Have A Little Faith in We

Happy Thursday Ya’ll!

My original post tonight was to share what we did on our Christmas Vacation….but after a crazy busy, overly exhausting, all consuming work week between contract work, real life work, doc appointments, and STILL getting over colds…. I deceived to share the post I have had ready in my arsenal since November: Life Hacks. Knowing me, you are probably expecting some really awesome planner tools or a way to be more organized, but you would be wrong. Today I am sharing a few little secrets for escaping the stress of life, especially when you need to forget the to dos!

Interestingly enough a lot of these we picked up while in the hospital over Thanksgiving. Utilizing these tools we were able to  ignore Dan’s pain, pass the time, or just laugh for a moment. But oddly enough I have kept them up since that episode and found them to be extremely helpful in everyday life.

So here are 5 things we think you should look into trying to hack life:

1. Check out Pumpkin the Raccoon

Well you all already know our love for animals with BIG personalities – so it is not surprise that we heart Pumpkin! But it really is amazing how a moment that you are totally overwhelmed by frustration, or a problem that you just keep obsessing about, or a mind melting meeting you just left that demands a moment of relief, can suddenly seem a million miles away when you see a really cute raccoon doing something funny. I totally recommend a follow on Instagram!

2. Read Melanie Shankle’s The Antelope in the Living Room

This book is HILARIOUS! Like Danny is in the hospital bed with an NG tube, barely able to move, not able to talk and audibly in pain – and when I hit a funny line in one of her stories, even lets out a little laugh type of funny! It is a book on the complexities of marriage that will have you laughing out loud and dare I say – loving that spouse of yours that drives you crazy even more after reading. Be sure to add it to the 2016 reading list!

3. Breathing

Yea, yea I know – this is something your pretty much forced to do everyday – so why is it on my list of life hacks if you already have to breathe to live? I am talking about controlled 3 count breaths – just like you might do in yoga. When Danny was at the height of his pain and NOTHING (I mean NOT ONE THING) would work we would have him put his hospital bed completely flat, he would stretch out his legs and arms (stretching the fingers), pressing his whole body into the bed and breath. 3 counts in and 3 counts out. Even when his body wanted to tense up under the pain he would fight the urge and take deep, slow breaths with me – and it would work. The waves of pain became more manageable and when he was preparing for an uncomfortable treatment this helped to really relax him. So as we have gotten home and life has gotten crazy – we both are stopping and breathing a heck of a lot more – and it is some good stuff!

4. Go for a walk

I will never, ever, ever underestimate the power of a good walk EVER again. Being stuck in that same hospital room for 3 days before Danny could get up and move made the morning he felt like going for a walk be just as if someone had handed us two tickets to a cruise! Truly – to get of those walls, even just for a hospital fountain area, was some of the best medicine. It reminded us both how sometimes when you don’t know what else to do – just stretching the legs and giving yourself a different viewpoint can refresh your soul. And you can bet you will see me up and out of that office chair a heck of lot more these days.

5. Prayer

And finally praying. We are Catholic, as you all know, and with that comes a lot of options for long, intricate, beautiful prayers that can transfix your whole soul to become focused on our fatih. We personally have many a prayer book for different occasions that we just love! But in these moments, stuck at the hospital, sometimes all we could get out was a “Pray for Us” or “Dear Jesus, be here”. So when the fear and frustration, and pain and anger darkened our world – we would go through our litany of Saints asking they “Pray for us” or just ask God to be there and the peace and calm came. It reminded me that God knows how to read your heart and more importantly he knows how to help you – you really do just have to ask. Sometimes long prayers or conversations just aren’t possible -and that is just fine by Him! So next time you don’t even know what to say – feel free to just be simple – I promise you it still does some pretty awesome things.

So there you have it – just a few little tricks of the trade we have picked up and really found useful. As we are just about to hit half way through the first month of 2016 – if you are still looking for a way to refresh your world – try one of these and I bet you just a few lemons will become lemonade.

Happy almost weekend friends!!