NEW Website for SATURDAYS blog posts!

Hi All!

 The Saturdays Blog has a new home!

I am so grateful for those who participate in the Saturday's blog and finding a format that works for that was important! You can now find Saturdays by following the link below and if you'd like to receive email alerts to new posts (I promise you will not be "spammed"!) there is a place for that as well.  I look forward to more soul-space together at our new "home"...Blessing!

https://michellevanvliet.com/blog/

A Week At a Time - A Mother and Daughter's summer challenge: Week One - The VASE!

Hi All! My daughter Rebekah and I are doing a challenge for the summer. We are taking regular tasks (or maybe something we've always meant to do but struggle starting or finishing it) and have agreed to consistently do it together for just one week and journal our way through it. We've named it "A Week At a Time", and we'd love to have you follow our journey!  If it inspires you, share it! If it inspires you to start one of your own we'd love to hear about it in the comments below. 

WEEK 1: Hand-washing the dishes - The Vase

Day Five

Rebekah: I went back to washing.  Drying was too slow… We had to do it much later today.  I had friends over most of the time, so it wasn’t until the evening that my Mom and I got to the dishes.  Maybe we should’ve done them in the morning, but I was still sleeping.  It is summer, after all.  Haha, my Mom’s a much more patient person than I am.  Or maybe just less demanding…

Michelle:

Well, I guess if you do the dishes at almost midnight it’s still technically THAT day, although they do need a little more soaking than usual! Truth is, it was a long day and as much as I think Beks and I share the same space, this exercise has highlighted that sometimes we have different rhythms and that’s ok.  I’m just glad we share space. And… doing them late when the house was quiet tonight was kind of nice.  We talked about some things that have come up over the day that would have, again, gone unacknowledged otherwise…I was really tired at 11:30, but the few minutes we grabbed together was definitely worth that wait….Thanks God.

…Seriously heading to bed now and just noticed the vase…that we STILL forgot to wash. Who does that!? Oh well, tomorrow."

Day Six

Rebekah: Well, we still haven’t washed the vase we meant to wash on the very first day of doing this challenge.  It’s currently sitting in sudsy water left to soak for tomorrow.  I won’t be surprised if we forget it all together.  I’ve noticed that doing the dishes isn’t that much of an inconvenience.  You just get up and do them and they’re done within a few minutes.  Plus, they’re done.  Like, completely done.  You don’t have to come back to unload them from the dishwasher because there isn’t one.  

Michelle: So today I wanted to just swipe things into the dishwasher. Sometimes I want space on the counter It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something for the day, and there's an enormous sense of satisfaction in that... I imagined myself sitting in the family room, with a cup of coffee with the quiet hum of the dishwasher in the background, and the fresh scent of whatever cleaner would have been swiped over the counter, ahhh, Sigh!  But God, you are reminding me that some of life is messy, and when I try to swipe it away with a fresh scent of cleaner and shut the dirty parts behind a closed door, I might just miss the journey all together.

Day seven

The Vase...ignored...again

Rebekah: We washed the vase!  Yay!  There were only a few cups and plates today too, so cleaning went by very quickly.  An easy way to wrap up this challenge.  I’m glad we did it.  Surprisingly, for me, it wasn’t the conversation, the one-on-one time with my mom, or even the practice of responsibility that made this challenge notable.  It was simply the dishes.  For my entire 18 years of life, I’ve despised the dishes.  I’d rather vacuum, wash the windows, and clean the bathroom than do the dishes once.  Doing this taught me not to hate the dishes.  And, on a much larger note, taught me to give everything a chance.  Even though I might hate it, there’s always some good in it.  

Suds the...the kinesthetic motivator

Michelle
(For the Record, I think Beks might be getting a little tired of my spiritual analogies! Ha!... but she's been very gracious about it!) OK,  THE.VASE.  It was kind of a big deal that we remembered that vase. I think we both looked past it because we were lazy…well at least I did. I said to myself six times this week that we would do it tomorrow. I suppose if I would have said to Beks at the beginning of the week, “We can wash that vase in seven days.” we both would have been less inclined to accommodate the ridiculous idea. Oh well, it’s done.  The vessel is clean and ready to hold stems of beauty once again. Maybe that’s the best wrap up to this challenge – that procrastination is not helpful in transformation... taking the mess as it comes and intending to do something about it, will allow us to cooperate with God as he washes us. We soak in Him, and as we do, He makes us capable of holding new beauty. A beauty that's full of the deep fragrance of God.


I think I’m might miss this challenge. I know I’m going to miss the side-by-side times with Beks.  Thanks God…We’ve had a good time.



Thanks for following this crazy challenge...

Next Challenge: A practice in gratitude, Taking a walk everyday, cleaning out a messy space, Reading Bible stories...  STAY TUNED!

A Week At a Time: A mother and daughter's summer challenge together - Week One: Just Keep Swimming

Hi All! My daughter Rebekah and I are doing a challenge for the summer. We are taking regular tasks (or maybe something we've always meant to do but struggle starting or finishing it) and have agreed to consistently do it together for just one week and journal our way through it. We've named it "A Week At a Time", and we'd love to have you follow our journey!  If it inspires you, share it! If it inspires you to start one of your own we'd love to hear about it in the comments below. 

WEEK 1: Hand-washing the dishes

(Here are the 3rd and 4th day journal entries.  The previous post has day one and two....annnd NEXT time I'm talking Rebekah into taking a real pic! haha!)

Day Three

Rebekah:  Again… getting kinda old.  Although, as tough as it is to start, it’s easy once I get into it.  I’ve noticed that the productivity helps me a lot.  I can think while I do the dishes, and then after I’m done, I have an idea for something creative that I enjoy doing.  Like, a topic to write about, a guitar progression, a character for a drawing.  Little things like that tend to inspire me a bit. 

Michelle: OK, So…Day Three has come and gone and doing the dishes at 11:30 was much better that 3pm I don’t know why I am so hooked around that.  Probably because I feel much better about my surrounding when the dishes are clean.  There’s just something that settles me when I look at the kitchen and the counter and sink are clear and clean.  When they aren’t I’m unsettled, and if I’m honest it feels personal.  I feel worse about myself when the kitchen isn’t clean…hmm. If I slow myself down and think about what my internal thoughts are I hear phrases like, “What if so-n-so saw this? What would they think?” or “Get it together, Michelle! This is a mess!” Even worse and more defeating, “Why try? If I clean it up…it will just be a disaster again in a few hours.”  So many defeatist thoughts that thwart positive movement! And I’m wondering how often my negative energy and mindset impact my family, in this case, Rebekah?  Oh Jesus, how do I companion with you in this?  How do I find the unforced rhythms of grace that cultivate strength, joy and vision?...haha! All of this just from doing the dishes! How often do silent narratives drive us and we don't even know it?

Day Four

Rebekah:  Today I dried the dishes.  Normally I wash and hand them to my Mom—who’s significantly faster at drying dishes—and we finish quickly.  I need to practice my drying skills.  Either that, or I’m a really slow washer and she’s a fast dryer.  Either way, I’m lacking speed somewhere.  Drying was a bit more hassle because you put the dishes away and dry at the same time.  I dunno though, because my Mom could dry and put away faster than I was putting wet and sudsy dishes in front of her.…I think there's a secret conspiracy that involves my mother becoming The Flash.  

Michelle: I went to work early today and did not make it home until 5.  Dishes were done when I came home and we were both in get-it-done mode. Beks dried today and man was I stacking the dishes her direction.  I noticed in our hurry we had less conversation but also realize that sometimes the job just needs to get done.  Half of me was bothered by not giving it time the other half was just weary from the day and glad to finish up.  At the end of the day, however, I felt the loss of not enjoying that time with Beks.  Yep, there's the tension...finding balance between the hurried demands of daily tasks, and holding them loose enough to let God and myself be present and attentive in them.  So far, there seems to be three themes emerging:

First, intention means changing our routine.

Second, repetition grows the muscle for intention.

Third, slowing down gives space for relationship that would not be there otherwise….

...”Just keep swimming, Just Keep Swimming…”

A Week At a Time - A mother and daughter's summer challenge together - Hand washing the dishes! Day 1-2

A week at a Time

Hi All! My daughter Rebekah and I are doing a challenge for the summer. We are taking regular tasks (or maybe something we've always meant to do but struggle starting or finishing it) and have agreed to consistently do it together for just one week and journal our way through it. We've named it "A Week At a Time", and we'd love to have you follow our journey!  If it inspires you, share it! If it inspires you to start one of your own we'd love to hear about it in the comments below. 

(Here are the first two days journal entries.  The rest will be in the form of a separate post.)

WEEK ONE: Hand-Washing the Dishes together.

This one started because I forgot to buy dishwasher soap and we were stuck having to do the dishes by hand. (Gasp! say it isn't so!) Later we decided to make it a Week Challenge this summer, asking the question: What happens when we go back to hand washing the dishes together.

P.S. I'm very sorry for the strange fonts, Blog Spot blogger is defaulting to weird settings and fonts no matter what setting it's given.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better! This would be one of the reasons a new webpage is coming soon!

Day One

Rebekah: Doing the dishes by hand is relaxing.  I actually prefer it over putting them in the dishwasher… I noticed that I feel much more productive, granted my Mom and I also cleaned up the house a lot too after the dishes.  It felt like I actually deserved to sit down and watch a show rather than just sitting there and wondering if I’ll ever get off the couch.  My Mom was very… encouraging before we started.  As if she was trying to paint it into a better picture than it actually was.  I told her that since I came up with the idea, I’d have no problem doing it - a small advantage of being a prideful person, I guess.

Michelle: In some ways, I felt like I needed to create momentum for the task.  I noticed myself trying to outwardly manage any potential negative response or resistance to our plan, by acting energetic and positive; which apparently was a little annoying -  haha!  It seems people know when they are being manipulated – go figure! When Rebekah said she didn't need to be coerced into doing the dishes with me, I had to release more control and trust her cooperation. Normally the dishes get done fairly soon in the morning, but if Beks and I were going to do this together, it meant I needed to wait for her to get up and do them with me.  It meant I had to cooperate too.

Day Two:

Rebekah: Maybe I’ll end up eating my own words for this challenge thing.  I did the dishes with my Mom without complaint, and maybe it was because I was a bit more tired today, but I didn’t really want to do them.  I think it’ll be the whole, “getting them started” part that will be the hardest, because once we got into the groove, I wasn’t even thinking about it.  I think people like the idea of something, and we'll may actually do it ...once, but after that, we just kinda stop doing it.  Like when we work out and give it our all the first day; maybe the next day we work out too, but the day after that we may stop.  One day of working out doesn’t do anything.  In a similar way, one day of doing something one aims to do won’t actually accomplish much.  It’s the repetition that matters… I’ll have to keep that in mind during the next days.  Dori’s words in Finding Nemo are my current inspiration: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”

Michelle: I struggled leaving the dishes in the sink until she was available to do them! It’s the morning of Day Three as I write this, and the dishes are just sitting there waiting to be washed and put away - This part is hard!  I want to swipe it off my to-do list and move on. (We will get to that in Day Three’s post, I'm sure!). When we finally did get to the dishes yesterday it was 3pm! We were both in get-it-done mode and I had to remind myself there was a bigger purpose to this exercise. I had to inwardly give myself a quick pause to notice the opportunity that was before me: I was given a few moments of side-by-side productive time with my daughter - a daughter  who is willing to do this challenge with me!  The only requirement at that moment was to wash and dry dishes together and let the conversation happen. When I am in get it done mode, I am less present with those around me.  Setting that aside allowed for great conversation that would not have happened otherwise.