One year ago, this was my first post.
At the time, I had no intentions other than to shift my thinking, implementing some of my own advice .
For those of you who are not familiar with my back story, here is an every so brief summary.
I was widowed at 41. A native Californian living in Northfield MN. Steve extended an olive branch to me when Scott passed. We had known each other since the 7th grade and graduated high school together.You see, he had experienced his wife passing 3 years earlier. He understood how challenging the first year would be. Our relationship grew into what it is today, it is uniquely ours. 2 widows, 3 boys. A modern day Brady Bunch minus girls, our new blended family.
The boys and I moved from MN into SR's home with his son Luke. We knew that this would not be our forever home. We knew the town where our next house needed to be and began actively looking. At the same time were prepping Steve's house for sale.
The house went on the market after July 4 weekend. Sold in 4 days, 20 day escrow, all CASH.... How does that happen? We had yet to find a house to buy!! Oh crap.
Life went into complete get'er done mode..... You know what I mean, the panic of the oh shit, we have 20 days... pack, find a house and oh, move....
Well, lets just say, we didn't find a house in 20 days. We ended up moving into what I call a cozy original bungalow (can you read between the lines?) So original that we had one outlet in the kitchen! yup circa 1950's.
Mentally, I knew moving into this place, was only temporary. I am a firm believer you can do anything you set your mind to. Living in the cozy bungalow with an insane commute to get the boys to school and their sporting activities,was only temporary I kept telling myself. I knew that we would eventually find our family home. It was a discouraging process but in retrospect necessary.
We moved into this cozy bungalow with the mindset, 3 months, we will definitely have found our next home in 3 months....
3 months turned into 7...
After we moved in. The dust settled so to speak and I was staring at what I was calling home.Dark wood paneling, 1200 square feet, cozy for this family of 5 and at the time 2 Labradors . I had to pull up my big girl panties and say to myself, I can make anyplace feel like home dammit.
I did need to call in support, at least to paint. I knew that living with dark paneling was the easiest fix. A fresh coat of white paint went up and made a significant difference, the house felt cleaner, like a quaint cottage. Or at least that is how I decided to spin it in my own mind.
I would sit in the house and feel overwhelmed at all that transpired for us to be living there. It was pretty craptastic, I'm not gonna lie. I decided that the way I was going to change my mindset was to take 3 pictures a day of appreciation.Things that made me smile, things that might not make a difference to anyone else on the planet, but for me on that day, it did. I had to shift my thinking.
This is where my #daily 3 began. My first #daily 3 posted Oct 4,2014.
In the past year, we bought the RNB (Rogers n Brachmann for those unfamiliar) Demo, remodel and move has happened. Commute time has been replaced with boys riding bikes to school and friends knocking at the door wondering if boys can play... : )
I continued posting, for my own sanity mostly. What happened next was such a huge surprise.... I started receiving emails... from people who found my posts and were thanking me... I thought to myself... why? my daily 3 have been purely a therapeutic posting for me.. how could my daily 3 make a difference in other peoples lives? interesting how life works...
So while I really was challenged to live in that cozy original bungalow in Reseda, something amazing began....
This has been quite a journey..In all truth, I am a bit taken aback by the response but think it is pretty awesome. It makes my heart happy to know that my personal daily 3 has turned into something that others look for. It has become fun within the family and friends what will make it into my 3... These are snapshots of my life, what make me smile...
So there you have it my story of #daily3
If you are interested in #daily3, you can follow on instagram Blisswithmac, Face Book or Twitter.... although, in all honesty, I'm not so Twitter savvy....
I want to personally thank all of you that have followed this journey of #daily3 from the beginning.I also want to thank first time readers. I look forward to seeing where it goes from here! Please feel free to share my links : )
Wishing you all the best
with Peace, Love, Blessings and Gratitude
Mac
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