Remember to breathe....

I heard a joke once - "How do you eat an elephant?"  "One bite at a time." 

It's been running through my head for the past few weeks.  Why?  I've been packing our apartment and moving it, bit by bit, to our new home.  It would seem that, as small as our current living space is, it would not be difficult to pack up everything and move. I've moved A LOT with my family, as a single woman, and twice with my husband, but this one is wearing me out.  It should be a joyous time, I mean, I'm moving into my first home!  But it's been a huge source of stress, in all honesty.

I prefer to move like you're ripping off a Band-Aid. Fast. Pack it all up, put everything in a moving van, take ONE trip, unload everything, spend weeks unpacking.  It sucks, but it's over fairly quickly.  My hubby, not so much.  He would prefer to take everything from one room in the old place and then set it up where it needs to go in the new place. MULTIPLE trips.  Have I ever told you how I hate multiple trips? Ugh.  However, when you have a hubby that works 7 days a week and I am trying to balance my growing business, sometimes the less than optimal moving situation arises.

So, tonight we have a moving van. My hubby and a very cool volunteer from his work are going to load a lot of our heavy furniture and move it to our new home. My fun job today is to make sure everything is ready for those pieces to be moved and that we are ready to (finally) spend the first night in our new home.  I'll need to make sure everything from our bedroom, bathroom and kitchen are in place so that tomorrow morning there is no lack of stuff for the hubs to get ready for work and I have no lack of coffee! Doesn't seem like too much, except that I also had a huge number of orders come in last week, we won't have internet until the end of the month in the new house (thanks, Comcast!), and it promises rain tonight.  Everything added together is making my head hurt and dread today.  Seriously dread today.

But then one of my sweet friends posted this on Facebook:

 

Wow, did I ever need that. Remember to breathe.  Seems so simple, doesn't it?  But I completely stopped and took a deep breath when I read it. I took another one right now.  You take one - just stop, close your eyes and take a deep breath.  Feels good, doesn't it?  Take another one. Focusing on taking deep breaths can actually help if you're having stress or anxiety.  So I will take another, and try to focus on what REALLY needs to be done today.  I will allow everything else to fall by the wayside and make tomorrow's action plan tomorrow. And pray for no rain while the guys are moving today. And enjoy the fact that the moving process gets us out of a rental, and into our new home!

 

One bite at a time.......   ;)

My long journey to new furniture!

I have new living room furniture!  It was delivered yesterday into my spanking new house. And by spanking new I mean that the new living room furniture is the only furniture currently in our house.  We hope to move enough to be able to exist by the end of the week. It's boiling down to the end of this incredibly long chapter of my life (and my hubby's, too!).  I'm ready to start a new one! Let me tell you how we got here.

Approximately a year and a half ago, my husband and I started to seriously look for houses.  We toyed around quite a bit between building and buying a pre-existing home. Several insanely frustrating months and multiple failed contracts later, in the spring of 2013, we thought we were done for awhile. The process of home buying may be fun for some, but it certainly wasn't for us!  However, we came back to a half acre lot for sale that we originally didn't think would work, and decided the best course of action would be to build. In August of 2013, our adventure began. Here we are the day we became land owners!

I won't bore you with the details, but building a home is no picnic. And with my husband as the general contractor AND doing a lot of work to save us money, you better believe we've had our fair share of stressful days. I'm so grateful for the support, love and encouragement that my family and close friends gave me along the way - I really needed it!  This, in part, is the genesis of the Daily Joy Supply Co. We all need a little sunshine in our day - some days you need it, some days you are blessed to give it. And no matter how frustrating or hopeless or insurmountable the circumstance may seem, there is ALWAYS something in every day that can be celebrated! Take time for those small victories - create those small victories.  My husband, when he finds a penny will say: "Pennies lead to dimes and dimes lead to dollars!"  Well, small victories lead to big victories!    And now our big victory has been accomplished - almost a year later (the build was supposed to take 16 weeks....lol) our home is finished, we've closed and we're homeowners!  By the end of the month we should be completely moved in.  Here's my first house, with my favorite part - my purple door.

 

Which, of course, brings me back to my new furniture!  I feel like such a grown up. Most of my furniture is either old family furniture (nothing wrong with that, by the way) or garage sale finds (nothing wrong with that either), but it felt very fun to pick new fun pieces and choose the color and have it delivered!!  I'm sure my dogs will enjoy breaking them in. All of which has me feeling very creative. I have the perfect fabric to make throw pillows for one of the new chairs - I'm looking forward to surprising the hubby with it!  I'll be sure to take pics and share, let me know what you think!



Slow down and smile

Friends, I think I'm having a Ferris Bueller moment here.    What do I mean?  This:

(This lovely print can be purchased on Etsy, by the way, at one of my FAVORITE new shops, Lily and Val. You can link to them here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LilyandVal)

This is not meant to be a maudlin reminder, but a friendly one.   We are only promised today.  Stop for a minute and smile.  Take a deep breath - take several!  Sing a song. Open the door for someone.  Grant forgiveness. Enjoy your family and friends and tell them you love them!  Planning for the future is definitely important, don't misunderstand me, but if you keep waiting for some circumstance in your life to happen/change before you can be happy then you will miss many joyful moments that are happening today.

Celebrate something daily with a thankful heart!

Doggie love!

Well..... this was supposed to post yesterday, but I must not have scheduled it!  LOL  Such is my life.  Hope you enjoy! 

Today, I want to thank God for dogs.  They really make me happy. I am the proud mom of 2 rescued fur-babies, Wyatt and Dyson.  Wyatt is a Dachshund & Chihuahua mix, and Dyson is part Border Collie, part crazy.  I love 'em both to pieces!  Here they are!

Wyatt, my first baby!

                                                      Dyson, part Collie, part crazy! :)

As we speak, my hubby, our two boys and I are on our way home from vacation.  We get to visit my in-laws twice a year, and take our dogs with us.  (Hopefully they are sleeping peacefully on the trip home.  Say a prayer for us. [In a side note, we are home and the boys were great!])  My in-laws are big dog lovers, and have three themselves.  Junior, their most recent is a rescue.  My father-in-law saw what he thought was a fox running across the road.  When he stopped and opened the door to check it out, in jumps Junior! Super scrawny, mangy, underfed, Dad gook him home and he's been theirs ever since.  Junior is a hand-full, though, I'll tell ya that.  He has two speeds - "100 mph" and "stop".  He's hyper, a space invader and CRAZY!!! But I love that dog. So full of love, so grateful for his people, so happy.  I'm gonna miss that hyper dog!  Here's cousin Junior, how cute is he??  :)

Junior, at a slow moment in time.

 

Any of you have pets that bring you happiness? Share your pics with me and tell me how they bless your life!

Welcome to my World

I was watching the news the other day and was struck with the amount of negativity.  You see it everywhere, don't you?  News, Facebook, media.  We're bombarded with messages of dissatisfaction, encouraged to be discontent with our belongings, subjected to images and messages of inhumanity, hatred, poverty.  I thought to myself, I wish I could live in a world of positivity, encouragement, joy, love and cake. (Yes, cake. I love cake!)  Then I decided that I would live in that land, and share it with you.  So welcome to my world - I call it "Daily Joy Supply Co."

Daily encouragement, stories of positivity, reminders of God's love and gifts for you will be more "newsworthy" and expected here.  So will cool recipes to try, neat crafts and décor, my favorite things to see, visit or read.  And soon, a store with fun, handmade items to help you encourage someone, spread joy or celebrate life. Here, we will be grateful for everything, practice thanksgiving and find a reason to celebrate daily. Why?  Because the world can be an ugly place - but goodness, love, beauty and kindness ALWAYS win.

Welcome!!  Come, visit, stay, pull up a chair and a cup of java (or tea, or whatever...) and share. Glad you're here!