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Excited

I love how so many different things get different people excited.  Some people get excited about a sports game/team, others about an upcoming vacation or time off, others about shopping or a huge milestone event such as a wedding or celebration.  All those things get me excited too, but what also gets me super, over the moon excited is going to seminars seeing speakers and taking time to think about, process and set some personal goals for myself. 

I had my eye on a day event, hosted by one of my favorite author and speakers, but quickly justified that I should not go.  It was  a lot of money and I didn’t really want to take the whole day away from the boys.  Well, for mother’s day, my husband surprised me with a ticket for this day long event.  I’ve had a couple of other things to think about so I kind of pushed the day to the back of my brain.  Now, it is here. Tomorrow is the day of the event and I am brimming with excitement.  My plan is to blog more detail about my experience and hopefully share on my blog some of the things I learned and new goals I’d like to work on and encourage you to work on something for yourself. 

Although this type of event is what sets a bit of a fire in my heart it is also so terribly, horribly scary for me.  I’ve had an overwhelming desire to do this and I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to go and have this experience.   So, come back and read about it.  I pray it will bless you and me both.

Vacation Time!

This family is gearing up for vacation this week.  What better way to begin the summer than take off?  As I reflect on vacations in my childhood, I remember an annual lake vacation my family took.  It consisted of being at the lake, boating, swimming, eating and playing games and cards…all day for 7 full days.  They are super dooper happy memories and time with my family and family friends I’ll always cherish.

I dream of this type of vacation for my family.  This is a no frills long weekend away.  It doesn’t consist of any excursions, planned activities, or beautiful beaches.  Not even a plane.  Just a road trip up North with some dear, sweet friends and their turkies.  The boys (all 4 of them) can fish, swim, play outside and hang around a campfire.   This is truly a family vacation I’d like to take each year.  Hopefully, our boys will have the same warm memories that I got to experience. 

What is your dream vacation?

I’ve Blown. It. Today.

I have figured out something about myself .  When I am overwhelmed, I pretty much want to sit on the couch and watch TV.  There are so many things on the “to-do” list, so many things coming up, and so many things that are weighing on my mind and heart that I’d just rather ignore them all.  I realize this is not a very productive way to accomplish anything and a very good way to begin to start feeling like a pretty good size failure at everything.  I have drafted just a few ways to try to help this paralyzing feeling when life starts to become burdensome and inner peace is wading:

1.) Start small.  Pick one small task to accomplish.  I have a whole condo of  items that aren’t put away due to the carpet guy coming this week to replace our carpet.  They nicely moved all the furniture and put fresh/new flooring in and then left me with closets to put back together.  If I just take 1, spend some time on it maybe it will lighten the load just a bit.  I’ll just pick a corner to start working on.

2.) Remember what is truly important.  What are your governing values?  I am sure it is not home repairs, trying to move stress and worry, or vacation/garage sale/grocery shopping planning.  Keep in mind your true values and don’t let those get lost in the shuffle. 

3.)  Turn on some music. or something else that will motivate you to get to work. 

4.)  Ask for help.  The one thing I am absolutely horrible at.  Help from family, friends, spouses.  I love to help others so why am I hesitant to ask for help from others.  (maybe this will be another post someday). 

5.) Pray.   I will tell you something about my morning.  I lost my cell phone and spent 45ish minutes looking around the house and the car for it.  I was feeling annoyed because I had 3 different calls that I was trying to make.  I really had a desperate attitude and a whole bunch of scenarios of what I was going to do.  I finally dropped to my knees…and I prayed.  This had little to do with the cell phone (although I snuck it in at the end of the prayer), but mostly to do with me realizing that I’m feeling overwhelmed.  I offered it all to God, asked for some grace and guidance and rose to my feet.  I cannot do this thing called life without Him.  I surrendered my day and moved on.

I know there are many more extensive things to help bring us back to a few less tolerations in our journey, but those are a few I could think of to start working on.  So even though I feel like I’ve blown it today, this day is not over.  In fact, it’s just 1:24 pm and I’ll go start working on “starting small”…right now! (While I’m at it, I’ll turn on some music)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

What I L-O-V-E about my JOB

SUMMER!  Imagine me singing that word, that is how much I love it.  Dillon’s last day of school is Friday and then we are headed to the rec center to purchase our summer pool pass!  I love when the agenda for the day consists of playing outside, eating lunch outside, taking naps, and then heading to the pool for the remainder of the afternoon.  I love that summer brings later nights, bbq’s ice cream, and vacations.  I love that it means slip and slide and special field trips.  I love that I get to experience these lazy days with our boys.  We’ll set a lose agenda and enjoy our summer. 

Bring on the HOT.  I’m imaging me being sick of the hot come August, but for now..I can’t wait. 

What do you love about the summer the most?  Do you have any fun things planned?

  

Two Wolves-A story to change Your Life

An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandson about  life:

“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.  “It is a terrible fight and its between two wolves.  One is evil-he is angry, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.  The other is good-he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.  This same fight is going on inside you-and inside every other person, too”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “which wolf will win?”

The old chief simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Perfection doesn’t exist, but whining never helps either

Oh yowzers, I have just read a number of posts about differing versions of not being able to hold up to some certain standard of what their personal life should look like.  The attitudes/tones of these posts are ones of feeling burdened, overwhelmed, tired, irritable. In general a mess, really. Those things are part of my life.  Everyone is a hypocrite at some point in their life.  We just can’t be perfect, but whose trying?  I will admit I am the most imperfect mamma to 2 little boys there ever was.  As I am typing at my keypad I am sick, sick sick.  My brains feel like they are going to fall out, my living room floor is an absolute wreck, the garbage needs to go out, the table needs to be cleared of lunch plates, my bathroom could probably use a scrubbing, a folded load of laundry waiting to be put away (shocking, I know), and there has been a heaviness on my heart for 2 weeks now and that is just the start. I am not complaining, really, I’m just illustrating. 

So if I chose to write a post today about how truly grateful I am for our 1 hour walk today on a hunt for birds, squirrels, and dandelions, am I being unreal?  Or how I am so excited to pursue some of my million ideas swirling in my mind, does that add to the mommy bloggers who are putting on a front of “having it all together”.  I don’t think so, I think I’d just be choosing a different attitude over my day.  At the end of the day, I’m accountable for my attitudes, behaviors, and choices for that day.  Challenging and stretching yourself, hardships and all is part of this journey.  I can ask when will my life get more together, or why wasn’t I born with more domestic or quantitive skills and just wait…and wait….and wait. Or I could ask a more constructive kind of question. What few things can I do today to make our day run a little more smoothly? 

I would never want someone to visit this site and think I’ve got all the answers (ha, ha), but I don’t want to just whine and complain post after post either.  There has got to be a better way, there has to be, for all of us.  For our children, we all deserve more.