Becky's Nook

A new year is a great time to reset your body clock, re-calibrate your settings, and re-chart your life course. There’s something motivating about using a fresh calendar to make new goals in your life. Take a moment to reflect on the past and look forward to a healthy future!

Healthy Lifestyle Tip: The Gift of Reflection

Reflecting on the past year is a good way to clear the path for the new year. Reflection allows us to let go of the restraints that can hold us back and think of new strategies to move forward based on the strengths associated with our accomplishments.

The benefits of the end of the year review offer us “lessons learned” from those situations that may have not turned out as we might had hoped and those that did. Something is always working in our favour – we just need to discover what it is.

Here are 20 questions that can get you started on your end of year review:

• What were my resolutions or goals for 2011?
• What were my greatest accomplishments for 2011 that I am most proud of?
• Now, what was one more?
• What are the actions I took to achieve these accomplishments?
• What strengths enabled me to be able to take these actions?
• How can I apply these strengths to move forward in 2012?
• What did I intend to do in 2011 that did not get done?
• What were the biggest challenges or barriers I faced in 2011 that contributed to not accomplishing everything I wanted?
• How did I deal with each of these?
• Where do I get my strength to overcome barriers?
• How have I grown from these accomplishments and challenges?
• What am I most grateful for as I reflect back on the year?
• What have I learned?
• Who are my greatest supporters or support systems that I can rely on as I move forward?
• How can I show my gratitude and appreciation to those who have supported me?
• What would I like to be different in the upcoming year?
• What would it feel like to experience this difference?
• What am I willing to do to make this change a reality?
• What barriers do I anticipate and what strategies can I put into place to overcome these barriers?
• What is the first step I need to take to get closer to my goals?
  

We wish you health and success in the new year.

 

Begin Each Day Begin each day with this question: “What am I going to do today that will make the best use of my time and energy, and lead me a step closer to reaching my goals?” During the day, each time you are faced with a decision, ask yourself: “Does this action substantially help me toward achieving my goals?” Before you leave your workplace or before you go to sleep at night, make a list of your most urgent priorities for the following day in order of their importance. You might consider dividing your activities into A, B, and C lists: A is for action immediately B is before the end of the day C is can wait until tomorrow Become aware of interruptions and distractions that block your success. Constant telephone calls are the most common. Spending too much time on reading and answering personal e- mails is another problem. Chatting with co-workers eats up more time. Messy files, disorganized scheduling and cluttered desks are roadblocks. Take an objective look at your routines and habits. And then take action! Until next time, keep following your A, B and C’s!

I read this story today on facebook and thought i would share!! Makes you realize how instantly life can change!!

 

I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw a Cashier hand this little boy some money back. The boy couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old. The Cashier said, “I’m sorry, but you don’t have enough money to buy this doll.” Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him: ”Granny, are you sure I don’t have enough money?” The old lady replied: ”You know that you don’t have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.” Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look a round. She left quickly.

The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand. Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to. It’s the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas. She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her. I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry. But he replied to me sadly. “No, Santa Claus can’t bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.”

His eyes were so sad while saying this. “My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.” My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at me and said: “I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.” Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me “I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won’t forget me.” “I love my mommy and I wish she doesn’t have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.” Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.

I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. “Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?” “OK” he said, “I hope I do have enough.” I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money. The little boy said: “Thank you God for giving me enough money!” Then he looked at me and added, “I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!” “I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn’t dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.” “My mommy loves white roses.”

A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket. I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started. I couldn’t get the little boy out of my mind. Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma. Was this the family of the little boy? Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away. I couldn’t stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last wishes before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest. I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed forever. The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

 

TEACHER:    Maria, go to the map and find North America .

MARIA:        Here it  is.

TEACHER:   Correct.  Now class, who discovered America ?

CLASS:         Maria.

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TEACHER:    John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?

JOHN:          You told me to do it without using tables.

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TEACHER:  Glenn, how do you spell ‘crocodile?’

GLENN:      K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L’

TEACHER:  No, that’s wrong

GLENN:       Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

(I  Love this child)

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TEACHER:   Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?

DONALD:     H I J K L M N O.

TEACHER:   What are you talking about?

DONALD:    Yesterday you said it’s H to O.

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TEACHER:   Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn’t have ten years ago.

WINNIE:       Me!

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TEACHER:   Glen, why do you always get so dirty?

GLEN:          Well, I’m a  lot closer to the ground than you are.

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TEACHER:     Millie, give me a sentence starting with ‘I.’

MILLIE:         I  is..

TEACHER:     No, Millie….. Always say, ‘I  am.’

MILLIE:         All right…  ‘I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.’

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TEACHER:    George Washington not only chopped down his father’s cherry tree, but also admitted it.

Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn’t punish him?

LOUIS:           Because George still had the axe in his hand….

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TEACHER:    Now, Simon , tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?

SIMON:         No sir, I don’t have to, my Mom is a good cook.

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TEACHER:       Clyde , your  composition on ‘My Dog’ is exactly the same as your   brother’s.. Did you copy his?

CLYDE  :         No, sir. It’s the same dog.

(I want to adopt this kid!!!)

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TEACHER:    Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer  interested?

HAROLD:     A teacher

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Do you have a formula written down for how you want to achieve success?
Do your family and friends support all of your endeavors to be successful?
What do you feel are your biggest challenges?
Would you like to be your own boss?
Would it be nice to have more freedom?
Do you have children? If so, how many? Do you enjoy quality time with them?
Please excuse me for asking so many questions but I like to get my readers thinking because thats a good thing. Long before I ever knew how much I could reach out to people and help them, I’ve loved to ask questions of people just to get inside of their heads and get them to thinking about their life.
Success for some people is just having a good career, nice house, beautiful family, and little or no debt, but the question is how do they get there?

I honestly think it may have alot to do with our upbringing. Parents are our first teachers. It is my firm belief that some part of success is learned, and if our family struggles, most likely that is how we end up. When do we change the cycle though? What does it take to make things different for our future than how we were brought up?

Success to me is not just what we achieve but the road we take to get there. Its all the wonderful people we meet and relationships we create as well as trust. Its the way each new step towards the ultimate goal feels like the world. That is better than any other feeling. I can honestly say that in the corporate world I never felt the kind of success that I feel now working from home with my own business, setting weekly and monthly goals, and being nearer to my family.

What steps are you taking to be successful?

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That all women are created equal -
but each is blessed with different gifts and talents.

That all women are endowed with certain individual rights -
but each must assume shared responsibilities.

For the happiness of all
depends on the commitment of each
to support equality and individuality,
rights and responsibilities.

We declare all women to be mutually interdependent -
banding together to support one another,
sharing our experience, strength, and hope,
that all may enjoy life, love,
and the pursuit of laughter.

We agree to encourage one another in tough times
and celebrate in good times.

We commit to taking turns leading and following,
inspiring and teaching,
listening and learning.

We agree to give credit where credit is due -
including us.

We commit to loving ourselves first -
because we can’t give what we don’t have.

With this Declaration of Interdependence,
we set ourselves free -
free from old beliefs that are no longer true,
free from self-doubt, insecurity, and loneliness,
free from self-imposed perfectionism.

We set ourselves free -
heeding our intuition in all her guises,
loving our bodies through every change,
finding our voices to speak our own truths.

We set ourselves free -
to create fulfilling work,
to form nurturing families,
and to build great friendships.

We are strong;
we are beautiful;
we are generous;
we are wise.

We are women -
committed to creating
a world that affirms us all.

Thanks to Pamela Crim at the Smokin Hot Mama Club for this post!

I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy. Here is the first part: ants never quit.That’s a good philosophy. If they’re headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they’ll look for another way. They’ll climb over, they’ll climb under, they’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you’re supposed to go.

Second, ants think winter all summer. That’s an important perspective. You can’t be so naïve as to think summer will last forever. So ants are gathering their winter food in the middle of summer.

The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, “this won’t last long – we’ll soon be out of here.” And the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they’ll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can’t wait to get out.

And here’s the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the “all –you-possibly-can” philosophy.

Wow, what a great philosophy to have – the ant philosophy. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.

These are the incredible words of one of my role models, Jim Rohn.

In this life I’m a woman. In my next life, I’d Like to come back as a bear. When your a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, your suppose to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.

When your a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while your sleeping and wake up to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definatley deal with that.

If your a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. you swat away anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If your a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.

YUP, GONNA BE A BEAR

Saw this on FaceBook and had to share!!

 

 

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the p…hone?’
Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I’m invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more! Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this??
Some days I’m not a pair of hands; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’
Some days I’m a crystal ball; ‘Where’s my other sock?, Where’s my phone?, What’s for dinner?’
I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history, music and literature -but now, they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!
One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. She had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when she turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘With admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’
In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: 1) No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names. 2) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. 3) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. 4) The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.
A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.’
I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was Almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does.
No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.
I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.
When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for 3 hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, he’d say, ‘You’re gonna love it there…’
As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.
Thank you to all the Moms who are looking down and smiling at the cathedrals they helped to build.
Share this with all the Invisible Moms you know.
The Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.
To all the wonderful mothers out there!! God bless and keep you