Five on Friday - Lent, Positives from the Week, and a Little Piece of My Heart

Whew, what a week.  I tell ya, February wasn’t the kindest month to us, and March hasn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot either.  Between these two months I’ve had lots of sickness and issues (let’s just say that I’ve already met my individual insurance deductible and out of pocket max for 2019… and it’s barely March), my Nana (who is now in a nursing home) has been on a slow decline, my Papa John had another stroke (but, thankfully, survived yet again), a scary tornado hit a quarter of a mile from our house and devastated a portion of our hometown and surrounding areas, we had additional power outages (although that’s the least of my worries), we had a death in the family (my Daddy’s cousin died from a brain tumor), we had a couple of other events rock our world but I’m keeping them to myself for the privacy of others, and now this week Brian injured his ankle playing tennis. 

He thought it was just a sprain, but was unable to finish his match and by the time he got home it had swelled up to the size of a tennis ball.  The doc says that there isn’t a break, thankfully, but they think at the very least he has torn at least one, maybe multiple ligaments.  He’s on crutches for now and they said that as long as it starts feeling better in a week he should be okay to let it heal on its own, but if it still feels about the same or worse in a week, he’s going to have to be referred to an orthopedic surgeon. 

Needless to say, we’re on the struggle bus over here and 2019 is giving me MAJOR 2017 vibes.  If you’re a long-time reader then you may remember that year just plain sucked for us.  My anxiety has been near an all-time high this week from all of the crap piling up, and on top of all of that, I have also had a lot of guilt this week for wallowing in our issues because I know that SO many people in our area just lost everything in the tornadoes and I should just be thankful that we were spared.  And I AM SO SO THANKFUL for that.  But I still feel overwhelmed.     

However, our whole family is alive and do not have any terminal illnesses, and we have more than we could ever need or want in this life.  So on that note, I’m going to be focusing on some of the POSITIVES in our lives for the rest of this post, because God knows we are so blessed that the positives outweigh the negatives.

O N E – Lent

We are Catholic, and therefore, observe the season of Lent (the 40 days leading up to Easter).  If you’re not familiar with Lent, it’s a solemn time where we prepare our hearts for Holy Week and the Easter season when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and then rose from the dead.  The 40 days are spent praying, giving and doing for others (almsgiving), and self-denial (which is why most of us give up something) to bring ourselves closer to God and, kind of, put ourselves in Jesus’s shoes. 

I typically give up something for Lent that I really love – chocolate, donuts, sweets, etc. – but that never really seems like enough, so this year I decided to do something different.  Something more meaningful which I’m hoping will shape my heart for the better.  For Lent this year I’m giving up negativity.  Or trying to, at least.  What exactly do I mean by that?  Well, I’m hoping to try to start finding and focusing on the positives in negative situations.  I’m hoping to see the good in everyone.  I’m hoping to stop complaining about things that don’t really matter.  And I’m hoping to try to stop overanalyzing and worrying so much about every. little. thing. 

I am a natural born worrier so I have been a HUGE worrier my entire life.  I’m not sure if there’s a way to completely change those types of innate characteristics, but I’m damn sure hoping that I can at least curb mine.

See this?  This is me:

And this is what I’m aiming to do for the next 40 days and in the days following:

I’m hoping that by really focusing on these things for the next 40 days that I can create better habits for myself in hopes to free myself from most of my anxiety.  And I’m not going to lie, I already failed about twelve hours in on Wednesday, but I am a work in progress so all I can do now is to keep on trying.  <3

T W O – Another Birthday Celebration with My Girl

Now that the heavy stuff is out of the way, let’s lighten things up, shall we?  Last week I got to celebrate my girl at her class birthday party!  Olivia’s class celebrates all of the birthdays for the month at one big party on the same day, so we had cupcakes, Goldfish, and juice boxes to celebrate her birthday as well as the other little girl in her class who shares a February birthday with her. 

She was so excited to have me there and I’m so thankful that I never have to miss these things anymore since I no longer have to contend with a corporate job. 

T H R E E – Events at the Kids’ School

The kids get to do a lot of fun stuff this month at school because it’s National Reading Month!  Last Friday they both got to dress like the color of their moods.  Jacob ended up choosing yellow for HAPPY and Olivia chose pink for LOVING. 

Funny story, Jacob originally asked which color he could wear to just be in a “regular” mood and I cracked up because that is so him.  He’s always so even-keeled like his Daddy, so being in a “regular” mood was such the perfect request from him.  I honestly wasn’t sure which color would represent that, so we just went with “happy” instead.  :o)

The kids also had a Fat Tuesday parade for Mardi Gras earlier this week.  Jacob’s teacher is from Louisiana, so she and her family had just gotten back from a quick trip to NOLA for all of the celebrations and she brought SO MUCH STUFF for the students.  Both kids had King Cakes in their classes that day (they were both sad that they didn’t get the baby!  Haha.) and they came home loaded up with beads and light up sticks and all kinds of other stuff that had been brought straight back from the Mardi Gras capital itself.  They were both still in full party mode when they arrived home from school that day!

F O U R – Bulletin Board Progress

I have been sloooowly adorning my bulletin board over my workspace in my home office with things that inspire me, make me happy, and create a cheerful workspace.  This past week I added my Emily Ley calendar to keep me on track, my word of the year (DONE) to keep me focused, and one of my favorite pictures EVER of my babies to remind me who I’m working for.  I just finished up the board yesterday, and now all I have to do is frame it in, and my office refresh will be complete. 

Eventually I’d like a new desk, but that’s still a ways down the road, so we’ll just say complete for now.  :o)

F I V E – My Blogiversary

Lindsay’s Sweet World turned FOUR yesterday!  I wrote this post about a few things that I learned this year and I also included some wins for the year as well as some stats.  These are some of my favorite posts to look back on, because it’s motivating to see how far I’ve come since I started back in 2015.

Thank you for listening to a piece of my heart today.  I write about it all not to complain, but because it's therapeutic just by writing it out.  I know there will always be ups and downs in life, and all we can hope for is that life is mostly SWEET.  Hence, the title of my blog.  ;o)

Happy Friday, friends.

*Linking up with A Liz Adventures and Carolina Charm for Five on Friday, A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites, Meet @ the Barre for Friday Favorites, and By BMG for High Five for Friday.