Are you enjoying your present stage in life?

Earlier this month, I had the blahs for a few days.  I felt discouraged about the daily demands of caring for young kids.  My 2 year old Lucy has learned how to say NO! with great conviction and she was wearing me down.  Parenting toddlers is not for the faint of heart.

What helped me break out of my funk? 

Confessing my discouragement to my husband.  Oh, it feels so good to talk about the things that weigh on our hearts. 

Listening to Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.  Guess what he was talking about?  Slaying the giant of discouragement!

Praising God by singing and reading and thinking about the Bible.  I’m reading in I Samuel right now and David’s life was no picnic either. 

I realized once again that this present stage of life is a tremendous gift.  Although young kids need extra TLC, they are also extra adorable at this age and stage!  (Just look above for proof)

Dwell on God’s lovingkindness in the morning and His faithfulness at night.  And you’ll find the stage you’re in is just right. 

Women tend to connect through talking, and men tend to connect through touching.  It’s how many of us are wired.  If you’re married, one main way to show your love is through physical touch.  So to help you physically connect with your husband today and the rest of the days of the year, I have a wonderful resource for you.  It’s a website called CWIVES which stands for “Christian Wives Initiating, Valuing, and Enjoying Sex!” 

Ask your hubby if he likes that acronym! 

CWIVES founder, Jennifer Degler, Ph.D. is a Christian clinical psychologist and life coach.  I think she is brilliant!  She has a monthly dare she sends out that I’m sure your husband would appreciate very much.  Maybe you can sign up for the free monthly dare and let your husband know you’ve done it.  It’s a gift he’ll enjoy receiving throughout the year and so will you!

Acuff is just plain funny.  I read the entire book over one weekend when I was traveling to speak in Northern California.  Since I was traveling without children, I had hours to read in the airport and plane.  The book really spoke to me because Jon Acuff wanted to quit his day job to become a speaker and author.  I could certainly relate to that! 

What I found refreshing about the book is the way Acuff  was honest about the challenges of following your dream job.  He didn’t sugar coat that experience – reminding everyone that being a broke dreamer with health, grocery, and insurance bills, a mortgage and car payment, and a financially strained marriage is no picnic.  Be smart about staying in your day job and doing your best there to launch eventually into the job you long for. 

Acuff writes, Anyone can dream; it’s the doing that is such a hassle. 

The doing Acuff describes is hustling.  How much do you hustle for your dream job?  Do you just pine away about it or are you active in your spare time to hone your skills, broaden your network, practice your craft? 

Since reading the book, I’ve been thinking “hustle.”  When I have my 1.5 hour window in the day while Lucy is sleeping, I think HUSTLE!  Get the blog done, answer emails, work on talks, HUSTLE!  Instead of being discouraged by all I can’t seem to accomplish, I’m focusing on hustling on a few tasks at a time. 

Another thing he said was to enjoy being invisible.  On your way to your dream job, don’t despise small beginnings.  Be grateful for them.  They are necessary.  You can make mistakes while being invisible.  If you were the big cheese you’re dreaming of right now – but without the necessary experience – you’d probably fall hard and fall publicly.  Enjoy the stage of being invisible, under the radar. 

Lastly, I liked what he said about recovering your dreams instead of discovering your dreams.  Instead of laying awake at night asking, “What was I made for?” ask yourself, “When have I felt most alive?  What have I really enjoyed doing in my life?”  Ever since I was in junior high, I loved public speaking.  Now 25 years later, I’m recovering those childhood dreams and speaking. 

If you want to recover some of your dreams and explore moving towards a dream job, Quitter is a great read!

Remember when your stomach did flips when your beloved walked into the room?

Remember when you changed outfits because nothing looked quite right for that special date?

Remember smelling his cologne in a store and being magically transported to la-la land?

February is a great month to set our sights on our husbands.  It’s too easy to allow our husbands to become like wallpaper in our lives.  Always there.  Not given much attention.

No more!  This month, let’s lavish love on our men. 

In my book 31 Days to a Happy Husband (August 2012), you’ll find 25 free or cheap date ideas provided by my friends Bob & Jana (four kids later, they’re still GREAT at dating!).  Here’s five ideas to get you started in your romance planning: 

1. Let’s take a spin to our old apartment and reminisce about our newlywed days.

2.  Scavenger Hunt:  We’ll each think of five random things to be found at the park or shopping center.  We have to take a picture of us with the item.

3.  Barnes and Noble Night.

4.  Let’s take a new hike in a new location. 

5.  Conversation questions by candlelight.

Block out two spots on your calendar:  one for your Valentine’s Day date and another one for a “just because I love you” date. 

By the way, these dates work if you’re single and dating too.  Just turn date #1 into a “dream about the future” date – driving to where you’d like to live one day.  That could begin an interesting conversation for sure!  

It doesn’t take a lot of money to make a special memory.  The specialness comes in when your beloved looks in your eyes and sees that you are all his forever.  No looking back, no regrets.

Well, for the past year, my husband has been working to have an afterschool Bible club at our kids public school.  Thankfully the district approved the request and last month, we began our school’s first ever Bible club on Friday afternoons for one hour!  The club is called Sonshine Haven.  We are their 41st school in San Diego! 

We weren’t sure what to expect at the first meeting.  We knew our kids would be there, plus our team of five adult volunteers, so that makes 7.  Imagine our delight when kid after kid streamed in to be a part of the Sonshine Haven Club!  24 kids! 

Here they are putting together the memory verse from John 3:16.  More than half of the kids don’t go to church or own Bibles, so it’s particularly a joy to share the good news that God loves them.  We use songs, games, memory verses, and interactive, funny Bible lessons. 

Being part of the club has revived me personally.  When I hear that a child is interested in getting a Bible or knowing more about God, I am so honored to be part of this work of God on our campus. 

If you live in San Diego and are interested in starting a Bible club at your public elementary school or junior high, check out the Sonshine Haven website.  Twenty years ago, Mari Rothman was confronted with the spiritual needs of children in public schools.  Sonshine Haven was born.  Now the clubs meet in nine districts with 41 clubs and growing! 

Kind of like Goldilocks and her porridge right? 

It’s best to be able to wear those just right pants and to be able to get into those tight pants from time to time.

But if you’re like me and find your “just right” pants are “too tight,” maybe we should go back to Goldilocks and eat more porridge and less chocolate! 

One thing I’m doing around the house is wearing my tight jeans because they are a powerfully visual aid!  When I’m in the kitchen, they tell me to reach for fruit or another healthy snack.

On the other hand, when I wear my loose pants, it sends the message to my brain, “It’s okay to have a piece of chocolate.”  My family is doing a weekly afterschool Sonshine Bible Club for kids which is AWESOME (more about that in my next post), but we have a stash of candy in our house now for the Club.  Good candy.  The chocolate kind, not the lollipop kind. 

That’s why it’s important to keep my tight pants on so I can remember that I have a goal to lose the Christmas pounds.  Here it is almost February and I’m about 3 pounds away.  I want to get there by Valentine’s Day so I can eat chocolate truffles guilt free!

So don’t hate your tight pants…zip ‘em up, probably at home only, and let them help you get to your health goals!

Oh…did you not gain weight during the holidays?

That is fabulous – please share how you did it! 

If you happened to gain a little weight, read on.

I intended to do well with keeping my weight steady over the holidays.  Yet I gained 5 pounds.  I have no one to blame but myself (and my love for dark chocolate – okay, any kind of chocolate.) 

With a steady stream of sweets available from Halloween to New Years, and moving to a new home, I gave into my taste buds and developed some bad habits. 

And now it’s time for reckoning!

Ramped up exercise routine at the gym.  Four times to the gym instead of three, if the schedule with the kids permit.

No eating after 7 p.m.

Focus on eating my vegetables, apples, and munching on seaweed (try Trader Joe’s, it’s a weird snack but good). 

Drinking coffee instead of eating cookies.   

Realizing that hunger is okay – in fact, a sign of progress! 

I was surprised to read this in my journal from January 2008:

During Christmas, I allowed myself to eat a little chocolate every day, desserts at every party, and to let myself have anything I wanted.  After all, I was at my goal weight.  Well it’s a month later and I’m 5 pounds up.  I can fit into some clothes but some are woefully tight.

Hmm…here I am in the same place four years later!

Two lessons here:

1.  The battles we face persist.

2.  There is hope.  I lost the extra weight four years ago and I can lose it again now.

Hope is the necessary ingredient to living healthy and losing weight.  Take heart friends – the Christmas pounds we gained will soon be a thing of the past!

I don’t want to be the same person ten years from now, so I am committed to reading great books and meeting new people! 

This year, I decided to choose my books to read in advance…here they are: 

Ordering Your Private World by George MacDonald

The Sexual Man by Dr. Archibald Hart

Quitter by Jon Acuff

The Power of a Praying  Parent by Stormie Omartian

Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas

The Lost Choice by Andy Andrews

Childwise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam

The Comedy Bible by Judy Carter

Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado

Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

Happiness is a Serious Problem by Dennis Prager

I’m pretty excited about my list!  It spans marriage, parenting, work, spiritual life, comedy and more.

Want to beat the doldrums? 

Pick up a book that will challenge your mind.  Inspire your dreams.  Equip you for your next task.   

Have you read any of the books on my list?  Any suggestions?

As we enter 2012 together, let’s keep in mind that…

Dreams really do come true.

The best way to look younger and make friends is to wear a smile. 

Choose the right glasses to view life.  

What are your 3D glasses going to be?

Maybe:

DETERMINATION

DESTINY

DEVOTION

You can make up your own!  How you view life makes all the difference in the world.

It’s your year to soar! 

Love and Happy New Year!

Just $1.99! 

That’s 83% off, so now’s the time to buy it and tell a friend about it for the New Year.

Sale is on through January 3 so act quickly.

Happy New Year friends!