38 is GREAT!

Today is my BIRTHDAY! I am 38 ... hard to believe, I really don't feel 38. But then I look at my kids and can't believe how big they're getting and can't believe they're really mine so I guess I must really be 38, whether I feel like it or not. =) 

So anyway, I haven't blogged in forever and I feel bad, but life has been so, super busy lately and thankfully we only have 3 and half more days until the school year is over - then we can enjoy SUMMER! Yay, can't wait! 

I thought it would be fun to document some things about myself at 38 ... some things haven't changed but some things have. For one thing, with every year that passes I feel more and more confident in just being who I am. Not trying to be someone else, or trying to impress people, or trying to change to whats expected of me - but simply embracing the ME that God created me to be. Little things like the fact that I'm so emotional and cry so easily - so what, that's me - get used to it, it's not going away anytime soon. And that I like to change things often, not because I'm discontent, but because changes are fun and keep life interesting. I love changing around the furniture and decor in my house ... I also love changing things like my hair cut and color. Change is good. Embrace it. 

Some things I love ... coffee always tops the list. =)

Family. Friends. Reading. Scrapbooking. Taking photos. Flowers. COLOR. Decorating.The beach. Swimming. Relaxing. Watching my kids play sports. Being with girlfriends. 

Movies nights with my family. Baking. Camping. 

Sitting outside and enjoying a quiet morning.

Smiles and hugs from kids at school. 

This year I got my nose pierced! Not something I EVER thought I would do! Bob had been begging me to do it for SO long and I kept saying no, I'm not interested. Finally around Valentine's day I had been thinking about it more and thinking about how he is always SO good to me and would do anything for me. I thought that if he was willing to do so much for me, why couldn't I do this one little thing for him. I'm not gonna lie, it did hurt when they did it. But only for a little while and then it's been fine ever since. 

And I actually really like it now. 

 And can I just say how thankful I am for this guy? Later this year we will celebrate 18 years of marriage ... I have known him for more than half of my life and could not even put into words how blessed I am. I have never, ever, ever met someone as selfless as him - he will literally put me and our girls before himself in just about every single scenario. He is always going above and beyond to make sure we are safe, cared for, loved and yes, even spoiled. 

Then there is my amazing family. I am incredibly blessed to have the family that I do. This year my Mom got married to a wonderful man named Wayne and I got 6 new step-brothers and sisters along with more nieces and nephews. It's something I never expected, but has already been a blessing. And not to mention that I am SO happy for my Mom. 

This year we've all tried new things. Some good, some bad, some hard, some fun. One thing I never thought I'd do was run a 10k. Just about 4 years ago I had never run more than 30 seconds in a row. I couldn't even get a quarter mile without feeling like I was gonna die. But through Bob's encouragement and a lovely little plan called Couch to 5k I slowly learned how to build up to running a 5k ... then, last year through my friend Christina's encouragement and lots and lots of lovely miles we put in together, I finally built up to a 10k! So in the past year I have run TWO 10K's and a few 5K's as well. It's an amazing feeling to know you can conquer something like this! And in just a few short weeks Bob and I will be running in our first ever Spartan Race - I am definitely nervous but also excited to prove to myself how strong I am and how far I've come. Now if you're reading this thinking 'no way, not for me, I could NEVER do that' ... trust me, you CAN! I have a lovely friend Erin who blogs here ... go check out her posts on running, weight loss and how far she's come in all of this. Anyone can do this!

I love, love, love my girlies ... so deeply that sometimes it hurts! It hurts when they don't respect me how they should, or don't seem to care if my feelings get hurt over something they say or do or when they would prefer their friends or their ipods over me ... but more than the hurts are the crazy, amazing ways that I learn and grow through being their Mom. Sometimes I am the worst perfectionist and think it's totally my job to make sure they 'turn out right' ... not remembering that these are amazing girls, each with their own gifts and personalities and that God will see them through! He has big plans for these girls! He loves them SO much more than I ever could! Being a Mom is tough sometimes and I often feel the weight of the world on me ... but it keeps me on my knees before God, asking Him daily to watch over them and give us wisdom in raising them. And I am one proud Mama ... they are smart, beautiful on the inside and out, talented, and I am just so thankful for both of them!

Since I am such a perfectionist at heart I am always trying to find ways to improve myself. Reading articles about raising kids, reading books about parenting through the teen years, trying to find ways to become healthier and teach my girls about healthy choices, etc. I love the idea of always changing, always working toward new goals, always challenging yourself and learning new things. I have some goals for summer, which include reading a large stack of books on lots of great topics that I have sort of been putting off during these busy school-year months. Summer is such a great time to sit by the pool and read while the girls swim. I also REALLY want to catch up on my scrapbooks! I am SO far behind! I have started doing more of a 'Project Life' style instead of 12x12 fancy, decorated pages ... much easier to slide the pics in and be done. I hope to show some pages I've done in future blog posts. 

So anyway ... I guess that's all for now ... thankful for another year of LIFE and just thankful to be ME! 

 {So far} ... 38 is GREAT!! 

My 2014 Vision Board

OK it's Saturday and I have time so here comes another blog post for today! I have a feeling most of my posts will happen on the weekends when I have time to catch up!

So I read this fab blog called Peak 313 Fitness and this year she talked about making a vision board to visualize your goals for the year. Her post is HERE if you want to take a moment to read it and get an idea what I'm talking about.

Taking my word INTENTIONAL and running with it, I had SUCH a fun time putting this board together! I already had the large bulletin board in my bedroom, it had photos of hubby and I through the years on it - I moved those photos to another place and used the bulletin board for this project. I used things I found in magazines, some free printables from the Peak 313 blog, and also printed out some things from my Pinterest Boards that I found especially inspirational.

The board is set up in four sections with four major areas of life I'd like to be intentional in this year. 

Relationships, Finances, Health and Faith. 

I know a few friends who are making similar goals this year and I'm excited to have people who will help keep me accountable and cheer me on. I hope to do likewise for them as well and pray that I can be an encouragement in their lives as well.

Clare's vision board idea stems from the concept of 'dream it, do it' ... so you dream of the progress you'd like to make in certain areas of your life, then you make a plan of action so you can DO IT! 
I also LOVE how on Clare's posts she uses this verse as a guideline, after all, if you pray that the Lord will help you, He will never fail to show up and give you the strength to accomplish great things! 

                                    “Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
                   and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3

OK, here is the whole picture of my board: 

Here is the HEALTH section

And my health section DREAM IT / DO IT goals:

Here is my FAITH section

And my faith section goals:

Here is my FINANCES section

And the finances section goals:

My RELATIONSHIP section

And the relationship goals:

I put this photo of my family over the photo of NO FB ... not because I am 

going to stop using FB altogether, but I want to be intentional about limiting

my time on there and specifically limiting the time while my family is home

and awake. If the girls aren't home or are already in bed for the night I don't

mind spending a little time on it. But if it's the evening time and everyone is home

and awake I want to spend that time WITH THEM, not with FB. 

At the top of the board is my word for the year as a little reminder. 

And in the center I printed out Clare's Dream it ---> Do it graphic. 

Here is the whole thing hanging on my wall. I get so inspired each time I walk past it!

How about you? Do you have big dreams, plans or goals for the year? 

A Word for the coming year

Last year I was challenged and inspired to choose a word for my year. The idea was that for the whole year I would focus on that word or thought and prayerfully use it as a goal.

Well last year I actually chose 2 words, I just couldn't narrow it down to one and both words kept coming to mind so I decided to go with both. They were 'words' and 'time'. My goal for both for the year was to learn to use both my words and my time more wisely.

Did I accomplish that? Sure. Not to perfection of course and obviously there were many times I failed at them. But in general I felt like I was able to keep both ideas in the back of my mind and work towards them all year long. I'm still a work in progress as you already know and I will still need to learn to use my words and time wisely as each year passes. {It's definitely an ongoing process!}

So yesterday as we ate Christmas dinner I brought up the idea to my family. {There were 8 of us, 6 adults and my 2 girls.} I asked the question, 'If you could come up with one word that would be your goal for the coming year, what would it be?'

Here is what everyone came up with:
Health
Motivation
Simplify
Achieve
Focus
Exercise
Ahead
Health {more than one person said it}

The person who said 'ahead' meant financially - not meaning that they're goal was to be rich, but just that through proper budgeting they would be able to get ahead of things this year. I thought that was a good goal.

My daughters shocked me with their maturity ... my 8 year old was the one who said 'achieve' and my 10 year old said 'focus'. Such amazing thoughts/goals for young girls! And I of course told them I would gladly use these words to encourage them in their school work! LOL

My word is Simplify. I have grown weary being in a house filled with things we don't need/want or use. I also get very worn out when our schedules are over crowded. So my goal this year is to simplify our lives. I want to clear out the clutter, clear our schedules more, spend more time doing the simple things like reading books and playing board games and riding bikes together.

I was watching some home movies with my girls this week and I noticed in the videos that when my girls were really little my house had a LOT less stuff. Less furniture, less stuff on the walls, less clutter ... and I was like WOW, how did we get from there to here? How did we accumulate so much unnecessary stuff?!

So those are our words. Last year I spent the first several weeks of the year looking up and writing down scripture passages that related to my words. I plan to do that again this year because really, it doesn't really matter what *I* think about these words, my goal should be what the Lord would want me to do with these goals. I also find that Pinterest has some GREAT inspiration and hope to find some neat sayings/quotes that I can print out for each one of us to help us remember and focus on our goals.

How about you? If you had to choose just one word to sum up your goals for 2012, what would it be? Will you challenge yourself to make it a goal, see what the Word of God has to say about it and work toward it this year?