The practice of celebrating advent.

Today marks the liturgical beginning of Advent—the season of anticipating the celebration of Christ’s birth and waiting in hope for Jesus’ second coming.

We’ve picked out our Christmas trees (thanks @scoutforestladera!), bought matching pajamas, walked to the candy cane tree in our neighborhood, and we’ve written letters to Santa, but what I love about this season is that it’s so much more than even these special moments.

It is in Advent that we practice holding both—the pain and the promise, the not-yet and the soon-to-come, the comfort and the joy. Advent is the season where we both sit in the darkness and pay attention to the light. A season where we make space for grief while also holding space for the magic.

A few ways we’re celebrating this year:

1 // Starting the season with Every Moment Holy: A Liturgy to Mark the Start of the Christmas Season and A Liturgy for Setting Up a Christmas Tree

2 // Family devotions at dinner using Ann Voskamp’s Interactive Family Celebration of Advent Calendar. Each day, there’s a new devotion along with an ornament to hang on the pop-up tree. 

3 // Reading the Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas at bedtime with the  boys. 

4 // Incorporating into my morning quiet time: intentional journal time and Hannah Brencher’s Advent 2020 reflection emails.

5 // Creating an Advent video by taking a few seconds of video from every day of Advent and compiling it into a short video for us to watch on Christmas night.

In these days leading up to Christmas, may we practice—reflection, hopefulness, and peace. May we glimpse redemption and be reminded that joy is present, especially here, especially now.

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Reset 001: Let there be life.

This is true of every month: it’s a reset. Our budget resets, which is truly the most exciting part of the month for me. I bought all the books that have been sitting in my Amazon cart for weeks. I registered for a grounding retreat in October and signed up for a couple’s cooking class in June. I made restaurant reservations for our date nights, updated the month’s goals (read 5 books, run a half marathon distance, etc), and RSVP’d to the birthday parties. Come the first of the month, I am a machine.

Easter Sunday 2019.

I listened to The Enneagram Journey podcast recently where Suzanne Stabile interviews Annie Downs who is a 7 on the Enneagram. Annie talks about how she and her assistant (who is a 3 – my type) make a great pair because she wants to have fun and her assistant wants to have the MOST… of anything, so together they have the most fun. “This is me!” I told my husband. “I want the most. I want the best. I’m insatiable.”

It’s in my nature to push harder – for better, for more, for our biggest life. But at my core, I realize that I want is what we are all wired for: an abundant life. The abundance promised to us through and in Jesus.

In the same podcast episode, they talk briefly about a verse from the story of Hannah. I love the story of Hannah so much – she’s raw and real and desperate. Her sister wife tries to bring her down; her husband tries to placate her, and she manages to shake free from both of their expectations. She doesn’t minimize her own pain. In her heartbreak, she goes straight to God, and what she prays for is essentially: life. “And God began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she asked.” (MSG)

One of the posts Jess Connolly shared on Instagram recently was a story of how she was working out with her husband. She felt so defeated and discouraged, but she saw her husband working hard. She told him, “You’re killing it! You’re so strong!” She spoke life and encouragement and as a result, she herself experienced abundance.

There’s abundance in what we already have and in the power of our words – to articulate, to pray, to encourage, to speak life.

Easter has passed, but I’m still thinking about this benediction that Shauna Niequist wrote:

And now, my dear brothers and sisters,

as it was said in the very beginning,

let there be light.

And more than that, let there be life.

Let there be resurrection.

Let there be hallelujah.

Let there be dancing where there was once only mourning.

Let there be daylight where there was, for so long, only dark.

Let there be cool, clear water after a drought, nourishment after starvation, love after aching loneliness.

Resurrection after death,

spring after winter,

dawn after what seemed

an eternal midnight.

May we come to not just understand with our minds, but absorb into our very bones this beautiful, transformative pattern, like a drumbeat, like a song we’ve known all our lives—

life, death, rebirth.

life, death, rebirth.

life, death, rebirth.

May we believe in Christ’s resurrection so deeply that we begin to see the possibility of resurrection everywhere we look.

May our spiritual imaginations be renewed, and may we have the bravery to consider that things we have long pronounced dead for all time might yet come back to life—

possibly even our very own hearts

barely keeping time in our very own chests.

Let there be life.

Let there be life.

// Last week, I wrote about bringing back the blog. This post is part of a new blog series called RESET reflecting on growth and spirituality through new months and different seasons. If there is a topic that you want me to cover, email me at ruthie[at]no17blog[dot]com or leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!

A New Thing

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” – Isaiah 43:19

Maybe it’s because it’s almost Easter. Maybe because my baby is cutting his first tooth, and my oldest is officially registered for TK. Maybe because, materially-speaking, our life looks a little bit different, and we are, almost tangibly, in the middle of new things.

We upgraded my car. We’re in the middle of renovations on our current house – first the laundry room, then the downstairs laundry room and the master bedroom fireplace. Next week, the crown molding and the start of the kitchen demo. Meanwhile, we’re looking for THE house and scheming about a future vacation home. The one my sisters and I have been drooling over has eight bedrooms – EIGHT – and TWO kitchens. Also, a home theater with vintage pea green velvet seats and a legit indoor saltwater pool – a girl can dream.

Maybe because it’s officially spring – the season of orange blossoms, baseball games, strawberry picking and new quarterly goals. Or maybe it’s because around us, planes are literally falling out of the sky, children seeking refuge wash up on ocean shores, and deep, debilitating poverty still exists. Maybe the exact combination of joy, hope and reality is the reason why this verse has been reverberating in my mind and in my heart – See, I am doing a new thing!

See. Notice. Pay attention.

I am doing. Present tense. It’s happening now.

A new thing. Something even better than what we could imagine or hope for.

As a mom, I’m always on the lookout for the new thing – the funny new phrase, the skill to add to the baby book. This season, I’m remembering to look for the new in my own life – the practices that bring healing, the goals that bring growth, and the everyday acts of redemption that God is working into my story.

APRIL:

+Gratitude practice. I’ve been using Rachel Hollis’ Start Today journal as part of my morning routine. The combined practice of writing down the specific things that I am grateful for along with my ten biggest dreams and the next goal that I’m working on has been game-changing for me. This practice has absolutely helped revive my joy.

+On reading more. I have books scattered all over the house, ones that I bought and ones that I checked out from the library, that I can pick up easily. Educated is on my coffee table, Keep Showing Up (the quote that stuck with me – “If you’re not praying for your spouse, who is?”) is next to our bathtub, Outer Order, Inner Calm is the kitchen. I read The Song of Achilles (could not put it down!) and Devotion: A Memoir in bed and Girl, Stop Apologizing while I nursed baby M on the glider. On my Kindle: Inheritance. On my vanity: The Situation and the Story. Currently on my nightstand: The Passion Paradox, Circe, and Grumpy Mom Takes a Holiday.

+Things you come home to. If you’re into the Enneagram like I am, this was hilariously dead on. My husband comes home to a list of goals for the next 35 years of our life, and I come home to – “honestly, it could be anything.”

+Sun Bum chapstick (in Mango, Banana, Watermelon, and Coconut). You’re welcome. I have one of these in running water bottle pouch, another in my wallet, one in my car, and one in my jogging stroller.

+I’ll Have Another with Lindsey Hein, Episode 172. My friend Holl recommended this podcast, and while it’s geared towards athletes, specifically runners, I could absolutely relate to being a “pusher”. Also, Lindsey has four boys! (My future life?). The guest on this episode talked about how he was going to go into journalism and ended up studying Economics instead. I received a scholarship to go to the Northwestern School of Journalism, but the cold, Chicago winters turned me off, and I stayed in Southern California instead, and studied Econ. I’m currently reading The Passion Paradox because of this podcast.

MASH and other February Favorites.

The weekend after Valentine’s Day, I hosted a casual get-together at my house, a moms’ night in. There were a dozen or so of us, a mix of women from work and church, sisters and friends of friends. I bought all the Galentines decorations that Target had – everything heart-shaped and sparkly and pink – and a MASH game pad that turned out to be one of the highlights of the night.

Between sips of rosé and bites of macarons and mini cheesecakes, we filled out the templates with cars and cities, crushes and number of children.

In elementary school, when I played this last, it seemed like anything was possible. But when you already have 3 kids, is there really an option but to go up? I wrote 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, and breathed a sigh of relief when I got to cross off the latter three numbers, though I was truly bummed when the Mercedes G-wagen got booted off my cars list.

We went around and read our MASH outcomes out loud. Two of the girls both ended up married to Chris Pratt – sister wives – except that one got the mansion while the other got the shack. Someone ended up living in Positano; another girl driving a Toyota Highlander. I laughed out loud when I read mine because even with all of the possible options, I got, almost exactly, the life I wanted – David, three kids, a mansion, a career as an interior designer, and a reasonable, unpretentious, VW Atlas.

When I texted the photo of it to my husband (“You made the cut!”), he replied, “Yes! Phew. The G-wagen definitely would have come with Bradley Cooper, though. Too bad.”

That MASH sheet is one of my new favorite things. I saved it, in a box next to my vision board for 2019. A small, serendipitous reminder – the future is bright and the present is exactly what it should be.

Other February faves:

+ The McGee & Co store. The fact that it’s next to Sidecar Doughnuts just seals the deal. I want everything, of course, but the Seoul wall clock and Holzer mirror are currently topping my house decor list. Chloe Hearts Art was in store doing sketches when I went, which was a bonus.

+ Khan Academy Kids. Khan Academy does such a great job with their teaching videos, and the boys love this app.

+ HP Tango Printer. Being able to print remotely from my phone, get ink automatically delivered, and have unlimited photo printing absolutely tilted our lives in favor of more efficient.

+Sleeping At Last Enneagram EIGHT podcast. The Sleeping At Last podcast is always such an great listen because of Ryan’s creative process behind the songs. This episode explored a little bit the difference between transparency and vulnerability, which was interesting.

+Elise Joy’s free daily goal tracker. This reminds me in a very visual and tactile sense that the year is made up of days, and every bubble filled in marks progress.

+Last, but not least, books!: Becoming by Michelle Obama was my book club’s pick for this month. Next month, we’re reading All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir. I started I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, which I’m simultaneously terrified by and hooked on. I finally read some Anne Lamott – Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year – and Phileena Heuertz’s new book, Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation is on my nightstand.

Looking back on 2018.

“How much was a product of our decisions, and how much was in the cards all along?”

— Lisa Gungor, The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen

Truth be told, I’d rather look ahead than look back. I could write a book about the lessons I learned, the mistakes I made, all the ways that I failed, but in the spirit of #2018bestnine, I’m grateful for these nine “bests.”

The highlight: the news and the birth of our third baby boy and the end of being pregnant. Our favorite getaway: The Beach Lodge. Best financial goal hit: paying off my grad school loan. Best habit: recalibrating with the Intentional Living Worksheet every month. Favorite house project completed: turning our loft into a “movie theater”. Best fitness goal completed: hitting a 60-day Peloton streak while I was 8/9 months pregnant. Best relationship practice: regular date nights and business meetings with my hubs. Favorite family goal: intentional monthly adventures, like Disneyland, with the boys.

… and, of course, the books I finished reading this year (not including the huge stack on my nightstand that I’ve started), my favorites in bold.

1. A Simplified Life: Tactical Tools for Intentional Living by Emily Ley

2. Hello Sunshine: A Novel by Laura Dave

3. Touch by Courtney Maum

4. Love Your Life, Not Theirs: 7 Money Habits for Living the Life You Want by Rachel Cruze

5. Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan

6. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

7. Our Tiny Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan

8. The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo

9. Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes & Jo Piazza

10. Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy

11. At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the World by Tsh Oxenreider

12. An American Marriage: A Novel by Tayari Jones

13. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

14. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

15. The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey to Healthy Relationships by Suzanne Stabile

16. Reading People by Anne Bogel

17. You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

18. Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brene Brown

19. You are a Writer by Jeff Goins

20. When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger

21. A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out: A Novel by Sally Franson

22. Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy by Getting More Done by Laura Vanderkam

23. Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

24. The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth by Chris Heuertz

25. Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for an Active Life by Phileena Heuertz

26. Come Matter Here: Your Invitation to Be Here in a Getting There World by Hannah Brencher

27. The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller

28. How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids by Jancee Dunn

29. Be the Gift: Let Your Broken Be Turned Into Abundance by Ann Voskamp

30. What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir by Abigail Thomas

31. Begin Again: The Brave Practice of Releasing Hurt and Receiving Rest by Leeana Tankersley

32. Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan

33. The Marriage You’ve Always Wanted by Gary Chapman

34. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami

35. The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen: Opening Your Eyes to Wonder by Lisa Gungor

36. The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile

37. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

38. Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst

39. Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler

40. The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs

41. Girl Meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life by Lauren Winner

42. Design Your Day: Be More Productive, Set Better Goals, and Live Life on Purpose by Claire Diaz-Ortiz

43. Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillyn Smith

44. The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty

45. We Were Mothers: A Novel by Katie Sise

2018 was beautiful and surprising and I won’t forget it, but I’m also glad it’s almost behind me. I’m already so excited about 2019 and what we have lined up – our annual new year’s family beach retreat, an Exhale writing workshop, the getaway that we just booked for our anniversary this summer, and a new house… maybe? So many things! Here’s to a blank slate and a new chapter. See you in 2019.