Currently | December 2020
B A K I N G
I’m not huge into baking, but anytime I do bake, it’s always chocolate chip banana muffins. I’ve been making them the same way for years, and the recipe is fantastic (no thanks to me, I found it online). I’ve also been wanting to make beer bread and scones ever since Sarah made them for us in October.
D E C O R A T I N G
We started decorating the house much earlier this year than we ever have. With being at home more, it just seemed like it made sense. In general, I would say that we lean towards “essentialism” in most things and that includes Christmas decor. I love the lights, the vibe, the cozy, all of it and am definitely tempted to completely go crazy throughout the entire house. I bought a few things this year to add to our collection – a faux fur table runner, two small wreaths, and a macrame tree. I’m loving the absolutely everything about it.
G I F T I N G
I mentioned this a few times before, but we’re trying to do as much shopping as possible at small businesses (and bonus points if they are local)! I wrote this list of small businesses that we love and have been super thankful to get to help support many of them already this holiday season. We still have a few gifts to wrap up, but for the most part we do a majority of our shopping on Black Friday and the few days that follow.
H O P I N G
I’m hoping for more hugs, more family time, more in-person connecting, and a whole lot less COVID in 2021. Fingers crossed.
S E N D I N G
Tomorrow my Christmas cards arrive!!! I absolutely cannot wait to see how they turned out and send them to our family and friends. For the first time since our wedding, Kevin and I had professional photos taken and I just cannot stop looking at them. I am going to be making it a point to get them done every year from now on. (I also plan to share them here, too!)
December Goals
November was a whirlwind of stress and COVID spikes, so I’m not going to even try to pretend that I came close to getting much done in the way of goals. At the end of the day, my number one thing was to keep up the exercise routine. And I definitely did that. I cannot say enough how much of a game changer that has been for my mental and physical health this year. It’s ranged from Orange Theory work outs to walks around the block with the dogs and so many different things in between. I’m excited to build on this habit in 2021.
November Monthly Goals
- Paint Built in Book Shelves – I had really good intentions (I even have the paint!) but it didn’t get done, so I’m taking it off my list for the time being.
- Read 4 Books – I read 6!
- Replace Blinds – This fell down on the priority list, and didn’t get done in November. I’m not 100% on when it will, so I’m putting it on pause for now.
- Complete my Real Estate Courses – womp womp. Extended until the end of December. Let’s hope I can wrap this thing up!
- Show Small and Local for Christmas – We have loved shopping local this season. I did a fun little round up here of our favorite places.
- Vote on November 3rd! – Yep!
November Weekly Goals
- Two Orange Theory Fitness Classes – check, check but I’ve frozen my account for the time being due to COVID.
- Weigh In – done!
- Budget – done and done, proud of our progress this month!
- Weekly Sabbath – I practiced a Sabbath every week but one, we’ll call that a win.
November Daily Goals
- Exercise – got most days in November.
- Read the Word / Prayer – honestly, I could have done better with this one.
- Take Vitamins – high five!
- Journal – Yep!
November Highlights
- We voted!
- Taylor and Todd got engaged!
- Kevin attempted the 10,000 calorie challenge with Andrew.
- We tried HelloFresh (yum!)
- We decorated a little earlier than normal for Christmas.
- We did Thanksgiving, just the two of us.
November Favorites
Food: Hello Fresh Bulgogi Pork (we even did a vlog about it)
Book: The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman
Purchase: Cricut (Merry Christmas to me!)
Song: This. You’re Welcome.
This month, I feel like I’m getting back down to the roots of my goals by only including things that will move the needle in one of these two areas:
Goal 1: Prioritize my health – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, environmental, and social.
Goal 2: Allow open to be an invitation to live intentionally.
It feels good to get back to the basics. Each year, by December, I notice that little side goals, or things that I just want to tick off start finding their way into my monthly list and that’s not really the point of completing Powersheets for me, personally.
December Monthly Goals
- Send Christmas cards – I love doing this each year and think it’s an awesome way to connect, especially in a year where I haven’t gotten to see my family as much as I’d like.
- Take a week off work! – I need this. Looking forward to taking some time off after Christmas.
- Set phone hours – The scrolling numbers are creeping up. I’m trying to work on intentionality, so here we are setting some boundaries for what that looks like.
December Weekly Goals
- Sabbath – New month, same goal. Love this practice and look forward to it every week.
- Meal Prep – This one helps the next one, and it just makes my days feel so much easier.
- Weigh In – Really proud of my progress both on and off the scale but this one just helps to keep me accountable.
- Budget – Ready to finish out strong.
December Daily Goals
- Meditate
- Track Food
- Exercise
- Bible Study
What are your December goals?
Family Photos
Christmas Wishlist – Small Business Faves
Big Dreams Daily Joys | Let’s Make Art Subscription |1 Canoe 2 Journals | Epiphanie Camera Bags | Magnolia Journal Subscription | Powersheets | One Little Word eCourse | Victoria Emerson Apple Watch Bands| Growth Book
As someone who’s #1 love language is gift giving (any one else?), Christmas is like the ultimate treat. I love spoiling my people with gifts and experiences that I think they will absolutely love. I’m also the type of person who keeps a running list all year long in case I see the perfect gift or someone mentions something specific that they’d like to have. I’m normally pretty prepared, but I also love to check out gift guides online and see what other people are digging to get ideas for family members or to add to my wish list.
This year, more than ever, we’ve seen the importance of buying from small and local businesses. At the beginning of Coronavirus, Kevin and I made a point to grab takeout from our local favorites and in seeing some local businesses struggle through this tough year, I’m realizing just how incredibly important it is to support them (especially the ones we love). For this reason, I’m committed to both shopping local and asking for gifts from local and small businesses as well going into the holidays, so I thought I’d share some of the things on my wishlist as well as other local and small businesses that would be fun to consider shopping at this holiday season.
It’s perfect for me that Christmas is right before the new year, because I love to ask for planners and workshops that are in a yearly format for the following year. For this year, I’m asking specifically for the Powersheets Goal Setting Planner (this is my fourth year asking for this!), the One Little Word eCourse for 2021, and the Growth Book which is a faith journal/workbook that spans a year. The 1 Canoe 2 journals aren’t necessarily in a yearly format, but I always think it’s awesome to start things like that in the beginning of the year if I can. In addition to these, I’m asking for a few accessories I wouldn’t buy myself – an apple watch band and a camera bag. Lastly, the gifts that keep on giving: two subscriptions. I have been reading Magnolia journal since it’s inception and I’m obsessed with Let’s Make Art’s art journaling box.
To get more than just my small business faves, I asked my Instagram followers for their input, too! Here’s what they suggested:
Amazing Missouri-Based Businesses
- Etch.Life – This is a cute store based in Liberty, MO that retails faith-based gifts, clothing, home decor, and care packages.
- Plume – A quaint little shop in south Columbia, MO that is home to over 90 local artisans and vintage connoisseurs, including cupcakes.
- Kelly Fields – A Columbia, MO boutique that flaunts all the latest clothing trends, accessories, and gifts.
- Two Pink Elephants – A boutique in O’Fallon, MO that is super reasonable and has lots of cute accessories.
- Go Po – Gourmet Popcorn based out of Fulton, MO.
- The Candy Factory – The name says it all – you just have to go there. Located in downtown Columbia, MO.
- RF Home – Located in Kirkwood, MO, this shop has all the amazing home things, clothing, DIY Classes, and they do renovations.
- CycleX – A bike shop in Columbia, MO that I will most likely be shopping at for Kev this holiday season.
- Treats Unleashed – This pet store is based out of St. Louis, MO and has a shop in Columbia. Our pups will definitely be enjoying treats from Treats Unleashed on Christmas morning.
- 1 Canoe 2 – Based in Fulton, MO this paper goods and stationary shop has hands down the cutest and best designed items.
- Stitch 22 – A former coworker of mine makes the most amazing warm weather accessories and gifts (the scrunchies are my fave).
- Ansgar Leather Co. – Amazing leather goods made in St. Louis, MO. (Always swooning over the journal covers.)
- Helmi’s Gardens – If you have a plant lover in your life (or are one yourself…let’s be honest), this is your stop.
- May Wynn – All the stunning artisan made hand crafted home goods. I could fill my house with things from this store.
- Let’s Make Art – All the art goodies paired with subscriptions options and tutorials.
Other Small Businesses I Love
- Soul Mantras – I buy a little token with my one little word from this shop every year. She has some beautiful pieces and is located in WA.
- Get to Work Book – I’ve been following Elise (who is out of CA) for the longest time. I’m a huge fan of her minimalistic planner and rad motivation.
- Illustrated Faith – An online shop filled with anything you could ever need for bible journaling, including workshops and printables.
- Cloth and Paper – All the ring and disc bound planner goodies you could ever need to build your own or add to your current planner setup.
- North Fork Chai Co. – A friend gifted me chai for my birthday, and let me tell you, you need this in your life.
- Epiphanie – Lots of lovely camera goodies and accessories.
- Magnolia – Chip and Joanna’s brand of all things lovely.
- Cultivate What Matters – This is the shop where the Powersheets goal setting planner I use is from! Highly recommend.
- Ali Edwards Shop – Ali is based out of OR and is a memory keeper and creator with the best products and classes. She teaches the One Little Word class that I’ve been enjoying since 2013.
- Victoria Emerson – This shop has amazing bracelets that give you the stacked look without all the work. I’m specifically eyeing the Apple Watch bands this year.
- Growth Roots Co – Creator of the Growth Book, this faith-based company designs and sells a journal that focuses on growth over the course of a year.
- Blenders – A sunglasses company that has some pretty rad and polarized sunnies for very reasonable prices.
Where are you shopping this year? Are there any small businesses that I missed?
Rhythms
Rhythms have been on my mind a lot over the last year, especially moving from my intention of rest to my intention of open. I’ve thought a lot about my own rhythms – what mine are and why I have them – as well as how those compare to the things that are naturally occurring around me. It seems that this is made evident to me the most in the fall, as the leaves begin to change colors and lose their leaves. It sometimes seems hard to be aware of the changing of leaves budding in the spring, to being full and lush in the summer, to changing colors and falling in autumn, to the bare trees of the winter – and again and again each year without fail.
Rhythms are a regular reminder of times to speed up and slow down, work and rest, and inhale and exhale. I love rhythms over routines because they’re softer. They’re less like rules and more like encouragements. Rhythms are a way of saying that something is important without saying it’s a non-negotiable. It’s a way to show up for the projects, emergencies, and most urgent while still getting the day to day tasks done. Part of my daily rhythm right now is to make sure that I track my food and exercise daily but if something or someone needs me, that’s where I’m going to show up first. I will give up my exercise streak on my Apple Watch so that I could hold my best friend’s new baby and enjoy some extra sleep on a weekend away. Rhythms mean that I hit the exercise and calorie goal most days but that I’ll always get to prioritize my people over anything else.
I was excited to see that the Magnolia Journal’s fall theme was rhythms. After reading so many good things, I decided I wanted to memorialize their piece called An Essay on Rhythms:
Nature dances to a rhythm: In the way the sun rises and sets. In the birds’ song at sunrise and in the crickets’ chirp at sunset. In the way each season moves us along throughout the year…the annual cadence of a rainy April, giving way to a hot July, giving way to a crisp October, giving way to a cold January, and the thousands of little orchestras that follow the tempo of that grand symphony. The flowers move to the rhythm of the seasons: sprouting and budding and blooming and dying.
Humanity dances to a rhythm: in the holidays we celebrate the order in which they come. Costumes and candy give way to turkey and football, which give way to carols and gifts wrapped under the tree. We find rhythm in our daily commute, in the voice of the DJ’s morning report, in the stoplights and exits, in the pleasantries exchanged with the coffee shop barista. Rhythm comes with bodies that must be fed three times a day (give or take), with daily prayer and weekly meetings and monthly girls’ nights and yearly Super Bowl games. We create bedtime rhythms: We bathe our kids, brush their teeth, read them a story, tuck them in, and sing a song.
There is peace in rhythm. There is security and predictability. Not a stagnant sort of predictability, just enough to make us feel like everything is going to be okay, just enough to give us something to look forward to. Because while there’s a lot of rhythm, there’s also a lot of chaos. There are unexpected bills to pay, relationships to maintain, natural disasters, an ongoing to do list that will never be completely finished, flat tires, bad moods, burnt dinners.
But then there’s the sun, rising again. And then there’s our lungs, exhaling again. And then there’s Thanksgiving, right around the corner. We’ll take our afternoon coffee break. We’ll say a prayer. We’ll look up and see ducks flying south for the winter. We’ll cross the next thing off our to do list. We’ll get a new winter coat. We’ll plan a summer trip. We’ll go for an evening walk.
And we’ll tap our feet. We’ll sway back and forth. We’ll clap our hands. We’ll lean into the rhythms of our lives because they give us a sense of place in our story, clueing us in to where we’ve been and where we might expect to go next, offering us familiarity in the midst of a chaotic world – like our lungs filling with air and then emptying themselves and filling up again, like the ocean tides and the morning cups of tea and the annual harvest festivals: We embrace the rhythm of the season, and we find peace in the way it moves us.
An Eassy on Rhythm // The Magnolia Journal, Fall 2020
About
Hi, I'm Jacqueline - believer, learner, and all around hobby enthusiast. I'm married to my highschool sweetheart, Kevin, and we live in the midwest with our sweet pup.
On this blog I share all kinds of things about my life - from my faith journey to the garden in my neighbors backyard. I've been blogging for almost eight years and use this space as a way to document my daily life.
Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the internet.