Extra in The Ordinary

Summer, as usual, has been a time of busy activities and extraordinary opportunities, and I regret that I have not written about the many things I've learned and encountered. However, I am glad to say I've accomplished two important things in the last couple of months in regards to personal development. 1) I've done the 8 minute fat burning cardio at home workout just about every day. I may not be in the best shape of my life, but I am gradually retraining myself to work out more consistently, which has been helpful. Now I just don't feel as good if I don't do something to get my body moving. Somehow the 8 minutes does the trick. 2) I've been pretty good at keeping a gratitude journal. My goal is to reach 1,000 blessings by December 31, 2012, so I better get busy. I try to log 3 blessings every night on my iphone notepad before bed. I'm on blessing #254. (ps. My oldest child came across this on my phone and said "wow mom- I'm so proud of you!). ...

  Dear Friends, I wanted to let you know about an exciting opportunity to give back and spread awareness about a very special school. Now through June 30th, Hotze Health & Wellness Center is hosting the New Life for a Very Special School campaign. Hotze Health & Wellness Center will donate $1 for every new “Like” received on their Facebook page to the New Life School Guatemala, a non-profit Christian school for children with special needs. When Hotze Health & Wellness Center guest, Judy Kershner, arrived in Guatemala as part of a medical missionary team, she realized that the Lord had a much bigger plan and purpose in store for her. While working in the Mayan village of Santa María de Jesús, Judy met a group of children with very special needs, such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. Judy learned that these children were not accepted as equals in society and were oftentimes hidden in their homes, never allowed outside where neighbors could...

Ordinary: Having a job Extraordinary: The opportunity to impact others (for 8 years!!) Ok, so I don't have a job. .....I have an opportunity to wake up (at 4:30 every morning) and go help other people be their best. So, I've been up to this for 8 years now. I worked in pharmacy, medical front office, vitamins, and now business management (in vitamins). One common thread- helping other people experience a better quality of life by enabling them to achieve their worthy goals naturally and passionately. What's my takeaway? You can have everything you need if you help enough other people get what they need. It's about contributing and helping others. It's not about me. It's about what I can do for YOU, or better yet, what we can do for them.    Teaching others to be helpful and useful is what I call- maximum impact. I love this about parenting, and I feel this way about business leadership. It's an opportunity to impact. It's a platform to live y...

There's just nothing ordinary about taking time out of a busy schedule to have a weekend of focus on your marriage. We have a traditional marriage weekend at least once per year, and this year we chose The Art of Marriage- Getting to the Heart of God's Design. It's only $49 for a leader kit, and you can invite a couple to join you since you get an extra book. It's designed to be reviewed in 6 weekly sessions. We decided to review it in one weekend, and it worked out great. It's wasn't too heavy or too much material. The thing we liked the most about it was the good group discussion questions, and the video material was great, too. It's not a Bible study, so you have to keep that in mind. It's a study, together, of marriage the way God designed it (so you definitely dive into the Bible of course). I liked the artistic interpretation of the elements of marriage, as it made them more memorable. When you have kids and have almost 9 years of marriage under yo...

Ordinary: Chaos at dinner time, plus 2 more kids Extraordinary: An unforgettable, precious little story I'll tell my kids (and their 2 cousins) for years. :) This past weekend I kept my sister's two little ones, "Tighty" and "Yaya", and it was definitely busy at our place. Yaya is 4 and Tighty is not even 2, so combine that little recipe with another restless 4 year old and a curious and super smart almost 7 year old, and you have a perfect dish of entertaining chaos. They have their quiet moments, but I'll be honest. When it's too quiet I'm worried. Chaos is pretty much what you expect with 4 kids. Ok, so it's been a busy 24 hours of Cinco De Mayo fun, and I'm frantically trying to cook dinner (ok, ok I didn't cook- I was frantically trying to plate up the Chinese takeout), and the kids are begging me for "lunch". First of all this makes me feel a bit guilty at first and I think "did I not feed them today?", ...

Ordinary: Bath time frustrations with kids Extraordinary: Hearing God's voice among the noise My daughters like to test my patience at bed time. Well, they don't do it on purpose, but they are really good at it. I, on the other hand have had plenty of bed time opportunities to cultivate a very refined patience level. God chooses moments such as this to teach me lessons I'll never forget. On one such occasion, my oldest girl, IPK, was finishing in the bathtub, and while competing with the usual background noise in the house, I told her it was time to "pull the plug please, and get out of the bath". I'm sitting right there with her, so I didn't yell. My voice was firm, but I was competing with the background noise which was much more attractive to her ears. A show on TV, daddy's computer, and sister's story telling from the bedroom. She didn't even look at me, so I knew she wasn't listening. I said it again, and then a third time. I took...

Ordinary: Packing a school lunch Extraordinary: Feeling like I'm nourishing her soul and her tummy I don't claim that this was my idea. Some other very thoughtful Christian person decided to take action and make a website and email list to send busy moms like me something special. Every week  I print off the sheet of Bible verses that are emailed to me, one for each school day, and cut them out. I put them into the basket on our counter so I don't forget about them. That's the important part- putting them somewhere in sight, and having tape near by. When making her lunch every morning, I take that day's verse out, and tape it to the inside top of her lunch box. This is so simple, but since my daughter can read now, I want to take every opportunity to impress upon her the importance of staying in the Word. While she is at school this is pretty much my only chance I have to do that. It's also my only chance to pat her on the back and give her a bit of encoura...