The Good Life

As a Mom, I’m learning that there is a fine line between expectation and reality. I have expectations of what I want out of Colton, but the reality is he is not going to meet all of those expectations. It’s funny that it took me becoming a Mom to really understand this concept because it’s really no different when I’m dealing with adults. I have spent months trying to pinpoint what areas of my life area causing me conflict, stress and negativity. I have come to the conclusion that most of the conflict, stress and negativity that I feel is due to my reaction to the reality of a situation versus my expectation. Over the course of several months, I’ve been soul searching and reflecting on, not only what kind of person I am portraying to others, but the kind of person I really am, with no filter. It’s so easy to post cute pictures of Colton laughing and doing fun things or to post a Facebook status update of what a great day it is – but behind the scenes, is it a great day? Am I liv...

It's interesting to me that when I'm struggling through hardship or when I don't understand something, or I feel tired/frustrated/defeated I seek God so passionately and with so much purpose. I pray boldly. When things are easy and life is "good", do I maybe take Him for granted? Why do I not pray just as boldly in thanks for His goodness? I've been digging into God's word more and more, learning and searching. It's so inspiring. While reading tonight, I found something interesting. I'm sure that I have learned this along the years, but never really stopped to give it thought (in depth). There are many aspects of sin. The interesting thing for me is the sins of commission (doing what is wrong) and the sins of omission (not doing what is right). I have always known that if I do something that is wrong, it's wrong (or a sin). I never stopped to think that NOT doing something that I should could also be a sin. What does that mean anyway? Not d...

There is something special about Fall. The smell, the chill in the air, the colors, the sounds. It brings memories and emotions flooding through me. I can remember exact places, songs, events, relationships, talks, trips. It's nostalgic. I reflect, I think, I examine myself and I am hopeful! Many wonderful things have happened throughout my life during the Fall and I absolutely love this season. Matt proposed to me 5 years ago this month. I think back on these past 5 years and how far we have come as individuals, as a couple and as parents. Life has thrown us some curve balls but God has been so good to us. Hand in hand, we have fought some hard-won battles. One year ago, we got the keys to our house. This is the first house that Matt and I picked out and bought together, making it very special to us. We have done some updates and made some changes over the past year and we have slowly made this house our home. As I think about the last year in this house,...

Did you know that back in 2000, Blockbuster passed on buying into Netflix? Blockbuster had 7,700 stores open and Netflix had just 300,000 subscribers and relied on the post office to deliver the movies to customers.   Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, wanted to form an alliance. Essentially, Netflix was willing to become Blockbuster's own streaming service. Hastings was going to sell a 49% stake in the company and take on the Blockbuster name. Blockbuster didn’t understand the business model. They couldn’t think outside the box and see where things were headed with technology and growth and they passed on the opportunity. Fast forward to 2004, and Blockbuster's downward spiral began. Blockbuster tried to launch its own subscription service but it was too late. By 2005, Netflix had 4.2 million subscribers and membership was steadily growing. Also, Hollywood studios began offering Netflix more movies for its library, and that hurt Blockbuster's video archive revenue. It se...