Bloggin, bloggin, bloggin

I started this blog to primarily show my kids off to the grandmothers, to share some recipes and just to journal some of my life.  I did not expect to meet other "bloggers", but gratefully I have.  Their blogs have allowed me a a sneak peek at their lives and being a curious person, I love it.  It is a support system in a way-new friends all over the globe.  Most in the states and a few over the big pond.  I lau ghed at the funny pictures..have cried a few times at the raw stories they share.  I thank you Brook,  Aly, Sue, Monty.  I also thank my stepsis for the peek into her twin -filled life. Oh and to the Lauderbacks , who are missionaries in Costa Rica, thanks for bringing us Thomasvillians along for the adventure.

One of my newest blogging friends is a kind man named Monty..here's part of a recent post I enjoyed and learned from..enjoy...

"We all live in an environment that is so full of stimuli that no one can perceive everything that's there. So we all selectively perceive what's there, through our own individual filters. We can take the stimuli there and derive happiness and joy from them, make lists of things that make us happy; or we can take different stimuli from the same environment and decide we are useless, worthless people, and find all kinds of justification from the past to support the contention. Another way to look at this is some people are choosing to be happy, and some aren't. Are we influenced in that decision by our emotional unconscious? You bet. Can we do something about that? You bet.

Look yourself in the mirror and start finding reasons why you like yourself, and tell yourself out loud those reasons. Daily. Be redundant. It's called positive affirmations. I like myself because I do kind things. I like myself because I saved a bee from Jake today (true). I like myself because I tell my wife I love her every day, and mean it. People like hearing this too it seems.

There's lots more. Here's what doesn't work. Hiding. Problems don't go away. Pretending there's nothing wrong. Same as hiding. If you need help, go get some. Really. But you need to work But it is so worth it. Imagine being happier. Here's what Mel wrote today:

"No matter what results you get, the only real failure is when you stop making the effort.

When you are mistaken, you can learn. 
When you are knocked down, you can get back up.
When you find that you've veered off track, you can correct your direction. 
When you discover that circumstances have changed, you can make adjustments.
What a shame it would be to stop just one effort short."

Now, I'm not Mel, I'm not going to start wearing heels and pantyhose, and I don't have a British accent, which I am sure are messy character flaws. I'm not a therapist, and I am not much different than the next person. But I laugh a lot. If you are one of my friends who are suffering from a lack of confidence, or know you are awesome at an intellectual level but not an emotional level, or think that you lead a boring life because you're so boring, or you can't be loved because the people who loved you left you; I'm here to say that I love you, and you don't have to change for me, nor lose weight for me, you're perfectly valid for me the way you are. Please validate yourself, because other people are wrong. There's no time like the present to start because life's a banquet and we don't want to starve. Come join me at the banquet table, please."