Blessings

It has been a while since I have posted.  The last few weeks I have been reflecting on just how blessed I am.  I have two wonderful jobs. I have parents who support me. I have a brother and sister in law that is just fun to talk to. I have a wonderful guy I have been seeing the last couple of months.  I have been really blessed!

I see people who are struggling with life and going through tragedies and it makes me so much more grateful for who and what I have in my life!!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

New Year's Resolutions (or lack of)

I lost my full time job at the end of August.  Since then I have been re-evaluating what I want to do in life.  I knew when I started that job I didn't want to retire from it. It was a filler to help me get through hard times. I learned from it.  But since then I have been trying to decide what my calling in this life is so I have been thinking about resolutions and goals for the next year since then and have really come up with a theme instead of a list.

The theme is - Intentional.

There are times I waste entire days doing nothing but rewatching episodes on tv. Or went to bed not feeling like I accomplished anything.  There were days I went to work and didn't feel like I had been useful.

This year I want to change that. I want to live my life with intention and purpose. I have been thinking of areas that need more intention and I will share just a few of them.

Health- I want everything I eat and drink to be helpful to me somehow, even if that means a cup of coffee that brings two friends closer.  I am not saying never to splurge and have treats but limit them to special occasions. I want to get on a schedule for workouts and get the most from each and every workout I have.

Relationships- I don't mean just romantic relationships, I mean romantic (if applicable), friends, family, people at work, strangers in the store, any kind of relationship I could have.  Let the people in my life know I love them. Do things for them. Spend time with them. Make more dinner/coffee dates. Be present in my time with  them. Know what is going on in their lives. Share in the hard times and the good.

Spending-  Money management has always been a struggle for me. This year I want to be intentional in my spending. Set budgets, buy only the things I need, spend on others, spend wisely.  I have been doing some reading on different methods on controlling money so hopefully with knowledge I will get  a handle on it.

Jobs- I have a job at the Y and will be starting one at the hospital in the next couple of days.  I want to feel like what I am doing matters and the best way to do that is to be intentional with my work. Interact with the people I meet.  I may not stay in these jobs for the rest of my life but I do think I can make a difference where I am.

Self- talk/Appearance-   I am very good at negative self talk and that is not healthy at all, so I am trying to change the voice in my head to be more positive about myself. I would never let a stranger talk to me like I talk to myself, so why should I tolerate it from me?  One thing to help with that is to put time into my appearance.  There are weeks I am good at just throwing on a t shirt and skirt and not putting any thought into it.  I am working on getting a more adult wardrobe so I don't look so young (I had someone tell me today I looked ten years younger than I am! ) I am working on a curated wardrobe that looks more business casual than casual.

Devotions- I get lax on my devotions more times than I care to admit.  I am learning that the only way to make it through the good times and the bad is to rely on my faith. My faith will only grow if I keep up with my devotions.  I am going to keep up with my group from college and read along with them on their books. I also have a wonderful app called She Reads Truth.   I love plans they have and the daily emails and the deep thoughts they put with the Scripture.

Blog- I have let this blog kind of fall by the wayside a few times. I want to be more intentional with this space.  I originally started this space to encourage people in all areas of life, and I ended up focusing more on me than I did others, and that is changing! I want to focus on others more, because then I realize my problems aren't all that big!


I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year and as a member tells me every time he sees me Be kind to yourselves!!!!

Quick Update

This last week has been really hectic but also partly relaxing ( I know that does not make much sense!)

I teach a class at the local community college and I have had to prepare the midterms. Then give them and then grade them and try to figure out why no one studied.

I had a job interview at a restaurant/coffee shop that I absolutely love and would love to work for the owners.

I have been teaching a class at the Y and trying to figure out what I am doing with that.

And then the relaxing part.  My parents were so wonderful to take me on their annual beach trip to see a mud bog. So I spent the weekend with my internet and data turned off and enjoyed the peace.

I have done lots of working out since I started fitness Fridays (mostly walking/running) but keep forgetting to take my measurements.  I am going to make myself a note to take pictures and measurements for this Friday and we will see how it works.  I am also going to meet with a personal trainer at the Y and get started lifting weights to go with my cardio.

I hope you are having a wonderful week!!!!  Now enjoy some pictures from my weekend!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Before

After it flipped twice

 

She was protesting the selfie

 

I don't know why I needed to sit on a turtle but I did.
(But I am also the one who had fish for supper, and saw a fish in a tank and said to the fish, "I ate your brother." and creeped everyone out.)

                               

All selfies with mom because daddy refuses to take pictures so I am glad she doesn't protest too much!

Child-like Faith

I have mentioned lately that I am a very independent person, and the drawbacks and positives of that.  For some reason the verse that says "except we come to the Father as a child."  (may not be word for word.)  I have a god-daughter that is two, and several girls that range from ages 8-14 that trust me and consider me one of their favorite people.  It does not matter what I tell them, they trust me and believe me.  My two year old god-daughter runs to me when she is scared (if her parents are not there.) and she trusts me to keep her safe.  She has no doubt that I will take care of her if at all possible.

I wonder if that's the reason God wants us to run to him and have child like faith.  I, as an adult, try to fix all my problems myself, and then when everything falls apart I turn to Him and beg Him to fix it before I have to ask other people to help.

I know I am not the only adult to continue in this cycle of insanity (by Einstein's definition).  God continually tells us in His Word to trust Him and He will take care of His children.  I wonder if He is grieved when we become too independent to need His help.  I know even as an adult I still need my parents and would not know what to do without them.  In some ways, with them, I am still a child.  I seek their approval, guidance, companionship, and love.  And as their child, I don't think that will ever stop.  That is what God is wanting from us, is for us to seek Him and trust Him.

Where have you become independent lately?

Pride

I have never really considered myself a proud person, but I really hate asking for help with anything. I am a very independent person. I like to do things for myself. I get really surprised when people offer to help me when I haven't even mentioned that I need help.

I had to break down and ask for help in several areas in the last month or so. I honestly think that part of my transition between jobs was about teaching me to accept help and to break my pride in not asking.

I feel like when I have to ask for help, that somehow I have failed in that particular area in my life. I hold myself to absolutely ridiculous standards sometimes. Just like the class I am teaching for the first time, I expected to be able to go in and teach like all of the experienced instructors I have had in my education. That has not happened at all. I have problems keeping them the whole allotted time (which I have to do), finding things interesting enough to say in the allotted time, and engaging with the students. I felt like they found me boring and uninteresting, and I felt the judgment and almost broke down in class. I expected to be perfect and I wasn't and I dissappointed myself.

I feel like this was pride taking over. I have been relatively good in the activities (whether work or play) I have participated in and I feel like when I am not immediately good at a particular activity that I have failed, and that is absolutely ridiculous. Where did I get these standards for myself? I would never impose these on anyone else. I was told over and over it was going to be hard. My thoughts were, “I can handle hard. I can do it. No problem. I am accustomed to hard work.”

Truth is, I can do it. I am not perfect. I will mess up. I will fail. This semester is my first and I will make plenty of mistakes. That I need to be taking notes of what I have messed up on and fix it later.

Truth is, I have a problem with pride I really didn't realize I had, until I was reduced to tears asking for help in a situation feeling like a failure. Pride goeth before a fall, and I felt like I had definitely fell. It really just hit me a couple of days ago why I felt like I had failed at life. I thought I had everything figured out, that I could do everything myself and without any help. How wrong I was.

What are you struggling with today? Are you feeling like you have failed because your standards for yourself are too high?

Fitness Friday

So I was going to start doing my personal physical updates on Thursdays and then I completely forgot yesterday (I am so sorry!) because I was having a pretty good, full day yesterday.  And I really like the name Fitness Friday!

So my starting measurements are (all in inches)

Bust-42

Waist-39

Hips-46


I haven't taken a picture of me in my workout attire yet.  I am hoping to start using the walking track at the Y next week.  I was going to do Zumba classes on Tuesdays but they have scheduled me some counseling sessions on Tuesday evenings every week this month so I might have to do the morning ones or find a different class.  But I will get pictures soon.


What are your fitness goals?

Hope you are having a wonderful Friday and looking forward to the weekend!

Honestly Me

I have found myself in the position to put more time into this blog as well as some other life changes, so I have been researching on how to blog efficiently and really well.  The advice I come across most frequently is to be yourself and be authentic.  I am normally an outgoing person with real potential to be sarcastic if I know it won't hurt your feelings.  With my family and friends, I am always teasing and joking and really try to encourage those around me.  Somehow on this blog I think I come across more polite and more of the negative things in my life come out on this space.

I want this space to be uplifting, not covering up the negative, but seeing the positive light in a negative situation.  I want my teasing and joking side to come across on this space.  My sarcasm should probably only come in small amounts.

I am teaching a nutrition class at my community college now and I am doing some nutrition counseling through the YMCA I work at.  With my job at the Y, I was given a membership and I am going to put it to use by improving my physical self, while taking measures to improve the other areas of myself.  This space is about A Life Made Well, and I want that to reflect every area in life.  So on Thursdays, I am going to post pictures and measurements and some improvements (hopefully there won't be setbacks, but that is really unrealistic to think like that!) and hopefully some tips on improving your nutrition and overall physical health.  I want to start with the Zumba classes offered.

Lately, I have been really insecure with who I am, so I am trying to work on that area of my life but that is for another post.  I literally had to have a pep talk with myself in the bathroom Monday afternoon (so glad someone didn't walk in and see me talking to myself) about how I should quit worrying about what the people I was talking to thought of me. That they would not shoot me if I made a mistake.  I am hoping to improve my mental state as I improve my physical state.

I know this is a long post to announce I am going to be putting myself, my real self, out there.  If I am always hiding my real self from people I don't know what I am missing out on.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday!