Hi friends! This blog is a bit of an extension from the blog that I posted last week. If you didn't get a chance to check that out, you can check it out here! If you have, then you know that we're heading into the phrase I am filtering things through this year. I want to share a bit of how I got here, what my process looks like and why it has been pivotal already - only a month in.
First I want to back track a bit to the end of 2021. In our marriage workshop they share a lot about doing an annual family summit at the end of each year. The idea is that you take intentional time to reminisce over the year passed. You seek to find the good, the bad, and the in between. It also gives you an opportunity to see where your family is at currently and allows for time to brainstorm changes or adjustments that may be necessary in the year to come. I had also been intrigued by the summit, but never actually took the time to do it. One of the couples in our workshop had so graciously created a pdf journal for us to utilize for our own family summits. I decided that I would spend some time going through that, rather than haphazardly going into the new year. Especially given that we were already jumping into a massive change with Jesse's new job. It felt like the summit was necessary if we were going to head into the new year with any semblance of stability.
As I went through this pdf, I was reminded of how far we had come as a family team over the course of 2021. There were certainly ups and downs, like there are in any year. As I continued to write through the summit journal I felt as though a snowball had taken off down a hill and was growing with some haste. One of the sections has you detail your current week for your family team. The next section then has you detail your ideal week and what you would keep, add, or change. It was suddenly, as I was detailing the upcoming changes that we needed to make in our weekly rhythms that I was submerged into this phrase acknowledge, accept, adjust.
I started thinking through this phrase and wasn't totally sure that I even understood what it meant. Weren't acknowledge and accept the same thing? I decided to look it up and found that acknowledgement is more about the facts. Whether you're happy about something or not is irrelevant in acknowledgement. Acceptance is where the feelings come into play. It's taking the facts and finding a way to be okay with it. However that may look, acceptance is necessary to be able to move forward; to adjust. I realized that this was something that I had been doing throughout my life. Arguably, we all have, the process just looks different from situation to situation and person to person. For us, this phrase was the exact process that I was attempting to go through as I was journaling through the summit.
Acknowledge
Jesse's new job was starting soon and the reality was that our current schedule was not going to be the same. Whether we were ready or not, it was happening. He had taken all of the steps towards getting the job, had accepted the offer, and had finished out his time at his previous job. His start date was on the calendar and barring any unforeseen situations, he would be starting the new job.
Accept
This step was certainly a bit more complicated. It meant finding peace in the fact that our lives were going to function differently than they had been for the last several years. What we had been doing was comfortable, predictable, and for all intents and purposes - easy. What we were going into was going to be uncomfortable, unpredictable, and particularly difficult. We found ourselves leaning more into God. We both knew that He had facilitated the steps toward this new job thus far and that whether His ultimate plan is for Jesse to stay here or eventually move on somewhere else, we needed to trust that He is in it. He has provided and continues to provide - and that alone gives us peace to take on the change with our heads up. Something unique about acceptance is that it doesn't ever feel final. It has been a continual process of engaging with each day as it comes and seeking to always trust God's plan, God's timing, and God's provision.
Adjust
The adjustment has been a much more tedious process. Adjusting began with the summit journal. I had mapped out our previous schedule and then began to map out what it was going to look like when Jesse's schedule changed. His days off weren't the same, his hours weren't the same, his pay schedule wasn't the same, and his job location was much further than where it had been. Because he was working longer hours than he had been, my responsibility level increased greatly. Not only would I be taking care of the kids for longer during the day without help, I was also going to need to do certain things to ensure that things were getting done in a timely fashion. How I made meals, cleaned the house, took care of the kids, paid the bills and worked from home all needed to adjust in order to better accommodate everything else. As I began to map out the very basic changes that needed to be made, I realized that this process was going to take more time to really understand. I could write it out 6 ways to Sunday, but until I was actually doing it, I wasn't going to know how it was going to work out best. Overtime, I'm learning what has been working and what hasn't been by intentionally engaging with each day as it comes.
This method of filtering has been really important to how we've been handling the changes that we have been going through thus far. We are likely to experience much more change as the rest of the year goes on, but I look onto those things without fear because I know that there is a process through which I will be able to filter all things. It's also comforting to know that I don't have to have things all mapped out. What we acknowledge, when we accept, and how we adjust all encourage us to intentionally engage with the process, daily.
As I shared in my previous blog, I'm not a fan of resolutions because they can often set too specific of a parameter that can be debilitating and/or limiting. Where I've found the most success is in setting a tone for the year and stepping into it without expectation. This tone has already proven to be important and beneficial for Team Yearley. I feel encouraged as we take on each day knowing that it's about the process and not about the end result. Whatever 2022 has in store, Team Yearley is ready to acknowledge with an open mind, accept with an open heart, and adjust with open hands! In the next blog I plan to elaborate more on the current schedule changes, how this has changed since last year and the process of continual adjustment.
May 2022 be a blessing, an encouragement and a time of healing for you all. Wherever you may be at this point, I encourage you to take on each day with intention & grace!
Be Well!
Xx,
Alex
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