Whether you’re a student trying to get a million projects done, a mom just trying to eat at a normal hour of the day, or a CEO running a business like a boss (literally…), it’s really easy to feel like a clustered mess. I once had a British boss who called this a cluster…f. And though I won’t type that out, there are certainly days I sure feel exactly. like. that.

It’s a good week. Shoot, a good day, if I can make it through feeling like my head is on straight, I didn’t forget anything, and I crossed off my entire to-do list. If I am not careful and intentional with every moment of my day, I can quickly find myself saying, “I feel like a chicken with her head cut off just trying to make it.” It’s taken a long time, a few jobs, and a lot of clustered days to get to a spot that I feel like I am really doing it all with a whole lot less of a “just makin’ it” attitude.

God intended for you to live a quiet and peaceful life. It’s how He designed us to live. It’s what He had in mind for us before sin ever even originated. A perfect picture of the lives God intended for us to live can be seen in Isaiah 32:15-20 . But, dang, we do a good job running from quiet and peaceful lives in the “fertile land.” We live busy, flustered, crazy lives to keep up with the chaos that is our world. Our jobs can rule our days, if we aren’t careful or set healthy boundaries. Our relationships can dictate our mood and perspective. Our finances can control our sense of security. Our fears of the unknown can hinder us in the present.

So, truly this has been a few year long journey of saying “no”, being intentional with my “yes”, living an organized and clutter-free lifestyle, and a life of healthy boundaries and expectations. I have quit jobs that didn’t allow for me to have these things, distanced relationships, and became far more respectful to MYSELF and my hours each day by trial and error.

Here are some of my life hacks and habits to hopefully help you, mom/student/boss/athlete/wife/hard-worker, to achieve a less clustered lifestyle.

1. Slow start every morning WITH breakfast. I know, it sounds wild. But wake up at least an hour and a half before you have to leave the house. *GASP!* This gives you ample amount of time to do a quiet time, pray/journal, drink a cup of coffee (or two…), shower and feel put together, steam your clothes you have for the day (!!!), do your make-up well, leave on time, and not have to race the clock to get where you’re going on time. These are ALL THINGS that will make you feel put together, confident, and at-ease to start the day with. I really believe that how the first hour of your day begins will dictate how hard you have to work to feel at peace the rest of your day. It’s not to say a rough start makes the rest of your day a loss. Of course not! But, it does make it easier to approach the rest of your day with grace and a sound mind.
2. Have food in your fridge ready for every meal, just in case! We keep a tupperware of chicken all week long to have for my lunches and dinners (if need be). Crockpot that chicken on Sunday night or Monday morning, and you’re set. We have healthy food like veggie cakes and salad mixes for me to pair with the chicken, VOILA! Easy, healthy, and no time at all because we prepped for it. We always have waffles or french toast in the waiting for Knox, pasta at all times, bananas, apple sauce pouches, and protein packs for quick and easy meals. He also eats the chicken and veggie cakes for lunch almost every day. This is so helpful to keep us on schedule each day with naps and work without having to start working on meals 30 minutes before it’s actually time to eat.
3. WORKOUT. I made a goal to make it to a class at my gym at LEAST 3 x’s a week at the start of 2019 and I have stuck to it! Really, I make it 4 or 5 times a week, but 3 is my minimum for classes. My gym also gives us up to 3 hours of childcare with our membership, so it gives me such good “me time” to focus, think, dream (all my best ideas come either in the shower or during a workout), and I feel like a better version of me afterward. Paul and I both are just better people when we workout, and we both know it.
4. Write out absolutely everything you have to do for the next day the night before as you’re winding down. I usually do it as I lay in bed. It takes just a few seconds, but it feels like a mental “hanging of my hat” for the day. And, it helps me feel like I know what I need to do the next. I write out my day, including quiet time and gym, and then put the tasks I need to do. I then go back to that note on my phone all throughout the day to delete tasks I wrote out. By the end of the day, my note SHOULD be blank to write out my next day of things. If it’s not blank, that task goes to the top for the next day.
5. Time with my husband. If you’re not married, this is applicable to friends/boyfriend/family. You need healthy time with the people you love. It’s just a fact. TURN OFF ALL “TO-DO’S”! I feel “off” when I don’t get to sit and talk with my husband regularly. I get cranky and short with him. This was a problem long before we even had a kid. We are just hard workers who could literally work from sun up to sun down without hardly a glance up if we aren’t careful. We could easily be on our computers typing until midnight rather than talking and connecting. We are very intentional with this because we need to be, for our mental health and our relationship’s health.
6. Grocery List: We keep a pretty simple grocery list week to week, you can see it here.  But having the list makes Monday restocks EASY PEEZY. Sometimes, if we need to, we do our haul on Sunday after church. But most weeks I know Monday is for groceries, whether I go or Paul does.
7. 5 Wins EVERY SINGLE DAY. At dinner, we ask one another what 5 wins were for the day, and you can say 1 loss or frustration. We get to build up one another, celebrate each other, and help troubleshoot frustrations together.

Heya! Today’s blog post is from this past Tuesday’s Sweet Thoughts devotional that goes out every week to my inner circle’s inboxes at 6 AM. I hardly ever share on The Cake what I send out to my Cake Community via email, because I keep that exclusive to those of you who have signed up to receive my devos. However, this one seemed to resonate with a lot of you. Like… I got so many DM’s and shares on your stories, showing me just how alike so many of us are! None of us are alone in the struggle. And because of that, I wanted to share it with all of you.

And, if you would like to receive these kind of emails every Tuesday then you can sign up here! Maybe your hope for 2019 is to grow closer to God but you don’t know where to start. Start with Tuesdays! This week’s email was a little different- more of a letter than a devotional. But, usually you receive a scripture at the top to read followed by a quick piece about it afterward. I share my rawest and more vulnerable self in these emails, and I am thankful for all of you who already receive these and do life with me through this online community there. You will laugh, you may cry, and I can assure you you will grow to know God more by diving into His word.

 

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Sweet Thoughts Devotional from Hannah: 1/1/2019

And just like that, the holidays are over and a new year has come.

Every year, without fail, on this day I feel just a little sad, just a little nostalgic, and just a little anxious. It’s partly because I can feel the weight of the hustle from the last month finally catching up with me. Even on a year where we truly took it slow and I am very pleased with the space we allowed ourselves to walk in- saying “no” to things that didn’t fill us or make sense for our schedules- I still feel oddly sore, emotionally drained, and incapable of processing what I even want for breakfast. It’s also partly because I am sad to see my family all leave, sending off my parents and siblings once again to their own corners of the country. I ache deep within my belly, wishing for them to stay just a little a longer and hating my two greatest foes: time and distance. Processing these emotions, my introverted self finds herself sitting on the sofa in a people coma, book in hand and a cup of coffee, and a whole lot of nothing to do pencilled in on the calendar.

Does this sound at all eerily familiar to your current situation?

I promise, this all gets happier. 

Read on with me. See, with my usual mix of emotions I have on the 1st of every single new year, I feel more hope today than ever before. I feel anxious, but more so in a good way than I have in a long time. It’s an excitement rather than fear. It’s a realization deep within my bones that I, contrary to what I have told myself for years and years, do not need to nor will I ever make this “my year.” Follow me here… Because my goodness, what pressure we place on ourselves over and over to perform for a crowd for 365 days! Telling ourselves that this is the year we will indeed operate at our finest, most well-tuned self. This is the big one! “This is the year I am going to ___________.”

Hear me: You will not make this “your year.”

For years, as that ball drops and the new year rolls in, I have found myself feeling that odd and all too familiar mix of emotions: a little sad, a little nostalgic, and a little anxious. And, I am guessing you do, too. But why? Because we set ourselves up for failure 365 days before, and spent the following 364 trying to measure up to and please others in order to prove this was “our best year.” We told ourselves lies and made promises we knew we couldn’t keep, and we find ourselves disappointed in ourselves more than anything or anybody else. It’s truly a gross cycle we are caught in, and social media only makes it worse. Our short-comings are on full display for all the world to see, or so it feels. Year after year, one thing after another, disappointment surely follows a list of goals and resolutions we couldn’t perfectly achieve. We feel, despite the fact people really do care a whole lot less than we make ourselves believe, like we let a slew of people down, ourselves at the top of that list, because we didn’t nail perfectly all the things we said a year before that we would do.

And then, as I always hear after the impossible task of perfection… “failure” lingers like a distant echo in our thoughts. 

Failure is the word that haunts me most in the back of my mind. Not just at the start of the year, but in my day to day. Failure is what I believe about myself when I do not achieve “perfection.” And, because perfection is impossible for me to grasp -no matter how hard I try or how close I might get- I hear the lie of “you failed” whispered in my ear often.

But not this year.
I hope the same for you.
I am done believing I didn’t do enough.
I am done believing that I can make things happen. 

See, as a Christian, if it’s true that my life is not my own… Why do I think I can make this year my own? Why do I honestly think I can shape and form my life for the next 365 days? I am not sure about you, but I am done with the cycle of taking my life and my year into my own hands. I will disappoint myself if I think I can make this my best year.

BUT GOD.

God can make this my best year. God can give me joy in the midst of disappointment. God can fill me, tell me I am victorious, and make me whole.

God can make this my best one yet when I bring Him my best and believe that He has the best for me. That, no matter what this year brings or what I do or don’t do, it was all for my good and all for His glory.

Don’t hear me wrong… I believe in setting goals. I absolutely believe in these. I am as goal-oriented and “write it out to cross it off” as they come. But, here’s the difference for me this year, it’s a simple perspective shift. I am done believing I am my Creator. So, this year, rather than making a list of things I will do in 2019, I am counting my victories from 2018 and allowing those to lead me into the new year. What victories do I wan to see this upcoming year?

I want victory over anxiety when people don’t like me, because I know whose I am what I was created for.
I want to have victory over feeling like I am not enough, because I know through Christ I am enough.
I want victory over insecurity, because in Christ I find a firm foundation built upon the Rock.

See, rather than starting at the bottom of the barrel and creating a list of goals I must do in the next 365 days in order to feel “more accomplished” than the one before, I am starting on top. I am looking back at what God did, not me, and how I handled the situations that the Lord gave me this past year to grow. I saw disappointment this past year. I was far from perfect. I wanted to quit time and time again. But with disappointment is the opportunity for hope and growth. That is why, with a perspective shift, I feel hope today more than anything else. The gift of disappointment is that we would not see just how much we need a perfect God if it didn’t exist. I couldn’t recognize growth I experienced in a year if all I do is aim for perfection and get frustrated when I fail to achieve it.

This year, I am letting myself walk in freedom. I am no longer pleasing others. I am no longer setting goals I feel I have to achieve solely because I think I will let other people down if I don’t do it or nail it perfectly. Because let’s be honest. When that is what drives me, more often than not, I am stuck in crippling fear with my feet plastered deep in the ground out of fear of what others might say about it. I am done with it all. I am setting goals for my character, my relationship with God, and the territories I want to claim victory over in my mind and sphere of influence.

Sure, I have had some disappointments in 2018. I have things I want to grow in personally and I have goals for my business. But I have had a hell of a lot of victories over where I wasn’t enough but in Christ I was more than enough, and that’s what leads me today. That is why I have hope today. That is why today feels a little different than other January 1st’s that I have sat in a people coma on my couch.

I pray today you choose to list the victories. I pray you ask God to go before you and show the new places you can claim victory over in 2019. I truly believe the other things on our list of goals we would like to see take place this year will naturally fall into place when our perspective shifts. Our efforts and hard work, that business you wish to start, that fitness goal, or that dream you want to finally chase will truly not be for man when we recognize that our dreams are simply God’s heart for us. Not for us, but to His name, His glory, His victory.

Happy New Year, sweet friends. Go claim victories.

xoxo,
Han