advent adversity

 

today is the first day of our advent calendar!  a few weeks ago, some of the ladies at my church got together  to make advent calendars in the spirit of advent conspiracy, an organization that our church partners with every year to celebrate Christmas by spending less, giving more, worshiping fully, and loving all. we had such a great time crafting, and it was especially interesting to see all the different things everyone was creating for their families.  the idea was to create the calendar with the advent conspiracy mindset and incorporate those values more intentionally into our homes every year. i opted to do something simple since i didn't have much time to gather everything, but i was really excited with how it came out.

until i got home.

it's always so funny to me when i get really excited about something only to come home and mr. practical brings me back to earth. he loved the look of it but had questions about each day.  of course, i had gotten carried away with the crafting and didn't really give a whole lot of thought to all the things we were going to do. plus, i didn't really talk it over with him beforehand.  i printed out a generic list that someone else created of about 30 things to do and asked him to star the ones he thought were possible and/or fun.  he circled 5.  5 out of 30!!  immediately, i got defensive.  "why are you being such a scrooge?"  he pointed out that a lot of the things weren't centered on things he thought were important to the season and some were just silly and could get expensive.

ouch.

i do this often though.  i get excited about how something is going to "look" without giving much thought to anything else.  i heard what he was saying and agreed with most after i put down my guard.  after i broke it all down for him and explained that we wouldn't be spending much, he started to get excited again.  then we figured out 20 more things, and our calendar was complete.  so instead of "bake bread for all our neighbors," it became "call a friend that you haven't talked to in a while."  things that are more giving of time rather than money.  or things that show love instead of my Susie homemaker skills.

i'm excited about being more intentional and the new things we'll be doing because of the calendar.  i really hope this is something that sticks around for our family and it becomes a tradition of love, giving, and selflessness than just something else to do during the holiday season. 

and thankfully, i have a husband who will make sure that happens even when i get carried away with font choices and paper patterns. :)