a year of habits//week 2 confession

I'm going to be super honest- confession was a discipline I thought about skipping. The word itself brings to mind a wooden box where you are made to confess your sins to another person in order to gain God's forgiveness. Take into consideration I am not Catholic, so my idea might not exactly be what a Catholic would appreciate (sorry about that), but nevertheless, it is how I view it. 

BUT I decided to take my own approach with this discipline. I wanted to mainly journal my confessions so that it was something only between God and myself, but it would also be something I could look back on and see how my relationship with God had grown.  A few of the days this past week though, I didn't want to journal- either my thoughts seemed to sensitive or I was too tired. So instead, I just went to God in prayer. And I counted that still. 

It's funny how most days I didn't feel like I had messed up or had been in offense to God, but after this past week and really looking into my actions and thoughts, I realized how even the little things started to stick out. Journaling and confessing even those tiny instances made me feel closer to God because it made me realize how much I don't consider Him in every single thing I do. And I really want to change that.

Update on my Habit 1: 

I also am still working on my first habit- prayer before each meal, which turned into prayer each time I put anything in my mouth-even a mint. It's still a hard habit to get into and most days I still fail- but at least I still am trying. 

This week: Habit 3: meditation.

This one I am a little overwhelmed with. It's not like in yoga or the other types of modern-day meditation where you just clear your mind. That's just the first step. But the second step is to fill yourself with the person and Word of God. The book I'm reading, Enjoying Jesus, gives the example of meditating well as "pick[ing] a quality or promise of God and turn[ing] over and over in our minds, seeing the different facets of truth as we consider it first from one angle and then from another." Finding time to do this is harder than I thought. Although the book does suggest doing this on your commute, somehow I feel like I need even less distraction for the first few times I do it- and then of course when I get home I haven't made the time. 

So if you have any suggestions for how you've done this, please, please share!!! 

Christmas Tree 2019

Last night Austin and I put up our Christmas tree and as I was looking at the ornaments I got sentimental (as always).

 Some ornaments have been with me since childhood, in fact I still have my baby's first Christmas ornament!

And then there are the ones Austin and I have been given while being engaged and married. The other fun ones though, I started noticing a pattern with.... Auburn (WAR EAGLE), ones to remind me of travels, alcoholic beverage ones, music ones (for Austin of course), and tons more Disney ornaments than I thought we had. 

I even have one of my dad. My Aunt Nancy had this made for me one year- it's a photo of when he graduated law school and it's one of my favorites!

Then I got to thinking about what other Christmas trees are decorated with... so tell me: 

What ornament patterns do you have in your stock?

What is your favorite ornament?

xo, kel

a year of habits// week 1: Prayer

I feel like prayer is so powerful and yet so vastly underrated.  Throughout the week I kept thinking that one week just wasn't enough to study and create habits from.

And then.....

The last day of my week of prayer ended on Saturday and right before closing the shop we had a couple of customers come in that had just been to a prayer conference here in Jax.  We spent a good amount of time talking about how wonderful prayer is and all the types of praying there is: on your own, with another Christian, with a group, for healing, for peace, for confession, etc.
So now I know what I want to my week of study to be on!!! Prayer. I'm already excited.


And while prayer is one of my favorite faith disciplines, this week I've been made to realize that I don't do it as frequently as I thought. My habit for this week was to pray before every meal. Considering the fact that I really only eat once a day I thought this would be easy enough to accomplish.  But out of 7 days, only 1 day was completely successful.

So what did this teach me?

Besides realizing that what was once a habit is definitely not anymore, I've also come to the conclusion that I don't have God at the forefront like I thought I did.
Instead of beating myself up though, I decided to include another prayer- that God would help me but Him first. Maybe that's what this habit was suppose to teach me all along anyway- to remind me that even the simple things I need God. There is not one single habit that I will be able to do successfully all the time, without God's help and guidance.

The best part about making this my first habit of the year, is that I still have 51 weeks to make it work.



NEXT week's habit is on Confession.
I think the habit I am going to work on developing for the next 51 weeks for this discipline will be to journal my confessions to God. There are times when instead of admitting what's bothering me I bottle it up.  So this next week I'm going to start trying to journal those times and also in the times when I don't feel like I'm drastically in offense to God. I want to surrender everything to Him and I also don't want to hold back from doing what He wants of me.

What is your habit for next week???

xo,
kel

2009 vs 2019

Even though I posted side by side decade photo on Facebook, I felt like it didn’t do the whole thing justice. And of course the longer I thought about it the more I lingered on how much has changed the past 10 years and how extremely grateful I am for where I’ve been and where I am now. 

Ten years ago I was still in college, I had just dyed my hair brown (man I miss it), lived with my best friend Leigh, had frequent weekend trips with my other bestie, Kim, was in a dead end relationship that neither of us could bring ourselves to end, was incredibly skinny thanks to IBS and body image issues, and I wasn’t really happy.  Don't get me wrong, I had happy times and being with my amazing friends was my saving grace ( I seriously miss them too- growing up and moving away from each other is hard), but overall I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted. Oh the twenties. 

Leigh, her momma Jane, and I (2009)

Kim and I (2009)

2019 has found me working at my mother in laws tea room/boutique, I’m back to my natural blonde hair, I'm still incredibly lucky to still be friends with Leigh and Kim (even though I don’t get to see them nearly enough), I live in the same place, am happily married, have two precious pups, love myself, and have learned how to better handle having IBS. I've also made some incredible friends through the decade that I cherish. My thirties have been amazing! 

Kim and I (2019)

(Need one of Leigh..... I hate living so far friend).

Until the next decade....

xo, kel 

Weekly wrinkle// vol 2

#1. The bacteria involved in  [a body’s] decomposition are not the same bacteria that cases disease.
From the book Smoke in

#2 The word disciple is mentioned 296 times in the Bible.  Christian is only mentioned 3.

#3 During World War 2, crystal meth was an over the counter drug in Germany and was also given to soldiers that had to fight at night or were close to danger, therefore had to stay up for long amounts of time.

#4 Turtles breathe out of their butts. (Thanks Josh Gad’s Instagram for that factoid!)


Xo, kel

A year of habits/ month one- Faith

Let’s do this dance!!!! 

Sunday is not only December 1st and the start of Advent but it’s also the start of the year of healthy habits journey!! 

Here’s a peak at my journal for the year: 

My month goal for December (and January and February) is to practice and try spiritual disciplines in order to grow closer to God. For most of it, I am using and reading Enjoying Jesus which if you want to buy, you can find here.  My Bible Study just finished this study a couple of weeks ago and while I really enjoyed it, I didn’t feel like I allowed myself time to really jump in and try them. And I also wanted a entire week to each disciple instead of a week for two disciplines.

Here’s kind of a caveat, while I am using the book to help me, it’s not my sole tool. Some of them I might not even study. It’s more of a guideline for my three months of faith habits. And since I love studying, researching and reading, I’ll probably share from the book and other findings here as well. 

So the outline of December..... 

Week 1: prayer. 

My weekly goal is to pray before each meal- something I use to do and then got out of the habit of. 

Week 2: possibly confession? It’s the second discipline injury the book, but within the next couple days I’m thinking of changing it to something else.  Any suggestions????

Week 3: meditation. 

I’ll share a little more what this means, but my weekly goal is throughout the week to work myself up to 30 minutes a day of meditation. This is the habit I want to create. 

Week 4: study

While currently my momma in law and I are working on A Galatians Bible Study for our Women's Wednesday night group, I want the study I start this week to be just for me. My sister in law has been thinking of studying the names of God (which I like). I just haven’t quite figured out what my study will be. However, I am going to try for this week to give myself at least 15 minutes a day devoted to studying. 

Week 5: sabbath rest

This one too I’ll explain a bit more later on. As well at my weekly goal/habit for that week since I haven’t quite come up with one yet. 

I plan on sharing more in depth throughout the week. 

Xo, kel

a year of habits/ designing

The left side of my brain is definitely working overtime right now trying to figure out how I want to keep track and reflect on this year of habit making.  So I created a few examples on the computer and a few by hand (which are totally messy because I can't draw a straight line to save my life but I also hate using rulers).  

But in case any of you were trying to figure out a way to keep track this year, I figured I would share what I made (ps I can email to anyone that wants a copy so you can edit it yourself)  and also some awesome things I found (yay pinterest)!

The above one is meant to be colored in as you accomplish each goal. I was inspired by this etsy example (but wanted it in my handwriting). 

For the above version, it was a rough edit for me to plan out dates and how everything would align.  I've also been writing down little habits that I want to try and when I finished this rough draft planning sheet, I grouped the goals by section and wrote them on a post it note. This way, I could visually see how many goals I had for faith, or relationships, etc. (Can you tell I'm a visual person/learner??)

So the above example is from the Christian Planner. It's a great way to track your habits if you don't want to go through making a notebook or journal. It's simple, yet efficient. And like I mentioned in the last post, you can always print out the pdf version for free!!! 

OK, so the other ones I found online....

If you are a bullet journal person, you might like/appreciate the simplicity of these trackers. 

I also liked this version (the link is to my pinterest because in order to see the original, you do have to create a login for the site, FYI) 

This tracker insert is from etsy and is less than $5! 

It also just hit me that I start this challenge in 12 days!! 

xo, kel

a year of habits/planning

I am an over planner, not to be confused with an over achiever though. Perhaps its the (enneagram) 9 in me.... 

So I've broken down this upcoming year of healthy habits into sections, or parts of my life that I feel are most important: faith, relationships, self, home, fitness and nutrition. 

I've been playing around with a bunch of different ways to track and journal all my habits, goals, and reflections and I've found a few that I really like.  For those of you that want to follow along, I wanted to try and make it as easy for you as possible too. 

So what you'll need: 

a journal/notebook or a binder to keep track of everything 

OR a habit planner, like this one (which also has a free pdf printable if you'd prefer)

pens

if you want: highlighters &/or markers 

anything else that will make this fun/crafty

**I'll include print outs and what I'm using, but feel free to find and share what you use/find as well**

Remember that this is just how I am doing this year challenge. While I would love for all of you to follow along, you can make it work for you- whether that means doing only 1 part or picking up later in the year.  

If you do follow along, remember to let me know so I can follow your journey (on instagram I'm using the hashtag #ayearofhabits).

So here's my breakdown of the year.

December- February: Faith habits

March- May: Exercise and Nutrition habits

June- September: Relationship habits

October: Home habits

November: TBD

What I plan on tracking:

year goal(s): mine is to create healthy and long lasting habits and to write more frequently

monthly goal: based on which area of life I'm currently focused on

weekly goal: a more specific goal that's attainable and can be measured

reflections throughout this journey/challenge

There are also times I might add a reward for reaching certain habits (especially the harder ones)- keep this in mind for your challenge too.

Until later (with more fun things....)

xo, kel

a year of habits

I'm totally that girl that loves to-do lists and trying to be organized.  (I say trying, because I feel like on a weekly basis I still find myself losing something.) 

In the last several weeks I've been bombarded with thoughts and then songs or podcasts or books that all have one thing in common: goal setting.  And so I began to wonder..... maybe I should do something about/with this.

Ali Edwards has a "one word" project every year, where she picks a word, like a theme, for her year. I did this several years back, but sadly only that one time. My word was "magical" and as it turns out, it was a magical year (it was the year Austin and I got engaged). 

I happened upon a podcast that featured Ali and she mentioned that a previous word for her was "habit".  This stuck with me, more and more so when other podcasts or books I was reading started mentioning habits and goal setting.  Let me mention here, I love goal setting. I've made birthday year goals for myself through most of my 20's and now 30's.  This year I have been making monthly goals and trying to keep track (although most of them are about how many books I want to read). I am a goal oriented person. 

But it was then that a sort of light-bulb switching on moment happened.

2019-2020 will be a year of  "habits" for me. And yes, a year. Instead of starting in January, I plan to start in December of this year. My main reasoning is that the season of Advent really is the beginning of things, so shouldn't it also be the beginning of this journey?  So from December to December I plan on making habit forming choices.  

Of course, since I'm super left-brained, this means that I have already started planning out how I intend for this to work. 

So why am I blogging about it?

Honestly, I want this to be a place where I can look back on my journey. 

A part of the challenge also includes me writing more, so why not start here and now. 

I also want to encourage other people to join me on this challenge. You can tweak it to make it more for you, but the point is that things are better with company.  Plus, I know I'll be asking for advice or books on related subjects throughout the way. 

So please join me. 

I've split up the challenge into several parts. So whether you do the whole thing with me, or just parts of it- I'd love the company! Just let me know you're following so we can encourage each other along.

More details to come!
Xo, kel

#cardiganday

In case you missed it, today has been dubbed #cardiganday in honor of Mr. Rogers. As a kid I absolutely loved watching Mr. Rogers (my poor mother, it was quite boring for her). 

Of course, being the queen of cardigans (and owning more cardis than shirts) I had a selection to pick from for today. But the one I decided to wear was of course me Granddad’s. 

And of course my family and I decided to don some cardigans in the shop to contribute to the day. 

Hope you wore your cardigan!! 

Xo, kel 

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a Florida girl at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

Let me just first say, two of my absolute favorite things are Halloween and Disney, so finally getting to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party was a dream.  

We decided to go this year to celebrate my friend Alexis and her birthday!

In line for Space Mountain. 

The Halloween decor at Disney is always my favorite!!

We decided to go with the theme "Villains" for our group costumes. Alexis, our birthday girl was Malificent, Kelly was Ursula, I was the Queen of Hearts (mainly so I could wear my heart shoes), and Daniel was Scar.

While I definitely do not want to ruin the experience, there were some amazing highlights of the event that I have to share!!!

At the entrance of Main Street begins a line of trick or treating for kids and adults alike. There are a bunch of other stops along the trick or treat route and trust me, we hit a majority of them. A week later and I still am giving away the candy I got.

Being a Hocus Pocus fan to the extreme, I was really excited about there being a show at the castle including the Sanderson Sisters.  I will say the rain was against us that night though and we only got to see 5 minutes of one of the shows.  We could have tried to catch another one, but there was just so much to do, there wasn't enough time.

I did however manage to snag an Amuck, Amuck, Amuck Cupcake. It was super sweet and I could not have eaten even half of it on my own, but it was worth it.  And Kelly got a kick out of the fact that they spelled my name wrong.

The rain also put a damper on the parade.  Granted there are two showings, but we decided to watch the last one since it would be later and therefore hopefully a smaller crowd. Mother Nature decided differently though and the lat parade was cancelled.

By the time we got back to our hotel though the rain had stopped and we were able to watch the fireworks.  I've been fortunate enough to stay at some amazing hotels on property, but absolutely nothing compares to the Contemporary.  Our room had a view facing the Park, so suffice to say the firework show was fantastic. And since we also had a view of the lake, I also (learned about) saw the illuminations show done by the boats after the fireworks showcase.

Until next time Mickey......

xoxox 

a Florida girl in Atlanta

A couple of times a year, my mother-in-law/boss, sister-in-law, and I head up to Atlanta for Market. If you’ve never heard of Market/America’s Mart, it’s amazing! It’s a place clothing stores/boutiques  and gift stores (both large and small) find vendors and merchandise. It’s also a great place to connect with other store owners and see the latest trends. It’s one of my favorite things about working at Ashes!
Each time we go I feel like we’ve perfected our trip a little more. And while this last time we flew instead of drove (therefore we didn’t have a car to drive around town with) we didn’t necessarily need one.

I’ve really come to love this city, especially since my uncle and grandfather both lived here (and since they both passed away before I was born this is a link to them I wouldn’t have otherwise had).

So some of my favorite places in Atlanta (and please share the ones you love, because I love recommendations)!!

Tipple and Rose Apothecary and Tea Room.
We obviously love tea rooms, but since we are really one of the few left in Jax we rarely get to enjoy going to High Tea ourselves. And sometimes its nice to be able to sit an relax while drinking a cuppa. This place was fantastic. The atmosphere is unique, the food terrific and the icing on the cake was that it is woman run!!!

The Hub.
This last visit to Atlanta was the first time I have encountered The Hub and I'm super sad about that. It has so many ethnic foods all in one spot. Everything looked amazing. Plus it was super convenient being across the street from Market.

Varsity.
I actually ate at The Varsity before my Market trips. On mine and Austin's first anniversary trip we stopped here on our way to Chattanooga. Apparently my grandfather use to frequent this burger joint!

White Oak Kitchen.
One night during our stay we try to do a nice dinner where we can sit down and enjoy the city. On one of our trips we stopped at White Oak Kitchen. So, so, so good!


And of course, some photos from Market..... enjoy!

Why yes this is from a new vendor we found. And yes we are getting some of these in!!!!

A little bored waiting to leave for the airport...... and also loving my new earrings. 

We met Emiliee from My Girl in LA and we loved her and the company!! So excited about working more with them!

When the decor is this cute, you can't not play with it!

Why yes the shirt I'm wearing will be coming into the store. 

One of my favorite sites (inside Market). I just love this place. 

After waking up at 3 to be at the airport by 4:30 only to have our flight delayed by 6 hours..... coffee was needed. However the flight was so short we didn't even get a chance to finish our cup. Major booooooo. 

Well, that's a wrap on this trip. Until next time..

xoxox