Monday is for Motivation

It has been quite the refreshing weekend with my wonderful husband! Although it was quite chilly, we still thoroughly enjoyed our lazy time at Virginia Beach! 

It is such a true blessing to be able to take small getaways like this...retreat into some true quality time together, and just some true relaxation time from the busy life of teaching for both of us. I got to spend time focusing on loving my husband better, and he deserves it. I certainly took some time to really be thankful- thankful for the love that God has given us and thankful where God is leading us. Slow days like these help me remember that we are far more blessed than we could ever begin to thank God enough for, and a life of thankfulness is the fullest life.

On another note, we indulged a bit this weekend (but not too much), and I am totally ready to jump start myself back to the healthy lifestyle that I love.

Two years ago I started my fitness journey- my senior year of college, especially around this exact time. Last year, I got so serious before my wedding and I truly felt happy with the place that I was at. Not only did I feel confident, but I felt healthy and balanced. 

And that is where I want to get back to, where I need to be, because I believe God wants us to honor him by taking care of ourselves. Recently I took on a part time job as a health and fitness coach through Beachbody, and I am so happy I did! Anyone who knows me well knows that I really can't stop talking about the health and fitness world when the subject comes up. I am just passionate about it, and I am so happy to be doing something that I am passionate about, and even more importantly, I get to help others find a passion in health and fitness as well!

I officially started the 21 Day Fix today. So many people have had great results with it, and I cannot wait to see how this program re-teaches me healthy eating and gives me the ability to work out every day with awesome at home workouts that are provided! I know it will take a lot of dedication, but I am willing! I'll be tracking my progress on here, or at least trying to, in hopes that it will keep me more accountable and possibly even inspire others!

Intention: Move more and make healthier choices- totally winning this one!

One last note: I love this quote because it is exactly what we tend to forget and what often discourages us from choosing a healthier lifestyle. The health and fitness world is often focused so much on physical results, but is that a sustainable mindset? Too often that leads to even less happiness with ourselves; focusing on our flaws and just hoping that, through our strained efforts, our flaws will go away. Remember, we are loved and accepted as we are, and committing to being healthier is really all about the inner and outer strength and feeling better. Feeling more confident with how we look is just a side effect, a pretty great side effect, but not the reason! My goal is to make my reason for living a healthy lifestyle of deeper importance than outer appearance. 

Anyone wanting to set health and fitness goals for 2015 and find the best ways to actually follow through with them? I'd love to help you along your journey! 

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Thinking about Goals | Be Intentional

For me, January usually comes unwelcome. I love the holidays, I'm basically a Christmas baby, and I even enjoy NYE. Nick and I have a fantastic tradition of spending it at this hometown bar with my family and a bunch of old people (we aren't the partying type). Just kidding any of those "old people" that might be reading this: You're not old...you are way more fun than most of the people I know! 

This year may have been my holiday season because I got to spend it married to my best friend, and I got to spend time with my family which takes on a whole new meaning now that I live far, far away.

But then January came without knocking, and Nick and I quickly rushed home to get back to "real life." I was sadder than usual to say hello to January...but with a new year always comes the hopes for new, good things as well! Being the completely unorganized person that I am, January usually comes with setting new goals to become a better me! I like to set a ton of goals, typically, and then fall through with most of them (I don't like the second part, it just happens). Each year feels like a brand new opportunity to become the absolute perfect version of myself...the very thing that I completely failed at the year before (and the year before that, and so on). At this point, I'm really sick of putting super high expectations on myself and then nearly always falling through. I want to be more organized, I want to be a better teacher, I want to write more, I want to find a way to be more involved in the world of health and fitness, one of my passions, and I want to, most of all, be a better wife, sister, daughter that seeks God first. And I want it to happen all at once. Honestly, though, sometimes I want these things selfishly. I want my life to be an interesting and adventure packed book that others couldn't help but read. But the message I want them to get by reading it, that's where I usually go wrong. Sometimes, I selfishly set goals and deep down I hope I will look better and impress others. My intentions go awry, really, when I set goals for myself.  So this year, instead, I decided I want to be intentional. As I wrote down my goals this year, I decided I wouldn't set goals at all, but rather intentions. And the biggest intention of all, is through following these goals, or intentions, and keeping myself accountable, I want to be what God made me to be. I want to write a book with my life, but I want the message to be all love.  It has been most important that the intentions I set for myself and the story I am writing has the direction that God is leading me in mind. And can I just tell you, these intentions have been so much easier to follow than any new years resolution or stringent SMART goal. These intentions have wiggle room. They don't put me down when I get them wrong. They include a little bit of grace within them. Because I am continually keeping in mind that I can't achieve them on my own. And if I don't prayerfully rely on God, I can expect to fail, but I can also expect a million second chances.  So here is my list of personal, full-of-heart intentions. I know we're about halfway through January, but just remember that the start of the year is honestly just another day. It feels symbolic for a clean slate, and I love symbolism, but you can start at any time. You can have a clean slate on any day, at any hour.  My 2015 Intentions: 1. Seek God. Listen. Read about Him. 2. Serve and love my husband better. 3. Move more and make healthier choices. 4. Be a better organized teacher- but do it because it means you are loving your students better, not because you feel like people around you are watching/ judging. 5. Enjoy and cherish time with family. 6. Make a new friend. Or two or three. 7. Enjoy my new (and most likely temporary) home while it lasts. And there you have it. I can pretty much say that I've been consciously taking steps toward each of these intentions from the beginning of the year. I have been slowly falling into them, though, because going full force ahead usually means falling full force off of a cliff. And really, I like where I am, I like the grace I'm giving myself, and falling off a cliff usually does some damage.  Just a little note: Of course there is a time for measurable goals. I make measurable goals basically every day. I just don't want to measure out a whole year in ceaseless striving. I want to measure it in love and grace.

A picture of some family cuddle time...definitely a great way to follow a few of my intentions!
How do you set your goals or resolutions or intentions for the year? What is most important to you in 2015? P.S Don't miss a post! Follow me on bloglovin or get my posts sent to your e-mail!

When I Grow Up...

What do I want to be when I grow up?  Who do I want to be when I grow up?
I believe that as we grow,  our passions grow, and sometimes they change. I can say that through the years mine have clearly changed. I went from hopeful future marine biologist (I was determined about that one) to hopeful future English teacher within about a year. Today…four years since that change happened, I'm still a future English Teacher…and sometimes I'm still hopeful about it. I talked about how hard it is for teachers to find a job before, and I can't stress enough how frustrating it has been. 

Some days, I don't think I will ever be a teacher. Partly because I can't find a job, and partly because I haven't actually taught in almost a year, and it is easy to forget that I love it. It is easy to think about how hard it is to find a job, and then how hard teaching is once you're in the job, and it's just too easy to think I don't even want to do it, anyways. Yesterday, though, I got to teach (almost), finally. I am going to be a teacher…for after school reading and writing classes. It's only part time, it isn't much, but it is something. And yesterday I trained, and I got to work with students, and it was right where I needed to be to remember that when I grow up, I want to teach English. But to me, it isn't about the teaching, but it is about being involved in growth and making students feel like they matter. It's about inspiring students to be all they can be. I hope that will be tomorrow, or next week, or soon at least. But if it isn't, there's a reason, there must be. There are other things I want to do, too. 

A Beautiful Ring and the Great Gatsby | Our Engagement Story

Even though my wedding came and went before I could blink, I still love weddings! I love talking about Weddings, I love giving advice about wedding planning, I love hearing others' dreams about their own weddings, and I LOVE going to weddings (come on, friends, get married!)

Last Friday, I wrote about my thoughts on newlywed life after three months of marriage. After that post, I decided it's time to talk a little bit more about our wedding. 

But before we talk about weddings, I feel like I should talk about our engagement (we have awesome photos for that conversation, too). So today will be all about our engagement story.

Three Months Later...Plus, Our Wedding Video.

It's not quite three months yet (on Sunday, it will be), but what a true adventure it has been! I have been wanting to share my wedding video on the blog, but wanted to write something along with it first.

For some reason, for me, marriage has been hard to write about.