Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Your One Thing: 17 Weeks of Learning to Live a Beautiful Life





It's Week 13 of my 17 Weeks of Learning to Live a Beautiful Life series.

This week has found me in a tizzy. I am trying to find my Christmas season stride.

With little success.

Do you ever get tired of being "every woman"?

We are told that we need to be crafty, stylish, an excellent hostess, an ambitious employee, a marvelous cook...And notice I haven't mentioned anything about being a loving wife and mother.

I think many of those things are perfectly reasonable goals to have.

But Good Grief! ...Does it ever take a lot of work.

By the way. The Muffin and Josiah tell me that I say "Good Grief," a lot.

Moving on.

This week I am challenging you to chose ONE thing this Christmas season.

Well. Maybe not quite ONE thing in the literal sense.

But let's not make life more complicated than it already is.

Our goal is to LIVE a Beautiful Life. Simplify your life. Take care of yourself.

When life gets complicated, crazy and just a little busy, it soooo important to take a step back and make things easy for yourself.

Have you ever heard "a jack of all trades, but a master of none?" Let's slow down and concentrate on doing just a few things with excellence.

It might be easier than you think.

This is your challenge for this Christmas season.  Make a list of every party, occasion and potluck you will attend in the next few weeks. Look through your tried and true recipes and pick ONE (or two) thing that will be easy to put together.

This is an example of some of my list.

The Muffin's Work Party: Monkey Bread
The Muffin's Work Dinner (they eat a lot): Corn Casserole, Salted Caramel Apple Cake
Church Christmas Potluck: Corn Casserole, Salted Caramel Apple Cake
Youth Small Group Christmas Party: Monkey Bread

You seeing a pattern here?

Your other challenge is to look through your closet and make sure you have a snazzy outfit to wear to all of those Christmas activities. For example, my ONE outfit will make the rounds to a special evening at a show in Branson (we were blessed by a sweet friend), our church Christmas service and anywhere else I want to put on the ritz.

If you tend to practice the "One thing" philosophy consider updating that outfit; especially if that outfit has been your go-to One Thing for a number of years. Don't get stuck. The purpose is to feel beautiful. If you are still wearing your party dress from 20 years ago....You might need to revisit the whole thing. My party dress from 20 years ago was a size 6 and had puffy sleeves.

This philosophy is not just to be practiced during the busy Christmas season. There will be other times of the years that tax your energy, your creativity and your patience.

For us homeschooling momma's it might mean that we need to back off. Maybe we need to just concentrate on good literature, steady math practice and copywork. It might mean that we need to do less outside the home and spend more of those minutes and hours together.


Applying the "One Thing" trick doesn't mean that your turning in your creativity card. It simply means that you are using your creative energies for dreaming, for sharing and for rest.











You can read more of my Learning to Live a Beautiful Life Series by clicking the banner below.



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