{reset}

Sometimes it is hard to pinpoint a specific change, it can be so gradual. At some point this year I started to feel off kilter. It started to feel as though my body was operating on empty and I was pushing through a fog. It started innocently enough with back to back sickness in April, and then continued with poor food choices. I always want to believe that I can eat whatever I want without any type of consequence.

May & June are always tough months as I wrap up a school year. The days are long and busy, there are parties and celebrations, there are meetings and evenings spent reviewing data. It is a full season, and I end up eating foods I would not normally eat, or at least in quantities that I should not eat. I knew I was in trouble one morning, after I had consumed two, TWO donuts before 8 am (after eating my regular breakfast). My energy level was non-existent and I was upping my caffeine intake to compensate. I was heading to bed by 8pm, waking up by 4:30am and never feeling rested. My workouts went out the window because I just couldn't do it. I could not drag myself out of bed any earlier. 

{June Reflections}

Here we are, halfway through another year. It seems like the last six months have flown by. School is out for 8 weeks and I feel like I can finally breathe and slow down. I am enjoying my one job of being a stay at home mama.

I knew June would be a crazy month and so I purposefully did not set intimidating goals. And June was crazy. There is the push at work to finish student schedules for the fall, last minute work activities, wrapping up a school year, celebrating our nephew's graduation and of course daily living.

{May Reflections}

Accountability is hard! 

{March Reflections}

Can I just say, I am thrilled to see March fade away? What a tough month! March is the longest month of school/work without any type of break. Student behavior seems to intensify during the month. Staff gets grumpy. Sickness has been running rampant in the Oremland household. The bright spot has been the sunshine. It has been so lovely to see so much blue sky. 

Okay, onto reflecting!

{February Reflections}

Well, just as I expected, February was a crazy month! I knew that with traveling and planning my son's 1st birthday I would need to keep my goals as simple as possible.

{January Reflections}

As 2015 came to a close, I wrote a post that 2016 is the year of seeking balance and self-care in my life. In order to do that I want to spend time focusing on different aspects of life (spiritual, physical, emotional, mental) each month by setting small goals. At the end of each month I will reflect on how that goal went and what goals I would like to focus on for the next month. 

Family Mission Statement

Paul and I learned early on in our relationship that we do best when we're working together towards the same goal or end. We found that we make a pretty good team! We see this whenever we go traveling. We have the same goals of having fun, staying safe, seeing the sites, and ensuring that our needs are met. We do not do as well when we don't know what we're working towards, or when we each think we know what the end goal is. When we are not communicating we get lost. Lost = arguing, bickering, hurt feelings and crankiness.

I would like to say that the above paragraph was the motivation for writing a family mission statement - but technically it wasn't. The motivator was actually identifying our life board of directors or BOD. I'll dedicate another post to our BOD because it deserves it's own post. 

When a company or an organization has a Board of Directors, they typically have a mission statement or some agreed upon idea of what the goal of the company is. So that everyone is on the same page and when decisions need to be made they can be made in light of the direction the organization wants to move.

If we are going to have people hold us accountable individually and as a family, we needed to be on the same page with the direction of our family.

Last week, Paul and sat down at our favorite spot, and worked through these questions. The time was worth it and we love the mission statement that we created out of it. This mission statement will help us guide what we value and how we spend our time, money, and resources.

Drum roll please.....

We, Team O, believe that our purpose as a family is to reflect Christ's love for the church through our marriage and service to one another.  To raise our children to know God and to walk in his ways. To provide for those that are less fortunate. To forgive others for their trespasses and debts against us, to consistently ask for forgiveness for trespassing against others, to steward our finances well, and to honor our commitments to one another. We will accomplish this by:

• Valuing the knowledge that God has a plan for our lives, is actively working in our lives, and that our current situation, whether blessing or curse, us being used and redeemed.

• Making our home a place of generosity, warmth and invitation, and safety.

• Prioritizing time with God, building strong familial and community relationships, service to others, and stewardship of our time, talents, money, and resources above lesser values.

• Interacting with each other in a spirit of joy, humility, empathy, and compassion.

 

29 Days - No Facebook

I must be crazy!! 29 days without Facebook?  I would like to think that I'm not addicted to Facebook. I mean, am I really on it that much? Sure I check it in the morning, then again on my bus ride, during a break at work, at lunch, afternoon break, bus ride home, while at home making dinner, during dinner, after dinner, again while watching an evening show, and then finally before bed. But really, isn't each time on Facebook just minutes or seconds? Is that big of a deal?

Well, Paul gets annoyed by my Facebook-ing. He'd actually LOVE it if we both either got off Facebook completely or shared an account. I can't imagine not being on Facebook, but I also don't like the idea of sharing an account. I'm not really interested in what some random person from Paul's middle school is doing.

Anyways, I think I can feel Paul's frustration building around Facebook. He doesn't mention it as often, but I sense it. So for Christmas I gave Paul a voucher for one month 'Free of Facebook' redeemable at anytime. Bless his heart, he picked February so that I would only have a 29 challenge. I love that guy.

I feel like this isn't just a 29 day challenge, but also an experiment. I wonder what life would be like again without Facebook. I mean I am going to miss knowing what people are up to. But at the same time, isn't annoying that people (myself included) generally only put the best stuff out there. So everyday people are living these amazingly interesting lives and if you're sitting at home not feeling amazing you can easily start feeling bitter. Or sometimes I feel like I should be doing more because so and so is doing more with their life. Does anyone else feel like that? Maybe it's just me. I just feel that Facebook creates a big illusion and little authenticity.

My goal during the next 29 days is to read more and enjoy people more, especially my husbuddy!

Paul and I survived our second Whole30!! This is one of those moments where I want to turn to my ingrained ways and give myself a treat for doing so well! Alas, that would kind of defeat the whole purpose of these last 30 days.

I picked one of the hardest months to do a Whole30 program. The concept was smart, reset our bodies after the excess during the holidays. What I forgot to factor in was the extreme stress levels that I would have in January while completing my 2012 Funder Reports for work. So many nights I came home and felt like  I would kill for a piece of dark chocolate or a glass of wine, or realistically - both!

It really forced me to find other ways to decompress from the stress. Like yoga, praying, watching a trashy TV show, blogging, reading, seeing a friend, or watching Friday Night Lights with my husbuddy.

I also want to give a shout out to Paul who did incredibly well on the Whole30. Paul's favorite past times include coming home and tipping the honey jar (literally) into his mouth. Instead of turning to a treat, he came home and ate a healthy dinner with me and then if he was lucky got a clementine to snack on. No honey for my honey.

My goal in January was straight up lose 5 pounds. And on that note why is it called losing weight? It's not like I don't know where it went. I'm not frantically looking around for the weight! 

I'm very proud to say that I reached my goal!! And a side bonus, - I have had tremendous amounts of energy! I've actually been getting things done. Like purging junk from the house! It has been a win-win for me!

The Whole30 isn't quite up for me. I've decided to extend into February though I won't be as harsh about the compliance component (if you've done it, you know what I mean). Instead I'm going to focus on generally having no sugar and no alcohol. Except for Valentines. I'm taking that evening off!

My goal for February is to lose those last 5 pesky pounds. They have got to go!

Purging

Paul and I have been Paleo now for just over 7 months. We've both 100% bought into the fact that this isn't a phase for us, it is a lifestyle. 

When we first started Paleo in June of last year. I was unwilling to part with any of the food in the cupboards. I wasn't convinced that Paleo was going to work for us, or that I would even like it. And I didn't want to have to go rebuy everything. So I've held onto it all.

And lately, this one cupboard has been haunting me. It started off as the baking cabinet and then slowly became the last resort for so many items. Today, I decided - enough is enough!

Here is the cabinet before with more items tucked to the far right. I found some gems back there:

I generally live in fear that something will come crashing out of there on me one of these days.

Here is the purge pile.

And the After Picture? Glorious if I do say so myself! The best part, having the extra storage space.

The two top shelves can now hold miscellaneous dishes and my cookbooks.

So what made the cut?

3 Types of salt, coconut oil, two paleo marinades, honey, molasses, some spices, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and of course some grass fed beef gelatin!

Dear Husbuddy.... you're welcome!!

Anything but Resolutions

When I (Charity) was single I would always take time to write about my “Reflections and Resolutions”. I have always loved starting a new year. I love the idea of starting afresh and changing ways. Even if January 1^st really isn’t that different from December 31^st. It is the concept of change that resonates with me. My resolutions were always a mixed bag. I might have something about losing weight, or getting healthy, or ditching a relationship, or making better choices with relationships – or all of the above. The thing was, that within a few weeks of the year I would have forgotten my resolution. Or keeping them became too hard. Or, I just stopped caring. And out the window they went – until the next year that is.

Now when a new year starts I don’t think much about resolutions (other than hearing what everyone else is doing). Though, I still love the idea of change. And the funny thing is that not having resolutions feels both freeing and at the same time sad. Sad as in, what are my goals for the next year? What do I want to accomplish?

As we entered into this new year, Paul and I found a wonderful middle ground. At the end of 2012, we sat down over steaming mugs of chai tea, warm tomato soup and a salad to talk about 2012 and 2013. We had a list of questions that we had separately spent a couple of months thinking about. We took three hours and hammered out the details. At the end of our time we had a roadmap for 2013 and goals for each of us. What I like about this is that we’re on the same page. We know and agree on our goals as a couple and our separate goals. We can encourage one another. We can point out when something will not align with our goals. These are not just fleeting resolutions.

We also built in a quarterly check-in system to talk through our notes and see where we are at. Are things working? Why are they not working? Do we need to change course?  Below is a list of the questions that we worked through. I highly recommend it! And if you’re single – find someone that you can ask to hold you accountable. Find someone willing to check in with you quarterly, someone who won’t mince words when it comes to speaking truth!

Here is a snapshot of the questions we worked through. Do you have specific questions you think or work through when a new year starts?

Finances
Re-look at our monthly budget break down.
Is the budget working?
What needs to change?
What is our plan for saving?
How much are we going to tithe?
How much are we going to spend as an offering?

Spiritual/Community

What spiritual areas are we going to focus on as a family?
How do we add more prayer into our daily routine?
Where do we want to serve/volunteer?
Who are the people we are investing in?
Who do we want to start investing time in?
Who are we being mentored by?
How can we add more margin in our schedule so we can spend more time together?

Lifestyle
What big trips do we want to take?
What small trips do we want to take?
What are our fitness goals?
What are our lifestyle goals?