Okay, so maybe food shouldn't be my featured "happiness" again today.

 

However, it's more than just the amazing food that made me so stinking happy today.

 

It's also the fact that today was the first decent day after an extremely long winter we could fire up the grill and enjoy being outside without freezing our butts off.  

The other aspect to being such a great day was the location and the company.   For several years now I have helped out at "The Mansion" as we call it.   The Mansion is a 12,000 sqft vacation rental home located on Lake Michigan, the views are breathtaking. 
 The final aspect was the company.  Today we had an impromptu meeting for everyone who "works" at The Mansion.  We all do seperate jobs and stuff so we rarely see each other.  It was a nice treat to hang out with and spend time with those I rarely see, it happens not nearly enough. 

100 Happy Days

100 Happy Days has a purpose.  The purpose is to focus on 1 thing EVERY DAY for 100 days (no matter what is happening) that makes you happy, photograph it and share it. The belief is that by doing this in 100 days it will change how you view life in general and you will be more positive everyday.  Who doesn't need more positivity in their day right?  So I am going for it.   

The general purpose wasn't to do to as a blog but to use on Social Media such as FB, Twitter, Instagram etc.   (Yes I have these and yes I will post there) but I am a story teller to, so here I will utilize the space to not just pictures but the stories as well.

One of my favorite things to do is to get creative with cooking and to cook with others.  I am blessed to have a great friend who also loves to cook and try her hand a creative cooking.   Not everything we do is a success, but thankfully we have many more successes than we do failures.  

Tonight we tried our hand a Mexican spread and EVERYTHING was a success, except the kitchen which was a disaster.   Despite the mess and the full bellies that have to clean up that mess, it was a great night hanging out with friends and enjoying the wonderful food we made.

There truly is something to be said about gathering together and sharing a meal that brings people closer together. 

To be broken

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

Napoleon Hill

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/growth.html#W2mTRtIF5z6uoh8q.99

“We are all wonderful, beautiful wrecks. That's what connects us--that we're all broken, all beautifully imperfect.”
― Emilio Estevez

Life is a journey that is best lived through experience and acceptance of said experiences.  There is no way to live a life fully without the possibility of becoming broken at one time or another.  We are all bound by our hurts, pains and brokenness.  It's how we learn to live with and deal with the shattered pieces and torn moments of our life that truly and completely defines who we are as people and also the magnitude to which we live out our lives. 

We have become a culture that compares ones broken pieces to another persons broken pieces.   We allow that to define who has the right to hurt and suffer more based on the situation to which one was shattered.  The problem with that is there is no definition of what it means to suffer.  A woman who is raped is no less broken down than a man that lost his wife to infidelity.  A man that was abused is no less broken than a woman who lost her parents.  The pain we travel through is individual, it is not less or greater than another persons.  It is the same and it is painful.  It's the times of trial and how we handle them that make up the life we live. 

Broken people, like all, have a choice on how they will allow the brokenness to define and dictate their lives.  It doesn't matter what your situation is.  If you have have experienced pain that has broken you, then you are broken, what that experience was is irrelevant. What is relevant is how you let it define you and shape you.  Do you, in your pain, strike out at another and hurt them?  Or rather do you allow your pain and broken pieces to heal through helping another in their moments of brokenness? 

How you choose to handle these moments will set the course for who you become when the pieces are put back together and you become a more whole version of yourself.  And regardless of where you are now, you will heal.  It may not seem possible now, but in time you will heal.  You may never forget those that hurt you or the situation that shattered you, but you will carry on to live another day and eventually you will learn to smile again. 

2014 Get Ready...........Here I Come!

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. -George Bernard Shaw 

2014 is here!

I often wonder if I am the only person who gets super excited about the New Year?  For me the New Year is a chance to wash away the past and move into the future with new goals and dreams.  It's silly probably but I get more excited about New Years than I do Christmas!! <---look so excited I give double exclamation points.

I am so excited to see what all 2014 has in store for myself, my family and those I do life with.  I have a few things planned on the agenda already that have me totally pumped for this year.  The anticipation of what is coming that I can't imagine has me giddy with anticipation.  Will this be the year that I get another tattoo?  Will this be the year that I am finally published (not in a magazine, done that)?  Maybe 2014 will bring forth Love?  I can't wait to find out!

So here are some of my Goals this year (I don't do Resolutions)

Nurture Important Relationships
Volunteer Monthly
Focus on My Career
Passionately embrace my passions
Give Back
Keep My Heart Open
Remain Positive
Health and Body
Counsel
God First
Continue to work Acceptance, Forgiveness and Letting Go
Dance in the Rain
Get Lost so I can find myself again
Love the Adventure

Not an exciting list, but I do find it has lead to an exciting life. 


Let's do this 2014

Goodbye 2013

 

 

"Ends are not bad things, they just meant that something else is about to begin."

C. Joybell C

As 2013 quickly and abruptly comes to a close I will, as I always do, sit back and reflect on 2013 as I anticipate the New Year coming.  As I sit back and look at the 365 days that made this year I can only smile, laugh and rejoice.

As 2012 closed I had made up my mind to shut the door on all the difficulties that had encompassed and claimed my life for too long.  Enough was enough and it was time to really live life to the fullest.  I can say with confidence and pride, I did just that through all of 2013.

As that new dawn of 2013 lit up the sky,  I entered a new dawn of my own.  I had for the most part secluded myself for the last few years from everyone except immediate family and those I had to deal with.  As I rose January 1st 2013 I opened the door to my life to others.  A difficult and anxiety provoking task, but one of the long term best decisions I made.  Those who I had kept at arms length were now allowed to enter the barricades I had built around myself. 

Early in the year a song came on the Radio that so accurately described where I had been and where I was going in my life!  I embraced that song and made it my theme song.  I had spent much of my life "catching my breath and letting it go, turning my cheek for the sake of the show".  Throughout the last dozen years, I became conditioned to "riding waves, playing acrobat, shadow boxing the other half, learning how to react".  It wasn't the life I dreamed of or much of a life to live.  So in 2013 I decided it was time to STOP and nobody or nothing was " Going to hold me back, I ain't go time for that." My "heavy heart became a weightless cloud" I was determined that I would be "making time for the ones that count,  laughing hard with the windows down, leaving footprints all over town, keeping faith till it comes around".

While 2013 hasn't been free from challenges, it's hard to sit here late on December 31st and remember them specifically. That's huge!!!!

Throughout the course of the year I LIVED to the truest sense of the word for me.  I truly left footprints not just all over town, but all over the state. I met new people, I made goals and accomplished them, I experienced new adventures, I challenged myself, tested myself and learned to truly accept myself.  I made new friends and renewed the friendships of others.  I shut the door on those that were toxic and I focused on living the life I had always wanted.   I embraced change.  I forgave and forged ahead to enjoy many firsts and bask in past-times once forgotten. 

As 2013 closes I will look back in fondness at the memories made and the life lived and I will excitedly embrace the New Year with the same zest as I close this one out with.  I look forward to embracing new adventures again, meeting new people and continuing to learn to live in the moment and accept things as they come. I am sure there will be situations that test my strength, resolve and patience.  Times when acceptance is hard and letting go is harder.  I am sure there will be moments where insecurities slip in and my past fears surface.  But as long as I laugh more than I cry, rejoice more than I mourn and live more than I exist, it will be another year as spectacular as this one.

Little Things

This second day journey into 2013 has been one full of little things that made it a beautiful day. 

I am often amazed at how the little things can add up to become big things in the course of life.  For me those little things came in the form of my children and the constant blessings they offer, when I least expect it.

It started with a text from my oldest son (11) wishing me a good morning and telling me how much he missed me at his overnight.

Next came watching my youngest son (10) greet his friends for a spontaneous afternoon of sledding and snow football. 

Then came the amazing dinner with my oldest child (16), a rare one on one moment that left my heart almost bursting with love, joy and comfort.  I didn't think anything could top off the amazing time I had with just my oldest daughter, but my youngest daughter and her friend were able to top it off.

The final small part to make my beautiful day came in the imagination and innocent play of my youngest (7) and her friend (8) as they played for hours, using imagination and a few props.  I quietly listened as they worked together to build a house out of a Jenga game.  Once the house was built I listened as their compassionate hearts nurtured hurt pet shop pets back to life and guided their babies into making right decisions instead of wrong ones.  In this wired world, their innocent imagination was the icing on the cake to this beautiful day.

The best parts of life often come in small, unimagined moments.  I am so thankful that I got to remember that today, time and time again through the blessing of my children. 

Psalm 127:3-5

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Unwritten

New Years for me has always been a time of both reflection and renewal.  New Year is the ultimate reminder to me that hope, promise, change and enrichment exist and are ours for the taking, if we choose to take it.  This year the promise of a new beginning and the knowledge that I was finally ready to write the words in the blank pages of life, has been healing; as well as: exciting.

The last three years have been extraordinarliy tough.  They have pushed me and pulled me in every direction.  They have tested, tried, twisted and tortured me at every turn and they have brought me to my knees too often.

The final trial and twist of 2012 has been by far the hardest yet and it left me feeling beaten.  I, for a moment, gave up.  I spent a short time not caring, not wanting, not needing, not hoping.  I questioned and examined every aspect of my life from myself to my beliefs and still felt beaten and ready to give it all up and accept a life of solitude and misery.  But that has NEVER been the true me.
I just don't know to quit.

So as I reflected through 2012, I looked through the trials and into the positive that came from them, came to conclusions about changes I needed to make and truly got excited for the stroke of midnight and the ball to drop that would allow me to move forward.

So this year is mine.  It is about me.  This year is about New beginnings, new chapters and a new life.  It's about writing the life that God has always intended for me to have. It's about pursuing my dreams and kicking fear out the door.  It's about life.  My life and it starts here.

Romans 12:2     

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.