i’ve been making mood boards! lots and lots and lots of mood boards because we are moving house. again. our fab old house is getting knocked down, so back into town we go. we are (not so) secretly very excited about being back in buzzing bedford… Read More
who knows what the next few years will bring. i feel so blown away by how much my life haschanged since starting this blog and am increasingly surprised at the directions my life is taking.
i started this blog because i was bored. i was watching lots of tv, not dreaming, not really doing anything except spending time with friends and being at home and doing a lot of shopping. these things are fine in and of themselves, but i was asleep inside, shopping to fill a void, eating to fill a void, hanging out with friends to avoid being alone. just moving from one day to the next with no real colour or excitement. hence the blog (and title)!
this was my project, to find out what made me happy again. to rediscover the dreams and life inside of me and begin to live.
it is hard to believe that 18 months later i am often to busy to blog (properly!) and am pursing so many different dreams that i think i might need scale back a bit, if at least for a while.
the city girl in me is also very surprised to find a country girl lurking behind all the design and style love. who knew i would live on nearly an acre of land, own wellies and *gasp* plant my first practical thing in the garden. i am surprising myself. and i kinda like it!
i am discovering that in more ways than one (american in england baby!) i am a hybrid person. i garden in dresses, i bake my own bread in thrifted, vintage bread tins and i am in love with this new urban bluegrass sound coming out at the moment in the indie music scene and i love me some mellow country (hello john mayers new album! love it.), but when i am cleaning my house, i like to dance to flo rida. its true.
it is a weird mix that i myself am surprised by, but i am loving the process. mostly because i know it has been supported and fed and nourished by an incredibly good god. in the words of sam’s current favourite song (that he has affectionately named ‘1-2-3-4’):
it’s always like springtime with you, making all things new, your light is breaking through the dawn.
this love is sweeter than wine, bringing joy, bringing life, your hope is rising like the dawn.
this is what you do, this is what you do, you make me come alive.
he is so great. honestly. his goodness and faithfulness to me is astounding. without him, none of the above would be possible, or much fun!
happy saturday.
sarah
eating healthier. this is something i have always been interested in, always researched and always done half-way. emotional eating, time restraints and feeling overwhelmed by all the information and time/money involved in making a huge lifestyle change have been the culprits. but the more i have looked into it, the more i have been realising that it’s not as complicated as i think. i don’t have to do it perfect all the time for it to be beneficial and i can start small and work my way into eating completely differently. even if its over the course of a few years. yes, every little bit helps. one day at a time. all those cliches are true. we are taking small steps to eating better as a family and i honestly think it could be cheaper if we do it smartly. we will see.
the more i deliberately try to think and live in a way i enjoy, the more i realise that it is a process of small steps to a long-term goal. i used to get so frustrated that i could not have the finished product right now. right then. and i still do sometimes. but i think what i have learned most over this past year and a bit of blogging and deliberate living is that ‘the process’ is life. learning, growing, changing, adapting and becoming more whole and rounded is the process of life. i wonder what we would actually do if we had all that already…
sarah
living simply. this phrase, i feel, has been overused to the point of confusion recently. so, i’ll just give you my definition. less stuff=less stuff maintenance. less stuff maintenance=more time to do the things i love. more time to do the things i love=staying awake and enjoying the moment more. this all started with our recent house move. we lived in our previous house for 6 years and naturally accumulated a lot of stuff. some junk, some nostalgic, some necessary. when we found our current house i got an itch for cleansing and was ruthless as i packed up my house. i threw stuff away, bagged up tons for charity, sold what was in good condition. it was amazingly therapeutic. then, as i was unpacking at the new house, again i looked at things and wondered why i had decided to bring them with us. more bags for charity, more items on eBay. the freedom i have felt from having less things around me has been a little addictive and i am actually now researching capsule wardrobes and looking at project 333 to see if we can cull our wardrobes down (hello, laundry EVERDAY!).
have i actually been doing the things i love with my freer time you ask? yes. i am baking more, blogging more, reading to my kids, reading books i enjoy, writing songs, etc. i genuinely have noticed a difference!
sarah xo
being thrifty. our situation as it stands–one salary, two kids, close family across the pond and one of the most expensive countries to live in on the planet–we do not have money to burn. we are not poor by any stretch if you look at the rest of the world or even our town. but, our situation and, lets be completely honest here, my impulsivity, mean that it is very easy for us to get into debt. and very difficult for us to get out of debt. we have learned a lot of hard lessons over the years about debt, overspending and budgeting well. it has been an uphill and–on my part–a very begrudging battle, but it is one i think we have reached, and crossed, the tipping point on. praise god. and i am actually enjoying learning to live well on less. it uses my strengths, utilises my love for vintage and second-hand does wonders for my relationship with richard, and means that we do not feel guilty when we do spend on treats. a winner all around. my good friend faith over at great smitten has been discovering this same thing and wrote a great blog post on budgeting a few months back that y’all will love.
happy sunday!
sarah xo
so, i have been doing a lot of posts about everyday life as me, and some about living deliberately and of course, as per my blog title, i’m on a mission to–say it with me everyone–stay awake!
well, there is one part of me, that for the life of me i cannot wake up. can you guess? ok, i’ll tell you. my freaking post-baby abs. yea. sound asleep. so asleep in fact that they have been shirking their ‘girdle’ responsibilities for years and my back is now in a really bad state. and is, quite frankly, not happy about it. so, to punish my abs, my back has decided to pinch my sciatic nerve in a desperate, last ditch effort to get the support it needs.
it is not nice. i have had enough. so, what thoreau will do for the mind and the bible for the heart, so pilates–we hope!!–will do for my tummy.
my first class was tonight. hardly moved. certainly didn’t break a sweat. but, i have been told this is ok and that ‘these things take time’.
did i detect some stirrings? or have my abs once again hit the snooze button? only tomorrow will tell.
nighty night!
UPDATE: due to much interest, here are the details for my pilates instructor. teresa is amazing. encouraging, challenging and a specialist in post-natal core strengthening. she has come highly recommended and after one personal (free!!!) session and one class, i am sold.
i originally started this blog because i didn’t feel like i was living a very considered life and i wasn’t very satisfied. i felt like life was happening TO me, instead of it being initiated BY me. well, it has been almost 10 months and i have to say, what a journey! my life is very different. i have pursued things that are life giving, found creative outlets that i hadn’t previously explored and i am learning more everyday about myself and god and the kind of life i want to live and person i want to be. it is very exciting.
the coolest thing for me is that ‘staying awake’ runs so much deeper than i had originally intended or thought. to be honest, the title of the blog was–what i thought to be–a witty take on thoreau’s thoughts in walden. and i certainly have been living more deliberately, but, all this week, bible verses have been going through my head and i have been reminded of all the times in the bible that people talk about ‘staying awake’, and ‘waking up’ in the same metaphorical sense as thoreau. and i am getting so stoked. i feel like there is a whole other level to this journey that i didn’t realise was there. like god has just opened up a trap door i hadn’t noticed. what an adventure!
as an action, i decided to look up all the verses in the bible that have the word ‘awake’–in it’s metaphorical sense–in them. whilst perusing i came across this passage in the message and it resonated deep within me. it’s from ephesians 5.
11-16Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.
Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!
So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!
17Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.
18-20Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.
1-2Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
i think i just found my mission statement.
rocking the rework up until recently, i never considered myself a particularly creative person. those of you who know me, especially those in the uk, will probably laugh outloud at this. it’s like me saying i didn’t think i was an extrovert until recently. but… Read More
this post was going to be about something entirely different than what i am writing now… but sam woke up early from his nap needing a hug. so i stopped writing to attend to this all important task, and forgot what i was going to… Read More
romantic poetry i thoroughly enjoy poetry. specifically that of the romantics. i never studied it as part of my english degree. it was a class i was waiting to take but didn’t ‘need’ in the end. i have this ‘thing’ about doing things in order.… Read More
staying awake 