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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Be a Living Expression of Love

 Hello everyone, I hope that you all are having a wonderful week. Since I have not blogged in about a few weeks because of being sick for 2 weeks, and then I just got back from vacation, I thought that I would share something that I heard yesterday, and hope that it inspires some of you.  


"BE A LIVING EXPRESSION OF LOVE."

When I heard this, I was like "wow," very powerful. This just really spoke to me because sometimes I do not look at life through love.  I sometimes do not feel loved, nor do I know how to love someone else or even see the love in the world. So sometimes this is a struggle for me, as it is for others, I'm sure; but we can do this. We are already living expressions of love, we just don't always choose to express the love that we have within us.  We normally hide it or tuck it away in a safe place that way we do not get hurt or so we don't have to show people that we can love them. What we want to do is choose love over fear, and get into our minds where we are able to give and share love with the world through our actions or with our words. We do this by shifting our perception.  What does this mean?  It means: 

**PUT LOVE FIRST
                 &
**EXPRESS LOVE FIRST IN ALL THAT YOU THINK, SAY AND DO.



"when you put love first, you are choosing to see the world through the eyes of love. You start to focus more on the positive side of life, you start to see the hope that life has for you and others, and you start to see the good in people instead of just the negative aspects of them. When you put love first, you start to open your eyes to possibilities that are around you, and start to notice love everywhere around you. Expressing love is the other aspect of this and this can be in many forms like caring for others, being kind and generous, forgiving yourself and others and more.  It's also accepting yourself and accepting others and doing things that you love like singing, acting, writing or whatever makes you happy. It's knowing that you are worth so much more than others may think, and it's knowing that you do not need other's opinions or acceptance in order to make your life as beautiful as you want.  You do not need their acceptance in seeing the world differently than the way they may see it, because you are your own person." 

This world needs more love, and it starts with one person (YOU)...you can help show this world what love really means and how just changing the way you see life, can really change your life, your perception, your perspective, and soon others will notice this as well, and maybe follow suit.  So be a LIVING EXPRESSION OF LOVE and you will make your world and the world of others a much more beautiful place.  That's all for today, thank you for reading and I hope this inspired some of you, even just one person, to really see the love around you, see the love in others and just practice being a living expression of love for others and yourself. You just might surprise yourself on how beautiful this world really is. 

REMEMBER:



 sources:
pictures are from google images

Friday, August 7, 2015

5 Tips on how to balance being a wife, a mother and a full time college student and A CHALLENGE!!!!!! YAY

Hello everyone and welcome to another blog post.  As I mentioned yesterday, I was going to do a blog post about how I balance being a wife, a mother and a full time college student.  So here are 5 tips that I use to help me balance being a wife, a mother and a full time college student...Let's get started shall we........













Tip #1: Write things down
   -One thing I do to make sure I don't forget things is I write it down.  I have a planner that I use, that has all my homework in it, my appointments that I need to remember, when our bills our due, special events we have planned or any event etc.  This way I don't forget it and I can resort back to it if I need to change or look at something.  On top of this, I have a calendar in my living room to help with that.  Whether it's a notebook, a piece of paper, a calendar on your iphone, ipod, whatever, make sure you remember to put it in there so you don't forget anything that's important.

Tip #2: Designate a day or an hour that is "family time"
   -This has worked amazing for my family.  My husband works all the time, and we were never seeing each other, and we never spent time together and it was affecting our relationship between us and our child.  So what I did was I decided to take the days he has off and call them "family time."  On those days, we spend time as a family.  We go to the movies, or shopping, or to my parents house, but whatever we do, we do it as a family...all day.  This really just makes sure that you have some time with your family.  Even if it's just sitting down at the table for one meal a week, make sure that you have atleast an hour with your family, so that they don't feel left out of your life.

Tip #3: Utilize "nap times"
   I can't stress this enough.  When you have a child, a lot of what you plan to do, doesn't work out, and you feel like you have no time in your life to do anything...ok, well I have an idea...ready...."DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WHILE YOUR CHILD IS NAPPING."  That sounds so simple, but it's so worth it and yet so hard...because then it's like well what do I want to do?  While my son is napping, that is when I catch up on my blogs...which if I haven't been posting, that's because he doesn't always take naps, but anyway...I catch up on blog posts I need to write and share, I do some homework if I have any that day, I do the dishes and get the house cleaned, I take a nap myself if I feel I need one...whatever it is, I do it while he naps, that way when he wakes up, I can spend my time with him.  Also to add to this, I do my homework Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday...so that way, I have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with him...that's just how I do my school work and get it done.

Tip #4: Make time for your significant other
   When your child or children are in bed, take that time and spend it with your significant other.  My husband and I do this every night.  After my son is in bed, we go and spend time together, whether that's watching our favorite tv shows which right now are Survivor and Seinfeld, or playing cards, or talking, whatever it is, we make time for each other because they need to know you still care even though you are a mother. You want to try and keep that connection strong with your significant other because that will help when you are raising your child.

Tip #5: Make time for yourself
   Now I talk about this a lot, but it's so true.  In order to stay sane, you need to make sure you are ok.  Make sure your body is healthy, make sure your mind is healthy, make sure your spirit is healthy.  If anyone of these is not healthy, and not up to where they should be, which should be where you are happy, then you will not be happy.  You will be stressed, and things just will go down from there.  So take quiet time and do something that's just for you.
That's all for today's post.  Hope you all enjoyed it and it was helpful. So here is something I have never done before, but I'm going to give it a try.






******Here's a challenge for all of you anyone out there...whether you have a significant other, a child, a roommate, a a friend, a parent, whoever....here it is:
      - If you have a significant other, a child, a roommate, a mother, a father, a friend or whoever,... I challenge you to take 15 minutes and just spend time with them.  Don't think about yourself, think about them.  Talk with them, hang out with them, but spend 15 minutes and make it just you and them.  Do this for a week, 15 minutes a day, now this might be slightly easier for parents, or your significant other anyway....after that week,  comment back after the week is over and tell me how it went.  Did you like it, did you notice anything different etc?  You can post your comments on here or email them to me at lilvina25@gmail.com...Remember: 



 
Ok hope you all have an amazing week, and enjoy the challenge, I know you can do it :)






Thursday, August 6, 2015

Liam's 2 year update

Hey everyone...welcome back to another blog post.  Today I will be doing Liam's 2 year update.  Now his birthday isn't for another 2 more weeks, but I will be on vacation, so I'm going to go ahead and do that now.


















How I raise Liam:
   -Now every child is really different and what I found really works for Liam is to let him learn things the way that he can learn them.  He's a very independent, motivated little boy.  Has been since he was born, and he loves to figure things out on his own...and he can.  He can come a long way, and everything that he knows, he has figured it out by himself.  When the doctors told him that he should be crawling and rolling, he skipped both the steps and took his first step when he turned one.  When the doctors told us that he should be eating solid foods early, he ate them a little later, when the doctors said that he was really far behind than other children, he was caught up within like 2-3 months.  I never co slept with him, he has always slept in a crib, he always slept through the night, he was in a toddler's bed at about 19 months and stayed and has been in a toddler's bed ever since.  He understood the word "no" at about 4 months and whenever anyone would say "no, or don't do that, or Liam don't play with that, he would stop and go do something else;"loves the snow (I took him out in the snow 2 weeks after he was born, even though the doctors told me not to because he could get sick and he's too young, and he loved it.  Ever since then, he loves the snow), and loves to be outside...so I let him do things and learn on his own pace.  He figured out how to go up and down the stairs on the playground holding the railings in March, and another mom asked how old he was and I told her and she said WOW...he's going to do great in school, and now he can go up and down the stairs with no help...so that is how I raise him, and it's literally has worked wonders for me...and again every child learns differently so this may not be the way your child learns.

Liam's age, height, weight and built:
   -Liam will be 2 on August 31st.  He is a very active toddler, and usually very well behaved.  He's built on the smaller side.  He's about 23 pounds and around 32 inches tall.  He has just gotten into 18 month clothes...however those onesies and shirts are too small, but the pants are just right...So that's ok.  He wears size 3 diapers which he's worn for an entire year so far..but I'm pretty tiny so that's why he is built on the smaller side.

Toys and activities he loves:
  - Right now he loves his cars and trucks.  He's obsessed with them and he can just play with them all day if you let him.  He loves to color, play outside, and spend time with his grandparents.  So he's a typical toddler.

Where's he's at in his learning:
   -Now as some of you know, Liam has a speech therapist.  He's doing a lot better.  He's saying more words, and usually can repeat after hearing someone say it.  He still has a problem with the vowels, but he's getting there.  He says a few phrases and can associate the picture with what you are saying.  Now Liam has had a therapist since he was about 1 years old, because we went through a lot, where he had to wear a helmet because he had tortacollis, and he had to have occupational therapy as well as therapy within the home.  Thankfully his insurance covered all of that, and is still covering the speech therapist appointments that he has now.  In January he could only say like 2 words, now he can say like 30 words and knows like 5 different signs...we still have a long ways to go, but he's picking it up pretty well.

How I discipline Liam:
   -Disciplining Liam isn't really that hard. Now he is a toddler, he does throw tantrums, he does know how to push my buttons, but this is how I discipline him and it's what has worked for our house hold.   I use the 3 strikes your out method.  Now time out doesn't really work for him because he is so active that he doesn't really just sit anywhere for any amount of time, so once I count to three and he is still misbehaving, he goes to his room, he stays in there for 2 minutes, and then I get down on his level, explain to him in a way a 2 year old can understand that what he did was wrong, I give him a hug, tell him I love him and let him go play.  That method has been working really well for us.  Now this method may not work all the time for everyone, but for him it works really well.

What are we working on with him:
    -I am currently working on having him pick up things that he gets out or throws.  If he has food and he throws it, I make him pick it up, and throw it away.  If he gets toys out, and we are at someone's house, before we leave, I have him pick up the toys he got out.  He does this like clock work.  I show him where they go, and he picks them up one by one until they are all put away, I give him a hug, tell him I love him and thank you.  It impresses my parents how well he can remember and comprehend things so quickly.

  -Another thing we are working on is his body parts and shapes.  He can show me where his nose is, where his mouth is, where his head is, where his hair is, where his ears are and where his eyes are.  He can say socks, and he can say shirt as well.  He knows his shapes...if you ask him where the star goes, he can put it in the slot where the star goes and etc...so he's very smart.  He's amazing at puzzles.  Any puzzle you give him, he can put it together in like 10 minutes...and he remembers where they go..so if you dump it, he knows exactly where each piece goes...which his therapist said is amazing and impressive for his age.  She said that he's very intelligent and can really solve problems really fast.  If there is a solution, he will find it.

What have I learned as a young mom:
  - As a young mom, (i'll be 26 next month), I have learned to just let my child be a child.  Let him be a toddler and discover things, and get messy, and just let him be him, because that is how he learns.  It makes me so happy when he learns new things and he's just such a happy child.  So many parents and people have come up to me and have said that he's so well behaved, and he's so cute and how do I get him to listen at such a young age, because they can't get their toddlers to listen, and basically I just smile and say, I let him be him.  I make sure he knows what is right and wrong, and he knows when mommy says "no," it means "no." Now he does test me a lot, and that's expected and I just keep doing what i'm doing.  I'm very consistent with how I discipline him, and teach him, and raise him.  He signs "please," he knows how to say "thank you," because that is what I teach him...when he wants something and I don't know what he wants, I ask him to show me, and when I finally know what he wants, and he can have it, I say "what do you say? And he signs the word "please," I give it to him, and I make sure he says "thank you." So my advice to all,  is to teach your kids the way you want to teach them, no parent is perfect, not even me at all, but if you are consistent with what you are doing, they will pick things up fast and learn too.  Remember to be patient, be happy, always love your child, remember they are only children and that they will learn, and just enjoy being a parent because it's very rewarding and it's amazing.

Hope you all enjoyed this.

Note:

Now I'm also a full time college student and a wife...so that will be for another blog post on how I do all of that and be a mom.