by Barb Roose | Nov 20, 2018 | Holiday
Ladies! We all know how stressful the Holiday season can be for some of us. Please welcome my friend Ginger Tarkowski as she shares some of the ways she gets into the the spirit for the season!
Ginger is a mom of 2 and she loves her kids more than anything. She is a Christmas fanatic who loves spending time with her family as much as possible.
How to Get In the Spirit for the Holiday Season
The holiday season is finally here, and it really is the most wonderful time of the year. There is so much excitement in the air that everything can become so hectic. If you’re ready to get into the holiday spirit, read on for some ways you can get ready for the season!
Listen to your favorite tunes
There is nothing better to get you in the mood for Christmas than bopping along to some festive music. Turn on some of your favorite classics when you’re cleaning around the house or cooking dinner (or even getting started on your holiday baking)! You’ll instantly feel a sense of cheer with Christmas carols as your background music for whatever you’re doing. If you want an update for your music collection, check out some of the 2018 Christmas albums that recently came out.
Watch Christmas movies
Another really simple way to get in the mood for the holidays is to spend a lazy Saturday night watching Christmas movies. Bake some cookies and sit back to enjoy some family-friendly Christian movies that you and your kids will love. With so many options, you’re sure to get in the spirit after watching a couple of feel-good holidays flicks.
Start decorating
If you’re ready to start celebrating Christmas, that means it’s time to decorate! It’s quite impossible to not be in a holiday mood when your house looks so festive. If you don’t know where to start, utilize some of these decorating tips to give you some ideas. Start simple and add in minimalist pieces to bring some spirit into your home, that way you can add more later if you want. You’ll love coming home every day to your lovely decorating, and you’ll feel very holly jolly!
Set up a hot chocolate bar
Getting ready for the holidays can be done through so many simple actions, like a hot chocolate bar. Opt for a homemade hot cocoa recipe to keep the flavors authentic, set out an assortment of mugs, and get started! Make sure to include lots of extra treats to add to your hot chocolate, like peppermint sticks, mini marshmallows, and whipped cream. With the colder weather this time of year, your mug of hot chocolate will warm you up from the inside out!
Host a holiday party
Not all holiday parties have to be over the top. You can plan a really simple gathering for your closest friends and family to spread your excitement for the season. Encourage everyone to wear their festive attire, make festive Christmas treats, and cozy up your house so everyone feels welcome! You can invite your guests to bring a small gift to exchange or simply just bring a dish to pass.
Do you have any favorite Holiday traditions or any fun ways to get into the Holiday spirit? Share them in the comments!
by Barb Roose | Jul 24, 2017 | Reflections, Women's Topics
When you read this post, I will be celebrating my 45th birthday. It’s been 16,436 days since my mom’s water broke and she pushed me out into the world. While a few years have passed since then, today is a good day to say, “Thanks, Mom! I appreciate you seeing labor through all the way to the end.”
For quite a few years birthdays were a struggle for me. In fact, I had a meltdown on my 35th birthday while standing on a random side street in beautiful Grand Cayman. Lesser meltdown followed years for birthdays 36,37,38 and 39.
Everything changed the year I turned 40. I anticipated a Catagory 5 meltdown, so I scheduled myself out for a vacation that week in case I lost my mind. On the morning of my 40th birthday, I decided to start a home improvement project. As I set up in the dining room, my phone rang at 8:15am. My sister-in-law and niece were in a tragic car accident about an hour away from my house.
The day at the hospital was a blur. At first, our family didn’t know how survived the accident and how did not. Tragically, a gentleman in the other car passed away. I waited in the ER with my sister-in-law while they treated her broken arm. Her 16-year daughter was fighting for her life. I couldn’t even begin to list all of the broken bones and lacerated organs. That sweet girl hovered between life and death for many days and stayed in the ICU for many weeks.
It took about a year, but Camie recovered – including the ability to walk again. It seems so odd to collapse such a monumental event in her life down to two words: She recovered. That brave young woman graduated from high school the next year. She married a few years later and at some point today – yes, TODAY – she’ll give birth to her second son. How’s that for a beautiful redemptive story?!
Something incredible happened for me, too. I stopped being afraid of my birthday. Spending my birthday confronted with the realities of life and death shook that silliness right out of me.
Instead of just being grateful to be alive each birthday, I’ve started to celebrate the things that I learn each year that I’m blessed to keep living.
Over the past 365 days, I’ve learned a few more important lessons for my life that I’d like to share with you. Take what you’d like and leave the rest:
- Peace is priceless! I’ve learned a lot about what it means to surrender and walk in God’s peace over the past year. Letting go and letting God has been a challenge, but walking in God’s peace isn’t something that I’m willing to give up for anything on this planet.
- “God, please encourage me…” – A few months ago I prayed, “God, could you please send me some encouragement to hang onto today?” He did! Now, I pray that prayer often. Sometimes, God uses a friend to send me a text. Other times, it’s a verse in the Bible. Rarely, it’s a change in circumstance (that doesn’t happen often, but it does happen).
- Treating myself well – On my worst days, I treat myself the best. On bad days, I purposefully find ways to treat myself, whether it’s a long walk, long bath, a good book, funny movie or lunch for one, I find at least 3-5 things to do for myself. It’s been so beneficial to my heart, mind, and soul. If you need ideas, click here for my life of 101 ways to take care of yourself.
What will I do today? To celebrate my 45th birthday, I’m going to do a few things: a free hot yoga class in the morning. Then, I’ll use a gift card and coupon to buy new shoes (thanks, Mom!). At some point I’ll enjoy my free Starbucks birthday drink.
But, what I’m looking forward to is writing myself a letter to open on my 46th birthday (Umm, God willing and the creek don’t rise!). I want to tell myself more about the things that I celebrated this year and what I learned from my struggles. Once I write the letter, I’ll put a reminder in my phone for July 24, 2018 and include a note on where I hid the letter.
If you’ve got a birthday coming up or you just want to do it now, write yourself a Celebration and Struggles Birthday letter to yourself. I’ve written other letters to myself and it’s a cool experience to see how much you’ve grown as time goes on.
Thanks for stopping by to celebrate this part of my birthday with me. For my birthday, I want to give away a signed copy of my Enough Already book BUT you have to nominate a friend of yours to receive. In three sentences or less, tell me about how that friend blesses your life. I’ll select the winner by the end of my birthday on July 24.
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by Barb Roose | Jun 29, 2015 | Christian Living/Discipleship
Congrats, Pixar. You made me cry during another one of your movies. Again.
My hubby, two younger daughter and I went to see “Inside Out” a few days ago. Imagine my annoyance when I had to reach for a tissue. It’s a cartoon for goodness’ sake! I think that making adults cry at movies is some kind on conspiracy. In fact, my conspiracy has a name. I call it the “Bambie Effect.” ‘Cause upon a time, Disney killed off Bambie’s mom and made adults cry. Walt’s people got away with it and Pixar has perfected the art of making adults cry at animated movies. #Up #ToyStory3
“Inside Out” is a movie about feelings. Yep, feelings finally got their own feature movie. This digital psychological journey animates all of the emotions that we have at some point or another. We meet colorful and interesting emotions named Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. Movie watchers observe the dynamics and dynamite between those emotions as they struggle to help the main character, Riley, navigate her feelings after moving cross-country with her family.
It doesn’t take long before I realize that the movie’s theme presses us with the following question: Can our dogged pursuit of happiness actually hurt us?
Photo credit: hercampus.com
Photo credit: babyrazzi.com
The answer is yes. We watch as well-meaning Joy ends up causing Riley most amount of pain in the movie. As I watched Joy’s well-intentioned efforts cause pain and mayhem, a few thoughts came to mind during the movie:
When happiness is our highest goal, we’re tempted to manipulate what we value in order to achieve it.
How often do we long just to be happy? We want to be happy. We want to make other people happy. Yet, our pursuit of happiness might be at the expense of other more important things.
In her singular mission to try to keep Riley happy, Joy moved and manipulated the other emotions out of her self-righteous way. If Riley was in the midst of a bad day, Joy raced to replace Riley’s bad memory with a happy one. If Riley had a nightmare, Joy rushed in to whisk it away. As Joy bounced all over the command center switching and moving memories to keep Riley a happy girl, we had an impending sense of doom.
When things in our lives starts sliding in the wrong direction, we start clawing for happiness because anxiety, pain and anger just feel bad. There are times when we feel like we’re stuck on a losing streak, right? Our car breaks down. Then, the basement floods. Next, our kids’ get sick or we break the screen on our iPhone. When we have so many bad feelings, we are desperate to feel good. If we get desperate enough, we’ll grab for happiness wherever we can find it – even if it’s not good for us. You can fill-in-the-blank for whatever that might be for you: overspending, overeating, sexual irresponsibility, theft, etc. Have you ever made a bad decision because you wanted to enjoy a good feeling?
As the movie unfolds, young Riley’s distress mounts. The other emotions call out caution, but Joy pushes for happiness. She didn’t want Riley to dwell on sad memories. Furthermore, Joy doesn’t want listen to the other emotions’ input. I cringed as i watched Joy rush to phrases I’ve used before: “Let’s focus on the positive and what’s going right” or “It will be just fine.”
Sometimes, we need to lean into our sadness…
I learned the most from Sadness in the movie. I’m an realistic optimist. I know that bad things happen in this world. I’m not stranger to problems and heartache, but I maintain my optimism. So, the movie’s character, Sadness, grated on my nerves. Sadness shuffled around with seemingly nothing to offer. There were problems to solve and frankly, Sadness wasn’t helping. At one point, Joy drew a circle and asked Sadness to step inside and stay out of the way. As rude as that moment seemed, I’ve been guilty of something similar. If I just stay positive…No negative thinking…
As the movie went on, Joy and Sadness were separated from the rest of the emotions. This ends up being a good thing. There is a pivotal scene where Sadness creates an opportunity for another character to grieve and move on past a painful event and smile again. Joy realizes letting Sadness be a part of Riley’s memories wouldn’t ruin the joy of those memories. Instead, Sadness gave Riley’s memories much more impact and depth.
This is a deep and profound truth for all of us.
My most precious memories are made up of heartbreaking moments combined with the presence of treasured friends. In difficult moments, sadness is the emotion that slows us down so that others can care for us.
Sadness creates space for friends to sit with us in our despair and let us know that we are not alone. During sad times, friends embrace us and comfort us just by being there. Sadness is often the emotion that attracts compassion and pours it into our lives.
If heartache is part of our humanity, then it’s possible for sadness to be a gift.
Imagine how cold and callous we would be if bad things happened and we didn’t pause to feel them deeply or acknowledge their impact on our lives? Pretending that life doesn’t hurt actually hurts us. Pretending that we aren’t wounded may actually come from a place of pride. We don’t want others to know that we are just like everyone else. If I am not careful, this is the very place I can end up. The healthiest of humans know that deep pain cannot be healed in a vacuum. Time does not heal all wounds, but friends can. And we should not be afraid or ashamed to let others comfort us.
Compassion is powerful and helps us heal. Often, won’t realize how much we need compassion until we receive it. We shouldn’t be afraid to let others who us compassion, especially since the givers of such compassion have experienced the power of receiving it. Here’s a verse that I think of when I hear of sad moments. This is a great reminder and prompt for people like me, who can underestimate the power of sadness, comfort and compassion:
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. -2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (New Living Translation)
STUFF TO THINK ABOUT:
How has sadness or heartache prompted you to refocus or prioritize your life? When’s the last time you let someone be there for you during a time of great sadness? How did their presence impact your life?
Thanks for checking out this week’s post! Did you see “Inside Out”? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you think this post might bless someone else, please hit the “share” button at the top of the post. God bless!
