word of the year Archives - Blue Like That

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.”

It’s a verse I’ve heard since my youth, one I have often striven for to varying degrees. Contentment remains…elusive, though. In fact, I believe contentment looks different in varying phases of life. The lessons learned about contentment as a single 21-year-old are useful, but different than the lessons in contentment as a wife and mother in my 30s.

We have done a lot of growing, a lot of striving. We have purchased a house, moved up in our careers, made significant changes, renovated a home, had a baby, and so much more. While all of these are good things, they aren’t centered on contentment (though they are not inherently opposed to it either).

As I moved into this new year, as I continue to learn what it means to be a working mom, as I strive to balance my life and my career, I feel a call toward contentment. Read more →

I’ve been reflecting a little on 2015 and considering what this year has to bring. It’s interesting how years don’t go exactly like you plan…

My word for 2015 was “settle.” Life had been crazy, hectic, with lots of growth and change and newness. So much of that was good, but hard, and it was wearing me down. I wanted to breathe. To be.

It didn’t go exactly as I planned. It was still kind of crazy (pregnancy), intense (new wood floors installed in the ENTIRE house), stressful (employee turnover), but I did settle. I worked on making Suffolk our home, on cultivating relationships here, on learning my new position with determination to perform well.

Now we start a brand new year, with a brand new baby due in just two short weeks. This year will be unlike any other (of course, I could say that every year). It will be the only year that we have our first little one. It will be the only year that we become parents.

So this year, in spite of the exhaustion and busyness that comes with have a new babe (folded laundry may be a thing of the past), I want to savor each and every minute. Because we will never be able to go backward and retrieve this time with our first little one.

So there it is, savor.

The good (baby snuggles), the bad (complete lack of sleep), the new (so many firsts in that first year!), the mundane (yet another diaper change?) — I want to soak it all in, each and every day.

More thoughts on just what that looks like to come. For now, I’m savoring the last few weeks of my only first pregnancy.