Wonder Women

Wonder Women: Meet Mary

my13daychallenge

Have you ever met some one who is brave, bold and humble all at the same time? I haven’t met her, but I’ve read her psalm in Luke 1: 46-55.  Meet Mary. She was a Wonder Women.

Mary and Jesus

Mary was born in a country that was occupied by a foreign army. She had her life planned out and a visit with the angel changed her and the world forever. Mary rode a donkey when she was expecting. She gave birth in stable and soon fled with Joseph to Egypt. She raised her son Jesus and then let him go so he could fulfill His mission. Her sorrows were many. Her joys were many. Mary’s  humility and courage stand as a witness of her greatness. She is a model for all Christian disciples to follow.

Challenge 13: Relax · Musings

Putting up the tree

my13daychallenge

100_4059

Christmas trees are beautiful. They also take time to put up. That’s why my Christmas tree is still in the box waiting for me. My newest challenge is to set up the tree before Christmas Eve. It’s a worthy goal and I’m sure I can accomplish it.

I thought about putting up the Christmas tree two times last week.  Each time, I found something else more important to do. My dishes got done. I wrote a bunch of cards to people.  I started thinking about why I wasn’t putting up the Christmas tree.  So, instead of putting up the tree I did some research on procrastination. The theory I found most fascinating was the Temporal motivation theory. There was little equation and tons of writing all about it. Here is the gist of the theory. If you aren’t motivated to do something, you won’t do it.

Is my tree put up yet? Nope, but I do feel smarter for having spent my evening doing research.

 

Wonder Women

Wonder Women: Meet Josefina

my13daychallenge1 Comment

 

Josefina

Josefina loved music. As a child, she imagined that she could play the piano. Whenever she had a chance to sneak away at Church or at a friend’s house she would pluck out notes on their piano. Josefina’s family did not have extra money for lessons, but that did not stop her. She studied piano books on her own and dreamed about playing. After high school, Josefina decided to take an introductory piano class at the community college. Josefina described her first day of piano class in this way. “I was nervous, but I knew I could learn something easier as an adult.  I had already had life experiences to use as a guide. I knew I could work hard and be motivated”. Josefina did work hard. She practiced using the college’s piano practice rooms for hours every week.  She took additional piano classes and soon found herself being able to play the songs she imagined as a child. Today Josefina teaches piano and shares her love of music with her family, friends and students. When she meets an adult who thinks it is too late to learn something new, she tells them her story. You are never too old to learn something.

 

josefina and fam

Josefina is a Wonder Women.

Challenge 14: Gratitude

Gratitude

my13daychallenge

This month I gave myself a gratitude challenge. Each morning before I went to work, I wrote down one thing I was grateful for on that day. The rule was that I couldn’t repeat things. At first, it was easy. I like food and I can be grateful for that. My family is awesome. My faith in God is important to me. Butterflies are pretty.  Then it got harder and the days kept coming. By November 15th, I felt like I had found every known blessing on planet Earth.  I was done saying all the typical things I normally recognize as a small blessings. I had to start looking harder. Guess what I discovered? Green arrows that let you turn left at busy intersections are really a blessing. When you hear your favorite song twice in one day, you can write that down on your gratitude list for the next day.

Today is November 30th. It’s the last day of my gratitude challenge. When I woke up this morning, I had a funny thought. I was grateful that this was the last day that I had to find something to be grateful for.  I laughed pretty hard about my little thought, and then I decided that I was grateful for toilet paper. Life would be really miserable without toilet paper.

100_4042

 

Musings

What’s in the Book Bag

my13daychallenge

100_4039

I went to the library the other day. The man behind me in line saw the collection of books in my hands and he commented on the unique assortment. I said I was a unique girl with many interests. When I got home, I emptied my book bag and laughed. Maybe he is right. I have interesting tastes. Here is what in my book bag. What’s in your book bag?

1. The Chemistry of Alchemy: From Dragon’s Blood to Donkey Dung How Chemistry was Forged by Cathy Cobb, Monty L. Fetterolf and Harold Goldwhite.

Who wouldn’t want to read about medieval alchemists and all the crazy scientific things that they discovered and created on their path to make gold? As a science geek, this sounded fun.

2. The Motivation Breakthrough by Richard Lavoie

All the children on the cover are raising their hands and listening to their teacher. No one is poking their neighbor or day dreaming.  Let’s give Mr. Lavoie a chance to transform my classroom.

3. The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen.

Alec Valcourt moves his mother and sister to remote Devonshire hoping to start over. He is shocked to discover the village matriarch has prohibited all dancing. (Let’s all start start singing the song from the movie Foot Loose.) It looks like a very predictable, clean Christian romance novel.

4. Aromatherapy for Bodyworkers by Jade Shutes and Christina Weaver

I like oils. Flipping though the book, I saw a lot of descriptions of the Terpenoid Compounds found in essential oils with their family and functional groups so I knew this book was right for me. Yes, I know your neighbor’s son was healed by applying peppermint oil to his aching leg and I’d like to see the university study to back up the antispasmodic properties.

5.    50 Women Every Christian Should Know: Learning From Heroines of The Faith by Michelle DeRusha

There are a lot of martyrs, Saints and activists they forgot to tell you about in Sunday School. I like a good inspirational story and I always come away with a desire to try harder after learning about other faithful people.

What’s in your book bag?

 

 

 

 

 

Challenge Eleven: Be Brave

Ladder of Doom

my13daychallenge

park photo

I have lots of fears including heights, natural disasters, people laughing at me, walking across the street and getting hit by a car, getting trapped in an elevator and a bunch of other things.  (In case you are wondering, I’ve been stuck in two elevators in my life. I absolutely refuse to take elevators at the mall ever again since both of my experiences were at the mall.)  I especially don’t like heights so I walked right on by this ladder of doom at the park. The Accountant easily climbed over and he encouraged me to try it too. I imagined falling off the ladder, breaking  my leg and then having to explain to everyone how I broke my leg. I was certain that people would laugh when they heard how I broke a leg climbing a ladder at the park. Cue the next 30 minutes of walking away from the ladder and then coming back to it.

I eventually decided just to do it. I got up to the top where half of me was hanging over one side and the other half was hanging over the other side. Cue the panic feelings. My legs refused to move. I knew I needed to kick my right leg over to the left side if I was ever going to get down. I couldn’t get my right leg to move though. I was stuck! Cue the crying. I couldn’t get down. Cue the frantic prayer telling God that I was completely stuck, a bit embarrassed and maybe he could just send an angel to get me off this silly ladder even though it was my own fault for climbing up the thing in the first place. That’s the other thing about me. I’m scared of lots of things, but I also have this ability to just jump in and do things.

That is where I found myself yesterday. Really scared but having been brave and put myself in a situation where I’d be really scared. I finally got enough courage to move my right leg to the side with my left leg and climb back down. My legs were shaking all the way down and I was glad to be on the ground again. The Accountant was so proud of me and he jumped up and down with excitement. Cue the deeply analytical Amee. The entire walk back to the car I was thinking.

I’ve struggled with anxiety for as long as I can remember. My first memory of being afraid was when I was three. I honestly can’t think of a time in my life when I didn’t have some fear of some kind. Yet, over the years I’ve done many things that really scare me. Driving terrified me. I was almost 19 before I got my license and I was over 25 before I finally started driving on the freeway. I’ve driven all over the country now on various road trips.  I wouldn’t say that I love driving, but I do it.  It’s like my biggest weakness is also my biggest strength. It’s something to think about. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?

Musings

Magic Tricks

my13daychallenge

100_3362

The Accountant is pretty proud of himself. He has learned how to do a magic trick. He can make the cup stay on his hand. Our dinner guests were very impressed.

Of course, they only saw the final trick. I observed all the cups that fell to the ground on the way to learning how to do the trick. It’s kind of like reaching a goal. You may spend hours, days and even years to reach a goal. The audience only sees the final show. People will tell you that you make it look easy. It’s a magic trick. There’s a lot of work that went into it. Go work on your magic trick!

Musings

My Memories of the Berlin Wall Coming Down

my13daychallenge

GERMANY-BERLIN WALL-COMMUNISM

On the 25th Anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, I thought it would be good to remember and experience the wall coming down again. I took out my 11 year old journal and remembered.

November 9, 1989

“November 9, 1989. I think I will remember this date. We were watching TV and Mom came in to the living room with the telephone. She was crying and told us to change the channel to the news. One of her sisters had called her. I don’t know which one. The Wall was coming down. There were people shouting for joy and dancing on the Berlin Wall. Mom kept saying over and over that she thought this wouldn’t ever happen until the Second Coming of Jesus. David, John and I shouted for joy and jumped up and down with those people on the T.V. screen. Stephen ran around the room. Jenny just slept. She’s a baby. She won’t remember any of this. The man on the news said that the Berlin Wall was a physical, psychic barrier for the entire nation and now that it was fallen the world would be a better place. Sometimes the world is a scarey place especially since they had big earthquake in California and the freeway just collapsed on all those people. I hold my breath every time I go over a freeway now. I don’t want a freeway to collapse on me. I hope the world is a better place, because the Berlin Wall is torn down.  Mom told us to remember this day and then she brought out some cookies to celebrate. She must have hidden them, because I didn’t know about them.  Stephen says he hopes more historical things happen so that we can get cookies again. We watched the news for a long time and then it was time to go to bed. I can’t sleep. Right now, I’m sitting outside the front door looking up at the moon. It’s suppose to turn to red when Jesus comes again. And if I stare at the moon long enough it might just happen. The Berlin Wall is torn down. Jesus coming back might be closer than we think. Those East Germans woke up with a Wall and then at the end of the day could be free and travel and all that other freedom things. It’s an interesting time to be alive. I wonder what else will happen in my life. Mom says I have to come in, because it is late. I’d rather sit here and look at the moon.

Wonder Women

Being Yourself

my13daychallenge

20140928_162148

The last few months, I’ve been interviewing and writing about amazing Wonder Women. I’ve been inspired and learned so much in recording the journey of others. I got an interesting phone call from a friend this week. She wants to know when I’m going to write a post about myself and describe my own journey as a Wonder Women.  I just laughed. The thought had never even entered my mind. I, like many of my dear readers, believe that Wonder Women status belongs to others. So, I’m working on my own post and some day I’ll post it here.

In the meanwhile, enjoy reading about others because every women’s success can be mine if I let it.  And believing in yourself is the first step to greatness.