Core Truths

I do not have to tell you this because you already know it…but I will say it anyway…sometimes things just do not go as planned. The unexpected pops up, another hardship comes after a long line of hardships, things seem to be on the up-and-up when all of a sudden there’s a backslide. I get it. One of my day-to-day mottos for myself is to be thankful anyway. I have a list of things I am thankful for on an on-going basis. It’s like my go-to list when things seem to be on the fritz. If the kids and I are out of sorts, I go to my list. If hubby and I aren’t on the same page about something and we are waiting out a compromise, I go to my list. When there’s more month than money, I go to my list. It helps me get through the big things and the little things when I can be thankful anyway. One of the things I am most thankful for each and every day is that our cars start. Really. It’s like top on my list and I can always be thankful for it. I mean, most of what I do revolves around me g...

Sometimes things get messy. You clean the house, then somehow things get messy. You cook, the kitchen gets messy. You do your work, your workspace gets messy. I don’t know about you, but it seems impossible to continuously keep things neat and orderly. Sometimes a mess, a really big mess, can be the sign of progress. It seems to me you can’t really accomplish something big without creating a bit of chaos in the beginning. When I have the chance to choose what we watch on TV, I enjoy watching the home improvement shows. My favorite is the part where they show how the home is currently and then they show the rendering of what things will look like when the improvements are complete. Perfect, right?  And what comes next? We all know the answer to this one. If you have ever seen “Fixer Upper,” then you know the next step is “DEMO DAY!” Right? They just go in and tear everything apart. Talk about a mess! For me, this is the part of greatest angst. I don’t love demo day....

YOLO. You only live once. This has become quite the popular catch phrase. I have seen it used for people to take chances, take trips, spend lavishly, face fears. You name it, and it can pretty much be applied.  Let’s think about this another way…reworded. Instead of “you only live once,” let’s rephrase this to “you only have one life to live.” Think about that. You only have one life. That’s it. And it’s the one you are living.  Let that sink in. A while back I started really thinking about this concept. This isn’t a practice life and I do not get a do-over. This is it. My one chance. That got me thinking about what I can do to live right, to get the most out of this one life I have been given. I’m not necessarily looking to avoid making mistakes or to try to live perfectly (I’m no fool), but I did start to look at some things differently. When I was a classroom teacher, we were big on “backward design,” meaning we would determine the knowledge and skills we n...