Blessings & Thanksgiving After a BUSY Week

I survived this week! YAY! You might be asking, “Why in the world is this chick celebrating a ‘week’ and being able to survive it?” Well it has been busy for the Savage Girl lately and I had my doubts on getting through it! It seemed like everything I came in touch with this week ended on a positive note so I thought I should express my blessings and thankfulness. FYI, even if it had not of ended so positively, I should still be thankful because I have life! Here are just some of the things I have managed to accomplish in this workweek:

1. Monroe Monday Radio program with Randy & Jon
• Side note…It was pointed out to me that I promoted my new healthy lifestyle Weight the Reality Series program and then invited people to the Derby Breakfast. YES, I know this is an oxymoron “Let’s get healthy on Tuesday and then eat a huge breakfast on Saturday”…LOL, but it was what was happening this week so please forgive me if you tuned in on the radio and heard my ramblings.  Eating is all about portion control and is how I have lost 50 pounds!   
2. Attend and preside over a few committee meetings
3. Presented Weight the Reality Series—Week 1 to 35 participants
4. My monthly reports
5. Attended a quarterly early childhood council meeting
6. New business ribbon cutting with the chamber of commerce…attending this allowed me time to squeeze in a little consignment shopping and I got a few great deals
7. Prepared to present a small very part at a statewide FCS in-service
8. Substitute taught the teen girls class on Wednesday night
9. Help host a community Spring Fling
10. Help coordinate a large event, the Derby Breakfast, which the Extension Homemakers in my county host each year.
11. Somewhere in the middle of ALL that above…I still managed to work out three times!
12. I also got to attend my monthly book club meeting.
13. In addition, I participated in an impromptu girl’s night with friends.  

Tompkinsville Monroe County Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting at New 2 You.

It's my new favorite store in T-ville! 

A few of the hard working committee members of the Spring Fling event. IOU guys! Thanks!

 



Don't ask me why put I never made a photo of the entire committee today! Stupid me...I'm a bad agent :( Here are two of the club members hard at work serving and making sure the food was replenished.  We had many other helpers, but the blog couldn't hold all the photos! This event would not have been possible without the Sunshine & Old Rocky Hill club members! Thank you!   

 

What is Derby Day without a Derby Dress & Derby Hat?!?

FYI this was one of my new finds at New 2 You this week!  



I could not have done all this without a great support system. I am thankful first to God for giving me the strength, the patience, and the willpower to conquer this week! Second, I am thankful for my awesome co-workers…mainly my administrative assistant since she was my lifesaver this week on multiple occasions! I even managed to squeeze in a little birthday surprise for her on Thursday in the midst of a very busy day. She got many phone calls thanks to one little hidden post! This Savage Girl didn’t want her to be all alone on her birthday…Third, I am thankful for the great committees I worked with this week. We can do awesome things and coordinate huge events when we collaborate, brainstorm ideas, and be willing to try new things! Fourth, I am thankful for my family. They are always there whenever I need them whether it is a phone call, email, text, or visit. They always seem to have the exact supplies, encouragement, or advice I need at any given moment. AND somehow my dad always knows when my yard needs mowing! Lastly, I am thankful for my Christian family. After a long day, somehow Christian brothers and sisters know how to uplift you when you need it most.

I am truly blessed! Glory be to God for all these blessings! Without Him none of these blessings and accomplishments would have been possible this week or any other week. Sometimes we just need to take a moment and reflect as I just have done above for God’s blessings. He helps channel and flow blessings into our lives daily via our family, parents, brothers and sisters, friends, mentors, community leaders, fellow Christians, and many others. Take time to praise and thank Him in prayer. I know sometimes I get in a rush, but it truly is a better day if I squeeze this in there around all the mayhem going on.  

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Proverbs 28:20 says, a “Faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.”

We each probably should look at our individual lives and take note of what motives us. We should also note what situations we put ourselves in by the choices we make. If our priorities are wacky then maybe we should consider making a few changes. Sometimes it is our life priorities that might cause us to make a wrong choice or bad decision, which ultimately causing us to sin. God has a plan for us each and we all take different paths to achieve the end result. My goal is to get to heaven, so I am going to continue praising God, thanking Him, and asking for His forgiveness when I fall short of His Glory. What is your goal?      

Blessings & Thanksgiving

The past few days have been pretty eventful for the Savage Girl. Now, my idea of eventful and yours might totally be different, but I love my life and that is all that matters! Sometimes I wish I could push “pause” and be able to soak it in more, but I know things must continue forward. Pressing rewind sometimes can cause emotions to rise so I believe we need to keep moving forward down the road of life because something better might be waiting around the corner and you will not know about it unless you seek to discover it. If you are in a constant rewind reliving the past how can you ever move forward?

Tonight after thinking, reflecting, and “rewinding” a little about everything that has occurred over the course of the last week I can truly say that I’m blessed and thankful. Keep in mind I am not dwelling on these things…I am just expressing the reasons why I have blessings and thanksgiving this week! 

Family. This past weekend I got to spend Easter weekend with my parents. We traveled to Gainesboro, TN and enjoyed dinner at The Bull and Thistle. Then on Sunday we enjoyed Easter lunch and a little quality time together. Mama and I took a walk on Sunday despite the weather. We were a sight to see with our jackets and umbrellas walking in the rain on the back roads around the Boles community and the family farm, but I would not have traded my day for anything!

Friends. You do not have to see good friends and be 100% in contact with them on a daily basis for them to be called "good friends". It is nice to get random phone calls just because they were thinking of you for whatever reason. With good friends you can pick up exactly where you left off and it is as if you never were out of the picture. Good friends can feed and clothe you. Literally they can do this by providing you with a place to stay, food to eat, and clothes to wear. Then sometimes good friends feed and clothe you figuratively by their actions, strength, and courage. It might be a smile, an encouraging word, a gift, or a reaffirming word saying that you matter. A fellow Christian sister recently shared with me that sometimes you just have to put on your “heavenly attitude”. We do not need to be the “mean girl”…we need to be the person God wants us to be despite the past and if a good friend is really a “good friend” then they should want both parties to be practicing forgiveness, godliness, and contentment. I am also thankful for new friends that have been brought into my life this week. I love building friendships and strong relationships both personally and professionally.  

Work vs. Career. I have a job that I love. Sometimes it is “work” because it is either physically or mentally tiring. This week I have been working on our budget at work, so needless to say I have been crunching a few numbers and this has been “work” for me, but I am thankful for having I job I love! Other times my job is my “career” like in the past few days. This week I got glimpse of the future for our community and I was reminded of the reason I love giving back and serving in my community. We can change the world. It doesn't matter if we are “kids” or “grownups”. What matters is that we all work together and it will go faster…look at the Kid President!  

My goal for my career is to improve the quality of lives of local citizens.  I am usually reminded of my “career” in fun moments...like learning to weave the bottom of a stool with fellow workshop participants, reaching over 200 “likes” on The Heart of Tompkinsville Foundation Facebook page, and helping to decorate our downtown. Weird you might say…I’m sure you are asking why did you think of your career in these moments? Well, these things were fun and I have happy memories that take me back to previous months in my career when the planning and development stages were occurring. I was reminded by the people I am serving in the community that learning is lifelong & can occur at any age if you want to learn. Learning can come in many forms! Learning inspires people to constantly be thinking about improving themselves and the others around them through citizenship and personal development.

The Downtown Decoration Committee that I am chairing had to think “outside of the box” to actually create a vision for our Spring decorations. With a little of this “outside of the box” thinking the idea of maypole inspired decorations was discussed, planned out, and put into action. I believe these simple decorations downtown can help get others in the community get excited and fired up about our future locally that local leadership is currently trying to create and discover within our local community which in turn would benefit all citizens.Have you got any ideas Summer decorations?    

Movement. I have a couple of different ways that I relieve stress and both of them use movement. First, I enjoy working out at the pool at our local Family Wellness Center doing water aerobics. This week I have been able to get some “movement” action 6 times within the past week. YAY! It’s all about priorities and goals. Have you set any lately? Second, I enjoy expressing my words on this blog. Somehow typing moves the thoughts out of my brain so that I can make room for more important things…like the things I have been trying to focus more on lately. I want to thank those of you who read my blog and have expressed to me such kind words of encouragement! Thank you.

Fellowship. I few months ago I was asked to join a book club. I am not an avid reader like my sister Anna who is a librarian, but I knew that this group of ladies would help and challenge me in multiple ways and be a source of encouragement & Christian fellowship. So far they have yet to let me down! This month we read Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly. Everyone stepped outside of their comfort zones when our April hostess suggested the book, but after our book club discussion this week we were all pleasantly surprised of the knowledge that was gained and found when reading someone’s opinion and recount on a moment in American history. We all concluded that history read today as an adult is so much more entertaining than when you got grades for it in school!       

Family. Friends. Work vs. Career. Movement. Fellowship. For all these things I am thankful and blessed. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7. 

In closing, I was reminded of what my name meant this week, so I thought I would share it with you. I know this Savage Girl needs reminded of this from time to time so here you go...lucky for me I have a constant reminder of it since it is my name! :)