A good life

Recently, I have found myself reflecting on my life more often than usual. The obvious things come to mind first. I have a strong marriage, three incredible children who call me mom, a welcoming home in a nice neighborhood, a small group of girlfriends I adore, a large family who would do anything for me, and I do what I love for a living.

None of these things have come without tears, sorrow, impatience, and faith. Not all parts of my journey have been fun. Some have been downright horrid! But as I stand here today, I am proud of the life I have and for who I am. I am proud of my heritage and for the roots that hold me strong.

As I reflect, I have been thinking about how my kids will remember these years of their lives. As I think about that, I think about what I remember about growing up. It was not all fun and games, but I find myself connecting how I live my life today more and more with the experiences of those years.

Two personal traits that are easily connected to my roots ....
1) My dad always made sure we were on time. I am a freak about being on time. I am always the first to a meeting or sitting in the parking lot hoping someone else will get there soon so I don't have to walk in alone. It causes me a great deal of distress to be running late. I am not "on time" if I am not 15-30 minutes early.

2) I am always concerned with how my actions will impact others. Both my parents made sure we never did or said anything that would cause someone else to be inconvenienced. There have been many times in my life when I gave up my own dream or desire because I felt it would cause someone else more pain than it would cause me happiness. I am working on finding a happy medium with this one in my life and in my parenting.

As I am writing this, I have realized that this could go on and on and on for pages and pages and pages of personal reflection...... So I will leave it at this. For all of the experiences of my life, and for all of the things I don't do well or as I should, I have decided that I live a good life. A very good life. And if I continue to do that, my kids will have the tools they need to also have a good life. I will not wallow in the "what if they don't" thoughts. That just makes me crazy.

January 2012 - Happy New Year!

I was reading my blog from January 2011 this morning and it is still pretty relevant for today. Take a look if you are interested. I don't generally make resolutions, but I do reflect on how things are in my life today and what I can do to change them, keep them from changing, or accept that they will not change. That is how I roll. My life is good. Yes, there are things that I would like to be different. But the truth is that if nothing changes, I am good with that too.

This year will bring the 20th anniversary of marriage for me and Big Daddy. My children will turn 8 and 9 (YIKES!!), and I will continue graduate school.

We will live a good life.
We will treat others as we want to be treated.
We will live our lives with tolerance.
We will not sit in judgement when beliefs of others are not in sync with our own.
We will move on with no regrets when those around us are not kind or tolerant.
We will not compare our lives to others.
We will not feel inadequate when the lives of others appear to be better than our own.
We will be thankful.
We will be kind.
We will love each other.
We will play and laugh.
We will support each other when there are reasons for tears.
We will step up!

Life is short -- Be happy!