Things that are Saving my Life Right Now

Winter has always been my least-favorite season.  It's long.  Its cold.  (Did I mention that it's long?!)  Somewhere around February I yearn for green and living things, in the midst of all of the white and grey swirling around.  I recently read a blog post about making a list of things that are saving your life right now, in the midst of dreary winter.  I loved this idea...similar to gratitude list, but more season-specific.  I figured I'd give it a try and it turned out to be quite long!  This practice was another reminder to me that there are always blessings tucked into difficult and dreary seasons, so long as we keep our eyes open to see them.  So, without further ado, here is my list of some of the "wee little" (I couldn't resist!) things that are saving my life this winter:

Megan catching snowflakes on her tongue :)

1) Trips to the library

The kids and I always look forward to visiting the library, but there is definitely an extra life-saving element to it, when we all have a case of cabin fever.  When we start to feel too stir-crazy, the library promises hours and hours of FREE entertainment.  We shuffle off with empty tote bags in hand and excitedly peruse the shelves for interesting titles.  The kids' moods are instantly improved, as is mine!  When we get back home, we pop some popcorn and dive right into our bags of printed goodness!

Our current "haul" (and I do mean a literal HAUL.  Those totebags get HEAVY!)

2) My slippers

A couple of years ago I picked up this pair of shearling slippers on an after-Christmas sale, and it's been true love ever since.  They keep my feet toasty warm without over-heating or getting all stinky and sweaty, like synthetic materials sometimes do.  They are SO super comfortable...it's hard to take them off when I need to go somewhere!  Which leads me to #3 on my list...

My favorite slippers...well worn and well loved!

3) Boots with wool socks

I've always had low blood pressure, so my hands and feet get cold very easily.  When I need to head out in the snow, I LOVE wearing boots with wool socks to keep me warm and dry!  The boots keep my pant-legs from getting all soggy (the WORST!!) and wool socks keep my oft-icy toes super toasty!  It's *almost* as good as wearing my slippers!


4) Soup

I've always been a soup-aholic, and have even shared a few recipes over the years of my personal favorites.  There's nothing like warming up with a steaming bowl of homemade, healthful soup to cheer up a dreary day!  I love to serve mine in an over-sized mug, while warming my ( icy!) hands on the sides.  This Chicken and Couscous Stew is one of my current favorites. So so good.

Butternut Squash soup--one of my faves!

5) Celebrating "little" holidays

After Christmas and New Years, there is a whole 'lotta winter left, without much celebrating to do.  To help cheer us all up, while waiting for Spring, I like to make a semi-big deal out of the little holidays, including: Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day.  We make crafts, we bake tasty treats, we put up decorations and read fun books.  It really helps make the remainder of winter more exciting!

Making "Fai Chun" for Chinese New Year

Our silly Mardi Gras masks we made last year

The "wearing of the green" for St. Paddy's last year. (How did a whole year fly by so fast?!)

6) Trying New Hobbies

Winter is the perfect time of year to dig into some new hobbies.  This winter I'm trying my hand at making homemade wine.  It's a lot of fun!  It's still in process right now (in the "secondary fermenter"), but I hope it will turn out yummy!

Luke's latest hobby is 3D puzzles!

7) Afternoon Tea with Read-Alouds

I love the simple beauty and cheer of gathering around the table every afternoon for a cup of something comforting, a little snack and a great book to read aloud.  Sometimes we make tea, other times it's hot cocoa or even lemonade (usually coffee for me!), but we always have a great book to go with it.  Right now the kids and I are enjoying the American Girl Felicity Series.  I wasn't sure if the boys would get into them, but they like them, too!  We've been reading this book along with the series, which also has great information about life circa 1774.

Sometimes we get fancy and bust out the nice china, but most of the time we keep it pretty simple!

Thank you, library, for helping us keep our sanity this winter!

This is just a small section of my much longer list of things are "saving my life" this winter.  They're just a few of the little things that help brighten my day and fill me with hope and joy.  I'd love to hear some of yours!  If you'd like to share your list or see some others, check out the link over at Modern Mrs. Darcy.

Why Beauty Matters

Lately I've been thinking about the importance of beauty.  How beauty is a gift from God-- one that we so desperately need in our lives.  How beauty has the ability to uplift, to elevate, to draw us closer to our creator.  Beauty is the lens through which we see the extraordinary, a touch of the divine.

I have this friend who has bare walls in her house, because she's doesn't have the extra funds to decorate the way she'd like to.  So, she's decided to settle on nothing at all.  This makes me sad, because when we surround ourselves with beauty (and I don't mean the cost-a-whole-paycheck variety.  I'm looking at you, Pottery Barn.) we are uplifted.  Beauty elevates the spirit, making us come alive inside.  It arouses a feeling of hope, a glimpse of eternity.  And beauty can truly be free...or practically free, if you use a little imagination.  A simple browse on Pinterest can spark all kinds of creative ideas on how people re-purpose, up-cycle and use items found in nature.  Fill old jam jars with wildflowers. Paint an old picture frame. Cut up a salvaged sweater and wrap it around a dollar store candle.  Take a walk in the woods and cut some branches to display.  Beauty. Practically free. 

A year and a half ago, when we moved to our new house, the walls in the dining room were a bright sunflower yellow.  This wasn't the color I'd originally envisioned, but I was 7 months pregnant and it was 3 weeks 'til Christmas, so painting was pretty much out-of-the-question for me.  But I still wanted to make the room look pretty, even though I'd decided not to paint.  I thought a collection of cheerful plates would work well with the color, and bring some beauty to the bare walls.   But, since we had just moved and it was right before Christmas, there wasn't much money to spend on decorating.  So, I went to Good Will and found a bunch of bargain plates for $1.00 a piece.  It was so much fun playing around with the designs and sizes to create something unique! Yes, it wasn't completely free--it ended up costing about $12.00 dollars (I made the hangers myself with wire). And if I had had to save up for it, I would have.  Because beauty matters. It's just a simple thing I put together, but one that continues to give me cheer, whenever I'm in the room.

My cheery little plate wall, on our first Christmas in the new house.

And of course beauty isn't only aesthetic, and it's certainly not restricted to home decorating.  We all know that beauty comes in many forms--music, dance, nature, writing, cooking, and countless other forms.  But the reason I bring up our homes is that we spend so much time in them--hours gazing at the walls and surfaces around us.  So, why not make them as beautiful as we can, to elevate our spirits?

Several months ago, I came across this video on the subject of beauty, presented by philosopher Roger Scruton, entitled Why Beauty Matters.  It has been with me ever since.  It is one of the most moving pieces I've ever come across on the subject of beauty.  It's about an hour long but very worth the watch.  (Warning: the video contains several disturbing images unsuitable for little eyes, so plan to watch it sans children!) Here are some of the take-aways that really spoke to me:

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1) We understand our own nature, as spiritual beings, through the pursuit of beauty.  An experience with beauty can have a profound and life-changing impact.

2) Beauty is an antidote to the chaos and suffering of this world.  It brings consolation in times of sorrow and jolts us out of the complacency of our everyday duties.

3) Creativity is a call to others to see the world as we see it, a way to share our hearts and connect with others.

4)  Beauty has the power to arouse powerful emotions within us--feelings of desire, adoration and longing.  It awakens in us the stirrings of the soul that sometimes lie dormant and calls us into contemplation.

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5)  Beauty lies all around us--the world itself is intrinsically beautiful, and art (in all its forms) reminds us to see it.

6)  When we remove beauty from the world, we are left with ugliness, utility, a world of alienation, raw appetite and despair.

It matters that we create an atmosphere of beauty in our lives.  We are surrounded by so much ugliness in this world.  There is pain, poverty, illness, natural disasters, loss of faith.  We need a place to elevate our souls and arm ourselves to fight for what is good. 


Plato once said "Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, you will be able to nourish true virtue and become the friend of God."  Yes.  I can't think of a better pursuit than growing closer to God while pursuing virtue.  And I love that beauty is a path to this.

An *old* high school picture of me singing in the our chorus

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So, lose yourself in a soul-stirring piece of music.  Contemplate the brush strokes of a gorgeous painting.  Gaze in awe at the wonder of an architectural masterpiece.  Be blessed by a stage-performance which feeds your being.  Go for a walk and bring a bit of nature back home with you to display.  Get lost in a beautiful pursuit of your own, that awakens your passion.  Take a moment to look within, to contemplate, to be transformed by heaven here on earth.  Let beauty be a balm to to your weary soul.  Steep yourself in goodness, and ponder in deepest gratitude, Our Creator, who gave us this magnificent gift of beauty.

Random Thoughts on the Happiness Project

I thought January would be a fitting time to read The Happiness Project, since I had heard such great things about it and it seeming very "New Year's Resolutionish".  It's a great book!  Packed with thought-provoking quotes, fascinating research and personal anecdotes, I highly recommend it, even if you're already blissfully happy and have zero interest in starting a happiness project of your own. There really is something for everyone in this book, I think.


What I really liked about it is that it's not a "recipe for success" type of book written in some cheesy all-knowing motivational guru style.  Rather it's a simple experiment, written in the form of personal anecdotes, on ways the author challenged herself to self-improve.  It's not a book that tells you to do "x, y and z" for insta-joy, but more journal of self-discovery, packed with thought-provoking tidbits of failures and successes along the way.

 Gretchen (we're on a first name basis, now that I've finished the book! Ha!) structured her happiness project based on Benjamin Franklin's "13 Virtues" checklists in which he rated himself daily on his level of success in specific areas.  Having just done a homeschool unit on Benjamin Franklin this past Fall with the kids, this was something I had thought about, long before ever even having heard of the Happiness Project!  I like the checklist idea because, in order for me to reach my goals (the tough ones that feel like drudgery, I mean) I need accountability.  I'm really kind of terrible at holding myself accountable, a procrastinator by nature.  So, checklists sound like a good thing!

Benjamin Franklin's 13 virtues checklist

The project is based on 12 monthly themes (e.g. family life, marriage, career, eternity, etc.), which are then broken down into specific goals.  I like this structure because the idea of focusing on one particular area of life at a time seems manageable--not as overwhelming as trying to become "perfecto-person" all at once. (I tend to get just a tad over-zealous with things at times!)  In fact, when I first told Kevin about the idea of a happiness project, he chuckled and told me I would get all obsessive over it and then fizzle out at some point when I felt overwhelmed and deflated.  Humph.  But...maybe balance should be one of my monthly themes???

In addition to the monthly goals, Gretchen also came up with a list of basic governing principles for life, tidbits of wisdom, that I really liked.  Things like: "be yourself, as you actually are and not what you wish you were or think you should be" and "make failure less scary by telling yourself its fun to fail".  (Yes, I think I really need to work on that second one!)


What was neat for me, coming from a Christian perspective (the author isn't particularly religious, although she did explore the subject of "eternity" in one chapter) is that so many of the goals and bits of wisdom she identified are basic tenants of the faith.  Themes like selflessness, charity, forgiveness, self-control and patience came up time and time again.  I found it neat that these truths are so universal, and how people can find themselves seeking them, when coming from a non-religious background.  But what I really loved was seeing how they could be applied to life in very specific "everyday" ways, since sometimes (well, for me at least!) virtues can feel sort of abstract in a day-to-day sense.  I mean, at the end of the day, I don't really find myself thinking, "Hmmm, ok, so on a scale of one to ten, Erin, how was your self-control today?" (Although that sounds like a useful exercise doesn't it?!)


In no specific order, here are some other take-aways from the book that I really loved:

--Don't seek "gold stars".  When doing things for others, be content with anonymity and the joy that comes from giving, rather than seeking affirmation and recognition. 

See what I mean about basic tenants of Christianity?

--Act the way you want to feel. Happiness, to an extent, is a choice.  We can brighten our days by acting the way we wish to be. 

This one was actually inspired by St. Therese of Lisieux!

--Remove sources of: guilt, remorse, frustration, boredom, anger, envy and shame.  These are happiness robbers.  

Although this may seem obvious, this type of goal is something I tend to avoid as a procrastinator! So, this is an important one for me!

--This quote by Yeats: "Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth.  We are happy when we are growing."  

Yes.  Striving brings joy!!

--Don't under-estimate what can be accomplished in even 15 minutes of time.  Spend time wisely. 

While I know this to be true, but I love the reminder that even just a short chunk of time can be really useful.  (I'm looking at you Facebook and Pinterest! Time-stealers!) This one is great because this is actually part of my goal for 2014 of being present.

--Take time for projects and record happy family memories.  

I love this because I am too often tempted to "just say no" to messy time-consuming projects that would be fun to do with the kids.  I need to say yes to the mess more often! (Also part of my "present" goal!)

--There are 3 different types of fun, some more satisfying than others.  They are: Challenging Fun--like learning a new skill, Accommodating Fun--like taking the kids to the playground and enjoying yourself in the process, and Relaxing Fun-- like watching a movie.  The last one is actually the least satisfying, but we crave it because it requires so little effort.  

Challenging fun feels like work, but brings the most joy!  Which brings me to the next point....

--Happiness doesn't always feel like happiness.  Sometimes striving to achieve feels downright horrid in the moment, but achieving the goal brings happiness in the end. 

Yes!  Like Spring Cleaning!

--We tend to take on other people's moods--both happy and sour.  So, be aware of how your mood is affecting others and vice versa.  

Create an atmosphere of joy!

There are lots and lots of other useful insights in the book, too, but I just can't possibly share them all here! 

So, I will be working on creating my own goals for the year.  I'm not quite sure how they will all look just yet.  If you're interested in doing your own project, Gretchen has a bunch of tools to help you get started on her site: here.  She also recommends joining a group--great for encouragement and added accountability.  I would LOVE to start a group, but I'm not sure if it would be possible right now.  Hmmm...I'll have to think more on that one.


So, I hope this inspired you to think about some little ways that you can increase your own happiness, even if you don't want to start an all-out "Happiness Project" right at this moment.  As my thoughts gel a bit more, I'll share more of the specifics on my own project with you!