What I Know For Sure......

Here are some things that I have learned, over the past 43 years that I'm certain of, without a doubt!
What I know for sure........

1. Jesus is Lord! My personal relationship with my Saviour Jesus Christ has sustained me, encouraged me, and challenged me to become a true witness of his grace, mercy and love. This is my source of inspiration. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:1, 2 KJV
2. Family is the beginning of all things. In the safety and security of the home, family is nurtured, developed, and created. My hope is that the home is always a place that is safe, where individuals can continually grow and be nurtured.
3. Compromise causes loss. In the end when we compromise our beliefs, our passions, our dreams, ourselves we loose, and those around us miss out on the best of who we are. Know in whom you believe and don't let anyone persuade you to move from a place of strength and vitality.

What I know for sure.......

A Week in My Life - Day 1 - Monday, April 19, 2010

Well, I am meeting the challenge of the Ali Edwards, Week in my life. It's the first day, and I've taken pictures and I am now documenting my day so far.

Morning
1:00am - Went to Sleep
(While I was sleeping in,.....Ramsey was up with Jeremiah at 5am, playing and laughing, changing his diaper,and giving him a bottle or two. One at 5:30am and one at 7:30am, when I got up. Jason had eaten his waffle and strawberries and milk by 7:30am as well. Thanks Dad for the extra hand today.)
7:30am - Awake! Head straight to the shower, for a long hot 20 minute shower, since Ramsey was off work today. I even got to wash my hair. Woo Hoo! What a great start of the day. Went into living room to say good morning to Jeremiah, who just laughed and kicked his feet. Jason had already come bed side to climb in bed with me, and get me up. Thanks Jason. Oh a good morning kiss, from my hubby too!
7:50am - Get dressed, that's simple because I'm headed to the gym after I drop off the boys at childcare. Iron clothes for each of us. Jason's dressed, Mom is dressed, and daddy is dressing Jeremiah. Good work!
Now, the needs of the day: Make 4 bottle's for Jeremiah to take to Honeygram's Childcare. He'll drink three, and have one for the 5pm feeding at home already to drink. Give Jason his Zyrtec and nose spray. It's key in preventing a flare up of his allergies during this season. Jason washes his face, brushes his teeth, while I comb my hair, put on contacts, and brush my teeth. Done! Next stop the car.
8:30am - Loading the car for the day, Jeremiah's diaper bag, bottles by the door, so I can grab them on the way out and not forget them in the refrigerator, my laptop computer bag, my purse, and a bag of healthy snacks for the day.

To start my pictures of the day, I took a picture of my white Iris that greeted me as I walked out of the door. "Good Morning, Kelly", it sang.

8:50am - Jason loaded in car, Jeremiah all buckled in, and we're off to Honeygram's childcare for dropoff.
9:00am - Arrive at Honeygrams' signed in kids, put bottles in refrigerator, and unbuckled Jeremiah to hand him to Honeygram. Chat a little bit and update Honeygram on the weekend's actvitiy, and about the boys. Said goodbye to them both, and head to the gym.

9:15am - Stop by McDonald's for a sausage biscuit and hash brown, for some energy to workout.

9:30am - Head to mademoiselles to work out. Today is upper body and cardio.
9:45am - Good morning to Shirley, the fitness trainer at mademoiselles, and off to the bikes for 15 minutes of cardio work. As I ride the bicycle, I watch Joyce Meyer on the ipod, " Eat the Cookies, Buy the Shoes" Great video and the book is now out, so make a note to buy it today at Borders. Started a new workout, with the addition of floor crunches, abdominal crunches, and 10lb stretch for obliques.
10:15am - Call from Susan, for a reminder for lunch. Cut workout short, to meet her at 11:00am for lunch. I will build 30 minutes cardio into my afternoon or evening routine to make up.
10:40am - Stop at bank to get some cash for lunch. Called Susan to reschedule lunch for 11:30am instead of 11:00am.
10:55am - Home to change out of workout clothes and into dress clothes for lunch.
11:15am - Okay off to meet Susan at Shartel Cafe' on 50th and Shartel
11:20am - Arrive at Shartel Cafe' and Susan and I decide to eat at Adobe Grill, which is right next door. The food was delicious, except for the Mexican cheese that was sprinkled on my tacos. So I scrapped it off and ate the insides of my tacos instead. We had a variety of salsas and they were all delicious. Our waiter was superior to all I've had and very attentive.
12:15pm - After lunch we take a ride to Susan's husband new office space. He is a liscensed LPC, and just completed his CARFcertification process as an agency.
12:35pm - Okay, missed my morning coffee, so a stop at Starbucks for a cup of coffee and a chocolate cookie. (Eat the Cookie...Buy the Shoes)
12:55 - To Work, for the afternoon.
4:03pm - Posting my first notes to my blog recording my day. I'll have to add the pictures as well.

4:30pm - Headed to Border's to pick up Joyce Meyer's newest book, "Eat the Cookie, Buy the Shoes" and some new colored pens.

Focusing on What Matters Most

The days that we spend with family are always eventful and full of energy, excitement, activity, and lots of laughs. Today my three year old and I sat at the dining room table to eat dinner. He was full of stories and had lots to share about his day at childcare, who did what to whom, what he saw outside, what he played with, and who obeyed and disobeyed Honeygram, his childcare provider.

As I sat listening to him, I remembered how many evenings I spent at the dinner table with my sisters, and all of the conversations we had as we ate. My parents were close by, in the kitchen talking about the news, and politics and the days events.

I always wondered why we never all sat down together, but now as a parent I understand it well. Although it's my intention to sit as a family together each night, and share a meal and conversation it sometimes gets put aside for just getting through the evening routines of dinner, baths, bedtime stories, and cuddle time with my hubby. (which is always last on the list, and rarely attained within the week)

So here's my tip for the week on focusing on what matters most:
1. Determine what your "matters most" priorities are. Mine are always the same, God, Family, Service to others, and Creativity.

2. Forgive yourself if you don't get to the "matters most" everyday. Try to achieve something each day, and work towards getting it all done over longer periods of time, months, quarterly, annually, depending on what's happening in your day.

3. Keep "matters most" item on your radar by placing them on your to do list, or calendar. Anything left to itself, never gets done. The planned is always carried out.

4. Celebrate simple achievements! Today, I sat at the dinner table and ate a meal with my son. No magazines, no computer, just conversation and good food. Wow! That is an accomplishment.

5. Keep first things first! Enough said.

Good night, time to go cuddle with my hubby!

Re-Creating Ourselves, Our Lives

This week has come and gone and it's Friday now. Where it went I have no idea, but here are a few things that I learned this week.

1. Boundaries are a good thing, especially when you meet someone for the first time. Good rule of thumb, keep a distance between you and the new person, about arms length works well. The person I met, didn't know this rule.

2. Webinars are a great source of information, and I attended two this week. One on social marketing and another blogging. I was trying to get caught up in the digital age that is growing so fast. Come to find out, I am not so far behind. I do know quite a few terms and I use social media to my surprise all the time.

3. Here's a tip, for doing a webinar. Have an objective, cover the objectives, and don't use the time for cross-talk between the sponsor and the presenter. Hello...... there is an audience out there that wants to actually learn something on their lunch break in a 30 minute webinar, that you spend 25 minutes talking to each other. Oh well, I guess I better learn about blogging by .....hmmm! blogging. LOL

4. When scheduling your week, month, year be sure to schedule time for doing nothing. The week was long because I forgot to schedule downtime to do nothing. Lesson learned, and next week is a new month to try again.

Not bad, 5 days, and 4 lessons. That's all for now.

Do as I say, not as I do!

How many times did we here that growing up......do as I say, not as I do. We vowed never to use those words, not to become our parents, and to do everything better than it was done when we were children. Well the day of reckoning is now hear. As a mother of a brilliant, vivacious, mouthy, opinionated two year old my thoughts have changed. I have become my parents, both mom and dad at intermittent times. I often respond to the question, "why?" with "because I said so". Here are some things I've learned in the short time I've been parenting:

1. Children are a combination of their God-given ability, their parents DNA, and the environment that they are exposed to.
2. Every behavior you need to change, will be picked up by your child and demonstrated to you multiple times during the day.
3. As a parent, you develop eyes in the back of your head. Our parents really did have them, although they weren't apparent to us.
4. Keep it simple. Complicated things make for long transitions an d impossible mornings and evenings.
5. More to come.....