Bright and Cheery

Dreaming of warm weather over here! Really i should not even say this because winter has been good to us, but these short days are giving me some winter blues. I feel a serious need for the sun to stay out until about 9 at night. That won't be happening for quite awhile though. I see a good spray tan in my near future and maybe taking the girls to the pool one day this week. Sunny days will come eventually and until then I am just going to be doing all i can to stay bright and cheery over here. You'll know I've gone too far if i post a bikini pic anytime soon. 

Do any of you suffer from winter blues? What keeps you going when you start feeling the lack of vitamin D in your life? https://www.etsy.com/listing/199885069/inspirational-print-typography-poster?ref=shop_home_active_13&crlt.pid=camp.cLcM5p9STAuv

Keep Moving

What a day to be celebrated. I honestly had forgotten that today was a holiday. It happens when you work for yourself and are no longer in school. But really, when i remembered i had to reflect. What a man Martin Luther King was. He stood up for what he believed in and never backed down. Change came and who knows how quickly that would have happened with out him. Clearly he was meant for his time and called of God to do what he did. It is no wonder he is honored with a day of his own.

Live in The Present

I have had this stuck in my head for awhile now. "Look towards the future, don't dwell in the past, live in the present." It is one of the key phrases for the type of life i am trying to live. So often i have find myself dwelling on things that have turned out in ways i wish they hadn't or what i don't have and what i hope for. That is no way to live a meaningful, happy life. No good can come from constantly reminding yourself of mistakes or wishing things were better than they were. Life is great just how it is, if not, change it. 

I am trying to stay present. I want to soak up each moment. Turn them into opportunities and see the beauty in every day. 

I'll tell the amazing ways this is changing my life in later posts. 

Until then. Happy Monday!

MMM- Don't Stop

With all of the projects i take on sometimes i feel like things don't turn out exactly how i want them to. I really tend to strive for perfection and often fall short, like very short. I laugh about how off i can get and then try again. I saw this on pinterest and thought it fit my current thoughts so well. Instead of feeling like I'm not reaching perfection i can just keep at it until i am proud of the work I'm doing. 

MMM- Love What You Do

So i kind of have three jobs right now. I probably have said that before. I work for a hospice company, babysit the cutest little girl and of course just launched Gold Confetti. The other day Shae and I were talking about our hopes and dreams for Gold Confetti and the way we view it and how much of our hearts we have already poured into it. We both came to the conclusion that although we have the biggest dreams and want it to be this huge beautiful company we want it to always be something we do because we love it. There is a reason neither of us wants to go work for anyone else and would rather start our own business. I personally love the feeling of being in charge, of knowing i put all of my effort into something and seeing it turn out well. I love the satisfaction i get from being organized, helping someone, being a mentor and working with my hands. Gold Confetti allows me to do that and for that I love it. It is just barely up and running and honestly my 10 month old probably is moving faster than it has so far but I love it and that is all that matters. I love what i do. I hope you love what you do too.

MMM- Most Important Work

I have been horrible at blogging lately and want to get back on schedule so bad and then i look at the list of things i have to do and don't even know where to begin, so i usually concur a few things and spend the rest of the day chasing the girls. I desperately need to organize my time better. Right now i have a personal fight with sleeping too much or too little and then work in middle of the night on one job and in the morning on another and have the third filling me with excitement and creativity 24/7 so i just want to work on it all of the time. So the blog gets pushed aside and I am just lucky i take the time to play with the littles. While pondering how to better set up my schedule I came across this quote and could only think, how fitting. It doesn't matter where my time is spent as long as most of it is on my girls. I really do believe if i take care of my relationships with family first everything else will fall into place. 

A Little Kindness and Confetti

I took last week off from blogging to get myself organized. Life got busy and i got ahead of myself and it didn't take long for me to become overwhelmed. Now i am back, reenergized and ready to stay on track. For this weeks motivate me monday I wanted to talk about serving others. The ice bucket challenge thing has been going around lately and that is great. It is awesome to see so many people donating to one cause. There are tons of reasons to donate though and for an endless number of charities. I personally like to put our money or time towards a cause i am close to or towards an actual person. Last week my heart was touched by an insta mama @lexzurcher that i follow who offered 100% of profits from her home made prints to go towards a family that she is close to that just found out their baby girl has Muscular Dystrophy. My heart breaks when anything is with babies or children. I wish that no harm could ever come to the littles of the world. As a mother i know my own heart would be shattered if i found out my children were anything less than perfect. So far in our lives we have all been very blessed. Anyways this insta friend has the most beautiful prints and she is spreading love and kindness like crazy. I hope to be this way. I hope i can offer as much heart felt help to those around me. Check Alexa's Etsy out. She is so talented and every room in your home can benefit from her wonderful prints. 

Speaking of confetti... I'd love to introduce my newest endeavor.

What do you think? This is the logo for mine and Shae Vandenberghe's business. What is Gold Confetti? Event styling and coordinating. We are so excited to get this going and have such big dreams in mind. Guess what?! Our first wedding is in 5 days! It is going to be absolutely beautiful and we can not wait for it to get here. Check out our instagram account @goldconfettievents for now and our website will be up shortly. If you are interested in hiring or collaborating with us email me at gold confettievents@gmail.com

Motivate Me Monday- In Between

Today is simple. Some days i wake up and start off exactly where i was when i went to bed...with a billion things on my mind. I am a girl who stays busy. I tend to make  myself busy. If i don't have a hundred things on my to do list I don't know what to do. Right now my list reads; mail package, write sarah, paint bathroom, write 3 blog posts, work 4 hours today, draw reception layout, sketch things for kaden, clean kitchen, unpack... Well you get the point because yes my list keeps going. I am a stay at home mom with a real part time job i do from home online and I am starting a new business adventure. I have a lot of goals both personally and for my family and sometimes i get lost in them. Somedays I forget that instead of just working towards something i should be living too. So last night while scrolling through pinterest this hit me like a ton of bricks. This is what i am working on this week.

Motivate Me Monday- Be Happy, Be Kind

Leighton is rarely this sweet to Emersyn. 

But today she made her bed, gave her a baba and read her a story. 

Melt my heart!

I have mentioned before that my insecurities tend to get the best of me. I have been working on them and with that here are some new things i have discovered. The more i try to be kind to others the happier i am. Sometimes being kind is scary, not that i want to be mean but its intimidating to go out of my way to say hi to people or smile at strangers or start small talk with the person behind me at the store. We live in a world of busy individuals who don't have time for anyone around them. I have noticed the more i walk around with a smile on my face, hold doors open for people, say hello and compliment people the more i shock them, but hopefully they are all pleasant surprises. If you don't follow Whippy Cake, you probably should. Her blog is full of all sorts of beautiful and this month she is hosting the most amazing online event in honor of her birthday. She is asking to spread kindness. Check it out and this week as i make a conscious effort to be a little kinder i hope you will too.

 

Motivate Me Monday- Some Perspective

Last week was kind of a dream. We played so much as a family and it was perfect. Spending time together having fun was exactly what i needed. During our stress free time together i realized that i have been taking advantage of the days i get to spend with my girls. I worry too much about making things be just so and i expect way too much out  of Leighton. Both of my girls are just babies. Even though Leighton is a crazy toddler, she is supposed to be. She is two and I catch myself telling her not to cry that she isn't a baby. Just because Emersyn is a much smaller baby doesn't mean Leighton isn't one. Since i have started treating her more like i should not expecting her to listen to every thing i ask her to do, we have been able to enjoy each other so much more. I only have so long with these two and i plan to see each day with them as blessed. 

"Its not what you look at that matters, its what you see." 

- Thoreau

Motivate Me Monday- Lets Play

Where has this summer gone? I honestly can't believe that June is already over. At the first of the month i made a goal to work on pre-school type activities with the girls everyday. Well that hasn't worked out like i planned. We kind of fell into a funk of lounging a lot and watching too many movies when we are at home. Last week I watched Leighton play with her cousins and she was so involved in everything. She wants to be exploring and making messes and just learning. So we are going to play. We are going to run through the water, dig in the dirt, and paint with our fingers.  

Heres to being motivated to get out and play!

Motivate Me Monday- Quit Robbing Yourself

Confession, I have a huge problem. I compare myself to almost everyone and everything. It is something that for what seems like most of my life i have struggled with. I honestly can remember comparing myself to kids in elementary school and getting so nervous because i couldn't run as fast as other kids or i thought there was no way i could hit the tether ball as hard as someone else. I don't know why i started this game, i wish i never had. I think that life would have been a lot easier this far if i wasn't always so worried about what other people had, or thought or what i didn't have or how i looked. This is something i have been trying to work on constantly and something that is really embarrassing to come out with, but i figure if i feel this way i can not be the only one. Since the day i decided i didn't need to keep up with the "Joneses" of the world I have found myself immensely more grateful for what i do have. It has given me perspective and helped me to be happy with where i am in life, what i can afford and what i can offer my family. It is frustrating to think of how long i went with feeling like i wasn't as good as another person or that my home wasn't as pretty as a bloggers that i follow or that my children didn't have as cute of clothes or nice of toys. I truly had been robbing myself of joy. I had been letting something that is unobtainable control me, and for what? Nothing good ever came from it or ever will. Over the weekend i found myself frustrated again with somethings and had to  step back and realize I am blessed, i am happy and i have enough. 

This week i challenge you to quit comparing. To be yourself. To find joy in all you have and know it is enough, and you are more than enough. 

Motivate Me Monday- Sick Days

This past week was eventful and fun and very very draining. Emersyn got sick on Thursday and as much as i tried to convince myself that she was doing fine, she wasn't. She hasn't slept at night since Wednesday and i mean really hasn't slept. Like when the baby can only sleep being held and the second you lay her down she starts screaming or once you do get her to lay down she just coughs herself awake. This has been awesome! Im full of sarcasm right now (due to my lack of sleep) so bare with me. 

Last night sat down to write this post and thought what in the world is going to motivate me this week, what do i need?! All i can think? Sleeeeep. So i gave up on this until this morning. Hope all of you have slept much much more than i have the past few days and i hope all the littles are way healthier. It is summer, life is supposed to be a dream and no one is supposed to be sick. But here is real life and here is what is motivating me today. 

Motivate Me Monday- Give Me Some Loving!

Last week the girls and I took a trip to Logandale to visit one of my oldest and dearest friends and her new baby girl, Quincy. All three of us were in LOVE. Like honestly Leighton kept looking at her and saying baby in awe and Emersyn, well she clearly just wanted to eat her up. I have a 7 month old and she made me baby hungry. To go through another pregnancy just to hold a new born again? Maybe. 

We also got to spend an entire day with Leighton's favorite cousins and Jessica. I think it was honestly the first time Jessica and I got to hang out all day together. It was amazing to watch all of the kids swim and us just get to lay out in the sun and talk forever! Emersyn lights up every time she is with Jessica too, it is seriously the sweetest thing. We loved our day with them and hopefully we will start to have more.

While we were in town my Grandma stopped by for a visit. Everyone seems to have a crazy grandma, well i do have a C R A Z Y grandma. She means well and is usually very loving but when your G Ma is not too much older than your parents, single, and 6 foot something with hair that changes between shades of purple and pink you cant help but tell the world that she is crazy. So while she is visiting Leighton comes in the room tired and shy, kind of hiding behind me. (I am going to explain this in the best possible way) Grandma leans over (remember 6 foot something and pinkish hair) shakes her entire body (thats a lot of shaking) with her arms out for a hug (thats a huge wing span) and says come give grandma some love. Leighton did not hesitate to give an OH SHIZ face and yell RUN as she bolted  down the hall in true sprinting fashion. Really, she could give some serious advice on form. Chest up, head up and arms trailing behind her. She would have flew away if she could. Luckily Grandma realizes Leighton is too, and was totally oblivious that the mumu she was wearing probably scared the girl half to death to begin with. 

Being back at my parents for a few days really made we feel loved and made me realize i need some more of that spread through out everything in my life. Sometimes i can be total downer and I am sure that person you avoid talking to because they only talk about themselves. For now on I plan on making things about others and showing some loving.

P.S. If you havent entered the giveaway yet, it is not too late. Go now and enter on instagram!

Motivate Me Monday- Dream Weekend

Did anyone else have a dream weekend? We sure did. I honestly am pretty sad that it is over. Saturday started off with a super awesome Piyo class that kicked my butt and let the babes play at the gym day care. For some reason Leighton loves the place. Then we went on a breakfast and swim date with friends. Coconut, chocolate chip, ricotta pancakes are always a good idea! 

My little girls are quite the pair of fish. Leighton is way too brave in the water and i need to get her into lessons asap! Every time she thought i wasn't watching her she would run straight to the deep end and try to jump in. Thank goodness for awesome lifeguards who kept their eyes on her. 

After the pool and nap time i took the girls to the local nursery for "garden days" they were offering free little kid train rides. Leighton was in love. If it wasn't for the wind she would have rode that thing all afternoon. While we were there i had her help me pick out some new things to plant in the yard. What was her favorite plant to carry around? Beats. We planted everything together after church yesterday. It is so nice to be at this point in Leighton's life where she is taking everything in and learning so much. She loves to be a helper and its great because Emersyn loves to watch. 

This week I hope to have more moments like this with my girls. I am going to be posting a list of all the things we want to do this summer. I am so glad it is finally here!

Motivate Me Monday- Progress

I graduated! Woo hoo!

 Literally since the second i received my diploma hold i have thought

 "what now?" 

I am not even going to begin on all of the ideas of things i want to venture into

or places i want to go, but in the spirit of MMM 

cheers to progressing!