Tagged: NanoPoblano 2015

JANE the VIRGIN

janethevirgin

You know that moment when you realize you have a problem?

Yea, I think I hit that moment Sunday at 5am when I realized I had not slept a wink due to the fact that I was binge watching my new absolute favorite tv show. Yup, if you said… Jane the Virgin then you must be really observant! I mean, HI! It’s in the title.

You know that moment when you procrastinate something you gotta do by instead doing something you wanna do?

Yea, I think that’s me right now. Or like 5 minutes ago. When I realized that it was past 10pm on the very last day of Nano Poblano and I had yet to write my last blog post of the month.

So I actually hit pause on Jane the Virgin, my new obsession, in order to write this post.

I apologize for throwing it together so haphazardly, but you see I’ve been thinking about watching Jane the Virgin all day!

I mean, SERIOUSLY! I was at working thinking about where I would find episodes 1 and 2 from season two because they weren’t on On Demand.

I mean, REALLY! Xfinity!!!! What’s with no posting the first two episodes of the season!!!! Where do they do that at?!?!

Ok so now that you see that my obsession is real. I will leave you with a piece of unsolicited advice…. Go watch Jane the Virgin if you haven’t seen it.

It’s the perfect blend of murder mystery, romance, comedy, and Latin flare that us “Miami” (I’m from Broward) girls live for!!!

Love you guys to the moon and back!

Thank you for hanging out with me this month! We will be back to our regular programming as of this coming Friday!

Keep Shining, Nat

DOGGY BRUFFDAYS

2015-11-28-19.17.56.jpg.jpgToday was a special day because we celebrated a special Diva’s birthday, or should I say Bruffday!

It was our first ever Doggy Bruffday Party!!!

And it was grand! Super lovely. With a beautiful banner. A doggy Bruffday cake. Goody bags and loads of treats. Nacho had a great time celebrating his cousin’s bruffday!

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*We are in the home stretch! Just a few more days of NanoPoblano left!!! I hope my fellow Tiny Peppers have enjoyed this month as much as I have. And honestly, it’s flown by so fast I can’t believe it’s almost over.

Cheers to the Tiny Peppers!!!!

Keep Shining, Nat

TURKEY DROP 2015

wpid-20151123_193728.jpgI am so grateful to be part of a church that is generous. Over the last couple of weeks my church has feed 10,000 people through our annual Feed the City initiative. And tonight student ministry joined in on the fun. All grades from 6th to 12th had the opportunity to bless 2 families with Thanksgiving dinner. It’s our very own version of Ding-Dong-Ditch!

Yup. We Shop. We Ding-Dong. We Ditch a Turkey on their front step!

Then we run and hide and watch as they open their door to this Thanksgiving surprise.

To be honest, I almost didn’t want to go tonight.

I was leaving work and kinda was just in the mood to head home and lounge… like if I hadn’t done enough lounging over the weekend… refer to yesterday’s post here.

I called my middle school director unintentionally trying to get out of it and she didn’t even let it come up in the conversation.

Yea… NO EXCUSES!!!

I was late but I made it in time to listen to the rules.

#1 Safety First!!!

And as all the grades split up into their groups I quickly realized that we had 3 students in attendance from our grade….. it’s like God keeps trying to tell me something through our ever decreasing numbers.

But thank goodness for Heather reminding me what it was all about. She talked me into doing both houses instead of just 1 and made me laugh in the process.

It ended up being an amazing, amazing experience! As I knew in my heart it would be.

We were able to bless a ton of families in need and share the love of Jesus while we were at it.

Shout Out to Winn Dixie for amazing discounts and additional discounts with the reward card!!

Keep Shining, Nat

How are you blessing a family in need this holiday season?

HELLO SATURDAY!!!

IT’S THE WEEKEND!!!! WOOOO WHOOOO!!! (As I sit inside on this rainy day…)

Today I had a schedule…. get up early, go get my tire fixed, go to my blog meet up, rest, hang out with the girls.

I wasn’t surprised when I looked at the time and saw that I had like 20 minutes to get ready if I was going to make it to the meet up!!! Yikes!!!

At first I was like, “Naw, forget it. I won’t go today, I’ll just go to the next one.”

But I am so glad I didn’t stay in bed.

I jumped up, put the timer on my phone and rushed to leave the house on time. Needless to say I left late, caught traffic, had to find parking and then had to locate the entrance to the building. I ended up being 15 minutes late. But I’m working on loving myself more and that means showing myself some grace. So the fact that I got out of bed and went at all is a victory! Going to celebrate where I can.

The event was awesome!!!

The team over at Miamifoodpug.com spoke on 9 tips for networking. I arrived just in time to jot all of the tips down.

Let me just point out that tip #2 was Arrive Early…. I’m glad I was standing in the back so no one was able to see my embarrassment, LOL.

Afterwards we had the opportunity to connect with other bloggers.

Let the Networking Begin!!!

I had the chance to speak to some phenomenal female bloggers. Some who are just starting and others who are a bit more seasoned in the blogosphere. Here are a few sites from the ladies who I spoke to today.

Rosi from perpetual-message

Valeria (she doesn’t know it but she’s my new BFF!!) from ChicbyV

Stacy (best brownie muffin eeeevvveeerr!!!) from StacyMoya

Suzy from ChatterBlog

Jessika from StyleGraham

Please stop by and show them some love!

If you are interested in attending the next meet up then just head on over to SouthFloridaBloggers for more info.

Keep Shining, Nat

POSITIVE SELF TALK

Is it okay if instead of a Throwback Thursday today we do a Truthful Thursday?

Great! Thanks!

Yesterday was one of those rollercoaster days. Emotionally I felt all over the place.

I had some high moments with smiles and laughs and then some extremely low moments where I compared how I felt to a dead branch on the pavement of a parking lot. At least I got my Wordless Wednesday post out of it.

I am going to come out and say it.

I struggle with maintaining a positive self talk. I’ll be good for a few days and then I’ll start forgetting and the negative thoughts and the negative self talk will resurface. If you don’t face this struggle then you may not understand that it’s a daily fight.

The fact that it’s a daily fight scares me. It overwhelms me to think that for the rest of my life I have to fight my own self. Because you see the battle lies within me. I have to choose to be intentional. To purposely think about what I am thinking about and choose to think the correct thoughts.

But the incorrect thoughts are sometimes easier to be thought.

That scares me too. The idea that I may not be strong enough to keep up the fight.

I suppose the only way through it is one day at a time.

Because we all know that the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

So the other day while trying to keep up with my Tiny Pepper Mates I came across A’s post on exactly the same thing. Positive Self Talk. Check out her post here.

In the comments I mentioned that I would possibly write an updated list for myself and after the day I had yesterday I thought, “No better time than the present.”

So I started piecing my list together last night while fighting a migraine that rendered me pretty useless and bedridden.

So here it is. Some of it flowed easily and then other parts I really had to wrack my brain to come up with positive things to say about myself.

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Positive Self Talk 11/19/2015

 

I don’t know if you deal with insecurities or self image, if you do or don’t I think a Positive Self Talk list is a good place to start.

Keep Shining, Nat

 

BLESSED ARE THE….

This morning I had a schedule laid out for the day.

I knew where I’d be and what I’d be doing at every hour of the day… Ok maybe not that extreme. The point is that I had a plan for my day.

I had a #transformationTuesday post all planned out and then I got a phone call that changed everything.

You see when your sister calls you for help you pretty much put all plans on hold. Family comes first after all.

So I had to leave work early. I missed the puppy shower… Yes you read that correctly a party to celebrate the arrival of a puppy! I wasn’t able to post the piece I wanted to post.

But… All of that is ok because I was able to share an unforgettable experience with my niece. I was able to help my sister. I was able to have an unexpected bonding moment with the littles.

Moral of the story::: BLESSED ARE THE FLEXIBLE!!

You never know what greatness could come from flexibility!

Keep Shining, Nat

MONDAY HAPPENINGS!!!

Today is a dreary Monday… my alarm went off early this morning followed by the loudness of the rain. My first thoughts consisted of, “NO! I’m too sleepy to wake up!” and “NOOOOOOOOOO, it’s raining!!! Now I really don’t want to get up!” After the mellow-dramatic-ness in my head I remembered that Monday mornings are filled with sweet First Priority moments at my local middle school. As much as I didn’t want to get up I remembered how badly I didn’t want to be late. In an effort to not fall into the damaging generalization of “I am ALWAYS late.” I snoozed less than usual giving myself 30 minutes to get ready instead of merely 20.

Our club meeting was pretty sweet!! We are super excited to host our first Missions week next Monday! It’ll be a yummy Gospel-Donut Monday!!!

My sweet coworker and I are always talking about how we feel uncomfortable in our current bodies. We both want to loose weight and get the muffin tops under control. This isn’t any easy task being that there are always muffin top inducing snacks and foods around the office. Determined to combat the tires around our waists we’ve started taking 5 minute walks around the building. Literally, we walk down the stairs to the outside, around the building, back up the stairs and repeat. We are taking these walks twice a day.

It feels great getting to move and go out of doors even if for 2 minutes. It feels like a reset to my body and brain.

Today was a dreary day though so no sunshine. I’m looking forward to a dose of Vitamin D on our future walks. You do know that sunlight helps reduce depression and promotes a positive mood!

Tonight is also Tribe Fusion‘s Annual Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner! I’ll post all about sometime soon…

Tomorrow I want to share a special Transformation Tuesday! 🙂

Love ya guys for reading my Monday ramblings.

Keep Shining, Nat

By the way, did it rain today where you are?