a few of my favorite things

I'm sitting here this morning at my computer, and I'm listening to Josie and a friend play in the background. They're probably making a mess (yup, they are), but I don't care --- they're happy and they're playing well together this morning. I've been up since 6am, walked to my friend Elizabeth's house, played Dance Dance Revolution (which is NOT my forte), and walked home to my family waking up. It was gorgeous out this morning, with heavy fog and thick frost and new snow. And it got better after I downed 6 cups of coffee, too!

I'm so looking forward to spending some time with my daughter at the end of the month. We are going to Phoenix for a good friend's wedding. We are staying in a fabulous hotel, and it'll just be us two -- Tim had plans to go to Alaska steelhead fishing in April, and we can't afford to have him go on both vacations. So I get my daughter all to myself. I'm kind of missing the weekends with Tim gone hunting. Now that she's getting a little older (almost 4!) those weekends are becoming so special. I know that all too soon she's not going to want to spend the weekend with me. She'll want to go her friends' houses (although I really hope we are the house that all her friends want to come to!) and she'll want to talk on the phone and go shopping and drive around with everyone but me.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having Tim around. He's still coyote hunting and fishing, but it's not as gung-ho during the winter as other times.

My January has been spent on focusing on being Positive. I'm a part of a bible study and we're working on Beth Moore's Living Beyond Yourself. A friend suggested I read The Power of Positive Think by Norman Vincent Peale, and it has been such an eye opener, too. I'm starting to understand what constitutes as a negative thought, and how to counteract them. Doubting myself has been a HUGE obstacle in my life. I continually found myself thinking that I really couldn't do something, that only those breakthrough things happened to other people. I'm now realizing that I can stifle those thoughts and tell myself I CAN do that particular thing, and I CAN see a breakthrough myself. I'm committing to Allison Lamarr's 30-Day Sprint, and we'll see how I can ramp up my professional life in February!

I'd love to hear from women who are wanting to change any area in their life, be it their Physical Health, Social life, Spiritual, etc. Let's all make some positive changes this year!