ln the pursuit of greatness

                            You can't bring about change if you are "acting small".

It's hard sometimes to do what needs to be done...even harder sometimes to do what we WANT to do...you know to go after that *thing* that you dream about. Unfortunately, we usually get in our own way (our self-image, self-talk, how much we value ourself)

I had a beautiful experience the past couple weeks where I took the limits off and just pursued my ideal. The result...I got it. Even now its hard to believe. But I have to keep reminding myself...its not just me, because my default response is how did I (lil ole me) get that??

But its not JUST me. It's me exponentially, because the God in me is so big, so great, and so awesome...what I can do with Him is multiplied.

Remember you are created for purpose. God wants His best for you. You can choose to seek out His best, or settle for good-enough. His best positions you for maximum effectiveness in that which He has called you to do.

And so I walk forth embracing that I am all that God says that I am. I will continue to press forth and aim high, as I dream big pursuing my goal to bring hope to all I come in contact with.

As Marianne Williamson so aptly put it: "Who are you NOT to be....[brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous] "

Grace, peace, and love in the pursuit of greatness,

Gia

One Accord

This past week was very exciting for me, and Valentines had nothing to do with it. ;)

On Thursday, February 13th, I launched the first of many more groups for One Accord.

From the website (which isn't quite ready to be published yet)...

One Accord is a community and inter-church pre-marital program. The goal of the program is to equip seriously dating and/or engaged couples with the skillset needed to foster healthy marriages. It is built upon the idea that marriages are the foundation of communities. If the marriages aren't strong, balanced and secure, then this impacts the family base, and the wider community. It is our hope that through One Accord we can assist with the strengthening of our nation...one couple at a time.

The program is set to run for 10 weeks, engaging up to 7 couples on everything related to creating solid marriages. Core topics include: understanding female/male differences, marital expectations, communication, conflict resolution, finances, and parenting. Couples will be engaged in couple and group activities within session, and will be expected to complete assignments together at home (date night).

In addition to the main facilitators, One Accord also invites other professionals and lay couples to share their expertise on matters related to creating a vision for your marriage, marriage and the law, marriage and finances, boundaries, and finally on building lasting relationships.

As I mentioned, we just got started with our first cycle of couples with the plan to expand to multiple cycles per year. We will look at demand to determine the frequency in these early years, but for sure we will offer one more cycle this year and then at least another two cycles in 2015.

One Accord will eventually offer a mentoring component. I hope to gain support of couples within local churches and community to serve in this position.  Additionally, as the program grows, I see our past couples serving as mentors for new participants.  Beyond that, also having regular retreats for the networking of the now married couples will provide a forum for the continued growth and upkeep of the newly formed families. It is my dream to create a network of couples who will have access to the facilitators and each other even beyond their group setting via blog, email, newsletters, and marital activities/retreats. 

What the blurb doesn't share is how long I've been dreaming of this program. It's been almost 8 years that I participated (as a co-facilitator) in a similar program in South Florida and decided that I would launch something similar at my church. Since then the vision has expanded and rather than tie it to any particular church, I've opened it up and advertising it as a community and inter-church group. I've been collecting information over the years and just archiving everything. 

Can you imagine how exciting last Thursday must have been for me? :D It was almost like having another baby!

If you pray, I'm asking for prayers for wisdom, favor, and success. If you don't---I'll take positive thoughts about the same.

Grace, peace and love as I build community!
Gia

quote of the week: 2/13/14

I missed last week (my apologies) but I couldn't miss this Thursday. In this month of February, our topic is....you guessed it "love".

However, I detest cheesiness, i.e. that watered down thing marketing and the media has called love. So my quotes may not make you feel all warm and cuddly inside (that's what Hallmark is for) but it will challenge and remind you of what true love is!

Happy Valentine's Day cyber-friends!

Parenting

Its been 6 months ya'll!!!!!! Daelyn Grace was officially 6 months on January 31st. I'm happy to report that most of the tired, overwhelmedness and anxiousness is gone. No more zombie-mommy. Left in its place is fun. Tons of laughter, silly faces, poop (and more poop), feeding, sleeping and yes...a bit of tired. :)

As some of you know, motherhood was a scary idea for me. I mean, I've spent almost 10 years studying the field of psychology, 2 of those years, specifically looking at counselling and boy oh boy...I've seen how easy it is to screw up a person. That alone made me think twice, no three times about being a parent.

But yea, putting all that aside, I mean, I think every parent wants the best for their little person. Me being who I am (over-achiever, well-read, a bit organic) set some high goals for this little one. I really wanted to try and be as natural as possible with her. That started with pregnancy (healthy lifestyle- was achieved). 2. Then labor, but that didn't work. oh well. epidural AND surgery was required for my sweet princess to get here safely.

3. Exclusive breast-feeding. done it...6 months and going strong.

4. :clears throat: cloth diapering. yup...6 months and now its getting real now that we've begun to introduce solids. :/

5. No (or very limited pre-made baby food). I mean seriously. its pureed veggies and fruits. How hard could that be? hahaha well I'm a couple weeks in and it really isn't that bad. I'm fascinated though. When I make it fresh, it can only stay refriegerated for 3 days (frozen for 6 months). SO I'm left to wonder what Gerber be puttin in their all-natural baby food why it can stay on the shelf (not even the fridge) for + 6 months. (insert deep sigh here).

from top moving clockwise: freezer with expressed breastmilk and her veggies for next two weeks.
storage container with her  fresh pureed peas. pumpkin after it was baked. magic bullet with greens
happy baby with a really dirty mouth (ironically, she was eating canned prunes which I did NOT make)

I have some other really ambitious goals, but all-in-all, it boils down to wanting the best for the lil princess. I figure we aim realllly high and if we don't make it- we still do "great". Rather than not setting goals at all and then its just "come what may".

The cool thing is- hubs and I realize that in order to maintain this lifestyle for her, we are going to have to make some lifestyle changes.

For example, we don't want her eating fast food (I mean really- makes no sense for me to slave over the stove as a baby and then just quit when she's a toddler/child)...I'm determined to not allow anything beyond the taste of a french fry before 3 years old. After that...well it will be for special occasions. The reality of this hit us as I sat near dying from hunger (being dramatic) in Wendy's drive-through line. oops guess that can't be happening too often. I mean, what we gonna say.."no babygirl, you can't have what mommy and daddy are eating!"

And for this, I am grateful for the responsibility of parenting. It is yet another thing to make me a better person. To help me do better. To make me more aware, conscious, and responsible for some of the basic things that I do.

So, to infinity and beyond..that's exactly how high I'm shooting! ;)

Grace, peace, love and pureed green beans!
Gia

weekend jet setter part 2: count your blessings

this was me + at least another 3 bags,
stroller and car seat!
Thank God for momma!

As I mentioned in part 1, we travelled last weekend. It was a great trip. And thank God for mommy! She was literally a life saver. I wouldn't ever want to travel with an infant alone. Although Daelyn Grace was great (no fussiness) or anything like that, it was quite a bit to keep balanced.

Last week, I talked about the "lesson" I learned from one event of the trip but as I wrote, it caused me to reflect on the trip itself. I couldn't help but to see how many blessings there were wrapped up in that little getaway!

The trip was a blessing in multiple ways.
1.We snagged lovely priced tickets for a direct flight from Nassau to West Palm Beach. Although it was on a particular airline, we had absolutely NO problems (no delays, no cancellations...nothing)! In fact, they gave us multiple graces upon our return as it relates to baggage and such.

2. We got free and comfy housing. Daelyn had an almost-new bassinet to sleep in ($20) and a playpen to hang out and play in (free)...and more toys than she could keep track of. It was just like being at home.

3. We got an SUV rental for the cost of a compact car. I never imagined how much space baby items take up. Add to that a couple bags from shopping and you've got a mid-size SUV looking like we were moving away permanently. :/ I didn't think we'd need more than a regular sedan but once again...thanks to mommy's suggestion, we were comfortable for the 4 days we were there.

mommy, me & Daelyn Grace on the plane.
she apparently was not pleased
with the camera in her face.

4. I found some really good deals on the couple items that were purchased for me and the lil princess (funny how I'm mrs-shop-til-I-drop, but with a baby, I was like...five minutes in the store and I was done!) The stroller nor cart seemed to keep lil-miss-on-the-move content for too long so after about 20 minutes, there needed to be a change in venue...unless she fell asleep. The best part was innocently walking through aisles, pushing the stroller (or cart) and seeing clothing (and other items) "moving" and not realizing that it was my daughter's doings. 

and the best of all----

5. As you recall from last week, I got the DSM-5 for free. The person who gave me theirs paid almost $200.

Non-financial "blessings":

April & Daelyn Grace at her
 office in North Palm Beach.

6. Got to spend some good time with mommy, Daelyn Grace and April, who is my former roommate. They got to meet, play with, and spend some good time with each other and they became fast friends. :)

7. Got a 200-page manual which will be a great plus for my pre-marital program, One Accord, that I'm preparing to launch in two weeks. The manual accompanied a previous training that I missed and I am just so grateful to have it. It is a wealth of information and resources, that honestly would have probably taken more than 2 weeks for me to compile if I had to do it on my own. side note: I had planned to eventually have something like this- so now I can just add, rather than having to start from scratch! yippeee

8. I got an entire day to network with other professionals. I met some fabulous therapists/mental health professionals and got some great tips for private practice. Those tips are definitely priceless!


I'm sure there are more but I'll stop there. There is an old song I remember and it goes:

Count your blessings name them one by one

Count your blessings see what God has done

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your many blessings see what God has done!

When was the last time you stopped to count your blessings?

Grace, peace, love and blessings to you!
Gia