Adventures Of Motherhood

We all know that this year is coming to an end. We all make resolutions for the next year that we usually end up giving up on by the end of January, if not sooner. Some will last a couple months, maybe, but more often than not, we give up on our resolutions. I don’t really make “resolutions”. I make goals that I would like to achieve by the end of the next year, but I do that every year. As in, I continue every year because there is always something that I can improve on.

If I was still single and living by myself, I would just work on myself and be the best that I could be, with Gods help, of course. We cannot always work on ourselves though, even when we are single. If that makes sense. In a way, we are always working on ourselves, whether we think we are or not. Everything we do, every day, is adding or taking away from ourselves. The question is, what are we adding or taking away from our character, from ourselves?

Now that I am married and have a family to take care of, my goals are all about them. We just had Christmas, and I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and enjoyed time with their friends and families! There is a day that many people do their Christmas shopping on (besides Christmas Eve :P). It is Black Friday. I went Black Friday shopping with my mother-in-law, and she asked my husband (if I remember correctly), what he needed or wanted, and he said “Just buy my wife something nice.” Which is super sweet, right?! It was. The only problem is, there is nothing I can think of that I want or need, besides groceries and money for bills, am I right? 😛 I will look at things on Amazon and see things that I like but then I look at it some more, and then I change my mind.

Anyway, I was out shopping on Black Friday with my mom-in-law, and she wanted to do what my husband said – buy me something nice. Which I did look. I looked at the clothes. I really looked. I tried super hard to find something that I really liked, and liked enough that I would actually wear more than once. Well, now that I have a family, all I think about it getting things for my husband, my daughter and even the dogs sometimes. 😛

I hardly ever look for myself anymore. Unless it’s like a cheap $5 shirt or sweater or something, which you can usually only find at Walmart, and maybe occasionally Target. But I hardly ever go shopping anymore, anyway. The only shopping I do is groceries and paying bills and occasionally I’ll pick something up for my daughter or husband if I see something that they would like.

Do you ever find yourself like that? You try so hard to find something you like, because maybe either someone (your husband) wants you to get something nice or maybe you just want to splurge on yourself a little bit, but you just can’t find anything that you really want? The only thing that I’ll splurge on myself every now and then is maybe a coffee from Starbucks, because think about it, those coffees aren’t cheap! Am I right?! Or I’ll go get a slush from Sonic or something like that! That is my splurging on myself these days, if at all.

But anyway, back to the new year part! I tend to go on rabbit trails sometimes, But then again, I actually didn’t go on one this time! But now I am!

So, when you think about your New Year Resolutions, just think about what you want to do to better yourself for yourself, for your family, or whatever it may be. Or maybe it is to volunteer at a certain place once or twice a month or something like that. Don’t make “resolutions”, just take life one day at a time, do your best, and have a better relationship with God. We need to read our Bibles more, and really get into it, not just skim through and say “Ok, I read it.” and be done. We need to really think about the words and pages that we are reading. Those are God’s Word, after all.

We are also expecting our second child! We are very excited! If you all would pray for us in this, and that the pregnancy will go smoothly, and that we can figure out our finances and find a house that will work for us and our budget, that would be greatly appreciated! We are a growing family of four now! Six – if you count the dogs! 🙂

We have three more days of 2019 left. Make them worth it. And make every day after that worth it and make them count.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here is to 2020!

Being a mom is hard work. It is exhausting and it makes you want just want to scream sometimes, if I’m being completely honest. Any other moms like that?! I’m sure I’m not the only one. It was hard at times, to find the time to do school with a child running around the house, but it all worked out and I passed all four of my classes! I was excited about that! It gave me some confidence back.

I don’t know about you, but as a mom, sometimes I lose my confidence. I feel like I am not doing things right, or maybe it’d be better if I did it this way instead, etc. We all feel that way at times, do we not? Life is hard. Then when you add being a mother and wife, and then having to figure out a time to do school, it makes it just a little bit stressful! Just a little! Okay, I’m lying. It made it A LOT stressful! But I made it through my first term with only a few scratches and bruises!

When I saw that I passed all my classes, it helped me see that I’m not a complete failure. Although I do feel like a failure as a wife and a mom sometimes. My husband does a great job being a daddy! I love watching him with our little girl! Seeing them play together, seeing her laugh so hard when he tickles her or just when he is playing with her and taking time to play with her, just makes my day!

I have an Associates of Science Degree in Criminal Justice, and I wanted to get a bachelors degree and we thought “why not now?” plus, so many jobs nowadays requires or “prefers” you to have a bachelors degree. And I loved my criminal justice classes back at college. So I am getting my Bachelors degree in Criminal Psychology. I am enjoying it so far. I love to write, but when I’m in school and I HAVE to write, I dread it. I love writing when I can choose what to write about, but when I have to write for a class and have a deadline, I hate it! Anyone else with me? I do okay with stress, pressure and deadlines SOMETIMES, but the majority of the time, not so much! 😛

What can I do with a criminal psychology degree? There are a few things that can be done with it. I can be a victim advocate, I can work in the court system as a court liaison, a jury consultant, I can be a juvenile offenders counselor, probation officer, there are many things that I can do with it. I’m not completely sure what I want to do with it, but I know I love to help people, and there are many different degrees I could get that would allow me to help people more, but I love the psychology of things, and why people do things, and such. So as I get further in my classes, I will know more on exactly what I want to do with it! I would definitely appreciate your prayers as I go through my schooling. I plan to be done by this time next year, if not sooner!

I am very excited for what next year holds for many reasons! I have a wonderful family, I will be finishing my bachelors degree, Lord willing, and I just have so many things and people to be thankful for. We are almost at the end of another year, we have so many things to be thankful for! God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!

I recently had a birthday, and as I reflect on my life and what has happened in these last 25 years, well, the last few years really (A LOT), I think of what all God has given me.

A lot has happened already in my 20’s. I have been through a lot, but my family has been there! I have become a wife and mother and it has been amazing! It’s not easy all the time, or hardly ever, but I still enjoy every minute of it. I am blessed with what God has given me {and not given me, when I thought it was what I needed/wanted}.

I don’t really ask for much for my birthday anymore. Let’s be honest, what we really need/want for our birthdays anymore is money. Money for bills and to help pay things off. Right?! Or is that just me??

I just wanted to spend the day with my family for my birthday! And I got to do just that, it was great! We went to the pumpkin patch, then went to the in-laws for lunch, then went home and just relaxed.

Anna loved walking around everywhere and seeing everything! She especially loved the goat! And when she would move, the goat would follow her along his fence!

She loved just being able to go anywhere. We watched her, of course. She would try to follow other little children around (most of them were boys, uh-oh)! But she enjoyed it! She had a hard time picking out a pumpkin, it was so cute! She went to every area that had pumpkins. She’d look at them, then she move them around if she could. She’d walk around to others, and look at them. It was so cute. I love watching her grow and see new things and trying to figure them out. She’s so smart already.

She makes my heart melt pretty much every day! She’ll look at you, just because, and smile with the biggest smile! It’s the sweetest thing! I hate that she’s growing up so fast, but I enjoy watching her grow and learn new things! I love seeing the looks on her face when she sees something new!

How are we when we see God do something in someone’s life? Are we like a little child seeing/hearing it for the first time? Are we excited and happy for that person? How do we react to those things? Are we jealous of others? Do we wish that we got something paid off fully or whatever it may be? Everyone goes through different trials, they may be similar, but everyone has different experiences. Does that make sense? How do we react to others experiences to similar things that we’ve had experiences with? Maybe they handled it better than you did, or it ended better for them that it did for you. Don’t dwell on those kinds of things! Everything happens for a reason, and at just the time that we need it.

Anyway, got a little off-topic there for a second, but still! God is so Good! He gives us more than we deserve, and doesn’t give us what we really deserve. I am so thankful for another year that God has given me! And for the family that He has given me. I couldn’t have asked for anyone else! He knew exactly who I needed and who needed me! Isn’t God awesome!?!?! 🙂

I hope you all are having an awesome FALL season! Fall is my absolute favorite season of the year! I love all the colors, the weather, its hoodie and boot season! Scarf season! I love it all! What’s your favorite season and why?!

Today is Mental Health Awareness Day. Everyone has some days where they struggle mentally. Today, ironically, was one of those days for me. It was a good, but overall hard day today. I didn’t know it was Mental Health Awareness Day till this afternoon/evening. Then I kind of laughed, because it was a rough day for me. I thought, “Huh! That’s ironic!” But a lot of things in life tend to be ironic.

Life is hard.

Right? I mean, there’s very few people that I know that do NOT struggle, if any.

I saw this quote today from a former US Soccer player named Jaelene Hinkle, and it really hit me. She said, “If you live for people’s acceptance, you will die from their rejection.”

Growing up, and sometimes still, I was a people-pleaser. I had to do what made everyone else happy, even if I was miserable. That does a lot to our mental health. Seriously. I still catch myself doing it, sometimes, but not as often. I still do things for others, but not because I have to, to make them happy; I do it because I want to, and I’m happy to do it.

So many times, there are people who think they have a lot of friends, and those that are closest to them, they can go to for anything. But then, when you go through something and you try to talk to them, they just shut you out. Anyone been there? The friends that you thought were going to be there, who said they would be there {no matter what}, and then they’re not?

Life can be hard. But it is also what you make of it. Sometimes we lose friends, but then we gain something, that could be even better than what we lost. It can be hard to see that sometimes, but when time passes and you realize, it gets “easier”. It doesn’t make the situation WHEN it happened, but it is easier now.

I’m thankful for the friends that have stood by me, even when it was hard to stand by me. And I know it’s been hard at times! Sometimes I don’t even want to be around me! But I feel like everyone has those moments, even if they don’t want to admit it. Sometimes we just get really stressed out, we just want to get away from everything and ourselves, except we can’t get away from ourselves or everything.

I have a couple friends that I can still talk to and tell them about what’s going on in my life, and they will encourage me and lift me up when I need it! Which lately, has been a lot. But I don’t like “bothering” my friends with my troubles, so I’ll usually keep it in or at least write it in my journal. Here are som pictures of those friends and the friendship we have!

I try to write daily, but with life and how crazy and hectic it has been, I haven’t been able to journal everyday. Does anyone else journal daily, or try to?

I used to journal all the time, growing up. I always enjoyed writing. I still do, just don’t have as much time right now! But that’s okay! When I can find the time, I write! It helps me relax, when I write!

Find those friends that are really there for you! Text them, call them up, tell them what’s going on in your life, and stay in touch with them, at least weekly! Ask them how they’re doing, if there’s anything you can pray for them about, pray WITH them! That’s always encouraging too! We need more friends who will pray WITH each other, not just FOR each other.

Life is hard, but {true} friends do make it easier! If you need a friend, I’m here for you! I love you all!

And of course, my husband and daughter!

You all know how much I love our precious Anastasia! When I was growing up, I always wanted a little girl, and I wanted to name her Anastasia! I’ve always loved the name, and not because of the movie! Although I do love the Disney movie too.

When I look at our daughter, I still…it’s hard to believe that she is ours. That I grew this precious baby in my belly. I never thought I would have a child of my own, for multiple reasons. I won’t go into those right now. Maybe in another blog post, we’ll see. But anyway, when we found out we were pregnant, I was excited, scared, nervous, pretty much every emotion that there was, but the good kind of it!

Every time I look at her face, I am just amazed! God is so amazing! That he gave us the “ability” to grow a little human inside of us. It is painful at times, but the pain is worth it in the end. Anastasia is her mommy and daddy’s world! She means the world to us!

I’ll look at her and daddy playing together, he’ll be chasing her around the house and she’ll be giggling and trying to get away, or sometimes she’ll run right to Daddy! It is the cutest things in the world!

When Anna was born, and we were in the hospital for a few days longer than we wanted, when I saw the looks Brandon gave our little girl, it melted my heart. My husband also thought he could never have children, for reasons I won’t mention right now either. When we found out we were pregnant, we proved that wrong! Not necessarily on purpose, but it happened! We were excited though!

He was the proudest daddy in the world! And he has that look even more every day that she grows and gets bigger and smarter! She may squeal super loudly and hurt our ears sometimes, but we don’t love her any less because of it! The times she wants to just sit on our laps and snuggle, those are definitely the times that we are treasuring right now! Because we know she’s not always going to be like that!

She is our little firecracker! She is a ball of energy, and she lights up every room she enters! When I look at her and her big ol’ smile, it makes me smile the biggest smile! I know everyone says to wait to have kids, have some alone time with your husband first. Which I do wish we could have had some time together before but that is totally okay! I wouldn’t change any of it for anything! I can’t remember what it was like before we had Anna! And that’s okay!

She may make it harder to just get up and go somewhere, but that’s okay! We love her so much, we love all the memories that we are making together as a family! She is our gift from God. Our favorite gift that we have ever gotten! We cannot wait to see her grow and learn so much! Although, we also CAN wait for her to grow, because they’re only little for a short time.

I don’t know about anyone else, but this year has FLOWN by! I don’t know if it’s because we have a child now or what, but this year has gone by so fast! I can’t believe it is already October! Soon it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then another year will be gone. The pictures below were from last Christmas! Time flies and she has grown so much since then! Enjoy the time with them!

These are the times that when Anna is playing or sleeping, I will just watch her! Not in a creepy way, either! Moms (and Dads) know what I’m talking about! I will just watch her play with her toys, look at her books, and I will watch her face! I watch her face just glow so bright when her toys makes a sound or she comes to a page in a book, and she smiles so big!

I love having a daughter! Anna is so much fun! She loves our dogs! She will go up to the dogs and pet them then give them hugs and kiss their noses! The smaller one is really hyper, so she doesn’t give her very many hugs because she gets up and runs off! But the bigger one, she’ll stay still mostly, she’s more calm and laid back. Anna is starting to be more interactive with the dogs more, she loves to throw their balls and toys for them to go run and get, although it doesn’t get thrown very far! She loves it and she just squeals with joy! The dogs like it too, because they have someone else to play with now!

Life gets busy sometimes and we don’t always have time to play with Anna or the dogs. But you just gotta make time. Set whatever you’re doing down, and go play with your children! Make those memories! Don’t let your children remember that you were sitting at the computer or playing a game or doing paperwork all the time, and didn’t have time to play with them, or even to help them study for a test or with some homework. Make time for your children. That is what they will remember.

I look at Anna’s face and I can’t help but smile! She is so beautiful, and I’m not saying that because I grew her in my belly! I look at every detail I can! That is also why I’m always taking pictures of her! I do enjoy the moments, too! But I’ll take a few pictures of her playing with toys or playing with daddy, then I’ll join them, or I’ll even just watch them for a little bit. I love watching them play together and giggling together! It makes my heart smile so big!

Don’t take time with your children, your spouse, or anyone, for granted. Make that time with them, make it last as long as possible. You don’t know how long you will have!

Children are a blessing and a gift from God!

What we do is a choice. Other people don’t make us do we choose to do. They don’t make the choices for us. The choices we make is OURS, and ours alone.

So many times, we blame someone for the choices we make. For example, umm…”I hate what *** did to us.” Meaning, what someone else did caused me to make a decision about us (whoever ‘us’ is) and therefore it’s done.

Does that make sense?

This may be a long blog post, and it may be a short one, I’m not really sure yet. I’m still thinking on some of it.

But to be honest, choices is something that we make everyday. We choose to get out of bed, we choose to go to work even though we don’t want to. We may hate our job, but it’s what is paying the bills right now. Everyone is going through something and some people don’t know what else to do, so in order to ‘justify’ what they do, they put the blame on someone or something else. Which isn’t the best thing to do. For you, for the other person, whatever it may be.

Why do we do what we do? Whether it’s our job, the choices we make, the friends we have. Why are you friends with your friends? Why do you do the job that you are at? Is it the only place that would hire you? Are you waiting to get something better, and you need a paycheck so you’re there till what you really want opens up?

WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO??

I wasn’t going to put it anywhere, or really tell anyone, at least not for awhile, but it seems to go along with what I’m saying in this post. I’m going back to school next month. It actually starts the day after my birthday! It’s like Happy Birthday, now go to school! But seriously, I’m excited! I chose to go back to school because 1) I do like school, for the most part. 2) I am excited about what I’m going to do and what I can do. And 3) It’ll help me to get a better job, one that I will enjoy doing, and help pay the bills while I’m doing something that I actually enjoy doing!

9 people out of 10 are only doing their jobs because it pays the bills. How many people are seriously doing what they love!? I am genuinely curious! If you are reading this, tell me what you do, and whether you love it or not, and if not, tell me what your dream job is! It’s not to bash your current jobs. We all need a job, we all have bills that need to be paid. It’s not a bad thing to be at a job that you hate, unless it is literally hurting your health. When it comes to hurt your health – physically, mentally, spiritually – then it is bad, and you need to figure out what you need to do different or talk to someone there that could help you.

If you are finding yourself truly miserable, with no motivation to do ANYTHING, find a change. Find something that you really enjoy doing. If you don’t even know what that is, then just start trying different things. Find a hobby! Talk to me! We can be friends! I’d love to be friends with you! Especially if you read my blog, that would mean the world to me to meet someone through my blog! That’d be pretty awesome actually! I’ve heard some cool stories like that! Everyone needs friends that they can talk to!

This blog post went in a different way then I was intending it to, but that’s okay! Everything we do is a choice. The words I wrote were all a choice. Sometimes I say and write the wrong things, who doesn’t? But that’s why we talk things through and work them out. Some things can’t be worked out, sometimes, even though it can be, but not everyone wants to work things out. So that, again, is also a choice that someone made.

Are we making the right choices?! Look to the Bible, talk to a friend before you make any rash decisions, or are not completely sure about something. If you don’t have a friend like that, I will be that friend.

Hope this brought some encouragement to someone. Thank you for reading this far! Have a great Thursday and a great weekend!

Okay, so not everyone, IF anyone, is fearless. But about a month or so ago, I got a pop socket. Yes, I’m one of those people. Sometimes, anyway. I didn’t have one for awhile, but then I saw one that I really liked. One that would remind me of something every day that I saw it. There’s a Bible reference on it also. It is Proverbs 31:25, which states “Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.” The little statement that is on my pop socket is “She is Fearless”.

When we have God on our side, we CAN be fearless. Because He has everything under control. It may be hard to feel fearless, but it is possible. God is always there for us. I’ve been struggling a lot lately, spiritually. I just keep having one thing after another, and it just feels like everything is piling up on top of one another. And it feels like it keeps getting higher and harder, and it isn’t getting easier. But I know that if I put my FULL trust in God, He will be there, He is there. We can’t just give Him half of our heart, He needs and wants the WHOLE heart.

So many times, we will give Him one thing but not another. We say “Oh, I’m going to hold on to this just a little bit longer then I’ll give it to you. But I just can’t right now, God.” We know we CAN trust Him, but for some reason, we don’t. Why is that, do you think? Any thoughts on that? Or think about why you think you can’t or don’t trust Him with some of the things in your life. He already knows about them, so why not actually talk TO Him and tell Him about it.

But…that’s not how it works. When you give something up, it shouldn’t be a sacrifice. When we give things up, in the right way, as in when we give them to God, it is NEVER a sacrifice. Because who knows, what God is really holding onto for us. He’s just waiting for you to be ready. But we can’t be “almost ready” for long. God doesn’t want to hurt us. He wants to be there for us, through everything – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 🙂

This past year has been a year of ups and downs. Everyone has ups and downs, I know. We are all going through something. Everyone is secretly crying out for help, like I said in my last blog post. Someone may just need a hug, I know it’s weird to offer a random stranger a hug, but sometimes, when you see someone that just looks really down and sad, try offering them a hug. It could and probably will make their whole day so much brighter. Or give them a friendly smile, if you don’t want to offer a random stranger a hug.

Think of it this way. if you will.

If you were at, what you thought was, your lowest point in life, you didn’t know what to do anymore, and you were just sitting somewhere or even just walking somewhere…would you say ‘no’ to a someone offering to give you a hug? Obviously, depending on if they looked okay, and not like a thief or pickpocket or something like that, but you could tell they were genuinely genuine. Would you say No?

I don’t know about you, but I would probably take the hug. It’s been a long couple of months. But that doesn’t mean I am giving up. I look at my pop socket, and it reminds me that God is with me, and that I CAN be fearless. Because I have God on my side. No matter what happens, He is there. This is just a reminder for those who may be struggling with similar things, or just that God is STILL there. He is ALWAYS there! If you need someone to talk to, after praying and talking to God, I am here. I love talking to people, and listening to them and just being there for them. I’d love to be there for you.

This was just a piece of my heart today, as I was thinking and just reminiscing on some things in life. Hope this brought encouragement to someone! Have a great weekend!

So this last week, I was away from my husband and daughter for a whole week. I went on a cruise with a friend of mine. It was beautiful there! I loved being on the cruise ship, on the sea! Just relaxing and looking over at the sea and watching the waves!!! Now if THAT isn’t relaxing, I don’t know what is. I will show you some of my favorite views from the cruise!

Okay. So…to be honest, though…The day I left, I was kind of already regretting leaving my family. I missed them both tremendously. I still enjoyed the cruise as much as I could, but literally, every minute, I was wishing I was with my husband. I wanted to be back home with my husband and daughter rather than on a cruise. I know a week isn’t a super long time, but when you’re away from your husband and 18 month old daughter, a week is a LIFETIME! I missed them every second. I even wished that I could have jumped off the ship and swam back to be with them! I mean, how silly is that, right?!

Who would want to leave a cruise with a beautiful view!? Even if your family wasn’t with you. I may be weird, but I wanted to leave the cruise to be with my family. I still got to message my husband, and video-chat a little bit. The signal wasn’t that great but we got what we could. I video-chatted with our little girl too, only she got fussy after we got off, so I didn’t want to video-chat too much, that way my husband wouldn’t have to try to calm her down.

On a positive note though, being away from each other for that week, has made us even closer to each other. I hated being away from him was TORTURE, if you know what I mean! Not literal torture, because I haven’t been literally tortured, but it was pretty horrible being away from Brandon for that long! And our little girl! I was so happy to be back home! With my family!!

Never take your family for granted. My family means the world to me, and I don’t know what I would do without them! They have been there for me through so much! My little family and my immediate family, but in this blog, I’m talking about my husband and daughter! I am so thankful for them!

We have been going through some rough times, financially, but we are getting better! 🙂 The first couple years of marriage are always the hardest, financially. But we are getting past it! We are getting past the worst of it! We still have some more things to pay off but we are getting closer! I am so thankful for Brandon! I love looking over at him playing with our little girl, and I just automatically smile so big! I love seeing them together and seeing her big smile!! She has this thing that she does, she will look at you, or look at a book, and just open her beautiful blue eyes as big as she can! It is the cutest thing!

God has been so good to us! Never take your family for granted! Thank you for reading my blog! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

How many of us do “spring cleaning” at least once a season?! I try to do one at least every couple of months. Or even more frequent than that! The house gets so dirty and so cluttered, that I just can’t take it anymore, and I HAVE to clean!!! EVERYTHING!!! From top to bottom, left to right, every nook and cranny. Is anyone else like that???? Or is it just me?!

I’m not always the cleanest and most organized person, although I do try to be. But when I start cleaning something, I usually really clean it! I will be in one room for hours. I will be working on cleaning out the fridge and going through everything in it, making sure nothing is expired or molding, and I will be there for 2-3 hours, minimum.

At the moment, our whole house needs to be cleaned. Which isn’t really a house. It’s a single-wide trailer that we rent. We are working to pay some things off so that we can start saving and put a good deposit down on a house. When and where, we are still figuring out. But there are still some things that we are trying to figure out also. We have lived in the trailer for two years now. Tomorrow is actually our second wedding anniversary! We have made it to two years!

I have been meaning to clean, really clean the house since forever. Which I have since the last time. But things just get so messy, so fast! We have baby toys everywhere. Our daughter is in the phase where she takes the toys or whatever she finds, she takes it all out of the bucket, container, or cabinet and just takes it ALL out! So now the floor is covered in baby toys, pots and pans and whatever else she has gotten into! Don’t get me wrong, they can always be put away again, and she is learning. She knows where the trash is, and when she sees something that is trash, she will throw it away. Or I will tell to go throw it in the trash, and she takes it and throws it in the trash. But then, she takes it back out of the trash. We’re working on that part! 🙂

She may try our patience sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world.

Well, now that I got a little sidetracked from cleaning, I’ll get back to it. 😉

I didn’t always like to clean when I was younger, but like I do now, once I get started cleaning something, it’s hard for me to stop until I get it really clean and re-organized. You will hardly recognize the room or the fridge after I get done! 😉

I also haven’t been able to clean as much as I would like to, lately, because I’m working during the day again. So I won’t get home till 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening. And I’ll be too tired to do anything!

I’ll play with our little girl, and talk to my husband. After we put her to bed, we will sometimes put a TV show on Netflix and watch an episode of something, or sometimes, we will go to bed ourselves. We are pretty tired by the end of the day.

We don’t always have a clean house, but we have a happy house. We love each other and we take care of each other, to the best of our abilities.

This coming Saturday, I am planning on taking the whole day, and while my husband is at work, I am planning on cleaning and re-organizing as much of the house as I can. Starting with our daughter’s room. We kind of use it as a storage area, also. Which I am trying to get better with, but it’s hard when you don’t have much space to begin with. But we will get there. One day.

Everything takes time. And if you will pray with us, we have some things that we are trying to figure out and sort out with life, and what we are going to, to help us with what we would like to do and have in the future. As in, a house, finances and such. We would greatly appreciate it!

Until next time! Thanks for reading!

We all have goals and dreams that we hope to achieve in life. Some are BIG goals and some are just things in life that we want to do for ourselves, things that may not seem big to everyone else, but it is big to us.

Everyone has a dream of what they want to accomplish by a certain age. It’s usually the age of 25. At least mine was. And I’m almost there. To being 25, not the reaching my goals and dreams part. I’m closer than I was a year ago, but I’m still not there. If I work hard, It is still possible that I reach one of my dreams by the time I turn 25. So I am putting this here so you all can keep me accountable and message me from time to time and see how I’m doing on my dream goals. Sound like a deal!?

So as of right now, I have two months and eight days. That doesn’t seem like much time, but like I said earlier, with a lot of hard work, it is possible.

I have a dream and a goal to pay off my debt by the time I turn 25, or at least 80% of it, if not more! That would be a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. And my husbands. My debt is not the only debt we have, but if I had mine cleared out, I could help more with my husbands debt and not be so stressed about money.

Let’s be real. Probably 75% (or more) of arguments that happen in marriage is about money. Money is necessary for everything. There’s monthly bills like rent, utilities, water, the phone, and whatever else there is. And then when you have other bills like student loans and credit card debt, it’s a bit overwhelming.

Okay, it’s A LOT overwhelming.

I have learned a lot this year. I have learned a lot about myself. I have learned to just be completely honest with others, and myself. Not as in lying to them, but as in my feelings, what I’m struggling with, and to ask for help. I hate to ask for help, but sometimes you need to ask for help. And if the person says no, then that’s fine. We will figure out a way to make things work. God is there with us. He is always there. We don’t rely on Him as much as we should. But He is always there for us, whether we think He is or not.

I’ve posted a lot on my personal facebook and instagram page about a business that I’ve started. I’m sure it’s gotten annoying to some people, and I’m sorry. That is one of the ways that I have chosen to help my family financially. It does work. I have goals and dreams with/for my business. It is direct sales and I know so many people HATE direct sales companies. But honestly, that is where everyone is going nowadays. More often than not, someone you talk to will try to sell you something, whether it’s health and wellness, makeup, or haircare. When you buy from a personal friend, or a friend of a friend, you are helping THAT person! Not some already rich person. We do these direct sales companies to help support our family and to be able to stay home with our children and see our spouses more. That is why we do it. The products may be a little on the expensive side, but they really are amazing products are worth the price!

So many times, we look at something someone is selling to try to help their family, and think I could get something just to help them out, but then they see the prices, and they are like “WHAT?!!? Oh, NO WAY!! That’s too expensive!” and then never give it another look or give their friend a chance to explain the products. Why they are different from other companies, or how they work, and that they really DO work.

If you are on the fence about direct sales companies and their prices, buy when there is a sale! My business has sales a few times a month! It’s great! If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me!

I have big dreams for my Monat business! If I work hard, I believe that it will help me able to stay home with my family more and not have to worry and stress about money anymore. I didn’t join this business to have something else to do and take the time away from my family. I did this so I CAN spend more time with my family. When I get to where I want to be in the business, I won’t have to set any alarms to get up in the mornings and leave for work. I will be able to stay in bed with my husband a little longer and actually spend the days and weekends with my family. That is my WHY! And maybe, if I get even higher in the company, I will be able to retire my husband from whatever job he is at, at the time, because we won’t need the finances. Unless he really likes his job and wants to stay, that’s different! And that will be fine! But the point would be is that he would NOT HAVE to work. He may even just want to switch to part-time or something. But anyway, he and I will talk about that when we cross that bridge!

So when you purchase from me, you are helping me get a little bit closer to those goals and dreams. I can help you do those same things, spend more time with your family and just not have a regular 9-5 job anymore and be able to go on more trips or whatever it is that you would want to do.

I have been scared about what people think about me practically my entire life. I mean, who isn’t!? Right?! But this past year, I have learned that what God thinks/knows of me is the one that matters. I am trying to hide anything from anyone. I am just trying to help my family be more financially stable. I may post on my personal pages a lot, but that is because I am sharing things that I love! I love my shampoo products! I love my family! So I am going to post about it!

Anyway, this post took a little bit of a different turn than I was planning, but sometimes that happens! Thank you for reading! Have a great day and an even better week!