Fifty Two Weeks of Joy

One of my favorite things is unexpected kindness. I love when I witness someone being kind to another person, or when someone is kind to me, but my favorite is being the unexpected kindness.  Have you ever been in a store and seen a mom struggling to keep her sanity and wrestling her children? Trying to keep toys out of the shopping cart, children in the shopping cart, all while looking for the baby’s pacifier. Have you ever been the bystander who offers help? Distracting the older kids while mom takes care of baby. As a mom we love when other people offer help instead of judgement. Trust me on this! We know in that moment our children are being overwhelming, we know it’s disturbing your shopping experience, and we can sense your judgmental stairs.  Life can be hard and parenting can add a bonus challenge. You are raising tiny humans with the same emotions but no control because they are young and haven’t mastered emotional control. Honestly, I know plenty of adults w...

I recently quit Facebook. At first it wasn’t really for a particular reason it just kind of just happened. I didn’t check it one day and survived, and then didn’t check it another day and again survived. So, I kept the trend going. Then one day I did check it for the first time in days and guess what I was immediately disappointed. A comment on my newsfeed had me upset and frustrated. As I sat there staring at my computer screen, I knew I had a choice to make I could either take the comment personal and continue to sulk in disappointment. Or I could close Facebook ignore the comment and move on. Thankfully I chose the latter and let me tell you it feels so good.  Taking a break from Facebook has shown me that I actually do like my family and friends. Basically, I just don’t like their opinions. HA! Don’t get me wrong I think Facebook can be great and I actually admire people who have a different opinion. I really do enjoy agreeing to disagree. However, I think having less opin...

Goodbye 2018. I am praying 2019 will be an even better year. Oscar and I kind of joke that odd years don't tend to be good to us… mom died in 2011, Eli had medical drama in 2013, Oscar broke his hand in 2015 that was the same year Eli ate a battery, and my grandfather passed away in 2017… Odd years aren't our best years.   However, looking back I’ve learned those years also brought us blessings.  We found out we were going to be a pregnant with Eli in 2011. 2013 I did my first blog 52 weeks of joy. 2015 we found out we were pregnant with Isaac. In 2017 we went on our first real family vacation to Cancun and it was wonderful!  Maybe the key to happiness really is changing your perspective.  The odd years in the past did bring us heartaches and I don’t want to down play any of that. The hardest part about life is death. Illness and disappointments aren't much fun either, but even in the midst of the "bad times" there were still blessings and I will forever...

Tis the season y'all!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year. My family has been blessed beyond measure and I am just so incredibly thankful for this season of goodness.  I love Christmas and I love Christmas traditions. The lights, the decorations, the food, the family, the presents, the pure joy you see on a child's face Christmas morning. My family is known for having some interesting (to say the least) traditions. Growing up we didn’t have lots of money. So, on Christmas my parents used to buy us our own name brand cereal as a Christmas gift. It was a gift we look forward to every year, because you didn’t have to share your cereal with anyone unless you wanted to share. Plus, it was the name brand so we felt rich! Ha! The joys of childhood.  Another unique tradition we had was giving a fake snake to a different family member each year. This all started because my wonderful father is a very mean man! I’m half kidding, of course. Dad spent several mo...

I'd like to kind of geek out on y'all, if that's okay? A Stanford psychologist  Carol Dweck , author of  Mindset: The New Psychology of Success  has spent about two decades providing the formula (if I may) to success. She believes each individual establishes one of two types of mindsets. You either live your life under the contents of a "fixed mindset" or a "growth mindset" and there seems to be a correlation between an individual's success and their mindset. Here's how it works. https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS820US820&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=pykIXODuO_O-0PEPsZOZ8Ao&q=fixed+mindset+vs+growth+mindset&oq=fixed+mindset+vs+growth+mindset&gs_l=img.3..35i39j0l4.53296.53296..54094...0.0..0.94.94.1....1..1....1..gws-wiz-img.MVDX9MT7c-0#imgrc=Y11pAAWH5ODqOM : This fascinates me! I love learning these types of things. Learning to improve one's self is always a good thing and this growth mindset philosop...

I have a bad habit of being hard on myself. I constantly make jokes about not being good enough. It wasn't until recently when a good friend of mine told me I don't give myself enough credit. She's absolutely right, and I guarantee I'm not alone in this. I know some of you reading this do the same thing. You belittle yourself, or you try and justify you quarks. For example you might make a similar comment, "I'm socially awkward, but the people who love me look past this…" Or "I'm not really sure why people read my blog, I'm not a writer." I could list example after example of not measuring up to the "world's standards", but you know what I've learned? Those standards don't matter; they really don't, because my worth comes from a higher authority. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualifications come from God. – 2 Corinthians 3:5 Here's the deal when God looks ...