t time! conversation three.

Good morning! It’s Friday, friends! I am excited for our t time conversation this week.

In case you missed it, t time is a weekly column where I write about an assortment of things I am noticing or wondering or fun fashion finds (or any fun finds, really).

The vibe here is intended to be like a weekly conversation with a friend — sitting across from one another in cozy chairs talking about life, sipping lattes (it’s always a tea latte for me) together — laughing, maybe crying, and definitely praying together, hand-in-hand.

Ok, let’s chat!

• We got snow! Did you? My kids loved seeing so much accumulated snow! In total, I think we got just under an inch and a half — the most my kids had ever seen! Watching their joy as they watched it fall and then as they played in it was the literal best.

  

• Unfortunately, we also got ice — a lot of ice. Our city was hit pretty hard, trees and power lines are down everywhere and so many people are still without power. My friend sent a video that showed multiple trees down in her yard, but a perfectly cut out nook, where trees didn’t land, surrounding her car. When you see the image, it literally looks like the hand of God was over her car, protecting it. What miracles did you hear about or witness during/after winter storm Fern?

• Did you know that snow is highly reflective, reflecting 80-90% of light? I don’t know that much about it, but I was struck by how bright it was on Saturday night when we went to bed, so I did some googling. The window in our bathroom let in so much light, it was as if there was a light on outside! I couldn’t get over it. I am not sure if it’s because I haven’t seen snow in a while or if it was all the city lights — but I was fascinated. (Both of these photos were taken at 11:30 pm.)

• Something random I keep thinking a lot about the past few weeks is how impactful your diet is on your sleep. I am not a scientist or a doctor, obviously, but I can see a direct correlation between what I eat in a day and how it effects my sleep (and therefore my ability to get out of bed the next morning). Last week, I started setting my alarm earlier so that I can get more done in the early morning hours and I knew that in order to be successful at that I didn’t just have to go to bed earlier, I also had to make sure my diet was nutritious. It’s wild how much the two go hand-in-hand.

• Valentine’s Day is in two weeks! I love Valentine’s Day because getting to show love to people (all people) is what we, as believers, are called to do. And we get a calendar day set aside every year where we can intentionally love on people and it’s received without awkwardness or weird eye contact. Because the day feels more like a day of ministry than anything else to me, I wanted to start being intentional about how we celebrated and how we taught our kids about it. So, a few years ago, we went to the grocery store and bought red roses to hand out to people as they were getting their groceries. We sat in the car before we went in, prayed over the people we would meet and asked Holy Spirit to guide us to the exact people throughout the store that He wanted to love on, the people we would give flowers to. Then, we bought the flowers, opened them up and I held the bouquet and followed at a distance while the boys (Olive has always been too little to walk around and join in) handed them out, one-by-one, going up to strangers and simply saying, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” I can’t even begin to explain how incredible this has been and how many people’s eyes filled with tears and told us how meaningful the act was. One woman tearfully explained that her husband had died and that day was their anniversary, the first anniversary without him. One woman had grandkids with the same names as the boys! People felt seen and loved and we got to play a small part in that.

• I hope that Valentine’s Day can be that for you too, a way to show love to those around you, those you know and even those you don’t, in intentional ways that make them feel seen and loved. If you need an idea for what to do — you can do what we do! I am telling you, it’s the best! Or pray and ask God for insight on what you can do. He will tell you and then guide you through how to do it. Loving on people in ways like this is so beautiful — for the recipient and the giver.

That’s all for today. I would love to hear what miracles you’ve seen this week and also what you’re thinking about doing to love on people this Valentine’s Day.

xoxo,

T