Real Deal – Meet Kylie White

I want you to meet my friends, the contributors of this blog. They are the real deal. I didn’t ask them to be on here because they have the biggest following or the biggest book deals – I asked them because they are the real deal. Enjoy meeting Kylie today! – Courtney

What advice would you give yourself right now?

Loosen up! Engage! It is not about the to do list, or how much you accomplished today or how clean your kitchen is. There is a need for some of that, yes, but there are games to be played, conversations to be shared, memories to be made.  Let go of “doing” and filling up the day with meaningless stuff and BE present and engaged.

(Sidewalk chalk art inspired by Kelle Hampton – @etst on Instagram) 

Get off the internet, quit re-organizing the playroom, and get on the floor and get messy. These are the good years and you can have a cleaner house when they are older, but now is such a crucial time. Stop getting impatient when someone chews with their mouth open, stop raising your voice when the kids argue for the 90^th time today over anything, stop letting your anxious thoughts take control because you didn’t get back to someone or cross something off your to do list.

Cherish the summer with everyone at home, don’t just survive it.

 

What is God teaching you right now?

God is teaching me to abide deeply. I can’t even pinpoint what the definition of that means, but I keep going back to it like a picture of my marriage. My husband and I  have had seasons where we are so busy that we miss each other, we just share schedules and chat about our days in passing, but we miss each other’s hearts. We have had seasons where we are merely roommates, cordial and enjoy each other’s company but busy and working on separate things that rarely intersect. We have had great seasons where we are doing heart-work together and in tune with each other’s growth and struggle.

It takes work to abide together in a marriage and be in tune with each other’s hearts, yet even more so with my relationship with Jesus. I want to abide deeply with Him, not just be roommates or chat in passing when I have a minute here or there. I want to know what His heart beats for and I want that to affect me greatly and excite me to move. I want to desire time with Him, not squeeze him in out of obligation. But there is some sacrifice and heart level work that goes into abiding deeply. God is calling me sweetly away from some things and to understand what our relationship could be as I abide and drink him in more deeply.

Guilty pleasure?

Necklaces. Yall, I just weeded through them and got rid of 23. 23?? Yes. That is more than anyone should have and that is just what I got rid of. But, since it is my guilty pleasure and as you heard earlier, I spend more time than I need to cleaning and organizing I will share with you an IKEA hack that makes my organizational heart flutter.

The GRUNDTAL double towel bar with the “S” hooks purchased separately in the kitchen department. And VOILA: necklace hanger and organizer for under 7$. No tangles, convenient to see, and displaying my guilty pleasure with ease.