Top Ten Things I am grateful for this holiday season....

10.  The good health of my family.   My Mother was only 21 years older than me. I loved having a young Mom. She was only 60 when she died. Until her death I was confident about the fact that the women in our family live to be a million years old!  I have known and remember fondly all of my Great Grandmothers and Grandmothers. I have been amazingly blessed with hilarious, virtuous, crazy, fun women.  Now, I take nothing for granted. I plan for my children's future with the knowledge that we aren't guaranteed a single breath and find that now, I truly know how to live in the moment and I am so thankful that for right now, my family is healthy.

9.  The ability to pay for necessary things.  I hope the ability to get an oil change when I need one will always make me smile. I plan on celebrating the ability to pay for dentists appointments, oil changes and new socks every single time I can!

8.  The friendship and good will of more amazing women than I can count.  For every single mean girl in the world, there are 100 nice girls. I am blessed with more genuinely kind women in my life than I deserve. My very best friends in times of great need have been my friends since we were little girls. I love that although time and distance separate us, our hearts and intentions have kept us close. I prayed for wise women to be in my life and I am so blessed in this area of my life.  My advice to young women, be kind to each other..your girlfriends will carry you through life.

7.  Self Control.  I am blessed to have this and all the thanks go to my parents who taught me I don't have to be comfortable all the time in order to do what's right.  Thank you, Sister Lauren for recognizing this as a gift that I can be proud of.

6.  It took a long time but I realize that grace and mercy are a part of it!  I never knew this growing up.  Raised church of Christ and now Catholic, I am comfortable in being quiet in my religion. It's not about you...this is between me and Jesus...and I'm confident that even when I didn't realize it, he was holding me close and lighting the way.  I've found that I am very blessed. God doesn't just show us signs along the way, sometimes he sends billboards. 

5.  Cake, wine, a great dog and a warm fireplace.   These things add so much joy to my life!

4.  Sometimes people think joyful people have no problems. I find the opposite. Joy is a CHOICE. I wouldn't go back and change anything about my life. It's so awesome to get older, you see all the things so clearly that you missed when you were younger.  I am thankful that even in times of great stress, I hear my Mammaw's voice in my head to pray with a grateful heart.

3.  I am thankful that I get to be a witness to the success of others.  I can't take credit for someones success. I can't take the blame for their failure, but I can really LOVE the fact that I have a front row seat as a witness to their journey.

2. I am so grateful this Christmas to have met an adult child with ASD. He has no idea that meeting him was something I will never forget. It was like staring hope right in the face. He looked happy, well-adjusted, "normal" and loved.  He is coping fine and he's thriving.  I am grateful to the people who re-assure me, who tell me their stories, who tell me about how "it gets better"....Hope is a wonderful thing. I am seeing that they were right. I am so thankful for those who share their stories.

1. The love of my boys and my husband.  Without them, I would not get up every morning with a burning reason to push myself further and further.  These guys make me want to move heaven and earth every day.  When I look at their faces, I cannot believe they are mine.  What an awesome responsibility. What an amazing blessing. What a beautiful gift!  I am so thankful to be theirs.

It's all about YOU!

Have you ever had to fill out questionaires that are entirely about you? It's amazing how you get out of practice!

In my twenties, life was all about me. All the time. I was the Master at tooting my own horn. I was taught how to negotiate by the great Bill Polich and my public speaking skills? Thank you, Michael Vassen!  Between the two of these awesome mentors I really had a rocking career. Michael's technique was really good...he would teach me and then throw me to the wolves. I got very comfortable with public speaking really quickly.  ANYTHING was better than not having a clue you'd be speaking in front of hundreds of people only minutes before you'd be asked to do it. He drilled the same line into me, if you know what you're talking about and you love what you're doing, you can say anything to anybody at anytime about it.  He was right!

I knew I couldn't have a 10 state area, a 7 state area or even a 3 state area and be the Mom I wanted to be. At the time, I said that, but in my heart I knew I didn't know how to be anything but career driven. When people would tell me I could have it all, I felt like they didn't understand me. I was sort of all or nothing. I had no idea how to balance work and family. Talk about a light switch. My thirties looked so different from my twenties, it was like I wasn't even the same person.  I went from making things happen to wishing I knew what the heck was happening! To say I wasn't exactly a natural at Motherhood is funny to those who know me well.  I was a natural at crazy, unbelievable LOVE for my firstborn, but I was clueless about babies and the care of them. I was really clued in on skincare, shopping and traveling. He didn't really care to hear me talk about that when I was rocking him each night.  Fortunately, he was and is the sweetest boy.  By the time my second son arrived I still hadn't turned pro at Motherhood, but surely there was not another Mom who loved her children more. Have I mentioned that I am an Expert at Laundry? I love it, I'm great at it. Lots of practice. I specialize in stain removal. Go ahead, ask me anything. Red wine and coffee stains FEAR me. I digress.

I really and truly thought that I would never love my career as much as I had. I called my career, Utopia.  No chance that I could love my company, my peers, my customers like I did in the video industry....what a shock that "my little purse thing" would become even MORE and an even better fit for me AND my family. I still have to work at balance. Maybe it's from just living and being older, but I've discovered you have to make keeping balance a priority!  I lean one direction too far sometimes and then I correct and lean the other.  I'll never have a magic answer and knowing that, I believe IS the answer.

Some people talk about how easy Direct Sales is. I can think of other words I like better...challenging, unbelievably rewarding, exciting, simple, flexible and fun!  It's funny, the easiest thing about becoming successful in direct sales is usually the one thing people resist the longest before becoming successful.  I did it too. You just resist the simplicity for so long...some of us finally have a breakthrough... You have to be an excellent follower before you can become a good leader.  So "my little purse thing" is going quite well.  I love what I do.. and I am starting to remember how to brag a little again and tell people about all the good things I have going on.  My definition of success?  Helping others achieve their goals, seeing someone pay a car payment or a mortgage payment or quit the day job they don't love, hearing their excitement when they tell me that the party they had went so well. I watch their progress...I cross fingers, I wish and hope, share and teach them and I close my eyes and pray for them. Seeing them discover that it's not really about the purses, it's about how to celebrate themselves and others......This is the good stuff!

If you'd like to know more about me, stain removal or my experience with Thirty One Gifts, I am happy to share!