Hope

I'm not feeling 100% inspired this morning and I need to get off to the gym but I wanted to share this sweet pic. 

 

If all else is lost, hope is the one thing we can always carry, always cling to. Hope can be boosted by outside influences but we are the creators of our own hope. How awesome is that? We may not always be able to choose our circumstances or even our initial emotions but we can always choose to have hope. I think of hope as that small promise to yourself that things always get better. It's such a simple word yet it is the beginning of all possibilites. Nothing is ever started, no dreams are ever realized without the small seed of hope. 

Have hope and keep smiling!

Don't Give Up, Give Away

    In the past few weeks there have been some instances where I have felt the full gamut of negative emotions. Sad, angry, guilty, and hurt to name a few. Life in general was fine but certain situations felt hopeless and were starting to bleed into the rest of my life. Fortunately, I had a wonderful grandmother growing up who told me that whenever I felt bad about myself or something in my life, I should do something nice for someone. 
    Once my self-pity dried up (fairly fast, thankfully) I decided to do some service for a family. I didn't tell them and I certainly hope that they never find out that it was me because I wanted it to be anonymous, something nice for them because it really shouldn't be about me. With most anonymous service, you'll likely never know the impact of your actions but yesterday presented me with a special treat. One of the girls from the family came up to me and gushed about how someone had done something nice for her. She was beaming. It was awesome reminder of what an impact we each can have. While I'm sure that this little girl and her family were positively impacted by my small gesture, I'm truly the one who benefitted from it. 
    I came across this quote and in my relatively short life, I have found it to be true.

After my wonderful experience yesterday, I am going to recommit myself to be continually looking for ways to serve and I hope a few of you will join me.

Keep smiling. 

Put Down the Phone

    Something I'm trying to work on is having both my husband and I eat dinner every night without computers or cell phones. We love to go out to eat, in part because it forces us to get away from papers or projects and spend time with just each other. But if there is ever a disagreement about a fact (which happens more than you'd think) one of us pulls out our phone and asks the all-knowing Google. The problem is that once that happens, it's like we invited another person along for the meal because we can't seem to stop looking up information or checking on this or that. Pretty soon we're both reading interesting articles on serial killers and their favorite super heros or how Google glasses are only appealing the the super nerds, etc. We then spout out certain points the article of the article to one another but neither of us are actually listening because we are both trying to synthesize information from our own respective articles. 

    While I believe learning to a very important thing, at what point do we say enough is enough and start interacting with each other? We finally discussed it and decided that we can be blunt with each other and tell the other person to simply put the phone away. I cannot tell you how much this has helped us communicate more! While we still aren't perfect at it, we're getting better. What's crazy to both of us is that dinner is more fun and we actually learn more about each other than some psychological postulation about mental illness and Superman or Apple's world domination. Without offending Superman or Apple, I think we're both a little happier discussing goals and dreams and the adorableness of our dog. My challenge to whoever is reading this (probably just my grandma and hubs) is to put the phone away and connect with someone rather than the internet. 

Sing like no one else is watching...

The title of this video totally encapsulates the spirit of it. How often do we do things we love or find joy in even if it might seem a little ridiculous?

Caught on a nanny-cam because of neighbor noise complaints

Keep Smiling!

Trust yourself

How often do we fail to listen to ourselves and that little voice in our gut that says we can do it? I am the queen of self-doubt and while sometimes my doubt pushes me to excel, other times it stops me right in my tracks.

Believe and Keep smiling.

I'm Back!

So yes, I've been gone about a year. A whole year. And I'm not even really sure about why except for that things get busy and life runs away from us. As I was thinking about whether or not I should close down this account, I read through all of the previous posts and decided that this blog helped me probably more than it has helped anyone else. This blog gave me a reason to find joy and humor each day and I need to get back to that. Now don't get me wrong, my last year has been good and full of accomplishment, but as I look back, I remember times when I definitely let life and circumstances get the best of me. 

So I'm starting this up again. Who knows if anyone will ever read any of this- I guess it doesn't matter. I'm ready to continue working my butt off but dream a little more, laugh a little more, and be a little more grateful for my life.

Keep Smiling!

Lion King Meets the Dark Knight- A Parody

I saw this and thought that it was SO well done.

Keep Smiling!