Living a Dream

The Art of a good old-fashioned Nap!

Remember the lazy days of napping an afternoon away as a teenager?  There wasn't much of a care in the world back then.   It was glorious!   

For me, a solid nap required a softer than soft, fluffier than fluffy, feather pillow...one silk edged blanket and pure silence.  I'd snuggle beneath the covers and slide into sleep like a sled whistling down a hillside in the deep of winter.   It was faaaaan-taaa-stic, I tell you.   

But then came the adult years.  And simply put, with days full of top speed living, schedules, children, friends, telephones, cell phones, computers, work and chores that never end....there simply isn't the time for the luxurious napping of my teen years.

Today I chose to change that.  I put the baby down for his nap and the house just happened to be silent.   I suddenly longed to be back under my covers.   (It didn't help much that there was a huge thunderstorm just outside the front door and the melodic sound of rain bouncing against my rooftop).    

I peeked into my bedroom and smiled.  There it was, my big pillowtop King sized bed.   Oh how I love the feeling of sinking into the fresh sheets and hiding my legs under the fluffed up blankets.   It called my name loudly and I accepted the invitation with a hint of reluctance.

At first, I layed there tossing questions around like a beach ball.   
        Would I lay there and think of my list of "To-Do's"?   
            Could I stop thinking about my responsibilities long enough to close my eyes? 
    What would happen to my chores for the day? 
            Would I be too far behind and regret the nap later?

And then...so sweetly, I remembered that I could raise up my Permission Flags!   I have had flags in my mind for years, ever since reading the ravishing words of Sark in books like "Wild Succulent Women".   She told her readers to raise up flags that say, "I give myself permission to.....(fill in the blank)"   And then fly them around you proudly.

So I did.   In my mind I imagined loads of flags waving softly in a complete rectangle around my bed.   When a responsible thought tried to sneak into my drowsy contemplations, I'd wave a glaring flag at it which read, "Sorry, you're not aloud in the napping place today, she has permission to sleep!"   It was a struggle for a few moments but those flags have some serious left-hook my friends!   And eventually, there I was, deep inside of one of the most encouraging naps I've ever taken.

It was freeing and exhilerating!   I was full of softness and lacking in anxiety.   I wasn't a responsible mommy or wife or friend at the moment.   I was just me, being so very succulent on a Tuesday afternoon, as I lay in the soft cushion of my mattress, snuggling my cotton candy like feather pillow, dreaming only of things that encourage me.

When I woke up, I looked out the window at the soft raindrops still falling.   It was magical.   And right then I thanked God for such a sweet gift.   How gracious, to have had silence, a plush bed to fall into, a God-sent-sound-machine to block out all possible other noises and a deep sleep to remind me of my teenage naps in years long since gone.

Joy... I tell you....pure joy!

(feeling like maybe a nap should be a part of my weekly schedule...think that is possible?)

Cutest Story...Why was the chair there?

Darling Juicy Friends... I just found this little jewel of a story and HAD to share it with you!  Written on a blog called, "The Wonderful World of Hand Crafted".   

Perfectly shared...in pictures.  You'll love it!   I think it simply brightened my day!  Click HERE for the story!

(feeling joy in finding such a treasure)
 

You SO need to laugh! I'm here for you babes!

You need a laugh...I can feel it.   So being the person who cares enough to ensure that you laugh...I am sending you right over to THIS LINK.   <----Click there babycakes, then come back and thank me.  Because I KNOW you will want to thank me.   It's THAT funny.  Yes indeed.

And Ms. Fitarella....honey YOU simply rock!   I will be laughing all night now, thanks to you baby!

Loved it.  Simply...LOVED IT!


( Feeling fabulously girlie because of the hysterical laughter that made me nearly blow soda through my nostrils while reading this post!)

One Birthday...One Amazingly Glorious Friendship

Happy Birthday Joelle!   I'd sing to you from here in a heart beat.   

We've been luscious girlfriends for nearly a dozen years now and holy moly what I would have missed if we hadn't been friends.   You know JUST the right things to say when I need it.    You're the sunshine and fits of laughter that burst through my telephone lines...not a moment too late.   You are my sanity.   Without your love and support, I never would have managed to get through the very toughest life lessons and horrific sadness that has accompanied my life.    Without you, I'd have celebrated far too much alone.  You are the big celebrator of me...my boys and my life.  And as we both know, if it wasn't for you...I wouldn't have jumped into the arms of Mr. Big..aka Mr. G...and married him.   (Every day I thank you for THAT encouragement..words of wisdom and the good shove toward him!  Ooooh la la!)

Without you friend, I would have  missed out on having the juiciest kind of friendship that makes me think of fine wine, cheeses...candles, the perfect chocolate cake...and talk that inspires weekends we will never forget.   It always seems that with you, I just know that I am "In the perfect place, at the perfect time...there is no where else I should be."

While, we live states away from each other and even farther from a place we still seem to call "home"...it is entirely ok.   Our friendship is vibrant and alive and full of the richness that God intended when two fresh faced girls met up in an Algebra class...thinking of ways merely to survive...but walking away with something that would last a life time!   US.

Happy Happy Happy Birthday my dearest friend Joelle!  I just love you babycakes!   You are the true meaning of a friend for life.   And I pray that this year, far exceeds anything you could ever have imagined, dreamed of or hoped for...I pray it all really does starts now.

(feeling so glad that I have this girl in my life!)

Oh my! I'm so feelin the love here.

I have news!  (Oh my word, NO, I am so not pregnant...hush your mouth!)

But first, can I just say this.   Have you ever had one of those weeks?  I mean the kind that isn't horrible, its just so chock full of activity and minor set backs that you never manage to do the thing that you love to do?  Yeah well, for me, its writing.  I love to write.   Truly with all my heart.  I love to waste loads of time spend precious time...restructuring sentences and agonizing over the use of descriptive words.   Unfortunately, the week behind me truly challenged my ability to sit down and compose even a title.   Dry bones over here...aching to spit out a few words.  My poor hubby has had to HEAR the words I'd normally just type to you all.   Oh don't feel too badly for him, I think he knew I was like this when he married me.  (grin)   

Through it all, I can assure you that my inner Diva lives on.  I actually wore a tiara about a week ago, along with my friend Tina.  All in an attempt to sign up women for a 5k walk for breast cancer!  Come on now.  You know you'd want to sign up for just about anything, if you saw two girls in hot pink shirts with pink balloons floating about them and tiaras sparkling atop their heads!  As I've said before, "two divas, together...can turn the world upside down with their contagious fun."  So we gave it our best shot.

So how are we fairing out there riled up ladies!?  Anyone got a delicious diva story to share? 

Ok, now here's the oh-so-juicy bit of news!   My sweet friend, Ms. Staci, just featured my blog on her site.   Oh my!   

Click on the banner and you'll go write to it  (yeah yeah, I know its "r-i-g-h-t)! 

I am honestly grateful for Staci's kindness and her words.   Thank you so much Staci, for making this Dreaming Diva feel special and honored.  You my sista are the real deal and anyone who visits your site should be in awe from the moment they arrive.

Now you know why I'm feelin the love.

(feeling appreciative)

How one choice, led her 13 miles

We first heard about her goal in January.   She was hanging out with a some of our girlfriends one night and in the midst of sharing our new year personal goals, she announced, "I am going to run the More Magazine Half Marathon!"  And the thing is - that was it.  From that moment T was in training toward her goal.   

Now, I am not a runner, with good reason.  Its tough work!  In the past 3 months, since her announcement, she's run up hill, down hill, in the midst of traffic, in the pouring rain, in the freezing cold and I seem to recall one rather ugly day in the snow!  Tina ran anyway.   Her knees have nearly caved and have been on ice for much of the three months, her body repeatedly ached from pounding across cement, gravel and dirt roads, her lungs revolted on her, leaving her breathless and in need of inhalers....but T just kept running.  Running toward the goal of a half marathon. 

Just One more Reason to find Good Girlfriends

It was a bright afternoon in late April of 2006, I was boarding an airplane in New York City,  heading for a weekend with two of my girlfriends in a town near Chicago.   I stood at the terminal, bag slung over my shoulder, shifting my weight from side to side - anxious to get on the airplane and sleep for a while, before my big weekend.

From the corner of my eye, someone rather colorful floated by me, but I didn't look.   A few minutes later, the same colorful individual seemed to whoosh by the other side of my body.   Curious, I turned and narrowed in on the person that seemed to create this buzz.   It was a young woman.  A tall pretty one, with straight platinum blond hair, big eyes and a brilliant smile.   Oddly, she looked rather overjoyed with life.   Living in New York, I have found that this is not such a popular personality in these parts.  She stood out, much like a white daisy in a mud puddle.   

Strangely though, she didn't seem to notice.   Nor did she seem to care.   As I watched her, it seemed to me that there was no one who was off limits to this bright creature - she smiled at EVERYONE.    When people didn't smile in return, she seemed to generate an even greater determination to smile all the more.   

Wearing a light-weight, floral dress with short sleeves, I began to wonder if she knew that Chicago was even colder than New York.   And I tucked my jacket around me a bit more, feeling the chill in the air. 

As I continued to watch her, I realized, it wasn't her bright smile, high energy, or spring-time dress that was the oddest part about this girl.  It was the big bouquet of freshly picked lilacs and pink roses that she clasped in her hands like a trophy, that truly seemed out of place.   Every time she walked past me, I could smell the lilacs and roses.  And every time, she caught my attention again and made me wonder about her story. 

But I was in no mood to talk.  No mood to ask her questions or even let her know that I noticed her.  In fact, as I stood in line, I felt agitated by her glowing presence and started to ask God if He would please make sure I wasn't seated next to her on the plane.  I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep.  The very thought of sitting next to this ball of wild energy made me very grumpy. 

The Emilee Grace Company's Big Reason to Celebrate

Juicy Friends,

I want to let you in on a little secret!  Today is the birthday of a very dear friend Ms. Diana...who happens to own a very special blog known as Modern Mama's Fabulous Favorites!   She has give-aways constantly! 

You'd just LOVE her.  Diana is a very sweet and special woman who wears many hats.  She is a mother to three lovely children, a wife to her equally busy hunky hubby and friend to many.  And recently she added businesswoman to her list of careers, by opening up a lovely web shoppe called, "The Emilee Grace Company", which is named after her two very beautiful little girls.    I've been looking at her items and drooling over one item in particular!  They have these adorable little leg warmers for babies.  You heard me right.  Remember the 80's leg-warmers we all boasted?  They are back.  But in itty-bitty baby wear...imagine that!  And they are available at her site.   You must see the argyle pair..could it be simply more preppy?  I love it!

I think it would be utterly juicy, if you'd pop over to her website and show her some major internet love on her birthday! 

Happy Birthday dear Diana!  We all wish you fabulous success in your brand new business.

Much love,
Juicy Jenn

The joy of a Juicy friend!

Have you ever asked God for a surprise?

"What?" you ask..."are you crazy?  Ask God for a surprise?"

Oh yes my darlings, I am entirely serious!  I ask Him for surprises every now and again.  And if you are a believer in the Bible, you'd find that I am entitled to ask ANYTHING of Him. 

"Are you serious?"

Why yes I am!  It says, "Ask and it will be given to you...seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be  opened to you."  Matthew 7:7-8  Now I am not saying that God is a Genie in a Bottle as my friend MB once helped me to see.  But I am saying that He hears it all and since I am his kid...well, I can ask!  (Btw, so can you!)

So yesterday, I did asked!  Boldly.  I told God it was so gloomy outside with the grey overcast sky and I was feeling rather blue.   Not in a particularly harsh way but I just had a dull sense that life was not so full of color day.  Know what I mean?

Then, last night, I went to a exercise class that a friend of mine has started this year.   Her name is Tina.  She's tiny, she's bubbly and a fierce force of a petite thing!   Tina is a work out queen and has amazing goals this year for her body.   I am not a work out queen but this year I have suddenly had a desire to become one.  Oh my, I still can't believe I can say that.  (Yea- ME!) 

Together, Tina and I started a set of goals.  We both have read the Body-for-Life book and we think we can manage to lose extra pounds and gain loads of muscle through using aspects of the program.  As with all goals, it takes discipline.  And frankly, with both of us sporting multiple kiddos, busy schedules, programs and each one having a husband that is so utterly adorable we just truly want to spend time with him...well, finding the time to work out is a challenge, to say the least.

When I arrived at the class last night, out of the blue and for no apparent reason, Tina handed me a pretty paper bag..with pale pastel tissue paper peeking out from the handled opening.   Just looking at it I felt special.  But when I opened it, this is what I found.

"What is it?" you inquire.  So glad you asked!  Its a Fitness Journal, put together creatively by my friend Tina!  Oh my.  Let me show you what she put inside of it.

Below is the first page! 

As I told Mr. G, based on the stickers she chose alone...it is clear that this girl, really "gets me".   Oh how I love to hold anything that declares that I am "Juicy"!

And then she did this!

She copied and pasted our daily fitness worksheets right into the pages for our daily six week schedule ahead!  If you look closely, you'll see that she even included all kinds of encouraging words...like "You can do it!" And its on every page for six whole weeks.

But THIS thing was also in the bag!

I am happy to report that it says "Sporty Girl" on the package...so there must not be any calories, right??  And for those concerned with the essentials of protiens...I am thrilled to announce that there are a total of 3 grams of protien in this little box of Hershey's Kisses!  Who knew I could get my protein so easily?!

Tina's gifts were most definately a juicy surprise from God through her!  And it is a tremendous priviledge to say I have such a good and kind and VERY JUICY friend like this.  (Thank you so much T!  You are amazing at helping me to get motivated to work it!)  I am glad to have a friend who firmly believes that we will reach our goals and lose the cottage cheese!

(feeling entirely grateful!)

A dollar!? Is that possible?

Normally, I wouldn't say a word.  But when you find something so shockingly great with goodies like this...you have to share it with your girlfriends! (Kinda like girl-code, don't ya think?)

I was working yesterday on a few projects on the internet and bumped into what nearly knocked me off the chair.   Make-up...in DROVES, for a mere $1.00 per item (kits and collections a tad more).   Yeah...Now we're talkin babycakes.  E.L.F. Cosmetics which stands for Eyes, Lips and Face...is the place!  I've noticed quite a buzz surrounding this company lately - they are everywhere!   (Including Carsen's Kressley's new show, "How to look good Naked"...which caused me get all misted up when I watched him help a girl love the skin she's in...maybe it was hormones or something...but come on, have you seen it?)

Ok back to the juicy topic at hand.

So I jumped onto their website and found myself joy-fully exploring the goodies.  Oh my word, they have some fabulous items!  Take for example, this set of Dramatic Eyelashes ...seriously vain but soo utterly juicy that I have to order them for my next date with my fabulous fun husband!  And then there were these little Candy Shop Lip Gloss tins, in 7 yummy flavors (I can not pass up that coconut one, Stephen is in LOVE with all things Pina Colada...can you just feel the Love he'll have for my sugared up lips?)  The packaging alone...just so adorable. Seriously, can I just eat the tin?  And then I found the kits.  A mere $5.00 for an entire "LOOK" for the eyes...in ONE package.   All the eye needs in one place...pre-designed and all the work done for me.  Oh yes...we DO love this!

Seriously, this website has it all.  Lotions, Bridal Sets, (isn't that a perfect gift to give a bride!)  Lip Liners, Blush, Mineral make-up....ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! For a girl who believes in having some of life's indulgences and living it up, this is a dream come true!  And for one dollar...I may go a little crazy.  But oh my word!  How utterly JUICY is that! 

Oh you KNOW you want to go take a peek.   So go!  Then come back and tell me what juiced you up!  I can't wait to hear about your fabulous finds.

(feeling oh so juicy!)