When Time Stands Still- The Best Week of the Year

The lights on the Christmas tree are fading. It’s time to store the holidays away and turn our faces toward the sunrise of the New Year. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day beckon’s us to linger in the moment. It’s the best week of the year, when time stands still.

Reflect, Recharge, and Dream

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is my favorite week of the year. For several precious days there are no deadlines or alarms calling us to forge ahead to the next place, appointment, or party. It’s a week when we celebrate the gift of lingering and rest.

In our family it’s also a week when we reflect, recharge and dream about what the next year can hold. It’s a beautiful week of introspective thanksgiving and also dreaming of all that is possible during the next twelve months.

Choosing Intention

Intentional living is found in purposeful work, through the layering of daily habits. It’s the sacred ebb and flow of days that become weeks which then cascade into months. I’ve shared about the power of planning, and writing a mission statement. But at the root of this kind of purposeful work is the foundation and idea of choosing intention.

The Work of Intentional Living

I often think about a life well lived like a beautiful garden. Through years of faithfulness, patience, challenge, discipline and work a garden can flourish. But without tending, watering, trimming, or patience it can also be choked of life and its potential.

The work of intentional living is similar in a way to tending a garden. Through purposeful, focused, and often daily effort, layers of growth and beauty blossom.

This is the week when the work begins, slowly, and with edging toward the possibility of what can be. It’s a week when everything is possible and the fires of promise burn hot.

Looking Ahead

I’m found this week journaling, praying, and anticipating this promise. During these days of reflection Mr. PDH and I begin to hone in on our financial goals, we’ll write the wide scope of our family schedule, we anticipate big upcoming activities for the kids, and there is deep reflection on what the tone of the year can be.

How to Live with Intention

Sixteen years of marriage and family has taught me that this kind of living first begins with, as we said, a choice. Once it’s made it must be followed by a daily series of yeses, don’t give ups, be not afraids, and try agains. When the vision for your family and home are captured there are some very practical action steps that can be taken too.

Simple to do lists have the power to provide focus and efficiency in a world of diapers and toddlers. Menu planning, followed by strategic grocery shopping (by way of online ordering and free curbside pickup) can create life giving opportunities to press-in to weeknight math homework around the table. Carving out time saving strategies through developing self-running processes is how more domestic freedom is attained.

Dwell With Intention

This is the year friends, it’s the time, and it’s possible for you to get intentional, purposeful, and organized. You can really dwell with intention this year.

I deeply hope you’ll join me in the journey.

With hope for you and your intentional home,