Can I just tell you that I have been getting excited lately about little things? My latest and greatest discovery has by all accounts, literally changed my life! What, you ask? It is a little gadget called the Swiffer Sweeper-Vac! We have pergo floors throughout the living/dining room and kitchen so I find myself getting down on my hands and knees either with a paper towel or dust buster on a daily basis. This beautiful invention allows me to get all the dust bunnies, crumbs, dirt pieces, and random chunks of food off the floor while standing up straight! On top of the swiffer cloth, there is suction to pick up the bigger debris. The past few days I have actually looked forward to sweeping the dust bunnies up although please don't expect that to last forever. (By the way, how can 3 relatively clean people create daily dust bunnies?- I will never know)
I also just had to share this picture with you of El. I love it because it has a couple of her favorite things and is just so her with her rosy cheeks, blue eyes, and her smile that we love. She adores Elmo and can't ever seem to get enough of the book, "Boom Boom" or "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". She is in her reading nook where we often find her when she is playing by herself and pretending to read the words to all of her favorite books. We are blessed!
I can clearly remember dreaming when I was little...I used to dream that I was an Olympic jump roper (is there such a thing?), an NBA basketball player (or WNBA nowadays), a professional beach volleyball player, and a teacher (mostly because I liked to write on the chalkboard). Three of the four of these were very big dreams for a little girl but I remember how real they were in my mind back then.
When I went to college, I really started to dream about how I was going to change people's lives and the eternal impact that I longed to have. This drove me to my majors: Christian formation and ministry and Bible/Theology. From the outside looking in this might have seemed foolish because it was costing a not-so-small fortune to put me through a Christian liberal arts college. Wouldn't it be better and more practical to become a business major or something that would look good on a resume? These are questions that I struggled with because although I knew that I loved my majors, I also knew that worldly speaking they may not be the best resume builders, but I didn't really care. Somehow I was still thinking that the Lord had a purpose for my doing what I did in college.
My post-college jobs were varied. I went from data entry girl at a Chicago mortgage company to Christian College Admissions Counselor. After moving back home to Colorado I was the program director for teaching children gymnastics and motor skills, then the personal assistant to the owner of a fitness club. By the end of this time, I felt like my dreams were dying; sitting at a desk doing different mind-numbing things, washing and filling his car with gas, and getting his daily tall, triple shot americano just wasn't doing it for me. By this time I was also Ellie's mom...which is truly a dream come true!
Out-of-the-blue, last summer I was invited to an Arbonne party that one of my friends was having. I knew nothing about Arbonne except that it was skin care and I hardly ever went to those in-home parties because I was a big skeptic. I decided to go just because I needed some time out of the house. For whoever knows me at all, growing up I was about as much of a tom boy as you can get. I didn't wear makeup until I was in college, my mom did my hair for me every morning until I was a sophomore in high school, and I just didn't care about "that stuff" in general- oh if only I had a picture to post. Anyway, I didn't purchase any products from the party that day but the lady doing the party, Margaret, talked about the incredible business opportunity with Arbonne and how the Lord was using it in her life and the lives of those around her. I went home, did my own research on all aspects of this business, and jumped in! It has caused a huge amount of growth in me already and I am dreaming big dreams again. This time though, my dreams are filled with visions that the Lord has given me about this enormous piece of art that tons of people are looking at in awe and the only words I have are, "It was all the Lord, I didn't really do anything!" This is the dream of the masterpiece I see Him creating in me and through this business He has given to me.
