Finding Your Way

We like to go on dates!

Sometimes life carries you quickly and sometimes it seems to drag on. Sometimes it seems to do both at the same time. I saw numerous memes about how January had 15 years or 543 days in it, and I must say, I share the sentiment. It felt like a really loooooooong month.

But when you have a long month, that means much can be accomplished? Right?

I've never been one who was big on New Year's Resolutions. They seem heavy and nearly impossible to meet unless you have the grit and determination that seems so fleeting. So, I didn't really make resolutions persay. I did set some goals to be accomplished at any point during the year, so as not to put so much pressure on January 1 and really, the month of January as a whole. 

Sure, some of those goals I started working towards straight away and will be continued through the whole year...
>> Getting into a healthy routine {working out and *trying* to eat a better diet}
>> Build and refresh meaningful relationships.  {here's to getting weekly Haitian cooking lessons with my sister-in-law}
>> Date my husband.

He's gonna make a good dad someday. 

Other goals might be less "in your face" and more behind the scenes...
>> Intentionality
>> Finding joy in all circumstances.
>> Be better at asking for help. {Where are my enneagram 2s at???}

And other goals may not be tackled until a new month...maybe even November or December...
>> Starting to learn French {I know some words, but not really the language itself.}
>> Read more.

Sometimes you even add goals throughout the year...
>> Start writing devotionals to share and maybe even for a book.
>> Start a side biz selling cakes and various other baked goods.

But that word goal feels a lot more "free" than resolution does. There's grace and room for growth. It doesn't seem to carry quite the same weight of failure that not following through on a resolution does. If we don't meet a goal straight away, that doesn't mean we fail. It's still just a goal. Something that we can always be working towards.

My cooking teacher, Chantal.

Goals (and resolutions) don't happen overnight. Unfortunately we can't just snap our fingers and have arrived. Wouldn't that be nice?

It takes time.
It won't happen overnight.

It takes grace.
We're humans. We make mistakes. We mess up. It's okay. Just keep moving forward. Do the next thing and don't get hung up on a set-back. It's just that -- a set-back...not a failure.

It takes motivation.
You aren't going to accomplish anything if you don't really want it. You've gotta want it.

It takes determination.
Motivation only carries you so far. Some days you aren't going to want to. You have to DECIDE to anyway.

It takes accountability.
It's a lot easier to decide to keep moving forward when you know that others are going to be checking in on your progress. Find a group of gals to hold you accountable to your health. (Looking at you Kaitlyn Davidson!) Find the friends that are going to tell you the tough stuff to keep you from melting into an overwhelmed heap on the floor. We are built for relationship. Do life TOGETHER.

Not only did I set some goals for the year, but I also chose a word -- a word to dig deep into and figure out the applications that it can have in my life and the things that God wants to teach me through it.

My word for the year is REST and I've been taking the month of January to start figuring out what that means. So far it's meant learning how to just go with the flow and let things come as they may. I spent the first couple months of marriage trying to be SUPER WIFE. Turns out I'm not...at least not in the way that I thought I should be. So, I sat down with God and then with my husband and evaluated.

Turns out I was putting far too many expectations on myself that no one else had for me.
Turns out I needed to take a step back and a deep breath and let things come as they come -- to accomplish what I can and not get down on myself for not doing it all today.

It really is a mindset shift. It didn't happen overnight. It took (and still takes) some overwhelmed, tear filled moments to come back to center. To refocus. But it's possible.

Life in Haiti is a comedy of interruptions. They have a saying that you can't plan for tomorrow. You might make plans, but they could easily be disrupted. And you just have to roll with it. Not exactly ideal for your Type-A planner. Slowly, but surely, I'm learning to slow down. To do what I can and leave the rest for tomorrow. I've had the intention of writing a new blog post for the last two weeks, but other things took precedence. And that's okay.

So, sitting here under the shade of a tree, enjoying the nice breeze, I'm taking another slow quiet step of finding my way. Of taking the moments as they come. We have beautiful, lovely, touching moments in our lives if we slow down enough to enjoy them - if we give ourselves grace to make progress and take small steps - if we take our set-backs as a speed bump, not a failure.

Lean on God friends. Let him show you how to find your way, one step at a time.

All the love,
Caitlin

**More info coming, but April 5th, I'll be hosting an open house at Concord Baptist Church in Jefferson City, MO and I would love to see you there. 2 pm - 4 pm**

Normal for me, but not for you... 
This list could be SO long when working out the kinks of a new home, but I'll give you just a few plus some pictures.
> Learning when the optimum moments of sun are to charge things like laptops and drill batteries on your inverter/solar system.
> Taking bucket showers for over a month while trying to figure out why there is still a shower running upstairs when you cut off and capped the pipe running water to the second level.
> Working out by solar light because you might only get city power once a week for like 4 hours.

yea....nope.

Plug it all in when there's power!

Charging up our lights. We have to
go out a few times a day to move
them so we know they're still in the sun.

Yes. That's a live chicken.
Yes. We ate it later that day.
No. I didn't kill it. Somebody else did for me.

Yea...I clean and cook WHOLE fish now.