Journey on Yourself

People often comment about my organizational skills and how I keep it all together. I have to admit, I don’t have to work too hard at it, it’s just who I am. I do not fly by the seat of my pants well at all! In fact, I don’t even function under those circumstances. I like my house neat and tidy and clean, I like my closets organized, my drawers, my cabinets etc. I don’t do it to please anybody else but me.  I like my schedule planned and I like structure. Call me OCD if you would like but being organized and life running smoothly is how I need to roll. Back in November I begin working 2 jobs and started this blog so I was very thankful I had already laid the ground work for an organized life. This is not to say that I don’t at times struggle, get tired, get all out of whack and shut down, and if you are not the most organized, if it doesn’t come naturally to you, rest assured you can work on it, BUT don’t beat yourself up in the process! Below I am going to share just a few of my favorite tips for keeping it together.

Let me start by first saying this. I start every day with at least 10-15 minutes of prayer, mediation, gratefulness and declarations and then exercise. A great book that I can recommend that helped get me started is called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. Let me urge you to start getting up a few minutes early every day and start your day this way. It will set the tone for your entire day. The days I do not do this, I feel it all day long! My days do not run smoothly when I don’t, and when I just jump out of bed and run like crazy the entire day. By the time my day is at the end, I have nothing left!

Scheduling:

Let’s just start with a schedule to begin with. My all time favorite day timer is the Whitney English Day Designer. You can check it out here: www.daydesigner.com. I have tried a few different ones and always go back to this one. The first part of the Day Designer is setting your word and your goals for the year. I love to do this at the end of the year for the new year. The other thing I love about this is each day has it’s own page and not only are there places for your appointments, there is a to do list that you can check off, a notes section, daily gratitude section, things that are due, things you don’t want to forget and a place for dinner. Aside from that, each day has a great motivational saying. I urge you to check it out. This is how I keep my days organized, get where I need to be, and have my to do list right in one spot. This year, I also added a white board calendar to the wall in my office. Six days in, this has already proven beneficial. I just ordered that at Amazon. Both of these items get me through 2 jobs, my daughter’s cheer calendar, my workouts and everywhere else I am supposed to be!

Home Organization:

The cabinets in my bathrooms absolutely looked like bombs went off recently. I went to Lowes and bought these clear plastic containers with lids. I organized them by cold and flu, pain, bandages, extra supplies, my husband has his own of the things he uses every day, the kids have one with their stuff they use every day, shoe polishes and cleaners, etc. They stack nicely in the cabinet and you can see what you need quickly and easily.  In my pantry I have an array of different things to help me stay organized. Glass jars from Walmart, cereal containers from Sam’s Club, baskets from Bed, Bath and Beyond, containers from Dollar Tree.  Anywhere I was able to find items I bought them. I like my pantry organized when the doors are open in my kitchen. Not to mention, you can easily see what you’re looking for, and there’s no digging!

Grocery Shopping:

This is a no brainer! Kroger Clicklist or Walmart grocery pick up has both saved my life! I plan my meals out for the week, sit down to my laptop and grocery shop! Pay and pick up at the designated time! Can I just tell you this saves my sanity, not to mention my wallet! And how nice they load your groceries for you! Score! I prefer Walmart grocery pick up, there’s no fee. On that note though, let me share this tip with you. I once wondered just what the price difference was between Kroger, paying their $5 fee and Walmart, which is free pick up. If you have good coupons for Kroger it’s roughly the same amount of money. I did a trial one time between the two sites and it was a couple dollars different with coupons for their prices. Walmart is just closer to me so I use Walmart. All you working moms and busy working women out there, this is a life saver. It does take a little planning but man is it worth it! While we’re on the subject of food, I am a huge crock pot person too! I have found some amazing recipes on Pinterest! This also is a life saver. Another thing I do is on Sunday’s, I always make a big meal that will feed everybody Sunday and Monday. Monday’s are hectic enough!

Meal planning to keep my nutrition on track:

Sunday is my meal prep day day. I make up a weeks worth of protein shakes and stock the fridge, make sure I have a box of protein bars to take to work and make my meals. I will cut up veggies, brown my ground chicken or turkey, and make my lunch meals. I bought enough containers to get me through a week of lunches for work. If I do not do this on Sunday, I do not stick to my meal plans. Honestly, I don’t know any other way to tell you that makes your nutrition a priority! If I can’t just grab my food out of the fridge as I run out the door on Monday morning, I will make bad choices. There are plenty of places to buy healthy food choices these days around the country, but I love to cook and I can cook so I make my own. If you do not, check out places in your area.

Vacation packing:

I have been known to have a suitcase setting out 1 to 2 weeks ahead of a trip. I begin by laying out the clothes I want for a few days. This allows me to look at them and make a final decision before packing the suitcase. I keep a bathroom bag stocked at all times so that just gets a glance over and put in. I have space saver bags and bags to keep everything organized. I just like to know that as I leave, one there’s no stress about last minute packing and two I am prepared for everything! Last minute packing is stressful and you inevitably forget something! I also have my bag packed for the plane with my books, magazines and snacks.

Just a few last tips. Every night before bed, I always pick out my clothes for work and lay out my workout clothes and tennis shoes. I lay out my shoes, jewelry and anything I will need. I also make sure my purse and briefcase are ready and sitting out on the bar. My husband and I set out the coffee, set out our mugs, and he will set the timer. I get my gym bag ready and make my workout drinks as well. Mornings can be so hectic. Anything you do ahead of time I promise will remove the stress away from your morning!

I hope you have maybe found some tips to help you be more organized in 2019 and to take some of the craziness out of life!

With love for you all!

Shauna

Websters defines a resolution as the act of determining. Websters defines a goal as the end toward which effort is directed. Both words have great meaning and we have great need for both in our lives, but for some reason I feel that when we just simply set a resolution, we don’t truly have the end in our sight. What do we really want. I talked earlier this week about where are we going? Maybe you know what you want, and where you want to end up, but are you really planning and setting a course of action into place to actually get there? As we sit and reflect on 2018 and look longingly toward 2019, I urge you to take some time for yourself over the next couple of days, and really lay out a plan and set some real tangible goals.

For me, I have a few things I plan to work toward in 2019, so today, the image above reflects a few tings I am doing to prepare. This might not be an earth shattering, inspirational blog to some today, but I hope in sharing my thoughts, maybe it will prompt something deep in your soul to take a minute for you, and really make 2019 the year you deserve. Don’t wait until this time next year to wish you had done something different to change things. I think sometimes we want to spend time blaming circumstances and blaming other people for where we’re at, but truly, wasting time blaming others is time wasted not changing, and you are the only one that can control that! What if your favorite sports team decided they didn’t need practice, they didn’t need a game plan, tonight for the big game, they just trust their talent and they’re going to show up at game time, just get out there and see what happens. What do you think would happen? I doubt they would win, and they would have unhappy fans who paid big money to come watch them. We may not be professional athletes, but it really is the same thing. It’s like Benjamin Franklin once said “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”. It really is as simple as that!

I have recently let my health take a back burner, but that’s about to change. Tomorrow at 7 a.m. I will be in the gym, back with my trainer turning that around. I have my protein shakes made up, my supplements all counted out and in containers, my gym bag ready and later I will meal prep. I love, love, love the gym, but if I don’t plan in this area, schedule my training, prep my meals, lay out my gym clothes, set an alarm etc. this takes a back burner, and I deserve to be the healthiest version of myself.

I also went to Walmart this morning, bought poster boards and I am going to be making my 2019 vision boards. Call me silly, call me crazy, but as I start to see things on that board come to fruition thought out this year, it won’t feel so crazy.

The last thing I plan to do today is set down with my Whitney English Day Designer and lay out my goals, what I want to accomplish this year, how many months it is going to take, set my top goals, and make a plan to attack them! I have said it before but even back in the Bible it talked about without a vision, the people parish. This really is not a new thought, or new idea, for generations people have talked about having a vision and a plan of attack, and without one you will accomplish nothing. You will hit nothing if you aim at nothing!

I hope today that you don’t feel like you don’t need to set goals, maybe you don’t work outside of the home, or you feel there’s really nothing you need to do to change things in your life, but we all have things we need to prepare for. Maybe planning doesn’t come naturally to you, but maybe that’s your plan for 2019, to work on planning and making your life run smoother! Life is cray cray and we are wearing ourselves down by not making a plan. I promise if you listen to me, if nothing else, you will feel just a little less stressed and pressured in the new year! Here’s to a great 2019 and great things for us all!

With love for you all,

Shauna

I haven’t been real inspired lately to blog until a few days ago when I was scrolling through Facebook and this quote from Zig Ziglar came across my screen. It literally jumped off the page at me. I thought I had a clear direction earlier this year on where I was going, but it all came to a screeching halt back in the fall. I have written about life changes earlier in another post, about being at a crossroads, and trying to decide which way to go. It’s so easy when life shifts you in a direction you didn’t see coming to lose focus, and to totally knock you off course. I am a planner to a fault! I do not function properly by flying by the seat of my pants. Yes, I admit, I am a control freak, but that’s my nature.  I like a road map all laid out with a plan on where we’re going, and what it is going to take to get there, and I want it to stay on course! I am finding that when life gets hard and off course, I shut down, I give up, I lose focus and I lose control. I lose site of my purpose.

Where is it that you want to go but you’re scared, or life has taken a turn down an unfamiliar path. What is it that you want in life but something is holding you back? What do you want to try, who do you want to inspire, what do you want to create, what do YOU want? Stop for a minute and think about that question. Nobody can answer that question for you, but you! Nobody knows the passion that burns down deep in your soul for that thing you long to do, long to try, long to make, long to travel to. Did you start this dream and lose focus on it so now you sit around, and just look back at what you did to start it, but something has happened and you’ve quit, you’ve lost hope, you’ve given up? Now is not the time to give up! Stand up, turn around and look forward on where you’re going! Trust me when I say that if God put a dream or a desire in your soul, he has a purpose for you!

I have talked about this before but 3 years ago, I set out to get healthy. I went back to my trainer, started eating healthy and was in the gym 6 days a week. The result of that hard work was 30 pounds of fat lost! I was feeling like a million bucks and so very proud of my accomplishments! About 8 weeks ago, I had a life changing event happen and I have barely worked out.  My meal plans have been effected, my sleep pattern changed and I found a big old excuse to not set my alarm and get my butt out of bed every morning and work out. I can’t put into words how awful I feel! No, I haven’t gained weight, but only because my nutrition has also slacked off and I haven’t even been getting the amount of calories needed in a day. It’s so easy to think wow, I lost 30 pounds, I can slack a little, but that’s a lie! I had a goal to be the healthiest version of myself in my 40s and I have a path before me with a vision of where I want to go that is much brighter than even the success of that 30 pound fat loss! I’m not done, it’s not time to throw in the towel! God gave me a healthy body to use and I am taking that for granted! I can’t continue to pat myself on the back for what I did over the past 3 years, I have to re focus on where I am going!

How about this blog!? I set out to do this, felt like I had a purpose and a gift to help other women and again, let life knock me around a little, and I haven’t been blessing other people.  I literally have spent the past 8 weeks focusing on all the negative things that have happened in 2018 and have failed to see all the positive things, and the direction life is going in. Honestly, I don’t have a clear vision of where my life is going, but I know the greatest things of my life haven’t happened yet, and I know that where I am right now is just a stepping stone to where I am going. So what am I doing to prepare? What are you doing to prepare for where you’re going? Sitting around feeling jealous of other women who are already where we want to go, or feeling sorry for ourselves for where we’re at, is not going to help us get there any faster! You are where you are right now for a reason, but it doesn’t have to be where you stay forever! Fight for what you want and where you want to go! Use that passion to drive you and guide you in those times where you feel nothing is happening! We do sometimes have dry seasons for a reason, there’s a lesson there too!

What is you’re calling? Maybe your calling is to be the best wife and mother you can be, and that’s an awesome responsibility so do you approach it with everything you’ve got? Maybe you want to open a bakery. Have you started baking for your friends and family? Have you signed up for a cooking class at your local community college? Maybe you want to do social work of some kind. Are you volunteering anywhere? Maybe you want to finish your degree, but you’ve given up. Start by just taking one class at a time, do the best you can and go from there. Maybe your goal is to lose some weight and get healthy and be your best self. Join a gym, or start simply by getting some exercise every single day and eating healthier. Just start somewhere! No more excuses! 2019 is coming up in just a few short days. Let me urge you take a minute for yourself, sit down and literally write out your goals. Not resolutions, you set yourself for failure right off that bat with those, but real goals that help push you to your destiny, calling, purpose. I know we are busy with life, we’re tired, we’re stressed, we don’t see how we could ever find the time to work on that thing that we want to do, that we dream about, that wakes us up in the middle of the night thinking about, that fire that burns within us. If you have got a dream, don’t let that flame die within you! Re focus on where you want to go! I believe in you and I know great things are on the horizon for you! Get out there and do anything you need to do to make it happen but also be patient with yourself and give yourself the grace you need while you’re on the way to your calling! Don’t focus solely on the successes of yesterday, focus on the successes that are still ahead! Don’t live in the past! Live with great expectations of the future! I look forward to hearing great reports in 2019!

With love for you all!

Shauna

What does it mean to you when I say the word forgiveness? Forgiveness is a word thrown around and rarely meant to the deep level that we need to forgive. Websters simply says it is the act of forgiving but listen to some synonyms for forgiveness: amnesty, pardon, absolution. Some antonyms are penalty and punishment. Stop for a minute and let that sink in. Penalty and punishment. Who are we truly punishing by not forgiving? The other person? No, they continue to live their lives. We punish ourselves.  The Bible says in Ephesians that we should be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ forgave us. For us to truly achieve peace in our lives, we must forgive and we must also forgive ourselves!

I have not been deeply hurt by many people throughout my life but the ones who have hurt me, have hurt me to my core. I don’t just mean people we thought were our friends who spread rumors about us, or family members who talked about us. To me, yes, those things hurt, but those are on superficial levels. Friends who do that aren’t your friends anyway and need to be removed from your life. Yes, the words sting, yes when somebody tells you what they have said about you, that hurts, but we must remind ourselves that those people were never our friends first of all, and secondly, their projecting on us what is lacking in their lives. Forgive those people so you’re not dwelling on it and effecting other relationships and move on! They’re not worth it and it’s actually sad that their lives are that shallow anyway. Forgive them, pity them and don’t let them have any effect on your life! You were meant for more and staying in that place isn’t healthy for you.

What I am talking about is the hurt that comes from people who were supposed to love us, and protect us, and be there through thick and thin, good and bad, sickness and health. You get the picture. A parent, a spouse, etc. When you are hurt from somebody who is supposed to love you unconditionally, that can scar you so deeply that you can spend years and never truly recover from that. I’m here to tell you today though, you must dig deep and somehow, someway find it in your heart to forgive those people to live the life with purpose that you were put here to live. You cannot spend your entire life giving that person any more control over your life!

The first person that hurt me like this, continues to hurt me like this, and I am struggling, thus most likely the reason I felt compelled to write on this subject today. I’m going to talk about this more in a minute, but let me talk about the second person that hurt me like this for a second. This one came in my formative years and for many years was the voice in my head and the eyes by which I saw myself. I’m not going to dwell too much on this person today, but I finally got peace over them and this was how I knew I had finally rose above that person. The day I ran into them, and they could not look me in the eyes, or put a complete sentence together, and I actually stood before them feeling pity was the day I knew I was healed from their wounds and the scars were fading away. Did I ever get the apology I needed? Not in words, but that day, I got it by actions and that was that! That person was in my past and was a distant memory. Wash your hands and throw away the towel! Done and done! Boy was that one of the most freeing days of my life! When somebody no longer effects you, you have moved on sister! I wish I could let you all feel that for just a second because if you could feel that, you would get some peace and feel so free that you would let somebody go that’s hurt you!

Now for the one I am still struggling with. Where to begin? Well, I say I forgive but then something happens and I realize I have not. Or maybe, I have forgiven but I still can’t find peace? Not sure which it is, but I realize during this holiday season that I must, must, must take the necessary steps to no longer be bound by what this person has done to me. I heard somebody say the other day to write a letter to that person, forgive them, love them, and realize they may not ever be a part of your life, and that’s okay, but to heal yourself, you may need to take that step. Maybe I will take that step and as the letter leaves the mailbox, let that symbolize letting go and being free to fly without that baggage that has worn me down for so long. You see, we cannot control other people and we may never get the true I’m sorry, some people are simply not able to say I am sorry, but do they really have to for us to forgive? No, they don’t. I believe we can find peace deep down in our soul if we try, and realize it wasn’t really about us at all, but we can make it about us by somehow finding true peace and purpose.

As we are currently in this holiday season, and as we end this year, and are getting ready to start a new year, let us find it in our hearts somewhere to forgive those people who have been controlling our lives. We were not meant to live with shackles of those memories, they’re debilitating, they cause us to lose sleep, and to live depressed lives. The can no longer control our lives! Decide this month as we spend the month of peace, joy and love to give yourself peace, joy and love and start the new year free from those shackles. You CAN live the life you deserve to live. I don’t know if you believe in God, but I know I do and he loved us so much that he died for us. Nobody has ever died for me before, that is true love. You are truly loved today by God and he forgave so forgive yourself today and love yourself  unconditionally! You are perfect and you deserve peace and freedom to the core of your being! You deserve to live a life free from hurt and pain and I hope you somehow find that!

With love for you all!

Shauna

You know that saying that what others think of you is none of your business? I love the saying, try to tell myself that, have shared it on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc. Let’s be real though, I don’t listen to it. I totally care what people think about me and get my feelings hurt if somebody doesn’t like me. Can I get an amen from anybody out there? Here’s the real question though, why do I even care? I think I’m a pretty friendly enjoyable person, but there are just people out there that don’t like me. You can see it on their face, whether you’re meeting them for the first time, or have known them for years, you can literally just see it on their face how they feel about you…OR…you hear it from somebody else that someone doesn’t like you. Regardless, it musters up the same feeling when you know somebody doesn’t like you and it doesn’t feel very good.

Why do we as human beings need and want to be liked so badly? Why does it matter if your friends’ friends really don’t care for you, or the fellow cheer mom, or the lady or man on the board you serve on, or the people who sit by you at church, or the receptionist at an office you frequent? The truth is, not everybody is going to like you, and that’s okay! You are not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, not everybody even likes tea so there you go! You can doctor that cup of tea up anyway you want it, but some people simply do not like tea. So quit trying to doctor yourself up to please anybody else! We simply must tell ourselves that we may not be their cup of tea and that’s okay, move on! The next person you meet may love tea!

Here’s where we lose focus, by concentrating so hard on trying to get people to like us that are not going to be in our lives, who aren’t going to help us fulfill our purpose, who are not putting food on our table, or writing our paycheck or with us long-term. One of the main reasons I believe people may not like us could quite possibly be jealousy.  If we want to be somebody else, or are jealous of what they have, sometimes, we start finding fault with that person because it makes us feel better about ourselves. Sometimes we hate people for having what we don’t, whether it’s physical, material or personality traits. I want that so it’s easy to pick that person apart because I don’t have it.

Jealousy is a dangerous thing and a dangerous place to find yourself. The Bible lists jealousy as one of the fruits of the flesh. It says in Galatians not to become conceited, provoking and envying each other. People do very dangerous things out of jealousy. Jesus was born to free us and save us and he was hated, disliked and ultimately crucified.  People were jealous of him. I’m pretty sure I’ve never been crucified so I think I must have it pretty good, and, if people hated him and he was trying to show them love and mercy and die for them, it’s to be expected that people are going to sometimes hate us for no reason.

I hope we can all find peace and stop worrying so much about what others think. The saying I started with above is so spot on. It really is none of our business what people think of is. It matters that God thinks of us, it matters what those closest to us think of us, it matters that we’re being good human beings, showing love to others, and showing kindness to others. It matters what we’re doing to help others and what we’re doing to make this world a better place. Otherwise, it really doesn’t matter and we should not be prisoners to other people’s opinions of us. Let’s not get so caught up in that to where it drives us to not really live, dictates our every mood, and stops us from fulling our destiny and living with purpose.

Take a deep breath, smile at that person who doesn’t like you, and go about your business! God has a plan for your life and sometimes that can be tripped up by people! Put your blinders up and quit worrying about whether somebody likes you or not!

With love for you all!

Shauna

 

 

Do you ever just get tired, physically worn out from dealing with other people’s drama and negativity, problems and self-pity? I mean I am all about being a good friend, a good sister, good daughter, co-worker, whatever the situation may be and being there for people, but come on, doesn’t it just wear you out sometimes? We all have issues. We all have things about our childhood we didn’t like. We have all been mistreated. We’ve all been lied about and used and abused and talked about. We’ve all been knocked down. We’ve all been hurt. I know, I have been all of those things through my life, but being around people who cannot take responsibility for their actions, who want to constantly blame others and talk about their troubles, rather than taking responsibility, and never making necessary changes to be better, just wears me out. Am I alone here??

Do I believe we should blame ourselves for all the bad things that have happened in our life? Absolutely not! But what good does it do to sit around and blame everybody else for the bad that’s happened. I can hate the people who I feel have mistreated me all day long but it’s not hurting them, it’s only hurting me. I realized a long time ago that by holding on to those grudges, I was letting them win. Why do they deserve to have that kind of control over me?

I am not perfect by any means, and trust me, I know my shortcomings. I know what I have done to contribute to the end of relationships in my life. I know all about my insecurities and I daily try to work on them. I’m not going to sit around and say poor me, look what they did to me, if I had a hand in what happened. I don’t need anybody pointing out those things sister, I know all to well what part I played, yet people refuse to see their part in anything, and instead choose to sit around and just blame others, and act like they’ve done nothing.

Trust me when I say, if you constantly sit around and complain and feel sorry for yourself and seek pity, people are going to run very quickly away from you! Life is short and people don’t want to be brought down anymore than they already are! If every time you’re with your friends you want to talk about what everybody has done to you and what is wrong with your life, my guess is your friends will stop calling.

Here’s my question though, and it’s a hard question. What are you doing to change things in your life?  Are you sitting around just constantly feeling sorry for yourself and lashing out at people, or are you taking a minute to reflect and take the measures needed for life to be better? Look in the mirror right now. That person looking back at you is literally the only person that can make changes for life to be better. You and only you have that power. I’m in no way saying it will be easy. Calling yourself out and taking responsibility is hard. It’s hard to call out what you’ve done wrong, but it’s going to take that to go from bitter to better. It’s going to be work, hard work, but how bad do you want a better life? If you’re not working hard, and you’re just sitting back hoping everything will just fall in your life because you wish it, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. We only get out of life what we give. If you’re in debt, is it the credit card companies fault? If you’re losing your house, is it the banks fault you didn’t make your payments? If you’re failing at work, is it your bosses fault? I hate to tell you, but most likely it’s not their fault, it’s yours! Blaming people is never going to change that. Stop blaming others for what is wrong in your life and turn things around! YOU have the power! And, if what is wrong in your life is other people, remove them!

For those dealing with people like this right now, and I am raising my hand  because I am, we must learn to set some boundaries so these people do not affect us. It really is okay to block people who constantly send you hateful texts. It really is okay to stop taking calls, stop taking abuse, stop listening to the negativity that others want to dish out. It’s okay to suggest that our friends get help, professional help, if needed to deal with their issues. It’s not okay to put up with the abuse these people can dish out. It does not make you a bad person to remove these people from your life and say enough is enough. I don’t care if it’s a friend, a parent, a relative, whomever it is, you can remove this toxic behavior from your life. Trust me when I say, if these people don’t help themselves, they won’t change, they will forever find fault and point fingers and blame, and never take responsibility for their actions. You will not win with these people and you should not subject yourself to it. You will simply exhaust yourself and be brought down in the process.

I will leave you with this quote:

“You either get bitter or you get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate. It belongs to you.” Josh Shipp

Decide right now to be better! I want people to be better, to be whole to be happy and not live a life of sadness, guilt, anger or bitterness. Decide right now to take the steps for the upcoming year to be a year of healing, no matter how hard!

With love for you all!

Shauna

For a couple of days now I have been thinking so much about being grateful and what does that mean.  We all casually say we’re thankful for things. Thankful for our spouses, thankful for our kids, thankful for our health, thankful for our jobs, and so on and so on, but are those just words that we say or are we truly grateful to where we feel if in the pit of our stomachs? Unfortunately, I think we say it a little too casually and take too many things for granted in our lives. If we were truly grateful, I believe we would live a little differently! I think we would spend more quality time with the amazing people we’re blessed to have in our lives. Hug a little longer, call a little more, drive out of our way, buy that plane ticket, send that text, just make sure those in our lives really know just how grateful we are to have them.

I set tonight in the prayer service of a dear friend and cheer mom that I have gotten to know over the past few years who is battling cancer right now.  I watched her two children sitting there and I thought she must think what if I don’t get to watch my kids grow up, what if I don’t get to attend their weddings and see my grand kids born. We so casually look at our kids and say when you go to college I will this, on your wedding day we will this, and just wait until you have kids! Just think for a moment about the quality time we miss out on with our kids because we let life or other people get in the way. Do we ever stop to think that we may not have tomorrow? Nobody is promised tomorrow. You know I almost didn’t go tonight. I was tired and cold and tried to come up with a million different reasons, but how terribly selfish of me. I sit there tonight healthy! I lost focus of that for a little bit today!

What if instead of getting up in the morning and moaning and groaning about going to work that we get up and say thank you Jesus for giving me this job at this exact moment in my life so I can provide for my family. What if instead of sleeping in and not hitting the gym we jump out of bed and say thank you Jesus that I am healthy enough to get up and go to the gym. Thank you I can see, I can hear, I can feel, I can touch, I can speak. Are  we truly thankful for those things? Do we really stop and think about the people who don’t have those things?

I don’t want to go to bed tonight without feeling, really feeling, and letting those I love know just how grateful and blessed I am. Thank you to my mom for being my rock through so much and never, ever giving up on me. Thank you to my brother for working so hard over the past 5 years and allowing me to work from home, thank you to my husband for loving me like I have never known love. Thank you to my kids for letting me be their other mom. Thank you for my amazing family that I take for granted. Thank you to my girlfriends that have been here through so much and without whom I would be lost. Thank God for peace, for strength, for loving me when I was unlovable and always providing. Thank you for my health and a sound mind. Tonight I want to go to bed with such a grateful heart that I wake up in the morning feeling like I am so truly and abundantly blessed!

It’s Thanksgiving time. What are you truly thankful for? Have you told those in your life how much they mean to you? Don’t wait until something is taken from you to realize all you have been blessed with. Do it now! Right now! Having a grateful heart every morning you get up will change your life, will change your focus, will change your goals and what you do for others. Always remember, those things you take for granted, somebody else is praying for that exact thing right now! I may not have everything I want in life, but I have everything I need and more!

Let’s take a moment tonight as we go to bed, or tomorrow as we get up and say I love you, say I’m sorry, say thank you and not have regrets and wake up someday wishing we had done things different! Do them right now!

I love you all so much and I am so grateful that you’re all along for this journey!

With love for you all!

Shauna

I recently had to order new contacts. I have an amazing eye doctor and each year, she tries to get my contacts as close to perfect as possible. This year when I ordered them and they came, I had a hard time focusing in them, and seeing anything up close. Without readers, I couldn’t see anything right in front of my face. Seeing far off, that wasn’t so much a struggle, but I couldn’t see right in front of my face. Things had become blurry. Life is like this. Last night, I was on the struggle bus. I was tired, I’m trying to learn something new, I haven’t worked out like normal, my eating hasn’t been good, my routines have been totally knocked off course, I haven’t been praying and meditating or reading or even blogging. I was beginning to lose my focus and it’s thrown me off course. As I stood up from my computer to go to bed, I looked down and saw this pad of paper my friend gave me for my birthday. It simply said when life gets blurry, adjust your focus.

Where have you lost focus in your life? Websters defines focus as this: a center of activity, focus or attention; adjustment for distinct vision. For the past few years, I have been focused on my health, thus losing 30 pounds and making my health a priority. This year I have been focused on growth and helping others and being better, which caused me to spend time reading, meditating, blogging. This year I have focused more on my relationship with God and spending more time reading the Bible, and praying. But some changes in my life caused me to lose focus on all of those things. I haven’t been working out regularly, I haven’t been reading every day, praying, meditating, blogging like I committed to do. And, this has literally been in the past two weeks. That is how quickly something in your life can cause you to lose focus. Something in your day can cause you to lose focus on something important. It doesn’t take much time.

What happens when we lose focus on our health? We gain weight, we have zero physical activity, we eat poorly, our blood pressure goes up, our cholesterol is bad, we don’t sleep, we’re lethargic, and ultimately, we can have major health issues and be on meds the rest of our lives. Obviously some people have to be on meds and they can’t control that, not what I mean here.

What happens when we don’t focus on our finances and our spending? We get into debt, we buy things we don’t need to impress people that really don’t matter. We never have anything in life to show for our hard work. We literally work to pay bills and that’s it.

What happens when we don’t focus on our relationship with God? We don’t pray, we don’t help others, love others, and we lean on ourselves, which normally doesn’t work out very well for us. We have no peace, no joy, we struggle.

Where are you in your marriage? What if we get home from work every day and we spend hours on the phones with our friends, hours on our phones or computers on social media, watching videos, playing games, and we never take a minute to actually talk to our spouse. We make girls nights more of a priority than date nights. Your focus isn’t on your marriage and then eventually when the relationship fails, we don’t understand why.

What about our kids? We literally have about 18 years with them and that’s about it. Yes, we influence them as they’re older, but not like we do when they’re growing up. Are we more interested in ourselves and our needs instead of focusing on making sure they’re successful in school, have what they need and are just overall good human beings? Do we spend more time with our friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, or anything else that takes us away from our children? Do we actually teach them anything in life that will help them? As a parent, we do have a job and a responsibility to those kids!

What about your job, or your company? Where is your focus with that? If we lose focus in this area, we become bored, tired, lazy, we’re not good employees, we’re not good bosses. Do you want to succeed for yourself and those around you?

Where is our focus? Without focus, life gets blurry. We just flounder around without any direction, just barely getting by each day. I’ve been struggling with this lately too. My focus has not been on growth or helping others, or all the amazing things I have in my life to be grateful for and it’s effecting me. I am a person who has to have some direction. I don’t do well by flying by the seat of my pants. Maybe you do, but even then you have to have some focus on something.

What is right in front of our faces that we are not seeing? The Bible says without vision the people perish. If you don’t have a clear vision of what you want and where you’re going, you will never have it and you will never get there. Hopefully today, if you have lost focus in life, on your marriage, on your kids, on your health, on loving others and making a difference, I hope this wakes you up to adjust your focus. I hope this wakes me up. Life isn’t meant to be blurry! We are meant to open our eyes to this great big world of opportunities and to be our best!

With love for you all!

Shauna

Are you one of those people that change totally knocks you off your track? I am such a creature of habit that change in my life can totally cause my train to come to a complete stop! I mean lock the brakes this train isn’t moving! I am such a creature of habit that my days could totally look the same, I get up at the same time, I go to the gym at the same time, I eat the same thing, you get the picture. Major change can shake me to the core if I let it. Change can stop me from following through on habits I have formed, and cause me to stop doing them if my schedule is interrupted, or changed in some way.

I saw a quote recently that said “Don’t be afraid to start over. It’s a new chance to rebuild what you want.” So why do we fight change so bad? We fight change because it’s uncomfortable. We fight change because we’re entering the unknown and we don’t like that. We fight change because it’s scary. Something I have learned throughout my life; however, is that sometimes God has to make things uncomfortable for us to get us to move because we need to grow, and where we’re planted at that particular moment isn’t conducive to that growth.  Sometimes it has to get so uncomfortable that it forces us to make a change to something new.

Comfort makes us stay in abusive relationships. Comfort causes us to stay in a job that doesn’t fulfill us or push us forward. Comfort causes us to stay in our own little world, with the same people, and do nothing to make a difference in the world. Comfort causes us not to go on and get the education we started out to get because we think we’re too old and it will take too long. Comfort causes us to sit on the couch and not get the exercise that we need, especially as we age. Comfort causes us to never travel and see this big, beautiful world we live in.

What do you have to gain by getting out of your comfort zone and stop fearing change?? That dream job? A loving relationship that makes you better? A healthy body? New friends? That amazing company that you’ve been wanting to start? Too many stamps on your passport? A happy and exciting life? I mean the possibilities are endless, and I don’t care how old we are, or are getting, we are not too old to go out and make life what we want it. We are not too old for change! We are not too old to learn something new!

So I urge you, if something is happening in your life that is uncomfortable and is pushing you to do something, shake off those excuses and get out there and do it! If you want something bad enough, you will make it happen! This is where I found myself lately and then I was forced to make some life changes. Yes, I may have to change my schedule and find my new normal. Yes I have to learn something new and although it seems daunting at times, I will get it. Yes I may have to get up earlier to get my morning routine in and some of it may have to be done at night, but it’s okay.  I trust that all the changes that seem to be happening in and around my life are setting up greater things in my future. So, I am choosing to embrace these new changes.

What can you choose to embrace right now? Can you trust the path and trust that the change is pushing you in a positive direction? I urge you to trust that these changes are going to bring about a pretty amazing future for you! You are not too old and you deserve an amazing life so if change is what it will take to make that happen, then embrace this change!!

With love for you all!

Shauna

I just keep thinking this week about all the killings and the hate that is going on in our world lately. It’s always been here, I know, but maybe I am more aware. When I was a little girl in Sunday School we used to sing a song that said Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. No matter what their skin color, Jesus loves them all! Are we teaching this hatred at home in any form of prejudices that could be rubbing off on our kids? Are they learning this somehow in school not to be tolerant? Is society teaching them that whatever the color of their skin or whatever the religious beliefs that they are somehow superior over the next person?

My brother is gay, my brother in law is Indian, my sister in law is African American, I have many Jewish friends, Indian friends, Caucasian friends, Asian friends, Christian friends, straight friends, gay friends, and so forth. I love my family and friends more than anything in the world! The Bible says in Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” God is love. God is not a God of hate. I don’t care what color your skin is, what your sexual orientation is, what your religion is, if you are kind and friendly to me, I will be kind and friendly to you, but we all have to reciprocate that and try hard to live that way. I don’t hate anybody! I’m not better than anybody! It’s only by God’s grace that I have what I have anyway.  You don’t have to agree with your neighbor to show them love and to be kind to them. What would happen if we all strove to work together, despite religious beliefs, political beliefs or anything else we disagree about? What would happen?

God showed kindness, and just to point something out here, God was a Jew! Side note on that, but in the Bible, the people brought an adulterous woman before God and said she should be stoned to death. Do you know what God said? He without sin, cast the first stone. Her accusers all left. I doubt there are any among us without sin yet we spend so much time judging and hating others! The Bible also says we should love our neighbors like we love ourselves. Now that’s an interesting thing to think about.

Hate can be driven out with love but we have to truly practice love. Not spend so much time pointing out each other’s differences or trying to prove anything about ourselves. Knock that chip off our shoulders and truly love the world! Stand united against the evils of this world, feed the hungry, help the poor, help the sick, just help our brothers and our sisters. Can we make a difference? You bet we can, but not divided. Nothing will be accomplished if we are divided! If you have been blessed in life, help those less fortunate, if you are intelligent, help those who may not be as intelligent, if you have food, donate food to those who don’t have any, if you’re healthy, find a way to give back to those who aren’t. Let’s bind together and be a light in this dark world!

I may not have all the wealth in the world, but I am healthy so I give blood. I have food so we give money to a food bank on all the major holidays to help others. I can change a light bulb or clean a window or anything else needed for my neighbors who can no longer do those things. No matter where you are in life, you have somebody you can make a difference for. I urge you to look around and see where you can make a difference! Your life will be blessed in the process and you will have made a difference and left a legacy! Try something for me today. Wherever you go, whoever you see, try smiling at every single person and see what happens! I promise you, you will make somebody’s day better!

With love for you all!

Shauna