Winging it!

Sunday, May 22nd, 2016 I am thankful to be home and sort of happy/sad to have all the rain. On the one hand, we had all sorts of plans if the weekend had been sunny and I'm sad we didn't get to do them. On the other hand, it has been sort of nice to not be on the go this weekend after spending the week in Oklahoma for my cousin's funeral. Here's how I spent this rainy weekend at home. Spent some time being cozy with my hubby. Yes, I spent some time working... I had to catch up on a few things that I put off due to my trip. Worked on our itinerary for Paris. My daughter and I will be leaving in no time on our 10 day trip to Paris and we are slowly but surely hammering out our plans for what we want to do while there as well as what we're going to wear. Worked on details of our anniversary beach trip that we're going on later in June with friends. We booked this long ago, but it's been on the back burner of my thoughts due to my Paris trip.  I got a...

Saturday, May 21st, 2016 Here's where I currently am when it comes to my organizational apps. I've started using Workflowy with zealous and love it. I refer to it so often, I don't know how I ever lived without it. It's so easy to organize & find everything. Every thought, every note I write down, from the measurement of windows in my home to Marketing notes. I still use the computer to enter most of my notes, but access them from my phone quite often. Journey  is the app I use to take pictures of myself so that I can remember what I wore each week. I love this app and forget maybe once every 2 weeks to take a picture and on those occasions I type it in. I love that I can see what I wore so quickly and I look at it most mornings when I'm deciding what to wear. Cozi  family calendar and lists. I will say that purchasing the upgraded "gold" version wasn't worth the money for me. I tried the upgrade so that I could have the full calendar...

Life is short This past week we had two deaths in our life. Our neighbor that we've been good friends with since we moved here almost 8 years ago, died suddenly at 63 years old. Then literally the next morning, my cousin who was just 44 passed in her sleep. I grew up living across the street from my cousin and we were only 3 years apart in age.  What I've felt since these past 4 days is a deep sense of regret. Regrets that I didn't talk to both of them more often. Regrets that I didn't go to Oklahoma and see my cousin who hasn't been back here in 10 years. She most likely couldn't afford it, I could easily have afforded to visit her.    As I look forward in my life, I know this one thing. I want to have as few regrets going forward as possible. Note to those reading this:  Don't wait for deaths to make yourself stop and take note of your life.  What things are important to you that you're not doing?  What things are not important...

Lessons in French I am progressing. I will admit that I get overwhelmed at times and think to myself "I can't learn this!" However I haven't given up. I'm still working on it. A big moment for me was when my CD told me that I could no longer say I only understood a little French, because I now understand much more than a little. In learning French, I love how often they use my name. I guess Marie is a very common name in France. But for me, it's nice hearing it. In one of my lessons they said "Imagine your name is Mrs. White." I about laughed myself to tears the first time I listened to that lesson. Thankfully they didn't say "Imagine your name is Marie White." My husband tells me that it's very good for my brain for me to be learning a new language. He read an article by Kate Willson called "An Added Reason to Learn a New Language: It increases brain size." Here's an excerpt: Learning a new language can ac...

You too can become a victorious goal setter What are goals all about anyways? You can set personal goals and business goals, or they can be one in the same. Often our business goals are a path to meeting our personal goals. Other times, one has nothing to do with the other. I believe that whether your goal is to lose 10 pounds, or go to the gym 3x week regularly, or increase your annual sales $xx.xx that there are really simple steps you can take to set your goals and reach them. What are the steps that we need to take to set goals and reach them? Choose goals! What motivates and excites you? People, books, trips, losing weight, saving money? Now pick 3-7 big things for your long term goals (not 20) - these are for 10 years out. Next pick 1-3 short term goals for the next year. Do not stress out over these goals. They're not set in stone. They can be updated/changed. After each goal, write out what you'll need to do, in order to accomplish that goal (Broken down into...

Sunday, May 8th, 2016 Happy Mother's Day to all of you mother's out there. We sure do deserve a day or 30 to celebrate us! Being a mother is a hard job. Most of us sacrifice our happiness, wants, and needs on a daily basis - so for those of you who have given their all to their kids, my wish is that you had a spectacular day today. You deserve it! We spent our day hiking, then had a late afternoon lunch/dinner picnic, then after quick showers we went to the movies to see Captain America, Civil War - which by the way is very good! It was great spending the day with my kids - minus one who had to work, but I was able to spend time with her last night. Luckily for me, my kids and I are all extremely close, so we don't only spend time together on holidays. The greatest part of our day was that we realized at the end of it that no one had their phones on them while we were together. We just spent time together, talking, laughing, enjoying each others company without have...

I went to a Vision Retreat last week and part of that was asking friends/family members and professional associates what your unique abilities are. What your good at, what your strengths are, what they seek you out for. This was a fascinating task for me and I was overwhelmed by the responses. Here were my top 7 responses (Themes) 1. Calming 2. Understanding 3. Trustworthy 4. Caring 5. Adviser - always listens and gives great advice. 6. Smart/logical/rational 7. Positive/upbeat In the 20 responses I received back, those were the overwhelming responses from almost everyone, though everyone elaborated and said such amazing things that made me cry. Calming was said more than anything else, that exact word and that completely surprised me. I hadn't thought of that word to describe myself before. Here is my take on the top 7 1. Calming due to having 4 kids, my mind is used to the chaos, so I've learned how to be calm. 2. Understanding. I try to look at things fr...

Sunday, May 1st, 2016 Happy May Day!! I'm super excited looking at the month ahead. It's going to be great! I love that Sunday's (for the most part) have become a day for me to refocus myself on my goals. It's a way for me to make sure I'm sticking to my plan and trying all of the organizational ideas that I want to try. Remember, some will work for me and some won't. The same goes for you. (And when Sunday's don't give me the time, Monday mornings work just fine.) One very important task I do on Sunday's is looking at the week ahead and making sure my calendars are in sync. Some of the networking groups I belong to meet every week, however other's are bi-weekly and with each group come different responsibilities such as speaking at a meeting, or running the meeting because someone else is going to be out. Then you add in meetings with clients, sales reps, etc... along with personal obligations that come up, and the week can get a lit...