10 Things I've Learned With Age

I'm one whole month into the final year of my 30's. I feel like lately, I've been experiencing life differently. This isn't to say that I feel like I have life figured out, I totally don't, I just realized that there are some things that I just don't have time for anymore. Maybe I'm falling into the groove of adulthood or maybe I'm just becoming more comfortable with who I am. I'm not quite sure, but today, I pulled together a list of 10 things I have learned with age. Maybe you can add something you've learned too.

Photo by Maria Shanina on Unsplash

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How to write the perfect thank you note! Plus free printable thank you notes

Many people underestimate the value of a handwritten thank you note. Some people want to send a quick e-mail thank you so they don't forget or think that a quick thank you in person is enough, but a hand written note is the best way to show your appreciation.  I've got a few tips to help you write the perfect thank you note.  Tips that may be helpful with graduation and wedding season approaching!

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Are you putting limitations on yourself?

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Godspeed Pictures, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #wherehopegrowsmovie http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV
"I'm just a mom." Have you ever found yourself saying that?  I know that I have caught myself saying that phrase... More than once this year even!
My primary job for the past 16 years has been that of a stay at home mom.  I graduated college married with a toddler and despite the degree with the fresh ink, we had decided that I would stay at home and be the primary caregiver of our children.
One child, turned to three {how does that happen?!} and I loved my role as a mom. Though there were times that I felt like I was saying no to God and opportunities that He had given me because of limitations that I was setting on myself. I was in a season on life that placed limitations on my schedule because the kids were young and I was the primary caregiver, but as the kids got older, I realized I started hiding behind those limitations and using them as an excuse.  Thankfully, our perceived limitations do not stand in the way of God's purpose.

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Evidence of a parenting win

We were at a swim meet recently. My youngest son is nine and has joined the team just this year. We are still learning the ropes and figuring out what it looks like to participate in events. One thing we have learned is that they start ungodly early and are usually in locations that are at least an hour away from home. There is a fair amount of waiting usually while we are squeezed in bleachers with no regards to personal space.

On this particular morning warm ups had ended and there really wasn't anything to do for about an hour and a half. I had tucked my iPad into my bag since we all know that that's instant entertainment for boredom. I saw Owen wandering the poolside and fingered the iPad in my bag. I almost pulled it out and called him over but I thought I would give him a second to see what he would do.

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A Mother's Choice: How I Decided to Be a Young Mom and Kept My Baby

I was barely nineteen. Not much older than he is now.  I was faced with a decision that would not only affect me, but a decision that would directly affect the lives of two others and that would create a ripple, affecting countless others. I knew almost right away. Several negative pregnancy tests did nothing to alleviate the nagging suspicion of what I already realized. 

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What is our common denominator?

I'm not much of a sports fan.  I follow along enough to make occasional comments, but sports just aren't that fun for me when I don't actually know the people that are playing.  

source 

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Rachel's Random ramblings

It's been awhile since I have taken the time to do a Rachel's random ramblings. I thought that it was long overdue. Especially since I have a lot of stuff rambling around in my head! As you read this, I am sitting on a beach in Maui with some pretty awesome girlfriends. I am thankful to get the opportunity to travel away from my family for a little mom retreat. If you want to live vicariously through me, you can follow me on instagram at holycraft1.

Before I left I saw this article called "The Mom Problem" by Aaron Ivey. It's a good read but since my blog demographic is a bunch of moms, I am probably preaching to the choir. Go ahead and forward it to your husband.   I did. And speaking of my husband, he's a pretty awesome guy to allow me to travel without him, take care of the kids and the house and run our crazy schedule solo for the week. God bless him! In preparation for our great Midwest trip this past summer, my oldest son got sucked into country music. For some reason, road tripping in a mini van in Kentucky with his family made him think that he needed to make a CD of country songs. And that my friends, has started him on a country music kick. While Aidan is on a country music kick, being a teenager, the rest of us are being dragged right along with him on that kick. Here are a few things that I have noticed about country songs. Most of them start with "Hey girl" everyone has a truck with a rolled down window and they all go cruisin' sometimes they stop by a river and drink a beer and every song mentions jeans While we are talking about songs, a friend on Facebook posted this Valentine. I dare you to not sing Lion King.

I love using my silhouette software and use the print and cut feature most often.

Lately, I've had issues with it reading the registration marks.

I tricked it into reading the registration marks by going over them with a sharpie.

Yep, that's what I do with my time...trick a machine used for cutting.

It seems so simple, but this saved me tons of time and maybe it will save you time too.

You're welcome!

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Now back to whale watching and soaking up sun!

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The dilemma with boot socks. What to do when you take off the boot. I need your help!

For the past few years, skinny jeans and leggings have been the in thing to wear.

I have fully embraced the trend and love wearing my new Frye boots 

{thanks to my in-law's for their Christmas gift!}

with a pair of leggings or skinny jeans.

Problem is when I wear this ensemble and go to a friends house that has a shoes off policy,

the whole outfit isn't cute anymore.

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All of a sudden, I'm standing there, with socks pulled up to my knees over my pants looking cray cray. Do you push the socks down, do you leave them up, do you take them off? What is a girl to do?

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Tips for writing a Christmas letter everyone will enjoy

I have to confess, I already ordered our Christmas cards. I love getting mail, and Christmas cards and letters are some of my favorite mail! I got a head start this year, which has me thinking about the second half of sending out Christmas cards: The letter My contribution is always getting the card done. For the past dozen years, my husband is responsible for our Christmas letter. Not everyone likes a Christmas letter though. I want to share some tips with you on how to write a fantastic Christmas letter everyone will love to read.

Stick with short and sweet

Our Christmas letter will never be longer than the front of one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.

It will not be two sided or multi-paged.

It may be single spaced with small margins and 10 point font though!

If we receive a Christmas letter longer than the front side of the paper, my husband will not read any further than the front side of that paper. 

A good Christmas letter should hit the high points of the year, not the play by play details of our latest trip. Save the details for your next coffee date.  

In our letter, each family member gets a paragraph about that person's yearly highlights and there is a paragraph for the whole family summing up our year.

Write in your own voice

It's always more fun to read something when you can "hear" the person who wrote the letter.

No one wants to read a stuffy letter, they want to get a glimpse inside the family that wrote the letter.

No one wants to read a boring letter.  Keep it interesting.

And funny.

Anything is more fun when it's funny.

It's not time to brag

This is a big one!

If there is one thing people hate the most about Christmas letters it's how much people embellish their life over the past year.  Most people you send your Christmas letter to know you.  They know your business from Facebook, they have seen your kids in detention or been present when you unloaded about what a flop your last vacation was since your kids fought the whole time, your luggage got lost and you broke your toe while kicking your dog.  Don't fool yourself by writing in your letter that Tommy is perfect and your vacation to Cabo was amazing!  Be honest.  As a side note, people also don't want to hear about your new car or your bonus and they definitely don't want to hear about your smart well behaved look better on paper kids.

Be real 

It's o.k. to write about your recent vasectomy, or the job change that you made after you were laid off.

One of the best Christmas letters we ever received {and which subsequently sparked Mike's interest in writing a Christmas letter} included all of the nitty gritty life details.

It was real, and it was honest.

But it was funny and lighthearted too.

{names and identifying information have been changed to protect the writers identity}

Once again, we have the good fortune to be able to hope that 1999 has been as good to you and yours as it has been to us (our year hasn’t been that sensational, we just don’t want you to think yours has been better than ours).  Y2K eve finds the Smith's of Cleveland healthy (we all have the flu) and happy (Diane’s going through menopause, Ally and Katie are in finals, and I’m increasingly envious of Katie's college experience), and blessed by regular contact with loving family and friends (we don’t read your letters either).  OK, the Hallmark portion of this missive (I don’t actually know what this means, I’m just trying to sound intellectual, unfortunately coming across as condescending and erudite—oops, there I go again), while true and genuine (yeah, right), will now close as we move into the hard news:

Katie accepted Chad’s marriage proposal in April and dumped him in August

We feel almost as sorry for him as we do for Jamie

But don't be too real

The reason my husband could write about his vasectomy is because he doesn't take himself too seriously.

This is the exert from our 2005 Christmas letter.

In other Mike related news, we (read “Rachel”) have nominated him to take one for the team, in order to prevent the increasingly common occurrence of new children finding their way into our family photos.  By the time you read this, Mike will have gone under the knife, in order to ensure that, if Rachel should squeeze yet another child out of her tiny little frame, it will not be his.

Christmas letters aren't the time to fill people in on the bowel troubles you have or how Uncle Adam fell off the wagon or that you need surgery on your corn.  Leave some of life a mystery!

Those are my tips for you. Do you have any you would add? What are your thoughts? Do you love or hate the Christmas letter? I'm going to be sharing highlights from our past Christmas letters this week. Stick around, you won't be disappointed.

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