Friday. How I do love thee. Working at the hospital Fridays never meant a thing to me. Mostly because my "Friday" varied upon the week and working every third weekend put a damper on those Fridays when it just meant going into work the next two days. Since switching jobs though Friday is like an all out party in my brain. I roll out of bed with more pep in my step & truthfully do not care what the day brings...because it's Friday. Anybody else have thoughts like that?

Aside from Friday itself, there are a few other things I'm loving too. Here they are.

1. My employer joined a new program in relation to our insurance called Go365. Anybody else use this one? It's an app designed to track your fitness and when completing certain tasks you earn points which you can exchange for rewards and in the long run help bring your insurance premiums down. And I am ALL about lowering my insurance premium! I'm not generally a cooperative person but oye has this brought out a new side of me! I literally wore tennis shoes to work today with the sole purpose of spending lunch break gaining extra steps. Like who am I?!

2. Target. This may not come as a surprise but Target has my heart. I am SO addicted to that dang dollar spot and at times could swear my whole pay check goes there. But seriously, the stuff there now is just SO my style. And for prices like $3 and $5 I just can't say no.

3. Bunch Cafe Radio on Pandora is like my jam lately. It's soft, cafe style music and I just adore it. I love putting it on in the evening while we play together in the living room as it just calms me right down. Anybody have stations they are loving that they'd like to share? Speaking of Pandora here's a funny one for y'all. The facility I work for purchased tablets & speakers for each of our units. The intention was to use them for background music during meals, resident personal use and during activities. Today while setting it up for my residents I literally see that staff have added stations like "Lady Gaga, Baby Shark, Break Up Songs Playlist and Country Pop Radio". Apparently my 80 year old residents are quite hip & really like to rock. Ha!

4. This new foot cream?! Amazeballs! Seriously! It smells amazing and does an incredible job of bringing those its-been-winter-for-thirty-years-now feet back to life. I also love that you need like thee smallest amount...lasts forever!

5. And last but certainly not least I am OBSESSED with the thoughts of a trip to Nashville. I was there once as a child and we spent a week in Tennessee last year and I am DYING to go back. I'm thinking a little adult only, long weekend in Nashville is just what I need. Some hunky tonk bars, distillery tours, Smokey Mountain hikes and more...just sounds perfect!

Your Worth. Your Beauty. Your Dreams.

Just over four months ago I sat in a conference room at the Hyatt in Chicago, IL for the Diamond Bound Event. I signed up for the conference nearly a year back and truthfully wasn't sure why I came.

I wasn't cut out to be a Diamond, to lead massive groups of people on a wellness journey. Nope, that wasn't in my cards. After all, I'm from a tiny town in Wisco. I'm not a master of wellness and I eat entirely too much sugar. I'm not close to being a perfect mom. My house is a mess. I last painted my toenails months ago & couldn't care less about the chips. I'm a 9 on the Enneagram scale and everyone knows that us nines are play safers. Nope, I just wasn't cut out for that.

I slathered myself full of this blend while there and through a lot of soul searching my mindset took a turn. I COULD do this, if I wanted. It would be work and effort but it might be worth it. It would take more time than I wanted but hey, we only live once right? I listened to some of thee most beautiful hearts speak and my heart started shifting. They had doubts, fears and tons of reasons why they couldn't be a Diamond...but they did it anyway. Why should I be any different? I left the conference knowing that was RIGHT where I was supposed to be that weekend, exactly what I needed.

I returned home to working way too many hours at a job that I constantly feel like I'm failing at, a messy house, kids that I simply can't get enough time with & a husband demanding more of my attention...rightfully so. My good ole' nine heart sank right back into my routines...please others, do what they say/want, forget your dreams...you're not a Diamond Stormy. And, you'll never be.

I let this talk and thoughts be the everyday for the past few months. This morning in the midst of a quite, home reno morning with my family I (without even thinking) strolled to my oils and grabbed one without looking. I opened it, dabbed it over my heart & took a deep breath in.

Ahh. Chicago. Soul work. Boss babes. Community. Changing lives. Believing in yourself.

It all came back with an overwhelming surge.

And here I sit, tears soaking my lap. Streaming from my eyes in overwhelming volume. Feeling like a fool for letting the world get the best of me again.

If anyone has ever had days like this please know you're not alone friends I'm right here with you. 30 years into life and am finding that all the trauma and past events are hitting me harder now than they've ever before. Here's to believing in ourselves though. Believing that no small town, messy house and chippy nails can hold us down. Here's to believing in the diamond hidden within each of us...just waiting for it's time to shine. For I believe in you. In your worth. In your beauty. In your dreams. And the incredibly rich way you were designed to live.

Thoughts

Thoughts fill my mind lately.

Thoughts of desires. Thoughts of past struggles. Thoughts of what the future might bring. Thoughts of how I got here. Thoughts of life.

Thoughts. So many thoughts.

I've been attempting to make a point each day to spend a short amount of time with those thoughts. What do they mean? Where to go from here? Some of them have been easy. And others, not so much.

Ever have moments like that? When thoughts fill your mind and it's a little overwhelming? Certainly I'm not alone. It's in those moments I search for stillness. For grace and gratitude. And, in your moments of overwhelming thoughts know that I am thinking of you. Praying big prayers for peace and calmness to surround you. Prayers for stillness.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ~ Matthew 6: 34