Clarity is Power... Are you living your dream?

Ever wonder "what is my calling" "what was is my purpose" "what am I supposed to be doing"? If your answer is yes, than your in good company along with so many others. 

You recall your childhood or adolescent years dreaming of what you were going to be when you grew up, or that dream life you would have? Like so many of us, these jobs, dreams and idealisms change when we become adults and life just happens before us. However, one thing that should never change, is your ability to dream, your heart to grow and live the life you have imagined and bigger! 

In a survey conducted by Salary.com of over 1.100 people, they were asked about their dream jobs, to find out if they were truly doing what they had always dreamed of. An astonishing 16% of those surveyed were living out those dreams! Additionally, 70% of those surveyed had also said their dream job had changed once they became an adult. Check out the full story and statistics here. 

Check out this article from Oprah about knowing your calling

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Oprah-on-Finding-Your-Calling-What-I-Know-For-Sure

The Payment of Motherhood

The Highest Payment of Motherhood

When I think of a love as pure as that our children, it brings tears to my eyes and a smile to my face. I am awestruck at a love as innocent, as pure and as deep as theirs. For most of us, we are compensated in our lives through a career, a place we go to grow, learn, apply our god given talents and climb up the endless world of opportunity in dollars...salaries, financial and personal reward, right? And, there are some of us who work for free, volunteer their time to contribute for the compensation of very little to for some, nothing in return. However; either way, it seems for most, we are on a journey of doing things in this world for some payback, and I don't mean that necessarily in money, some of us don't expect anything in return, yet there is still a return... its a self gratification of helping others and for some its a compensation of a salary for a job performance.  What makes this transition in us? Is it a natural thing that happens in each of us as we grow older, the need to survive kicks in, the desire to be successful, healthy and create abundance?

I think of all these things and wonder, when does this shift happen? Our young children know nothing of the "workforce" out in the world to earn a living. They learn that from us as their guiding leaders.  When they do things for us like make us a pretend cup of tea in their tiny little teacup, or draw us a masterpiece of art to display in the public eye, what do they expect in return... LOVE! They expect love, gratitude and praise! Just take in the pure and innocence in that. For me, when I look at my kids and either my husband or myself receives a gift,  their eyes glow with excitement, they are SO excited about giving, SO excited about how much I am going to LOVE the cup of tea, SO excited about getting a hug and praise for the GREAT job they did today! I see it, I recognize it, I know that for them, they are deeply satisfied with LOVE in return!

Truth is, most of us head of into the workforce to earn a living each and every day. For some we get the opportunity to stay with our children, or others children and that still is a full time 24/7 job.  Realize,  I do believe it is crucial to the development of children to be taught the significance of a dollar,  hard earned rewards and dedication of commitments. I am simply encouraging us as parents to take a step back and disconnect from the world and treasure our children's expectations of love, make notice that the payment of pure love and joy can truly be the greatest reward of our commitment and dedication to our family. What an honor to be a mother and a father to a child and an honor to fill our hearts with love!


I invite you to love greatly and deeply in everything that you do.

Multi-tasking Mom's

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

- Proverbs 22:6

Every night after dinner with my family, my husband and I carve out a few minutes to breath out and listen to each others day. Although we are BLESSED to work together in the same office / same line of work, we encounter different experiences each day and we don't always see each other.  It is nice to be able to empty out our minds and have someone to listen on the other end. I'll admit that it doesn't always go that way, there are plenty times where days get spilled over cooking dinner, table setting, kids talking and dogs barking... yet for the most part we plan for quiet times to have these talks. 

Just yesterday I had one of those rare moments where I just started to spill my day to my husband over the phone on my way to pick up my oldest from school. I went on to explain that it was a good day, all that I was able to accomplish and how our 2 year old, whom came along with was good while mommy did all her work. When I mentioned that she was "good," my husband replied "yeah?" as if there was a question, so without hesitation I went on to explain how she had sat for most of the day and watched Blue's Clue's, I took some time to sit with her and have lunch and talk to her and she played with her toys in our office right beside my desk and didn't even bother me..." I paused and he paused on the other end... Then I got this: "Isn't it funny how we judge our kids behavior based on if they bother us or not...?" "huh" got me there, yet I tried to back pedal, "Well what I meant was she just was so happy today no tantrums!" To comfort me he softly said "Yes, I know babe I'm just saying it's pretty funny that is how we base their good days and bad days!" You know what... he was SO RIGHT. I mean from time to time I think about this as I sulk in the motherly guilt moment yet to hear it was like a wake up call! I judged my TWO year old's day, by how she didn't bother me... what a selfish judgement I passed. In that moment in the midst of conversation with my husband about how our day was, I was experiencing an awaking moment of the value of time. I'm one lucky girl to have a husband that I get to have conversations like this and grow with! 

Is multi tasking effective for me? The answer is NO! I learned this from a very inspirational leader of a man, CEO and growth machine in business that multi-tasking is simply NOT effective. Whether it be watching your kids and doing paper work to having conversation while watching Property Brothers. People who "try" and multitask are often easier to distract because they have more trouble filtering out irrelevant informtion. In fact, when it comes to distractions, muti-taskers can be their own worst enemy spending an average of 3 minutes on any one task before moving on to another, while it takes 11 minutes to refocus. That also means that while your brain is starting the timer for the 11 minutes to get re-focsued at 3 minutes your distracted!!!  AHHH what a vicious cycle! So in a world of constant distractions,  phone calls, Facebook, emails, to do lists, changing Blue's Clue's videos and getting more apple juice, we are not focused on one thing at a  time... hardly ever! 

My daughter didn't feel that she had a bad day with mommy, she isn't even aware that I was basing her behavior status on how little she interrupted my tasks, no for her, she had a fun day at the office with mommy, got to watch Blue's Clue's, eat lunch with mommy, play with toys and color and I know this because that's what she told my husband she did!I love being a mom, everything that I get to be, do and experience as a mom... I LOVE! What a great awareness this has brought to my love for motherhood a realization to cherish each moment of time spent with our children is. Is it easier said then done, no, stop making excuses and become intentional about cherishing those moments! We are all trying to be the best mommy, wife and women we all know how to be, learning each day, my guess is that if we can be real enough, raw enough, open to change, and come from our hearts, our growth is limitless and everyone wins when we grow!  I get to choose to be aware of how I influence my daughters day, how I get to be a part of empowering her to grow and learn and simply be a 2 year old making memories. I'm not a perfect mom and were not a perfect family; however we are an imperfect family COMMITTED to improving!!