Still too Blessed to EVER be stressed!

WOW I have not blogged since October of 2011. Can you say SLACKER?! Wellll honestly far from slacking just prioritizing in order of necessities. With school, my business, our house, our family, and all our kids extra curriculars... blogging fell to the far wayside. I made a mental note that during the summer months I would try to pick it back up more consistenly, as this is my first summer in two years that I am not taking any classes and I couldnt be more excited about the extra free time!! I'm actually reading for fun again something I gave up for school work, and my body is on a normal schedule, it feels great! Without late night 2am homework sessions I know what it feels like to wake up rested and I have even been incorporating morning cardio again because it helps me start my day on a great note and keeps me up and slightly more focused during the summer months when I have less of a schedule and can easily become a little lazy. I have been using my BUSINESS facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Body-Definition-Define-who-You-want-to-be/228354487209381
to share information/recipes/motivation, but my blog is more personal. Here it sometimes feels like a journal and I can ramble and ramble on just because, which I sometimes need. This post is to adress and slightly make fun of my crazy life. Not much has changed even though I havnt blogged in 8 months. My goals are still going strong and I am proud to say I am contueing to work hard to acheive them, all of them. My business has been consistenly growing and has been more empowering and satisfying than I ever could have imagined it could be. I am always and will always be a MOM first, a career is something I chose to put on a back burner to let my children take center stage and follow their lead of needs. My small business has allowed me to have my cake and eat it too. I have great clients who motivate me and I them. I am staying involved and focused in the industry and yet have the freedom, flexibility, and enjoyment of working for myself. I can officially say I have turned my passion for fitness, healthy living, and a POSITIVE lifestyle, into a way to make money and practice what I preach. For me my business is not so much "what I do" as it is "who I am". I am able to share my knowledge, experiences, motivation, hardships, and find strength through sharing and touch others, to me there is no greater gift. I posted this on the business facebook page but I mean it from the bottom of my heart:

  

"You know I never really talk $$ or the business aspect of my training business much, because my passion for this and genuine love of my clients is my drive. Anyone who meets can pretty much tell $ is the last thing that motivates my choices with my clients. But this IS my business and it has grown considerably over the last two years and I sincerely want to thank each and everyone of my clients who have spread positive word of mouth and sent referrals. I don't advertise because I want positive people coming who know someone who had a good experience and results, not someone just coming for a quick fix. Without you guys I wouldn't be able to do what I do, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you!! I honestly couldn't possibly love what I do more, and YOU all are helping my business to grow!" My school focus has been strong as well! Making Deans list the entire school year, officially being accepted into the Radiology program (which is very competitive and always full), completing my clinical observation and in Fall of 2012 I am starting my clinical portion in the hospital of the program. For someone who has always had a hard time seeing things through ( mostly because I was more interested in having babies), there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I am proud to be seeing it! The fact of the matter is focusing on our future is so empowering. Starting a family at a young age my focus was always immediate, I had to focus on what I needed now to get through and that was it. As I round out my 20s and into my 30s I am finally hitting a point in my life where I am focusing on the future and not just the now. RIGHT now things are GREAT, I couldnt ask for more. I love my business, my husband, our kids, our house, our life, but I am looking at the future and just solidifying making it even beter. People ask me all the time why are you in school if your business is doing good, do you want to switch careers? And the awnser is no - I want to ADD to my options, I want to ADD to my knowledge, I want to ensure security and prosperity. Sometimes it's hard because we want to do things NOW instead of wait, we talk about vacationing more as we did, expanding our family etc but we've been blessed and I'm getting better on working on patience... I've seen our hard work pay off... I can continue to wait for MORE.

Sometimes I think I need this sticky...

 

And then the next question is HOW DO YOU DO IT ALL?! This question is my favorite and for a long time I didnt have a great awnser. And I feel like I finally do. I do it because I can! I may not always be able to so I take advantage of and seize EVERY MINUTE. I am blessed with a supportive family, they may not be here forever so I utilize that support. I am blessed with a great living arrangement - buyng our parents house and having them next door keeps me close to my family and is affordable for us and a great investment to explore extra things like school - so I figure do it now while I can. I am blessed with ENERGY - I am young, I have it now I may not have it like this forever so I USE every ounce that I can. I am blessed with drive and passion - I USE IT NOW! I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and all of this could go away just like that so I use it NOW. But let me make one thing very clear about my life... I am blessed beyond belief, BUT it is NOT PERFECT. I joke and kid about being Super Mom because its empowering when I accomplish so much. But when people tell you they can HAVE IT ALL, they lie. There are sacrifices that have to be made ALWAYS. So I will share some of my crazy life with you :) It's funny to me and makes me smile, sometimes I really feel overwhelmed and thats when I take a breather spend two days organizing and cleaning and maybe a few glasses of wine later I'm back on track. Sometimes I am 10 loads of laundry deep, sometimes my stack of mail that needs to be gone through is enough to fill at least 2 shoe boxes, I've lost books in my house, I've lost calendars/clothes, I've forgotten scheduled appointments, I brought my daughter to daunce auditions on the wrong day, one day two weeks ago I overbooked myself so badly then lost my keys and was consistently 10 minutes late to each and evry appointment that morning (this is a HUGE no no and pet peeve of mine.) I also and I have NEVER done this before sent out nutrition plans to 8 out of the 9 bootcampers and forgot one person, thank goodness she's a great understanding client. I have a to do list two pages long and constantly feel like I'm behind on it... I have my days just like evryone else. But at the end of the day I know I CAN DO THIS! This is like my Mommy chaos confessions, things that make me literally question - maybe I can't do this? Maybe I bit off more than I can chew? And that my friends is the voice of doubt - and you know what someone who is strong and confident and wants to DEFINE who they want to be does to that voice of doubt? They laugh at it! Mock it! And know you are stonger than that. You tell yourself "I will learn from this." I will set up my days accordingly for this NOT to happen again. I will plan better. I will get a new calendar. I will do WHATEVER it takes to acheive what I need to because why?
BECAUSE I CAN!

  

So during the school year... my responsibilities include but are not limited to:
1. My college work load

2.Mommy taxing - all three kids to and from school, extracurriculars, dance, sports, cheerleading, competitions, playdates, library, doctors/dentists, and make no mistake I do not just talk the talk I am a VERY hands on mother its actually what I consider I do best in life :)

3.Running my training buiness - boot camp, in home clients, online clients, emails, anwserinf iftness questions, seminars, etc.

4.I also bartend events part time but I consider this fun work for fun extra $$

5.cleaning, organizing,upkeep and decorating our house and yard

6. Actually scheduling down time and hubby time and family time... this is one thing thats very important as much as I'm on the go I make a point for this. I may run for 6 weeks straight - but then we'll go away for a nice long weekend to make up for it.

7. AND of cousre - WORKING ON MY OWN FITNESS!

 Now during the summer this year our schedules breathes a bit - no part time events bartending, no tons of extracurriculars, no college work load for me, and no school for the kiddos, so we SOAK IT UP! 

We still have a lot going on but we def ENJOY again WHILE WE CAN! Even so let me give you a Thursday/Friday rundown from this week and its a prelude to my funny pic confession of the day - sometimes my car looks like a homeless person lives in it - you will see... So Thursday up at 5:30 am - cleaned the house, switched the laundry, starting making lunch for friends coming over later - made 10 healthy wraps, 13 peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches, and a salad. Got the kids in their swimsuits and lathered up in suncreen, went outside to clean the pool and realize our robot cleaner was broken - thank goodness for my Dad, he brought it up to the pool place only to find out we needed a new one, brought the new one home. $$ -  its always something - but that is another blog. Filled up the kiddie pool, watered the garden, mowed the front lawn, watered the front garden, set up the drinks in the cooler, got the pool, floats, and deck area set up and helped my Dad set up the new robot and get that in the pool. Showered and ready for friends to come over @11:30 - great afternoon with friends by the pool till about 4:30pm. Cleaned up the pool area and deck, sprayed it down, put away the floats, covered the pool etc. In the house for dinner and a little awnsering work emails before teaching boot camp at 7:00pm taught 7-8 at 8:30 back to my house to meet a new client! hour consult till 9:30 and started new client. Washed my face, brushed my teeth and FELL INTO BED. - This is what I consider a GREAT Day!! And I was gearing up for Friday am - a client at 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30 before coming home to clean, organize, start my to do list which I am 11 items checked off deep, run some errands, pick up a dwarf hamster and get home to pick up my house again for company coming over for dinner and pool time at 6pm - again totally what I considered another GREAT DAY but just gives you an idea of the busy! Sometimes it gets overwhelming but I cant express enough I CHOOSE to do all of this - WHY? Because I can! Because I love my life like this... because at the end of the day I never feel like I've wasted anything. Yes I have relxing down chill days - I think everyone needs them and sometimes I have to force them, but for the most part I consider enjoying life by LIVING LIFE! And this is my story, I like the way I write however spastic it may be :) And this is why Friday morning when I got into my car I had to snap this pic. After meeting with my client at 7:30 who once again said "I dont know how you do it all" my reply was simply "I'm crazy" (which is partially very true) and then Friday afternoon when I looked at my to do list, tackled my guest bedroom that has been taken over by laundry a light bulb went off - I'm ready to blog about this :) In this pic in my car... 

 

*a cup that had a protein shake in it
*stuffed a banana peel in
*a chobanni yogurt spoon
*empty zone bar wrapper
*2 empty ispoure bottles
*empty water bottles
*cashews
*sunscreen
*versa grips
*deodarant
*VS lovespell lotion
*and for good measure Jay's Gee's coupons

And I will say I have 9 things checked off that to do list :) see it just GETS DONE!