This is a gift for you. A moment to pause and rest and see the beauty that is yours and mine amidst the chaos.
I am tired. It’s been a busy, fun, stressful, fulfilling and exciting week and we still have vacation time, Christmas and New Year’s to celebrate over the next two weeks. Find time to rest, hydrate and exercise my BeLoveRs and keep shining and sharing your love!! xo
What is your favorite time of the day?
When do you feel most alive and happy?
My favorite time is the beginning and the end.
I love waking up in the morning and most days I don’t care what time I’m awake. I typically wake up before my alarm, anticipating and feeling excited about enjoying my first cup of coffee. I think what I love most about it is the ritual, the shared experience and the warmth that comes from drinking it with my husband. He is the one who typically makes us coffee every day and I truly appreciate him doing this for me. Seriously, I am happy with the little things like someone making me coffee.
My second favorite part of my day is when I climb into bed at night. I love the feeling of the comfort that all is well and settled and I am done. I get to be still and quiet and reflect on my day before I write, which I truly enjoy. I love that I have someone to snuggle up next to and rest with until I get to repeat my favorite parts again the next day.
I love that my day begins and ends with my husband. I guess both parts are similar – anticipation, ritual, shared experience and warmth – just in different forms. These are a few of my favorite things.
Your turn. What do you love about your days? I hope your days are filled with love. Namaste.
Today we celebrated my sister’s graduation from nursing school.
I am so proud of her for redefining her life and BEcoming a Registered Nurse.
She had to overcome many hurdles, dedicate countless hours of studying and sacrificing sleep to achieve her goal over the past two years.
Just getting into nursing school during our current economy was a challenge and I am so proud of her dedication and her work ethic.
She never gave up and was determined to pass with grace, high class standing and with an A average.
She was the founding president of her college’s nursing honor society and was chosen to give a speech at her ceremony today.
Congratulations Nurse Tricia! I am so proud of you!!
Are you starting to think about what you’d like to do or change in the new year?
Do you have any new goals or ambitions?
I’ve begun to think about these and have a couple ideas.
I’m wondering if I write them out loud, if it’ll help make them stickier.
I have two right now.
My first one is to clean out my mouth. I have a potty mouth and it would probably be good for me to give it a good sweep. I don’t know why I like to swear, but it isn’t pretty. On one level, it feels like a big release to me. When I swear, I think it let’s the frustration out. But then I feel badly for saying bad words and being a bad example. So I’m going to try being more polite this year.
My second goal is to meet people where they are at. I tend to have high expectations of my friends and loved ones. I get disappointed easily and sometimes only see my point of view and struggle to understand why others act the way they do when I think their behavior is different than what I expect. This is dumb! I want to be able to accept whatever people have to offer and not judge. I want to see things from their perspective and be more open and accepting of what is so that I can enjoy their gifts and time shared with me instead of wondering why they don’t do what I want them to do. I’ve begun practicing this one and I love the results so far. Being accepting and not judging is awesome for everyone and creates stronger connections. I love this.
So what about you? Wanna share what you’re thinking about for next year?
Happy New Year in two more weeks!!
namaste.
Tonight we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus at our midweek church group dinner. I love this night when all the kids are gathered around and we turn out the lights and just see the lights of the candles. I love the unity and the glow and the feeling of being connected in this one moment.
I love birthday celebrations. I love mine, yours, my kids, my family’s and even Jesus’.
Last week we celebrated Jeff’s 50th. Tomorrow we celebrate Jeff’s mom’s in heaven and Jack’s and Melissa’s. Next week we celebrate Jesus’. And the following week we celebrate Juliana’s.
This is just a month of celebrating and I love it!!
I’m so glad you’re alive! Happy Birthdays Everyone!!
So many things can and do go wrong.
Things happen every day that we don’t expect, that we don’t desire and that we wish just didn’t.
We don’t get to choose or control all of the events that happen to us and for us.
When we are still and can accept what happens, we are usually surrounded by love and light that comfort us, when we are open to receive it. This is the amazing side of life that feels like a miracle and is awe-inspiring.
Such is the case for us right now as we sit and wait for Juliana’s eye to heal. I know this isn’t the end of the world, but it has stopped us from carrying on as usual. She is suffering and I am waiting by her side, supporting her and providing around the clock care, as we wait for healing and to know the results from her injury.
We did not wish for nor plan for this to happen. Accidents happen. Life happens and it’s up to us how we adapt and respond.
There is good in everything. We just have to see through and past the pain to see and feel the good.
So many people love us and support us through kind words, gifts, visits, phone calls, food and prayer. Thank you friends and family.
We are so thankful for the loving concern shared with our family.
It’s love that binds and connects us to each other and helps us endure pain and suffering.
I know our story is not the only story like this, and that ours is so small, yet it is still our pain. I am not complaining. It just is.
Love permeates the world and I see how love shines in times of trouble.
I’m watching the love from Australians supporting Muslims through the simple connection of offering to ride the tram together. #illridewithyou as the deadly siege occurred yesterday.
I’m watching the support and love flow for the tragedy in Pakistan. #prayforPeshawar #peshawarattack
“Smallest coffins are the heaviest!! May the innocent souls RIP.” #PrayForPeshawar
We remember the tragedy in Sandy Hook two years ago this week #SandyHook.
And I’ve watched the love and support flow in after my cousin’s tragic death.
Love is an amazing force.
Humanity has no borders.
Spread love, BeLoveRs. Keep shining your light. You make a difference.
xo
It’s the craziest time of the year and instead of doing what I thought I would be doing, my plans have been scrambled.
I laid in bed with my baby girl and catered to her needs all day, administering medicine and eye drops every half hour to help her eye heal from her accident yesterday. I took her to the eye doctor and cried when I saw that she could see the eye chart letters. She will see again. I can endure and wait.
I have been sitting and waiting and praying for healing. This is what I can do. I can just be with her and wait patiently and care for her by the hour. This is in my control. Everything else is not.
Playing with her hair is what made me happy and knowing that she wanted me by her side all day, to give her sips of water, food and medicine and to be her eyes provided us both comfort as we waited with fear and anticipation.
Tomorrow we will do the same. We will sit and rest and wait for healing. We will let everything else go and catch up when we can again. This is our priority now. And the busiest time just became the slowest time. Whatever. It’ll all work out. It always does.
I wish you good health and peace and love and light. This is what the season is about anyway.
Namaste.
Friends – Please don’t ever buy these products from Costco or Tide or anywhere else. Although they are enticing and easy to use to do the laundry, they are so dangerous. The pods or laundry detergent pacs are appealing to kids to touch, play with and even taste. For teens and adults who do the laundry, they can easily break with a finger nail or if your hands are slightly damp, they will stick to your skin and possibly explode in your face.
Click here for a story about the risks to small children: Laundry Pod Risks
Today Juliana was doing a load of laundry and went to put one in the washing machine. As she moved clothes from the basket to the machine, the pod stuck to her hand and as she tried to get it off her hand, the pod exploded in her eyes, mouth, face, hair and all over her clothes and the laundry area and still half remained in the pod. These little pods must be under so much pressure.
The chemicals and irritants are so super concentrated that it took over 4 hours in the Urgent Care to cleanse her eye. She must use antibiotic eye drops, pain eye drops and natural tears to continue flushing out her eye. This has been a very painful and scary experience and changed our entire day, after such a wonderful morning.
She will have to miss two days of school, missing her finals and giving her eye time to recover. She will see an opthalmologist in the morning.
If you have these type of laundry pods in your home, please throw them away and spread the word to not ever buy them. We want to protect our friends from having to experience this because it is a horrible pain and should never have happened in the first place.
Namaste.
Stay together looking like fools.
Yes, we are that family. Go ahead and laugh and pin us on Pinterest. I know someone somewhere is looking for a tacky sweater theme for a family of five. We’re ok being weird and laughing at our tree selves!
We went to a tacky sweater party and we won a prize!! I’ve always wanted a Chia Head, as seen on TV!
I loved seeing all the creativity and so many people participating in a night of fun and festivus.
Life is good.
Wouldn’t this make a great name for a company?
“Hello. Chicks that Fix. How can I help you?”
Last week I had a small gathering of women to my house for a little bit of Christmas cheer. As I was getting ready, I noticed some water on the toilet tank. I wiped it away and it soon came back. I mentioned this to my friends, and Susanne said she knew how to fix toilets and would check it out later. Before she left the party, she came out to tell me that my toilet tower was broken and that she was heading out to get the part and to run an errand and would be back to fix it within a couple hours. She said she could just fix it for me or I could watch and learn and help her. I love learning by doing and was excited for her to return.
I loved that she knew how to fix a toilet and thought that was so hot. This week she installed a new faucet in her own bathroom and fixed another toilet. She has cool hobbies and inspires me.
Another friend had mentioned that she took the time to help someone jumpstart their car. She was afraid she wouldn’t have enough time to be helpful, and learned that it actually was very easy and didn’t take long at all. Afterwards, she felt good for helping someone and doing a good deed.
Marilynne laid her own slate front walkway and did her own irrigation system in her backyard. How cool is that? I would never even know where to begin. But I’ve never really been curious about learning or doing this type of work, so maybe that’s the reason I’ve never tried. Watching her and hearing her stories were intriguing though. I wonder how she learned and got her confidence.
Today I was at the gym and was thinking of all the things I had to get done today. As I walked to my car, I heard the car next to me trying to start and it didn’t sound good at all. I wished I hadn’t heard it, but I did. I got in my car, unrolled the window and asked the guy if he had AAA. He said he did, but wasn’t sure how long they would take as it was raining and we had the huge storm of the year yesterday. I asked him if he wanted help and he asked if I had jumper cables. I said I did, and would be happy to help him.
I got out of the car, and began to attach the jumper cables to my car as he attached his end to his. I realized my car was too far away so I removed my ends and moved my car closer to his and then reattached the cables and jumped his car in probably less than 7 minutes. He was really thankful that he didn’t have to wait for help and I felt good that I wasn’t nervous and was able to help him without fear. This was a new thing for me and it made me smile.
Chicks that Fix. I’m inspired and want to learn how to do more. What do you know how to fix? I can fix dinner. I can fix a toilet. I can fix a car’s battery. I fixed the light on the washing machine recently. That was cool. I’m sure I have a lot to learn and am inspired now. What do you want to learn how to do?
here i am 