A New Map + A Good Book

Hi there friends! There seems to be more and more time lapsing between my blog posts lately and I wanted to tell you all a little bit about what’s been going on in my world. And while we’re here hanging out, I also want to share a new map that I just received and a REALLY good book that I’m reading.

I’ve been hesitant to share “real life” because I know that we all walk through difficult seasons at some point or another, and I don’t want to ever sound like I’m complaining. I like to try to keep the blog “my happy place.” But I want to be real with all of you and let you all know that even though I share pretty pictures and it may seem like I have it all together, my life is far from “picture perfect.” Actually, I could title this post, “my house is pretty, but my home is a mess.”

Okay, here we go. Several months ago, I shared that my husband had a back injury and had his 2nd back surgery in December. Since then, he’s never fully recovered. He continued to have lots of pain and leg weakness. A little over a month ago, he was trying to walk to bed and his left leg completely gave out on him. It took me, my oldest son, and a pair of old crutches to get him to the bed that night. Needless to say, it was a night without much rest. The next morning, we went to a local family clinic and they immediately sent us to his neurosurgeon because of an emergent condition called ‘foot drop’ related to compressed nerves in his spinal cord.

To make a very long story short, after numerous tests, treatments, doctors visits, and not being able to stand or walk without assistance for the last month, he will be having an anterior spinal fusion next week. And will have a lengthy recovery ahead.

In the meantime, as I am trying desperately to keep up with the household, 3 boys, care for my husband, and work a full-time job, I started having some numbness in my right hand. I didn’t think much of it at first. It would feel like my hand was sleeping, so I’d give it a good shake and it would wake back up. But then, one day it went numb and no amount of shaking would wake it up. Carpal Tunnel is what the doc said. And I needed surgery before I had permanent nerve damage. “Wait, What? God, is this some sort of joke!? ‘Cause ain’t nobody got time fa’dat!”

Seriously though. I had carpal tunnel surgery last week and I can’t lift more than 1 pound for 6 weeks. Eek! How am I supposed to do that? Let’s just say that I’m learning to do a WHOLE LOT with my left hand. Like peck away at the keyboard with one hand to type this blog post. 😉

I’ll share my heart and how I’ve been dealing with all of this “stuff” below, when I share about the good book that I am reading. Because they both have a lot in common.

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A New Map

On to happier news! Last week, I received a new map from Grafomap and I am absolutely in love with it! I chose to create a map of London, England because it holds my heritage. My mom is from a small town right outside of London, called Leighton Buzzard. She moved to the States with her family when she was about 4 years old. My grandparents and my mom have been back quite frequently to visit family, but I’ve never had the opportunity to go. It is at the very top of my bucket list though!

Grafomap is so cool! You can create a completely customizable map of anywhere in the world! I had my map printed on canvas, but you can also have it printed on a poster. The quality of the canvas map is excellent! It’s a thick canvas wrapped securely around a wooden frame and is printed in sharp black ink. There are several different color inks to chose from and you can also scale the map to zoom in as close as you’d like. It’s cool just to play around on the Grafomap website and see all the different designs you can come up with!

I styled the map in my youngest son’s room for a few reasons. One, because I’m currently giving his room a makeover and I’m going with a monochrome look and the map fits in perfectly. I hope to share the room reveal on the blog soon. And two, because he is my little adventurer and I see lots of traveling in his future. Maybe he’ll even take his mom to London one day.

A Good Book

Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist has been eye opening for me. I swear we are living the same life! I am feeling everything that she is saying in this book. This good book seriously could not have come in to my life at a better time. But God already had that planned.

You see, like Shauna, I am a doer. I thrive on productivity. Being still is the hardest thing you could ever ask of me. And now, I basically have to be still for 6 weeks.

I must confess that I was a bit angry with God at first. I didn’t want to “be still.” I had things to do. DIYs to get done, blog posts to write, a house to decorate. Important stuff to do. Or so I thought.

The truth is, for a while now I’ve been hearing God whisper to me that I needed to slow down. To spend more time with Him. To be more present with my family. Give my body and my mind a rest. But I kept pushing it aside, justifying in my mind that I had too much to do to slow down.

It’s not a coincidence that all of this has happened at this exact time. I fully trust that this is all a part of God’s divine plan. He knew that this was the only way He could get this hard-headed girl to be still and listen.

A very wise lady once told me that when we go through difficult times, we have two choices. We can choose to become bitter or we can choose to become better.

I am choosing to become better. I am choosing to use this time to grow in my relationship with God and allow Him to ground and reorder my life according to His will.

I’m not sure what this is going to look like yet, but I am beginning the journey.

In the words of Shauna Niequist, I am ready to “leave behind the heavy weight of comparison, competition, and exhaustion, and to recraft a life marked by meaning, connection, and unconditional love.”

If you are looking for a good book to read, I would highly recommend Present Over Perfect.

Several years ago, I wrote a devotion when I was walking through a difficult season of brokenness. I plan to share it on the blog later this week. So if you’d like to hear a little encouragement from a broken girl, head back on Thursday to give it a read and share your thoughts.

I hope today has brought you some encouragement as well. Be blessed, friends. And be present over perfect. xoxo