Thursday, May 31, 2012

My journey through SR2 - Week 6

Well, we've arrived at week six of Soul Restoration 2. Technically it's the last week but the work will go for many months beyond this. This week focused on the work we will continue to do.
I finished up my vision board.This is were I will track my progress, on living the life I was meant to live.
In a box that I made, are activity cards, labeled 5mins, 15mins, 30mins, 2 hours and 1 day. Each card has an activity that will lead me to living the life I was meant to live. When I complete one, I'll glue a token to my vision board. Each card also has a reward on it and an indicator stating how many times I have to complete each activity before I get the reward. Some cards wont have a reward on them because they are a reward in themselves (spend one day with Alexis). Some activities are things I have to do anyway (cut the grass) and I might as well reward myself for it. Other cards are activities I wish I would make more time for, reading a book for 2 hours uninterrupted. I can add cards as I go and get rid of them, if they no longer fit.

I also still have lots and lots of stuff to add to my Life book and lots of goals I want to achieve. I think this will keep me going until @ least the new year. I wont be bored! I know that sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do but I plan on filling my life with as much stuff as I want to do as I can. Everything I do, I'm going to do for me and not feel guilty about it. I'm so excited about that!
Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Faith Fridays - Be Brave

Hi everyone,
Last week Courtney posted this faith prompt "Create a layout or project that focuses on one word or key phrase you know God wants you to focus on. Could be for this season of your life, this week, this month... What is God's plan for you in this moment?" on her blog. Here is my LO.
If you have been reading my blog, you know that I've been taking online classes with the amazing girls @ Brave Girls Club. One thing that I have learned about myself, is that I am much braver than I thought.  I have done a lot of things that have required great bravery. Owning my own home, calling my grandmother from the hospital early in the morning when my grandfather was dying and she needed to come, being a nurse, these things are very brave. But so is cutting the grass of that home you own, having glamour shots done, joining committees even though you are shy, going to a wedding when you are sure the only person you will know is the groom. Something else that is brave? Living the life you were meant to live, even if that means that for now you'll have to wait for your husband and your babies.
The journalling on this LO is from the movie We bought a Zoo. " You know, sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. Literally just 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery and I promise you, something great will come of it."  I'm going to try to live like that.

Thank you for coming by. Love you all!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

My journey through SR2 -Week 5

Well week five of Soul Restoration 2 is complete, week six starts today.
The lesson this week was all about decisions and rules. We made this little book;
When faced with a decision, no matter how small, we are to go to this book and ask ourselves the questions in it. For example "Will I feel like I have to hide this decision from anyone who I love and respect? Why would I have to hide it?"  OR "Is this something I really want in my life?" It might seem like common sense but we often ignore these questions or know the answer and refuse to listen to it. It might mean letting go of things that I thought I wanted but are no longer right for me or it might mean doing something that scares the crap out of me. If it will lead me to the life I was meant to have, I'll do it. :)

It also comes with rules.
Like, " I will make the BEST decisions only and not settle for good enough." I am looking forward to trying these out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, May 14, 2012

My journey through SR2 - Week 4

Hi everyone, here is week four's instalment of Soul Restoration 2 by Brave Girls.
Week four focused on identifying our road blocks/landmines that keep us from completing our goals.  I have a lot of them.
My landmines.

I wont go over all of them but here are a few:
Feeling guilty for sacrificing other things to work on this goal - in order to work on some of these goals, that will mean that my house will not always be tidy, laundry wont always be put away, my lawn will be cut but might not always be weeded and I'll have to say no to other activities, this is hard for me because I want to be able to do everything.

Paralyze myself thinking about my fears - goals can be really scary sometimes and not just that but they can be very overwhelming. Like my garden for example; It's huge, so that's why I only picked a small part to start with. I've learned that sometimes the most scary things are the most worth it.

Get discouraged when a few amazing days are followed by crappy days. I ask myself, what's the point? - Like last week, I had an amazing weekend and then last week sucked, I was sick and spent most of it on the couch. But I have to remember that that's the way it goes sometimes.

Get lost on the computer or television - I love TV. I can almost always find something on and if not, I've got DVDs I can watch. I'm glad that the regular TV season is almost over. I don't revolve myself around TV as much as I use to and have learned that if I'm resorting to talk shows or reality TV then I need to go and do something else. The computer can be bad too, I waste a lot of time on it. It got better when I moved into my house and the computer was moved into the spare room and not in the living room anymore. I'm trying hard to limit my time on it and it's almost always turned off by 8 in the evening.

So those are a few of my landmines and now that I have identified what they are, it will be easier to stop them from happening. It's also comforting to know that I'm not alone, others have these same landmines as me.

I feel like we have done soooo much work in this class already, I'm looking forward to what Melody has in store for the next two weeks!

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful day!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Faith Fridays - encouraging words

Good morning!
Courtney Walsh over @ Telling Stories is doing a series of weekly faith based scrapbooking prompts. Last weeks prompt was to scrap encouraging words, to yourself or someone else, to remind them that they are not alone.
For several months now, I have been receiving Brave Girls Club's daily reminder "a little birdie told me." A few weeks ago one about not fitting in and how it's better not to fit in as long as you are being yourself but also how painful it can be not to fit in, really spoke to me. I am learning that it's okay not to fit in with those who don't really matter. Two years ago when I was having dizzy spells everyday for over a year, I really found out the people who counted. It is becoming even more clear with all this personal growth that I have been doing who is worth making an effort for, those who have encouraged me and to leave behind those who have intentionally tried to hurt me. Taylor Swift sings "People throw rocks at things that shine."  I am much happier being shiny but because I am a sensitive girl, the rocks still hurt sometimes. So I made this LO with Melody and Kathy's words to remind myself that I am not alone, that this is worth it because it really really is. I have felt more like myself than I have in years and that is sooo wonderful.
Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!
Much Love.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

My journey through SR2 - Week 3

Good morning!!
So I'm a bit behind blogging about week 3, as week 4 started yesterday. I had a busy amazing weekend and then was home sick Monday and Tuesday. Still not really feeling the greatest, thinking this week is pretty much a write off. Anyway back to week 3 of Soul Restoration 2.
This week was about goals. Big, little it didn't matter. Just as long as they were goals you were willing to sacrifice for. The idea is that this book we are making will be a continuous thing even after the course is over but we are only to focus on three goals during the class. While I was thinking of goals, this is what I created.

I got this idea from Melody @ Brave Girls. This is something I have struggled with a lot. As a society we are constantly being told that we are not enough, that we don't have enough, we aren't pretty enough...true no one says "not enough"  but the message is clearly there and we tell each other that all the time. We as a society criticize each other way more than we praise and celebrate each other. I use to read Cosmo every month for 4 years and I had to stop b/c the message that was I was getting was "Be yourself but don't be yourself too much because you wont fit in, or you wont get the guy" and that is crap. I am enough and my true friends love my weirdness and the guy (whomever he will be) will love my weirdness too and I his. YOU are enough. Sure, sometimes we could do better and that's okay. That's life, it kicks our butts sometimes.


So on to my goals.
1. Photo Shoot - This is something that I already had planned but had been put off. It was also something that I was very nervous to do, so I thought I would start there. I completed this goal on Friday. Julia is an amazing photographer. Her and Meg (from Megz Make-up) made me feel so at ease and they are a great team. My sister Patti said that Julia really captured my inner beauty. My Dad didn't even know it was me! I couldn't believe that was me. Sure, I know I clean up pretty good but man I must see myself with different glasses, I guess than everyone else. I am so pleased with what I have seen so far and can't wait to see the rest. It was such an empowering thing and the glow lasted all weekend. Every woman should get their photos taken by a professional @ least once in their life and wedding shots or family photos do not count. It needs to be just you and the photographer...it's an amazing experience, one I wont forget for along time.

2. Refresh a garden plot - So I have a really big garden, like really big. To be honest it overwhelms me. I know nothing about gardening. My Mom loves to garden and she always had gardens @ every house we lived in but I never got involved much. So I know nothing.  So I decided to break it down in small areas and focus on one area @ a time. I've picked a small plot under the bathroom window which is currently filled with crab grass. I've picked it because it is small and there is nothing in the garden I wish to keep, so I can just start over. I've written each step out and I plan to start next week.

3. Learn to play the guitar - Now this is a funny one. It's something I've thought about doing here and there for a long time. I can play the piano (although I'm sure I'm really rusty) and I sing in the church choir. I really miss being able to play something and since I don't have room in my little house for a piano, learning guitar seems like a good alternative. Now I wasn't sure I was going to add it to my goals this time until I went to my sisters Buck and Doe this weekend and one of the raffle prizes was two half hour guitar lessons taught by a friend of hers. I took this as a sign and entered at least half of my raffle tickets into its bag. And I won!! So I added it to my list of goals. I haven't booked my lessons yet because I really should get a guitar first. I'm going to start looking in the next couple weeks.

I'm really excited about my goals so far and they have really helped me focus on the things that I really want and have, instead of dwelling on what I don't have.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Scrapbooking your faith - My truths

Courtney over @ Telling Stories and instructor of the Big Picture Class Scrapbooking Your Faith class that I participated in this winter, has decided to add prompts to her blog. This week was all about truths. This is what is true for me right now.

Journaling reads; 1. I am a sister, daughter, granddaughter, niece, cousin and aunt. 2. I am a Godmother to my beautiful niece Alexis and I take it very seriously. 3. I am still called to be a nurse, just maybe not in surgery anymore. 4. I am different from most people and that's okay because I am living my true life. 5. Many people love me and no one can take that away. 6. GOD has a plan for me.

This LO actually fits well with all the Brave Girls work I have been doing. Funny how things work out, huh?

Ciao!