Welcome to My (SML) Happy Place!

Welcome! ^_^ Here’s the plan: Join me every week for Sunday tea¹ and we’ll chat about what we’re learning and what’s saving our lives. It’ll be cozy, there’ll be books most likely, because there should always be books, and probably some other links too, as there generally is with learning and what’s saving our lives. Maybe a bit of crafting, even though that’s My Felt Comfort Happy Place, not the SML (Saving My Life) happy place.

Okay, like the footnote says, it won’t actually happen live, but I’ll start and open up the chat on Sundays. If you read this in your email but want to share with the larger group, don’t forget to head over to the site and post a comment.

So basically my happy place is a newsletter, but one that sounds better. Shhh, don’t tell! 😉

Tea I’m Drinking

I really am drinking this as I write. This will probably be about the same, most weeks, because Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea forever. I wonder if they have an affiliate program…?

What I’m Learning

Oh, all kinds of things. A lot about Etsy and selling on Etsy and handmade businesses in general, at the moment. Also that even if I rolled my eyes a little bit at first at the advice that the word “newsletter” is boring and I should call it something else; even if I look at that from the writing side rather than the reading side, I would rather write by inviting you to my happy place than by writing a newsletter. Huh. Commit to a posting schedule? Well, maybe I can do that, if I’m committing to have tea and to carve out a happy place to invite you to each week.

What’s Saving My Life

Also, if ever I needed to carve out a happy place, I needed it today. I didn’t sleep well last night — sometimes, especially since starting to take the generic of Adderall for ADHD, I wake up in the early morning hours and can’t go back to sleep. After a while I get up, and then generally by the time I’m ready to go back to bed it’s time to get up. I went back to bed this morning, but then my kids were getting up and I didn’t sleep any more.

I’m also starting to learn to try to not habitually live like an atheist and a philosophical materialist, as though the world we can see and touch is all there is. It’s there, it exists, and it’s valuable. But it’s not all there is. As such, prayer shouldn’t be an afterthought, the icing on the cake. I go to see a psychiatrist and I take my meds and I try to learn as much as I can about tools and coping mechanisms for ADHD, and that’s all well and good, but could you pray for me?

Pray that I would do the “boring” things I unconsciously resist, that I would tangibly love my people in this way. But also pray for my emotional regulation and my sleep, because for me, one of my worst ADHD symptoms is a sort of… sensory overload. Where if one more person talks to me or touches me I will jump out of my skin and bite their head off at the same time, somehow. And then curl up in a ball and cry. Sleep deprivation exacerbates ADHD in general, of course, but also or especially these mood issues. Pray that even if I’m feeling miserable, like I was this morning, I won’t sin in it and take it out on those around me, like I did this morning. Pray that I’d remember to set my alarms, listen to them, and take my meds at the same times every day and that that will also help with the sleep issues.

So this afternoon I took a nap. And took some pictures, because speaking of my cozy, happy place, right?!

Also I’m learning to be grateful for, or in, even my miserable moments. I’m grateful for desperation because it reminds me of Reality. It reminds me to reach out for my Father’s hand, to run into His arms. I wish I weren’t so forgetful, I wish I didn’t need to be reminded so much, but here we are. I’m small, weak, forgetful, and beloved of my Father, and there’s no place I’d rather be.

What I’m Listening To

Well, this isn’t what I’ve been listening to most recently, but it’s been a big part of helping me learn the things above, so here we go.

I finally started listening to a podcast my sisters recommended, called Lord of Spirits. It’s Orthodox, so there’s a lot in it that sounds strange to most Protestant ears, but I love it so far. Whether you believe Orthodox traditions are good and true or not, they say something in the first episode I think all Christians can agree on — most modern American Christians habitually live like atheists. Like materialists in the philosophical sense, as though the material world we can see and touch is all there is.

It’s this podcast that reminded me that prayer should be my first impulse, not an afterthought or the icing. This has been soooo helpful to me lately. One might even say it’s been saving my life. 😊

What’s on My Spinning Wheel

Oh, did I not mention that I got a free, new-to-me spinning wheel lately? 😊

I love it so much.

This is what’s on it at the moment. A single (one of the strands you ply together to make 2-ply yarn, or 3-ply, or…) of Greenwood Fiberworks’ Enchanted colorway, on merino/bamboo/silk. I’m going to try experimenting with 4-ply.

Oooh!! The Sapphire fiber is ready for pre-order! You know you want to pre-order some delicious, gorgeous yak/silk yarn from me, right???! You know, for accents on your next project! 😊🤤

I mean. Just look at that. And look at some other yak/silk, for the general yak/silk fiber description.

Your Turn

I was gonna write and share more, but I’ve really gotta go. So what about you? What’s saving your life?

Love in Christ,

Marcy

1. Bring your own tea. Not actually a live event. But I plan to start the conversations on Sundays. And drink tea.