{"id":1287,"date":"2023-01-31T12:50:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T19:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/?p=1287"},"modified":"2023-01-31T12:50:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T19:50:04","slug":"a-reflection-on-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/a-reflection-on-january\/","title":{"rendered":"A Reflection on January"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

January\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but this month has felt almost like three months in one. Sometimes, I don\u2019t like it when time moves slowly, and I wish it would all move faster. But, this month, I have been very grateful for how slow the time has been moving, because I know that, as this year goes by, time is going to fly away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This spring is a unique time for me. Events that I have waited many, many years for are taking place, and it can be challenging to figure out how to soak it all up when it happens. I am happily taking this time as a season of waiting, preparing, and living for the special moments that are happening right now.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Cold Makes Me Bitter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That might sound a bit dramatic, but I really have been impatient for winter to finally leave us. The cold has been very bearable, but, in the last few years, I have craved the spring and impatiently waited for its arrival. This year, though, I am trying not to wish winter away as quickly as possible, but to enjoy it as it is. Easier said than done, when I want to go on a nice, warm walk and find that I have to bundle up and avoid all the icy patches. Not to mention the blogging challenges that come with a series of dreary days (aka, no natural sunlight). But the blue skies are finally showing through and I am waiting for the warmer months a bit more contently this season.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

My Past Struggles Are Not So Present <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lately, I have found myself at peace with many of my past struggles. What I used to constantly wrestle with doesn\u2019t look so daunting, and I have been enjoying the peace I\u2019ve felt. I\u2019m finding that, despite the holes I feel in my life, I am not made less whole because of them. I\u2019m not quite sure if that makes sense, or if I even understand it\u2026 But God has been showing me that my worth is not found in what I lack, but in what I have through His strength. I don\u2019t feel as much of a need to strive towards what I think will fulfill me; I feel the need to grow in Him to make me the person that He has called me to be. This has been a long time coming, and I am grateful that this realization is finally becoming more clear to me. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Creativity is Coming Back Around<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a while, I was feeling very drained creatively, and just did not feel the desire to create anything at all. It is normal to go through these seasons, but I am very glad that creativity is coming back to me, because I have missed it dearly. I don\u2019t know exactly where my creativity will take me at this point, but, right now, it looks like testing the water, and getting ready to jump back in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Amelia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January\u2026  I don\u2019t know about you, but this month has felt almost like three months in one. Sometimes, I don\u2019t like it when time moves slowly, and I wish it would all move faster. But, this month, I have been very grateful for how slow the time has been moving, because I know that, as this year goes by, time is going to fly away.  This spring is a unique time for me. Events that I have waited many, many years for are taking place, and it can be challenging to figure out how to soak it all up when it happens. I am happily taking this time as a season of waiting, preparing, and living for the special moments that are happening right now. The Cold Makes Me Bitter That might sound a bit dramatic, but I really have been impatient for winter to finally leave us. The cold has been very bearable, but, in the last few years, I have craved the spring and impatiently waited for its arrival. This year, though, I am trying not to wish winter away as quickly as possible, but to enjoy it as it is. Easier said than done, when I want to go on a nice, warm walk and find that I have to bundle up and avoid all the icy patches. Not to mention the blogging challenges that come with a series of dreary days (aka, no natural sunlight). But the blue skies are finally showing through and I am waiting for the warmer months a bit more contently this season. My Past Struggles Are Not So Present  Lately, I have found myself at peace with many of my past struggles. What I used to constantly wrestle with doesn\u2019t look so daunting, and I have been enjoying the peace I\u2019ve felt. I\u2019m finding that, despite the holes I feel in my life, I am not made less whole because of them. I\u2019m not quite sure if that makes sense, or if I even understand it\u2026 But God has been showing me that my worth is not found in what I lack, but in what I have through His strength. I don\u2019t feel as much of a need to strive towards what I think will fulfill me; I feel the need to grow in Him to make me the person that He has called me to be. This has been a long time coming, and I am grateful that this realization is finally becoming more clear to me.  Creativity is Coming Back Around For a while, I was feeling very drained creatively, and just did not feel the desire to create anything at all. It is normal to go through these seasons, but I am very glad that creativity is coming back to me, because I have missed it dearly. I don\u2019t know exactly where my creativity will take me at this point, but, right now, it looks like testing the water, and getting ready to jump back in. – Amelia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[114,58,115,47],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-114","tag-january","tag-monthly-reflection","tag-thoughts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/jan-post-thumbnail-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":785,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/what-ill-remember-most\/","url_meta":{"origin":1287,"position":0},"title":"What I’ll Remember Most","author":"Amelia","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello, everyone!It's Amelia writing today. It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s already 2022! For me, the start of the year is usually pretty stressful. I put a lot of pressure on myself to start changing my life and I try to make it \u201cperfect\u201d to set the year off right.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"2022\"","block_context":{"text":"2022","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/2022\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/plant-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/plant-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/plant-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/plant-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/plant-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1282,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/reading-our-read-your-bookshelf-challenge-picks-for-january-a-reading-vlog\/","url_meta":{"origin":1287,"position":1},"title":"Reading Our “Read Your Bookshelf Challenge” Picks for January | a reading vlog","author":"Mattie and Amelia","date":"January 23, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello everyone! This year we are participating in the \"Read Your Bookshelf Challenge\", and we decided to film our thoughts on the books we read this month! This vlog is a little different from our usual ones, but we hope you like it! https:\/\/youtu.be\/_Abj3-1NTmk Let us know if you'd like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Books\"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Read-Your-Bookshelf-Thumbnail-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Read-Your-Bookshelf-Thumbnail-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Read-Your-Bookshelf-Thumbnail-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Read-Your-Bookshelf-Thumbnail-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Read-Your-Bookshelf-Thumbnail-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":519,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/jan-feb-things-we-enjoyed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1287,"position":2},"title":"Jan\/Feb – Things We Enjoyed","author":"Mattie and Amelia","date":"February 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi, everyone! For today's post we wanted to share some of the things that we really liked and enjoyed during the months of January and February! We're currently planning to make this a segment of sorts on our blog, but we'll just have to see how it goes. :) These\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Books\"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20210222_123117-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20210222_123117-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20210222_123117-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20210222_123117-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20210222_123117-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":750,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/each-small-commitment\/","url_meta":{"origin":1287,"position":3},"title":"Each Small Commitment","author":"Amelia","date":"November 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello, everyone!\u00a0 This is Amelia writing today.\u00a0 With NanoWrimo upon us, I thought that it would be a great time to bring up the topic of commitment.\u00a0 For those who may not know, NanoWrimo is a time when many writers set out to write 50,000 words in thirty days. 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Amelia here :) I am very far from an expert on pen-palling, and I would still call myself a beginner in the craft, but today I am going to be sharing about the art of pen-palling in hopes of enlightening you on the subject.\u00a0 I have two penpals, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Letters\"","block_context":{"text":"Letters","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20200403_143758edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20200403_143758edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20200403_143758edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20200403_143758edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20200403_143758edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":460,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/thanksgiving-mishmash\/","url_meta":{"origin":1287,"position":5},"title":"Thanksgiving Mishmash","author":"Mattie and Amelia","date":"November 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi everyone! Today we'd like to share a few things we put together for Thanksgiving. Though it's a tad random, we hope you enjoy reading this post! Because we wanted to help others give thanks during this Thanksgiving week, we made a printable sheet that you could fill out. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/thanksgiving-mishmash\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20201123_131107-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20201123_131107-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20201123_131107-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20201123_131107-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20201123_131107-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1294,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions\/1294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}