life

The Secret to Happiness

Whenever I think of self care, I instantly recall the emergency instructions given by flight attendants before an airplane takes off.

Before you help others, you must first help yourself.

In my experience, helping others is next to impossible when there’s turbulence in your own life. If you can’t manage your own situation, how can you possibly help others with theirs?

Airplane-wing--jerry-zhang-onxvkzldsj0-unsplash-1080x720-(36%)

Photo by Jerry Zhang on Unsplash

Well, I challenge you to take care of yourself first this week. I know it can be hard. I’m a mom, wife, daughter and sister too. It’s the second week of school. Homework and forms and meetings. Oh my! And those work deadlines!

Oh, but I dare you to try.

  • Get 8 hours of sleep tonight.
  • Wake up 30 minutes earlier than you have to tomorrow.
  • Eat breakfast.
  • Bag a lunch.
  • Drink water.
  • Exercise 30 minutes a day.
  • Eat a healthy dinner.
  • Organize a closet.
  • Get rid of something you don’t need.
  • Cuddle with your pet.
  • Enjoy a coffee.
  • Read a book.
  • Phone a friend.
  • Take a deep breath and…
  • SMILE.

Progress, not perfection.

Let’s face it. Self-care, gratitude, and the secret to happiness is within you.

You have so many reasons to be grateful today. Do you have a roof over your head, food on the table, good health, parents, a partner, friend, coworkers, or pets?

Focusing on the bad–what we don’t have–is easy. It’s way harder to remember all the things we take for granted every day, but we must remember to be thankful for all those little things.

Quote-1-Gratitude-without-fear-of-bankruptcy

There are things some of us forget are a luxury, like Netflix, smart phones, and internet. Hey, I’m not pointing any fingers, I was guilty too.

I was forced to go without internet for a week this year, which meant (more…)

Liebster Award🌟2017

Okay, so Author J.W. Martin nominated me for the 2017 Liebster Award, and since he pointed out that I don’t do this kind of thing, I’m totally going to do it. It’s been years since I’ve done something like this, but it’s not going to stop me now. Thanks for the opportunity, JW!  Without further ado… let’s get to it.

Rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you. Boom, done.

2. Answer the 11 questions they gave you.

3. Nominate 11 blogs.

4. Give them 11 questions to answer.

J.W.’s Questions:

If you could have lunch with any author, who would you pick?

Stephen King. He fascinates me. I’ve read his book On Writing and I know he credits a lot of his success to persistence and life experience and pure dumb luck, but just to sit in his presence would be an honour.

What made you start blogging in the first place?

I wrote a book–a trilogy actually. Can you believe that was my first step?!  When I started to consider my publishing options, I read a few blogs that caught my interest. I was in the process of absorbing knowledge on WordPress and I thought, hey, wouldn’t it be cool to document my progess? That’s how I got started with blogging back in 2012.

What’s the best post you’ve ever written? (in your humble opinion)

Oh jeez. I don’t know. I know which posts get the most traffic on my blog. I’d say the best posts I’ve written have not been published. Is that a fair answer? I have hundreds of posts I’ve written about the writing process, publishing and marketing, that I never get around to editing or posting.

Favorite stand-up comedian.

I can’t say I really have one. It’s not the type of thing I frequently watch, although I really enjoy comedy. I always get nervous going to comedy shows in person though, because I hate having the spotlight shining on me and I’m afraid the comedian is going to ask me a dumb question and I’ll have the perfect comeback come to me about five minutes after the opportunity has arisen. So, yeah. Comedy, I love. Stand-up comedy, not a super fan.

Name a hyped author you’ve never read and don’t plan on reading.

Hmm. When there’s a hyped author, I like to give them a chance and see what it is that’s got everyone’s panties in a twist. Having said that, sometimes I have to put books down. That’s a new skill I picked up a year or two ago, and I’ve been a much happier reader since.

So, to answer the question…

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How Romantic?!

So here we are…  Valentine’s Day.  A day of love, lust and longing.  A day of jealousy, distraction and envy.  Which side of the boat are you sitting on today?

This may or may not make you feel any better about that.  It’s Valentine’s day.  It’s Friday.  My husband works every Friday night.  Of course, Valentine’s day is not a real holiday, so we don’t actually get to take the day off, and I’m not even sure that the hubby would were it an optional thing.  Money over matter.  Isn’t that how the saying goes?  😉

valentines day red lights design background

Anyways, when I’m done work at 5:00, I won’t be going home to do myself up in anticipation of my hot date tonight.  I won’t be looking extraordinarily fabulous, so I can go out with my friends and act like I’m absolutely wonderful on my own.  In fact, when my hubby gets home, I’ll probably have already slipped into something a little more comfortable.  By comfortable, I mean the fuzzy, super warm pjs my mom got me for Christmas.  Nothing sexy about them… unless you think powder blue plaid is sexy.  Bahaha.  If you do, then you have other issues.

Oh, great. Now I’m starting to feel bad for my hubby. How the hell did that happen? Should I really rethink my choice of pajamas? It’s not that I don’t have a lovely hoard of silky, lacy things that leave nothing to the imagination. But I’m not the 20 year old, hot little thing I once was, and my hubby is not the buff, mysterious, sex machine he was when I met him. (more…)