March 21: Refresh (Chapter Eleven)

This post is part of the Balanced challenge with Tricia Goyer—and you can join, too!

Don’t think balance will happen overnight—or even over an eleven-day challenge. It takes practice, and practice takes time. Spend a few minutes reviewing what you’ve learned throughout this challenge and what you hope to continue implementing in your life. Then blog about how you can keep persevering and working toward balance after the challenge has ended. Share encouragement for those who might feel they’ve failed at balance.

As I'm sure you've discovered the dream of a completely balance life does not exist. Life is a series of constant changes. Some days you'll feel like you've achieved balance only to have disaster strike the next day. You're not alone. Dare I say, you're even normal.

Over the past eleven days I've had my ups and downs. I had days that I could write and write and other days I wondered why I signed up for this challenge. In the end, I am glad that I've taken the time to do each challenge. I've learned a lot and I hope I maintain most of that knowledge. I thought I'd finish up with a brief overview of my Balanced Challenge.

Day 1
Make your family a priority. Take a look at what is most important to you as a family. What do you want to accomplish as a family? Where do you see yourself in five or ten years? For my family, I hope that we be close as the kids grow older.

Day 2
Find ways to make working at home work for you. Create your own space to work in. Make it comfortable, inspiring and functional.

Day 3
How can you get your kids involved in what you do? Get inspiration from your children or ask them for ideas. Explain what it is you're doing.

Day 4
Believe God. God made you uniquely you. He gave you gifts that no one else has. Believe that God gave you these gifts for a reason and use them for His glory.

Day 5
Create a schedule by ranking your priorities. What is truly important? What has to be done? What are you doing just because you think other's expect you to?

Day 6
Do what you can. Use those small windows of time to be productive. Sweep the floor, fold a load of laundry, fill the sink with soapy water for the dishes to soak.

Day 7
Seek Support. It's okay to ask for help. It's even okay to hire help where needed. The upkeep for a family is a lot of work and doesn't need to fall on the shoulders of one person.

Day 8
Make your day amazing! Give thanks to God for your blessings. Sing His praises. Take the time to appreciate each member of your family for being unique. I had a mini dance party with my 6.5 year old daughter.

Day 9
Find inspiration and rest. There is F.R.E.E.D.O.M. in following your dreams. I am finding peace and joy in researching my dream!

Day 10
Eight. What are your eight life themes? What matters most to you? Music. Family. People. God. Friendship. Play. Laugh. Appreciate.

Day 11
Know that there will be ups and downs. True balance comes within. Let go of the things that really don't matter in the long run. Remember to go to God first instead of as a last resort. Spend quality time with the people you love and delegate whatever you can. Live in peace even through the chaos of our every changing lives.




March 19: Inspiration and Relaxation (Chapter Nine)

This post is part of the Balanced challenge with Tricia Goyer—and you can join, too!

Give your mind a rest and a dose of good, old-fashioned inspiration. Carve out some time today to implement one of my tips about finding inspiration and enjoy the feeling of creativity. Then come up with your own list of ways you can find inspiration and share those on your blog.

Find time to spend with God. This is an area I continually struggle with. I find I have been talking to God more lately and that's progress from where I was a couple of months ago. I definitely need want to carve out time in my day and dedicate it to quality time with God.

Research the area you want to pursue. I've started doing this. I keep collecting information. I've amassed so much that I need to find time to sort through it and keep what's good and get rid of the rest.

Expect to make adjustments to your schedule. I'm married, have three kids and work full time...I definitely expect to make adjustments to my schedule, especially since I want to start my own business. Research and planning is all done in my spare time.

Enjoy the process of striving toward your dream. I admit that this is an easy one. When I do get some solid time to work on my dream I find it completely uplifting. I do get a little frustrated when I don't get as much time to work on things as I'd like. I need to go back a step and expect to make adjustments.

Develop relationships with others who share the same talents and goals. Relationships come naturally to me, although I do find it difficult to purposely network in real life. Online is so much easier and yes I suppose safer as well. No doesn't hurt as much while online. Although I have also met some amazing people online who share similar talents and goals.

Openly communicate your dreams to your family, and ask them to share theirs. I try to be as much of an open book as I can be. There have been times when I've had ideas and friends or family have shot those ideas down. Yes, maybe some really were ridiculous. Some of my dreams however could have been worth following. Would they have taken a lot of work? Absolutely. Is there risk in following your dreams? Yes, of course. Can I accomplish my dreams? I can, if it's part of God's plan.

Make daily appointments with God to ensure you are on the right track. I often forget to consult with God and when I do everything seems to go askew. I wanted to come up with the right business name. I couldn't move forward until I had the right name. I made several attempts. A few times I thought I had it right. And then I got God involved and suddenly a couple of words popped out at me and I was able to put something together. I'm still not 100% sure about it as the name, but I know the words I found are going to be the foundation of my business. I know it will be a solid foundation.


How do I find inspiration? 

I find inspiration in my day to day life, in the people I meet and the things that happen from one day to the next. Music helps a lot too. Listening to loud music and singing along is my happy place. When I do come up with ideas I have a friend that I run to for advice on whether it's good, bad, just plain crazy. The best part is no matter how ridiculous my ideas are she's always honest and encouraging.

As a side note I also tend to get my best ideas while in the shower or while washing the dishes. I'm not 100% sure why that is. I assume it's because I don't need to think about the task at hand and I can let my mind wander. All I know for sure is it works.

I'd love to hear about ways that you find inspiration!