Little Fingers

Today was a beautiful day.  The weather was nice, the sun was shining, and my family was hanging out together.  We hung out together at church; the kids didn't even pester each other during service today.  We hung out after church when Grandma and Grandpa came over for a late lunch.  We played baseball in the front yard, and I managed to not break any windows when I might have accidentally hit one toward the house.  As I sit here and write this, I'm getting a pedicure from my almost 10-year-old, who I'm sure will someday own a salon or two of her own.  

It's been a while since my babies have been little enough for this expression pictured here, but it honestly does seem like yesterday.  Speaking of yesterday, my 12-year-old son needed new shoes.  I looked down at his feet last week and thought his feet looked a bit smooshed in his shoes.  I felt them and sure enough his feet were completely smashed into his shoes.  He never complained once about it.  His shoes aren't that old.  If you're a parent, you know what I'm talking about.  So we went to get my little man shoes, and sure enough, they were a size and 1/2 bigger than he was wearing.  Good grief.  

I know you hear it so often when your children are born.  

"Your children will grow up so fast!"

"Enjoy this time.  It will be gone before you know it." As a young parent, you can't possible think past the first few months (or years!) that your children don't sleep through an entire night.  As adults we don't see the physical changes in ourselves like we see in children.  It really does happen fast.

What is a favorite memory you have of when your child(ren) had a growth spurt?  comment below.

If you enjoyed this post today, please share with a friend.  Maybe you're going through a similar time in your life and can relate to my particular brand of crazy.  Pass it on.  We're all in this together.  Be sure to subscribe to here the latest in my adventures, and you just might learn a little something, or at least feel not so alone.  Have a beautiful day, friends.

Time Stands Still for No One

We've all heard the phrase "Time stands still for no one." It's true, but on a rare occasion, it does seem to slow down for just a teensy little second, and then it is fast forward again. Those are the moments that we remember and they can define our lives.  It's often at the birth of a child or a wedding day. Sometimes it's when a child reaches a significant goal they have been working for, or maybe it's something that seems completely insignificant to others, yet is special to you.  Many times these moments are lost except in our own memories, but every now and then we are able to catch them with a camera.  When we are able to catch it, it can become a beautiful display of our lives and our love.

The picture above shows 1 expression done 3 different ways.   One thing that I love about Uppercase Living expressions, is that you are not limited to the layout that they are pre-designed with.  In these 2 examples, the expressions were actually cut in half before mounting them on the wall.  Since my expressions are made of individual letters (instead of printed on a clear piece of vinyl as some discount store expressions are), it is very easy to move them around before finishing the mounting process.  One would simply cut the sections apart before removing the backing and top sheets.  Another thing I love?  If you should happen to have an "unfortunate sticking incident," as I had one client tell me, I have a 90 day warranty on all my expressions.  Easy peasy.

Here's another example from a client what this might look like on a wall.  I love it!

What moments would you like to remember with a visual reminder like this?  Comment below.

How Do You Love?

My husband is a very patient man...and by very, I mean extremely.  This girl doesn't sit still for very long before I go do something.  That something may be write a blog post, study for my karate test, work on my book I'm writing, read through techniques for my karate test, read a book, work on stuff for my business, paint, practice visualizing for my karate test, oh, and do regular house stuff in there, as well as check on kids' school grades, etc.  It's not that he doesn't do stuff, too, but he is more of a homebody and likes doing things around the house (yay for super handy man husband!!).  I just happen to do all that stuff on top of working full time outside the home.  It's a lot.  I know.  I like to do a lot of things, not just to be busy, but because I just like to do them.  (I talked more about that here.)

Fortunately for me, my husband's love language is acts of service.  He likes to do things for people. That might look like dropping everything to go help a friend work on a car that broke down, or fixing a roof, or winterizing a swamp cooler, or whatever.  He'll just do it because that's how he shows you he loves you.  So yesterday, when he stayed home with my baby girl who was sick, he cleaned the whole house.  Yes, ladies, the whole house.  While it is tempting to think, "Wow.  He cleaned the house because it was in terrible disarray because you have been neglecting it, Jennille.  What kind of a wife are you?!?!" I can also just slow down, allow myself to be grateful and just say, "Thank you!" to him, and in front of my kids.  They need to see that and know what a great guy my hubby is.  It's not that he was doing their chores for them.  He was being incredibly helpful and supportive.  I tell my kids all the time that we are a family.  We are a team.  Daddy was just living it out.

I am so incredibly blessed to have the husband that I do.  His sweet momma raised him right!

If you are not familiar with The Five Love Languages, you can check it out here.  I don't get paid anything for endorsing them.  It has just been a very useful resource for us throughout our marriage.  In this crazy day and age where marriages are falling apart all over the place, every good tool that one can use is helpful, in my opinion.

How does your spouse show they love you?  Is it the same way you show love to them?  Comment below.

Are You Feeling Blue? Or Brown?

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ” Oscar Wilde is attributed with saying that quote (or Abraham Lincoln, depending on where you look for your quotes on the internet...I'm pretty sure ol' Abe must have said everything that is on the internet and it must be true because it's on the internet, right?).  Color creates feelings whether we want it to or not.  When we walk into a doctor's office that is painted warm tones, like browns, chocolates, and tans, it can inspire feelings of being welcomed, secure and solid in our environment.  Isn't that how you want to feel when you are seeing a doctor for a health issue?  I do.  How about blues?  Blues can evoke feelings of trust, calm, peacefulness, confidence, or exhilaration depending on which shade you choose.

There is such a wide range of emotions that colors can cause us to feel.  Even if we choose something light or neutral, it can still incite unintended emotions.  White can elicit feelings of innocence and purity, or sterile, clinical coldness.  So if you're thinking, 

"I don't want to choose a color, I'll just stick with white," you're still getting a color response.  Sorry.  It's just how our brains are wired to work.  Not to worry.  If you're local to me, I can come help you choose color for your space.  That's part of what I do.  (Did you notice the name of the blog??  Jen's Walls Talk...Hello??) If you are not local to me, then I can walk you through the process online or via phone.
What if you are thinking you want one simple color for your walls, and then pops of color here and there to make it feel personalized and homey?  Uppercase Living is perfect for that, too.  You don't have to repaint your entire house, you can just add a vinyl expression for a bit of color here and there.  Simple.  Here are some of the colors that are available:

See?  There's a little something for everyone.  Comment below with what emotions you'd like your home to give to your guests as they enter.

Keep Calm and Don't Listen to the Voices in Your Head

You've heard it before, and I tell it to my children a lot.  

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. 

It applies to taking the trash out or doing the dishes, or anything else we do in life, like being a friend or wife or student.  I wasn't feeling like I had done anything well on Tuesday night when I was told that I need to postpone my black belt test...again.  I've been studying like crazy for this test.  My ever so patient husband hasn't complained too much about my extra study time, and I do try to keep it out of family time.  Nevertheless, it is time consuming and can be stressful.

Then one of my beautiful friends reminded me that perhaps I should look at this from the perspective of being thankful to God for and even "befriending" the problems and stress of this process.  This test, while definitely a physically grueling challenge, is my opportunity to shine.  It's my chance to show the testing board how I've taken ownership of my techniques and katas. While strenuous, it should also be exciting, and a bit of a chance to show off what I have learned the past 6 years.  This is one of my dreams.  When I first started karate, I had no idea that I would end up working towards my black belt.  I was doing it to keep my kiddo company.  It wasn't long before I realized that I really enjoyed it.  Now I want to get my black belt and then pass on what I have learned to others.

This process is very hard, but I'm not giving up.  I'm learning to befriend the problem because I am growing and being stretched through this process.  I'm not excited to postpone my test one more time, but I know that when I do it, it will be for the right reasons and I will be doing it well.

What dream of yours stretches or has stretched you in your life?  Comment below.

P.S. You can now find me on Twitter @JensWallsTalk .  See you there!

Do You Love Your Business?

There are a lot of home based businesses out there.  There are a ton of great cosmetic/skin care type things, each with their own particular spin...pure & safe, fun & great smelling, animal free & organic. You name it, it's out there.  There are probably even more vitamin/nutrition type companies: pesticide free, liquid, inexpensive, good tasting, etc.  There are a zillion home care product companies, too. There are just a lot of different businesses that are easy to start from home.  But this one is mine.  

It's mine because it's me.  I love color and paint and words.  Years ago, before I found my business, I would put sayings all over my house.  I had a fancy calligraphy pen (that I didn't really know how to use very well) and I would write encouraging words ALL over the place.  One of my favorites was on my trash can.  It read "Let the crap of your past become the fertilizer of your future." Now if that's not profound, then I don't know what is.  Those little slips of paper were all over my house: light switches, fridge, mirrors, doors, trash cans, etc.  So when I saw Uppercase Living expressions for the first time, it completely clicked and made sense to me.  I saw these words and knew I had to have them.  This was MY business.  It screamed "Jennille!" 

The company has come so far in the last 8 years since I've been an independent demonstrator.  Who doesn't want to be part of something whose theme is "Inspiring More Lives Than Ever Before?" In the last year or so, I have continued to define how my business looks for me (thanks in large part to my FANTASTIC business/life coach).  She has given me some great tools and walked me through some super helpful exercises to help me grow and define me and my business.  Who knew you could grow so much just by talking on the phone? 

Long story made short, 2 key things have helped me to grow my business and be happy that I'm doing it: first, to realize that my business is me and that I love doing it; second, having some outside input to help me analyze what is working and what isn't. I'm a fairly intelligent person, but I still get stuck in my own head sometimes.  We all need a bit of help.

I'd love to hear about you business and why it's you.  Comment below.

In This Home

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I'm all about grace.  I am not a perfect parent, but I try every day to do better.  When I surrender to God's help, I do better because apart from Him, I can do nothing.  With His power, I offer grace to my kids.  I offer grace to my husband.

I love this expression pictured above.  Love is real.  Love is hard...really hard sometimes, but I choose to love anyway.  It is a choice.  It's a choice to give a second chance.  It's a choice to give a hug and hold my baby (who's almost 10-years-old now) instead of yelling at her for being mean to her brother again.  It's choosing to look past the symptom to the root cause that she is feeling left out by a friend at school.  I want my kids to respond to me the same way, and more often then not, they give me grace in return.  I don't deserve for them to be nice to me after being exasperated at the dirty state of their bedrooms.  That's why it's grace.

My husband reminded me last week to "respond how you want her to respond." Ouch.  I was expecting more of my child than I was wanting to expect of myself.  Double ouch.  Do over, please?  

Let's choose to love today.  Let's choose to offer grace to each other a little more and give a hug a little more often.  Let's do love.

I'd love to hear how your family shows grace to each other.  Comment below.