Synonyms of the word “lucky” and its definitions suggest a meaning far more beautiful than a simple happenstance. Opportune. Timely. Fortunate. Providential.
Simple pleasures are my thing: a found piece of that chubby pink bubblegum behind my children’s candy stash, warm tortilla chips with restaurant-style salsa, a long lost (and then found) pair of jeans at the bottom of my messy closet that still fit. The littlest bit of luck makes my day.
I believe in faith and in God’s providence. I also like the random and routine occurrences that help me to appreciate a little luck—or fortune or opportunity—in the everyday as well.
My current lucky list:
• A rural life with room for my boys to roam and yell and run wild.
• A city upbringing, so I’m not afraid of the rough neighborhoods.
• Fabulous finds in the bargain section of the bookstore.
• Indoor plumbing (as if I’ve ever been without it).
• Turns out, I have two copies of that favorite book someone wants to borrow.
• The sun, because…snow days.
• All three of my children said, “Yes, ma’am,” and didn’t argue.
• Dirty laundry, because it means my family has clothes.
• Crumbs on the floor, because it means children are eating well.
Some days, I have to look hard for the list to find it through sadness and stress and crummy circumstances. On those days, I’m craning my neck and gritting my teeth and trying hard to see the fortune in the good, the not so good, the frustrating, and the overwhelming.
Sometimes it’s referred to as gratitude. Other times people say look for the positive in each situation rather than focusing on the negative.
When days are long and life is rough, try catching scraps of luck scattered throughout your day.
What do you see on your lucky list?
Rhonda Franz is an educator, home operations specialist, and mom of three rowdy boys. You can find her sweeping up crumbs and doing laundry in her Northwest Arkansas home. She can also be found on rhondafranz.com,CaptainMom.net, and @rhondafranz on Twitter.
I do believe that good and unexpected things can happen in our lives. I also believe that some people experience these types of things more frequently than others. And when they do, they are often deemed as being lucky or having some type of good luck charm.
However, I think that luck is really a combination of certain factors: having a positive mindset, putting yourself out there (i.e. being proactive), and keeping an eye open for opportunities. In other words, I don’t think that luck is something that happens TO us. I think that it is something that we can attract and that we can pursue. I believe that we can create our own luck.
Below are 5 ways that I personally believe we can create our own luck.
Be bold!
One of my friends is an amazing blogger/vlogger. Over the past few months, she has carved out a nice income for her little family by starting her own custom printables business. We were talking a few days ago and she mentioned that she was going to reach out to some random people on Pinterest whose boards she had stumbled upon and offer her services to them. She was going to offer to create printables for them that she felt would add to their content and generate more traffic for them. When she told me that, I thought to myself “Fortune favors the bold”. I told her as much. I admire her ability to really put herself out there, think outside of the box, and go after what she wants. Someone on the outside looking at her runaway success with her printable business may think that she just lucked out. However, I know that the truth is that she works hard, does her research, and is bold in her actions. And those things pay off in the form of new clients that are rabid fans of her work.
Network! Network! Network!
Seriously. The more people you know and engage with, the wider your circle becomes. The wider your circle, the higher your chances of coming across some really cool opportunities. I could think that I was lucky for having some of the opportunities that I have had over the past year, but the truth is that sometimes knowing the right people really can open up doors for you.
Be a positive person
You could network your entire life, but if you are someone that no one wants to be around, chances are when they have an opportunity to offer, they’re not going to come to you. However, if you are someone that focuses on positivity, is friendly (if not a social butterfly), and who people generally enjoy talking to/being around, you are much more likely to find yourself on the receiving end of good vibes and amazing opportunities.
Keep Your Eyes Peeled
Sometimes an amazing opportunity could be sitting right in front of you. However, if you are stuck in your own little bubble, not paying attention, you may miss out. Again, this doesn’t mean that you have to be a social butterfly. But it does help to be aware of what is going on around you.
Be Open and Flexible
I think that the worst thing you can do if you are trying to create your own luck is to limit yourself. Be open to new things. It’s okay to be focused, but don’t have a focus that is so narrow that you aren’t aware of or open to things that fall outside of your line of view. Sometimes it is the things that we wouldn’t normally try that end up opening up an entire beautiful world of possibilities for us.
What do you think? Is luck something that merely happens or can we guide it?
Tiffany Hathorn has been blogging since the summer of 2010. She got started as a way to document her pregnancy and her life as a first-time mother. Since then, her blog has transformed into a chronicle of her life as a single WAHM. She blogs about raising her son solo, working from home, and her journey as a homeschooling mom. If you would like to follow Tiffany, you may do so by subscribing to her blogor liking her fan page.
Growing up I remember an old Reba McEntire music video about her being a working mom who was going back to school. Huey Lewis played her husband in it, but that’s not relevant to my point at the moment. Anyway, the video shows her studying and working hard and getting really stressed and mad at her kids when something is spilled on an important paper. You could tell she felt bad about the yelling. She turns it in, stains and all (well before the days of the home computer and being able to just print out another copy). At the end the professor comments something to the fact that she did a good job but to try to avoid the stains next time. Reba’s character at that point remarks,
“I learned more from the stains than I did the paper.”
As I’ve grown up that line has always stuck with me. Even in our most unhappy, unlucky, unpleasant or un-what-you-had-planned-out-in-your-head moments we can find our greatest learning opportunities.
Some of my unluckiest moments have been BIG and out there. Moments that everybody saw. Moments that made me want crawl under a rock. The ones that make you feel like you’re about to throw up or that you just want to be invisible. Facing the music can be the hardest lesson to learn.
Like the time I was making an events calendar for the library where I worked and instead of typing “food pantries,” I typed “food panties.” You know what?! Spell check sees those as perfectly acceptable because they are both REAL WORDS! How unlucky, and extremely embarrassing, that I made the mistake of not carefully reading over the calendar before I made 200 copies. I learned my face could go many shades of pink and red. And I absolutely learned to double and triple check my documents.
This is not the most unlucky moment I have experienced. Trust me. Not by a long shot. This just happens to be one of the funnier ones. Along with the time in college I forgot where I parked my truck and reported it stolen. I learned to slow down and think back before running ahead. You can imagine the obvious lesson learned from falling on the dance floor due to the ignorant combination of four inch heels and too much champagne. Thankfully I missed the eight year old and the drum set. Yes, that moment wasn’t pretty. But my shoes sure were.
I feel it sometimes takes these shocking blunt-object-to-the-head moments for us to really learn a lesson. How boring would life be if everything were always easy and obvious? And my past transgressions always seem to be a great comfort to others when they find themselves in an unlucky spot. I can pat them on the shoulder. Look them in the eye and say, “Hey, at least it wasn’t food panties.”
Jeanetta is a crocheter and coffee addict, chicken keeper and goat wrangler, a farmer girl and maker of drunk jellies. You can find her online at www.jeanettadarley.com or on twitter, pinterest & instagram @jeanettadarley.
“Good luck!” I constantly catch myself saying this phrase, specifically to my students when they are about to take a test or turn in an important assignment to another professor. Sometimes, I think to myself, “I must come off as a superstitious person.” I mean, here I am, an educator, one who believes firmly in studious preparation, and I’m wishing my students luck as if their fate rests in the hands of some supernatural force regardless of the amount of effort they put forth. This, however, does provide a good definition, or picture, of luck: it’s an uncontrollable force that requires nothing from you. I suppose that is what makes it roll off my tongue so effortlessly.
On the other hand, while it might be easy to wish someone luck, it isn’t easy to tell someone to have faith. This term is usually reserved for the religious or the direst of situations, and I’ve come to believe that it’s because faith requires so much more of us than luck. Faith is a journey that requires all one has.
Allow me to illustrate this point with a story.
Once upon a time, there was a little boy who lived a quiet life with his family in England. The little boy lived with his mother and father who, as good Christians, brought their son up in the local church. The child attended Sunday mass, Bible study groups, and starred in the Christmas play each year, bringing great pride to his parents. However, while the knowledge of his Creator had been ingrained into his head, he had yet to make room for Him in heart.
Life continued in its usual way for many years, and the boy grew into a young man. Until one day, his life drastically changed. The young man was roaming the marketplace in his English village when suddenly he was taken—kidnapped by a gang of pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. There the boy grew into a man, away from all that he knew and loved. However, it was there, in Ireland, living among his Druid captors that he met Christ. He remembered his Sunday school lessons and reached out to Christ as a friend and link to his past, and their relationship deepened.
After six years in slavery, the young man finally had an opportunity to escape; he snuck aboard a merchant ship to England and ninety days later, he was reunited with his family. However, as a result of his captivity, the young man was notably behind in his education, so he enrolled in seminary to bring himself up to speed. Yet, once again God had a different plan for this young man’s life as He laid a call to missions upon the young man’s heart, specifically to missions in Ireland.
The young man finished his time in seminary and was obedient to God’s call to Ireland. There, he served and loved those who had once enslaved him. The young man’s name was Maewyn Succat, but today we know him as St. Patrick. The pope gave him the name Patricius, which means father figure, sometime before his ministry in Ireland began. Because of St. Patrick’s dedication to the Lord, the Irish people not only found God, but also developed a love for learning, and in their excitement translated and shared the Word of God, preserving it for generations.
If St. Patrick had believed in luck, he probably would have accepted his circumstances as something merely beyond his control and tried to make the best of them. He may have lived a quiet life in Ireland, working his way out of bondage or at least into the hands of a decent proprietor. Either way, he wouldn’t have had much of an effect on anyone, and he certainly wouldn’t have achieved sainthood. But thankfully, young Maewyn allowed God to lead him through faith instead of taking chances with luck.
St. Patrick’s faith is made evident through his sacrifice. What else but faith could inspire someone to return to one’s captors in humility and love? So while the whole world is adorned in green in atonement to luck, I’ll turn to my faith. I’ll see the green as reminder to grow in it; I’ll pick shamrocks to remind me of the Holy Trinity, and I’ll listen to the stories of fairies and leprechauns and in awe compare them to the majesty of my God.
For those who choose the journey of faith, I wish you luck!
Y’all- Life is Messy.
It’s not perfect. But it is awesome.
So just for fun- I wanted to share with you 10 things I love about my life in the here and now. You might almost call it The Silver Lining. Here are 10 IMPERFECT things that I love about my life now.
It’s Messy and Imperfect but I love it.
Mud Puddle– We have this annoying spot in our driveway that has lost its gravel. It’s quite an eye sore. But I wouldn’t fix it for anything right now. I LOVE that my kids play in it after every rain. They love it.
Towel Drawer- Okay, I would much rather this drawer be neat and orderly. But it’s not and I love it. I love it messy because my kids are helping me do the chores and this is part of their duties. I’d rather have their help than have perfection.
Toy Mess– Behind this mess are 3 happy kids who are living an adventure using their imaginations. Seriously, it’s a riot over here.
I’m not alone. Yes, it gets crazy over here. Most of the time it is. Most of the time I have someone wiping greasy hands on my shirt, someone is asking me why, and one is sword fighting in public with a stick they smuggled in the car. But guess what. I don’t do life alone and I love it.
Rural Living– Yes sometimes I get frustrated that I have to drive an hour to visit Target and Hobby Lobby. But I wouldn’t trade the conveniences of city living for the easy Sunday’s of rural living.
Leftovers- This my friends, is my favorite thing to eat for supper. True Story. Leftovers are What’s Up. No Cooking- and Easy Clean Up. Win.
Kids Kitchen Drawer– So, I lose drawer space in my kitchen by giving a drawer to my kids. Yes, It is loud and annoying when they get it all out. But, they have a great time and I want them to love being in the kitchen with me.
Toilets– I clean my toilet every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. It’s not because I’m OCD. It’s because I have 2 little boys who are potty training. Enough Said. But having a toilet to clean means I have indoor plumbing. Oh yes! Totally worth it.
Crumbs– I’m not really a big fan of sweeping after every single snack or meal. But I am a big fan of having a pantry of food and a family to enjoy it with. I’ll take the crumbs and the extra work.
Minivan- Yep. I was one of those who said I’d NEVER drive a minivan. I was way too cool. Now I drive a mom ride and I’m okay with it. It’s not my dream vehicle, but it means that I have 3 little people to hang out with, do life with, and go places with.
What’s the Silver Lining in your life? What’s messy but still good?
Amanda Farris is a wife to her super hero hunk of a husband and a mother to 3 little kiddos. Amanda is a teacher/coach who hung up her coaching whistle after she got promoted to motherhood. She is a runner who loves all things sports and outdoors. She loves early morning traveling, long coffee chats with her husband, and fresh flowers on her table. She is an adventurer at heart and has a great talent of unintentionally becoming over-busy (that’s a bad thing). So she is constantly reevaluating her life priorities which keeps her on her toes and helps her to live life passionately and deliberately. Come Join the Adventure.
This month, we are focusing on the word ‘Adore’. A couple of my fellow Arkansas Women Bloggers volunteered to share some of their favorite memories with us. I love the way that memories can provide us with joy, strength, and motivation right when we need it.
First up: Kayla Shown-Dean, blogger at Kidean Around who shows us that even when things don’t go exactly as planned, they can still make great memories. Below she shares her memory of her very eventful wedding day (btw, she and her husband will celebrate 6 years of matrimony this year)
“After over six months of planning, it was finally here—the day of my wedding. While I’d like to say everything went according to plan, it did not. Preston and I had originally planned to get married under the weeping willow tree at the bark (where he proposed), but a few weeks before the wedding, the tree was struck by lightning and had to be removed. So we decided to get married in the gazebo instead. We ordered chairs and reorganized to make this a possibility, only to have four days of rain before the wedding, flooding the park. We had booked the university for our reception, so we hurriedly arranged for the ceremony to take place in the lobby on the stairwell and moved the reception into the banquet hall. It was chaotic and crazy, but everything was finally falling into place; it was finally my wedding day.
But I was so nervous.
When I came out of the dressing room and turned to walk down the aisle, over 200 pairs of eyes greeted me, beaming. I beamed back, the traditional blushing bride, but inside the flutterflies were launching air strikes on my poor unsuspecting stomach. I felt my face burn red, and in my anxiety, kicked my shoes off to the side. (Yeah, I know I still get comments about being the barefoot bride). But still, I made it down the aisle and up the stairs, taking my place by Preston’s side.
But those pesky flutterflies were relentless.
Their previous assaults left me shaking in a cold sweat, and our Pastor just kept babbling on and on and on…so I did it! I called a time out. I grabbed my maid of honor and made a bee line for the upstairs bathroom, only to discover that the bathroom door was blocked due to the construction on the second floor. Then my crowd of guests got the honor of hearing me swear in frustration—something I never do! The crowd burst into whispers of my obvious pregnancy or dissatisfaction with the groom. Some thought I had the flu, but I was just hot…hot and nervous (which I found out later I had good reason to be since they had shut the air off because of the construction and forgot to turn it back on).
When the ceremony reconvened, thirty minutes later, I was much better—well as long as my sister kept a moist towel on my back, and Preston held me up while simultaneously fanning my face with his hands and by breathing on me. Of course, I still had to tell our minister to “hurry it up”—which you can even hear on the DVD. But it all ended nicely.
I mean, we didn’t have enough cake for our guests, our caterer forgot some of our food, and the groom’s cake melted. But over all, it was the perfect wedding—and one that my guests have never forgotten. Especially after my ex-boyfriend crashed the reception. Apparently, one of my bridesmaids posted about my running off stage during all the excitement, and he saw it and showed up…hoping to pick up the pieces? (I don’t know.) I was mad. I thought Preston would be mad. I thought he would yell. But instead, he simply slid his arm around me, walked up to the creep, and said smugly, “I won.” Then we walked away.
Our wedding was one wild, memorable day…and it was truly indicative of the rest of our lives.”
Next we have Julie Kohl, blogger at Eggs and Herbs sharing a bit about the origins of a sweet (and humorous) Valentine’s Day tradition.
“One of my favorite memories of my husband was when we were still newly married (only about three years). We were teaching in the same school district and Valentine’s Day came along. My husband NEVER buys flowers, let alone any kind of gift. So it was unexpected when some high school kids came to my classroom with a HUGE bouquet of 2 dozen long stem roses. Along with the bouquet, they serenaded me with a rendition of “L is for the way you look tonight”. The whole time I was flattered but wondering what terrible thing my husband had done that he felt the need to buy 2 dozen long stem roses!
Later in the day the truth finally came out and he told me that the flowers had actually been delivered to one of his high school students from a former boyfriend. She absolutely didn’t want them so my hubby offered to buy them from her for 20$. Ha! THIS was totally my husband. In future years, on Valentine’s, girls were rushing to be the first to offer him their unwanted flowers. I got recycled bouquets for several years and they were absolutely perfect!”
What is your favorite memory? Share in the comments below.
Tiffany Hathorn has been blogging since the summer of 2010. She got started as a way to document her pregnancy and her life as a first-time mother. Since then, her blog has transformed into a chronicle of her life as a single WAHM. She blogs about raising her son solo, working from home, and her journey as a homeschooling mom. If you would like to follow Tiffany, you may do so bysubscribing to her blogor liking her fan page.
As a single gal I have been on a mission to learn to love myself. You would think that by the ripe old age of 32 (today is my birthday!!) I would have this down by now but I don’t.
I think everyone loves a good list and so today I have listed a few things that are helping me to love myself a little more…
1. I think feeling good about yourself is a big part of loving yourself. That’s why some of my New Year’s Resolutions are to eat better and move my booty. As much as I complain about making better food choices and working out, I know that ultimately those are things that make me feel good so I have been putting forth more of an effort to do them.
2. Spending time with people that love me and that I love makes me happy and being happy is also a big part of loving yourself. I loved all of the time I got to spend with my family over the holidays and now that I’m back to “normal life” I have been keeping up with them more via text and Face Time. And seeing my cute niece’s and nephew’s faces over Face Time just makes my day!!
3. Do things you love! This one seems like a no-brainer but I know that sometimes I get super busy and caught up in everyday life that it seems like I am just going through the motions and forget to have fun! Shake it up a little and have dinner with your best friend in the middle of the week, treat yourself to a solo movie on your day off, or do whatever it is that makes you happy!
I am working on these things every single day. How are some ways that you are working on loving yourself?
Ricci Ellis is an Arkansas native and current central Arkansas resident. Her favorite titles include dog mom, sister, aunt, blogger, respiratory therapist, and student. You can catch up with her on her lifestyle blog, Imperfectly Ricci, or on any social media @riccialexis.
While we are going crazy trying to provide for our families, we often forget why we chose to have them in the first place. We forget why we married our spouses and what made us fall in love with them before we had a house full of minions and only did so out of responsibility. It’s easy to become distracted, trapped in the everyday humdrum of life. I’m a very task-oriented person, and at times, I get so focused on my tasks that I forget to see that life is about people. During these times, I often miss the adorable little things that my husband does that one day a long time ago, completely swept me off my feet.
1.) He’s makes small daily sacrifices.
I know that my husband is not a fan of Grey’s Anatomy. He’d probably rather go to the dentist than sit through an hour-long episode of educated men and women (doctors) fawn over unavailable love interests while saving the lives of accident victims. Still, if he has the option to sit with me through an episode of one of my favorite TV shows or go in another room, my husband will patiently sit through a torturous love affair all the while holding my hand. Similarly, he often doesn’t mind listening to my music in the car even though we have differing tastes in music.
2.) He listens to me.
While it often may not seem like he’s listening to me—when I ask him to take out the trash, for instance, my husband does make an daily effort to be involved in my life. He makes it a habit to ask me every day how my day was, and he genuinely listens to me as I tell him the details of an exciting conversation or the dramatic confrontation that happened between two friends. While he may not really care about who “Jessa” is now dating, he at least feigns interest because he knows it matters to me.
3.) He makes everything an adventure.
When my husband and were dating, we didn’t have a lot of money, so a date for us was often a trip to the park, a five-dollar pizza, or yes, even a trip to Hastings. I remember getting into the car with him once and learning that our date night would consist of a trip to Wal-Mart and Sonic. I remember telling him, “But that’s what we did last time?” His response was to think of it as a mission. We were on a mission to get groceries and it was imperative to complete the task on time. That night, he left me in Wal-Mart; I looked for him for nearly an hour in one of the most epic games of hide-and-seek we’ve ever had. It’s this quality that made me fall in love with him and prompted the celebration of said quality through our wedding topper.
4.) He helps…or at least, he tries.
With my husband and I both working, the state of our home is almost constantly in disarray. Often, because I’m so busy, I rely on my husband to help out with things such as laundry or dishes. More than once, I’ve come home to a mess as I’ve learned his version of cleaning is more like my version of straightening. Still though, I’ve learned to choose my battles and appreciate the small things he does. After all, while the sippy cups may not go in the cabinet with the skillets and are missing their lids, at least they are clean and off the counter.
5.) He laughs with me.
People often forget how important laughter is to a relationship. While you do want someone to take you seriously, ladies, you also want someone who knows how to laugh, someone who pulls juvenile pranks on his father, who starts a water fight or slams cake in your face just to get a rise out of you. Because isn’t life filled with enough serious situations? When the pressure is on, no one can make me smile like my husband.
6.) He’s my best friend.
My girlfriends may get jealous about this one, but he truly is. While I love my girlfriends, I sincerely doubt any of them would grab a rake off of the shopping rack at Lowe’s and run through the store riding it like a broomstick with me; they’d probably pull out their phones and start Googling the nearest psychiatric help center. But, yes, my husband and I have actually done this, and no, it wasn’t when we were dating; it was last year.
Not only will he act like a total buffoon with me in public, but he’ll hold me while I cry over getting “dumped” by a childhood friend. He’ll let me get away with my little flaws and mistakes and only communicate his disapproval through knowing glances. Yet he still holds me accountable when I’ve really crossed the line by making me swallow my pride and say those most difficult words to a loved one: “I’m sorry.” And when I’m throwing myself the world’s biggest pity party afterward, he’ll soothe my wounded pride by telling me I’m beautiful and bringing me ice cream. He grocery shops with me and cleans with me; plays board games with me and my son and takes him to a sitter when he knows (whether I do or not) that we need to get away. He’s the person I do everything with, but I’m just as happy doing nothing with.
We all lose sight of things in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we may take our spouses for granted or forget about their wants and needs in lieu of the children’s or our own. Yet, I hope I never lose sight of the reasons why I fell in love with my husband in the first place, why I decided to marry him, and what led to us creating a life and a family together. That is what makes these small, yet adorable things worth remembering.
Kayla I. Shown-Dean has published her first novel, Muted. She is also a blogger, a member of White County Creative Writers, and a regular contributor to shortfictionbreak.com.
In addition to writing, Kayla has a full-time job at a local university, and she teaches English part-time as an adjunct. She lives with her husband and son, who is a preschooler. When she has free time, Kayla enjoys reading, writing, blogging, painting, drawing, and singing. Visit her blog at www.kideanaround.com.
(Kayla and her husband, Preston, have been married for 5 years.)
If you’re like me and most people you made a resolution, at the beginning of the month, to be healthier or lose weight. How is it going, are you still on track? Today I am going to share a lifestyle change that will help you reach your goal and is easy to stick to. The issue with most diets or programs is that they are so limited that they cannot be stuck to for a long period of time, clean eating is different in this way. When eating clean you are only eliminating 80% of the processed foods that you eat, which makes it easier to stick with.
What is Clean Eating?
Clean eating is exactly that, it is removing the preservatives and chemicals that they put in foods from your diet. The food that is eaten is as close to its natural form as possible. So you are looking at whole, unprocessed, and unrefined foods. Mainly the goal is to stay away from foods that have undergone a lot of different transformations to be the product you eat. The perimeter of the store is your friend and where you will find the bulk of your clean eating foods.
Steps to get started!
Drink lots of water: It is recommend about 64 ounces a day. If you don’t drink a lot of water now start by replacing one or two of your sodas or coffee a day with water.
Eat vegetables: Besides the obvious good things about vegetables, you can eat and eat them without adding hardly any calories to your diet.
Pick whole grains: Brown rice, whole wheat bread, and quinoa are examples of better options.
Read labels: My rule is if I can’t pronounce it, then I don’t need to eat it. Also the fewer ingredients included the cleaner the food is.
Reduce Sugar intake: Fruits contain a lot of natural sugar that are better for you then artificial sweeteners however they still do not need to be eaten in high amounts.
Tips to be successful:
Don’t dump all the highly processed foods at once: The reason is because it would cost a lot to restock you pantry, and it’ll be easier for your body to adjust to the change in your diet.
Cook at Home: Cooking at home allows you to be in control of what goes into your food and the amounts of each ingredient.
Take it one day at a time, even one meal at a time: If you mess up don’t let it ruin the rest of the day or the week. Just start back over and keep going, one or two meals will not ruin you.
Do it 80% of the time: It is unlikely that you will be able to eat perfectly clean all of the time. So if you make it a goal to eat most of your foods clean then you have wiggle room to eat other foods without feeling guilty.
Be creative: The options can get bland, so be creative and play with spices to change it up.
Some Staples to keep on hand.
Chicken: Chicken is my go to meat because of the price and versatility, plus it is delicious in any form.
Fresh vegetables: your favorites, anything green is a great option
Nuts: Are great for snacks, just make sure not to eat too many for a snack.
Frozen fruit: Most any fruit is great for smoothies as well as desert options
Whole grain breads and pastas: For those that can’t survive without carbs
Don’t be scared off by what can seem like an overwhelming amount of information out there about clean eating, take it a step at a time. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing clean recipes and snacks over at Married and Hungry if you are looking for more information.
Renee discusses her favorite parts of life over at Married and Hungry. Upon getting married and finding very few tips online on being a new wife she decided that she would share her journey. Being a self-proclaimed food nerd she shares her favorite recipes as well. Also trying to become craftier she even shares her Pinterest craft trials. You can keep up with her at @marriedanhungry over on Twitter, and Married and Hungry’s Facebook page.
It is such a privilege to be able to share with you about perseverance and completing what we start. No one needs this pep talk more than I. Perseverance is a determination to complete a task. A singlemindedness. It will magnify every emotion you have ever had, from joy and eager anticipation to the depths of despair and (for me) self-loathing. I ask your indulgence as I share a completely true story that illustrates this rigorous discipline.
In those days we lived in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. The wind was pretty constant and came at us out of the southwest. Our tri-level home bore the scars of the wind & extreme weather and it was clear that the siding needed to be replaced. So we got three estimates and our eyes popped right out of our heads. Just like in the cartoons. BOING. $32,000 was the cheapest! For steel siding! We had lived there long enough to internalize the fierce spirit of independence, and we squared our pioneer shoulders and declared we would do this ourselves. This was confidence born of inexperience. And ignorance.
So we bought the siding for a fraction of the cost of the estimate. Oh, we laughed and felt smug and financially ahead of the curve for a time. (The ordeal/trip to get the siding is a story in itself that resulted in my writing my Last Will and Testament when I made it home.) We also decided to expand the project to include new, energy efficient windows and two sliding glass doors. We did some research & decided yeah, we can do this. Even writing this I just shake my head at the breath of our ignorance.
This project consumed Every. Single. Day. Hour. Thought. of that entire summer. If my hubs was home, we were working on that siding and the windows. And we worked until it was too dark to see. At that latitude, it stayed light until around 9 p.m. or so.
I was sick to death of the siding, the wind, the heat, and the project that was Never. Going to. End. At some point, in despair and desperation, I suggested we just burn the house down. He rolled his eyes at me and mumbled something like, “We’re almost done.”
Oh no we weren’t. There were still many boxes of siding, insulation, all kinds of trim and soffits and windows and doors. And scaffolding we had to move 3 times, and heavy drills and extension cords. We had to use screws because the relentless wind would pry the nails loose from the wood and the siding would rattle. I had seen houses that had lost some of their siding due to the wind. There were still LOTS of steel and insulation to cut. Oh, and shutters. They needed to be painted and hung. And speaking of paint as an added bonus, the day the hubs started taking out the first window – the bathroom window- the bathroom in which I was taking a SHOWER – that was the moment I realized that with the installation of the first window, this horribly huge project moved to include the inside of my house, too. Every room that had a window or sliding door would now need to be re- trimmed and painted. Top to bottom and then there was a decision about ratty worn out carpet and the popcorn material on every ceiling in the house. Do one, do them all. See what I mean? I came to despise this project and our own foolishness at undertaking it.
Siding and windows and carpet, O My!
Construction and painting that makes me sigh
Will it ever be over, will it ever be done?
It never was murmured that it would be fun… cause it wasn’t
I believed we would never be done. I would have forgotten how to cook everything. I likely would not even recognize a stove. My hands, arms, legs, and my mental, state would never be the same.
This project consumed us. Physically, personally, financially, emotionally. It was going to chew us up & spit us out. Evidently our project was on steroids and it was growing. I never tallied the final costs, because I suspected it would be =/> $32K. But even if it was, we got a lot more bang for our bucks. On a positive note, the hubs and I were also developing chiseled-looking muscles. I’m telling you this, not even Tony Horton’s P90X was as hard as this project.
What we did not do was complain. I found myself biting on a stick to keep from hurling abuse at the universe for the difficulty of this DIY project. Once, on an especially hard day, I found myself biting on a scrap piece of steel siding. That’s not good…think galvanic shocks from metal dental fillings biting down on steel. Since I’ve moved south and stopped all this hard construction work, I’ve gotten new dental crowns and veneers. A blessing for sure.
Before the snow started falling we had completed our projects. In time I stopped hating my house and became calm and content once more.
During a time of contemplation, I thought about this siding experience and came to six conclusions about perseverance and finishing what we start.
Some things (like the siding) are not open ended. You cannot just decide not to finish it. It must be done. Just do it. Find a stick to bite on if you must.
Other things, like a story or poem I’ve started, I can make a judgment about whether or not they are worth the effort. If you decide not to continue with it, please put it in a file and come back to it later.
Sometimes you work so hard on a written piece that you just begin to hate it… like I hated my house for a while. But after I saw it done, I forgave it and began to love it again.
Before you begin, have a plan. As detailed as you can make it.
hard estimates for projects and crafts
detailed outlines for each chapter of a book of non-fiction
thorough synopsis for each chapter of a book of fiction
clean off your work space, get your desk/work area super organized.
Knowing where your tool are makes it so much easier to work
As Steven Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind”.
As much as possible set an end date
Get your calendar out and identify the time you will be working on your project
Be reasonable in your time estimates. (I’ve read that many diets begin with a goal that states they will lose between 30 and 3000 pounds in 2 weeks. Don’t make a goal like that.)
Guard that time and don’t let others fill it up with stuff that will keep you from accomplishing your goal.
It’s okay to be flexible, as long as you are not using “I’m being flexible” to avoid a difficult part of the work.
Find an accountability partner. Someone who will ask you how it’s going. Someone you can trust with your words and your work. Seek that respected friend who loves you enough to gently call you out on it when you are avoiding your work. That person who will walk you back you your writing desk, put you in your chair and quietly leave the room so you can work. Make sure your door only locks from the inside. Just a thought.
It feels absolutely fabulous to complete a difficult project. When I walked across the street and looked back at my house I was very proud. The biggest reward I had at the time was, “I’ll never have to paint you again.” My house looked very good and unless the wind and weather blow it down completely, that siding is on there to stay.
Now, do you have any projects to finish? I do. One is a children’s story about a little girl named Anna. It is on my calendar to complete in January. Another is a cross-stitch that I started in 1992. It’s painful to admit that. I’ll put it on the calendar to finish in February. The thing is, it’s almost done. Almost. Not Quite.
Keep Reading. Keep Writing.
Dorothy Hill has lived in Arkansas for 10 years. She finds it easy to invest an entire day reading while ignoring everything else. She is married and has 4 grown children and 4 grandchildren. She is currently serving as Secretary for the Little Rock Chapter of American Christian Writers. What she really wants to do is quit work and fill her days with writing.