So, hi, it's been a bit since I last posted. Life is busy with new projects and activities.
New things in my life: I'm in my second year as a teacher's aide at a small christian school, so not new info but updated info. I've learned a lot and I have been pushed out of my comfort zone rather abruptly. I've just ordered a tee shirt with the saying, "Forget jury duty, everyone should have substitute teacher duty." So true! I've written 2 new children's books and created a few coloring books as well. Being an author, you'd think I'd post here more often. Maybe I should set a new goal for doing just that. So, typically I post about life lessons learned and revelations I discover in my daily life. But this time I don't have a big example or funny story. Life is not always easy and I'm just trying my best to do my best in all areas of my life. I feel like I fail more than I win but I keep going, so I must deserve points for that at least, right? If you fall, get back up again, cry if you must, but then just keep going.
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Fall? Autumn? Doesn't matter to me because I hate it all! Give me summer all year long! Fall in Southern Indiana doesn't mean much other than 'blink and it's winter' and I hate winter even more. Cold weather, multiple layers of clothing, limited sunshine, you name it, winter sucks! Although I don't feel like I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is the medical translation of the winter blues, I have some of the symptoms. Many may consider SAD to be a lighter, less serious version of depression, but it can be equally as severe if left untreated. This will be my first winter using Ultracell CBD oil and I've heard it helps with SAD so I expect great things for my milder symptoms. There are other things that can help as well, like light therapy, and surrounding yourself with positive people. How do you manage 'winter blues'? Leave me a comment and let me know. #hemphelps #cbd #winterblues #nocoldweatherallowed Intermittent fasting is a big part of my protocol to treat my fibromyalgia. It is really beneficial and has helped me lose weight. There are many types of fasting as well as different times of the day and lengths of the fast. For me, the way I am utilizing fasting, is to eat breakfast and lunch and then only water the rest of the day. I typically try to finish my lunch meal by 3 pm although I'm flexible as my schedule changes frequently. Hunger, although present here and there, hasn't really been as tough of an issue as what I thought it would be. The bigger issue for me is the habit I had gotten into of always snacking, especially in the evenings when I'm watching tv or on the computer. Once you get past the mindset that you have to always be eating, then it's much easier. There are many articles online about cautions and details of each type of fast. Find one that you think would work best for you and try it. Be mindful of the advice given and don't push yourself too hard at first. Ease into any long-term fasting. Research ways to come off a fast so you don't get any side effects. If done right, fasting can be very healthy and can help with weight loss among other things. Your gut will thank you for the break!
Permission to rant, rave and vent? I am very mad at my email provider - Inbox.com. It is not a well known provider, I have never ran across anyone else with one. Ny husband, Ronnie and I have had 2 email providers for our joint email, first Juno and then Inbox. I chose Inbox.com because I liked the features and the website. We have been with them for at least 14 if not 16 years. We have numerous subscriptions and contacts associated with this account. Back in Feb they shut down access to my account for "violating their rules", they didn't tell me which rules I had apparently violated. I had to email them from another account and explain the situation and they said I had exceeded my limit for sending emails (I hadn't sent ANY out for days) and that I would only be granted access again IF I ran a virus scan on my computers, changed my password and changed some portal codes? I did all the requested things and they let me back in, saying if it happens again I will be denied access permanently. I guess I should have thought ahead and grabbed some of the contacts and important emails I have saved there from 14-16 years but I didn't and now I've been denied again! Can they not see from 14-16 years of history that we aren't doing this? That apparently, obviously, we have been hacked??? I have emailed them again! I have asked that I be allowed access long enough to grab some very important information. I hope they respond quickly and that this can be resolved! We obviously will be having our emails go elsewhere. So if you have the inbox.com address for us, forget it. I will probably also be changing my It Works email as well since I opened an account with them also. Message us for our new one if you need it! I'll update when I get new info! Rant over - for now! #inboxdotcomsucks #gotoyahoo #gmailalltheway #crappycustomerservice
I have been concentrating on remembering to post each day on my other blog about gratitude, so not much has been going on here. Since my attention has been on the other blog I thought maybe I should share some about my goals and purpose for starting my 365 Gratitude Project. There are sayings about counting your blessings. Books about looking at the things you have and appreciating them. Be satisfied with what you've been given. Have an attitude of gratitude. Even my pastor said this morning that the riches in Christ teach us to be content with what we have. So many books have been written by people living in horrible and dangerous circumstances and their ability to be thankful and triumph through the adversity and troubles. When I sit and compare, of course I see where I have it made, so to speak. I may not live in a mansion but it's not a cardboard box and I should be more grateful. I may not be as rich as others but I have money in the bank and can buy what I need and for that I should be grateful. I may not drive a luxury vehicle with all the bells and whistles but I do have a reliable and very nice car and for that I should be grateful. I may not have as many customers or team members as other people in my company but I have some and for that I should be grateful. But day to day these things dim sometimes. It is too easy to want, to yearn for and wish for something better, bigger, nicer. I am guilty of jealousy and envy. Which I have learned can lead to bitterness, discontentment and unworthiness. Then how can dreams be fulfilled and goals reached and progress made? It can't. So I need to focus on thankfulness and gratitude this year. I have big goals in mind. Goals for myself, my life, my business. And I will not be able to achieve them sitting and comparing myself to others and being unhappy. I will be grateful for the things I have, no matter how small or silly. Most days it will be no problem at all to write about an amazing thing or situation I am thankful for. Some days I know it will be hard to come up with something, anything! But I will! You may see many posts about my kids and/or puppies. They give me more joy than anything else. But I am determined to voice/write about at least one thing per day for which I am thankful. ( I reserve the right to post late if I need to, lol ) So I hope I have encouraged you to start your own 365 Gratitude Project, whether online for the world to see or in a private journal for yourself, either way it's not too late to start. As a bonus thanks today, I am thankful for you, for letting me share my words, life, business and thoughts with you. Share my blog for me as well if you would? I'll be even more grateful! I am the self proclaimed number 1 Abandon fan! If you have never heard of them, then you need to click here or here now! I might be a little biased seeing that my brothers and their friends founded the band. One brother, Josh, used to be the lead singer but is on hiatus to be home with his wife and baby and is the worship pastor at my church, but he is still involved in writing music for the band and the other, Justin, used to be the electric guitar player/backup vocals and is the lead singer now (and also on my It Works team and is wrapping Texas between tours!) I am so proud of them and where God has lead them in life. Below is a video that my kids and I did a couple of years back. The kids are almost as big of fans as I am and they love singing the songs and pretending to be the members of the band. Through the past year the band members have changed a bit but the heart and passion of Abandon is still there and their music is still so amazing! Justin, Steven, and Ben are great together! I wanted to share this video to our favorite song before the new album gets released soon. Enjoy! Inflammation? Bloating? Swelling? Whatever you call it, I have had it with fibromyalgia! There is debate on whether fibromyalgia (fibro) is in fact an inflammatory issue. As one who has had fibro for over 21 years, I'm no doctor, but it sure feels inflammatory! Inflammation (Latin, īnflammō, "I ignite, set alight") from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/inflammation Inflammation |inflə'mā sh ən| noun A localized physical condition in which part of the body becomes reddened, swollen, hot, and often painful, esp. as a reaction to injury or infection Inflammation is a normal response the body has to injury. It is suppose to happen quickly and start working on helping the injured area heal. The problem comes when the inflammation stays around for a long period of time. It is not designed that way and when it occurs for any length of time, additional damage can occur. Then the time comes for treatment and discovering the offending reason for the inflammation. When my fibro flares up it is centered usually in my traps (trapezius muscle, located where neck meets shoulder) which then causes tension, pain and headaches. I say "usually" because with fibromyalgia the pain can be one place one day and a different, unrelated place the next. There is no rhyme or reason with this syndrome. When the flare up comes it is sometimes like a burning, tearing pain. Sometimes numbing, sometimes tingling like pins and needles. Hard knots, painful tender spots or trigger points are present. I can have a sore spot on a finger that comes out of nowhere and for no apparent reason, and then later a spot on my toe will be flared up. People deal with fibromyalgia many different ways because fibro is so different in every person! I myself need regular massages and they need to be deep tissue massages that work out knots and stiff muscles. But many fibro patients can't stand to be touched or even hugged so a deep tissue massage would be torture! Stretching is very helpful whether you get massages or not. Chiropractic care has been essential in my care of fibro. I go at least once a week but many times I am there more often. I am blessed that I work for a chiropractor and she has been so helpful in helping me discover which treatments work for me. Diet change has helped many as well. Eliminating offending inflammatory foods can alleviate many symptoms and a challenge sometimes to find what is a trigger or not. Eliminating the food for a period of time (2 weeks to a month) and then adding the food back in to see if it an offender is a way to discover what should be removed form the diet. Some choose medications. I have not went that route. I don't handle pharmaceutical drugs well at all and have side effects that are sometimes worse than the condition itself! I have found that supplements help far better than medications. It has been a long process to find what has worked for me. With the help of my chiropractor we have tried many combinations. It can get costly buying vitamins and minerals separate so we have looked for ways to get more for less. Over the years I have tried several supplement companies and through trial and error have found something that has been working for me for over a year now. When looking for a supplement it is important to look for all natural, whole food supplementation that is in a form that the body can efficiently use. I have found It Works Global. Their products have worked better and longer than any other company I have tried! I am a different person than I was before I started these supplements. I still have fibromyalgia and am adjusting diet and exercise daily to continue to improve but It Works has been my life saver and I thank God He brought them into my life and I will always take these products! (You can find them here: trinaconner.myitworks.com or for more info and details go to facebook.com/It WorksMoreThanJustWrapsTrinaConner or my info on my website.) I'm back already! There have been a lot of posts on Pinterest and Facebook about oil pulling. My chiropractor is trying it and I thought I would also. I have only used it a couple of days now so I have no information on the effects just yet but I do have some articles that are helpful and some tips from my experiences already. Dr. Mercola is really great at researching and finding the latest information out there. His article on his experience with oil pulling is a good one to read. And it is not just for tooth decay or mouth problems. Another article from oilpulling.com offers a lot of information and is a good one to consult also. I use coconut oil. In the pic the brand on the left we use for everything!!! Moisturizer, cooking, burns, bug bites, we used it on my granddaughter's bottom after every diaper change and bath and no diaper rash in her first full year! But I got the jar on the right because it is glass and I can put it on the warmer and keep it liquid at all times. So far my tips would be: 1. Make sure it is liquid, putting solid coconut oil in your mouth and waiting for it to dissolve does not taste good :( (don't microwave - it kills the good benefits of the oil or any food for that matter! Set the oil jar or bottle in warm water or get a warmer like the one I used-Bed, Bath and Beyond-$5.99) 2. Keep busy! Plan on folding a load of laundry or watching tv, anything to keep you from just standing there swishing in front of the sink. I was able to get up to 15 min while watching tv and then again while cleaning up the kitchen and folding laundry. 3. Find the right amount. For me, exactly 1 Tablespoon was a bit too much but 1/2 a Tablespoon was too little. 4. Don't swallow any of the oil once you have swished it around it is full of toxins and bacteria. There seem to be a lot of great benefits to oil pulling! Do you oil pull? Addicted is not the right word...not obsessed....more than interested...not really sure. I definitely love Pinterest! I do know that. It's one of those things that I really enjoy for a short time but can walk away from once I have viewed a few pages of random people that I don't know and get an insight on what their house, closet, craft room, and pets might look like. And it might be weeks before I sit here again and look for other random people to check out. I have gotten a lot, I mean A LOT of ideas for crafts and how I want my future home to look like! So many cute cats and dogs I would like to have and whoever puts those outfits together is awesome! I myself am not into the recipes but I re-pin them for my cousin, who loves to bake! So I guess I am semi-addicted or maybe occasionally addicted to Pinterest! Either way I will keep pinning here and there, randomly, like I blog :) I'm back!!! Back to the day to day list of things to do that life requires! Back to the days filled with timelines, chores, errands and just plain old stuff to do! But vacation was fun! I throughly enjoyed my time with my granddaughter, son and daughter-in-law. Business put aside, blogging put aside, even facebook was neglected except for the random pic uploaded here or there. Just a time for fun with an almost 2 year old, playing with dolls, reading books, dancing, singing, laughing-lots of laughing and giggling. Her giggle is infectious! I miss her already! I'm having withdrawals of hugs, kisses and smiles. So now it is back to work! Gotta make money so Mimi can go see her giggly girl again soon! P.S. I promise not every post will be a commercial for my company but I reserved the right to include vital info here and there! I have fibromyalgia and use and sell the products from It Works Global as part of my regimen and therapy. They have changed my life! I mention this now because prior to taking these products my vacations ended up being torture for me. Pain, fatigue, headaches, lack of sleep, pure misery, etc... BUT this vacation has been the best one by far both during the stay there and since I have been home. Very little discomfort and almost no recovery! I can not say enough about It Works and how awesome these products are! And if they will help a person with fibromyalgia like me, they can do amazing things for a "healthy" person as well! Nutrition, weight loss, stress relief and more! Check it out at: trinaconner.myitworks.com www.facebook.com/ItWorksMoreThanJustWrapsTrinaConner Today is my birthday!
I am 43 years old today! A lot has happened in the last 43 years. I will spare you most of those details! You are welcome! To treat myself (other than the piece of cake I just had @ 2 am! (Fat Fighters, here I come!) I made myself a birthday montage of some of my life. I thought I would share it with you! Not all of my family made the final cut, it would have to be a full length feature film to achieve that, but some key players are in there! In doing this I have done something that proves I am growing up, maturing, learning to accept myself, etc... Just a very short time ago I would NEVER have put a video of myself up anywhere, not facebook, youtube, anywhere for anyone else to see. I have always hated getting my picture taken. I have had it taken plenty, good thing or there would be very little footage to use. But I hated every picture and wish I wouldn't have stood there and posed. In choosing pics for this endeavor I took a good look at myself in them and I think, finally, that I don't look half bad in most of them. It doesn't bother me that this will be out there for all to see. I am definitely not an attention seeker but I'm ok with sharing my life now, even if that includes pictures. :) Where has this year gone? Lots of things happening in November! My birthday! The election! My son's birthday! My daughter-in-law's birthday! An It Works event! I get to go to see my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter for 12 days! Thanksgiving! So many things, lots to plan for! I am so excited for this month to arrive yet astounded that it got here so fast. I need to remember, with so many things on the agenda, to stop and enjoy the moments of celebration, make some memories, snap a couple of photos, (or a few hundred, you know me) because before we know it, it will be December! A cousin of mine pinned this recently and I re-pinned it on my Pinterest board. I know why she did it, she liked the look of the outfit. She had pinned many other outfits similar right before and after this one. BUT I re-pinned it because I think it is stinking funny! Something is a little off here! Life is so serious, so real, that sometimes you just have to laugh at a headless-armless girl wearing jeans! I hate winter! Hate the cold, the snow, the shorter days, no sun, I could go on and on. Christmas doesn't even cheer me up enough to appreciate the yucky conditions. But I am too connected and attached to my hometown in Indiana to move. Most, not all of my family is here. (Most, not all of my siblings are in warm, lovely Texas! A place that I like to visit but would not want to move to.)
There is one thing though that I do kinda like about this time of year and it is really silly but it is the Elf Yourself videos from Jib Jab. (Remember, I love to laugh!) They aren't out yet this year but I am looking for them. I subject my son and his family, and my step-sons to them every year. I even shelled out the yearly membership fee to get access to member only videos! I am including a Jib Jab video, although it is not the Elf Yourself of my son, his family or my step-sons, sadly, because those are hilarious. But I do need to keep some measure of peace in the family and I do want to see my granddaughter again. So I am posting one I made a couple of years ago of the members of my brothers band, Abandon, because they love the publicity and won't be mad :) Enjoy! I have an iMac. DO NOT be envious! It is sooooo slow! I see the "spinning rainbow wheel of death" all the time! We are talking pre-high-speed internet slow, beep-bop-boop-dial-up slow. I have ran mac cleaners, free and paid, taken it in for service and had my brother look at it. It might be faster for a little bit but then back to the colorful orbiting graphic below. I find little problems that it might be and it helps some but if I am honest I think I know the real issue. And it's a number, 8065 to be exact. That is the number of photos in my iPhoto folder. But not all of them are on the computer. The iPhoto library is actually on an external hard-drive. A 1T external hard-drive that the Mac store salesman said I would never fill up. (It only has 357 GB left out of 1024 GB) Only 1725 of the pics are of my one and a half year old granddaughter! (give or take) They rest are of the dog, my son, daughter-in-law, my big family, my brother's band (Abandon) and you get the idea. I know I need to weed them out. And I have another external hard drive to move some less important, yet still want to keep them, ones to, BUT my computer is so slow that the actual moving of said photos will take so long that I probably will have a couple hundred new ones of my granddaughter before it's accomplished! So my iMac has swiftly become one very expensive and slow digital photo album. I love corny jokes! Puns, the occasional knock-knock, sometimes a little dirty is ok, if it's really funny, I just love funny jokes! You know what's better than a joke that makes you laugh so hard you cry? Sharing that laughter and the tears with someone that gets it too! My husband, for the most part, DOES NOT get it. Every once in a while he will humor me. (ha ha "humor" me) But if he has his choice he would rather watch the news or sports than sit and have me read jokes from twitter or facebook. Maybe he feels the same way about sharing news and sports with me? I don't know because he doesn't communicate things like that very well, so? So when I had the opportunity to visit my sister this past weekend I knew I would get to laugh and share funny things with someone who gets it and I was so excited! I showed her a youtube site that I follow and love. Seriously they are hilarious! (Check them out: Kid History) My sister agrees! "FACT!" And we sat late into the night and I read twitter jokes and facebook jokes and even looked at my Pinterest board where I have pinned things I find funny. I think the later in the night, the funnier the jokes are! Yet another thing my husband, who goes to bed before 10, DOES NOT get. The party, or joke telling with inevitable laughter, does not start until after 10 pm! So I am very thankful that I have a sister that is in visiting proximity now and will hopefully be able to go visit her more often! Look I'm putting the gratitude lesson into practice there! :) What is your greatest strength? It was a simple question on an application for an online women's networking site. I sat and stared at the question for a long time. My greatest weakness is easy, I focus on my weaknesses, that is my weakness. I find the things wrong and dwell on them. But my strength is much harder to come up with. I asked my husband, even took a "What is my greatest strength?" quiz online. Here are the results: "Perseverance and Fortitude" When at your lowest, you rely on your perseverance to pull through any hardship. You don't let yourself get down easily and always try and see the good. You want the world to be better, but you know that this can only be through hard-work and effort. You believe in the strength of relationships and shared experiences. You know that people need people and that we all rely on society. You place great value in people who give back. You want to do your best in life. You charge forth and reach for the highest results. You are, by nature, a very strong individual. Your strength comes from within and you don't mind being the shoulder to lean on. You are very loyal." I answered honestly and, as accurate as an 8 question, online, limited choice quiz can be, it is pretty close. Even my husband agrees. Even might have made me re-think some things about myself. Maybe I am not as weak as I think? Maybe I can add "overcoming weaknesses" to my list of strengths? I went to a business meeting last night. Someone there talked about a book she is reading about gratitude, and it being the key, the “magic”. I thought a lot about what she said and realized that we have been asked since childhood, “What’s the magic word?” And usually it was “please”. So in a sense we were taught to beg for what we wanted. But our “magic” word should be “thank you!” I have a hard time seeing God as one that wants us to beg for something. We should ask, expect and then thank Him for the answer. Plus, I googled it, according to the Free Dictionary of idioms: “What’s the magic word?” (British and Australian) ‘something that you say to a child in order to make them say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ So they had it partially right! I have started giving thanks for the difficult things to get better, for good things, as they are now, but then giving thanks because they are about to be GREAT! it's just me :) It's usually how I start a conversation on the phone with the people I call most often. They know me, know my voice. Most have caller id, so an introduction is not necessary. Some know me better than others. Some think they do. They're wrong. (Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know-It-All plays in my head right now.) A lot of the time I even question how much I really know myself. So this is a journey that might give US ALL some insight? |