Dreary Skies

In general, I'm feeling pretty optimistic and hopeful.  Could I get an order of actual sunshine to go with it, please?  The grey skies are starting to get to me.

Mountain skies from our Summer 2011 trip to NM

But, speaking of being optimistic, I have many business opportunities in front of me.  That's a great thing!  I'm in need of wisdom as a weigh and pursue the best ones.

Tonight is date night (yay!).  As much as a adore sleep and dread losing the hour when we set our clocks forward tonight, I'm thankful that it means that spring is nearly here!

Mr. Bluebird's on my Shoulder

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!

At the risk of summoning Murphy's Law and the potential gain of feeding a thought pattern, I wanted to capture some of my thoughts this week. It's been a REALLY good week!  You list-makers can appreciate a list of blessings I want to acknowledge.  Others, just bear with me and know that you made the list, too!

• God.  He listens when I pray and, even though he made all the stars, He's willing to move on my behalf when I go to Him.  Inconceivable.
• Jeremy.  How to keep this short and sweet?  We laugh together.  We date a lot.  He supports me.  He's an incredible daddy.  I admire him as a person and the work that he does.
• Justus.  He has a heart to do right.  He's easily redirected.  He's starting to take his leadership opportunities more seriously.  He's becoming a little entrepreneur and starting to take orders for  survival bracelets he's been making out of paracord.  Justus is all-around cool, but not too cool for his mama.
• Lexi.  We're connecting in a new way.  She's so smart-even reading already!  She is a performer through and through, so she makes me laugh every day.  It's flattering and terrifying that she wants to be so much like me.
• Friends.  There was recently a period of time where I'd see or talk to friends from time to time, but I really lacked connections.  I have no idea what flipped a switch this week.  As usual, I assume it was me!  But, I'm definitely appreciating the time and re-connecting.  It fuels my heart.
• Business.  Thankful and terribly excited for a long term signed contract.  I got a thumbs up on the legal aspects of my proposal template from my lawyer.  (I deal in 140-5,000 characters~not 18 page documents!  So this felt like a feat of strength.)  Hopeful about some opportunities on the horizon, too.
• Unexpected blessings.  "Oh, hello bonus!  I didn't see you coming."
• Home.  It's a blessing to have a place to call home.  I've been enjoying making healthy food for my family (and sharing it with others, too).  Even Lexi, who complains about everything I put in front of her has been complimentary of my cooking the last two weeks.  (My secret is using recipes from www.thecheapskatecook.com.  My sister-in-law can work some magic in the kitchen on a dime!  I'm thankful that she takes the time to share her cooking adventures in her blog.)  Plus, I'm dying to get my hands on my sewing machine to whip up some pillows for my office.
• Church.  This is another subject that I could go on and on about... and yet I don't know where to begin.  This is a group of people where grace, healing, and growth is evident in their lives.  It's a place where sin is addressed without dismissing sinners.  I'm encouraged.  I'm challenged.  I'm blessed.  It's perfectly imperfect and you often hear members admit that.  "They let you make mistakes here" was the very first thing Martha Norman, the Senior Minister's wife said to me when Jeremy first started working there.  As a minister's wife, having that permission to blow it, to fall on my face, to fail is the very thing that has given me the freedom to significantly grow in my faith.  Funny how that works and truly thankful for it!
• Mentor.  Diana... she just makes me smile.  She's so encouraging!  We're doing lunch today at my favorite spot.
• Sister.  Jill listens to the big things and the little things.  She has my back in everything and gives me a new perspective on many subjects.  She puts up with my random texted photos with no description.  We can talk mom-stuff, wife-stuff, business-stuff, girl-stuff, sister-stuff.  It's amazing to have someone who "gets" you like that!
• Service.  How strange is the economy of service!  That when I give, I'm blessed even more.

Are you thankful today?  What specific blessings makes your top three list?  (Comment below.  It'd be another blessing to me!)

Where I've Been!

I know it's been a while since I've posted.  I wanted you to know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth... yet.  I have been pretty busy trying to launch my new business, though!  Here's a little something (for FREE!) that I've been working on.  If you sell anything beautiful, blog for profit, etc., you might want to check out my free webinar on using Pinterest for Business.  Don't worry~I'm a big stickler for following the Terms of Service on any social media... so this isn't going to be all about self-promotion (a practice frowned upon by Pinterest).  I hope to give you some fresh ideas about sharing your brand in Pinterest  Pinterest happens to be a giant in terms of driving traffic back to websites... meaning, it is currently out-performing the likes of LinkedIn and Google+.   I hope that you'll join me.  See below for details, click the "Register" button below to sign up for either the noon or evening session, and please share with your friends and family.

I'm the Proud Parent of...

Last night we had some celebrating to do!

Justus made straight A's for the second nine weeks.  He's been working really hard and is loving the introduction to algebra.

Lexi's teacher gave us a glowing report about how she did on her placement testing for kindergarten.  Her teacher told Jeremy yesterday that she tested faster than many adults on the identifying letters and sounds section of the test.

Needless to say, we are proud parents(!)

So, that called for a dinner out to celebrate.  We let them choose the restaurant.  They chose Japaneiro's.  (So, not only are they smart, they have good taste, too! ;)  They love sushi.)

The Smarties at dinner.  They were so sweet, giggling and playing with each other.

Can you believe we're looking at middle school and kindergarten next year?!?  Blows my mind!

Proud mama and daddy.  This is the blogging equivalent of putting an honor roll bumper sticker on my car.  

I guess I'm "that mom".  It's okay with me.