April 29, 2017 · in addiction· balance· happiness· Inspiration· Life of a Wannabe· My Thoughts and Feelings· personal growth

Printed Books vs Ebooks: 3 Reasons Why Printed Books Are Better

“There is something wonderful about a book. We can pick it up. We can heft it. We can read it. We can set it down. We can think of what we have read. It does something for us. We can share great minds, great actions, and great undertakings in the pages of a book.”

~Gordon B. Hinckley

I remember when I first read this quote in the book Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes 16 years ago. Back before technology was such a huge part of our lives. I wrote this quote down in my notebook full of my favorite quotes. For some reason this really resonated with me. Standing For Something was actually the first book I ever really LOVED. Took me 20 years to realize how much I LOVED to read. Not just any books though, I craved TRUTH and understanding about life and my purpose. Reading that book sparked a deep desire to self educate and gain as much knowledge as I could. I’m always searching for more and little by little unraveling the mysteries of life.

Now fast forward 16 years and I see how much things have changed. The abundance of information we are presented with on a daily basis. It’s all so amazing yet so overwhelming.

As I pondered this quote, I was inspired to write this post and talk about the printed books vs ebooks debate and share the 3 reasons I feel we should choose printed books over ebooks.

#1 To be an example to your kids.

Lately I’ve been trying to be more conscious of how often my kids see me on my phone or the computer. Most of the time I’m working and being productive but for all my kids know, I could be doing the very same things they choose to do on their iPads and phones. Like playing candy crush or watching Netflix. I don’t want my kids to think I spend my time on mindless entertainment. I want them to see that I desire to learn and grow by filling my mind with valuable information.

So instead of reading books and articles on my phone I choose to read an actual book or play the audio version if possible so that my kids see me learning rather than assume I’m just playing Angry Birds or watching reality tv shows on YouTube.

#2 Too many distractions.

My phone and computer just has TOO many distractions. Remember that post I did about How To Balanced The Addiction To Social Media? Well the struggle is real. Once you pick up that phone and see those red notification numbers in the corner of your favorite social apps, you can’t help but check them? Pretty soon you’re sucked in and before you know it, you never actually made it over the book app or article you set out to read in the first place.

There are just too many things pulling me every which way when I’m on my phone and computer. Gotta check email, gotta buy something on Amazon, respond to this and that, shop for this and that and it’s just a never ending train ride that’s extremely difficult to get off.

#3 The ability to mark and add notes.

I don’t know about you, but I just love marking up my books, folding down corners of pages I like, and adding my own thoughts and notes to the margins. By doing this I’m able to easily refer back to different quotes and inspired thoughts that came to me while reading. I love finding sentences and paragraphs that speak to my soul and resonate with what I’m experiencing in my life at the moment. I have a wonderful collection of books that have made me a better person. I love to revisit them when writing my blog posts because often times I find something that is so well written that I can’t imagine writing it any better. Therefore I simply add it to my posts. Like Hinckley said, there is just something about an actual book. Such a profound way to connect our minds with others around the world and of different generations of time. And I also LOVE using actaul paper to take notes and write down thoughts. I much prefer that over typing it out. Something about looking back in my old journals and seeing my own handwriting. Brings me back to the very moment I wrote it down. Reminds me of where I was and how far I’ve come in this journey called life.

Pondering on the printed books vs ebooks debate and putting together these three reasons has actually motivated me even more to write my book and get it published as opposed to sharing it all on my blog. There’s just something about holding a book in your hand and flipping those pages that a computer or phone simply cannot replace.

March 10, 2017 · in extended nursing· motherhood· Natural Childbirth· personal growth

My Home Birth Story

With Owen’s 3rd birthday coming up I’m finding myself really emotional about the fact that I won’t be having anymore babies. The other night I was literally googling “tubal ligation reversal surgery”. I even suggested to Sean that maybe we should get my tubes “untied” and have another baby. He just looked at me and laughed…

Sean would have loved more babies but he knows me very well. In reality I can’t image going through another pregnancy and year of exhaustion from staying up all night with a baby. And Sean’s not so sure he wants to deal with the pregnant/sleep deprived version of me once again. I secretly resented him, and I think he may have sensed it.

So in honor of my last baby blues and closing that chapter of my life, allow me to share Owen’s home birth story. I’ll also add the birth video to the bottom of this post.

Owen is my 4th baby, but second home birth. The first two I had medicated in the hospital. My first experience with natural birth was with my third, Brooklyn, and to be honest, it was a lot harder than I expected. But I learned a lot and was able to have a much quicker labor with Owen. One of the things that really helped me was listening to hypnobirthing audios and reading the book Supernatural Childbirth. Preparing the mind for a natural birth is absolutely essential.

Owen’s Home Birth

I had just gotten home from getting a nice prenatal massage. I sent a text to my midwife asking her when she wanted to come over for our next and hopefully our last prenatal appointment. I was like most women in their last week of pregnancy, getting extremely anxious. She said she had just delivered two babies recently and needed a day to recuperate. So that night, I had it in my mind that I did NOT want to go into labor. Very different from every other night the previous week. It was about 11:30 at night, Sean and I were in bed watching a show together when I started noticing some light contractions. I thought they were just some Braxton hicks, but then they seemed to be coming pretty frequently. I thought, shoot, not tonight, of all nights, just not tonight. So I waited a little longer and the contractions continued to come. I got out of bed and started cleaning everything like crazy. Doing laundry, dishes, cleaned my bathroom, cleared everything off my bathroom and bathtub counters. I wanted everything to be perfectly ready just in case.

After I was done with that, I was going to try to get some sleep. Before I got into bed I went to the bathroom and noticed some blood in the toilet. I thought, Oh boy, this is really happening tonight. I began to time the frequency of my contractions and found they were coming about every 4 minutes. I went in to tell Sean. He had just barely fallen asleep. He got right up and was ready to go. We then preceded to get even more ready for our home birth. I sent a text to my midwife and photographer just giving them a heads up. I brought my fitness ball upstairs, turned on my essential oils defuser with lavender oil, Sean made me some tea, got my birthing audios playing in both the bathroom and bedroom, and filled the tub. We got some candles going, set up some seating, put cushions in the tub and outside of the tub, and got a bunch of towels out ready to go. I did my hair and put on a little make up too :). I had to look good while giving birth.

So finally I felt ready to relax and focus on labor. I first sat on the fitness ball for a while, just rolling my hips around. Sean was there by my side catering to my every need, getting me drinks, giving me massages, and just making me feel relaxed. This time around I wanted to labor more without everyone there. With Brooklyn’s birth I called everyone over right away and found it hard to focus on relaxing. So it was nice to be alone with just Sean and I for a while. I got to a point where I started shaking a little. I was trying so hard not to let fear into my mind. The contractions were getting more intense and I was beginning to fear the pain. I suggested we say a prayer together. I needed God’s help to keep me calm, and praying really soothed me. It was about 3am and Sean knew things were progressing fast so he called over my midwife and photographer.

I decided to get into the bath. I labored in there for about 20 minutes, then my midwife came. She checked the baby’s heart rate, then I asked her to check me. I wanted to see how close I was to 10 centimeters. She checked and I was 8 centimeters dilated. I was relieved to hear that and felt proud that I had managed the pain so well.

I decided to get out of the bathtub for a bit. I thought I might try some different positions, thinking the contractions would be easier. I first went to the bathroom, I sat there for a minute until a contraction came. It was so intense I felt the urge to push. I got up as fast as I could after the contraction was over and Sean helped me get right back into the tub. I knew I was getting close. I had about 3 contractions that were so unbearably hard I began to get discouraged. I was remembering Brooklyn’s birth and how I had to endure those hard contractions for a whole hour. I just couldn’t imagine having to do that again. Sean was amazing, he was coaching me and giving me words of encouragement. Then the next contraction came and I just had to push. As I did, Owen’s head came right out. I was so relieved his WHOLE head came out instead of just half way like Brooklyn’s did. This gave me a little break until the next contraction came and I pushed the rest of him out.

I was overwhelmed with happiness. Happy to be holding my baby boy after 9 months of anticipation. Happy that he cried and started breathing right away. Happy that the labor went so quickly and that our home birth was so beautiful. It was just all out amazing!

Right away we sent someone down to get Oliver and Lily. Oliver was too out of it I guess and said he’d be up in a minute. Lily of course came right up and was so excited. Oliver came up a little while after, took one look and went right back down to bed.

I felt amazing afterward. Our home birth went exactly how I had imagined it over and over in my head. I didn’t need any stitches. I loved that I chose to labor and deliver in my master bed and bath this time. I loved being in my own home. I love that my kids could be there so soon after. I loved getting to sleep in my own bed WITH my husband. A few of the many perks of a home birth.

At 6:00am everyone left and Sean and I got into bed with our little baby boy. I tried to sleep but wasn’t able to. I was on such a high. Brooklyn woke up at 7:30. Sean brought her into our bed. We didn’t say anything about the baby yet. She fell back to sleep for about an hour until she was awoken by little baby Owen crying. She jumped right up and said, “my baby”! I grabbed him out of the basinet and brought him to her. She was so adorable I wish I had it on video. She was all giddy and excited, just kept saying, “oh, my baby Owen, he came out”.

I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out. Love my baby Owen :). Thank you to my wonderful midwives Melissa and Heidi. Thank you to my incredible photographers Stacey and Corinne. And of course thank you to my most amazing husband Sean! I couldn’t have done this without you.

Here’s the home birth video. You might also like to see the longer version HERE. If you want to know more about his birth defect then check out THIS VIDEO I made recently.

November 6, 2016 · in happiness· Life of a Wannabe· Marriage· personal growth· plan of happiness

Attitude of Gratitude

One of my favorite talks on this topic is by Dieter F. Uchtdorf called Grateful in Any Circumstances. He breaks down how to not only count our many blessings, but to be grateful IN our circumstance.

“When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation. In grief, we can still lift up our hearts in praise. In pain, we can glory in Christ’s Atonement. In the cold of bitter sorrow, we can experience the closeness and warmth of heaven’s embrace.

We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?

Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges.

This is not a gratitude of the lips but of the soul. It is a gratitude that heals the heart and expands the mind.”

It’s about learning to be grateful even during the hard times. God gives us the commandment to express gratitude toward him in everything so that we might find peace and happiness. We learn to accept the trials and have faith that God’s plan is flawless and he knows what’s best for our ultimate eternal happiness.

We all know the negative feelings that come when things don’t go our way, when people hurt us. When life just seems to be unbearable. What we don’t realize is that our lack of gratitude is what keeps us heading down the dark path of despair. If we’re not mindful of our thoughts and allow the negativity to take over, it gets even harder to come out of it. It takes daily effort and contant prayer for us to focus on the good and create that abundance mentality. We’ve all heard the term, life is what we make it. We must not get lazy with our thoughts. Adapting an attitude of gratitude is the only way to true peace and happiness.

This even applies to marriage. Expressing gratitude more than expressing discontent or frustration is one way to maintain a happier marriage. We want to focus on all the good our spouse does, not the times he leaves his shoes and hats all over the house. I’m speaking to myself here.

So this month I’m going to really focus on creating an atmoshphere of gratitude in our home. I want to portray these important life lessons to my children through discussions and activities, starting with a gratitute tree. Each night at dinner we will try to talk about all the things that we’re grateful for that day. This will be a whole new blog post, so stay tuned for more pics on how we’re doing this.

Check out my YouTube video about how my faith was tested and I learned to trust in God’s plan for me (I shared this originally on Periscope, but uploaded it to YouTube, so it’s very casual, but very real and uncut). Be sure to subscribe to my channel for upadates on new videos I create.

February 10, 2016 · in happiness· Inspiration· Life of a Wannabe· Monthly Challenge· personal growth

February Challenge

14 Days of Loving Yourself

Thank you to my friend Heather who suggested that in honor of Valentines Day, we should focus on Self Love. I’m actually really excited about this and TOTALLY need to work on loving myself more.

To be completely honest, I lack confidence more than I’d like to admit. I struggle with self doubt due to the comparison game. I cannot seem to shake this one but determined to master it. I think most women can relate. One minute we’re feeling so confident and secure, then in walks a beautifully flawless women and suddenly you feel like the ugliest women in the room. This is what I do to myself in the blogging world.

February’s challenge couldn’t be more perfect for this time in my life. I want to love and appreciate my own unique gifts and talents. I want to be inspired by the success of others instead of allowing it to bring me down or make me feel inadequate. I wannabe CONFIDENT!

“You should never be the smartest person in the room. There’s always going to be somebody who’s smarter to learn from — and that’s a good thing.”

Jessica Alba

“Your piano teacher was right: practice does make perfect. “The best way to build confidence in a given area is to invest energy in it and work hard at it,” says Schwartz. Many people give up when they think they’re not good at a particular job or task, assuming the exertion is fruitless. But Schwartz argues that deliberate practice will almost always trump natural aptitude. If you are unsure about your ability to do something — speak in front of large audience, negotiate with a tough customer — start by trying out the skills in a safe setting. “Practice can be very useful, and is highly recommended because in addition to building confidence, it also tends to improve quality. Actually deliver the big presentation more than once before the due date. Do a dry run before opening a new store,” says Gruenfeld. Even people who are confident in their abilities can become more so with better preparation.”

-Amy Gallo

Do:

Practice regular positive self talk.
Say Exactly what you mean.
Stay away from negative people.
Let go of what you can’t control.
Be honest with yourself about what you know and what you still need to learn.
Practice doing things that aren’t always easy or comfortable.
Embrace failure! Failure IS success!
Stand tall and practice good posture.
Smile
Be grateful
Exercise

Don’t:

Worry about what other people think.
Be a people pleaser.
Speak badly about yourself.
Give up!
Be afraid to say “NO”.
Be afraid to say “YES”.
Focus on whether or not you have the ability, instead focus on the value you provide.
Hesitate to ask for validation if you need it. It’s OKAY to ask for honest feedback.
Be afraid to try new things.
Judge others, it’s a reflection of what you think about yourself.

Use the prompts below to participate in the challenge. Always use the hashtag #wannabeconfident so that we can connect with each other that way. If you have not done a Periscope before then be sure to introduce yourself and post your username in the Wannabe Balanced Facebook group.

1. Love Letter to Self (read daily)

Write a love letter to yourself. Be very detailed and write it as if God is saying these things to you. After all, God is the greatest source of love and we should be opening ourselves up to receive his love on a daily basis. So be sure to read this letter DAILY!

2. What are your Gifts and Talents? I want to hear what you know to be your God given gifts and talents.

3. Pamper Yourself, take a long bath with candles, give yourself a facial, manicure, pedicure, or go get a massage. Just do something that makes you feel good about yourself.

4. Go for a walk while saying positive affirmations. It’s always a good idea to be alone in nature and give yourself some positive self talk. Notice the beauty and thank God for all he has given you. Praise yourself for the challenges you’ve overcome, or the choices you’ve made that turned out to be a really good thing. Give yourself credit for a job well done and at the same time, thank God for guiding you and giving you the strength to endure.

5. Tell us about something you did that you’re really proud of.

6. Every time you look in the mirror today, give yourself a compliment.

7. Cultivate a morning routine that includes alone time with God. There’s nothing like the peace you find in the quiet hours of the morning. My day goes SO much better if I can wake up before the kids and have a little quiet time with God. I thank him for increasing my understanding and ask him to guide me as I go about my day.

8. What gives you purpose? What do you enjoy doing that gives you great satisfaction and fulfillment?

9. Exercise hard today! Push yourself extra hard to recieve the euphoric feeling that comes after a job well done.

10. Share a healthy habit you’d like to incorporate into your life. Could be something as simple as drinking an extra glass of water each day, or adding a new super food to your diet.

11. Enjoy the sunrise with positive affirmations. The sunrise is one of the most amazing things to witness. Most the time I’m too caught up in the book I’m reading, or my journaling that I don’t even look up to take it all in.

12. Share a recent “Tender Mercy”. What kinds of little miracles have you witnessed in your life within the last week? Are you noticing all that God is providing for you? A lot of times God answers prayers through the voice of another person.

13. Listen to happy music and dance. Oh how I love listening to music. It’s an instant pick me up. I’ve kind of created a ritual in my house. I love to turn the fire place on, light a candle, and play some music. It instantly lifts my spirit.

14. Happy Valentines Day!!!! Share a picture that best describes “LOVE”.

Please share this, heaven knows we ALL need it. Let’s help each other reach greater heights of confidence and self love.

October 7, 2015 · in personal growth

Let’s Get Social NOT on Social Media

I want to set a couple goals. I’d like to do something DAILY that is out of my comfort zone. I want to be more social and outgoing when I’m out and about. I want to pay attention to others instead of just focusing on what I need to get done. I’m generally a pretty social person. But what you don’t use you lose! Being a mom of 4 small children makes it easy to just stay home and work on the millions of things on my “to do” list.

Many of us, including myself, have gotten so comfortable communicating through a key board and we’ve become a little socially awkward. Don’t get me wrong, I love Facebook and Instagram. But lets keep the real life communication alive. Let’s type less and TALK more! Let’s get social, NOT on social media. So I want to get out more. Get back to my high school roots. I was a social butterfly back then and my mom could NOT keep me home. I always wanted to be out among people.

Reasons why I feel it is important to be social:

#1. We NEED people. We all have the deep desire within us to have relationships, connect with others, to love and to be loved.

#2. People need YOU!!! God has made us all unique with different gifts and talents that were meant to be shared. Maybe your gift is the gift of compassion, or understanding. Or maybe you’re a good listener. Maybe you have a story that other people need to hear. Perhaps what you say or do is an answer to someone’s prayer. I believe that most answers to prayers come through another individual. So how can we BE an answer to someone’s prayer if we are never around?

#3. It gives us PURPOSE. For the two reasons above, being social gives us purpose. We can wake up each day with the attitude, “who can I serve today?” Sharing a piece of ourselves with others is the way to true joy and fulfillment in life.

A few weeks ago I learned of this amazing new platform called Periscope. It’s a way to share messages via live video streaming. Another thing I’m not so comfortable with, is speaking in front of people. We all know that things get easier with repetition. So I feel like doing a Periscope video each day will help me overcome that fear, and to share the messages in my heart. It’s much easier to NOT blog and periscope, but that is not going to help me grow. Also, I will be missing out on the opportunity to share my story and gifts with others.

Ultimately my goal is to become the best version of me. And that won’t happen if I’m not pushing myself to do uncomfortable things.

So I want to challenge everyone to do this with me. This isn’t about ME, it’s about US. Lets do something uncomfortable every day!

I’d love to watch YOUR videos on Periscope, so please let me know if you are doing videos of your own so that I can be sure to follow you. This way I will be notified when you are live.

Printed Books vs Ebooks: 3 Reasons Why Printed Books Are Better

#1 To be an example to your kids.

#2 Too many distractions.

#3 The ability to mark and add notes.

My Home Birth Story

Owen’s Home Birth

Attitude of Gratitude

February Challenge

Let’s Get Social NOT on Social Media

Looking for something?

Stay Connected!

Welcome!

Subscribe To The Newsletter

You have Successfully Subscribed!