5 Years From Now

Day 15: Where Will I Be In 5 Years (Day 15 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

I’m as excited as I am nervous to write this blog. I love to look forward and make plans about where my life is heading and dream a little. On the other hand, putting it and writing and publicly publishing it adds a bit of pressure that I’m not used to. If I read this blog 5 years from now, I may have to concede to failure. Hopefully I’ll have success beyond my notions.

I’ll have just turned 43 years old. My husband will be 47. My children will be 14 and 10.

I’ll still be living in the Gloucester County area of NJ, but not in the same apartment I’m in now. In 5 years time I hope I’d have moved into a house already, even if I’m still renting. I’ll have a dachshund again – life is incomplete without a dachshund!

Educationally, I’ll be working on my Sociology degree and I’ll be taking ASL or I’ll already know it.

Career wise, the majority of my income will come from my writing. There, I said it, so the goal and the deadline are in place. 5 years from now in October, I’ll be a professional writer.

3 Healthy Habits

Day 14: 3 Healthy Habits (Day 14 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

  1. I exercise. I go to the gym with my friend Darlene and we do the treadmill and the weight circuit and sometimes the ski machine. I also walk around my neighborhood on nights I can’t go to the gym. I don’t run or jog (I have limitations on what I can do due to disability due to Lyme Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis) but I still work up a good sweat. I can tell it’s working, my clothes are fitting me better and becoming looser and I’ve lost pounds and inches. I’ve also been drinking more water than anything else and have cut soda and juice intake down to almost none. 193_exercise_png
  2. I blog. I consider it a healthy habit because it helps me organize and express my thoughts, feelings, and opinions. I also consider it a healthy habit because my ultimate career goal is to be a full time writer, so being in the habit of writing something every day moves me toward that goal. 943510_10201047862139943_1456839448_n
  3. I tell my family I love them every day. Almost every time one of my daughters passes by me or interacts with me, I make sure I touch them and express my love for them. My 9-year old is starting to roll her eyes when I do it, but it’s important to me that she knows how much I love her, especially in her teen years as they’re fast approaching. My 5-year old seems to look forward to the interaction. My husband simply replies he loves me too. I feel we live in a society that doesn’t express positive emotions enough, and I want that to be different with my family. I do love them so much.1604770_10203078297739564_973666168_n

Fridge

Day 13: What’s Inside My Fridge (Day 13 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

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I totally understand that some people are super into food and would have a field day with this blog topic, but I’m not feeling today’s challenge subject of what food is in my fridge. I’ll post these photos and simply comment that it’s mostly fruits and veggies and some junk food.

Favorite Childhood Books

Day 12: My Favorite Childhood Book (Day 12 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

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This one is almost impossible for me, I read so much as a child. My mother used to tell me to put the book down and go outside to play. I was able to narrow it down to these two books and this book series. When I hit my pre-teens, my tastes changed a little bit and I started reading these two series.

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Best Trip

Day 10: Best Trip of My Life (Day 10 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

The best vacations I ever had were with my parents, siblings and paternal grandparents when I was little. We’d all get into my Mommom and Poppop’s motor home and go to the campground. I don’t recall how far away the campground was or even what state it was in, but I want to say it was somewhere in PA. I don’t know how many times we actually repeated this vacation, but it feels like it was more than once. What made it so special was having the whole family together, including the family dog, Mandy.

I still love camping, although as an adult I go tent camping instead of RVing. If I had the disposable income, I’d love to get an RV and create some motor home memories with my own family.

 

My Bag

Day 9: What’s In My Bag (Day 9 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

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This is my bag. One of my best friends bought a Coach bag for herself, and when I loved hers, she bought one for me as well. It’s perfect and I use it daily.

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The contents of my bag:

5-hr energy drink

cell phone charger with car adapter

wallet

digital camera

eye drops for contacts

contact case

eye glasses

gum

keys

brush

comb

granola bar

some makeup

 

Goals

Day 8: My 5 Current Goals (Day 8 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

In addition to my goals of being a good mother, a good spouse, a decent human being, and to continue bettering myself as a person, these are my five current goals for direction in my life. In no particular order:

  1. I want to build my hypnosis practice. Last year I became a certified hypnotist, and in the course of the past year I’ve worked with several clients to change their inner dialogue and break bad habits or form healthy habits. I love knowing I have something to offer that can help people. No, I can’t make someone quack like a duck, but I can help people quit smoking, quit biting their nails, lose weight, perform better on tests, raise their self esteem, explore their past lives, etc. I meet clients at a spiritual center in Carney’s Point, South Jersey, or I go to the client’s home.124138-hypnosis-therapy-stourport-on-severn-worcestershire-the-mind-body-soul-connection-hypnosis-watch-chain
  2. I want to be a blogger that gets a rather large following. I want to write blogs that people find relevant and relatable. I want to write blogs that educate, inspire, and entertain. It feels good when I get a private email that someone read a blog post of mine and it helped them in some way. That matters to me. (The two blogs I’ve received the most private emails about so far have been Every Expecting Mom Needs To Be Aware of This! and Lyme & Me.)
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  3. I’m working on losing weight and becoming healthier. I want to have a fit physique. I don’t expect to ever be able to run marathons, but I’d like to get my body as healthy as possible and keep it that way. I’m proud of the progress I’ve made so far, I’ve already lost 30 pounds. How, you ask? I hypnotized myself to lose weight! I rewrote my inner dialogue so I no longer crave sugar, I crave water, and I crave exercise. This has been a fulfilling journey so far! I love the feeling of my clothes becoming too big for me. 11880494_10207192224305157_3763507565038636043_n
  4. I want to stop living paycheck to paycheck. I’m working on getting certified to be a full time Nanny. I tentatively have a full time Nanny position secured to start in November. I still want to go back to school and get my training to become a Drug and Alcohol Counselor. I don’t want to simply trade time for money, I want to do something that provides enough income for me to take care of my family and I want to do something that makes a difference in the lives of my fellow human beings. Ideally, I’d like to get to the point where my hypnosis clientele and my blogging supports me full time.-Wnhg4Nw_400x400
  5. I wholeheartedly believe in equality for all. My current equality goal falls under children’s rights. I’m working to find a politician to take on Cassie’s Law in the state of NJ, and then I’ll work on getting it passed in the other 49 states and in DC. This community is working to get legislation in place to protect minors from sexually abusive parents. It breaks my heart to know that an adult can sexually abuse one child and still have access to their own children. Children should be protected from such parents. As of now, children have no rights to speak up for ourselves, we adults have to care enough to advocate on their behalf. And this one is really personal for me; Cassie is my daughter.10565043_555201594614558_6136215426246101001_n

Songs

Day 7: My Favorite 5 Songs (Day 7 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

I can’t narrow my favorite music down to five songs, so I’ll give you five categories of my top five favorites in each.

 

My favorite breakup songs:

  1. Gives You Hell, All American Rejects
  2. White Horse, Taylor Swift 
  3. King of Wishful Thinking, Go West
  4. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Taylor Swift
  5. Stop Crying Your Heart Out, Oasis

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My Favorite Love Songs:

  1. I’d Do Anything For Love, Meat Loaf
  2. You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth, Meat Loaf
  3. Far Away, Nickelback
  4. Haven’t Met You Yet, Michael Buble
  5. I Knew I Loved You, Savage Garden

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My Favorite Songs From Musicals:

  1. Anything Goes, Anything Goes
  2. What Ever Happened To Saturday Night, Rocky Horror Picture Show
  3. Summer Nights, Grease 
  4. Hello Dolly, Hello Dolly
  5. If I Only Had a Brain, Wizard of Oz

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My Favorite Oldies:

  1. Everyday, Buddy Holly
  2. Runaround Sue, Dion 
  3. Hats Off To Larry, Del Shannon
  4. She’s Almost You, Billy Harner
  5. I Wanna Be Free, The Monkees

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Other Favorites:

  1. You Don’t Own Me, Lesley Gore
  2. Different Drum, Linda Rondstadt
  3. Shut Up And Dance With Me, Walk The Moon
  4. It Ends Tonight, All American Rejects
  5. Daydream Believer, The Monkees

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Fears

Day 6: What Am I Most Afraid Of (Day 6 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

The first fear that comes to mind probably comes to mind for anyone who has started a family: I’m afraid of some freak accident or tragedy striking my family, and I outlive my husband and children. I don’t know what I would focus on to move past such an event. Losing one would be horrible. Losing all three would be unbearable.

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If that one is too obvious, I’m also afraid of heights. I don’t like being up high and looking down. I get nervous driving over bridges. I won’t go bungee jumping or sky diving. I’ve never been on a helicopter or in an airplane. Even climbing the Statue of Liberty and looking down makes me dizzy.

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If that one is too generalized, too many people share it, then I’ll share something really personal. Growing up, I was terrified of balloons.  The string hanging down would cause panic attacks for me. This affected me going to birthday parties as a kid, and it started affecting my children going to birthday parties as an adult. I received therapy for my phobia and it’s behind me now, but it affected me deeply for over two decades.

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When I was pregnant with my oldest, I was intensely afraid of the car going off a bridge and me being trapped in the car and drowning. I was also afraid of being abducted by aliens and them taking the baby out of my belly and returning me without her. It’s important to note neither of these things were anything that I gave much thought to prior to becoming pregnant. I started carrying a hammer with me so I knew I could break the glass of a car window should I go off a bridge. I talked to a therapist about my fears of abduction. Once I gave birth, both of these fears subsided and neither have popped into my mind or given me any worries since.

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