week 11: on perseverance

                          Fall seven times, stand up eight.  ~Japanese Proverb

finally starting to see some results. - 21lbs. 19 more to my goal. feeling like a new person, on the inside and out. finally starting to like myself. it feels GREAT~

week 10: family

Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.  ~Anthony Brandt


as i am packing up our suitcases to go away for my nephew's graduation in upper michigan,
i am thinking that i can't wait to see my family! it's been 10 months since i have seen my parents, my siblings (5 older brothers, 1 older sister) and my nieces & nephews ( i have 6 nephews, 3 great-nephews, and  10 nieces just on my side of the family). i miss everyone so much that my heart literally hurts. it got me thinking of this quote, "other things may change us, but we start and end with the family" . that about sums it up for me. more than anything in this world, my family is the most important thing to me. more important than any house, any item, any THING.

week 9: on art

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” ~ Edgar Degas


 I love to scrapbook, I love art, I love photography. It's all a part of who I am.  Who says that my work isn't good enough, who says I am not an artist? it's not up to them to decide. You don't have to like it, that's okay, I like it. It makes me happy, it fills my soul. And one day, I like to think my girls will love and appreciate that I made their childhoods my life's art work....they are my world, my canvas and I love to create my art based on their beautiful little souls.

week 8: on being brave.

“Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”  (mary tyler moore)

it's so much easier in life to stay the same, to not change, to not take chances. to not grow. it's easy to just keep being the same.

but in doing so, you crush a part of yourself that longs to be the best that it can be, that wants to grow & experience and love.

a part of you that wants to be real, be exactly who you are/were meant to be.  I want to be the real me & for others to love and

accept me for who I am. I want to try new things, to take chances and to be exactly the person that God wants me to be.....

week 7: on never giving up!

  

                                    "When the world says, "Give up,"
                                      Hope whispers, 'Try it one more time.' "

                                                      ~ Unknown

                              

I used to be a size 2-4 until I turned 26, then was a sizes 6-8. then I got married & had 2 babies,

19 months apart and have never been able to get below a size: 10 & even had been all the way into

a size 14. I know women shouldn't judge by a number, but I haven't been happy with my body since 

I had my babies (who are turning 10 & 12 this year). Every January I start out strong, exercising 2-4 

hours per day, eating right, losing about 17lbs and then I gain it all back, stop working out and feel 

horrible about myself. Well this is the year, 2011, that I am now trying to incorporate lifestyle changes,

changes that I can keep. If I want chips, I will allow myself to have them. I am realizing setbacks are part of the process and not a reason to give up and sabotage myself and gain it all back. I am exercising, just not in excess, but in moderation. I am eating the things I want, but in moderation. I am slowly  getting the body I want and becoming who I want to be....and this time, I won't give up!

**photo taken by Ava age: 9 (first photo that I haven't taken of myself on this blog so far)

week 6: on education/learning

                        A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
                                                             ~ Henry Brooks Adams


We started homeschooling for the first time this year. Savannah Rose is in 5th grade. Ava Katherine is in 4th grade. It's been a learning experience for all of us. Some good days, some bad. I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. These last years with my girls are precious and priceless and I celebrate it all. I hold this year especially tight close to my heart. I feel like I got my children back. They have more time to be kids, to play and to learn about all the things they are interested in. This year has been a huge blessing.

week 5: on exercise

 "This is where it matters the most. This is where lives are made, in these moments when you can choose wheather or not to say "I can't" or "I can." It is a choice that will either make or break you for life."
           quote by: Jillian Michaels, Biggest Loser

This is a hard one for me. I have been on a quest to lose 40lbs. I always lose half then gain it all back. This time it's about not stopping until it's over. I am doing it the right way, with diet & exercise. It is the only thing that works. (photo #1 taken as I hopped out of the car at the club to go run on the treadmill. photo #2 taken as my hubby & I were on an actual run, his shoe on left, mine on the right).....now let's do this thing!

week 5: on being a mom

 

 

 

 

 

             "There's no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one."

                                                                   --Jill Churchill

this is so true. I am not the perfect mom, but I think I am a pretty good one. And at the very least, I sure do try my very hardest, to be the best one that I can be. I fall short on a daily basis, but they always forgive me for it. And I try again.

week 4: on books

                                            You know you've read a good

                                          book when you turn the last page

                            and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.  ~Paul Sweeney

I have loved to read for as long as I can remember. As a child, we would walk out of the library hardly being able to see over the top of the pile of books that we chose! I am so happy my mom instilled that love of reading in me. I am happy to say that my girls, ages 9 and 11 are the same way. This is their bookshelf (in my bedroom) behind me because we always plop in my bed at night to read together. Below is  a list of my favorites over the years: In no particular order....

• Still Alice
• Sarah's Key
• Those Who Save Us
• Kite Runner
• The Help
• A Reliable Wife
• The Book Thief
• Shelter Me
• The Usual Rules
• Catching Genius
• April & Oliver
• The Mountain Between Us
• Love Walked In
• An Accidental Light
• Girls in Trouble
• Love in the Present Tense
• Whistling in the Dark
• Belong to Me
• The Other Boelyn Girl
• A Thousand Splendid Suns
• The Memory Keepers Daughter
• The Poisonwood Bible
• The Ha-Ha
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Midwives
• The Cure for Grief
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• The Thirteenth Tale 
• 
  

Week 3: on staying true

                          To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best,
                                 night and day, to make you everybody else means
                                          to fight the hardest battle which any
                                   human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
                                                              e.e. cummings


it's so hard in this world to stay true to who you are, but I am finding it easier as I get older.
I am trying to be comfortable with who I am and who I was meant to be.....

week 2: on being you

                                              This above all: to thine own self be true.
                                                             William Shakespeare


              never have I realized, more so than now, at age 40 years old, just how 
                                        important it is to just be yourself! 

week 1: on imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein

 I am going to do 52 photos of me, tara. I saw this blog and I thought, "why not?" There are hardly any photos of me in the family albums. I wanted that to change. So one day per week, I am going to set the timer and try to be creative. I am going to either put a quote, bible verse or just random advice. When this project is over, I am going to print it in a book and dedicate it to my daughters, 

Savannah Rose & Ava Katherine.