rushley & crew

Usually I do separate blog posts for separate activities, but I just wanted to quickly mention all the family fun times we had in December 2018 :) Santa came to Grandma and Grandpa's house to visit! Ada was interested but also seemed wary/concerned at first. However, she did warm up and we got some better smiles without the concerned eyebrows 😂 We went on the Provo River cruise with Lacey and Ian. There were lots of lights hanging up and a few different scenes (some Santa, some Nativity, one adult Jesus). When we started moving away from Jesus, Ada kept saying, "More Jesus!" We learned that you should definitely bring blankets to sit on during this cruise, because the boat seats are metal and therefore freezing!! We had a family sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house. For the last three years, we've done a little family getaway to the Little America hotel at Christmastime. While we were there last year, we decided we could have just as much f...

A series of events/podcasts/messages I've been hearing over the past several months (from Allie Casazza, Jody Moore, Shira Gill [via Brooke Castillo and Jody Moore], and Jen Hatmaker), coupled with the fact that I wanted to spend more than we had saved for Christmas this year, led me to really start decluttering our belongings. I think the message that spoke most to me and got me started was Jody's podcast on " editing your life ." I studied editing in college, and I really loved that metaphor. You edit a manuscript so that it contains exactly the information it needs to be good -- no more, no less; the same can be true of life -- you get rid of all the excess that isn't serving you so that you can focus on all the good stuff. (sidenote -- I can edit other people's writing, but mine always comes out way too wordy, so don't judge me for this super wordy post, along with all my other wordy posts! haha) I have been LOVING getting rid of things! It'...

Years ago, Russ and I decided that we wanted to have a white stocking for Jesus to hang alongside our family stockings. Throughout December, it's to remind us to think about what gift we'd like to give to Jesus in the upcoming year. Then, on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or sometime in December, we take time to really think about what gift we're going to give, we write it down, and put it in the stocking. However, we've actually never followed through with this. December is busy and all, right? But when I was reading my scriptures the other day (maybe in Moroni 7, but maybe back in Ether, can't remember), I received a prompting for what I want my gift for Jesus to be in 2019, which is to really focus on repentance . I haven't committed any major sins like murder or adultery, but I'm most certainly guilty of being unkind, judgmental, lazy, rude, etc. on occasion. However, despite all of my shortcomings, I've never really taken part in the repent...

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a post about 2018 -- not as though it was going to happen  this year, but as if it already had happened . It was a cool exercise, and I was pretty excited about it when I did it. However, I really let myself forget about it too much. I did still think about it somewhat often, but I kind of gave up on many of the goals I set -- after all, they are all mostly things I struggle with! I didn't put in the work that I'd told myself I would. But I said I'd come back with the original post, edited to add or delete information to make it accurate, so here I am to do just that. ***** 2018 was the best year ever  [a year just like any other, with a lot of good, a lot of not-so-good; a lot of trial and a lot of growth]. Some of the big things I had to do to make it such an awesome year were to STOP spending so much time on social media, START concretely planning my time and activities, and  [I was mostly able to] CONTINUE being kind to...

Each year, I make a huge bucket list of things I  could  do in the year. My goal is (kind of) to do at least one thing each month so that by the end of the year I have 12 concrete things I have accomplished. However, sometimes I forget about the list, so it doesn't necessarily work out to be one thing per month.  In 2018, I did (or at least made some progress on) 16 concrete things! Anything with its own blog post is linked :) Cut back on social media usage  - Well, at least for 10 days, I did a social media fast. I have intentions of putting strict regulations around social media, but have yet to follow through on that 😐 Come up with a meal-planning strategy  - kind of. I started using Citrus Pear , which is pretty awesome for people like me who HATE all things having to do with meal planning and prep. Read a book  -  168 Hours, Make the Bed, The Power of Now, A Simple Favor, 7,  and various sleep books Organize my close...

The themes of 2018 have definitely been change and growth. We’ve experienced trials, we’ve experienced joy, and through both, we’re becoming who our Savior intends us to be. In February, after four years of working at Omadi, Russ was laid off . Although it was a shock, it turned out to be a blessing since it gave Russ the push he needed to finally follow his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot. He started flight school in March and began working on a flight line (fueling, moving, and servicing airplanes) in May. He’s logged 65+ flight hours, and he earned his Private Pilot certificate (the first of three steps required to fly for hire) in October. His goal is to complete flight school by the end of next year, and then we’ll be on to new adventures! I was a little nervous to fly with him the first time, but I discovered that he’s an amazing pilot. When he’s not working with airplanes or flying them, he reads books, watches videos, and listens to podcasts about airpla...

I have always been a record-keeper. By the time I graduated high school, I had ~20 complete journals (nevermind that I threw away about half of them since they covered in detail how much I liked my high school boyfriend and I didn't need that info anymore). I don't journal on paper anymore, but I do write blog posts. I currently have eight 3-inch binders full of scrapbook pages on my bookshelf. And that doesn't include the ones I got rid of [more on that in a minute]. I started this blog shortly after getting married in 2012, and I've published more than 340 posts (which averages to five posts per month, which is actually surprisingly high given my much lower rate of posting over the last year or so.) Clearly, I keep my records in many ways. I've always loved photos, though. I got my first scrapbook supplies before I was 10 years old (which was a mistake, because my first scrapbook pages are literally hor.ri.ble), and I've been scrapbooking ever since....