Find Your Adventure In Each New Day

Time passes. No, really, it does. Quickly. When we aren't "looking" is flies swiftly by. We get wrapped up in work or our problems or just the crazy things that are going on IN the world. Some people live their whole lives this way. They wake up one day and realize that they forgot to live their lives with a purpose in the day to day and just focused on the distant future.

I'm not saying it is wrong to plan for the future. I love to plan! But if we forget that we have a purpose TODAY then we miss out on what God has for us right now. We were put here for a purpose. God has a plan for our lives, for each day that makes up that life. As a follower of the Jesus Way, I know that purpose is to bring God glory in all I say and do. Sadly, that doesn't always happen. I want it to. I really do. The sermon this morning was about that very thing, finding purpose in our lives. I have been working on that concept and thinking about this blog post since mid June. I thought I had "my plan" figured out earlier this year. I only had part of it figured out. God began to show me new things in the last few months and weeks that I hadn't thought about. I would like to share those with you and ask that you lift me up in the coming months and years as I strive to bring Him glory in all of my actions and decisions. That others will see HIM and not me and will be encouraged through my actions.

I have been married since I was seventeen and a half years old. I went from living with my parents to living with my husband. That was over thirty-four years ago. For the past thirty years I have been a mom of at least one child under the age of 18. I have four children. My third child just graduated high school and is headed off to a big university in August. My youngest child will turn 16 this year. After she graduates in two years, her goal is to dance with a professional school or mission that travels. Those two things have shifted my thoughts about my life the past several months.

You might be wondering what I mean by shifted. Here's the deal. We will be what people call "empty nesters" in a little over two years, despite the fact that my youngest promised me she would give me an extra year before moving out. I am sure she doesn't remember those words spoken over a year or two ago as I cried that I couldn't stand thinking of her moving away from home. She has fallen in love with dance and now has a vision and direction for her life, one she didn't have when she made that promise. No, I will not hold her to it. That isn't the kind of mom I am or ever want to be. I never want to hold my children back from following the path they feel life is leading them down. But...my heart aches when I think about it.

My oldest daughter is so wise. I was sharing some of these thoughts with her earlier this month. She gave me some very good advice, beyond good actually. She said, "You are going to have to find your way and enjoy some freedom" That really got me to thinking about "Finding My Way". At first, I shook it off and told myself I didn't want to "find my way". I don't know how to do that anymore. I wanted to dwell on how lonely I was going to be. Since I'm not really one to dwell on negative things for very long, I began to slowly start thinking about how I saw my life after none of my children lived at home full time. What did I want it to look like? That is a complicated question, one I am still sifting through. I'm working on a list of things I want to do and accomplish along with a list of things I feel would need to change for those to happen. There are a few challenges ahead, but I am going to pray my way through them and seek His direction.

I can share ONE change that will be coming in the next FIVE years. I have had a home kidcare and preschool for the past 18 years. I have enjoyed teaching the children and building relationships with the children and the families. It is bitter sweet when they go off to Kindergarten or move away. I keep in touch with many of them. Two of them just graduated high school. I feel that season in my life is coming to a end. I will complete the work I started with the children in my school right now. But when the time comes that I send them off to kindergarten, it will be the ending of that chapter in my life and continuing on with the new one that has just begun.

In two years, I will lose the best assistant my kidcare has ever had, as she goes off to bless others through her talent. That alone changes things. At least, the youngest children will be two by then and I will no longer be taking any under the age they are. The youngest now will be the last of that age I will teach. (There are two babies that will start at some point later this year and the beginning of next year.) The younger the children are the more challenging it can be without a great assistant. I don't want to turn away siblings to the kids that are in my care now, but we will have to play it by ear depending on when they are born.

I am by no means planning on doing less as a teacher. I am writing new curriculum that will carry me through the rest of the years I will be teaching. I am pleased with how it is coming along. I've been able to find many new resources that will make it even better than I had hoped. I am even considering putting that curriculum into a format that I can share it with other kidcare teachers. I just have to figure out all of the copy write issues if I mention the names of the books I use. That would be a way for me to pass on what I have learned in the past 18 plus years of teaching young children.

I know what you may be thinking. "How are you going to make a living?" "How can you retire when that is your main income?" I know that God has a plan because He is sharing it with me a glimpse at a time. I saw that change awhile back but didn't understand how it was going to be possible. It started to become clearer earlier this year. A seed was planted a year ago about a company and a product that I really liked a lot. I was reluctant to let that seed grow in my heart because of the things I had tried that didn't produce the results I wanted. I do have to say that I learned so much every time I took a step forward and tried something new. I will use all that I have learned to succeed in this one and to help others succeed by sharing what I have learned.

In February of this year, I took that leap of faith again and found what feels like my dream job, my perfect fit, if you will. I am having such a great time working this business. After all, I am a self proclaimed bookaholic! THIS is the career I plan on being in for this half of my life. I can work it when I am at home or when I am traveling with my family or friends. That is a great plus for me because one of the things on my list is to travel, a LOT. I will be working hard to grow my business and that means sharing these wonderful products with as many people as I can and helping others do the same. I am already succeeding in this venture. I am also using the products in my preschool, to homeschool my teen and with my grandchildren.

I have a lot of work to do. I have let work and the every day take over a bit of my joy in each day. I have also let things get in the way of my relationship with my husband. Sometimes, as moms, we can do that. Life gets to be too much and we don't feel like we have the mental energy left for anything or anyone else at the end of the day. But with our children gone and my time freed up, I personally will have more time on my hands and I want to spend a lot of it doing fun things with him. We need to spend some time figuring out what things we want as a couple in the years ahead since things are changing.

My mission in life really hasn't changed. I'm continuing to work on several things; making my home chemical free, my body as fit as it can become for a long and productive life, memories with my family and friends and doing ALL of that while living life on the Jesus Way. Sharing His love in all that I do and to all that I meet along the way.

My goal for this blog is to document those things much better than I have in the past few years. I hope you will stick around and share this journey with me. It's going to be an exciting ride here on out! Not that it hasn't been the first 51 1/2 years! Thanks for dropping by!

~~Terri

Helping Transform Lives One BOOK At A Time!

Transformation Takes Time

My coach shared this on her page yesterday and I keep looking at it in kind of an awe. I mean really, that was me? And now THIS is me? Wow!

There were days and weeks and...let me be honest...even MONTHS where I wondered if what I was doing was moving me forward AT ALL.

But I didn't stop! I didn't stop because even when the OUTSIDE didn't seem to be changing, the INSIDE was.

Eating better, having my shake daily and working out daily made me FEEL good and improved my overall health. I've been sick very rarely and when I was, it passed super fast and was very mild compared to others who had it. I have energy and a better attitude because I feel good. I work off life's stresses with my fitness routines. I work out instead of eat my stresses away now. Much healthier choice, I think. This is a lifestyle that I will continue the rest of my life.

By taking it one day at a time and doing my best to do those three things every day I have TRANSFORMED my life! Not just my body but my life. It is worth every struggle I went through to get here.

Struggles? Yes! I struggle just like everyone else. The mind is a powerful thing. We have to feed it the right way, too, or it can stop you from reaching your goals and living a joyful life.

There are many days that I don't WANT to work out. There are many days that I don't WANT to eat what I should and crave what I should stay far away from. Sometimes I let my thoughts get negative instead of feeding my brain positives. I know you probably struggle with those very same things.

Can you still make progress? YES! Just take it ONE DAY AT A TIME. Evaluate each day and decide the night before what you will do tomorrow. Get it in your head just like a to-do list. Then stick to it. Put one foot in front of the other each day as you get closer and closer to your goals. Celebrate your small successes as they come. Together they will add up to something that blows your mind! Just like me!

We are all different and we each have to find what works for them. There are certain foods, even the healthy ones, that I can't eat. You have to learn to listen to your body and adjust accordingly. There are some exercises I can't do so I've learned how to work those muscles with what we call a modification. That doesn't mean I'm working any less, it just means I'm working it differently. I work towards doing the moves without the modifications as I get stronger but there are some that I may never be able to do. That's OK.

I believe, with all my heart, that by doing those three things DAILY anyone CAN transform their body and their lives. If you are interested in learning more and working with me as your fitness coach, message me and we can get started on your transformation TODAY!

~Helping Transform Lives One Day At A Time

My Journey Part One

We all tend to judge things by successes and failures. But true success is measured by our failures. Let me explain. If someone never fails then that means they never tried. Don't be afraid to fail. A successful person isn't someone who has never failed. They are someone who NEVER GIVES UP!

You might be wondering WHAT "success" I want to talk to you about today. After all, I do run a successful kid care and preschool and have for MANY years. I've been married to the same wonderful man for over thirty-three years. I have given birth to four children and raised two of them to adulthood and the other two are about to embark on that journey, one in a year and the other in three. Those are all things a lot of people would count as successes. I know I do. But those aren't the ones I am here to talk about today.

Today is for a different type of success. One that is just as challenging and rewarding as the ones mentioned above. But this one is a personal journey that is just about ME. This is about my fitness success. Those who know me understand that when I say FITNESS I am talking about more than exercise. Fitness is exercise, diet, our mental fitness and our spiritual fitness. Sometimes those get off balanced and we have one on track but the others fall to the way side. Balance is important when it comes to fitness.

In order to tell you about where I am today on my fitness journey, I need to give you some background on where I started. I was born in the mid 60's. I was not a chubby child, in fact in some of my pictures I look kind of like a stick before hitting puberty. I was an extremely active little girl. I was always outside running around, riding my bike, climbing trees or playing on the swing set. In the summer I was ALWAYS at the public pool. My grandparents spent a lot of time on the golf course so I was doing that, too. I've looked back to try to figure out when that changed and why. It may have been because school got more involved and harder. It could be because I spent more time watching TV. It may have been because puberty changed my attitude and I just got lazy. We were required to do sports and PE in school instead of recess and that may have made it seem less "fun". I'm not sure what the commercials were back then but they COULD have been the beginning on the body image issues that plague us still today.

I grew up in a time that the new aerobic fade came around. Fitness Centers for women were popping up in the late 70's in our small city.. I don't know if women always worried about their weight or if it didn't matter as much because they worked hard around their homes to take care of their families and didn't have time to think about it. But I remember that my grandmother was unhappy with her size 14 clothes and struggled to lose any weight until she got in her mid 70's and 80's and the weight just wouldn't stay on her body. I was not a thin girl after I reached puberty but I wasn't really big, either. But I FELT like I was. It bothered me that I wasn't as small as I "thought" I should be. I can tell you right now that those thoughts were very harmful to my self worth and it has caused me many challenges over my lifetime. I don't remember if I had other people say things to me about weight or if I saw things in movies, TV shows or read it in books. But somewhere, somehow, I got the idea that I was FAT. But when I look back at pictures of myself during those years...I was NOT fat. I was NOT overweight. I was NOT unattractive. I have read my old diaries from my teen years and I was dieting and trying to lose weight ALL.THE.TIME. The more weight I put on the more diets I tried. I lived a yo-yo life with my weight.

My journey just got harder and more complicated as I got out of high school and got married followed by children. Check back for Part Two of the story.

Helping Transform Lives One Day At A Time

My Favorite Thieves Products with Young Living

Thieves products have become some of my favorite items that I use daily. There are so many but I will try to share just a few. Let me tell you a little about Thieves Essential Oil Blend. "This unique Young Living blend is a carefully crafted balance of Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus, and Rosemary essential oils and is infused into home and body products you can safely use every day. Our Thieves line offers the versatile products you need to clean your home effectively and to support your family's wellness."

The Thieves Essential Oil Blend is a must have oil for me. I diffuse it with other oils to promote a healthy balance and leaves the room smelling great. If I feel like I am coming down with a cold or something like that, OR I am going on a trip and I want to promote good health while I am on my trip, I put a carrier oil (either coconut or almond oil) in my hand and add a couple of drops of Thieves oil and rub my hands together. Then I rub the oil onto the bottom of my feet and put socks on at night. I make sure I wash my hands with soap to get the oil off my hands because cinnamon is a warm oil and it can burn if it gets in you eye. If it does, do not try washing it out with water. Put a small amount of carrier oil in your eye to get it out with. 

The Thieves Household Cleaner is a must in my home. It is concentrated and you add two cap-fulls to a spray bottle with water. It goes a long way and cleans great. The kids love it because it fills the house with a wonderful cinnamon and lemon smell. I love it because it cleans well and isn't made with harmful ingredients that can ruin clothes or hurt the kids or myself if we breathe it. The little bottles of Thieves Spray are great for taking on trips because you can spray doorknobs, handles, etc. 

They came out with the Thieves Laundry Soap not long ago and it is my second favorite product. I have a front load washer and no matter what soap I used my clothes and towel just didn't smell that great after coming out of the dryer. since using this laundry soap they smell great no matter how long they are in the cabinet and even hanging in the bathroom after one use. It is a small container but it takes so little to do a load that it will wash 64 loads of clothes. You just need 1/4 of a lid. 

The dish soap has Thieves, Jade Lemon and Bergamont essential oils. Jade Lemon is one of my favorite oils! This dish soap cleans well and fills the room with a wonderful smell. No harmful ingredients getting on your hands or on your dishes. 

If you are trying to get away from harmful products you are probably trying to buy healthier foods. The fruits and veggies we buy tend to have pesticides on the outside of them. Thieves Fruit & Veggie Soak and Spray are designed to safely and effectively wash produce with the cleaning power of Thieves essential oil blend. It works great. When I do a big grocery run I fill up a tub and put the Thieves Soak in it and add my produce to soak. Then I put them in the fridge ready to eat. I take the spray with me on trips so if we are out and about we can use that to clean our produce. 

One cleaning product I haven't put a picture of is the Thieves Foaming Hand Soap. I got the 3 pk and then bought the refill bottle. I keep one in each bathroom and one in the kitchen. When we go on trips I take one with me. It is easy for the kids to use in the bathroom and goes a long way to help save money. 

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When it comes to my oral care it is Thieves all the way! It got tired of all the harmful ingredients in oral care products at the store. I was thrilled to find Thieves Aromabright Toothpaste. It has Thieves, Peppermint and Spearmint essential oils. It doesn't take a bunch and I think the taste is pretty good. It actually helps whiten your teeth. The Thieves Fresh Essence Plus Mouthwash is a great thing to use after each time you brush. It floods your mouth with the ingredients to promote healthy teeth and gums. And what is oral care without a great dental floss? Thieves Dental Floss has the Thieves and Peppermint. 

So there you have it! I love my Thieves products so much. They have replaced so many harmful products in my home. If you are interested in learning more about them, please feel free to let me know. I love talking about them!!!

​Helping transform lives one day at a time.

10 Tips for Living Fit in a Busy Life

My friend, Nicole O'Dell has written a wonderful blog post about 10 tips for Living Fit in a Busy Life. I don't know about you but my life IS SUPER BUSY! Most people I know would say their lives are busy. And that tends to get in the way of them doing the things for themselves. They don't realize that we could better serve in the areas we are called to, be it a wife, mom, friend, employee, etc. if we make that time for ourselves. I read her article and just couldn't help asking her if I could share it with you. So here you go....

By Nicole O'Dell @ Fit and Busy Life

10 Tips for Living Fit in a Busy Life.....

I’ll be the first to admit that living fit is difficult when you’re smack dab in the middle of a busy life. You already know how busy I am. I have five kids still at home, a full-time job, church activities, grad school, book writing, blah, blah, blah. All the day’s minutes? They are used up. Your story may be different than mine, but I’m sure you feel no less busy than I do. So how do we find time to make things like working out and eating healthy food possible?

I’ve learned by trial and error how to prioritize fitness in a way that doesn’t make me feel guilty or selfish, and so it doesn’t get pushed aside in the hustle. By making it work, I feel healthy and invigorated, which translates into more productivity and better moods throughout the day. Everybody wins!​..........

Follow this link to see the entire article. 

Helping transform lives one day at a time.

Age Does Not Define You

I've always known that age is just a number. I was raised by my grandparents. They were in their early 50's when I was born, yes, around mine and my husbands ages. I lived with them from the time I left the hospital until I got married. I watched them do things that most people don't think OLD people do. My grandfather worked on cars until he was in his 70's, not as much as when he was younger but he was still quite capable. I watched them take up golf in their 50's and never stopped playing as long as they lived. I watched my grandmother learn how to snow ski when she was in her 70's. She played golf in the Senior Olympics every year after she turned 80. She always got a gold metal because there wasn't anyone else in her age group! She was amazing. She even played in it a few short months before being diagnosed with colon cancer at age 90. She was a strong woman at any age. The number didn't matter. My aunt was just like her mom. She was super active and stayed that way her whole life. She died not long ago of natural causes, in her sleep. It was just time for her to go. 

The other night I was driving to pick up my youngest from dance class. On the radio they were doing calls about peoples moms. One lady was talking about her mom and said she was 63 and a very fragile and sweet lady. Now, there is NOTHING wrong with what she said. But what struck me is I will be 63 in less than 13 years. How do I want my children to describe me? Not as fragile. I am working very hard to change my activity, my food and the products we use so they are safer. 

I would love for my children, and anyone else, to say I am strong, happy, and lots of fun. I am sure I could come up with a few more things I would like but you get the "picture", pun intended. I found THIS picture online yesterday and it went right along with what I was feeling about that radio show. I am NOT going to be a "little old lady", although, yes, I am very short compared to my children. And I tease them that I feel like a little old lady standing next to them. But I've had strong examples growing up. There is no reason I shouldn't strive to be just as active and strong as they were. In this way, I am carrying on the legacy they started. My children are very into fitness and being healthy and strong. They will teach their children to do the same. THAT is what I want. THAT is what I am working towards. 

How about you? Is that a goal for you? To live your entire life? Yes, I worded that correctly. Because I want to live as long as I am alive. I don't want to just exist. Let's work on it together and get in the best shape of our lives. Doesn't matter your age, it's just a number. Don't let your age define you. Define your life with action. 

Helping transform lives one day at a time. 

Girls Only Color Run 2016

The Color Run is a family fun day for us. (I say "girls only" because this year only the girls in our family did it.) The first year I did it was 2013 with my oldest daughter. The following year my teens joined the fun. This year only my two girls and my granddaughter were there, my oldest surprised us with tickets! Next year it is my hope to have even more join us. My husband never will because getting covered in paint-powder is not his idea of fun, lol. But that is OK. He actually runs a mile in under 7 minutes, so he passes me up pretty quickly and can run circles around me. 

Here are pictures of me, one from 2 years ago and one from today. I see big changes and my weight is not that much different in the two pictures. Maybe 10 pounds or less. But I was not doing any weight training in 2014. I wasn't even doing a ton of running other than in races. I see so many changes in the second picture. My calves and thighs are smaller. My waist is smaller. Even my face looks different. 

If you are ready to see changes in your body, not just the scale, private message me and we can talk about how I can help you find the road to success like I have. 

~Helping transform lives one day at a time.