Success!

I’m back!  Whew, it’s only been a week since I last posted something on my blog, but it feels like it’s been forever.  I’m so happy to be blogging again.   If you read my post from last week, then you know that I was getting ready to do something that I had been dreading for the past two years.  Want to know what that something is?

Well, it is.....

Potty Training!!!!  I told you that you’d laugh when you found out what I was talking about.  So it’s okay – you can go ahead and laugh now. :-)

Ever since the day my son was born, I had been dreading potty training.  I've always heard that little boys are very difficult to potty train, so I got it in my mind that my son would be difficult to potty train.  When my son turned two in March, I knew I would have to potty train him eventually, but I was still really not looking forward to it.  

About a month ago, a friend told me about the 3 Day Potty Training method that she had heard about from some of her other mom friends.  I spent some time reading through all of the personal testimonies on the website, and I began to feel more hopeful about the potty training process.  This method seemed fairly easy, was positive and encouraging, and hey, if I could get William potty trained in just three days then that would be fantastic.  Before I knew it, I was excited about the idea of potty training my son.  

So, I took off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week so that I could stay at home and potty train my son.  Amazingly, what I once dreaded ended up being a wonderful and memorable experience. 

Today Is Your Day

You got what it takes, you can win
Today is your day to begin.
Don’t give up here, don’t you quit
The moment is now, this is it.

Know that you can, then you will
Get to top of the hill.
Part of the fun is the climb
You just gotta make up your mind.

These are the words from the Shania Twain song, Today Is Your Day.  Starting today, I will be embarking on a new journey, and I've been singing this song to myself for encouragement.  What I am going to do is something that I’ve actually been dreading for the past two years, but I believe that now is the time to get this done.  I’ve made up my mind.  Today is the day.

I promise to tell you more about it at the end of the week.  However, please know that you will probably laugh out loud when you find out what I'm talking about.  For real!

Until then, have a great rest of the week!

Little Things

It’s rare that I walk outside.  With temperatures soaring to 100 degrees almost every day, I choose to stay indoors as much as I can.  Today, however, I felt like going for a walk outside.  I didn’t bring my lunch to work, so I thought it would be fun to walk down the street and get something from my favorite little salad place.

It turned out that my favorite little salad place was closed down, so I ended up going to this new deli, which turned out to be awesome.  Since it was my first time there, the manager was really helpful in letting me know what he thought the best sandwiches were.  Then, as I was about to pay for my sandwich and chips, the manager gave me a free chocolate chip cookie.  Woo-hoo! 

As I was walking back to work, I started thinking about how there is so much joy in the little things in life – hearing the sound of cars speeding by, seeing people smiling and laughing with one another, feeling the wind blowing against my skin, and getting a free chocolate chip cookie.  It’s all of these little things that bring such a big smile to my face.  

Want to know something else that makes me smile?  It’s this song by Jamie Grace. 

 
Have a great weekend everyone, and remember to enjoy the little things. 

Love,
Lori

Meant To Be

Last Saturday, my husband and I went thrift store shopping to see what rare and beautiful treasures we could find.  Well, I ended up finding this…

...a long, brightly colored, plaid and pleated skirt.  It's not a skirt I would typically be drawn to, but I fell in love with it because it reminded me so much of the school uniforms that I used to wear when I was younger, and I was also excited to try and turn something that looked a little "old-fashioned" into something modern and cool.  When I tried on the skirt, it fit like a glove.  The length was a bit too long, but nothing that a quick hem couldn't fix.  In that moment, I felt like this skirt had to be mine.  

I walked out of the dressing room and over to the cashier to purchase my new skirt when I suddenly felt like I shouldn’t buy it.  I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t have that peace in my heart that I check for before buying something.  I’ve made a lot of mistakes with money in the past (buying a whole lot of things that I didn’t need), so I’ve learned to always ask God for wisdom when making purchases, whether big or small.  This was definitely a small purchase – the skirt only cost $6.99 – but I didn’t have peace about buying it, so I left it on the rack and walked out.  Maybe it just wasn't meant to be...

Usually, when I walk away from a purchase I never think about it again, but this skirt would not leave my head.  I just kept thinking about it and thinking about it.  So, I decided I would take another trip to the thrift store just to see if the skirt was still there.  If it was, then great; if not, then oh well.            

As soon as I got to the store, I went straight to the rack where I left the skirt on Saturday.  My heart was racing.  I scanned through the entire rack, pushing one skirt aside after another, praying that I would find it.  Then, just when I was about to give up...there it was.  On the rack directly behind the one that I was looking at, I spotted the crazy colored plaid skirt I was searching for.  I quickly walked over to the other aisle and picked up the skirt as fast as I could. (There was another woman there who also seemed to have an affection for long plaid skirts, so I had to grab it before she did!)

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down from all of the excitement, and then I began to look through the rack to see if there was anything else that I liked.  I grabbed a handful of other skirts that I thought were cute and hurried over to the dressing room to try them all on.  With each skirt that I put on, the smile on my face grew bigger and bigger – each skirt fit perfectly and they were in excellent condition.  I was so happy and thankful that I did not buy the plaid skirt on Saturday when I originally found it.  If I had bought it on Saturday, then I wouldn't have gone back to the thrift store and I probably would've missed out on the blessing of finding four more fabulous skirts. 

When I walked over to the cashier this time, I had complete peace about making this purchase.  With a huge smile on my face, I handed over five skirts and one sweater to the lady behind the counter, and she said that my total was $43.24.  I pulled out my envelope which had my clothing money in it, and I had $43.25 – the exact amount of money that I needed to buy the clothes.  It was perfect.  At that moment, I knew for sure that this purchase (and the plaid skirt) was simply meant to be.     

Long Hot Summer

Today has been quite a fantastic day for me.  I came up with some new ideas for my blog, I picked up William a little early and spent some quality time with him, and now my apartment smells super good because my husband is cooking something yummy in the kitchen.  I'm not sure what it is yet, but I know it's going to be great because it smells delicious!

When I'm feeling happy, like the kind of happy where I can't stop grinning from ear to ear, then it just makes me want to listen to Keith Urban.  I think he has some really happy songs that are so fun to sing along to.  One of my favorites is Long Hot Summer.  Here's the video - check it out!

Are you dancing around yet?  I know I am.

I Hope You Dance

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I have to admit that this weekend was kinda rough for me.  I’m not sure how it started, but I began to feel down and discouraged about my blog and how it is progressing.  For the most part, I am truly content with having this blog as a creative outlet for myself – a place where I can share my thoughts on life, songs that inspire me and eventually some of my own songs.  But, for some reason, I started to get the feeling that my blog would never be successful, which to me means having a lot of people following my blog and even making some money from blogging.  I realize it’s silly for me to think like this, especially since I just started my blog a mere four months ago, but the feelings of discouragement still felt very real. 

To keep myself from drowning in negative thoughts, I tried to think of a song that would encourage me to stay positive and keep pressing forward, or something that would lift my spirits enough to help me smile, but I couldn’t think of anything.  It wasn’t until I was driving in my car on Sunday evening that I heard the words I had been searching for. 

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance 

These words are from the song I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack.  Tears welled up in my eyes when I heard this song; it was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.  My favorite line of the song is, “Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance.” Faith is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  (Hebrews 11:1, NIV)  There are many times when I’m completely confident in the dreams that God has placed in my heart; sometimes I can even see myself fulfilling every single one of my dreams.  Then, there are other times, like this weekend, when I start to question whether my dreams will ever become a reality.  It’s in these moments of doubt where I have to fight for faith and fight for the confidence and assuredness that I have in God that He will fulfill every dream that He has put in my heart.   

My second favorite line of the song is, of course, “When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.”  The words are so simple yet so powerful.  I hope that I choose to dance in my life, and I hope that I dance because I love to dance and not because I am looking for anyone's applause or approval.  That’s what I want in regards to blogging.  I want to continue blogging not just for the numbers or the money, but simply because it’s something that I love to do.      

So, here I am...blogging just because I love to blog, and I pray that it will always be that way. 

Going Down Yonder to the Chattahoochee

Now that work has slowed down a little bit, my mind is feeling free to randomly wonder about non-work stuff throughout the day.  Today, all I’ve been thinking about is this…

Pictures from escapetoblueridge.com

These are pictures of the Whitewater Wilderness cabin in the mountains of Blue Ridge, Georgia, and this is where I will be vacationing next summer.  I’m super excited about it!  My whole family is going – me, Jason, William, my mom, my step-dad and all of his family (who I consider to be my family as well!)  I’m not really much of an outdoor girl, but what better way to enjoy the outdoors than to stay in this luxury cabin.  Also, this cabin is very close to the Chattahoochee River, which is a river that I’ve been singing about since I was about thirteen years old.  I’m talking about Alan Jackson’s song called Chattahoochee.  I’ve always loved this song, and the video just looks like so much fun. 

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this, but when I was younger, I had never heard of the Chattahoochee River (I’m not much of a geography girl either) so I just assumed that it was an imaginary place.  But, lo and behold, the Chattahoochee River is real, and I’m going to be there next year!  I’m over the moon – or should I say, over the river – with excitement.  I wish it were June 2012 already.  In the meantime, I’ll just keep singing, “Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee, it gets hotter than a hoochie coochie.”  I’m still not sure what a “hoochie coochie” is, but maybe I’ll find out when I get to Georgia.  Here’s the video for the song which will give you a sneak peak into what I may be doing on the river next summer.  Enjoy! ;-)