My friend Michelle DeRusha wrote a What I’ve Learned post yesterday that was linked up to Emily Freeman’s What I’ve Learned link-up, a place where bloggers gather and share all the things, big or small, that they learned that season.
I was inspired and decided to visit some old Instagram posts to jog my memory into what I’ve learned this winter. I was overwhelmed by all that I have learned. Evidence of God’s gifts.
Here is What I’ve Learned.
1. I. Must. Journal. It is free therapy!
Journals capture the gifts and slow my heart down. Thoughts exhaled.
2. White dishes make me giddy.
A sweet Christmas gift from my Mom-in-Law. You can never go wrong with timeless white dishes! I love to add color with napkins or flowers at the table.
3. I prefer real fruit snacks to artificial food snacks.
Snacks! Some naughty, some nice!
4. Red and Green are NOT my favorite Christmas colors.
Golds and sparkly silvers are my favorite Christmas colors!
5. Sitting across from my teens with my man eating food I didn’t have to cook is my new fav.
Lunch and a Movie Family Date. Loving this slow week between Christmas and New Years!
6. Making homemade yogurt in the Instant Pot is a breeze.
Tower of homemade yogurt from the Instantpot. This batch has maple syrup and vanilla in it. I left the consistency thinner and it is even better than my favorite store brand. Natural probiotics!
7. Natural probiotics and seeds are amazing for digestion, and I’m obsessed with yogurt.
These little jars of homemade yogurt have been my breakfast, keeping me full well past lunch time! A little trick I’ve learned is this: use just a spoonful of Trader Joe’s Flax & Berry Dried Oatmeal Pack to act as a granola and add a bit of sweet. I also add the Trader Joe’s Ancient Seed blend. So delicious, filling and good for you!
8. I’m officially a superfood junkie — Gogi berries, Chia, Flax, Hemp.
I can’t get over the deliciousness of homemade yogurt! I love it topped with organic maple syrup, gogi berries, and chia/hemp seed mix. My gut is full and happy!
9. Even in the winter, just 5 minutes in nature gives me life. I must get outdoors.
The sun is out and our 2 -day ice storm is melting all beautiful and shimmery! I took my DSLR out for a walk today to try and capture the wonder of melting ice. I wish I could have captured the sound of ice cracking and icicles landing in pieces on the ground. Magical!
10. Donut cakes will never get old. So easy. So yummy! Unpack and stack!
Colsie’s Sweet 16 donut cake.
11. Crafty projects are so much better with the help of a friend. I need to ask for help more often!
It was a wine and washi tape kind of night! Thank you to my sweet Renee friend for helping me with #ifgathering2017 decoration prep.
12. Peeled grapefruit is worth it. Every. Single. Agonizing. Second. It builds patience. It tastes amazing.
Peeled a grapefruit for the first time ever. Have you heard it’s a thing? It was delicious!
13. When sitting inside, look up and out every once in a while. I might just see this!
The clouds above my house right now. “GOD’s strong name is our help, the same GOD who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8
14. That if I push into the hard, I will get glimpses of eternity.
“…But my cross, Lord, I will carry, Home, Lord, home, Lord, ALL THE WAY!” I have a hero who carried his cross all the way home to Jesus. His bride told me “he made it all the way home to Jesus this morning, all the way home.” There was much cross-carrying done in this beautiful family the past year and a half. Watching them has changed me. {hand lettering by my Avery}
15. In the hardest moments, God reveals himself, for he is always present. Nothing can separate us from his love.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8
16. I need light. Sunlight, twinkle lights, fairy lights. I may even buy this happy light!
I have a thing with light. Give me all the string lights, sunlight, & twinkle lights! “For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. This God- his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. 2 Samuel 22:29, 31
17. Moments are fleeting.
She is a flurry of activity…opening letters from colleges, looking for car keys and a lost glove, shoving feet into snow boots all while talking on the phone to her boyfriend. I snap this photo of my Teagan, capturing the moment before she’s gone. Here today gone tomorrow. #iblinked
18. Difficulties, when handed in trust to God, bring peace.
Lessons of trust come wrapped in difficulties. Be steadfast, the payoff is peace. “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you.”
Isaiah 26:3
Thanks for reading what I’ve learned. What have you learned this season
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