Choosing Joy

I need a little joy in my life.  Lots of changes happening now...none of them involving my physical state.  After talking with my family about my weight stall & recent issues with anxiety, we have decided it's about time I visit my doctor for some guidance.  Anxiety is something that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember--social anxiety, performance anxiety, perfectionism.  It's weird, because I'm super lazy laid-back as a general rule about things such as decorating, housework, etc., but I don't want to be seen as less-than-perfect.  I'm what you may call a "procrastinating perfectionist."

With that said, I'm taking Ann's Joy Dare starting today.  I choose to look at each day as the gift that it is, and find God's blessings he so generously bestows upon me.  They're always there, but I can't always see them because my vision is so clouded by my anxiety, worry, and negativity.  So here are three blessings, gifts straight from my Creator, that I choose to focus on today.

1. Yoga pants at work.  I was able to start my work week with a comfortable outfit due to spending an entire day doing continuing education instead of patient care.
2. The opportunity to learn and grow!  The internet is a frequent source of distraction for me, and I have to be very careful about the time I spend.  However, it also gives me a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips.  I'm about to start a webcast with PESI which will give me 7 hrs of CEU's that I so desperately need!
3. Exciting employment possibilities ahead.  Interview Wednesday.  More on that later.  

Peace.

Dem Jeans

I bought a pair of jeans online the other day.   Same brand as I normally wear, same size as I normally wear.

They.  Did. Not. Button.

See the jeans HERE.

Naturally, I refuse to order a size larger.  So, here we go.  I'll be in those jeans in 30 days.

Plan:

30 Day Shred 3x/week
Run 2x/week
72 oz water/day
Log EVERYTHING on MFP and prelog as much as possible.

Reads

"just"

Anything by Shannan

Cultivating the habit of focus

Mostly old posts I'm just now discovering.  Just like I am rediscovering this blog space as an avenue to record my personal thoughts.  Nothing fancy.  Not for anyone but me.  Much has changed since I've been here last.  Maybe I'll pick it back up, maybe I won't.  We'll see.

From the mouth of babes

My daughter has learned how to pray.  I'm not sure if she 100% grasps the concept of what prayer means, but she's learned a few key concepts about it that I wanted to share:

1. It's something we do.  Often.  Each night, Miss L likes to put up a little bit of a fuss at bedtime.  She typically balks at giving Daddy his goodnight kisses and hugs and whines her way back to her bedroom.  She knows, however, that prayers happen before bedtime, and typically settles herself onto Mommy's shoulder and gives her list of friends to pray for. 
2. There is healing power in prayer. Last week, we went on vacation and spent a couple days at the lake and a day at the zoo.  While at the lake, Ian cut his thumb and spent a lot of time bleeding.  Two days later, at the zoo, while waiting for Mommy to come out of the bathroom (pregnancy will do that to you), L prays for Daddy's finger to get better.  
3. We have a lot to be thankful for.   L gets to pick things to pray for each night before bed.  Typically, she picks people like our friends Jonah, Micah, and Mallory.  Sometimes she chooses to pray for cartoon characters such as Grover.  Last night we prayed about Mommy's red shirt, and how nice it was that we always had clothes to wear.  No matter what L names during her prayers, I am always able to turn it into a blessing to be thankful for.  This has taught me a lot about just how blessed we are, too.  

Most times, I feel as though I have nothing figured out as a parent.  As I have thought about praying with my little girl today, I realized--I must be doing something right.  I'm so thankful that, even at 20 months of age, my little girl has such a solid concept of what it means to pray.  I am in hopes that this is just the beginning of a wonderful relationship with Jesus.

Well.

This method certainly curled my hair, but definitely not in the manner I had hoped.  It's looking pretty shabby.  The curling iron is heating up as I type this!  I will say, though, that my hair feels super silky.  I think the coconut oil mask will become a ritual of mine!

Scary stuff.

Pinterest Stuff of the Night

 The husband is off playing music tonight, and Miss Beautiful is snoozing soundly in bed.  What to do?  Good thing I bought my first jar of coconut oil at the grocery today.  Little did I know, I really didn't get the best kind.  Per my sources, virgin coconut oil is far more beneficial than the processed stuff I bought--but I don't intend to ingest it, so I'll go with it.  Before I gave Miss Beautiful her bath, I coated my hair in the stuff and left it in for about 2 hours (put my hair up in a ponytail to avoid the grease factor all over my shirt).  After the little miss was in bed, I hopped in the shower and shampooed X2 to get all the oil out of my hair.  It's feeling suuuuuper silky.  Apparently coconut oil is great for a lot of things; check it out!

Source: crunchybetty.com via Xu on Pinterest

I'm about to test a no-heat curl method, mainly because I am lazy and don't want to dry my hair tonight.  I've tried this once before with dry hair and ended up looking pretty wild.  My hair is much longer now, and super silky thanks to my friend coconut oil, so I think I'll give it another shot.

Source: theberry.com via Dana on Pinterest

Pardon the unedited-ness (yes, I know that's not a word) of the photo below--I'm having issues tonight and it's way past my bedtime.  I'll update tomorrow with the results of my no heat curl experiment!

Can't you just see the excitement on my face?

 

I sometimes have thoughts.

As of late, I have become an addict of sorts.  I'm finding myself on Pinterest more and more, perusing beauty tips, outfits, and stuff for kiddos.  I have landed on some fantastic blogs along the way and have often thought to myself that I'd be a great blogger if I could force myself to devote the time!  This, my friends, is an experiment to determine if I can successfully blog about my crazy beautiful life. 
I was trying to decide what kind of a direction this blog should take, but I couldn't make a decision.  So, rather than limit myself to one particular category, I think I'll aim to blog about the things that interest me most:  family, parenting, beauty, speech pathology, unicorns, food, and really anything else my noggin comes up with.  Did someone say unicorns?