Commercial Break

It seems it's that time again...time for a break. It's been a particularly busy time for the three of us and is only looking to get busier. We've decided a short blog break is due so we'll be taking two weeks to get some things out of the way and to be inspired* with awesome, new and lovely posts for you Lovely Readers.


Sincerely,
Megan, Miri and Lindsey



*Of course, this gives you all plenty of time to write in with a guest post as well! You know we LOVE to hear from you!

Saturday Snapshot: My Hero

"As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary."
Ernest Hemingway

Frivolous Friday

It's been one of those weeks; crazy busy, situations popping up that require immediate attention, dealing with things in life that are decidedly un-lovely. You all know how it is. So today I'm sharing a few frivolous links, a few things I came across on the internets this week that made me smile and I hope they do the same for you.

And now, on with the frivolity!

I am in love with these prints from Flowers in May...especially the Paris one.

I also love this image:
from Keep Calm Gallery. What a lovely goal to be reminded of.

For those of you not wanting to focus on the happy, here's a playlist entitled, "Wallow in Sadness." Everyone needs to wallow sometimes and that music is sure to help you wallow in style!

Fellow Reader/Blogger/Friend, Annie had a silly weekend last week. Has your toddler ever inadvertently gotten your TV stuck on the Spanish channel during a viewing of "La Chica Uncensora?" Silly, right?

This website is a waste of time...but it's totally and completely worth it.

I Promise Myself...

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind...

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.

To be enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements of the future...

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticise others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Christian D Larson
"Your Forces and How to Use Them" 1912

Family

Sometimes my family drives me crazy. That's a pretty normal thing, I'm sure. On the other hand, most of my happiest memories involve a family member.

Take a minute to think about some of your happy memories. Do you ever realize how happy you are in the moment? It is so easy to not notice moments like that because they are so normal and simple and common, but those can be some of the best memories. You could just be sitting around the table after dinner talking and laughing and remembering silly stuff or lounging around on a perfect Sunday afternoon...even a trip to the store can become memorable.

I took a friend to do some sight seeing this weekend and we stayed the night with my grandparents. My aunt (my mom's only sister) was also visiting so we got to hang out with her as well. It was so fun to watch and listen to my Grandad as he was telling stories about me to my friend - stories that I don't even remember all the details to and stories about things that were just between him and me. It was fun to listen to my Grandad and my aunt mention things about my mother that I didn't really realize we had in common (neither of us can make fudge). There are stories and memories and experiences that can only come from family...usually they are the most embarrassing*/funny/sad/touching ones in your life and, when I take the time to think about that, I am so grateful for my family.

All of those experiences and connections are what help to make me a lovely person. They keep me happy and humble and grounded. And the best part is, family is unlimited...the term can be all encompassing if you want it to be. Your family can include your immediate family members, cousins, close friends or even your aunt's neighbor's dog. It's a great thing. So don't discount the lazy days and shopping trips and boring Wednesday nights. There's always an opportunity to create a happy memory.



*I was going to include a photo of my family, but they are all pretty much in the embarrassing category, so we're skipping that part for now.

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway.

--Henry Boye

Queen of Your Own Life

On the Today show one morning last week, Kathy Kinney (formerly of the Drew Carey Show) and Cindy Ratzlaff were guests talking about their book, Queen of Your Own Life: A Grown-up Woman's Guide to Claiming Happiness and Getting the Life You Deserve--which is exactly what it sounds like. These women have decided that it's time for them to take control of their own happiness and get out of the negative patterns they've been living for most of their lives.

I thought this was really great. Women, and people in general, have a tendency to look to other people for their happiness--if you aren't getting enough recognition at your job, if you aren't going out on dates, it's easy to let those kinds of things determine your happiness. But these women have decided that they don't want that for themselves anymore.

"We weren't born knowing how to be happy, it's something we have to practice." This was said on the show, and I think it's an excellent point. There's something about the human condition that makes people gravitate toward negativity--complaining about a crappy job can be a bonding thing with your coworkers, or getting together with girlfriends and bashing all the terrible boyfriends you've had. It's true that these kinds of things can help connect people, but they're also bad habits that can really affect the overall quality of your life.

So instead of doing that, one of the ways you can practice being happy is to focus on all the good things about yourself and in your life. We've talked before about the power of affirmations and positive thinking, and the Queen of Your Own Life women are doing the same thing. They have this statement on their website:

Let’s pretend that a reality television crew followed you for 24 hours, recording everything you said, wrote and thought about yourself. Then they transcribed all of your self-descriptive utterances into writing and gave the list back to you to read. What kind of picture would emerge about you?...

Any time you catch yourself casting dispersions on your own beauty, strength, intelligence or abilities, stop. Think of new, positive words to replace the old ones. Here’s an example:

OLD WORDS: “Why can’t I figure out how to upload these photos to the online printer? I’m such a chowderhead!”

NEW WORDS: “Look at me, learning a new skill. Woot! My goodness I’m adventurous. Even though this is hard to learn, once I do learn it—and I will—there’s no stopping me.”

Positive speech is one aspect of their new lifestyle (and can I just say that I love the word chowderhead?), and it can really have a big impact. Like I said, we've talked about it before, but try it out--take some time and pay attention to all the little negative things you say throughout the day, whether you're kidding or not, and then make an effort to replace those comments with positive ones. Be nice to yourself, be nice to your coworkers, try giving people the benefit of the doubt. Focus on good things around you, and take charge of your own happiness.

This Queen of Your Own Life thing is a fun, slightly silly way to approach a serious change in your life. You can even have the official crowning ceremony if you want, like they did--if you're interested in doing that, you can get free certificates from their website, including a crown of arms. So have some fun with it, and whether you do the crowning ceremony or not, be queen of your own life--decide for yourself what your happiness will be, and don't let your circumstances dictate it for you.

A Different 10-10-10

Megan, Lindsey and I have all been involved in a 10/10/10 challenge for reading this year: ten books in each of ten different categories, to be finished in 2010. (For the record, it's been a lot of fun, and if you're interested you can check out our progress on this blog.)

But today I was watching Good Morning America and I found out about a different 10-10-10 system, based on the book of that name by Suzy Welch. It's a way to help you make good decisions by asking yourself three questions (or rather, one question in three parts):

What will the impact of this be in... 10 minutes? 10 months? 10 years?

If you think about it, there's very little that this system can't apply to. What college do I go to? Which job should I take? Should I buy this device I saw in a late-night infomercial? If you can envision where your options will take you in 10 months or 10 years, you'll make sure you're giving the issue enough thought and thinking about all the consequences of your decision.

Secrets

I came across this article a while back while browsing around the internets and I saved it for some reason. Now I look at it again and I think, "Why did I save this?" I can only imagine I had an idea for a post but I cannot, for the life of me, remember that idea.

The article is called "11 Secrets Men Don't Know About Women," but they are kind of non-secrets and I don't really agree with a lot of them. Like the first one, for example: "Women don't like explosions, in art or in life." I actually do enjoy a movie with some explosions from time to time, especially really cool, fiery ones. And number three is a throw-away: "We grow pathetic goatees and look awful in cargo shorts anyway." What does that even mean?

If this list hadn't been written by a woman, it would tick me off. In fact, maybe because it was written by a woman I actually am a little ticked off. It's cliche and totally generic, right? Except for number eight: "Our clothes are complicated, our shoes unforgiving, and our constitutions delicate, so please, valet park." No one wearing 3-inch heels wants to park in China and hike to their destination. No one.

Maybe I saved this article because it bothered me so much. Maybe I felt like if this writer could include in a list of "secrets" the following statement: "Women aren't as funny as men. We're often cleverer, frequently wittier, but to be really funny demands a certain clownishness that our grace just does not allow. It's fine, really it is"- if that's the case, then maybe the list should have at least been clever or witty- since it's, you know, impossible for women to be funny.

So I'm not sharing this article because it's clever or witty or particularly poignant, but because it annoys me and I dislike it and I want you all to dislike it as well. That's a fair enough reason, right?

Saturday Snapshot: Happy Easter!

Expectations

It's hard to keep yourself from having expectations. We expect things to happen and, for the most part, we even expect things to happen in a certain way. We anticipate an upcoming event and we create expectations for how that event will turn out.

Most of the time, for me at least, those expectations are pretty general. Thoughts like, "Everything will go well and run smoothly" and "I'm going to have a good time." Usually the general, wide spread expectations are more of a reassurance or a mantra to get me through whatever event is occurring. The problem I have with expectations is when it comes to personal relationships. Relationships with family, friends, potential boyfriends, co-workers, etc.

See, I am an over thinker. I think through every situation and all the possible outcomes before I ever reach the situation (that is, whenever I have the opportunity to do so). I talk things out with other people to try to figure out if my expectations are realistic or not, but there are always those little hopes and fears that sneak in and can quickly turn realistic expectations around. I really hate that I do that. I always think that my life would be so much easier if I just stopped over thinking things, not if I stopped expecting things to go one way or another, but if I just stopped thinking about those expectations until they became so drastically different from the possible real life outcome.

I guess my point is that we should expect good things, but expect them to come in their normal, everyday packages. Expectations can be exciting and can be the thing you need to give you that boost to do something daring, but building up unrealistic expectations can leave you dissatisfied with the good things that are real.