CHANGES
I put my Christmas tree up early this year. Before Thanksgiving. We’re talking November 4th. I’ve never done that. Like, ever.
And I’m always an advocate for decorating with the ornaments you collect over the years and not really having a themed tree but rather having all those memories hanging in one place and providing sweet memories as you decorate and enjoy your tree throughout the season. And this year I didn’t do that.
In our house in Louisiana I had two trees, one big one with colored lights and all the ornaments we’ve collected over our years of marriage. Then I became okay with the idea of a themed tree as long as we still had the traditional one. So we got a second tree that went in our dining room and was completely Auburn themed. It had twinkling orange lights (buy them at Halloween) and blue lights (can be found at Christmas). We used toilet paper as garland (for rolling Toomer’s Corner) and thanks to my Mother-in-Law and after-Christmas sales, we had every Auburn ornament that could be found in and around Greenville.
Then we moved to Alabama and couldn’t fit our big tree into the living room. We used our Auburn tree (tall and skinny), put white lights on it (another thing I’ve never done-I’ve always been a colored lights girl) and combined Auburn and sentimental ornaments.
And this year, as I’ve been embracing my love of all things neutral, I threw tradition out the window, put up my tree at the beginning of November, stayed with the white lights, did a little DIY to make new ornaments, and used only a few of the ornaments we’ve collected over the years. And I only used the ones without any actual color. I have all neutral colored ornaments and gold and silver ones. I even used an old white tree skirt (that I never use) because it completed the look I was going for better than the gorgeous red one I usually use that matches my stockings. (I’m seriously considering getting new stockings too.) Just don’t tell Paul!
More to come on that decor soon.
So Why the Change?
In a short answer- I don’t know.
I can’t really put my finger on it, but I just feel like shaking things up. Changing for the better, I think, but changing nonetheless.
Have you ever gone through a season of change? Where things just seemed turned upside down in your life or like things didn’t fit together the way they used to? Or maybe…just maybe…it’s that things are actually starting to fit together like they were always meant to?
So, naturally, the need for change is starting in my home. I literally took a can of spray paint to a lamp last week. It used to be gold-toned with a champagne colored shade. And then the lamp shade got paint today.
And as much as I love my gallery wall, I want to change that too. What’s going on in my brain?
To quote John Mayer- “It might be a quarter life crisis or just the stirring in my soul.” (Why Georgia) I love that line. 
Sure, I might be a year (or 5) past the actual quarter life stage, but mine didn’t start until about 30, and I don’t know the mathematical translation, so quarter life it is.
Anywho, changes are inevitable in life, I know that. I expect them and have even welcomed them when I knew they were right. For example: Our moving back to Alabama was definitely the right thing for us to do. God was all over that. I knew without any doubt that it was all going to be just fine with everything concerning our move. And then we got here and so much changed in our lives. We lost 4 family members within the first 6 months of us being here, I’ve gotten a new job, I started this blog, I joined as a consultant to Beautycounter, Paul has established regular clients that take golf lessons from him, he is able to be a coach to his cousin who is on a professional golf tour, and the list goes on and on.
Thankful for the Change
The point is, I’m not afraid of change. I just wish I knew what all the change meant. The change that’s “stirring in my soul”. Thankfully I have Paul who puts up with all of my soul changes (and my decor changes). And thankfully I have an incredibly supportive family who has gone through the biggest changes of the past year with me. And most of all, I, thankfully, have a Heavenly Father that is guiding me through all of these changes.
So, if anyone has been going through a season of change, I hope you find this encouraging. You are not alone. And as we figure out who we truly are and how to embrace the changes in our lives, let’s not forget to be thankful for what we do have, what we already know, and what’s to come. And to thank God in the process and for the process of change. Because life can’t always stay the same. How boring would that be, anyway?
Happy Monday, y’all!
XO,
Elizabeth
