Just wanna have fun!

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I was already going to write a quick post on this, and then I saw this quote from a church I follow on Facebook:

“We think that fearing failure will help us avoid failure, but fear of failure doesn’t prevent us from failing; it robs us of the joy of living.”

I have spent pretty much all of my life not really being me.  So much so that I didn’t know who I was.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure others out and learn what I could do to make them like me.  So there wasn’t any time for just being me…whatever that was.

All of my life, I have tried to fit in, make people like me, look smart, look like I have my act together…the list goes on!  I’m a people pleaser, and I’ve tried so hard trying to make others happy that I didn’t have a fat clue who I really was.  It’s taken going through lots of really hard things to wake me up.  But you know what finally woke me up in the end?  I realized how much I am loved and accepted by God.

That did it!

God is stinkin’ in love with me.  And that takes the pressure off!  He’s the only one that I really want to impress, and He already thinks I’m perfect just the way He made me!

And you know what I want to do now?  I want to have a whole heck of a lot of fun.  I want to live!  I’ve robbed myself of a lot of fun, connections with people, etc. because I’ve been so worried about everything!  But now that I feel free to be me, I feel like I’m constantly looking for fun.

Who can I talk to?  What can I create?  What can I do?  Where can I go?  What can I do to make things fun for others?  How do I find fun in every situation?

I haven’t had as much fun as I should have been having up to now because I couldn’t get past myself.

The fun is in moving past yourself and moving deeper into the lives of those around us.

And that’s what I plan to do!

Day 7

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After work today, I ran an errand with all 3 kids.  Let me tell you!  That takes hustle!

Then we came home, got Caleb to do homework, made homemade chili, and fed everyone.  All while doing that, I was putting together my new picture boards that I wanted to hang on our freshly painted hall.  So, I got them ready and then hung them up on the wall after dinner.  I love them!

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Then I made a bracelet with Caleb, got the kids to bed and started working on the books for the kids some more.  I’m not done, but I’m tired.

Today’s assignment is to stay WHO you are going to have help keep you accountable during these 30 days.  I have many friends who are reading this blog who are asking me about my hustle, so you are the ones I pick!  It’s fun keeping track on the blog what goes on during this time period.  I won’t do this everyday this year obviously, but it will be fun at the end of this month to look back and see what all I got done and remember along the way!

Hustle!

Day 6

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Today’s hustle included working more on the books I am putting together.

Then my mom came over tonight and we made a stepping stone with one of the kids’ handprints. We’ll do another one another night. Too cold and messy to do two tonight.

Then mom helped me paint some more upstairs. She is totally getting super mom points!!

WHERE I will be working on books is at home. On the couch. I love that couch!

The hustle is fun!

Day 5

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It’s amazing how I have wanted to do something for years, but I didn’t because I thought it would take too much time.  But then in the course of about an hour today, I did it!  What else have I not done and put off till later because I figure it’s going to take me a ton of time?  I’m a firm believer after today that all you have to do is decide to start something, and it’ll be done before you know it!

The kids and I had to miss church this morning because we didn’t want to possibly infect others with the flu even though everyone here is now feeling much better.  So, I fed the kids breakfast and then put clothes on them, fixed Sadie’s hair, and we had a photo session for the books that I wanted to make for the twins.  The kids actually did a really great job of participating for the pictures, and they thought it was really fun because I had a list of things that I wanted them to do.  They didn’t have to stick with each activity very long before the next one, so they thought it was awesome!

Tomorrow is my husband’s first day at his new work, so I wanted to do something kind of special for him.  He was at church this morning, so while he was gone, I printed encouraging signs and had the kids hang them all around the house.  The kids thought that was super fun too, so that worked out well!  And then they all decided that they would draw some signs for daddy on their own.  Then when he came home, they were all really excited about the signs and wanted to show them all to him.

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After I finished this, I worked on putting together the books for the twins that we had taken pictures for.  I got Luke’s book ready.  Then I had to go to the hospital to see a friend and then go to a movie with other friends.  After the movie, I went to the grocery store to get things we needed before everyone is back to school and work tomorrow.  Then I came home, put up the groceries, helped get the kids to bed and then put together Sadie’s book.  Now I’ll be able to print the books tomorrow and get them all ready to give the kids!

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I’m excited that I got so much done today, but especially that I actually started the books and got them ready to print all in the same day!  Now I’m motivated to do more!  And my plan is wait until I have at least a few more books done before I start seriously looking for publishing options.

And I’m super excited that it’s only Day 5, and I’ve gotten so much done already!  I’ve thought for years that there is so much in life that I want to do that I will not have the time to do.  But after these 5 days, I figure if I hustle as much as I can, I may fly through my list of dreams and get to dream new dreams!

Today’s assignment was to write down WHEN you were going to work on your goal.  For me, that was today!  My goal was to at least put together one book this month.  I did two today.  And now I’m stoked about doing more!

Bring on the hustle!

 

Day 4

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Not much hustle today. I mainly just watched the kids. They were all tired and fussy today, so that was full time duty

I’m making a list of things to do tomorrow though.

In the meantime, here’s a little how I’ll make my hustle fun:

  • taking cute pictures of the kids
  • being creative! That’s always fun!

    • Hustle on!!

    Things I learned from my mom: #1

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    “One of the most important things about life is the way you treat people.”

    I learned so much from my mom when I was growing up. She is full of wisdom, and she would share little nuggets of wisdom with us as situations arose.

    This is the one I remember her hitting home the most…at least with me. I remember her telling me this quite a bit. I probably needed to hear it a lot. :). But I never really grasped the truth and importance of this statement until the last few years or so.

    So how should we treat people? As a kid, I thought the answer was to just be nice. Not mean. But now I know that’s not enough. That’s not the answer. The answer is that we are to love everyone and act in love. To look beyond our own desires and do what it takes to make others feel loved and important.

    People are deeply longing to be loved. They yearn to feel accepted and loved. And the best way for us to share Christ with others is for us to show them love. Love is radical. Love is contagious. Love shines bright in a world of darkness and points to our loving Savior.

    In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God. The second is to love others.

    So the greatest thing we can do in life is to love people. To treat people as if they are accepted and loved just the way they are.

    My mom is a smart woman. 🙂

    Three things I learned from infertility

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    A friend I have been praying for over the last year is having her baby today.  This friend had struggled with infertility and miscarriages for years.  But today will be a very happy answer to so many prayers!  It’s an extremely exciting day, and I am thrilled that I got to pray for her along a small part of her journey.

    I once struggled with infertility myself.  And once you’ve gone through it, it is the biggest honor to get to share in someone else’s journey and be there for them during all of the unsureness, scariness, worries, up and downs, etc.  I hated every minute of my infertility journey while I was going through it.  But now that I’m through it, I’m honestly glad that I had to go through all of it.  Because now I get to connect with more people, and I love that I understand what they are going through and get to let them know that their feelings, frustrations, etc. are perfectly OK!  Recently, I had someone who has never gone through infertility come up to me to ask how she should talk to and interact with someone going through infertility, and I was so stoked that this person asked and that I got to share what I learned with her.

    I used to have another blog where I posted a few times about my infertility.  Below is a post I wrote about what I learned from that experience:

    The biggest thing I learned through this process was how to deal with people in grief…any kind of grief. Here’s what I learned regarding people in grief:

    1. Don’t offer advice. Just listen! Everyone wants to help others when they are struggling. It’s human nature. We hate to see others suffering. But most of the time, advice is not what the grieving person needs or wants. So many well-meaning people offered up advice to me, and I know they were doing it out of love. But the thing is, you hear the same advice over and over and over. Really, all I wanted someone to do is listen to me. I needed to vent and get things off my chest. If I got advice instead, there were many times that I would be really annoyed.
    2. Ask them about it! After I finally came out and told people what we were going through, there were really only 2 or 3 people that would ask me how I was doing and want to be updated on what was happening. I can’t tell you how much I LOVE those few people!! It made me feel great that they cared enough to ask, cry with me, etc. I have one sweet, sweet friend that even to this day, when she sees me starts tearing up. (There was even one time where she was with me when it was announced that someone was pregnant. I was fine and not feeling too bad until I looked over and tears were running down her face. It touched me so much that this friend understood what I was going through and cared for me that much!) These days it’s because she is so joyful for us. And every time I see her and these tears, I feel such great love for this friend. I want to be that kind of friend. I pray that if I know someone is struggling with ANYTHING, that I will be the friend that asks how they are doing, is not afraid to listen and help bear the burden with that person. Because really, isn’t that what Christ does for us?
    3. Pray for them and let them know that you are praying. We first announced our struggle to our LIFE Group at church, and I knew that they were immediately praying for us. Then a few weeks later, we did Cardboard Testimonies at church where we shared with the church on a simple piece of cardboard what we were going through. After this, I knew that the church was praying for us. I would have people tell me all the time that they were praying and thinking of us, and I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. Then the Sunday after everyone found out that we were having twins, it was like a huge party! People that I had no clue that were praying for us, came up saying they had been. It was wonderful! And honestly, this is an area where I need some work. I tend to easily forget to pray for others, and I am going to make this better because I know how great it was when others were praying for us.

    Day 3

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    Work was awesome again today! Got a ton done.

    Then my afternoon hustle got ransacked by the flu. But it became a whole new kind of hustle. I took 2 kids to the doctor (3 actually. One wasn’t sick.). Went to drop off prescriptions. Made a rainbow loom bracelet for my son. Picked up prescriptions. Made dinner. Cleaned the kitchen. Gave sick kid a bath. Etc.

    Here’s my HOW: take pictures of the kids doing some of their favorite things, put them in a document with a story about their favorite things then figure out a way to print and bind them. Also look into publishing options.

    I hope to get started on this this weekend since we are not going anywhere due to the flu!

    Ready, set, hustle!!

    Day 2

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    Another awesome day!  It was my first day back at work, and I got a ton of stuff done.  Narrowed my email down to 16 emails left.  Checking emails off my list included a ton of work!  I also started and completed a pretty big project in the matter of a couple hours with the help of a co-worker.  I was extremely happy with my work day!

    Then tonight, I ran errands, made dinner for the family and then my mom came over after me calling her at the last minute to come play with my new sewing machine…one of my goals for the year to learn how to sew.  Mom picked up fabric and thread on the way, and we made pillowcases for each of the kids.  It was awesome!  I actually feel pretty confident using the sewing machine now and have some projects picked out to work on next!

    ImageStill nothing to do with writing children’s books, but I will get there.

    In the meantime, here’s the WHY: When my oldest was learning to read, I kept thinking of all the books that I could write that he would be totally interested in that would help him learn to read.  Books that were about subjects he was interested in or even about his life.  I kicked myself for not doing this back then, and now that the twins are getting a little older, I would like to start doing this for them.  Also, sometime in the future, I would like to write some short stories for Caleb to read that are along the lines of things he is interested in.  I want my kids to have a love for reading like Mom and Dad do!

    I’ve enjoyed these two days so far and am hoping I am able to keep up the momentum!

    30 Days of Hustle

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    I joined Jon Acuff’s 30 Days of Hustle group, and I’m going to work as hard as I can for the next 30 days.

    My main goal for the group is to write children’s books for my kids.  I’ve wanted to write simple, easy to read books for my kiddos for years but have never done it.  This group is going to be my way of getting this goal accomplished.

    Today was Day 1.  Here’s what I did (that does not relate in any way, shape or form to writing children’s books, but hey, I feel better about myself for getting this stuff accomplished that’s been hanging over my head for a long time.):

    • Get my New Years cards ready to mail out since I didn’t get Christmas cards done…or NY’s cards out on time.  Oops! 🙂
    • Laundry folded and put up.  This sounds simple, but trust me, it’s not!  I loathe putting up clothes!  🙂
    • Chris painted our hall & stairway which required me to stand there and look at it a lot…and go to Home Depot once
    • I went through all of Luke’s clothes, bagged up the stuff that is too small and pulled out all of the bigger sizes.  Not a small job!
    • I went through my closet and bagged up stuff that I am wanting to get rid of.
    • I bought wooden plaques a long time ago to paint and then mount pictures on to put on our stairwell.  Since Chris was painting the stairwell, I wanted to get this project done ASAP too!
    • I went to the grocery store
    • I ordered pizza for dinner and went and picked it up.  Hey, it’s New Year’s Day.  Time to celebrate!
    • And also in celebrating mode, the twins and I went to Dairy Queen with my parents and my brother and his kids. Fun!

    So, like I said, none of this has to do with writing children’s books, but I got a ton of stuff done and I was totally hustling, so I feel really good about the day!

    I would appreciate any encouragement as I go through these 30 days.  I’m excited about what’s going to happen!

    A few other goals that I have for this year:

    • Try my hand at painting art
    • Learn to sew – One project  -DONE!
    • Paint my kitchen cabinets – DONE!
    • Put together family photo albums from over the years
    • Get more organized overall
    • Write my certification paper