The Hippie Housewife

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

New month, new challenge

Our 30 day habit challenge has ended. For those who joined in, how did you do? Have you created a new habit, a new "just what you do" in your life?

For myself, I can't call this month a habit-forming success. Two weeks of family vacations were not terribly conducive to creating habit. Integrating habit into your everyday routine is difficult to do when your typical routine has gone out the window, replaced by long days spent at the beach and late evenings spent playing games and talking with loved ones.

I am not, however, going to call the past month a complete failure, either. I did discover a way to read the Bible notation-free, I learned that habit formation is best done within typical routine, and I did get more Bible reading done than I would have had I not been attempting this challenge. While it might not be a resounding success, I'll take what I can from the experience.

Tomorrow is a new month and, with summer quickly coming to an end, another chance to spend 30 days developing a new habit. As with last month, I want to invite you to join in. Pick a new habit and just do it consistently for the next 30 days, until it's simply "what you do", an easy part of your daily routine.

I am going to tackle, once again, spending focused time with God, with a particular emphasis on reading Scripture. August was a decent start, but if there is any one habit I want (and need) in my life right now, it is this one. With our typical routine once again in place this month, I can work towards making this habit a natural part of that.

Will you be joining us in September? If so, what challenge have you chosen to take on for the next 30 days?

Wordless Wednesday: Extreme sports

Monday, 29 August 2011

Children's Book Review: Sounds of the Ferry

Title: Sounds of the Ferry
Author: Sara Leach
Publisher: Poppy Productions
Published: May 1, 2011
Paperback: 32 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9782818-2-3

From the Publisher

Following up on their best-selling adventures in "Mountain Machines", author Sara Leach and illustrator Steven Corvelo board a ferry to explore the sounds and sights of a sea voyage. Full of detail, recurring characters and colorful marine life, this rhyming picture book takes children aged two to six on an entertaining ferry ride full of things that churn, hum, hiss, roar, groan, zip, screech, splash and clang - lots of fun!

My Review

I was born on Vancouver Island but grew up in the prairies. We spent our summers driving back to the coast, and my favourite part was always the ferry. I loved the long wait, the thrill of driving on board, the bellowing horn as it pulled away from shore. I loved the slide and toy boats. I loved the gift shop and the pens they sold with the floating boat the glided from end to end as you tipped it. I loved the rare glimpses of seals or other ocean life. I loved the way the ferry rocked back and forth - sky, sea, sky, sea, sky, sea. I loved the smell. The wind. The mist. I loved it all, and I love that I now get to share the experience with my own children as we travel between the island and the mainland.

Author Sara Leach captures that joy perfectly in her book Sounds of the Ferry. From the cars driving aboard (ca-chunk, ca-chunk) to the three chiming bells signaling arrival, the entire ferry experience is laid out through its many sounds. The rhyming prose is delightful and the illustrations are excellent. It was particularly fun to watch the characters throughout their journey. The boy enjoyed the activity at the back of the book, prompting readers to go back and find certain pictures in the story. Fun from start to finish!

Buy It!

You can purchase a copy of Sounds of the Ferry at Chapters or directly from the author's website.

(This is an unpaid review. I received a complementary copy of the author's book in order to provide my honest review of it. I receive no compensation for any sales made as a result of this review.)

Saturday, 27 August 2011

Weekend Reading

In the midst of this @ The Extraordinary Ordinary
The NT Haustafeln (House-Tables) @ Internet Monk
The Bad News about Homeschooling @ Encouraging Hearts at Home
10 Secrets Every Parent Needs to Know about Saying No @ Aha! Parenting

Wednesday, 24 August 2011

Wordless Wednesday: New rainboots!

Thank you, Auntie Sarah and Auntie Katie!

(Boots purchased from Paint Your Boots.)

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Lessons from the journey (a four-year blogiversary)

Today marks four years since the creation of The Hippie Housewife blog. Happy blogiversary to me!

Four years ago, I realized that I don't wanna go through life simply accepting the most common decision as the only option. I want my choices to be informed and deliberate. And so began a journey, a journey that has taught me a few lessons so far, a journey that has no end in sight because it is the journey itself that matters most anyway.

Know where you're heading

When I first started The Hippie Housewife, I included the tagline "...leaving the mainstream behind." It was, at the time, a very accurate description. I was walking away from the unquestioning path of just doing what was normal and expected.

Over time, though, I learned that walking away from something wasn't enough. You have to know where you're heading instead. Thus began a more focused leg of the journey. I dropped the tagline and began heading towards something: an intentional life. These past few years have been a journey intended to lead me towards a more intentional way of living.

There is only this moment

While having a purpose and direction is good, it is the moments themselves that matter. A life spent living from one moment to the next cannot co-exist with a life of past regrets or future worries. My journey towards a more intentional life has forced me to choose between the two, and I choose the former: I choose a life of presence and gratitude over regret and worry.

There is only this moment.

Every moment presents a choice.

Those choices shape our character.

I am in this moment and it is all I have. What can I do to bring peace in this moment? How can I fill this moment with joy - or find the joy already present in it? What can I do in this moment to live the life I desire to live, to be the person I desire to be?

Shape your habits

But living every moment with intention is exhausting, if not impossible. Being continually aware of what you are thinking and doing and saying is hard! Which has lead me to what I believe to be the foundation of an intentional life: habit.

"...whether you choose or no to take any trouble about the formation of habits, it is habit, all the same, which will govern ninety-nine one-hundredths of [one's] life. We are all mere creatures of habit. We think our accustomed thoughts, make our usual small talk, go through the trivial round, the common task, without any self-determining effort of will at all. If it were not so––if we had to think, to deliberate, about each operation of the bath or the table––life would not be worth having; the perpetually repeated effort of decision would wear us out. But, let us be thankful, life is not thus laborious. For a hundred times we act or think, it is not necessary to choose, to will, say, more than once.
Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, page 110

Like it or not, our lives are governed by our habits. The habits that already exist in our lives are often the things that are most detrimental to living an intentional life. But if we intentionally create desired habits in our lives, we will have created sustainable change.

Habits are created through doing. Pick a new habit and just start doing it, consistently, until it's simply "what you do". Once the habit has become an easy part of your daily routine, move on to the next habit. In this way, you will have created intentional, sustainable change in your life, one habit at a time.

Continuing the journey

These are the lessons I have learned thus far: Have a purpose and work towards it through the development of intentional habits. But this is only one stretch of my journey. There is so much more to learn on this path towards a more intentional life. I look forward to those lessons, knowing they will come in their own way and at the right time. In the meantime, I will continue towards my destination, seeking to live in the moment through the deliberate creation of habits.

What have the past few years meant to you? Where has your journey taken you? What lessons have you learned along the way? I'd love for you to share a few words with us!