soft living, stickers, and Sauron - all the things I'm doing to live intentionally and whimsically as a christian mom this week

a bi-weekly newsletter where I share what God is teaching me and small ways you can bring more presence & playfulness into your life as a mom

Hey sweet friend,

Welcome to the latest installment of the Dwell & Delight devotional - a weekly newsletter where I share what God is teaching me and small ways you can bring more presence & playfulness into your life as a mom.

It has been raining a lot where I am, and while I enjoy the rain for a little bit, I am a sunshine girlie through and through. That, plus being in my luteal phase, has made me a little more down, irritable, and moving at a slower pace.

But that isn’t stopping me from trying to find small ways to dwell & delight in my current season and daily life!

With that, let’s dive in!

I’m a firm believer that doing little things well over time adds up to greater change down the road. I love how it says in Luke 16:10 that “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” It’s easier for me to dream up big plans, but I lose interest or get overwhelmed easily by doing too much, so I end up doing nothing at all.

I have started building on the small routines and soft goals that I put in place a few years ago when I was coming out of burnout (more here on my testimony and why I am so passionate about intentional living and romanticizing motherhood). For example, I wanted to be the girl with some form of skincare routine. But social media and consumerism overwhelmed me until I realized that any repeated set of daily actions is a routine.

So my challenge to you for living more intentionally and sustainably this week is to come up with one simple routine you know you can be faithful to in your current season of life and with your present-day capacity.

When I was in burnout, my morning routine was simply taking my meds, washing my face, and using a moisturizer with SPF. Now it has evolved to include eye cream, tretinoin, and lash/brow serum.

Start small and watch the habits compound.

Over the last few months, my husband has been abnormally busy and burnt out at work which means almost all home management has been on me (he is such a big help when he is off work so I greatly felt his absence).

With that, I have been doing a lot more rearranging and reorganizing of my home because, as a mom with severe ADHD, if I don’t have some sort of organization system, I can’t find things. And if I can’t find things, I can’t parent well. And if I can’t parent well, then ain’t nothing or nobody feeling good about things lol.

But after the rearranging and reorganizing, I got to have fun and redecorate as alot of the decorations I had before got displaced from their original home.

I have had a lot of fun finding things on my local Buy Nothing group, thrift stores, and budget stores to make my newly arranged and organized home feel cozy and pretty.

However, I was struggling with our playroom up until this week. We have a formal living/dining room that we use as our playroom, and this giant wall with a window was giving me a hard time.

Any artwork big enough to fit would be pricey and cumbersome to hang, and I wanted something simple, inexpensive, and unlikely to fall off the walls and onto our toys or kids.

Then I remembered how I used decal stickers in my oldest room and so decided to try it in our playroom and it turned into a fun activitiy for all of us to do this past weekend! My girls are so proud of their work helping decorate and the playroom feels so much brighter (and my husband is glad he didn’t have to hang or paint anything lol!).

So my challenge for you this week, sweet friend, is to pick somewhere in your house that you can liven up to bring you and your family joy. This can include:

• fresh flowers from Trader Joe’s or Costco

• upgrading your containers for prettier versions that you can find at the dollar store

• adding stained glass decals to your windows (check out this list here for what I used in my kids’ rooms!)

Whatever you do, have fun with it and be sure to send me whatever it is you do for the week!

I’ve been very slowly working through a Bible-In-A-Year plan (albeit very slowly), and I struggle with the Old Testament a lot. It feels less like stories of grace and more like dusty crusty history lessons.

But this week, God really made the story of Deborah and Jael come to life for me in a new way (isn’t it amazing when He allows us to re-read something with fresh eyes??).

I’ve heard it before but I got chills. Maybe Jael was Tolkien’s inspiration for Eowyn? Maybe not but that is who I thought of when reading Judges 4.

I am simply amazed at how God has cared for and used women in His greater story of grace.

Loud women. Shy women. Women leaders. Women disciples. Rich women. Sick women. Old women. Young girls.

This week in my readings I am reminded that I have a place in His story, even if it feels small.

Though I may feel insignificant in my offerings, nothing is small when used by a big God.

I have a place in His story and in His heart.

And so do you, sweet friend.

All glory and honor and power to God, forever and ever, amen!

Love always,

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