Can a 50 Year Old Wear a Bralette?

I posed this question to my 26 year old friend. She gave me that "uhhhh no" answer. I asked another young friend of mine about dyeing my hair blue...and she told me that I would do better with red. Something about me not being able to "rock it".

So ok. I understand there is a point where one should stop chasing trendy and kind of settle into a classic ageless look. Which just KILLS me.

I wear Converse. Always have...and I probably always will.

I have pondered my how old is to old question now for just about everything. And I must tell you that I am still in a quandary about it. I feel I should be able to wear a bralette in a way that is in good taste. I think I can rock it...and the blue hair quite frankly.

I am kind of tired of questioning what I should and shouldn't wear. I have bangs. I have my whole life. Do I really have to get rid of them? I think they may be too young for me, but I cannot imagine myself without them. But I have seen older women that wear their hair in styles that look too young for them and clothes that look too young for them. I don't want to be that person.

So - should I listen to my sweet young friends and avoid the bralettes and blue hair? How do I balance my love of some things and my desire to be balanced and realistic in my choices now that I have hit the half century mark?

I would love someone to shed a little light on this subject.

Naughty or Nice

So I have been on a Hallmark Channel binge on the few hours I have at home these days. While I am cooking dinner after 11 hour days at the high school and then the elementary school, I turn on Hallmark Channel and watch the most wonderfully cheesy movies I have ever seen. They are sweet and idealistic and totally unlike life.

I love them because they are like Elvis movies: wonderfully predictable. They start our sweet have a bit of trouble and the girl always ends up with the guy who is handsome and sweet and impossibly perfect. And  they manage to throw in a life lesson that is meant to teach us to be better.

I eat them up.

There is one called Naughty or Nice. It is about a woman who loses her job and becomes a bit bitter after having to take a gift wrapping job at a local department store. Her name is Crissy Cringle. She hates her name. Well - because of her name and because she lives on Candy Cane Lane she receives a book from someone that is called Naughty or Nice. She finds this book gives her the dirt on all the people around her. She is so unhappy in her current circumstances that she is in that she willingly looks up the dirt on her neighbor, then two girls at the coffee shop and eventually on her boyfriend. She uses the information against them to revenge herself and eventually to find out why her boyfriend is so busy - without her. She gets herself into all kinds of scrapes because of it. She knows that she is doing wrong but her bitterness causes her to use it without remorse until it bites her in the butt.

She sicks the book on her boyfriend and construes the information as he is cheating on her. He is so not. She confronts him and he is hurt and drops her like a hot potato.

She turns the corner, realizes that she is so wrong and sets out to fix it. She realizes that all people have naughty sides. Everyone has something that will put them on Santa's naughty list. But she also finds that people have nice sides as well.

What I LOVE about this is that I see it in myself. You cannot look at someone and see just their naughty side without also looking for their nice side. Not unless you are willing to see your own crap without tempering it with the good stuff. People rarely are bad without having a good side.

So - my point here is - I encourage you, when confronted with the nasty, to look for the nice before tearing into them. It is so easy when life is beating us up, to see just the yuck in people. Please look for the good as well....it is there...just not always apparent to us.

Make sure you practice seeing the good in people. Regardless of how inherently bad we are (because all of us know we are not perfect) we can learn to see the best in others. It will cause OURSELVES to be happier. In doing so, my prayer is, we actually learn to look for the good automatically and that it will in turn cause us to be a little easier on ourselves. 

God bless and keep you this Christmas Season.

I pray you find perspective and peace in the midst of all of the hubbub!

Fast and Furious - Slow and Easy...

I think part of my problem is when things go fast I spend all my energies on keeping up and tend to fail in important areas. I skimp on my T.A.W.G. (Time alone with God) and I don't eat well. I just do better when I slow down. 

The thing I have learned over the last month is that I do have to manage

my time well when I am cooking Paleo. But I have enjoyed the process of thoughtful eating. I love the chopping and creative replacement that eating Paleo brings. It is a slower and a nice reflective

time for me as I gather the ingredients and chop the vegetables. I know this is hard when you have little ones. Impossible even.  

I read a book by Claire Cloninger over 20 years ago called, A Place Called Simplicity. It was something I longed for even then. Living simply. It is actually something you have to work at. It is a wonderfully inspiring read. 

And the fact is there are seasons of simplicity. One of those seasons for me was when the boys were babies...I said no a lot - just because it was harder to do things with two babies. But it slowed time down and my memories are of a unhurried and wonderfully simple time enjoying those baby boys. 

There are things you have to learn to say no to in order to simplify. And "no" is a hard thing for a people pleaser. But it gets easier the more you do it. I think coming to a place where you realize you can't do everything is a good starting place. Realizing you can't please everyone is the next step. Understanding that folks are more gracious than we give them credit for also makes the process of simplifying easier. Dumping the guilt of choosing carefully and denying help at school, at church, or wherever is also a must. 

I am not saying drop out of life. Help where you are led but don't be afraid to step back when your dance card is full. And of course there are seasons where no matter how intentional you are you are meeting yourself coming and going. That happens. Can't always be controlled. But it is also why you want to be nutritionally sound and grounded in the Word And prayer. 

Regardless of how you choose to live, fast and furious or slow and easy, you must see to your spiritual, mental and physical health to be the best you can be. 

God bless and keep you on your journey. 

The Dreamer and The Doer

I have a lot more of the dreamer in me. I have these amazing ideas and they always are just there...right before me ever out of reach. I go for them every once in a while but for whatever reason life gets in the way.

That is my fault.

It shouldn't happen that way. I posted this on Facebook 6 years ago:

Pajama Mama is my website. It is a beginning place for so many of my desires. My desire to serve the Lord, to be with my children at home and to help my community and other women like me who just need to find a way to supplement their income so they can do what they love best - take care of their family!

And I never really got anywhere with it.

But over the last few months I have felt a definite prodding to move forward. But I always had an excuse. My excuses ran the gamut: I don't have time, I don't feel good, I am too busy doing for everyone else, I don't have the money. And I allowed myself to become bogged down in the I don'ts and I can'ts and foundered.

I have started almost every January saying the same thing. I have an idea. I am going to see it through. This year I will see God bless this.

But I did not follow through. My faith was weak. And I would lose sight of my dream before the year was halfway through.

This year some interesting things happened.

My two year renewal of Pajamamama.net came around again and they renewed it with some added benefits that they didn't have before. So...I got that without really trying! Ha!

And I had a friend I had previously done contract work with at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama invite me to try something that I was somewhat skeptical about. I am a HORRIBLE sales person. She will tell you that I am not. But - I am. I do not like pressuring people. And even when I am not pressuring people, I feel like I am pressuring people. BUT - the thing is, if I want to be healthy, and I want my family to be healthy, then I am going to live it out. If I care about others - it is much like my faith - I am going to share it. Some way. Some how. It will overflow from the excess of my living it out.

IT WILL OVERFLOW FROM THE EXCESS OF MY LIVING IT OUT.

So...I share my faith. I share how I live. Not to pressure anyone. But to encourage other's who are like me and struggle on a daily basis to live out their convictions. Whatever they may be.

For me, it is to serve God first. To take care of my family and to serve others well. This can only be accomplished when I take care of myself. And I am not talking about excessive pampering. I am talking about reading God's word, praying - talking to God and eating right - exercising. These are the things that help me serve God, family and others best. This will only help my job at school and give me the energy to create and do when I get home.

And I have stepped out further than I ever have before. I have been eating paleo for a month now. I have been exercising daily and I have more energy and my attitude has absolutely changed. I thought I would never quit drinking my Cokes...but I have. It's amazing. I don't even crave it.

Now that is not so much from drinking anything or being on any particular diet, Of course ultimately it is that...but for those who are like me (not very self motivated), it takes more than that. It had more to do with someone who held out a helping hand and encouraged me. Even when I looked past her helping hand, she would stay in touch and ask me how I was doing. Accountability - haven't I talked about that before? Well...it is a good thing. A must for changing one's lifestyle.

I have been using BeachBody products for years, but they never did me any good until I had the accountability. So I now am a BeachBody coach. I love the shakes and I have been dancing. Anyone who knows me well knows I love to dance, So Shaun T has been taking me through the moves every morning with CIZE and it starts my day with a smile. I think you should do what you love. I don't love to exercise...I do love to dance. It really doesn't feel like exercise at all.

But the eating right and moving more is working. My goal now is to encourage other's to do the same thing. I want to help them act on their dreams too.

I think you should do the thing that works. I have tried other things and they did not work for me. What I love about Shakeology is the fact that it combines one meal...with my probiotics, and vitamins. It is a dense nutritional shake.  A yummy one at that. I didn't get this with the other things I tried. It is a much more affordable option to nutrition and weight loss.

I hope you will check in with me every once in a while. This blog will not be all about BeachBody. But I will share occasionally how that is going.

God Bless and Keep YOU ALL!