Guest blog post: Family Traditions

"When one thinks of family traditions, it usually is the ones geared around the holidays: family dinner, seeing the lights on Temple Square, baking cookies, visiting those without family.  But what about the everyday traditions?"

I am so thrilled to have been featured today on SALT.  Please go read it and, if you feel so inclined, come back here and share with me your daily/weekly/monthly traditions.

Let's talk self care

When someone talks to you about practicing self care, what do you think of?

Taking a walk?

Drawing a bath?

Taking a nap? ( this may or may not be my favorite one 😉)

As good as these all sound, I won't be talking about any of them.

Let's go back in time all the way to March 2017.  I was working for a pretty cool company based here in Utah.  We were celebrating 10 years of business!!  And, in true Cents of Style form, it was a HUGE party.  We had food, dancing, photo booth, ice cream and an all around good time!  

Before the party started as all the employees were setting up, Jen Springer - the cutest makeup artist-was prepping our fearless leader.  I started asking about her about applying false lashes.  I was not new to this as I had been applying them to my daughter for the past three years for competition dance.  I was asking for me.  I had been toying with the idea of wearing them myself, but I felt that I would look like a clown or that I was trying too hard if I did. 

She gave me a few tips and I felt that I could do it.  Jump ahead a few weeks when, with my company, we hosted a dance party for SNAP Conference.  When Jen walked in, I called her to me and showed her my lash applying efforts - which took forever by the way.  She was so excited that I managed to put them on.  And, they didn't fall off all night!  

You may be asking yourselves why you even need to know all this. Well, up until this time, I would rarely wear makeup.  I usually only wore it when I went to church and on a date with the hubby. On very rare occasions, I would put it on as I ran errands.  I have been trying to think about ways to take better care of myself.  Of finding things that make me feel the way my husband feels about me.  The easiest (and, let's be honest) cheapest way to do this, was with makeup.  My hubby loves when I take a few extra minutes to apply a bit of makeup.

I can now say that ever since March 2017, I have only missed a few days of putting on makeup.  It was only when it got so hot at work (warehouse in the summertime), when I was sick, or when my depression would throw me into a tail-spin.

For me, taking care of myself involves wearing makeup and putting on those false lashes when I am wanting to feel a little bit extra.

What are some things you do in your self care routine?

My ironic financial life.....

Funny random thing about me......

I love numbers. I find connection with numbers everyday.  I love to see them in sequence, I love to write them down.  I love to enter numbers into excel spreadsheets just to see the numbers balance out.  I went to college to major in Accounting and just recently, I went back to work full time in a career in the banking industry.  

What I don't love is......

Finances.  More specifically, personal finances.

I see the irony in this all the time.

I get so stressed out when it comes to my own finances.  I always put off doing them and it creates a stressful time in my home.  

I have been following to amazing Jordan over at funcheaporfree for a few months now, and I am inspired by her-especially since she also doesn't like to deal with finances either.  I am still deciding on when I will get her Budget Bootcamp program.  But, in the meantime, I will be working on having a consistent routine with my money.

At work, we have an evaluation every 6 months. Within this time, we do 90-day action plans. After sitting down with my supervisor and planning out my focus for the next 90 days, I am getting excited about implementing this in my personal life.

The three places I am going to start with is:

this may or may not be a picture of my current system

• Budgeting 
• Filing/Organizing
• Setting up finance "appointments" with myself

Once I get my initial plan together, I'll share.  I know....lucky you ;)

Do you agree with my three areas that will help me? What other ones would you do instead?

Just a bad day.....

As I think over the last 24 hours I am feeling prompted to put my thoughts down. 

 

Last night as I went to pick up my daughter from dance, my car started to freak out.  The ABS, brake and battery lights came on- and stayed on.  The radio wasn't working and there was a weird whirring noise coming from the transmission area.  Not wanting to risk it, I ended up taking my hubby's car.  After getting home, I told my hubby about it (which almost resulted in a stupid fight),  After looking at the engine, starting it up and looking underneath, he determined that the alternator was on it's way out.  This alternator was just replaced only two years ago. We then started figuring out schedules.  Who would take my daughter to Early Morning Seminary - me. And, who would take my son to school - hubby.  I needed to be at work by 10, so anything that happened needed to be done before that.

Fast forward to 7:30 this morning and hubby had called the auto shop and was told that they weren't terribly busy, I was told I didn't need to work today - we're in a bit of a slow season, and I called the parts store and found out that the alternator we purchased there was still under warranty.  

I drove hubby's car to get the part, while trying to find someone to meet me at the shop to bring me home.  I made arrangements with my mom to meet me there.  I got into my car started it and....... nothing was wrong. No extra lights were on, the radio worked fine, the clock lights weren't faded, no whirring noises....nothing. 

I still drove into the shop, and had them do a load test on the alternator.  Everything was fine.  No issues were found. I was stumped. 

I started thinking how I react to stress, trials, struggles, life.  In many cases, I tend to overthink, expect the worst and start rearranging my life, schedule, belief etc.  I tend to "fly by the seat of my pants".  I forget to slow down, take a breath and look at all the angles. I forget that if I am having a bad day, it doesn't mean I'm having a bad life.  

After we realized I didn't need to leave my car, my momma took me to lunch.  We then got to talk about her upcoming wedding! squee!!!! I am so excited for her.  It's still a little weird, but she seems really happy about it, and he treats her so well!

Here's hoping that you find the good amongst the bad and that you know that you never have to repeat that day ever again.