BEFORE

This is one of those uncomfortable moments in a persons life when you just have to grite your teeth and do it, because you know it can only get better from here. Here is my BEFORE photo. I had a baby 8 weeks ago, the swelling and water retention have gone down and this is what I am left with, About 20lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight and if I want to be honest about 30lbs over a comfortable fit weight I can maintain without dieting.

I gained the most weight with this pregnancy almost 40lbs, which is not a huge gain compared to other people, so I have heard, but it was alot of weight for me. Especially since I knew exactly where it came from. this pregnancy I craved sweets and lots of them. To tell you the truth I ate so many sweets I am surprised my pancreas didn't just give up jump out of my body and head for the hills.

It is 4 weeks before my birthday and Friday the 13th in Port Dover. If I had a magic wand I would be back at my pre-pregnancy weight and fitting into my skinny jeans. However, this is the planet earth and my goal is a little more realistic. I am hoping to lose about 10 pounds, tone up my legs and butt and fit into my regular jeans for my birthday. Here's how:

*Toning exercises everyday
*atleast 20-30mins of walking or cardio of somekind everyday
*once a week a long one hour walk in my target heartrate zone
*eating 4-6 servings of fruits and veggies
*paying attention to my servings sizes of protein and carbs
*no alcohol during the week
*more water
*no candy, cookies, desserts (ie pie, cake, etc)
*larger breakfasts, smaller dinners
*reading labels and doing the math to make better choices

I will be posting my thoughts, progress and if I am brave a few more photos.

Please let me know if you have any tips, ideas or comments.

Should be an interesting few weeks

Checking in your Word for 2010

Way back in January we challenged you to choose a word to represent this year for you. My word for 2010 is success!

Now the second part of that challenge was to constantly remind yourself of your word. Such as scrapbook it, print it on a sticky note and put it by your computer. I found a little metal key with the word "success" engraved on it. It sits near my computer. I also wrote my word on a few sticky notes and placed them around my work space and my study space and I am reading a few books on success.

My current one is by the greats Napoleon Hill and W. Clemment Stone! It is called, 'Success through a Positive Mental Attitude'. You can find it on line here.


Their theory is you either have PMA as in Positive Mental Attitude working for you or NMA which is Negative Mental Attitude. We have both all the time, it just depends which one you choose to use!

It all goes back to the theory that attitude is everything. The same thing we preach here too. I am only on chapter three so far but I'm loving the book. After I'm finished reading I will give a brief over view of it!

What have you been doing to remind yourself of your 2010 word?

What do you believe?

It's so nice out this weekend, it finally feels like spring is one its way. I know we still have a few more weeks of snow and cold weather but it is a few days like this that keep us going, knowing that spring will come.

Feeling the sun on my face and going for a walk around the neighbourhood let my mind wonder of the possibilities this year brings. Maybe its the hormones, maybe its the course I have been taking "Design the Best 10 Years" of your life. But it has got me to thinking about how I got here and where I am going.

One of the exercises I have done is to think about childhood experiences and what I learned from them. Did I learn I can do anything? Did I learn because I was a girl I was only suitable to do certain things? Did some of my parents beliefs transfer to me? Some of my grandparents beliefs? Have I let those beliefs guide my decisions? Have I let some of those beliefs hold me back? It has been a very interesting process.

By all accounts I had a great childhood, nothing overly traumatic, lots of love, plenty of fun experiences, lots of lessons. But I was still surprised by some of the beliefs that popped up, some of the thoughts and realizations that became crystal clear "just like that".

Some of the beliefs that are probably responsible for decisions I have made and looked back on and said WHY did I take that path, it will not get me to where I want to go? Why is it taking me sooooo long to get to my destination?

When i took the time to really look at some of these memories and what beleifs they represent, it gave me the opportunity as an adult to look at them and decide if I still believe them.

Deciding that I DO NOT believe some of them anymore has really freed up my way of thinking, allowed me to explore more possibilities with an open mind, without limiting myself.

Here is an example I think alot of people can relate to.

One of my childhood memories involved the age old question, What do you want to be when you grow up? I wanted to work on cars just like my Dad. Almost each adult in my life would respond, "That 's not a job for you , you need to find a nice office job. Working on cars is dirty, not for girls"

Where am I now, working in a nice stable office job, never followed my passion of rebuilding and painting cars, sure I still appreciate a rebuilt car, and going to a car show, but my love for cars and working on them has been lost in years and years of a belief that cars are not for me. That I could not be successful or a "good girl" if I chose this path.

Even at 19 when I got an office job at a car shop, many of those same adults would ask me when I was getting out of that dirty shop and getting a real job?

See what I mean? We don't know any better to reject these beliefs when we are younger, but as we get older, having the opportunity to re-examine these beliefs and what place they have in my life or not has been an empowering experience.

What do you believe? about your life about yourself and where did it come from?

Shannon
:)

From the Planning Ahead File.

As you know I will be on maternity leave from my full time job, beginning in May. In December I decided that I needed a week to decompress after Christmas take stock and do some planning to prepare for my Maternity Leave. Can you believe that when I asked for this week off in January my work asked me if I could tell them how I was planning on using the rest of my vacation time before my Maternity leave. How was I planning on using 5 weeks vacation in less then 5 months????

My reply, good question that's kinda why I am taking the week off in January.

My point being that planning ahead is never wasted time.

I just thought I would share with you a few of the things you may want to consider thinking about and planning ahead for during these cold days of February. I find it really helps me get through this time of year when I can look ahead at the things we want to do and make a plan to have the money available for us to do them!

1. If you have a garden or would like to start one, have a look at the plants you would like to grow and the supplies you will need. I have already purchased my starting trays, soil and seeds, they are tucked away for a snowday or the beginning of March when the kids and I will decide and start planting our seeds for our garden this year.

2. Kids activities for the summer, vacation bible school, summer camp, day camp, summer sports. Yes? No? Cost? Schedule?

3. Summer Vacation - staying home? going away?? where??

4. Special Activities or Festivals

5. Budget - Starting putting $$ away in a separate account or cash in an envelope, so that the $$ is already there when the time comes

6. Work around the house or yard that you want to do this year, prune trees, re-plant flower beds, build a walkway or deck? It really helps to put weekends on the calendar for large projects, this way you have a target for having all the tools, supplies and possibly extra people available to help. (maybe even a BBQ to thank all those who helped)

These are just some of the things that I start to think about and plan for during the month of February.

What do you want to get done this summer??

shann
:)

Designing the Best 10 Years of Your Life - Shannon

Back at the beginning of January, Jenn and I both did a post reflecting on the past 10 years of our life. Jenn also mentioned that we were on board with something going on with @Darrenhardy over at Success Magazine . We are both participating in the Design the Best 10 Years of Your Life course.
I was of course a little behind in getting started due to being sick most of January. However, I signed up, printed off the worksheets and have since gotten started.

The first set of Worksheets are titled Review and you go through the last 10 years and the last year and list things that you are proud of, contributions you have made, etc. This was fairly easy because I had already given this some thought for my New Year's post. Although they do ask you to list 10 victories of the past 10 years and I found 10 difficult I had to sit with it and think about what I considered a victory.

Next we move on to Gratitude which again was fairly easy as I keep a gratitude journal and was able to list things beside the various questions. The one that gave me pause was list 3 times I have experienced LUCK in my life. That is a great question! I loved it.

Next on to Contemplation interesting 24 hours to live and answer a series of questions. End result for me. Hubby and I need to update our WILL!

Next was a tricky exercise that I have done before, Write your own obituary. Morbid I know!. But once I got started it was not as complicated as I thought it would be, it came to me as I started writing, how I hoped to be remembered.

So this is how far I am, at the beginning, next we are moving on to Core Values so I am interested to get started on that.

This series is an investment in time probably a good 30 -60 minutes per set of worksheets, maybe more for some people, but it feels good already to get this information down on paper.

Also by registering for this program (which is FREE) you receive extra messages from Darren Hardy as well as excerpt of interviews or seminars from world famous speakers.

Again you can sign up for this program here. If your at all interested in Designing the Best 10 Years of Your Life I strongly recommend you get started now. I don't think this will ever be offered as a FREE course again.

What is the one thing you for sure want to accomplish in the next 10 years?

Shannon:)

Sweet Day Off

So as part of my New Year's resolution. I took a week off in January to make some decisions and plan out my time until this new person arrives sometime in May.

I decided that I was going to use my full 4weeks vacation before my maternity leave to give me time to do all those things that need to be done before a baby arrives. I also took off the days that I have doctors appointments so that I didn't have to feel rushed to get back to work or pissed off at my doctor because he was late and that would make me late for work.

So today is one of those days that I am off for the day. I have had most of the morning to myself to catch up on things around the house and on my computer (cleaning out email !!). I have completed the boys scholastic book order (ordering ahead for the spring birthdays), I have been able to do some reasearch on a few courses that I would like to take. AND just for fun I was home and was able to take a call from our insurance agent who let me know that my insurance was actually going down (by $18.00 a year) but I take the reduction at this point.

I was able to touch base with a few friends (which is one of my goals for 2010) to say hello and ask how they are doing.

This afternoon I am off for my pre-registration appointment at the Hospital or as I like to call it the Social Services Interogation. I willingly let my hubby bow out of this appointment as I find it a total waste of time and really really annoying. I understand they are trying to identify people who may require services so they can get them on caseloads before the need is at a crisis point. I just get annoying with the constant questions about my drug use, marital status, and support systems within the community. I still remember our first visit when I was pregnant with our first child. Our appointment was the day before we were getting married (a civil ceremony in our backyard) the social worker asked if we were married, I shot my husband a look that said now is not the time for the truth, and I turned smiled politely and said yes! I'll be damned if I was going to get into a new series of questions over one measly day. To this day my husband likes to bring up the time I lied to the "government". Whatever!

Then I have scheduled a massage for myself which I so desperately need since I feel like my hip joints just want to fall apart on me.

Then I still want to plot some budget numbers down for me and hubby to look at so we can make some decisions about what to do with our mortgage, debt repayment schedule and living expenses while we still have a few more months of full income left and before we do our taxes.

If you had a day off, what are the top three things you would do???

shann
:)

Sunday Preparation

Last week was a little hectic and boy did I feel it. I was tired every day and every night I fell into bed exhausted.

This week I decided to prepare a little better in hopes that this week won't be quite so taxing.

I made a menu plan and grocery list on Saturday and then went shopping today and spent two hours cooking to prepare tonights meal and two meals for this week and two meals for the freezer.
I made Hamburgers, fries and veggies
I made two sets of meatballs (to go with spagehtti)
I made two Lasagnas

So here is how my week should go:

Mondays - pick up the girl from the farm Family dinner night at the In-laws (god bless nonna)
Tuesday - Day off for appointments - Ham and Mashed Potatoes and veggies
Wednesday - Crazy Activity Night - Spagehtti and Meatballs, Garlic Bread and Spinach salad
Thursday - Frittata with leftovers from above
Friday - Lasagna, Garlic Bread and spinach salad
Saturday - We have a party to go to so we will order Pizza in for the kids and the babysitter

Saturday start planning all over again. whew!

Although I have been doing better at making a list and sticking to it I have been spending over $200.00 a week for the past three weeks. Now this is not too bad considering I have started buying diapers again, wanting to stock up a bit before the baby comes, however for our famly of 4.5 I really feel I should be able to do better.
I had a really small grocery list this week but somehow still managed to spend $222.00.

Goal for next week:
Menu plan
reduce grocery bill (I'm not even going to put a $$ amount to it just less than this week)
Meal Preparation on Sunday again

I'll let you know how I make out.

Shann
:)

Gratitude

Finally, I am feeling a little better. Still stuffed up but not wincing in pain every time I swallow. That's an improvement I am thankful for.

I can't believe that January is almost over, that's just crazy, but I suppose that is what happens when all you can do is lay low and hope the illness goes away soon.

I feel like my body and mind has been on "life support only" for the past 30 days, just doing what I can do to maintain daily necessary functions. Lunches, Laundry, basic cleaning, minimal cooking.

I'm going to give it a few more days of laying low, but then I am itching to get going!

For anyone interested our canine companion is still with us, he is slowing down some days, however there has been no change to the size of his tumor or his personality so we are taking things day by day with him. One day he will sleep a lot and the next day he will jump around the house like a puppy. He can't jump into the car or on the bed anymore and needs help for that. When he gets up from a long nap he weebles and wobbles a little to get his "land legs" again. Having been through this before, I realize these are signs of what is to come. But for now his eyes are still sparkling and his temperment is good so we are greatful for each and every day he is still with us.

I'm starting to get itchy (not in a bad way).

• I feel the need to stretch my wings and my creativity this year!
• I have to prepare for this new family member.
• I have boxes of clothes to sort.
• I have a child to move into a new room.
• I have supplies like diapers and wipes to buy now while I can afford them vs. after when I am poor and on EI. I use cloth diapers and cloths for wiping when I am at home, but for night time and travel I use disposable. I figure half way is better than nothing at all.
• I have almost everything I need as far as Equipment goes a carseat, a bouncy chair, a crib, a highchair. But we are going to need a new stroller as our last one was old to begin with and we got rid of it when the girl was done with it.
• I have a batch of birthday cards to make for April, May, June and July because I'm sure the last thing I will want to do in the few weeks before and after the baby is make cards.

A few more days of laying low and healing and then I need to "kick-it" if I am going to be ready for the rest of 2010.

Anyone have any suggestions for baby products that I need to know about. It's been 4 years you know I am kinda out of the loop!

Getting Organized

Since the holidays, I have put on a few pounds which only seems to have AMPLIFIED my already growing belly. Since I'm 1/2 way now, I suppose I should be more agreeable that "the belly" has popped and I now LOOK pregnant.

A few days ago I took advantage of the boxing week sales and bought some clothes for my preggo butt. Since I gave most of my other stuff away or lent it out. Silly me.

So now I had to clear out the stuff that I didn't want to stretch all out of shape and set up my closet to work for me for the next 10 months or so.

I could kick myself for not taking the BEFORE of my own armoir, but my daughter has the same one as me and it looks pretty much how mine looked so I used hers for the before shot.

I pulled everything out shelf by self and sorted what was a small or a medium (definately not for the next 10 months). Then I sorted out what was a large and decided if I would be heartbroken if it got stretched all to crap . Some of my long sleeved shirts are older and so some of them got to stay because they were on their way to the donation bin anyway and I may as well wear them instead of buying "maternity" shirts at $39 a pop. (don't get me started on THAT hiway robbery). Ususally I scour the consignment stores for Maternity clothes but this time around I find myself a little short on time and I have a maternity store very close to where I work.

Next I tucked all my small and medium clothes into a couple of bags and stored them in the bottom of my hanging side (left) for safe keeping, nothing worse than Medium sized underwear on a x-large pregnant butt. Nothing can withstand that stress!

I also sorted out t-shirts and started a donation box for the items that I will likely never where again due to style, size or color.

Then I started putting everything back in. Regular sized items at the back of the shelf and pregger stuff at the front of the shelf to get used first.

Now my armoir looks like this.

A little more space, all my suits and jackets on the left, notice my running shoes on the bottom shelf right at the front as a reminder to USE them as soon as I feel ready. Also on the bottom shelf are all my plus one or two size clothes that I will fit into right after the baby is born, hopefully I won't have to wear them for too long. Hence the positioning right beside my running shoes!

This took a good 2-3 hours today, but will be well worth it over the next year. It will also save my wardrobe which I just spent mega $$$ on this fall before I found out I was preggers. DANG! Cause if your like me, I always think I can fit into something one more time and I stretch it all to heck. Not good!

2010 is starting out well. I've had a bit of a rest and now it's time to start thinking about dinner tonight and dinner on Sunday for my SIL and DAD's birthday!

mmmmm what will I cook???

Shann

:)

Reflections of a Decade

Jenn had this great idea for a post. Writing about where you were in your life 10 years ago at the turn of the millennium and where you are now. I thought this was a great idea and was so excited to do it. Then as a reflected...we...for me...in a word...WOW!

1999 - I was working in a small -midsized company that had embraced the new computer technology a few years back and was now facing the Y2K scare that was such the hype. I loved my job, I was well respected and at 27 years old felt like the world was my oyster I could go anywhere from here.

The song "Party like is 1999" by Prince was in over play on the radio all week long.

Personally I was struggling in a 7 year old marriage that wasn't "unhappy" per se, but it wasn't going or growing, well, anywhere.

I spent the New Year's Eve of 1999 in a small rural farm with my then husband and our closest and dearest friends out in the middle of a horse field, roasting marshmellows and drinking beer around a fire in our snowsuits. One cooler held the drinks, another held the hot food like meatballs, hot dip, hot chocolate, crab cakes. It was a wonderful, peaceful way to spend new year's eve after all the hype in the media about power outages, the apocolypse and whatnot.

In the days that followed, as I reflected on the new decade, the new millennium something was settling into my heart, into my bones, into my soul.

My dear friend was expecting her second child, my sister was planning her wedding, there were big changes happening at work. At home things were the same, not overly happy, not overly sad, the same as always. There were lots of issues but starting a family was a big one and we did not seem to be moving anywhere on the topic for the past 5 years.

I sat down one day at my kitchen table and made myself a list of what I wanted my life to be like in the next 5-10 years. I wish I still had it to share with you, but I know it included, a husband who is my partner in every sense of the word, a family, opportunities in my work to grow and learn. I wanted to smile more, laugh more, give and feel love more. I just wanted more.

I moved forward with determination, survival instincts. We were on a course for an epic fail, I was busy planning for my sister's wedding and feeling like he was withdrawing and not giving a crap about my family. I will never forget the day I was running around the house trying to pull everything together for a party for my sister when he asked me the question.

"We're going to be okay, aren't we?"

There they were... hanging in the air in our kitchen, the words that had been whispering, haunting, growing silently. He stood at the doorway and I sat on the kitchen table, took a deep breath and responded.

"I don't know?"

That week went from bad to worse as we tried to figure it out. It culminated in a whirl of hurtful words and feelings and me packing up the last 7 years of my life and moving most of it to a storage unit and the necessities to my parents.

I struggled to keep it together. This was a difficult decision. I loved him and I loved being married. But what I settled on... in my heart and soul was that I did not like the person I was, when I was with him.

I knew I was a good person, I knew I was capable of great things, I knew I was capable of giving more love and support than I was. I knew I deserved more love and support and encouragement than I was feeling. None of those things were coming into play in our relationship much less my life and I could no longer accept that.

Something had to change. We both knew it. I was the one who had the fortitude to say, own it, and be it.

It sucked! He moved on fairly quickly and I dated with no intention to develop a relationship. I dated for a distraction but I was focusing on what was next for me. Within 6 months an agreement was in place, he was in a relationship and the birth of a child was expected (ouch!) within the year we were divorced.

At 27 years old I had invested 10 years of my life, I was scared, broken, vulnerable but hanging on by a thread to what I knew was my truth. Again, I sat down and made myself a list of what I was looking for in a man, a partner, a husband. I would share this with you, but I had it framed and gave it to my current husband on our first anniversary. I had this little list tucked away in a journal that sat on my night table, I would review it now and then.

Carrying on I met a guy through relatives, in passing really, we crossed paths several times, but neither of us was ready to pursue a relationship. The more I got to know him, the more items I was able to check off the crazy list I had scribbled in my journal. Eventually we were crossing paths frequently enough that it was time to give it a try.

Flash forward to today as I prepare to bring in 2010. I am happily, ecstatically in love and married to the partner I was seeking. I have a beautiful happy and healthy growing family. I have good and great relationships with my family and friends.

When my teenage nieces asked me "how will I know when I am with the one?" I tell them with confidence that being in a relationship should make you more of who you are already, better, shinier. (that's how I feel, like I shine)

Life is an ever evolving dream, are their things I am still working towards, you bet!

If you would have asked me on that peaceful, dark winter night 10 years ago if I would be married to a wonderful man with 2kids +1 on the way and living the life of Riley. I would have said yes of course! I knew that was where I wanted to be. I just didn't know that it would be such a journey with so much change and growth.

So this year while I sit with my orange juice and sparkling mineral water waiting for the ball to drop, I'm going to plug in my iPod (so I don't wake the kids) and shake my booty to a little Prince and be so thankful that I am where I am today.

I love being me !

Where were you in 1999? and where are you today! Have a look. You've come a long way baby! Give yourself some credit!

FOCUS

Alright People pay attention here. This post is going to be all over the place, and probably a little on the long side, but hopefully I will be able to bring it into perspective and focus at the end.

I have been in the wings lately, Jenn has been so gracious and generous with her time in covering more than her share of work on this blog.

We had the idea growing for this blog for over a year. We talked, we thought, we discussed, we mulled. Then we got in to serious discussing and thinking. Then we said this is ridiculous let's just get going. We were both comfortable with the relative chaos of our lives, yes it was busy but we knew what to expect.

So armed with a basic schedule for posting and an outline of what we wanted this to be, we dove in and registered our names, email addresses, facebook pages and twitter account.

Then the curve balls came, we both had nasty colds and then the flu run through our households, we prepared and lived through thanksgiving and then started preparations for Christmas...well Jenn did anyway. Jenn had to deal with hockey tryouts and then hectic team schedules x2. I was segued by a few more challenges.

In my department of 6 people we had 2 people leave and one leaving in November for a month long vacation which left us severely short-handed. Work has be overwhelming, overbearing and just plain not a fun place to be at the moment, we are working through it the best we can, but the stress fractures in our team are there.

Our physiotherapist made the difficult decision to move back home to Newfoundland at the end of the summer and later in the fall we found out that funding for our Childrens treatment centre was cut severely enough that services and frequency of services would be drastically effected. This meant a huge blow to our rehabilitation schedule and treatment plan after T's surgery last April. This required some serious revamp of our homelife schedule to incorporate more therapy time at home as well as with a private provider.

I was asked to be part of a panel at the treatment centre to work through how to deal with this new funding reality. This has required some of my creativity and brain power to wrap my head around alternative programming and funding.

We discovered that our 13 year old dog has an aggressive tumor growing and that my husband will very soon have to say good-bye to his steadfast companion through a divorce, a period of self discovery, our meeting, dating, marriage, and babies. This will be a huge loss for our family, but I'm afraid devestating to my husband for a period of time. I have had to sign the papers before to have an animal euthanized. I have watched, held and cried at a pets last breath. Unfortunately for my husband this will be his first and there is just nothing I can do to ease this painful experience, it is what it is and we will all live through and survive this pain as a family.

But probably the most underlying and overwhelming part of my existence for the past several months, the biggest draw on my energy and resources was the little surprise I received back in September one day.

I peed on a stick and saw this +

Can you imagine??? I'm sure some of you are praying for this symbol, I'm sure some of you are thinking about this symbol, I'm sure some of you are thanking your lucky stars you have not seen this symbol.

That one little symbol has totally thrown me for a loop these days. Although we had not closed the door on the discussion of adding to our family, I thought we would be persuing adoption or perhaps foster parenting. Not because I thought we couldn't have more kids but I didn't think, no I knew I did not want to be pregnant and give birth again. I wasn't sure my body could take it.

You see I am not one of "those" pregnant people. You know, you might even be one. The type of person who loves being pregnant, feels great, looks great, lives for the miracle of life growing inside her.

No, I am a oh my god when will this be over, my back hurts, my side hurts, i feel like barfing ALL.THE.TIME. the poking, the kicking, the no sleep, the lack of coffee, the tired exhaustion EVER.SINGLE.DAY.

And since we are being honest here. I'm not a big fan of the first six weeks after birth either of the no sleep, boobs the size of a small country, and squishy insides, that you shove into whatever clothes you have that are not maternity because you hate them so much you burnt them the day you got home from the hospital. You'll note most of this is self-centred and so not even measurable against the joy of a brand new human being. But I am being honest and not a good pregnant, post birth person I'm just not.

Don't get me wrong. I love little babies, I love MY little babies and I love THIS little baby. It wanted to be born to this family so badly it had to SNEAK its way in and that is just pur miracle that I have accepted and cherish and am so very thankful for.

But anyone who knows me knows that I have to be prepared for the unexpected or have planned things to every detail. This situation has been the supreme test of my ability to "go with the flow" and it has been a rough ride. This pregnancy just brings so many things into play. Can I continue to work full time? Can I continue to commute to work?? Can I continue to provide the home therpay program that the boy needs??? Can I spend time with and focus on the girl as she enters JK and begins her education???? So many questions. I feel stretched so thin already.

I have to say that my husband was over the moon ecstatic and deliriously happy about this development and that is also my blessing to count.

So to bring things in to perspective and to piggyback on Jenn's recent post about What will be your word for 2010. I hope that this will help explain my choice for 2010.

FOCUS

Focus on the special blessing that has been bestowed upon me
Focus on one thing at a time and do my best with that focus
Focus on myself
Focus on our future
Focus on making a plan the next few years
Focus on how full of love and fun this adventure will be
Focus on the soltions and answers to my many questions
FOCUS on believing that all will reveal itself when the time is right

FOCUS

Stay tuned as A Balanced Lifestyle takes on a whole new meaning for me and I will be able to share with you this process of discovering a new balance, a new way of life. I wish I had a great quote to end with but that is Jenn's department.

I guess I can just end with what I know.

I know that saying good-by to 2009 will be sad and challenging and that 2010 holds many opportnities and excitement and wonder and thoughtful choice and abundance.

Are you ready to kick it in 2010? I am!

Shannon
:)

What word are you going to focus on for 2010

As Christmas draws near (and yes I'm pretty much ready for it) I start to think about my new word for 2010. Every year I pick a word and try to focus on that word through out the year. My first year I started this in 2007 I picked "Believe" then in 2008 I choose "Gratitude" and last year was in 2009 I choose, "Simplify". Why? Hey it would help me focus throughout the year. When I'd feel out of balance I would refocus on my word. I blogged about it every year so people would often ask me how I was doing with my intents on my word. Good way to keep me in check!

BELIEVE - was important to me that year because I was really focusing on getting my business up and running. I started in 2006, but the following year it really took off. I needed to believe in myself and those around me. I still go back to this word even this year. It has so many different meanings to me from believing in God to believing in myself and others... just BELIEVE.

GRATITUDE - I picked this because I realized I had so much to be thankful for in my life. Its filled with really great things/people/feelings. I still use that word. Every day I'm trying to write out at least 30 things I'm grateful for, from the little things to the big things!!!

SIMPLIFY - That is my word for 2009. Why? Because there is so much in my life I just need to simplify from work, house, diet... you name it.

In past years believe and gratitude where great words for me and really helped me focus and balance myself. This past year my word wasn't as strong for me. I will go into that more later, but I still okay with it.

That brings me to this year. 2010 to me feels like it is going to be a fantastic year. I can feel the success, opportunities, love, happiness when I think of the year ahead. I have not picked my new word yet, I'm still working on that one!!!

I have a challenge for you! Pick a word! Write it down somewhere that you will see it often in 2010 and focus on it! Make it part of your life!!! Its not January, you have time to think of this challenge! But if your going to play along leave a comment! Saying that, I'm leaving you with a list of words from Ali Edwards site last year. Pick from there or come up with your own!!

Able
Abundance
Accept
Acceptance
Accomplish
Accountability
Achieve
Act
Action
Actualize
Adapt
Adjust
Adore
Adventure
Affirmative
Allow
Appreciate
Aspire
Attack
Attitude
Authentic
Authenticity
Aware
Baby
Balance
Be
Beautiful
Become
Begin
Beginnings
Belief
Believe
Beloved
Better
Blessed
Bliss
Blossom
Bottom
Bounce
Boundaries
Brave
Breathe
Brevity
Brighten
Calm
Can
Capture
Care
Carpe Diem
Celebrate
Centered
Challenge
Change
Cheerfulness
Cherish
Chill
Choice
Choices
Choose
Clarity
Clean
Commit
Commitment
Communicate
Complete
Confidence
Connect
Conquer
Conscious
Consistency
Content
Continue
Courage
Cozy
Create
Cultivate
Cure
Dance
Dare
Dash (It's All About The Dash)
Declutter
Dedicated
Deeper
Define
Deliberate
Delight
Determination
Determined
Devote
Devotion
Dignity
Diligence
Discipline
Discover
Disentangle
Do
Dolce
Downsize
Dream
Dynamic
Edit
Effort
Elevate
Embark
Embrace
Endeavor
Endless
Endurance
Energy
Enjoy
Enlighten
Enough
Enrich
Enrichment
Enthusiasm
Evolve
Example
Excellence
Execute
Explore
Facilitate
Faith
Family
Fearless
Fierce
Find
Finish
Fitness
Flexibility
Flourish
Flow
Fly
Focus
Follow-Through
Footprints
Forgive
Forward
Fresh
Frugal
Gentle
Gentleness
Give
Go
Good Enough
Goodness
Grace
Grateful
Gratitude
Grow
Growth
Happiness
Happy
Harmony
Heal
Healing
Health
Heart
Hold onto Love
Home
Honor
Hope
Humility
I’m Okay
Idle
Imagine
Imminence
Independence
Initiate
Inner-Strength
Innovate
Inspire
Integrity
Intend
Intention
Intentional
Involve
Journey
Joy
Kindness
Laugh
Learn
Less
Let
Let Go
Life
Light
Lightness
Listen
Live
Love
Loving
Lucky
Marathon
Material
Matter
Maturity
Me
Memory
Mercy
Mettle
Mindful
Miracle
Moderation
Moments
Momentum
More
Motivate
Motivation
Move
Mute
Nascent
Nature
New
No New, Make Do
Non-Reactivity
Notice
Now
Nourish
Nurture
Observe
Open
Opportunity
Optimistic
Optimism
Order
Organize
Organized
Others
Overcome
Pace
Passion
Patience
Pause
Peace
Perseverance
Persevere
Perspective
Plan
Play
Positive
Positivity
Possibility
Potential
Pray
Prayer
Precious
Prepare
Presence
Present
Preserve
Prevail
Print
Prioritize
Progress
Promise
Prosperity
Pumped
Pure
Purge
Purpose
Purposeful
Pursue
Push
Quiet
Reach
Read
Ready
Realize
Reconnect
Reduce
Reflect
Regenerate
Reinvent
Rejoice
Relationships
Relax
Release
Remain
Renaissance
Renew
Resilience
Resolve
Respect
Restore
Results
Revitalize
Revive
Rhythm
Rise
Roll
Run
Save
Savor
Search
Seasons
Seek
Seize
Self
Self-Assured
Self-Discipline
Sensitive
Serendipity
Serene
Serenity
Seriously
Serve
Shalom
Share
Shine
Simple
Simplicity
Simplify
Smile
Soft
Sparkle
Start
Stay
Steadfast
Step
Still
Stillness
Strength
Strive
Structure
Success
Surprise
Surrender
Surround
Sustain
Sweeten
Tackle
Ten
Tenacity
Tenderness
Thankful
This is my year.
Threshold
Thrive
Time
Today
Together
Tolerance
Transformation
Treasure
True
Trust
Truthful
Try
Turn
Uncomplicated
Understanding
Unite
Unload
Unplug
Unwritten
Valor
Value
Vision
Vitality
Voice
Wait
Walk
Warmth
Welcome
Why
Wisdom
Worth
Yes
Zeal