Perspective

Have you seen the movie bridge of spies? Fantastic movie! Tom Hanks wis a lawyer who's trying to arrange a trade of a US spy for a Soviet spy. The Soviet spy he's working with gets put in stressful situations during the exchange, Tom Hanks looks at him and asks, are you freaking out/are you worried/why aren't you crying?  Then Mr. Spy man looks at Tom Hanks and says "Would it help?" The conversation always stops there, because the situation would not be changed just by freaking yourself out.

Perspective is so important.

You can give yourself anxiety and cause yourself to not sleep or to over-eat over so many things that we have no control over. Does the worrying and anxiety help? No! If there is a stress free reason to keep the thought that you're thinking then go ahead, but if this thought is just damaging you, acknowledge it, but realize that you have no control.

You get a flat tire, you can yell and scream and kick your car, but "will it help?" it won't change the tire.  Acknowledge that it's frustrating and put it into perspective. It's just a tire, the situation could be so much worse, but it's not, you might be running a little later than you were hoping but all is not lost.

A few years back I adopted the mantra "such is life" I use it in those moments where things are out of my hands but happen in a way that isn't the way I hoped it would be. Life is confusing, messy, and the most amazing thing that you'll ever do. Remember that when things aren't going your way "will it help" to get angry and yell? Maybe it will, but remember such is life, it's a beautiful thing, just sometimes it's a little messy

2016 Reflection

2016 Has been such an eventful year!

Most of the highlights from this year were spent outdoors.  We love a good adventure and have really been trying to get out every chance that we have.  We hiked lots of different trails here in Idaho including Jump Creek Falls and spent 2 days backpacking in McCall. 

  I got to bike 60 miles for Goldilocks and Arah finished the Spudman Triathlon again, he even improved his time from last year by quite a bit. 

We were able to spend an amazing couple of days with my family at my sister's cabin.  Seriously my nephews and nieces are the cutest. 

It really was such a wonderful year,  there were definitely hardships.  In May we found out that we were expecting our first baby shortly after we found out that we had a miscarriage.  This really launched a period of self discovery.

Dopamine Addiction

This video talks about Millenials and the struggles they face and we face with them in today's society. It also addresses addiction. It is about 15 minutes long, but so worth having a watch!

Christmas 2016

The past 3 years we have alway driven to Utah from Idaho to celebrate Christmas with our families, this year Arah's family was in California and we were both hit with crazy snow storms. I love spending time with my family, but we have definitely made the most of being without them.

Christmas Eve we spent with some amazing friends who took us in and indulged in all my favorite silly traditions.  We made raclette for dinner (a new tradition) then Rice Pudding for dessert (complete with hidden almond) Rocky found the almond, it wasn't rigged at all;)

Then after our very cheesy dinner; we roped them into singing around the Christmas Tree with us.  It was a blast, we even got in all 12 days of Christmas.  The one problem we always have with singing around the tree is that we don't know all the lyrics, luckily we found a youtube video that had songs and lyrics, it worked wonders.  Taylor and Ana had wonderful singing voices that did a great job covering up my scary voice.  It warms my heart to carry on these Danish traditions that I have had my whole life.

We stayed late to wait up for Santa and even helped him assemble a toy kitchen for Rocky and Baby Eden. After one too many late nights this season we retired to our beds.... I was planning on sleeping in, but Arah was way too excited for Christmas morning.  As it turns out, Santa visited our house too! We went to church then relaxed the rest of the day. SO MUCH NAPPING!

Monday was for Skiing!

Adventure is out there!

How are you?

Arah and I  spent some time discussing the phrase 

"Mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort" 

He said one thing that was such a culture shock when he came back to the US after he had been in Germany, everyone here uses the greeting how are you? No one waits around to hear the answer nor really wants to know other than "fine". In Germany this question is only asked to close friends when you are sincerely looking to help and to serve others. 

We talked about how we have set the standard for everyone just has to be fine all the time. Fine is not the default setting, nor is happy, nor is sad. We are supposed to experience every emotion. We need to be more open with our feelings and more honest about how we are. It is our responsibility to share both our joy and our turmoil. We are denying others the opportunity to serve us, if we don't let them in and allow them to serve. 

I feel like so many times I've been in situations where I've thought oh I'm so alone, woeth me, when really it's probably my own fault that someone asked me how I was doing and I gave my usual response which is "fantastic" also the other way around when I have genuinely wanted to serve and genuinely cared about how someone was and we end up hearing nothing more than a standard response. 

One of my goals is to not ask "how are you" without sincerity and to always wait around for that answer. So if I ask you I hope you know that I love you and I want to serve you. And if you ask me I'm going to be brutally honest!