End of Summer but just Heating Up!

Good Morning Bloggers!

Who else feels like they are just starting to get heated up and fired up as the heat of summer is nearly about to come down?  I know I do!  It's been an amazingly life-altering year for me.

A year ago I made major changes in my life.  They were major because it was 14 years or so in a little pattern that caused me to not take many chances.  Even the ones I did take, I took in a guarded way.  A few years back I decided I like Planning and Organizing Events.  I started to explore how I could use that to create a career.

Having been an Entrepreneur for a very long time, I had the mindset that you just get out there and you break into a market.  Not so easy.  People trust professionals with a long history of proven trustability (credentials).  I totally just made that word up, but it tickles me so I am leaving it just like that.

I worked for a few big companies before...ok, 1 or 2.  Most of my jobs were private jobs like childcare and Nanny/Babysitter.  This year was a whole different ballgame career-wise.

In my Personal life many changes occurred.  It has not been an easy road.  I like to be open and I am all about sharing, but to keep the tone of this Blog entry upbeat, I will say that last year I "had to get away from it all".  We went on a road-trip experience that took us down the East Coast and we stayed in Florida for most of the summer, returning when school began in 2012.

Today is my birthday.  I still remember this day last year very vividly.  I was sad and depressed.  I was stressed because I saw no way to get to the place I am right now.  The "me" I was then, if she was looking at me now, would say to herself, "WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BE STRESSED OR UNHAPPY ABOUT?"

And that thought really does prompt me to ask it.  What do I have to be unhappy about?

You know what I gave myself for my 39th Birthday?

MY FIRST PASSPORT.

my passport.

I have to pause so you can consider what this means.

There are so many things in the world.  They come easily and they go easily.  But what I have built my life on this last year, has not been things.  I have built my life.  And one of my shining successes right now is that I have changed.

Having a passport means that I woke up.  I recognized my possibilities and I said "YES"...I want to try things that once frightened me.  I said "YES", I CAN be a different person than how I was and I can be better.  I learned that I can work 42 hours a week (outside the home) and be a good Mom.  I also learned that no woman is an island. 

Asking for help, learning to work cooperatively with a partner and with other people in our lives is essential to creating healthy family structures.  Some people spend a lifetime never learning this stuff.  If you feel stuck right now, I want you to know that there is hope and you can change.

Baby steps.
Leaps of Faith
Occassional bouts of COURAGE
and Love

I am so busy these days that writing has taken a backseat.  Since I barely have time to clean the house, there is little time to write about the lifestyle or the changes or the improvements.  There is little time to nurture my relationships too...and for that reason I truly thank the people who hang in there with me and who seek me out knowing how unbelieveably crunched my schedule is these days.  I appreciate you for dropping me the "Hey what's new" in my inbox.  If I don't get back to you, I am so sorry...I really do try!

Today I am exhausted!  It is my 39th Birthday.  It is 7:05 am and I have been writing for about 20 minutes now.  I stole these moments from other tasks that needed attending, but honestly, I wanted to crawl back in bed after making everyone's lunches for the day...and just catch another hour of sleep.  But that is not my style.  The laptop was near the bed and the internet actually worked today, so here I am!

The Boyfriend made me some great coffee (he ground the beans).  My eyes are so tired they burn.  I still don't have the kids' school records and all that arranged and solidified with a week till school begins!  And let's face it, I am mostly just thinking about the possibilities of Birthday Cake right about now!

MY BIRTHDAY WISHES

I have a year to build something.  I love these milestone measure-marks.  I need to see what I can create.  In a year, I would like....

1.  A bigger home for the family but also so that we can have friends and family come over, visit, stay...etc.  I would love a "homebase" of operations...a place where everyone who lives under this roof can feel safe and secure and have room to explore their creativity and create their possibilities.

2.  A professional reputation and client-base that sustains my future Career-goals and inspires people to make traveling a personal passion and goal.

3.  Love, Friendship, Kabbalah and Community...all here in Rhode Island.  I guess I am not going far, LOL.

4.  Financial Security-in as much as we can have such a thing, because we live in an ever-changing climate financially.  But I believe that this is possible.

5.  I want to be a source of inspiration and friendship.  This year I have needed a lot of support.  Next year I want to be able to look back and see all the people who's lives I helped improve because I took my "hand-up" and then turned around and did the same for others.

It doesn't have to be your birthday to set some intentions for your life.  It doesn't have to be New Years! 

On a special note, I have a new circle of co-workers.  They follow me on Facebook now.  They read my Blogs.  I am new to them...I am a strange new part of their world.  Hopefully my strangeness is ok by them.  They are a pivotal part of my growth right now because my professional growth is the area where I am expanding the most right now.  It's amazing how fast people become a part of your life.  In a way they sort of have to force their way in and you have to make room.  I am now part of a small, diverse group of women who are unique in that there are only 6 of us in RI who do exactly what we do.

My 6-woman office has become my new "normal".  My hectic pace is my new lifestyle.  I am not very used-to-it yet.  I liked taking my time and my pace to get things how I like them and now I have to move very fast between work and kids and friends and home.  My days are busy from 5:30am when I wake up and start taking care of my family....to 6 or 7pm when I finally leave work...to the 10 or 11:00 hour at night when I look around and wonder how I did not get the dinner dishes put away and that I have to do all of this again tomorrow PLUS what was left unfinished today.  Jamie and I always wish we had extra hands and extra hours. 

So my suggestion to all of us out there...some on our 39th Birthday...others not, is this:

Love Everyone and Be Blessed.

~Namaste~
LILAC

On the verge of 39

I feel like I am  supposed to be a lot older.  I took a picture of myself to commemorate my 38...the last morning I will wake up 38 years old.  I made my boyfriend lunch and went for a jog...meditated and then snapped a picture on the webcam...then tried to create this blog.  The picture won't upload.  The daughter is having a meltdown because her father wants her to wear the clothes he picks for her and I am apparently coaching over the phone.  the cat is waiting for me to crush some antibiotics and roll them up in a wad of tuna so she can stop bleeding all over the house.  The boyfriend cannot move his neck.  The daughter starts soccer tomorrow and has no cleats.  The daughter also has no way to get to her elementary school across town and the school department is not finding her room at the local school.  The Boy doesn't have a set after-school program and school starts in a week.

I feel and sound like a hot mess. 

Breathing..in and out.

I am beautiful
smart
resourceful
effective
charming
clever
...a leader.

I can do this.

Coffee....yum.  Kona, freshly ground (thank you boyfriend)

People I love....I will see today.  PAWSOX LATER

FUN
FAMILY
FRIENDS
Work....
new challenges
and opportunities.

Someone is waiting to book a trip today.
They want me to help them do that.

Life is good.  38 was hard.
39 will be WAY better.

LOVE YOU ALL~ NAMASTE

Lilac