My Daily 500

This picture doesn’t have anything to do with the post except that I was little and making a face that looks sort of tough. I don’t have any related pictures on my computer.

Today I am going to write about a time of my life that I loved maybe more than any other time. There are times that we can all look back on as times that were extra special, and for me one of those times was when I played softball. I loved being a part of a team and being really, really good at something. I loved the smell of my oiled leather glove after we worked on it for what seemed like months to get it broken in, being sore after hours of practicing drills, and looking at the lines of dirt that stuck to my skin after I took my socks off after a game to take a shower. I loved being a part of something important and having one of the most important positions on the team, the catcher. I was the only person on the field who could look everyone in the eye before a play. From behind the plate you could see everything that was happening, and as a result I learned the game really well. I learned what every position would do in every situation, and in theory I could have played anywhere. If I had stayed up with it I could have been a great coach.

It’s hard to pick a “favorite memory” from my softball days, but I think I have one that is pretty good. It may not be the best, but it was something that I was pretty excited about, and when I think back about the great times I had it’s always one of those memories that pops up. The first year I played on a competitive team I had to learn a lot of new things. I practiced throwing to second base, stealing, running to the backstop after a wild pitch and grabbing the ball then tossing it to the exact perfect spot so that the pitcher (who had run up to the plate) could tag out someone who would was stealing home. I spent practices going over and over different plays that could potentially happen, and they all did, except for one. I must have practiced catching hundreds of foal balls, but when games came around I never had the chance to try and catch one. If the batter did hit a foal ball it was always way beyond my reach. I always anticipated it happening though, and I was excited about getting the opportunity to try and catch my first foul ball.

I think I was probably 12 at the end of my first competitive season and we were at the National Championship in Galveston, Texas. I don’t remember much about the tournament except that we traded lots of pins with other teams, that we won 5th place in the 12 and under division, and that I got my first opportunity to catch a foul ball. I was catching, and I don’t remember who was at any of the other positions except I know for sure that Kylie was playing second base. It was the last inning and there were two outs, and I don’t remember if it was the last game we played or not- but I do remember that the game was almost over. Suddenly as the last batter was up, she swung at a pitch and the ball tipped her bat and started flying through the air towards first base. I didn’t think, I just got up and ran towards the ball as fast as I could. The ball wasn’t all that high in the air, it flew straighter and faster than a normal pop-up should fly, and I probably could have let the first baseman go to catch it if I hadn’t been completely focused on catching the ball myself. I ran and ran as I looked up at the ball to try to catch up with it. As I saw it falling towards the ground, still going forward at full speed, I swiped at the ball from the top and swung my arm behind me, not sure if I had caught the ball, knocked the ball away, or completely missed it all together. My hand was clutched tightly, although I wasn’t sure if I was holding anything at all. I had almost had to dive forward when I made the swipe, but I wasn’t completely on the ground. Instead I was bent over and still running a little bit trying to slow down. I realized that I had better look to see if I had caught the ball, and as I slowly brought my hand back to the front of me it seemed that the entire crowd was silent. I looked down into my glove to see the ball barely inside creating a snow-cone type look at the rim of the leather. I had caught the ball. The next place my eyes went were to Kylie at second base, who saw the ball and dropped her jaw then jumped high into the air and yelled a very excited “yeah!” when she realized what had happened. I don’t think it fully registered with me that I had caught the ball until I saw Kylie celebrate. It was an incredible feeling.

I think the game ended then, and eventually we ended up losing and getting 5th place in the National Championship, but I will always remember the first time I caught a foul ball. I LOVED it.

First of all, I love this weather. I don’t love that sometimes storms can be dangerous, but I do love thunderstorms. Last night Brian and I were watching a movie, and all the lights were off besides the TV, and flashes of lightening and thunder came in through the windows the entire time. Storms are exciting, and they seem to be a way that God likes to shake things up a little bit and remind everyone that he’s there in a very clear, loud, flashy way. I love that.

But, today I’m going to talk about love for causes and missions. No matter who you are, there is a pretty good chance you love a cause of some kind, or that you at least care about it to some extent. Lots of people get fired up about politics and believe very strongly in education or healthcare reform or some other issue. They feel passionate about changing the world for the better through laws and regulations. They are the rule-makers and love justice. Some people are very passionate about helping other countries and going on mission trips to Africa or underdeveloped countries and literally save people from famine and disease. Lots of those people are medical professionals who have been given an extraordinarily brilliant mind and have the ability to go to a place and heal. They love their work because they are helping people who would not otherwise be helped. Others will be passionate about raising their children and helping them become amazingly great people so that they will go out and do amazing things for the causes that they love. Everyone’s cause is different, but I think everyone feels compassion for something.

Throughout my life it has always been really easy for me to care about things that will “change the world”, especially things that affect one person at a time. A few years ago Erin and I really wanted to start a home for pregnant girls who had no where else to go. There is something about that cause that really draws me. Even though I have no experience or expertise at all there is something about me that wants to help those girls. Right now I work at a preschool for kids with disabilities. It is easy to work where I work because it is directly helping 64 families who have no other place to turn to for free services for their kids. I LOVED working there when I worked in the classrooms and got to spend time every day directly observing the quality of life of those children and families increase daily because of what we were doing. It was extremely rewarding.

There are lots of different ways that we can help or work for the causes that we love. I remember once my dad saying that he would rather give money to someone so they could go and help people than go himself. He believed that his money could help someone who was great at it go and save some lives or build a house. Now, my dad is a great and would be awesome going out and helping people, but for some reason he felt like his role in that particular situation was to give the money. That is a very important role- and without funds most of God’s work wouldn’t be able to get done. It costs money to get medical supplies to give shots in Africa or to pay for tuition so that a child who has cerebral palsy can go to school for free and get all the physical therapy he needs.

I am, I think, the opposite of my dad when it comes to this issue. I think it’s probably a little selfish of me, but I NEED to be involved in seeing the results and doing the helping with my own hands in order to feel like I’m making a difference. I’m SO glad that people like my dad exist and can get some satisfaction out of giving money to good causes, but I love working with the people. It’s not that I feel like I shouldn’t give money, because I do feel like I should, but I have this personal desire to watch people’s lives change as a result of things that God is doing through my hands. It’s been hard this past year and a half working where I’m working and not being in the classroom. When I was in the classroom I LOVED my job, and now I have to remind myself sometimes that what I’m doing is more than just event planning, it’s allowing teachers to get paid so that 64 children will have a place to learn. In my mind I know that’s important, but in my heart I need to be convinced.

So, what I do is take a little time every week and go play with a kid. Then I am reminded that what I am doing is in a round-about way helping a child to communicate with their parents for the first time or take their first steps. That reminder makes it worth it for a while, until I start to feel like it’s all “just a job” again. Good thing those kids are just 30 steps away from my office.

Today I want to talk about my love for simple pleasures. There are a few things in life that I absolutely love to do and experience on an almost daily basis. I believe that God puts things in our lives to give us joy, and he can show us his love in unique, very small ways that you wouldn’t normally expect to hear from him. Creating joy for us is one way that he shows us love, and I think it’s important to recognize things that give us joy and to give him a little credit for them every so often. So, I wanted to give you my list of things that make me extremely happy.

1. I love drinking hot tea. It’s an experience that is very peaceful and relaxing. I have said this many times before, but I actually mean it when I say that tea is like my magic potion. It really makes me feel better no matter what the situation is. If I have a sore throat, tea helps. If I’m sad, tea helps. There is nothing that tea cannot fix.

2. I also love drinking coffee in the morning. I know that’s two drinking things, but I guess I like liquid a lot. There’s something about coffee in the morning that is a unique experience. It sets the tone for the entire day. I like drinking it on my couch and enjoying it more than I like running out the door with a to-go cup, but either way is very enjoyable.

3. One of the things I love more than anything is to blog. I love writing and connecting with people, so it’s wonderful to be able to combine the two and write knowing that my friends and family who are all across the country can connect with me and what’s going on in my life. I love to post pictures of recent events, set goals and tell people about them, and try to come up with creative ways to relay my thoughts. I love it.

4. A recent development is that I love body wash. When I was younger I had a problem with clear skin, especially on my shoulders. My dermatologist told me to use bar Dial soap, and that seemed to fix the problem. I guess Dial soap is sensitive enough for me and I stopped breaking out after I used it. Several years went by when all I would use was a bar of Dial soap. Lately though, I’ve started to get body wash and use it, and I haven’t had any problems with it. I bought Olay Ribbons Body Wash this weekend, and using it has been awesome. It’s so smooth and silky, and it makes my shower much more enjoyable.

5. Bon Appetit Magazine is another simple thing that I love to read and look at. I love to cook, and Bon Appetit always has such wonderful recipes in it that are fun to make. I try to make it a goal to make one recipe a month from it. Last month I made a fancy chocolate cake for my mom’s birthday. You can see a picture of it on
Brian’s blog.

Well I’m over 500 words so I guess I’ll wrap up this second post about love for Valentine’s week. I hope you all can notice the little joys in life this week and think about God and how much he loves you.

Today is February 8, and as of today I have been married for a grand total of three months. In three months I have been married, been to Jamaica and back, turned 25, reorganized and moved Brain into our apartment, bought a new TV, bed, and computer, celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas, read all 4 books in the Twilight series, visited Kylie and Chris in Kansas, learned how to live with a boy, and have seriously begun to evaluate what it is God wants me to do with my life and try to take steps in the right direction to make that happen. It has been a busy three months, and with Valentine’s Day this week, I thought I would write some posts about Love this week. Love… ah… (sighing happily)

I know I’m still in the infant stages of this marriage thing, but I think I’ve learned a lot about love in the short time that I’ve been married. Before I got married, I knew I loved Brian because he made me comfortable, he was genuine, he was the same person no matter who he was with, he was quiet and thoughtful, and many other reasons that had everything to do with him and his personality. These are all important parts of the love process. You must love things about a person’s personality in order to fall in love with their whole person. Now, I have realized that I love Brian in a different way. I think a real spiritual thing happened in my heart when we got married, and the love I have for him is definitely much deeper, more concrete, more understood. Not that I understand the feeling, but it’s understood that it will always be there. It’s just… perfectly there.

Girls are always after the feelings that are involved in a first love type situation. Typically these feelings start for every girl around the age of 15 and are directed towards a guy who is probably also 15, and who is (despite what she might think), simply a regular 15 year old boy, the same as any other. The crazy feelings are like what Bella has for Edward that last until that guy leaves and breaks their heart, and then they are left with a memory of what this “perfect love” was, when actually that love was not love at all. It was simply the female mind romanticising everything about this 15 year old boy, believing the things his oh-so-wise 15 year old mouth is saying, imagining that he is in fact capable of the impossible… feeling things on a deeper level than a 15 year old heart and mind can. It’s completely one-sided, completely fake, and completely shot to peices when she gets married. Being married uncovers the mask of that fascade, and reveals a whole new, completely true and real type of love that is so much better than the memory that was left of the stupid 15 year old boy. People always look for that crazy first-love feeling, call it passion, and run from every situation that doesn’t include those crazy feelings thinking “Since I’m not aching and yearning for this person to talk to me, touch me, and show me attention like I was with my first love, then this must not be love!” What about feeling uneasy and nuts all the time sounds fun to those people? Why would they think that feeling that way is the way love is intended to be? It just doesn’t make sense. That’s not passion, that’s insecurity. Real passion is what comes from feeling completely accepted and obviously loved that you don’t have to worry about anything else, and you can let your heart take over. I’ve actually heard girls say recently that they are worried that they won’t feel that “passion” with someone like they did with So-and-so (first love who broke her heart and is addicted to drugs, a real winner). Passion? Feeling crazy because that person isn’t stable? Yeah that sounds like fun.

Love is way, way better than feeling nuts all the time. It’s perfect, in fact. There isn’t a crazy “Is he going to pay attention to me today?!” feeling like we had in junior high, but there is a wonderful “I know he loves me because he made me coffee” feeling that is way, way better. And once you open your mind to the possibilities of what love can be, that is the point when your world can change and you can actually be happy with someone forever. I highly recommend it.

I felt the urge to quickly get that last post off the top of the blog, so here I am writing again. I thought I would talk a little bit about coffee.

This morning was kind of crappy, and I think the reason is that I didn’t have a good cup of coffee. I woke up, rushed around to get ready, made myself breakfast and a smoothie, and for some reason forgot to start the coffee. It was too late when I realized it, and I was too behind to go to Starbucks and grab a cup before work. I have a time cut-off of 7:18 when I know I will be late to work if I go to Starbucks, but if I get in my car anytime before 7:18 then I typically make it. It’s risky business trying to get to Starbucks and then to work by 7:30. See, in a regular job it may not be a really big deal to walk in 30 seconds late, but here it is very obvious to everyone when someone is late. At exactly 7:30 every morning everyone gathers in one room to listen to a devotional and pray, and since they start at exactly 7:30 every morning, when you walk in late everyone looks at you and wonders if you slept in, if there was traffic, or if you’re just a regular bum. It’s not a fun thing when you have to walk in late.

So, I use the 7:18 cut-off rule. This morning was an unusual morning, because I got in my car at exactly 7:18. I had spent most of the morning rushing, and I didn’t want to rush anymore. I decided to go directly to work and go ahead and drink the cheap, donated, probably year old coffee that we make every morning. It’s not very good. What’s worse is that we never, ever have half-and-half at work. There is always powdered creamer (which I really can’t stand), or flavored creamer (which makes the coffee taste like hazelhuts or vanilla and not like coffee anymore), but no half-and-half. One time I tried to bring my own half-and-half to work, and it was gone two days later. I guess everyone likes it.

So, I drink the coffee here black, but it really is kind of tortuous. I know I sound like a snob, but I really only like coffee that tastes good, and the coffee here does not.

My morning proceeded to be fine, but I was unusually edgy and I didn’t really want to talk to anyone. I sat doing my work hoping that no one would come in to ask me any questions. It’s just a lot harder to be happy when I don’t start the day with coffee. Maybe I’m a bad person, but at least I know what will fix it. So, from now on I must commit to get the coffee pot ready before bed so that the pot can magically make it at 6:00 in the morning when I wake up. I love my magic settings.

Yeah I’m bad at this every day stuff. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Right now I’m sitting with Brian watching the Super-Bowl. The commercials are ok, but I think the best one so far has been a Pepsi commercial during the first quarter. It was one of those generation commercials where it shows things from a long time ago and then things from today and how we are basically the same as we were back then, and then it showed someone drinking a Pepsi in both generations. You would have to see it to know that it was good, because my description of it doesn’t sound that great. I also liked the career-builder commercial where they kept saying “it might be time” if you blah, blah, blah, and they showed lots of funny pictures. Once again, you probably had to see it. It was good though.

I’m not totally into the game, but I am pretty glad that I saw the Steelers run back an interception 100 yards to a touchdown. I was so excited for that guy, and when they were reviewing the play I was really hoping that they wouldn’t overrule the call. Anyone who can run around all those guys and get that far down the field deserves a touchdown. I also thought Bruce Springsteen did a good job. I liked the part where he slid on the ground toward the camera and went too far and ended up hitting the camera.

Now it’s the fourth quarter, and the chances for good commercials are dwindling. I heard there was going to be a commercial that only one second long, and I kind of feel like I may have missed it. I mean, there’s a good chance I did. I haven’t sat and watched every second of the commercial breaks. I probably have missed several seconds, actually. At one point I did the dishes, made tea, I spent time eating, writing, and simply not caring. I think the odds are against me. I’m really just sitting here waiting for the special episode of the Office to come on after the game. That should be exciting.

— About 2 hours later —-

Well the Steelers won and the Office was great. I thought Stanley was actually going to die at the end of the episode, but I am glad to say that I was wrong.

I apologize for the boring-ness of this post, but I was in a rut and not writing my 500 words so I knew that today I had to get some out, even if they weren’t that interesting. I was determined to do it, even though all I really have to talk about is the Super Bowl, the Office, or other means of entertainment. It’s Sunday, and that’s generally a day that I get ready for the week, sit around, and try to save my brain energy for the week ahead. I’ve always liked my job, but lately it has seemed to require more mental energy than it has in the past. So, on Sundays I try to conserve it.

Finally 500. I’m sorry, I promise I’ll get better.

I love Pandora. Generally I enjoy music more when I don’t know what’s coming. I love listening to the radio or CDs that other people have made me, because it’s always a surprise what the next song will be. The problem with the radio (at least FM radio) is that most of the songs… suck. In Tulsa there aren’t any radio stations that I absolutely love. When I’m at home and listen to music it is never Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, or the Bee Gees, but due to the lack of good radio in Tulsa I often listen to 96.5 or 92.9, the soft rock and “best of the 80’s, 90’s, and today!” Even though I don’t choose that music for myself at home, I still enjoy it in my car and get excited about what the next song will be and wonder if I’m going to know the words or not. If you’re ever in a life or death situation and you need someone who is going to know the words of any popular song from the late 80’s or 90’s in order to save your life, you can probably choose me and feel safe that your life will be spared.

So, I love the radio even if it’s not great. But what happens if it is great? What kind of thrill would that be? Well… now we know. Pandora is that thrilling radio that I’ve been searching for my whole life. You see, with this amazing tool, you can type in a song or artist that you like, and then Pandora creates a radio station to suit that style. It’s really incredible. Right now Brian and I are listening to our Joshua Radin station. When we are on that station it plays the Weepies, Mat Kearney, Joshua Radin, Jack Johnson, and many other amazing artists. The real beauty of the system though, lies in that you can develop the station further and continue to mold it to fit your perfect desires. If you don’t like a song that it plays, you can tell it, and it won’t play that song again. If you really like a song a lot, you can give it a “thumbs up” and that will ensure you’ll hear it again. It’s really amazing.

If you have a Pandora account you can create as many radio stations as you want. I have a Missy Higgins station, Kelly Clarkson, Counting Crows, and some that Brian created like Postal Service, Frou Frou, etc. You can also create from individual songs or genres. You can just pick Alternative Rock and it will play great songs from that genre without picking an artist. You can listen to it on your computer, but I got really into it when we got our Blu-Ray player for Christmas. It’s the kind of Blu-Ray player that can stream videos from Netflix and music from Pandora, so we can listen to the radio on our TV now. It’s really amazing.

Ok, that’s all I have to say about Pandora. I hope you check it. out.

The holidays have definitely made me slack a little on the “daily” part of this blog. Sorry about that. It’s now 2009, and I am very excited about this year. Last year at this time I knew what would happen in the following year. Even though I wasn’t engaged, I knew that 2008 was the year I was going to get married. It was predictable, but extremely exciting, and I was so glad and ready for the year to start. This year, I have NO idea what is going to happen, and I am just as excited and ready for the year to unfold.

I do know a few things that I want to happen, but whether or not they will is entirely up to me I guess. I really want to write a book. I think I am ready to do it, but I have been spending the past few weeks trying to decide what I want to write about. My lovely sister reminded me yesterday that it really doesn’t matter and that I should just write about anything and see what happens. No idea really sounds that great until the words come in behind it to make it interesting. So, I guess I just have to pick something.

I think writing from real life is probably a good idea. I mean, I was there, so I felt everything and know exactly what happened. When I think about stories though, I always go in the fantasy/mysterious direction. I guess that can work too, I just have to pick what the fantasy or mystery would be about.

Anyway, enough about that. Bottom line: I want to write a book, and hopefully in 2009 (early 2009) I’ll get that done. That’s probably the biggest goal I have write now, at least personal goal. I would also really like to save money to buy a house- which could happen this year if we work really hard.

A much more immediate goal I have is to see Twilight tonight. I finished reading the book in 3 days, and I couldn’t help myself from starting New Moon almost immediately afterwards. Most of my friends who have read the book have already seen the movie, and I haven’t heard any one of them say that it was amazing or anything, but I still would like to see it tonight. Brian said he would go with me if I couldn’t find anyone else who wanted to go, but I know that would be a huge sacrifice for him with all of the college football on today. He’s such a great husband, but I wouldn’t make him do that. I’m sure I’ll find some company.

I also want to make this recipe from Bon Appetitesometime soon when people will be around to eat it. I think it looks amazing. I love quiche-like things, especially when there are roasted red peppers involved. Maybe I’ll make it soon and let you know how it goes.

After lots of encouraging from my girl friends, months of encouraging that even verged on nagging, I started reading Twilight this week. I was never opposed to reading it, but it just was something that I hadn’t gotten around to doing. My friend Rachel even lent me the book before I went on my honeymoon and I told her I would bring it, but then I ended up thinking it was the second book and not the first, so I didn’t bring it with me and instead brought the book Lost by Gregory Maguire, which turned out to be good enough for me to read half while I was gone, but boring enough for me to forget about it once I got home and I never picked it up again. I don’t think enough time has passed that I won’t ever pick it up, but quickly enough time is passing that if I do pick it up I may have to start back a few chapters, if not the very beginning.

I really like to read while I’m reading. I get emotionally involved and excited, and I start to care about the characters like they were my friends and sympathize with them and genuinely want them to be happy. I often find though that I don’t pay attention to details that everyone else seems to pay attention to… like names, for example. I can never remember the names of the characters in the books I’m reading. I can remember things they say and weird details about their lives I definitely don’t need to remember for the story to still be good, but never their names. I couldn’t tell you the main character’s name in Lost, but I can tell you she’s a writer and in the first chapter went to a Forever Families meeting and covered her nametag with a scarf because she likes to keep to herself. I just can’t remember what the name tag said, and they discussed it in depth, many times. I’m weird I guess.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t do very well in classes where I had to memorize lots of names. In pathology, for example, I could tell you symptoms up and down of diseases when they were named to me, but if I had to come up with the name of a disease based on the symptoms, my mind would draw blank. I don’t work backwards like that. I have the one-directional thinking that leads me to solutions on broad scales, not simple answers. I can see the big picture, but the little details don’t really matter. Why does it matter what the disease that guy has with swelling of the lower leg, rash, irritation of skin and dizziness is called? Either way he’s getting some Tylenol.

For now though, I can remember the names of the characters in Twilight. There’s Edward, the stunningly handsome vampire stud, and Bella, the plain, semi-loner girl who is in love with him. Aww… 17 year old romance. I can’t wait to see if he’s going to bite her.

Every year (or sometimes more than once a year) I do an exercise I learned from reading The On Purpose Person, which is a slightly cheesy book with a really good plan for developing goals. If you feel like you’re spending a whole lot of time doing things that you don’t really care about, then this is a great exercise for you. If you have ever said, “I wish I had more time to… ” or “I really want to be spending time with… ” then this little procedure can help you to really determine what areas of your life are worth spending time on, and then it will help you develop a plan for how much time you need to be spending on everything. It’s really a great experiment, and it’s something that’s perfect to do right now, at the beginning of a new year. It doesn’t have to be a resolution, but more a plan for a direction you want the year to take. I’ve done the exercise 4 or 5 times now and EVERY time I have done it I have achieved my number one goal. It’s not that hard once you get into it. Here’s what you do:

1. Get out 7-8 pieces of paper and put the following labels on the top. If you feel a need to change the labels a little after you start the exercise to fit you, then go for it. We’re all friends here.
- Health/Recreation
- Material/Financial
- Community
- Mental/Intellecutual
- Vocational/Career
- Family
- Spiritual
- Other

2. Look at one of the pages, and start writing everything you want that fits under that category. Write down EVERYTHING you can think of. The process of writing down all of your wants could take 30 minutes or it could take several days, depending on what type of person you are. You may be someone who has lots of hopes and dreams, or you may be someone who doesn’t think about it much. In this exercise it is important for you to make sure and write down ALL of your wants. If you want a new bike, write it down under material/financial. If you want to move to Europe for a year, write that down somewhere. If you want to get married, have kids, get a better job, whatever it is write it down, even if you feel like it’s unrealistic. You can write long or short term goals here… everything works.

3. Once you think you have all of your wants down on paper, then take one list at a time and have a tournament. Let’s pretend your list had 4 items on it (it will most likely have lots, lots more). Then you would put number 1 and number 2 against each other and decide which you want more, then 3 and 4, then the winners, ect.

Do this for all of your lists. When you are done with this you will have your 7-8 Core Wants. We will do something with this list in a moment, after we determine what your number one want in life is.

Put those Core Wants in a list. Play the tournament again to decide what your number one want in life is. This is the thing you should be spending most of your time on if you’re looking to lead a fulfilling life.

Now you know what you want in life. Next you should take some time and put a value on each of your core wants- to determine how much time you would like to be spending on those things in a particular week. You can create your ideal week, even if you know that weeks like those never happen, that will help keep you on track. If one of your wants is to spend more time with your family, then maybe 15 % of your week (or 25 hours) will be family time. Create a schedule that you would love to be able to stick to. This is your ideal schedule. When you do something that is not directly feeding into the accomplishing of one of your Core Wants, then you should ask yourself if it’s important enough to do at all. Of course we have other commitments and jobs and things we have to do, but this is a good way to gauge if you’re at least doing things you WANT to do.

I hope this is helpful in the new year. I have always found it helpful in the past to keep me on track and doing things that are important to me. It’s so easy to get caught up doing things that you don’t even have heart in. I would encourage everyone to take a little while and make some lists!