Expand your horizons

Today I want to encourage you to try new things and expand your horizons. Now, I obviously don’t know what that looks like for your individually, but I believe it is important to always introduce new things into your life.

For example, when I travel I love to experience the culture of the town I am in. And that goes for when I am abroad and when I am within the states. No matter where you go the place you are in has something special to offer you.

When Josh and I were on the cruise with Nerium last year, one of the days was docked in Nassau, Bahamas. Since it was a free day to do whatever we wanted, we decided to explore the town. We literally walked all over. We got to see the homes of the people who live there, go in and out of the shops (which were geared for tourists, but have their own charm), and we got to see the “Queens Staircase.”

That day was by far my favorite of the whole trip. And we capped it off by cooling off at the beach and then bar hopped the whole way back to the ship where we chatted with locals and got to hear about the Bahamas from them. It was so fun!

And if I am being honest, Josh and I probably would never have chosen on our own to go to the Bahamas, but I am so glad that we were gifted that amazing trip! It fueled our desire to explore this world we live in and see new things.

Now obviously traveling abroad may not be for you, and even if it is, it’s costly and not something you can do whenever you want. But you can still expand your horizons, even locally. Josh and I also make an effort to try new cuisines. When we first got together neither of us would have ever given sushi a try, and now we order it every once in a while when we want something different.

So go forth and try something new! You never know what you will discover about yourself!

Clean home

There are few things better than a clean home. And lucky me, I love to clean. There is something completely satisfying about taking the place you live from disaster status to sparkling clean.

It is especially nice when you come home from being gone, be it a day running errands or a long weekend out of town. When you come home from being away and you walk in to find your home in beautiful condition, it is so much easier to relax.

Our apartment has gotten a little out of hand this week. There was stuff shoved places they didn’t belong, the stove was caked in grossness, and the bathroom looked like it had erupted the contents of our cabinet.

Our apartment was just not a great place to relax after a long day.

So today I tackled it. I turned on Pandora, pulled out the Clorox wipes and went to town on our apartment. Lots of vacuuming, dusting, scraping, and sweeping, and now I get to enjoy the fact that everything is in its rightful place.

I love having a clean home. And tonight when my husband gets home, he will find dinner on the stove and clean place to relax.

Changes

For the first time in my life, I am so excited about the changes that are coming up for Josh and I. This is completely unlike me. My personality tends to fear change and cling to what I know and love. So for me to be able to admit I am excited about changes that are heading my way is an exciting development for me.

I believe a huge reason for my changed opinion on change is my relationship with God. The changes Josh and I are going to be tackling are moving to a new city, he’s starting a new job, and I feel there is a something happening career-wise for me too (although I don’t know what that means).

When I first began thinking about these changes, I would just cry. I did not want to leave this comfortable life we have here in Madison. I didn’t want to live in a city where we didn’t know a soul and try to make our way. It was terrifying for me.

Honestly, a lot of the time, the fear I had towards these changes was debilitating. It would knock me out and completely derail my day. I couldn’t stop dwelling on the unknown and no matter what I could not get out of my own head.

Being the type of person who like to handle things on my own, I struggle in a big way bringing my concerns before God. And I am especially bad at praying for myself. I’d rather pray for other people all day long, than ask for anything for me. After many conversations with my parents and Josh, all of which didn’t leave me feeling better, I decided I needed to pray.

I needed to give up my desire to control our future circumstances and trust that God was going to be leading us to exactly where we need to be. So I found an old journal that was mostly empty and began lifting up my concerns to God. I asked Him to completely take control of everything that I was afraid of. I asked Him to help me be excited for the move, and confident that it was where we needed to be. I asked that He would meet me where I was and help me to understand the plan He was laying before us.

Now it didn’t happen over-night, but God took my fears and mental road blocks away. And I am so happy to say that I am really looking forward to the upcoming changes. So I encourage you to bring your concerns before God. Stop trying to fix things on your own, and experience the freeing feeling that comes from knowing God has it handled.

Regrets

Have you ever had things happen in your life that you are not proud of? And then you relive them in your head every day after, and once you finally get it out of your head, it comes back when you are least expecting it?

Of course you have. Everyone experiences regret on some level and wishes they could change something that they went through.

I have the tendency to relive those moments in my life when I am already sad or upset about something else.

About a week or so, I was having a moment where I was feeling really down and of course one of those icky memories came rushing back. I was sitting in our room trying to force the thought away and once again, reliving how bad I had felt. I absolutely hate when this happens!

Thankfully, my amazing husband came in to see what I was up to. I shared with him what was going on asked him if he ever relives the things in life that he regrets. His answer was profound and today I haven’t been able to keep it out of my head.

He said to me that he believes we relive the moments we regret, not because we need to constantly be reminded of our faults, but because it’s our way of reminding ourselves what we have learned and preventing ourselves from making the same mistakes. He said we aren’t meant to continually feel bad about something that we had already received forgiveness for. That we should see these memories as the learning experiences they are meant to me.

That was a pivotal moment for my thinking pattern. And once again I was in awe of the man God placed in my life. I swear I learn so much from him, and that quick conversation made all the difference in how I was feeling. And since then, I have learned to view these icky memories as the learning experiences they were.

Handling uncomfortable situations

“People are not against you; they are for themselves.”

When I first heard this quote it was at a very interesting time in my life. I was constantly being put in uncomfortable situations and dealing with individuals that weren’t very nice.

Over the past few months, I have been learning a great deal about myself and the way I handle “unpleasant” interactions. Since I have a desire to please people and don’t handle confrontation well, I am very often caught off guard when someone is rude.

I think that (even though this sounds dumb) I expect people to handle situations like I would. I expect people to be polite, accommodating, encouraging and helpful. So when I am met with someone who is the opposite of those, I generally freeze up. I don’t think on my feet well, and am left stunned by people’s negativity towards certain situations.

At first, and if I’m being honest sometimes still, I would take it personal and think that I was doing something wrong, or that I wasn’t good enough. I felt like their negativity was directed at me and that I was on some level not meeting their expectations. Well, as you can imagine that way of thinking leaves me drained and feeling inadequate.

So, after many incredibly in depth conversations, I am learning that their negativity isn’t my fault and it sure as heck isn’t something I can fix. My actions and the way I do things are not what makes people negative. It’s their own ambitions and expectations of the way things should be that cause their reactions.

It’s obviously a new way of thinking for me, so I still struggle with negative interactions, but I am getting better at asserting myself. My goal is to be able to stand up for my actions and thoughts in a polite and respectful way, while not being put down by other’s responses or opinions. And I believe the quote I began this post with is an excellent reminder of how to look at these tough situations.

(Huge shout out to my amazing husband, mother, and father who endured those countless and in-depth conversations about how I see negative situations, and for encouraging me to be myself because that is more than enough).

It's that time of year again!

So it’s approaching everyone’s favorite time of year… TAX SEASON!

Ok, so not everyone looks forward to tax season and I am one of those people. I don’t like tax season at all because I hate going through all my old bank statements, digging up all the information I need from the previous year, and I am not a fan of going to the accountant. (Which I need because I am self-employed and refuse to miss out on any deductions I am eligible for but may not be aware of).

This year is going to be incredibly different for me because Josh and I are filing our taxes together. Obviously, we have never done this before and trying to compile all of the information from the previous year for the two of us has been a pain in the neck. Especially since I have had to take the reins on most of it because my tax information is WAY more complicated than his.

Tonight we are going to meet our new accountant and I am praying I have all of the information he is going to need. This part of the process stresses me out because I never feel fully prepared and the experience I had with my former accountant always left me leaving the appointment feeling dumb. So here’s to hoping that isn’t the case with this new guy!

And here is to hoping for a GREAT return so that we can move without worries and begin planning those vacations I keep bringing up!

Have you thought about what you will put the any tax return money you get towards? And did you know that being a home-based business owner opens you up to NUMEROUS tax deductions? You may want to look into that for yourself. And feel free to hit me up if you are interested in Nerium. (My home-based business). Or if you don’t want to put yourself out there check out, www.averi.arealbreakthrough.com

Trip or Savings?

I’m sure that I have talked about it before on some level, but Josh is the realist in our relationship and I am the dreamer. For some reason it’s always been this way. I have crazy ideas about the different things I want us to do and accomplish and while Josh is on board with them, he tends to have to cool me off and bring me back to Earth when the budget doesn’t match my current desires.

And yes, it can be super frustrating when that happens. In my head he looks like a “fun-suck” and I’m sure in his head I look like the irresponsible one. (And in many cases he would be right…)

Anyways, this morning we came face to face again with having to deal with our differing opinions on things.

We have been planning on taking a road trip and for months we have been setting aside money and planning on how we would make it work. It’s been fun to think of different routes, where we would want to stop and ultimately where we will end up.

Well, I received a few bonuses last month that I want to put 100% towards our trip. My darling husband wants us to put it in savings because we will be moving in 4 months and need to have money to put down on a new place as well as cover moving expenses.

At first I was really frustrated. I just want us to take a trip! We didn’t get an actual honeymoon, although the pre-trip to the Bahamas was amazing, I still want us to have our “just us” trip.

However, I know that I do not want to put us in a bad spot financially, so I agreed it would be wisest to just save it and continue setting money aside for the trip as we have been.

It’s interesting to take a step back from a problem and realize that I am so lucky to have someone in my life who encourages my dreams but keeps me from getting us into money trouble!