Mission: Possible

"Shoot For the Moon, Even If You Miss You'll Land Among the Stars." 

- Les Brown

There have been times when I've used this blog as tool of self-motivation. I've written about goals that I set forth to accomplish with hopes that, in fear of appearing a failure, I'd accomplish them. I've written about getting healthier by giving up sugar, about my goal to live a contented life by starting the Happiness Project and about all the things I planned on doing the summer of 2012. To be honest, I eat sweets like it's no body's business, I followed through with 3 or 4 months of the given outlines of the Happiness Project and I only went on 1 of 6 adventures I planned last year.

The outcome? I still want to eat healthier, I am happy, last summer was great and another one is just around the corner with new adventures waiting. Do I consider myself a failure because I didn't accomplish all my goals? Absolutely not. I consider myself better off for having made them in the first place because had I not made them, I never would have done the things I did end up doing.

There is one mission, however, that has been given to me that is non-negotiable. It began nearly eleven years ago this June. This mission, which I chose whole-heartily to accept, is where I find my entire purpose in life. The details of this mission weren't entirely clear to me when I accepted it and as I took it on its level of difficulty became clear.  At times, throughout this mission, I felt fear, fear that it was beyond me, that I was far from qualified. I felt inadequate to perform the tasks involved. I felt I was a failure already with so many goals still to accomplish. Then, I realized, I was inadequate, I wasn't meant to fulfill this mission alone.

It is the mission of raising my five children. Not just raising them, for people raise chickens all the time, no problem. They are born small, you feed them and they become full grown. Anybody can raise a chicken or a child for that matter. My mission is to form the souls of my children to "do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with their God." (Micheas 6:8) so that they will grow into like-minded adults.

I have a long way to go. When I had one child run in crying because her brother 'hit her on her back' and another child angry that her sister 'wouldn't play with her,' I thought to myself, 'do my children love kindness?' And again, the only thoughts towards justice I've heard lately are along the lines of, "Finder's Keepers!" and "That isn't FAIR!" And do they seem to be walking humbly with God? HA! Is any child truly humble?

But the truth is, where my inadequacies come into play, God's grace suffices to fill in the gaps.  In this I am entirely confident that my children will grow to retain the same great loves I am teaching them now: love for God, love for family, love for life itself, and love for truth. I believe that they will become what Christ called all of us to be, "wise as serpents, and innocent as doves." Are these lofty goals? Impossible? Not if my expectations of them remain high. I have seen first-hand that children will either grow up to our expectations or down to them, and so I plan on keeping them high.

The next 14 weeks we will be undertaking an intensive immersion of learning about and practicing the following virtues: faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. I will spend approximately two weeks on each virtue until they become part of the makeup of who we are as a family and as individuals. This will be our summer's spiritual adventure that will accompany all of the physical ones we will have together.

I plan on documenting our goals, and the means by which we put the virtues into practice. I am still fine-tuning the details so we will begin this Monday, May 13th. I pray for God's guidance in this mission, because in and of myself, I can do nothing.

I wish I wrote this on Saturday, National Star Wars day, so I could end by saying May the 4th be with you, but I will stick with gist of today's post and say simply, 'May the grace of God be with us all.' Good Night.

Gina.

My Happiness Project: The Little Things

Nine days into my Happiness Project I can honestly say I am a happier person. Let me review my goals:

1. Get more sleep. I can't say that I have been successful at this one yet. I have been going to bed an average of 1 hour earlier than before, but I have been about hour off of my goal of a 10pm bedtime. However, because I have been going to bed one hour earlier than my previous average I think this is an accomplishment in itself. I still have a hard time getting up with my alarm though and 'snooze' is still my friend.
2. Exercise better. I am happy to report I am making headway with this goal. I am still not as consistent as I want to be, but as of right now, every muscle in my body is sore to the core. I have been using the strength exercises of kettle bell with the play cardio of a rebounder (fancy lingo for mini trampoline).
3. Organize. This has been and always will be an ongoing task. I have discovered the joy of keeping a day planner. I have my phone numbers, bills, appointments, menus, and grocery lists all in one place. I have dropped off three huge bags off at the Goodwill, and have one in my room that I keep for whenever I come across something that I don't use, don't like or have to pick up too many times. When this fills up....away it goes!
4. Tackle a nagging task. I have been taking care of those nagging tasks (for me usually phone calls I dread making) as soon as I have the opportunity to do so. This, alone, has given me the biggest boost. In doing so, I have received two $150 refunds having to do with health insurance, I have an important appointment scheduled that I've been trying to get for 6 months, and I have a guy coming to fix our furnace.

All this, plus the fact that God has been smiling on the Pacific Northwest for the past week giving us the most unbelievably beautiful weather anyone can remember, along with the 'little things' are making me incredibly content and joyful.

These are some of the 'little things' that have given me happiness this week:

• I was rushing to get the girls and myself out the door this morning when I realized it was an hour earlier than I thought it was! Therefore, we were completely ready to go with an hour to relax!
• Sunny days in Washington are more beautiful than anywhere in the country. Because of all the rain, the air is clear and crisp and the sunshine is sparkling.
• After they went to bed Sunday night, two of my boys were arguing over who loved me more :)
• My furnace is fixed and since we've been huddling by space heaters for so long I feel like we are living in the lap of luxury.
• I had a great conversation with the old guy who picked me up to bring me to the auto shop to get my van back.
• I got my van back.
• A day after mentioning to my sister that I wanted to get some bunk beds for the girls' room, a friend sent me this text, "Do you know anyone who wants bunk beds?"

That last one was a major 'little thing'.

I have also learned that when you surrender yourself to God's will, he works in marvelous ways. That, I believe, is another key to happiness. Surrender.

Happy days to all,

Gina

Babies make me happy!

From Wildfire to Burnt Toast: My Happiness Project

From Wildfire to Burnt Toast: My Happiness Project

A Step in the Right Direction

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

I mentioned in an earlier post that my dream is to make a living as a photographer capturing beautiful moments and freezing them in time for the enjoyment of generations to come.  I didn't know how or when that would start, but within the past month I have stumbled upon a discovery that, although many have probably already known, was something new to me. It turns out that if you let your dreams and aspirations out of your head and heart, and into the world, something will happen.

To announce my dreams to others was always a fear of mine. I feared that if I let them made known and then never saw them to completion, I would be looked at as a failure.  But what I have discovered is that when our dreams are made known, others are more than willing to help you make your dreams a reality!

By mentioning my love for photography, and my desire to turn my hobby into a career to others, doors have been opened in ways I never imagined. Most recently, the staff at St. Mary's Academy asked me to do the school pictures this year. I was elated to say the least! My first real photography job! So with my far-from-professional equipment and some backgrounds I bought at the Goodwill, I arrived at St. Mary's on "Picture Day" full of excitement and anxiety. Excitement that I got to spend a day doing what I loved doing, and anxiety over the thought that I wouldn't be able to do it well enough.


I started with Sr. Bernardine Marie's class, the K-2nd graders. They were exceptionally cooperative! One by one, I had them climb up onto the stool, show me their grandest smiles, and hop on down. The middle grades, 3-5th graders, were next and were also pretty easy subjects, despite the fact that they had to sit very still because I didn't have the best lighting and couldn't use my flash on account of the undesirable dark shadow that would appear behind their heads.


Finally, the 6-8th graders. Is it possible that students become more immature as they age? They seemed to come with two goals in mind:  not to smile, and to act as if getting their pictures taken was absolute torture! Despite their resistance, I captured their smiles (or at least their 'trying-not-to-smile' smiles), and sent them on their way.

By the end of the day, I felt I had what it takes. A dream. That is all it takes. Well, a dream and the courage to share that dream with others. I won't make a dime for myself for the work put in to the final product, but I will have hopefully earned Saint Mary's enough money for the yearbooks (which I have been asked to help with!) and I earned experience, the most valuable asset of all.