Enlightened.

A while back I came across Natalie Norton's Blog. She is a photographer. Her words have been such an inspiration to me. She has been through so many hard things in her life and is just incredibly positive and uplifting. She has inspired me to start writing and journaling more. I think I have had a fear of writing on my blog. Fear of putting myself out there, and fear of just not being a good enough writer. I think we all have a story and we need to tell it. Whether it's in a personal journal or for others to see. I don't think we should let fear get in the way. Journaling is for our ourselves and our family that will live on this earth after us (our posterity). It's what we leave behind. What will I leave behind?

This year will be a year of change for me. I can already feel it. I want to really get to know myself and come to know more about my life's mission. We all have one. What kind of a legacy will I leave behind? What do I want people to say about me at my funeral when I have left this earth?

Someone asked this same Natalie Norton about finding your authentic self and being true to yourself. I loved what she suggested. She wrote this: (BTW-You can find this on Formspring here)

"WHY:

1. We don't have very many opportunities for quiet in our crazy world. We are constantly bombarded with distractions: many of them in the form of how OTHERS tell us (directly or indirectly) we should look, think, be, LIVE (TV, Magazines, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, our parents, conversations with friends etc). With all this noise coming at us from all angles and at all times of the day and night, we lose the ability to judge for ourselves where OUR passions, desires, loves, interests lie. We just follow the flow of the tide. It's easer that way. But then we end up leading lives void of TRUE satiafaction and fulfillment. If we want the silence required to get to know our TRUE selves, we have to make it. Journaling is a great way to carve out real time to dedicate to the kind of quiet that restoring this type of relationship with self requires.

2. We have to WORK to get in touch with ourselves on an authentic level. We have to dig down beneath layers and layers of the stories we've been told about who we are, what we should be like, etc. We've heard these stories since our infancy, and once you've heard somethig enough, like it or not, it becomes your truth. What I'm telling you to do here, is to start the proceas of rewriting this story. And start today.

HOW:

A great place to begin is writing a list of things that make you GENUINELY happy. Things that make you smile, from the deepest part of your gut on out. Take a full 10 minutes and don't let yourself stop writing. If you run out of ideas, just keep repeating the same ones while you give your heart time to engage. "

I loved this. What really makes me happy? What really makes you happy? Photograph it. Document it. Create it, so you can have it and so you can leave it behind. Do you want to know one thing that makes me happy.

This.

Them.

Breakfast before school.

Left to right:
Camryn-She's in her tumbling leotard. She loves to tumble. The other morning when it was my husband's Friday off. She just kept tumbling and tumbling in our front room. So determined. She ended up doing a round off and 5 back handsprings in a row. I was encouraging her, but she was also very determined to practice over and over.
Caleb- He just loves a good breakfast. This is probably his favorite right now. French toast with a delicious cinnamon, buttery, syrup. Caleb is full of goodness.
Cade- Cade is Cade. There is no one else like him. He has personality coming out of his ears.
Courtney- Holding the baby. Boy is she a big help.
Cali- She is spoiled by everyone. What can I say?