Teaching Taylor

I love to cook and bake, shocker right? From homemade mac and cheese to rich chocolate cakes topped with chocolate buttercream, I love to do it all. BUT my favorite thing to make is my husband’s sandwiches for lunch during the working season.

My hubby works long hours in the summertime. It’s weird because his busy season is my slow season and his slow season is my busy season at school. Our busy times sometimes overlap depending on the working season that year, but I must say we make one heck of a team and we navigate through all the things.

I have to be honest with you though, I haven’t always enjoyed making the sandwiches. I saw this sandwich making as a mundane task day in and day out, just something I needed to do, but then something in me shifted. I can’t quite remember when it happened, but one day I flipped my mindset. Instead of I HAVE TO make my husband a sandwich, it turned into I GET to make my husband a sandwich and that’s where the Ziploc Bag Notes began.

The Ziploc Bag notes are just an extra way I can communicate with my husband in his busy season. Most of the time the bag bunches up as I write or some of the letters wipe away before lunch time, but it doesn’t discount the message I am trying to send to my husband.

I use them to remind him of how much I appreciate him and all he does, to encourage him to grow in his faith, to say something funny to him to make him smile, or some days it’s just a simple I LOVE YOU because we all need that reminder sometimes.

Now, some days I forget this step in the lunch packing process… it is not the end of the world, but I do know when I take the time to write the note, it has an impact on not only my husband’s day, but mine too. It gives us both just a little reminder of something positive during the day, a little reminder of the love we have for one another, a little reminder to just relish in the beauty of God’s creation around us.

You see the point of this whole blog post is not to tell you about the notes I write my husband, it’s to tell you that I want you to find beauty in the mundane. I want you to find joy in the small things. I want you to have an attitude that views things as “GET TO” vs. “HAVE TO.” I want you to think of things through a new lens.

This isn’t always easy. Life is hard. Some days, weeks, months, and even years can be draining, but when we take initiative to flip our mindset, beautiful things can happen. Waiting in the grocery store line can turn from an annoyance to a reminder to just slow down. Sitting at a stop light longer than expected can go from a frustration to an extra moment to soak in the song on the radio. Waiting in a slow drive thru line can go from you complaining that it’s taking forever to a reminder that it’s a gift to be able to eat out.

I’m still learning how to do this too, but it’s the small changes that make a huge difference over time. It’s the little things that eventually turn into the big things. If you continue to approach every little thing with a negative attitude, eventually you start to see all things in a negative light, but when you really start trying your best to find the positive in things it helps you flip that mindset. You start to see things in that “get to” light.

I also understand that we can’t be positive all the time. That’s called positive toxicity. Having those difficult emotions is okay. Processing the tough things in life is how we grow, but when we constantly stress and focus on the negative it isn’t healthy for us.

It’s really not about the Ziploc bag notes anyway, it’s about the ability to find the joy in the small things. To embrace the beauty around us and to just try our best to find the joy in the mundane.

I encourage you to do one nice gesture for someone you love after reading this. A quick text to a friend you haven’t heard from in awhile, buy your coworker coffee, write your significant other a Ziploc bag note, something that can make someone feel your love. After all, we GET TO live this beautiful life, we might as well embrace it every step of the way.