Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

INTRO AT WHY WE BELIEVE

~ SHARING MY HEART WITH YOU

 

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Tyau family photo 2015, Christmas in Hawaii. We are getting ours taken next week and I’m so excited! .

 

 

This past January, I got to participate in Why We Believe, an event held by some amazing, incredible LDS women such as Stephanie from NieNie Dialogies, Brittany from House of Lars, Kelly Jensen, owner of Chatbooks and more.  I gave an introduction and a conclusion and wanted to share them with you!

 

My Introduction at Why We Believe:


Good evening, everyone!

Whether you came here from attending Altitude Summit, from local or out of state, non-LDS or LDS, we’d like to welcome you, we are so glad to have each of you here with us tonight.

For the next hour & a half, you will hear from some incredible women as they share their stories & beliefs through talks & music. The purpose of this event is simple: to share what makes us truly happy. In the term The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the word Gospel means good news. And just like if you tasted the most delicious food or just read the best book, you love it so much that you want to share it with everyone that you know, we wanted to do the same. To share the best news that we ever heard of.

As I was preparing this intro, I felt inadequate in many ways. I’m not eloquent enough, cool enough, what should I say, and I even googled “how to give a good intro at an event”. Then, I had a thought come over me, “Rely on me. I am here for you.” And I realized I don’t need to always rely on just my self, that God is there. He is always there and cares about everything that I do, more than I care about myself. Just like how a parent cares greatly about what their child eats, watches, hangs out with, God cares about every detail of your life. So I’m relying on God tonight on what to say, and the message he wants you to know is that God loves you. He is there. Always. He cherishes you equally as he cherishes the other person next to you. No one is better than the other. We are all equally loved & cherished in God’s eyes. And he wants us to rely on him in everything that we do, and not try to do everything ourselves.

We will now start our program. Enjoy your evening.

LIFE LESSON #3: WHAT HAS KEPT ME FROM BEING FULLY HAPPY

~ SHARING MY HEART WITH YOU

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This is series 3 of my Life Lessons, I posted the first 2 on my YouTube channel but I have decided to keep my channel all sewing/DIY related, so I have moved the series to here! It’s better this way anyway because I really hate starring at myself on video! Especially close-ups, ahhh~! So come here every Friday at 2 pm, MST for my life lessons series, I’d love to have you!

 

So there are 3 things that have kept me from being fully happy. I will talk about the first two, and talk about the last one on my series next Friday.

  1. “Don’t focus on making money, focus on being your best. Then money will follow.”
  2. “Why do I expect perfection to be the normal?”
  3. “If you want to be happy, be.”

 

 

1. “Don’t focus on making money, focus on being your best. Then money will follow.”

I have been thinking a lot about this. My strength is sewing. And refashioning. That is by far the most popular on all my social channels. I know that is my talent! I need to focus my time and energy into sewing more and producing more sewing content on my blog, YouTube and social media, instead of focusing on making money and agreeing to work on sponsored posts that don’t have anything to do with sewing. Don’t focus on making money short term, focus on working on my talents. And what I am good at. Then eventually, money will follow. I need to have more faith in myself, my talents, and also in time. but isn’t having faith in time so hard? Because we don’t know what the future holds and our faith lacks because of that lack of vision. But I need to trust that working on my talents will bring forth success and be patient.

 

2. A few days ago, I posted this on my Instagram, but want to expound on this.

Tonight I was simultaneously making pumpkin bread & dinner. After the bread was in the oven for 20 mins., I realized I had forgotten to put one ingredient in the bread; baking soda! The bread was not rising at all. So I looked for baking soda but we were all out. It was too late to mix it in there anyway but I was so bummed!

 

I told myself if this is the worst thing to happen today, then it was a pretty good day. But my mood wasn’t any better. You see, it wasn’t just about the bread. I was exhausted from always multitasking as a mother. I thought of earlier today and the laundry I had to fold over and over again because my toddler would grab it and throw it, step on it, etc. And the many interruptions while I was blogging with fights, demands & requests. If only I could just focus on doing one thing at a time… I said to myself. If only I didn’t have to make dinner at the same time, I wouldn’t have forgotten about baking soda. I was craving pumpkin bread so bad. Now all that work for nothing. .
I finished dinner and went and lied in my bed. Within 2 mins., my 8 yr. old came and lied next to me. “Mommy, don’t be sad. I know the bread didn’t turn out but your dinner was perfect! It was so yummy, mommy. And life isn’t perfect. Things are suppose to turn out bad sometimes! It wasn’t your fault about the bread, mommy. You’re always so busy doing so many things at one time. And remember, you’ve only made pumpkin bread like 3 times so you’re still practicing. It’s like when you sew, your sewing stuff always turn out so good because you’ve had a lot of practice. So you just need to practice more and it’ll become perfect. I know it didn’t turn out this time but messing up only makes you better. Next time, you’ll make sure not to forget baking soda! Why don’t you wake up tomorrow and write down a list of things you want to do and I’ll babysit so you can focus on doing one thing at a time?”

 

I’ve been thinking about what my sweet daughter said, about how life isn’t suppose to be perfect and things are suppose to go wrong sometimes. Why do I expect perfection in my life as though that’s a normal thing? When did I become so entitled to life that my “normal” and my expectations is always perfection? And when things go wrong, I’m surprised that it did? 

Life is suppose to be imperfect. Things are suppose to go wrong sometimes! The normal should be that I expect something to go wrong sometimes. That way, I am not surprised when it goes wrong, because I was expecting it. Do I have a really high expectation for life? Am I being too unrealistic? Do I need to lower my standards of a happy life and internalize the fact that a happy life doesn’t mean things go wrong, a happy life involves things going wrong but we aren’t surprised by it and we just roll with the flow? To make the best of it and say, “Ah, this is just how life works. Things can’t be perfect all the time. What can I learn from this?”

 

What is keeping you from being fully happy? Is any mindset of yours getting in the way from being truly happy? Because in the end, happiness is a choice. It’s not due to circumstances, but a mindset and a choice we make in our head.

 

 

 

 

 

How I stop myself from feeling jealous or envious

~ SHARING MY HEART WITH YOU

 
 

Sometimes I post these Sunday thoughts on my Instagram and I don’t know how many of you follow me there, so I’m sorry if you feel like I’m double posting, I don’t know how to balance IG and blog!

 

Life isn’t fair isn’t it? I hear of people whom are born into wealth and have never struggled and everything’s been given or provided for. I wonder, “Why couldn’t my parents be like that?” But I remind myself that while life on earth may not be fair, it’ll be made perfectly fair in the next life. So if you’re blessed with wealth, the more is required of you to use your wealth to help the less fortunate and you’ll be judged more harshly than people who didn’t have that blessing.

 
Plus, work ethic is priceless & the people I truly admire are the people who had to work hard for what they have because their character is impeccable. The Higher the blessings, the higher the law that is expected of you to abide by. The more talents you’ve been given, the more is required of you to use those talents to enrich the lives of others.

 
So in the end, the fairness evens out and everything that is unfair in this life will be made perfectly fair in the next. This knowledge helps me from playing the comparison game and stops me from feeling jealous or envious. It also reminds me of how actively I should seek to help others since I am very blessed in many ways.

My epiphany on what enjoying every moment of motherhood really means

~ SHARING MY HEART WITH YOU

Living in UT where it’s cold and dry, I’m always looking for a good lotion so I agreed to try out the Vaseline Intensive Care™ Advanced Repair lotion. This post is on behalf of Vaseline® and One2One Network and all opinions stated are my own.
So you know how there are some mothers in this world who say, “I love being a mother.  I love every second of it.  There isn’t a moment of motherhood I would trade for anything else!?”  Well, I always wanted to say to them, “Well, that’s just B.S!  How could you love every moment of motherhood?  Do you REALLY love that moment when it’s 4 a.m and you haven’t slept one second because you have a sick baby who is crying nonstop and she/he just threw up all over you?  Do you really love that moment when you have vomit all over your sleepy, exhausted self at 4 a.m?  You REALLY wouldn’t trade that moment for another moment more peaceful?”  And to be honest with you, I wanted to punch them in the face(in my mind anyway since I would never actually punch anyone in the face). But seriously, they have to be lying!  Stop pretending like you’re perfect and you’re so wonderful and you don’t get frustrated or sad or mad because of your kids!  

Well, a few weeks ago I had an epiphany.  Epiphany on what “enjoying every moment of motherhood” really means.  At least what it means to me.  We were on the airplane on our way to Hawaii, our spontaneous trip we booked a few days prior.  We had flew to Arizona and had a layover, and now we were on our second plane with 5-6 more hours of flight before arriving in HI.  Aiden was squirming everywhere, he slept for maybe 30 mins. the whole day, he kept stepping on our thighs to peer over the people behind us, he would get frustrated sitting still and not being able to run around, Jay and I were both exhausted.  I let out a big sigh(something I’m working on, I sigh all the time!), and looked at my husband as he was walking down the aisle holding Aiden, trying to entertain him and keep him content.  For a second I thought about how traveling with an 18 month old is so difficult and how it’s the hardest age for me, etc.  Then a thought came into my head about how Aiden has been pretty good for being an 18 month old, and he hasn’t cried at all.  Then another thought came into my head about how he would peer back to the other passengers and give his big dimpled smiles, making them all smile and comment how cute he was.  More thoughts came into my head about how he would cuddle with his daddy and snuggle him as he slept for those 30 mins. that he did and how cute my husband looked.  And how good of a dad Jay was and how involved and helpful he is all the time.  How Aiden doesn’t even want me when daddy is around so I get a big break and Jay basically took care of Aiden this whole plane ride.  Then it hit me what embracing every moment really meant.

Embracing each and every moment doesn’t mean you don’t get annoyed or frustrated, it doesn’t mean you’re smiling and being perfectly happy while your baby throws up all over you at 4 a.m, it means you embrace each moment of motherhood and live for those perfect moments in between the imperfect moments.  You embrace every part of motherhood because it all goes by so fast and whatever happens, happens and there’s not much you can change it so you do you best to be positive and loving to your kids, and then when that moment comes when your sick baby finally stops crying and calms down, and you’ve washed yourself and your baby clean, and your baby rests her sweet little head on your chest as you’re rocking on the chair, smelling that baby shampoo and the baby smell while cuddling and kissing her and singing gently in her ear as she falls asleep, you take a deep breathe and try to remember this moment in every detail because it really is perfect. And your heart swells up with so much gratitude and happiness for your baby and for God and you say a silent prayer in your heart thanking him for this crazy hard but crazy beautiful life of motherhood. 

My daughter wanted to look like an “Ice Princess” so she dressed in her silver sparkly sequin dress, a grey cardigan with a silver sequin trim, and silver metallic tights, with a silver necklace.  How cute is she?
  
I tried the Vaseline Intensive Care™ Advanced Repair lotion right before we went ice skating to see how it’ll be and to be honest, I’ve tried their regular Vaseline lotion before and wasn’t impressed(I’m very very picky with lotion).  It didn’t keep my skin moist enough, I felt like.  My hands and my knees get especially dry and after a few hours it would get white/dry patches again.  But their new Intensive Care™ Advanced Repair lotion was so much better!  I am very sensitive to scent and I’m not a fan of scented lotion and even unscented lotions have a scent to it, most of them a weird scent for me but this one’s “fragrance free” fragrance is actually a scent I don’t mind at all, and actually liked.  It says “with micro-droplets of Vaseline jelly, it’s clinically proven to heal very dry skin in 5 days”.  The texture is non-greasy which I’m sure a lot of people like, but I personally prefer a thicker, richer, creamier lotion.  I do like how it’s very light though.  Will I use the rest of the bottle?  Yes.  I give it a 7 out of 10.  
Even though I’m not a fan of ice skating because I hate being cold and any activity where I’ll be cold I dislike, I go and take my kids anyway because they love it.  And even though it takes awhile to get them dressed warm enough and to rent and put their ice skates on, and they might fall and cry and whine, I enjoy those moments because it brings the perfect moments of my girls holding my hands firmly with complete trust in me that I’ll catch them if they trip, that I’ll be here to kiss their owies and make it all better, that moment when we’re done ice skating and we take off our skates and get hot chocolate to warm up our hands and we are all happy.  Those moments and so many other moments of motherhood are perfect.  And I live for those moments and it’s worth the less fun, frustrating moments.
Now, I’m one of those mothers who say “I embrace and enjoy every moment of motherhood.”  And I really mean it.  But of course if I were to say that to another mother, I would explain to her what that really means to me. 🙂  Any of you mother/fathers willing to embrace every moment of parenthood with me? 
p.s. oh, speaking of parenthood, I am so so so so so so sad Parenthood has ended.  My favorite show!