Special Birth Days

I met a new decade last year when I hit 40. It was a special day and I was able to embrace it with friends and family. Birthdays are a fun time to celebrate our accomplishments, our uniqueness, and our own contributions to the world as we know it. Making the world a better place is something we can all do. So on your special day, reflect on who you are and who you want to become. Remember you don't have to change the world, just make a dent in your little corner.

My New Venture - JCO-Marketing

One of the things on my to do list for 2012 was to work on personal branding and start a freelance marketing business on the side. I've been working on my concepts and website and finally feel like it is ready enough to release. I consider this a landing page and mainly just a place to legitimize what I'm doing and claiming. I am hoping to do some professional development sessions, work with a few select clients, expand my knowledge of entrepreneurship, and make a lot of new friends along the way! Let's Bloom! Be the first to check it out - JCO-MARKETING.

20 Years and 4 Months Ago

He proposed...and I said YES!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Thank God for men like Martin Luther King, Jr. You don't have to agree with him or even like him. But he earned and demands respect. May we all strive to be more like the man that stood up for his raw beliefs and led a movement that gave us and our children a better world to live in. A man of true character and conviction.  Happy Birthday MLK!

• “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.” 
• “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
•  “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
• “Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.”

Does Your Teenager Argue With You?

Does your teenager argue with you?  Are they resistant to your ideas about grades, friends, and boundaries?  Take heart...disagreeing is a way children test their boundaries, learn what is and is not acceptable, and figure out how to resist negative peer pressure.  Listen to this news clip about a recent study. 

These Is My Words

I recently finished reading this LONG book.  Yes, I feel the need to say it was LONG since I read it on my Kindle and I had no idea how many pages it was.  Well, it seemed to take forever but what a good find.  It was 416 pages and I read every last one of them.  These is My Words is set in a time period that I would normally not be reading from I was proud of myself for sticking with it.  The book was written from Sarah's point of view.  A diary of sorts with entries of her journeys in a covered wagon crossing into a new land as a child.  She grows up to be a spitfire, good with a gun, woman who has seen way to much blood, evil, and killing.  But through it all learns the value of hard work, heartache, the gift of motherhood, and true love.  A touching story that will make you feel like you've ridden in a covered wagon and make you wish you could touch that old saddle bag just one more time. 

Are You Listening? I Mean REALLY Listening?

In 1954, Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote something that’s equally true and relevant today … There is an art of listening. To be able really to listen, one should abandon or put aside all prejudices, preformulations and daily activities. When you are in a receptive state of mind, things can be easily understood; you are listening when your real attention is given to something. But unfortunately most of us listen through a screen of resistance. We are screened with prejudices, whether religious or spiritual, psychological or scientific; or with our daily worries, desires and fears. And with these for a screen, we listen. Therefore, we listen really to our own noise, to our own sound, not to what is being said. It is extremely difficult to put aside our training, our prejudices, our inclination, our resistance, and, reaching beyond the verbal expression, to listen so that we understand instantaneously. That is going to be one of our difficulties.

Crazy Lady Pulls Her Son from College Prep School to Homeschool; Sources Say She's Lost Her Mind

Yes, we are homeschooling Tanner this Spring.  No, we haven't lost our minds. We've heard lots of questions so I thought I'd document some of them here and a few others for those of you who are wondering...

1. Does this mean you will let your son sleep until noon?  NO! Tanner has been waking up before 7:00 am his whole life and homeschooling certainly won't change this.
2. Did something bad happen at ACA to make you want to pull him out? NO. We love everyone there and they all love Tanner.   
3. Was he making bad grades?  No, not at all.  He was doing just fine.
4. When did you decide to homeschool Tanner? He approached us back in October last year and asked us to seriously consider it.  We started our talking, prayers, and research then. After several weeks, we agreed to support his decision if he wanted to try it.  We talked about it weekly and gave him many opportunities to change his mind.  He never wavered.  This is being led by him and supported by us.
5. You must be really smart to teach him all those hard subjects.  NO.  We aren't.  There are a ton of resources and people a lot smarter than us to teach him the content he needs through online classes, tutorials, live teaching, and CDs.  
6. Aren't you afraid he will become anti-social and forget how to socialize with others? LOL (anyone who knows Tanner will think this is funny).  NO.  Tanner was born a social butterfly and we couldn't keep him from being around people if we tried. He has friends all over the state and keeps in contact with them regularly. 
7. Are you going to homeschool your other two children, Davis and Macy Kate? NO. Even if "she" gives me puppy dog eyes and says "please".  The answer is still no.
8. Do you work?  How can you homeschool if you have a job?  Yes.  I have a full time job and I work from home.  I will be available for support but most of the course work will be self driven and accomplished online and through teaching resources.  We will grade papers and assignments after hours in the evening.
9. Aren't you worried about him getting into a good college?  YES. Isn't everyone?  Hopefully he will be able to take some dual enrollment classes his senior year so he'll be ahead of the ballgame. Homeschooling will in no way jeopardize his entry into the schools he is interested in.
10. What about his senior year...he'll miss out on all the special stuff they do at a real school.  Thus far we are doing this on a trial basis and plan to commit to this semester.  Then re-evaluate whether we will do it for his senior year or not.  But, if you were wondering, our homeschooling network has a full athletic department complete with many sporting events and choices, a homecoming (with t-shirts), and a very touching real live graduation ceremony. 
11. Why are you homeschooling Tanner, what does all this boil down to?
1. He seriously wants to try it and feels passionate about it.
2. He needs more academic support.  Traditional classrooms focus on content. Teach it, test it, move on.  We will focus more on content mastery.  He'll move on once he understands and tests well on the subject matter.
3. He has a lot on his to do list that can't be done sitting in a classroom 7+ hrs a day.  Homeschooling will allow him to complete all of his core curriculum and learn about a lot of other things that interest him. i.e. internship travel, mission trips, golf, professional development.
4. What's the harm in trying something new?  Maybe it will be a good thing, maybe not.  But nothing ventured, nothing gained.  He can go back to ACA his senior year if he wants to.

Training for a Half Marathon

Last year I vowed to run my first half marathon and I did. This year, I plan to do another one. When I mentioned this to David he quickly (a little too quickly) found us one. IN 4 WEEKS! Sure, easy for him to say he's trained up to 8 miles 3 times a week. I'm barely up to 4 miles...so can I do it is the question!

So for now I'm training for my next half marathon. I'll keep you posted.

Self-Talk or Voices In My Head?

In my search for answers about self-discipline, giving something up, and internal fighting I found a neat article. Nothing earth shattering but I like what Marc Korn has to say on the subject. (I'm not endorsing him...he may be a bit over the top but I liked the article). Plus I liked his "wordle (you can make your own)" (pic below). I did laugh out loud about the "self-talk". I guess that should bring me some relief about the voices in my head ;). The article is filled with reminders of how to stick with it! Even when you don't want to!

Self - Discipline - Is it a Fight or Finding Balance?

Wikipedia says that Self Discipline can be defined as the ability to motivate oneself in spite of a negative emotional state. Qualities associated with self-discipline include willpower, hard work, and persistence.

One question...is that the same thing as your heart fighting with your head? Yes? Then why didn't they just say that?!

Have You Ever Given Something Up?

What was it? I don't mean given up some old clothes to Goodwill or a few bucks to a homeless guy. I mean REALLY given up something? Something that meant A LOT to you. A relationship? A bad habit? A large sum of money? How long did it take you? Everyone is talking about new beginnings, forming new habits, resolutions, yada, yada, yada. I have my own list of plans for 2012, but to get there sometimes we have to let go of things or people. Not a fun process. Nothing fun about it. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't bring you joy. It hurts. It's tough. (refer to pic below) Your mind and heart can just get stuck.

I've often heard 21 days can form a new habit or break an old one. I wonder what happens in that 21 days. Do you become less interested in what you are giving up? Do you hurt less or wonder less about it? Or do you simply get busy with other things and the memory fades away. OR is it about training your mind and body to accept something new...different? I wonder when in that 21 days when it gets easier to live without the "it" you are trying to give up. I would think that when you are doing it for the right reasons it would be easier. But is it? Like breaking a bad habit, you know good will come from it so that would be comforting. Or like giving up a relationship that is flawed. When does the peace come? Where does it come from? Who came up with this whole 21 day thing anyway? What do they know?

No answers here today, friends. Just lost in rambling thoughts...

Are You Poking the Box in the New Year?

This week I was reading a friend's facebook post about the books he'd read in 2011. Paul B. Evans also mentioned he was re-reading Poke the Box. Because I respect Paul, I thought it was worth looking into. Thanks, Paul for the inspiration!

I just didn't get it until I read Seth Godin's self-proclaimed manifesto - "Poke the Box". I wasn't sure what the title meant. It didn't take long though. Seth reminds us to poke the box and see what happens. What is the quick read about? Well in short...

• Don't have a meeting about the box.
• Don't create a committee to brainstorm about the box.
• Don't analyze the box.
• Don't examine the box.
• Don't write a business plan about the box.
• Don't tell your friends and colleagues about the box.
  
• And don't compare the box to the other millions of boxes on the market.
• POKE it! See what happens.
• Do it!
• Start NOW!
  

So read it (a breezy 80 something pages) OR if you are short on time, go to his website and read his mantra...Go. Make Something Happen. A real swift kick in the pants if you have a lot of ideas, energy, and are waiting on permission or looking for someone to validate you and your ideas about what you'd like to do with the box. Happy 2012!