Friends, this year has been so hard, hasn’t it? It seems not a week goes by where there isn’t some unthinkable tragedy. From the devastating hurricanes in Texas and Puerto Rico, massive wildfires in California, to the horrible mass shootings in Las Vegas and now Texas, my heart is breaking over and over again. It’s hard to not feel overwhelmed and sad all the time.

Our family has been doing more volunteer work than normal, making hygiene kits for hurricane victims, participating in diaper drives, donating money and more. There are so many needs all over and often it’s hard to feel like we are making a difference at all….

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I’ve come to really value “me time” over the past few years. Even though my kids are now all in school full time and I work from home in a quiet house, I still wake up early so I can get some quiet, creative me time in before the rest of the people in my house awake. My mornings absolutely depend on it. If I don’t get up a solid hour before my kids do and take care of myself first, the rest of my day seems to go to shambles. Quiet time to center myself each day is pertinent to my overall mood and happiness.

So, what does my morning “me time” look like? It’s a little different each day, but for the most part I follow the outline from my Miracle Morning schedule. I make time for stretching/yoga, affirmations, meditation, reading, journaling/planning and creative time. In addition, I make sure to eat something along with my morning coffee that doesn’t require a lot of effort, yet still tastes amazing and fits in with “me time”. …

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In late 2015 I was in a state of personal dishevelment (I wrote about it here). All 4 of my kids were finally in school full time and I was struggling with many things in my life…my weight, my job, the amount of “stuff” I owned, the empty house and my overall feeling of dissatisfaction with everything. For a normally overall happy person, I was really, really unhappy and I wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.

That same year, my son was going through confirmation at church, which required him to seek out and participate in a variety of community service activities. I found a local food kitchen that needed a few volunteers on a Saturday afternoon to “prep food”. Jacob and my husband went and spent the day peeling carrots, chopping vegetables, washing dishes and more. My teenager came home a changed person. He was bubbling over with excitement about the day he spent with “Kenny” (the man in charge of the kitchen prep team) and the work the Kansas City Community Kitchen was doing. I thought to myself, “If volunteering has my teenager this excited then I really need to check it out!”

Thus began my real love for volunteering. I grew up volunteering and actually had been volunteering weekly teaching school of religion to middle schoolers and working with kids at our local elementary school, but there was something about serving the homeless and underprivileged in our city that really changed my life. Growing up in a fairly sheltered small town and living a life full of love and happiness and let’s face it, privilege, I was shook to my core to see how inwardly selfish I had been to be dissatisfied with my life. I began volunteering once a week then upped that to twice a week and sometimes even three times a week because I knew that the work I was doing was of value and importance. I found purpose where I was least expecting it…inside a food kitchen in Kansas City Missouri. …

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Have you ever been overwhelmed by the time and effort it can take to change the world? You observe friends on life changing mission trips, organizations building shelters and schools, celebrities raising millions of dollars for those in need, etc. and you think “Wow, I’d really like to change the world but I just don’t have the                    (insert: time, money, resources) to pull it off.”

Friends, I’m here to challenge you to consider changing what you think it might take to make a difference in the world. Grand gestures are nice and do make an impact, but so can sharing small acts of kindness and caring around your own community. It doesn’t take a lot of time, money or resources to make a difference in the lives of others. We can make a huge impact by simply showing people that we #CareEnough thorough small acts. …

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Last week I gave you a tour of the inside of the HGTV Dream Home 2017. This week, we’re moving on out, to the spectacular and oh so dreamy backyard space of the HGTV Dream Home 2017. Before we start though, there are only a handful of days to enter for the chance to win this spectacular home. Make sure to click here to get entered right away!…

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Wow…what a week, huh? In fact, I bubbled myself up as much as possible, shut down Facebook, and reached out to friends in person to chat. I feel like Facebook and even Twitter to some extent tends to feed that inner anxious girl in me, and I just can’t handle it sometimes. Getting out into the real world and having real life, civil conversations with people who agree and even don’t agree with you can really do wonders. It’s amazing what can happen when we really listen to each other. Give it a try..it’ll make you feel better, I promise!

With that being said, if you, dear reader, need a safe place to turn, please reach out to me. I think the only thing worse than turning to social media during this time is letting your thoughts and feelings stew inside. I’m happy to lend an ear and hopefully give you solace. Consider this my safety pin. …

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No matter what happens tonight, we have a lot of repairing to do in America. People have been scarred, families have been torn apart, friendships have been strained – and everyone has become the almighty judge of everyone else. This repairing doesn’t start with who becomes president…it starts with us.

Forgiving, loving, leading by example, showing empathy, compassion and kindness. I’m willing to accept the outcome, because I know nothing is as big as what we all can do together.

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Wow, things are a bit stressful lately, aren’t they? It’s hard to focus on the positive, to not have anxiety and to have faith in everything that’s going to go down tomorrow and the next few years. Tensions seem extra high and damaging invisible walls between fellow Americans seem to be forming. It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of joy in the world right now, does there?

Well, I’ve got just the cure. Everyone…yes you, you and you too…needs to go see Trolls (the movie), stat. I took my girls and some of Kelly’s friends to see it on Friday night for her birthday and we had the most positive movie experience, ever. I downloaded the soundtrack before the movie was even over, everyone leaving the theatre was happy and joyful, and my group was inspired to carry on the “happiness is within you” message to everyone we encountered….

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