This post is in partnership with Gap Factory, as always I will always be 100% honest and open with you. Thank you for supporting this blog of mine!
It finally feels like Spring here in Utah which I am so glad about! With Utah, you never know what the whether will be like, it snowed just last week here and it was freezing. But then the next day it was sunny and warm! Utah is so bi-polar I always say. I also always tell my husband that if it wasn’t for the Utah’s long winter, I could live here for the rest of my life. But it’s the winter that gets me, Spring and Fall which is my favorite seasons, is about 2 weeks long and it’s mostly just Winter and Summer.
One of my favorite things to wear since last Summer is chambray/denim. But out of the chambray, I especially love the light chambray for it’s classiness and versatility. Gap Factory has some adorable Spring dresses for every occasion, and at great prices too! This exact dress I’m wearing will be available starting on April 14th. I styled this dress in 3 different ways to show you how versatile it is!
LOOK ONE:
Outfit details:
Dress: Gap Factory
Hat: Target
Gingham Shirt: GAP
Shoes: Converse
Watch: Daniel Wellington
LOOK TWO:
Outfit details:
Dress: Gap Factory
Sunglasses: RayBan
Bag: Brahmin
Sandals: Free People
Watch: Daniel Wellington
LOOK THREE
Outfit details:
Dress: Gap Factory
Belt: H&M
Sunglasses: RayBan
Bag: Brahmin
Ankle boots: Old Navy
Watch: Daniel Wellington
I was feeling really guilty as a mom the past week. My sweet 2 year old who has the sweetest, high-pitched, gentle voice started using this tone whenever he’s frustrated, this deep, firm, not the nicest tone of voice.
As I was thinking of why he started doing this and where he could have learned this from, I quickly realized that I use that same deep, firm voice with him whenever I get frustrated with him or my other 2 kids! He learned it from me and realizing that broke my heart. I felt I was such a bad mom to have my child learn this bad habit directly from my bad example. So I kept beating myself up and thinking of ways I can stop using that voice to the kids and ways to improve, then trying and failing over and over again. How can the most adorable human beings that absolutely drive your heart wild with so much love, also drive you so crazy and impatient and so frustrated & annoyed?
And it’s Spring break for us right now and one of my kids is sick so we’ve been mostly stuck at home and I’ve been tending to this very needy, clingy sick child along with her two siblings. She got sick literally starting on the first day of Spring break, what perfect timing, right? I feel bad for my other 2 kids who are not sick and want to do fun stuff so I’ve been taking all 3 kids out for a couple hours a day. So yesterday, I took the kids to The Classic Fun Center where they have inflatable bounce houses and a cool jungle gym. Hoping for a little break while they played. I was a little disappointed I am not going to lie, when my sick child(who was feeling pretty much all better by then) told me she didn’t want to play, but just wanted to hang out with me. This was after we paid so I was a little irritated but forgave her after 2 minutes because, come on, she’s so cute, I can’t be mad at her for long! So I didn’t get the break I wanted but held her like a baby at her request and rocked her and we just talked and laughed. Even though I didn’t show my emotions to my daughter, inside I was so burnt out and screaming because I just needed me-time but wasn’t getting any! Sick child = clingy child who wants to be with me literally 24/7.
As I was thinking this, a lady we were sharing the table with tapped my shoulder and said, “Thank you so much for sharing the table with me.” I told her, “Oh you’re welcome, it wasn’t an inconvenience for me at all, there was plenty of room for all of us.” Then she said, “I just wanted to tell you that you are really cute with your children. I was watching you and you are just so cute with your children. I wanted to tell you that.” I thanked her as she walked away.
Then Jay and I went to marriage counseling and had to bring our 3 kids because my parents forgot and weren’t at home. As we introduced them to the therapist, she said to us, “I can tell your kids are happy, well-adjusted kids.” And that meant so much to me, especially coming from a therapist! Maybe I am not doing so bad after all! Maybe I am being really hard on myself. Maybe I tend to only focus on things I don’t do well or need to work on, instead of all the things that I do well. And the things I do well far outweighs the things I don’t do well, but I tend to focus more on the negatives. I guess we all do in a way right? Our natural human mind tends to focus on what we lack of.
As I was thinking of these two ladies and their sweet comments, I also remembered how my kids have been telling me nice things the past week. “You are the best mom ever.” My 2 year old said to me several times out of nowhere while squeezing me right. “You are the coolest mom!” My daughter said during our silly dance parties. Then I had a very strong thought come to me, ‘I’ve been trying to speak to you through your children but you didn’t believe them so I had to have 2 other people tell you too to get it through you.”
And I had a realization that every time someone says a kind word to us, it’s directly from God! Just like how he tells people to do a kind act towards someone, he also tells people to say a kind word to someone. It’s his words that he tells his “messengers” to pass along. Every compliment we have ever heard, those are the very words from God himself. Every good thing comes from God. It’s his way of communicating with us to tell us that we are doing good. That he thinks we are wonderful. How proud of he is of us. But many times we don’t realize it or brush off the compliment and don’t really believe it. Sometimes it takes 5 different people to tell you until you start to believe it, like it did to me.
Then I thought of how much more I should compliment other people! I set a New Year resolution goal 2 years ago to never hold back a compliment. Before, I would think a nice thought about someone and if I happened to run into them, I’d give them the compliment. For example, if a lady at church sang a solo and I thought she had a beautiful voice, before, if I happened to run into her, then I’d give her a compliment. But now, I track her down and make sure to find her so I can give her a compliment! It’s so easy to do and doesn’t cause any sacrifice on my part, but you never know if that simple action will make someone’s day. But now that I realize that these kind words are coming directly from God, how much more I want to be his messenger in sending words that lift other people’s spirits! Making someone’s day just by our simple one sentence! How much power is in that? Isn’t that amazing? It doesn’t take much at all on our part to open our mouths and say something kind to others. But it makes such a huge impact on that person, oftentimes making their whole day! Words are so powerful!
I thank these two ladies for giving me the sweet encouragement I needed so much yesterday. I thank my 3 wonderful children who told me what God wanted me to hear. I hope my words will always build others up instead of building them down. That is one of my biggest goal I have made. And after today, that resolution has been strengthened.
What is one of the kindest thing someone said about you?
Micheal says
Pleasing you should think of sonehtimg like that