extra months of mindfulness can’t hurt, right?