Hi, I’m Nina, a Catholic Mystic (with a heavy emphasis on the mystic). The purpose of Redeeming Home is to help you dig deep into your awareness of God and self (read what I mean in my Manifesto of Love) so you can feel at home with who you are and create a life of joy, meaning and purpose. Welcome.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but what you focus on grows. So if you focus your attention on things you hate or don’t want, you’re just going to get more of it. But. If you focus on the things you’re grateful for and what you want more of, you will naturally begin experiencing more of that in your life as your beautiful brain works to bring more of that to your attention.

My husband officially moved back home! This is huge and I will be writing more about this later, but when God told me He would restore our marriage and make it better than I ever dreamed possible, He wasn’t freaking kidding.

He also asked me to marry him. Again.

We got another dog. Our sweet dog, Whiskey, died the day before our divorce eight months ago. We unintentionally got Lazarus, an eight-month-old rescued Belgian Malinois, on Whiskey’s birthday.

I got to go on a lovely walk with my eldest son.

I hosted a potluck style birthday party for a dear friend.

I hit my weekly goal of 50 strict pull-ups and 100 push-ups. It’s been a while. And no, that’s not all in one go.

I started a yoga practice. Two days in and my body seems pleased.

I’ve accepted that I am in a season of rest and recovery. If you know me, you know I always cringe when someone says they’re in a “season” of anything, but it is what it is. The last eight months have been emotionally challenging, to say the least. I’ve prayed harder than I’ve ever prayed in my life. It’s been a huge exercise in trusting God, especially financially, and I’m SPENT. I have zero energy for intense workouts and even my daily walk feels like a lot sometimes. If you know me, you also know that rest is the only four-letter word that I actually find offensive, so me leaning into this is huge. It helps that the once quiet aches and pains in my body have gotten very loud, which is really what made me throw up my white flag and accept that I need to give myself some TLC.

I went to a writing workshop that my friend organized. Maybe next time we’ll actually do some writing, Harrison!

I created a simple cleaning schedule for the house. Now that I’m no longer coaching CrossFit and am home all the time, I’m taking great joy in getting my actual house back in order. It helps that my kids are old enough to delegate more tasks to. Fun fact: if you make them start doing it when they’re small, they will actually thank you if you ever do a load of laundry for them or clean their bathroom.

I’ve made most of the meals for my family this week and it’s delightful to see how much it makes my oldest daughter feel loved.

We had an at-home date night that cost nothing.

I’m excited about living frugally again. Not only will it help us get out of debt, AGAIN, but I love the creativity required.

I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t think of it right now and Lazarus needs to go outside to do his business. Again.