Busy, Busy Happenings

My goodness, have I just had the two busiest months of the year.  That is, probably until the Holidays sneak their way around for the tail end this year.

I have had a lot of ups and downs this summer and have grown a lot.  It's been a long six month journey from the beginning of the year to where I am today but my hard work is starting to pay off and I am finding happiness.

Let me start with how the end of my June went.  I really lost my blogging touch when I started working on the community theater's summer musical.  Camelot 2015.  It was amazing, it was fun, it was full of "drama".  I learned a lot, experienced a lot, and it gave me an emotional growth spurt.

I started to take a selfie every night I went to help at play practice but that got to be a lot of work.  So I didn't get one for every single night.

  

My journey with Camelot 2015 started out with me volunteering my not so professional sewing skills.  I tried to stay just behind the scenes of the event, but I have been involved for 8 years and it's hard to stay away from my musical family.

   

 

 

A few of the selfies I took in the beginning. I made a thing of the "car selfie" on the way to the theater for practice.

I made amazing new friends and got to spend time with the old friends I made over the years.  I love this work.

Of course the play wouldn't be complete without a family selfie.  We are just missing my dad, who played Merlin in the production.  My favorite part about doing costumes was hanging out backstage the entire time and getting to spend those funny behind the scenes moments with the cast.

 

Took a short break from the play to host a baby shower for my little sister.  I am so excited for the coming arrival of my brand new nephew.  Can't wait until he is here.  The baby shower was a lot of fun and I got to see some really good friends that came to show support for my sister.  She was given the cutest stuff for her new baby, that kid will be set.  Thank you so much to all who came and are helping to make my nephew's first part of life a good one.

We were lucky enough to also get a visit from some of my favorite little people in the world.  My sweet brother and his family showed up for a friend's wedding and we got to spend a short time with them.  My sister in law was a Heaven Send in helping with the last finishing touches on the baby shower.  And I love whenever they come because there's always the cutest shoe pile in our entryway.

 

I couldn't let them visit without a little selfie time with them.  The other kids were running around and having too much fun to stop and take a pic so they're missing from these photos but are not forgotten.  Soon, this little guy will be de-throned as my youngest nephew, but I'm sure he's cool with it.

Just as the play got over, we had enough time to get ready for one of my favorite holidays, 4th of July!  We spent a quiet evening for the first time in our new neighborhood and I loved it.  We have really great neighbors and they helped to make the night fun with the fireworks they all lit off.  Some of them were so great that we got distracted from our own!  But we still had fun.  It was a nice relaxing day and we made sure to utilize our grill for good food.

 

We rounded out July with a family reunion that we hosted. My brother brought all his kids except for the baby and we had so much fun.  The two younger kids are missing from our morning camping selfie.  They were busy bodies.  Between making the perfect golden s'mores...

 

 

Racing balloon rockets in the woods, and doing Glowing Bowling (which would have been in the dark but the kids had to go home before it got dark, and then we got rained out so we didn't even reach the dark part of the night.  But they glowed enough to be cool and the kids loved it. 

At least as we were leaving and trying to escape the relentless rainstorm, we were greeted by an amazing sunset.

Inspiring Happenings

Okay, so I disappeared there for a few weeks.  Sorry about that.  A lot has happened but right now I have to hurry off and meet a friend for some quality time this evening and I don't have a lot of time to talk.  But I wanted to touch on something that is very important to me.  Something, that I have been struggling with lately.

On my Facebook news feed this year I have been seeing a ton of weight loss stories.  People posting the amount of pounds that they've lost, showing their before and after pictures, other people celebrating them like they won an award.  And I'll be honest.  It has been hard for me.  Very hard. Getting to my ultimate weight goal, that big finish line number in which I can stop worrying and finally feel "good", that big magic number that we're all striving for... well it's such a mind game for me.  I struggle, frankly, with feeling good enough.  This struggle bleeds over into all aspects of my life really.  But the one I am going to focus on is my weight.  I don't feel skinny enough, pretty enough, fit enough, etc.  Enough for what, you might ask?  I don't know... just... anything really. When I set out to change my life, I kept an eye on others' stories.  And when my "success" wasn't going fast enough, I really lost the "why" of my journey.  I didn't feel good enough to be newsworthy on Facebook, or anything really, so I just didn't talk about my weight loss journey to anyone except for those few very close confidants.  I didn't post pictures, or numbers of my progress on any of my social media sites.  Because I wasn't good enough, fast enough, worthy enough.

The other thing I was struggling with was that I wanted to do this the natural way.  Oh, it was tempting to try supplements and special meals or pills.  But I had made a choice, and a promise to myself that I wasn't going to take that route.  And I won't lie, I did try herbal supplements for a while. But ultimately my choice was to workout and change my nutrition.  A lifestyle change.  But... I kept struggling with my choice every time I would get on Facebook and see another person's "success".  I wasn't happy with my decision because no one could see it, no one saw my struggle, how hard it was, no one saw the hard work I was putting in.  The process was just too slow to be proud of.  Those were my thoughts, wrong as they were.

Don't worry, I pulled myself up from that floor or depressing thoughts.  I found things that inspired me, uplifted me, and now I know it's all okay.  I know why the route I chose is the best one for me. No pills, or prepackaged meals will make me truly happy.  But the work that I do, the control that I have, is all going to mean something really special in the end.  It's all going to pay off and I'll be able to feel proud about what I did and how I did it.  Because it's the right thing for me.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that others can't take those routes I voted down.  Good for them for making the choice to change.  What I'm saying is that I am now okay with my choice for me.

And it's in part thanks to one of my new role models.  Chris Pratt is a major inspiration to me for many reasons but one of the biggest was something that he said in an interview that I only just came across last night.  It really touched me.

When Pratt started his journey to slim down for his big time movie roles he weighed somewhere along the lines of 300 lbs.  Interviewers are now always asking him what his secret is.  It was what he said to one reporter that especially inspired me because I have been struggling with my "slow road".

Here's his answer to her:

"It took a long time.  There wasn't any trick to it or any secret to it.  It's just a matter of getting after it.  That's the problem is that people want to know what the secret it.  The secret is... you can't do it in a month.  It takes 8 months.  Or a year, or a lifetime of consistency; working out every single day and eating properly.  And truly feeding yourself.,. not starving yourself but giving yourself proper nutrition to heal.  You have to burn off all the crap you put in your body.  And then you have to replace it with really good food and fuel.  And it takes a long time.  It just takes a little bit of consistency.  And time is going to go by just as fast whether you're doing it or not.  So, who do you want to be 8 months from now?  You want to be in good shape?  Then get on it today."

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It takes time... And I'm okay with that now.  I know who I want to be in 8 months; a year, and I'm okay.