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January 9: Advice To Your Future Self (Journaling challenge)

Not sure if you can read my journaling, so here it is (169 words, not including the Eleanor Roosevelt quote)
Dear, sweet Suzy, please be kind to yourself. You are doing better than you think you are. Don’t compare your weaknesses to other people’s strengths. Be you! Try each day to do your best. And remember, today’s best may not be the same as yesterday’s best, & tomorrow’s best may be even better. Just take it one day at a time. If needed, one moment at a time, every day. Wherever you are today is just where you need to be. It is the perfect place. And the perfect time. And the perfect set of circumstances to help you & teach you & support you. You got this! Simplify. Choose love. Be patient with yourself and with others. Take time each day to take care of you. Invest in yourself so you have the energy & love to give as wife & mom & sister & friend. Stay close to God. And keep drawing closer to Christ. You are not alone. He knows, even when no one else understands.

 
cinna said:
Thanks @Dalis for pushing my boundries! <3
Click to expand...

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Travis and I started the Couch to 5K running program on 09.12.2017. Our first day, we “ran” for 60 seconds and walked for 90 seconds and repeated that 9 times. It was brutal! Gradually over the next 9 weeks we lengthened our run time and shortened our walk time until we were actually jogging for 30 full minutes. We decided that to 1) celebrate completing the program and 2) to keep ourselves motivated, we would sign up to run a 5K race every month. Since we were going to be in Madison for Thanksgiving, I found a Turkey Trot we could run that morning. The day before, we printed off our registration sheets, packed our running clothing and headed down to enjoy an evening relaxing with family. Travis was worried that the course was going to be hilly because he couldn’t think of anywhere in Madison that was flat for 5K. I was thinking we’d just be running somewhere in circles along Main Street. Race morning came and it was a chilly 22 degrees. Neither of us was really prepared for that cold. We arrived at the race location to discover that it was a TRAIL run and we’d be circling around a field and into the hill-filled woods. Since we registered late, we didn’t get a t-shirt (although, they ended up having extras in the Z’s sizes so we took one for each of them). As the lady is giving course instructions, she lets everyone know that there are a lot of tree roots in the woods. She has done her best to blow the leaves off of them but cautions us to watch our path. All along Travis has been saying his goal for this race is to “finish under his own power”. Wouldn’t you know it... as we are cresting a hill in the woods, he trips on a root and tumbles head-first down towards a sharp branch sticking out which he narrowly avoids impaling himself on my completing a somersault. He stands up, directs me to “brush me off” and we keep “running” (or, more like I’m jogging super slow and Travis is walking just hoping this is over super soon). We finished... in just over 47 minutes with no fanfare. Just turned our race tag in so they could write down our place. We trudged to the car, blasted the heat and went home to eat! In the future... here are some things to remember for our 5K races:
1. Check the weather and make sure you pack the appropriate clothing (plus extra socks).
2. Make sure you know the course and don’t sign up for any more trail runs! Also, try to sign up for flat runs.
3. Don’t joke about falling... cause... you know, karma!
4. It’s all about the bling... only run races that give you really
cool looking medals.
5. Always stick with your partner... you never know when
they will need you
6. DON’T FORGET TO HAVE FUN! #coupletime

 
kit:
Honeybee by Kristin Aagard (Background, white flower paper, stitched tab)
Happy New Year by Kristin Aagard (baby, clock, mask and light orange paper)
Leaf Raking by Kristin Aagard (white paper clipped to lines)

template:
Info Newsletter Templates by Scrapping with Liz

journaling: Tina - This is Words from You to You in 2018. Dear Future Self, I wrote this to you on 10January2018. 2017 has been quite a year. We moved out of our house and into our apartment. We love to travel and can’t wait to show you in the scrapbook pages how many places we go in the future. NOTABLES: This year we are going to go grow so much. I have learned to forgive me for the mess I made of our path back when we gained our title Mother. I have learned that God truly has a plan for us. Do not let people judge you or say you were wrong and I should have done things differently for our future. I have carried that burden enough for my past and for your future. We will learn that we live the life as God guides us. Don’t let our kryptonite come back into our lives. He truly loves to say something and then forget he said it or tell you as we have in the texts. If he said that than he would have to say he has the right to change his mind. I know you love him and I have loved him and accepted him for who he is but believe me with my eyes wide open. He only intends to cause harm to us. He intentionally has hurt and ruined my New Years, Valentine’s and Christmas. We owe each other to have confidence in we know as the Mom what is best for our daughter. We don’t have to always be nice and share because he has shown through his actions that he will bite us for being nice and allowing him into our daughter’s life. He will use our words against us. He will say what he has to take our happiness away and then tell us over and over it is our fault. When he gets angry he forgets that he tells us he loves us and wants us. He instead refers openly to his mom and to his family that we are his one night stand that won’t go away. Please keep the focus I have been doing and focus on our beautiful children. I have taught them the importance of manners and keeping their word. I hope that when you read this you will be able to smile and say yes we did a good job and we will continue to and remember to stop and add to my million of pictures and keep scrapbooking our daughter and our son so we can turn back through the pages and read them to us as I do now. Please don’t forget to keep the pictures of their school work for them. I think they will love looking back and seeing their hand writing change. Remember the day, baby girl told you look at my new handwriting yesterday. Know, I hope this never changes of us, I am proud of us. I may have a hard time smiling right now but I am proud that I live for our children and they truly are my world and I promise that will always be so I hope that in the years when you read this you smile and say I was so right and I am happy that I put it in this letter to us. When baby girl loses more weight we will be happy I am so happy the fact I stuck to my commitments and took her to the dietician and she stopped gaining two pounds a month and started losing weight. I am so happy that our baby girl follows my foot steps and says how she sees it. I hope she continues that especially after enrolling her into confidence classes this year. Knowing me, reading this in years it will make me smile. I hope we still smile at this and look forward to starting this as a tradition to write to my future self so my current self can get it off my chest and my future self can be reminded of our triumphs and smile at the moments and the kids can read it and see who I was at the time and be proud beside me of our triumphs. Like baby girl says about me. After all I keep everything not objects because I cannot keep clutter and refuse to hoard in the house but I can keep pictures of the objects and memories of the great moments in life and the not so great also. I am so happy I have took the motto of the year for us is “Dear past, Thanks for the lessons. Dear Future, I am ready!” It truly is my motivation to let go of things that I cannot control and accept their failures because it truly is their loss and their failure, not mine. I will carry on and I will be happy. Those that are not happy will either learn to find the silver lining or they will learn to be negative somewhere else but not in my household. We are positive because positive brings positive and success. Remember you deserve to be happy. Your children bring you happiness. It is either the entire package or not at all. No more false promises. No more making plans to break the plans. No more waiting to see. It is now onward and upward. You deserve to enjoy life and the burden is of your shoulders. You wore the cross for your actions, now let him wear the cross for his actions. I hope that when you my future self reads this that you are still clear of this kryptonite and are smiling and laughing like you were before when you had walked away from him. Go dance in the beach of life. Enjoy tipping your toes in the water with the waves. You will see the tide go in and out as that is a part of life but you are choosing to keep your head floating above the wave. You will continue to as long as you believe in yourself. Please don’t ever forget that because it took me many years to realize it and I hope that I always maintain that in my heart. Love always, Your Present Self. Highlights: Enjoy Life - Believe in YOU - Remove Negativity - All or None

Link to Gallery: https://the-lilypad.com/forum/galleries/moc2018day9_notetofutureself.329050/
 
OK, I did it! Thanks for the inspiration @Dalis :bk
After I began reading others', I thought maybe I should put my journaling here:

Hey Pretty Lady! You! Yes, you!
Don’t walk away from me, sit down
and be quiet for a few minutes.
You never listen to me and it’s time
you did. You know it and I know it.
It’s time.
You are loved. You are valued. You
are cherished by so many. Except
you. People tell you how special you
are and you think, “Yeah but...”.
Cut it out. They are telling you the
truth. God doesn’t make junk.
It’s time.
You would not tolerate for one
second a friend treating someone
the way you treat you. You would not
treat anyone else the way you treat you.
It’s time.
Be ruthless in your love for yourself.
Let all the voices of the past be silenced.
Care for yourself as you would a newborn
baby. Be kind, be gentle, be strong
and let not the lies you have listened to
for so long be your constant companions.
They are trying to destroy you.
They very nearly have.
It’s not too late. The time is now.
Wake up each morning and let God tell
you how wonderful you are. Feel His love.
Know that you are one of His precious,
special children and that He wants the
very best for you. Act as if you believe that.
And you will.
It’s time. It’s not too late. The time is now.
I love you more than you will ever know.
 
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I loved this challenge!



Journaling:
I hope this letter finds you well. I’m sure that by now you’re much wiser - so I’m not going to give you advice. Instead, I want to help you REMEMBER all the wonderful lessons you’ve learned already.

Lesson 1: YOU ARE RESILIENT. You are so much more resilient than you give yourself credit for. You can do hard things! Like everyone, you’ve had your share of hardships, but you always manage to weather the storm. So just keep paddeling - you’ll make it to shore eventually.

Lesson 2. BE KIND. To others and especially to yourself. Kindness is free and requires little effort so sprinkle it everywhere!

Lesson 3: GRATITUDE LEADS TO HAPPINESS. This is a lesson that has been a long time coming. It’s taken me 40 years to realize that happiness does not come from having more, it comes from appreciating what you already have and who you’ve become.

Lesson 4: LIFE IS A JOURNEY NOT A DESTINATION. This is something that Dad told me on my 16th birthday and it’s stuck with me every since. You have a tendency to ruminate about the past and worry about the future instead of being present in the moment. I know it’s tough, but keep working at living in the now.

Lesson 5: DON’T JUDGE. We are all works in progress with our own histories and circumstances and we can never truly understand the intricacies of someone else’s life. So don’t be an a$$hole - DO ON TO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO ONTO YOU.

I love you and can’t wait to see where life takes us.
 
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