the 9 books that transformed my life

9 books that transformed my life

I get asked by many people how can I be so positive with all that I have been through. How am I always able to see the bright side of most situations? What I can say is this, first, I am not always happy, I am human, just ask my boys I’m sure they have plenty of examples for you J Second, I have recognized through my own journey, life is just that a journey. We are here to learn from both the good and not so good. There are lessons all around if we take the time to look. I choose to see life as a gift, I think being widowed at 41 created this change in mindset.

I do understand that we are all on our own journeys. We have different paths. B.K.S Iyengar said it best in #5 on the list, “What most people want is the same. Most people want physical and mental health, understanding and wisdom and peace and freedom.

With those wise words, I give you my list. The books listed below have shaped and molded me into the person I am. It is my hope that a seed is planted.

1.    Conversations with God volume 1 , an uncommon dialogue, Neal Donald Walsch:

 I    interestingly enough, I bought this books years BEFORE (10 to be exact) I actually read it. This book intrigued me. It opened up wonderful conversations with mom (who had been a nun for 8 years but did not take her final vows). This book can be powerful if you are open. I read after Scott passed and was pretty raw. It was a powerful book for me. 

  2. Broken Open, Elizabeth Lesser:

Personally, it was a toss-up between 1 and 2. This book was suggested to me by a dear friend. It is filled with short stories of several people’s struggles. The common thread of being broken open. Being taken out at the knees, not knowing how to go on. For those that choose to phoenix from the ashes and live their "second life". Learning to take the lessons from their "first life" and help others. I have re-read this book many times, I use a different highlighter each time.... the pages have turned into quite a rainbow. 

3.  The 5 love languages (all versions are great, adults, teens, kids), Gary D.        Chapman:

Words of affirmation, Acts of Service, Receiving gifts, Quality Time, Physical touch….

I recognized that as I have gotten older, my love languages change….

This book brought clarity to my needs within my own relationships and also to my boys. 

      4.  The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz:

I believe everyone would benefit from reading. Four simple rules to live life. 

1^st) Be impeccable with your word  2^nd)Don’t take anything personally 3^rd) Don’t make assumptions 4^th) Always do your best….

     

 5. Light on Life, B.K.S. Iyengar:

One of my first yoga reading's. It reminded me of reading Proverbs in the Old Testament or a grandmother passing on wisdom. From Asana's to Ananda and everything between.  It is about an inward journey to enlightenment. Truly brilliant.

      6.   Yamas and Niyamas, Deborah Adele:

       Another yogi read. You will find many yoga studios will have classes reading this gem. It can be thought of as guidelines or golden nuggets of wisdom *that give direction to a well lived and joyful life*. Yamas- restraints, includes nonviolence, truthfulness, nonstealing, nonexcess and nonpossessiveness.  Niyamas- observerances, include purity, contentment, self-discipline, self-study and surrender. 

  

 7.  The Power of positive thinking, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale:

When thinking back, this was the first planted seed to 'the shift is the gift' thinking. It carries a message of faith and inspiration that has lasted the test of time. First published in 1952, it is as pertinent today as the day it was written. 

      8.  Living with Himalyan Masters, Swami Rama:

      Swami Rama takes you on his journey with stories of living with 5 different Himalayan masters. The stories are amazing, entertaining and enlightening. I think I devoured this book in a few days, the stories were that good. 

9. The Bible Promise Book:

It is a modified cliff note version of the Bible. One can look up easily for specific needs. Trust, Anger, Courage, Guidance. It is a quick reference for the reader to find biblical verses that directly relate to the topic of interest.

Wishing you health and happiness,

*Deborah Adele, Yamas and Niyamas

smack in the sandwich generation

Jan 14,2016

why hello 2016 ...

2015 was a huge transitional year for me. With the ups of moving into our new home the RNB, came  some downs, with my mom falling on Mother's Day. I chose not to  speak too much about my mom and her health on my social media because in all honesty people  visiting  my sites probably would rather not to hear about me feeling overwhelmed about my 83 year old mother's rising health issues. It is something I cope with privately.


SANDWICH GENERATION;
noun
a generation of people typically in their thirties or forties, responsible for bringing up their own children and for the care of their aging parents....

yup, that is me..

I am my mom's only girl and I am the baby of the family. I always felt that girls typically take on more of the caretaker role as their parents age. This is true for me. As I have written on many posts, I believe that everything that happens in life is for a reason.

Before I moved to MN, my physical therapy career had been at same clinic for 7 years where I has completed my first clinical rotation. When I moved to MN, I felt like I needed to explore different environments before commiting to a single facility. So, I decided to work PRN for outside registry, where I worked  in a wide variety of settings, acute care, ortho outpatients, TCU, SNF.

At the end of a year, I found myself working for an amazing company in Rochester MN. Majority of the caseload was TCU/SNF.

Why am I writing about this?

1) I learned that I really do enjoy treating the geriatric population. Strange huh? I know, it took me a bit by surprise as well. What I can tell you is this... Although they were not physically not as advanced, they could have medically complex cases. I learned  to look at the whole person not just the diagnosis. There is something quite powerful when you witness a  patient regain their independence. 2) I  recognized doctors not communicating with each other(right hand not talking to the left) for whatever the reason... and the patient being left in the middle.

My years in MN has brought me to where I stand today, my mom's wing man and advocate.

Since her fall, I have been diligent about keeping  all doctors in communication with each other about all blood work , test findings medication changes, etc.  

We went to her Oncology appointment  last Thursday (to discuss her Bone Marrow biopsy findings), I asked my best friend Tiffany to go, I wanted to have another set of ears listening in case my emotions inhibited  me from  hearing everything. I also had my brother on speaker phone , again, just in case, since I knew he would be asking me many questions.  It was simply easier and I believe a sound decision.

At  83 my mom was diagnosed  with CMML, a rare form of Leukaemia.

Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukaemia

There I wrote it.


Once we were given a definitive diagnosis, the doc said, "it sounds way worse than it is" I looked at him slightly puzzled. He was optimistic because her hemoglobin numbers were going up since stopping a certain medication for her Rheumatoid Arthritis.  It was suppressing her Bone Marrow production. So in the last 2 weeks, she feels better than she has in the past 4 months....


The next day, we went see her primary doc. The usual pleasantries were done, then she looked at  her chart.... She saw there was already a faxed dictation from her Oncologist from the day before. Her primary thanked me for the great job I have done creating this open dialogue with her doctors. She had never experienced such fluid communication.


Why am I writing a blog about this?

Well, I think it is a bit therapeutic for me in all honesty.It is my truth.You see the reality is that I try very hard to see where the lessons are in life. I look for the reasons, especially during shitty times. I realize that my years in MN were in preparation to help my mom . I trust God, even when it is difficult to see the forest through the trees. 

What I can tell you with 100% certainty is that my mom has  a positive attitude, strong faith and an amazingly strong constitution. We are at a place where we are in a holding pattern. No treatment plan, no cure. That's strangely ok and I am at peace.

I am a member of  the sandwich generation.  I will continue to make sound decisions for both my mom and my boys when given the opportunity. I am thankful to have been chosen to be her daughter and their mom. Although challenging at times, I am thankful for my tribe.

So if you follow my #daily3 pictures of appreciation, and see a post about my mom, you will understand. If you see a post with Steve, know he is my rock during difficult times. I am forever thankful for my life and my journey. 

Wishing you health and happiness,

My Daily 3's turns 1 today!

October 4, 2015 

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.

My dinner at the Habit, morning coffee with coconut oil and being able to enjoy some time with Mitchell while the little's were at football practice. Like I said, not earth shattering by any means... but this was my transitional life...

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

The shift is the gift

Sept 7, 2015


Shifting your thinking....

I woke up in the middle of the night last week with an idea. An idea that kept me awake as I tried to force myself back to sleep.I acknowledged what was happening, made a mental note of the idea and then I was able to fall back to sleep. That sentence will make sense in a minute. You see, this has happened to me in the past.

It first happened after my dad died in 1989. At the time I was 18, and I admit  I was freaked out after watching my father take his last breath and leave this physical world. I found it very difficult to sleep for the months to follow.

Several months later, I had a life changing conversation with a family member. Lola explained to me, not to be afraid of my dad making contact with me in my dreams. That I needed to change my way of  thinking. She went on to tell me it was a gift. I think I looked at her in utter disbelief, so she went on to explain that  he was visiting me, not to have me feel scared but to reassure. To know that his spirit was alive and well. That he would always be with me, while not in his physical body but in spirit.

That was a lot for my teenage brain to wrap my head around. Not gonna lie. That seed was planted and needed a lot of water.... 

Fast forward.

Scott died suddenly in the shower of a massive heart attack. My boys unfortunately found him with my dear neighbor.

I was in shock. It was devastating.

When people began to ask me how I was doing, Something shifted my thoughts. I would say to them this:

1) I am happy that the bad guys didn't kill him. That my boys will never feel the need to seek revenge.(having been in the Seal Teams for 21 years there was a possibility of this)

2) There was no question about if he suffered. The coroner said it was very clear he was gone before he hit the ground.

3) I couldn't imagine having to transport his body back from overseas. He had just returned from Africa 4 days earlier. He was home. I have a friend whose husband passed in Iraq. By the time his body was returned and an autopsy was performed, all tests proved inconclusive. She was left with no closure.

I focused on the silver lining of the shitty cloud I was under.

The shift in my thinking had happened without me even realizing. How and why I have no reason or answers.

It just happened. It was a gift.

When I meet people for the first time and they have been told the story, they look at me and say they are sorry. I think this is an automatic response. My usual response goes something like this, there is no need to apologize for what I have gone through. It has molded me into the person I have become. I did the work, learned valuable lessons and am far stronger and wiser than I ever could have imagined.


I had read a book years ago by Elizabeth Lesser called Broken Open. It is a powerful book with several short stories of people going through tragic situations. The premise was this, you can continue to live your first life.... or you can phoenix from the ashes of the tragedy and live a second life with meaning and purpose. Not forgetting the events, but using the knowledge one gains in those times to help others. 

Shifting you thinking

I hashtag #theshiftisthegift all the time on my social media. I am a firm believer that you can rise and phoenix, if you choose. Shifting your thinking does not have to refer only to when tragedy strikes. It can be usefully applied in day to day situations.

 I use the example of my mom. When she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid years ago,she was put on Lasix. A medication to decrease fluid retention. She had to pee a lot. She was letting me know how tired she was getting up and down having to go to the bathroom. I explained to her she needed to shift her thinking... She needed to think of transitioning from sit <--> stand as an exercise. It was an opportunity to get her legs stronger. 

At first she looked at me like I was a bit nutzo and laughed.Then she realized the logic. Now?... my mom does not mention the Lasix side effects. If anything, she tells me how many "squats"she gets in during the day!

I woke up the other night, with the idea of writing a blog about shifting thinking.I have come to accept my thoughts that come during my sleep as a gift from the other side, just as Lola explained so many years ago.

In truth, I am not sure why the idea came to me.I choose to trust my inner compass and my gut. I firmly believe someone out there in need of  guidance in shifting their mindset. Possibly this little blog of mine can make a difference.

Wishing you all the best,

first born, first ticket

Aug 12,2015

wow, what a week it has been and it's only Wednesday! 

let me start this blog by saying that this blog has no other intention except to put my thoughts down. there is no health,lets get exercising making good food choices information here. This is me, Macara  and my thoughts on life in blog. There are no editors making  grammatical corrections for me, changing sentence structure. There are going to be run on sentences and to be completely honest,it is exactly how I wish it to be. For those that know me, they know how I speak, my personality, my energy. It is my intention to bring the essence of my spirit to the pages of this blog.

With that said, lets get down to business , the topic of the blog....the story of Mitchell Scott Brachmann and his first ticket...

Oh man. 

Let me go back for a moment to remind readers of our  basic story.

Steve and I are both widowed. We have known each other since 7th grade. We graduated high school together way back in 1987. We went our separate ways after graduation... we are together not by chance, the ones we loved brought us together. our story is uniquely ours and a blog for another day. Lets just say, I never in a million years would have thought that I would be widowed at 41 and living back in CA ,with SR and our beautiful crazy life.

I trusted the process.

Back to Mitchell. 

Summer of 2014

Mitchell  was going into 9th grade  and  really wanted to take a specific AP class, Human Geography. I learned to take this AP class in the fall, he had to go to summer school, to take a pre-requisite course for 3 weeks. Fine, I thought.... Then I was informed that summer school is not free!I thought! The class would cost,(not going to be accurate on this) between $300-400 for 3 weeks (!?!) The cost took me by surprise, but  after a few heart to heart conversations, I realized how much he wanted to take this class,so  summer school was a go.

The deal we made was this.... he would  have to ride his(new) bike to and from school. He needed to show increased responsibility. At the time we were living in Steve's old house which was close to Calabassas High School, where the district had scheduled summer school. He was willing. 3 weeks in total. easy he thought....

I will say this, I was apprehensive about him riding his bike on the busy streets of Woodland Hills and Calabassas. This was definitely not Northfield MN! Lots of traffic, busy streets...I drove him the route which we felt was safest. I explained which side of the street to  bike and the crosswalks to use etc.

 I was uncomfortable thinking of him biking to school,to say the least. I think any parent with their first born feels these same things.You have to allow their growth,  as uncomfortable as it may be.  So I said a quiet prayer as I watched him head out the door the first day. I waited anxiously for him to bike up the driveway and tell me about his day.

3 weeks.....

In the  3 weeks, he got 7 flat tires, 3 in one day. No joke. I still don't know exactly how that one happened. I believe Steve and I were out of town and my mom was watching the boys.  He was pretty flustered as anyone would have been. I think he ended up  watching some you tube videos on how to change a tire since my mom wasn't too much help!

The last day of school arrived July 24,2014.. Final day....

I receive a  text... a picture of a ticket... huh? 

He goes on to tell me the story.. my mom and I laughed. A lot...

He did what he had done for the prior 3 weeks, crossed at the crosswalks went onto campus.. 

the last day, a police officer on a moped was sitting in  a driveway of a home next to the school. Pulled him over...

his offense? 

riding his bicycle against traffic for approximately 50 feet in the bike lane...

He had not brought his ID with him on the last day. Mitchell was truthful and gave the officer all of his information, was issued the ticket and was late to his final. The little boys couldn't believe he actually told the officer his true name,age,address etc. It was quite funny to listen to the banter between them. As a parent I was proud that he told the truth.

To say it flustered him was an understatement.

You see in our old home town in MN, police officers would stop kids for wearing their helmets and give them Dairy Queen or Culvers coupons as a reward!

Mitchell honestly thought he was being punked. He couldn't believe that it was happening and the officer was serious about the violation!

I told him I was not upset with him and we would handle the issue. It was a great topic of conversation for the rest of the summer..Nobody we spoke to could believe an actual ticket was issued!

We all agreed that it was an awfully slow crime day in Calabassas....

As summer came to a close, Mitchell and I went to the courthouse to wrap the looming ticket issue up with a big bow. Pay the fine and call it lesson learned....

$470 fine... 

the woman behind the counter was mortified at the violation and that the officer actually wrote the ticket! Quietly, she gave us words of advice told us what court room to ask for and to go to court.

So we did, 1st court date April 16,2015!

Yes, that is correct... 

We get back from Spring Break in Hawaii and have court that week. 

He wanted to tell the judge his side of the story. 

So we sat in a courtroom with 270 other people. It was traffic court. It was straight from a Key and Peele substitute teacher skit with roll call

in-case you havent seen.... 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw

With the ethnic diversity of traffic court, listening the deputy attempt pronouncing challenging names made me smile.

What I was not expecting in traffic court was to  have a pre-recorded audio tape (imagine in the airplane) with instructions played...

basically,

The judge will hear you plea,
1)guilty
2)not guilty
3)no contest
Have your ducks in a row, be ready.... time is valuable..

Holy crap, I looked at Mitchell and thought, well, so much for telling your story. 
You are guilty, yes, but you didn't know the law!!! I was not feeling like a very good mom at that moment, I lacked solid advice. I kept thinking oh shit, stay calm... 

He was called up in the first group, third called to the stand.

She read his charges aloud,  recognized what she had read, took off her glasses looked him in the eyes and asked how he was. He was scared. My heart was pounding out of my chest, I kept intentionally taking long exhales to stay calm for outward appearances.

When I say that the entire courtroom sighed at the reading of his charges that is not an exaggeration....you could hear people say, things like I cant believe he got a ticket for that!

The judge said, "Well I know I feel safer seeing what cars are coming toward me while I ride my bike, but I know the law"....He replied, "I do too,  I didn't know the law your honor"

He pled with tears in his eyes, no contest...

20 hours of community service.!?!

We were escorted to the side door to fill out paperwork. He sat there quietly in the corner, I could see he was going to lose it, 20 hours of community service for this? then the flood gates opened...pent up emotions all released....

I did my best to calm him, reassure him, hold him, allow him his journey, but try to get him to listen...

The wonderful ladies behind the counter got out their white out rollers and started telling him he was able to change his plea and not to worry about any of this, it was not going to be a permanent mark on his record, he was a minor.  He finally heard them...

He decided to change his plea,but we had to wait until all 270 people had been called to the stand.In total we waited 4 hours. Thankfully, Mitchell's anxiety had time to subside, as he was able to witness a few people who were standing before the judge clearly not telling the full truth. He was able to watch the process from the third party perspective and gain some understanding of the process...

We were the only ones left in the court room... finally our turn..


The judge called him back up. She said, "Well I see Mr. Brachmann that you haven't seen me enough today and  you want to change your plea." 

The judge took her time explaining to him  all the different scenarios so he understood the law and his options. He stood there and said, "I simply want to tell you my side of the story your honor. " My heart melted.

He pled no contest... trial set, Aug 10,2015.

Fast forward...

Has it been in the back of our minds he was going to court? of course. Did the looming date create uneasy feelings? Oh yeah it did... what was the worst thing that could happen? We discussed. The officer would show up and each would tell the judge their side.(I did have him take an online bicycle safety course to show that he was taking responsibility for his actions...)  Worst case scenario, he would get 20 hours of community service and hopefully he could have it count for school volunteer hours as well. He was ready for whatever was going to happen.


We waited patiently outside the same courtroom. Several police officers began arriving... I would ask him, do any look familiar? He couldn't remember.

The courtroom's energy was different this time.... All were here for trial....
Officers were designated to one side of the room, civilians the other... we sat and waited patiently....

No pre-recorded directions this time....

We continued to sit with some anxiety not knowing if the officer was going to show.

His name was called for check in.

After 30 minutes, the same Judge we had in April called his name....

She said ,"Your officer did not arrive, your case is DISMISSED!!!"

For those of you who follow  BLISS with Mac, my #daily3 pictures of appreciation on FB or Instagram , I posted these for Aug 10.. I took them walking out of the courtroom...

Although more than 3 pictures for the day, I had to capture me taking some much needed moments of quiet once we returned home...

Here is the original ticket, barely readable... although I thought it would be fun to frame, I think it will find it's place in a memory box to be looked at many years from now, only a distant memory.

I want to thank the officer for not showing up. Although a small part of me wanted to see the man who actually had given a 13 year old a ticket for this offense instead of a warning... At the end of the day, I remind myself, it was exactly as it was supposed to be.

We were outside our comfort zone, there was growth, many lessons learned and maturity gained from July 24,2014 to Aug 10,2015.


Being a mom is the most challenging jobs I have been given. It also is the most rewarding. 

Life is about the journey.... embrace the moments...

All the best,

My #daily 3

Wow, July 21, 2015.

Time flies.

April was the last time that I blogged about life. 

I wanted to take the opportunity to write about my daily 3 and how it came into being. I realize that I have told this story many times but never have written it down for those of you out in internet land.

Here is how things shook down...

Last year, we were planning on putting SR's house on the market after July 4 weekend. We had been actively looking for a home but had yet to find what felt like the next step. What we didnt expect to happen, happened. House sold in 4 days, 20 day escrow, all CASH.... How does that happen?

So 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 didnt find a house in 20 days. We ended up moving into what I call a cozy original bungalow (are you reading between the lines?) So original that we had one outlet in the kitchen! yup 1 : )

Mentally, I knew moving into this place, it was temporary. We had been trying to buy a house we had our eyes on for 100 days(see post of house buying)... thinking it would come through...so,it was a transitional place for maybe 3 months.... I truly believe you can do anything you set your mind to, even  living in the cozy bungalow with an insane commute to get the boys to school and their sporting activities.It was only temporary I kept telling myself. 

3 months turned into 7....

After we moved. The dust settled so to speak and I was staring at what I had to work with. I pulled up my big girl panties and said, I can make anyplace feel like home.

I did need to call in support, at least to paint. I knew that living with dark paneling was not going to work. A fresh coat of white paint went up and made a significant difference, at least for me.

I would sit in the house and get a bit down. 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, but for me on that day, it did.

 The house  buying situation was so aggravating, I needed to do something to shift my thinking. This is where my #daily 3 began.  My first #daily 3 posted Oct 1,2014.

My dinner at the Habit, morning coffee with coconut oil and being able to enjoy some time with Mitchell while the little's were at football practice. Like I said, not earth shattering by any means... but this was my transitional life...

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 so good emerged....

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 look forward to seeing where it goes from here! Please feel free to share my links : )


as of right now, I'm not sure what pictures I have for tonight (well that's a little fib, I do know one or two).... stay tuned! 

Wishing you all the best
with Peace, Love, Blessings and Gratitude
Mac

thinking back on our move day(graphic picts fyi)

To say that I was burning the candle at both ends would have been quite accurate.

Completed my first tri March 1
Big move Day to RNB 1 week later March 22
Spring Break 2015 in Maui April 4-14

Soo much. Too much...

Let me take you back to March 22, our move day.

I had requested the same crew of movers that moved us back in Aug to be our crew this time. They really were quite amazing. I laugh because their primary language is Russian. They spoke little and broken English , yet we were able to laugh and enjoy the otherwise stressful day.

Here was the plan:

Pack up the rental, bring to RNB...
Drive to storage, pack up 2 storage units .. return to RNB

Sounds busy but doable....

The rental was basically packed up except for a few random items... I put Finn and the boys in the truck and headed to RNB to wait for the movers....

I had about an hour...

In that time, Jack and Lucas decided to ride their bikes.... sure I thought....

Then I get the text

I think you should get some band-aids...

You see I just gone up the store to get laundry detergent.....yup..

I've done enough wound care and know this is far more in need than just some band-aids...

So off to find an after hours pediatric care....

While Steve was overseeing all the moving activities, this was where I was being a mom

reality check...

he saw me going to take a pic...such a boy

after 9 stitches and a full debriedment of gravel this was his cleaned up knee

After our time at the clinic, we returned home... Remember we were in the throws of moving!

Jack and I arrived back to the house and I receive a phone call from Steve asking for the truck and some help at storage.... Off I went...

to say movers were hustling would be an understatement. You see there is a check out time where the storage facility(although all outside) states that all gates LOCK at 7pm..

7:05 I am inputting the code to open the gate..... instead of a green light..... contact manager red light was flashing.... uh oh.

I open the walk through gate, knock... nobody... I call... nobody... wtf.... 5 Russian movers, a huge ass truck pack to the brim, Steve's truck and my truck... and we are locked in! Cant be happening...

I immediately start calling all numbers I could find.... Leaving voice messages.... uh, hello, we are sitting at the gate, movers are here and we are locked in... we need some help please....

15 mins pass....

not gonna lie, I was trying not to panic but it was pretty hard...

The lead man in charge of the moving crew Roman, calls for Steve.... in his thick accent...

walks back to his truck and returns with  his tool bag.


wa-la gate opens..

The one really quite talkative one of the group says, "leave it to us Russians to be resourceful!"

The gate was not broken, all was returned to working order except we were on the outside...

I kept thinking , this is absolutely crazy, we cant be LOCKED INSIDE.... 

I asked once we returned to the RNB, had they ever been locked in a storage facility before.... they replied nope.... so we had a good laugh  being the first time and continued to unload the truck....

At the end of the very long day,  everyone was exhausted and I opened a bottle of champagne with our red solo cups and the movers and we toasted to another successful move....


I walked into the house after they left and saw this

its all about the journey...

So that in a nut-shell is the story of our big move to the RNB.

Right now, we still have plenty of boxes to unpack but we are in Maui resting.... I will blog again while I am here but for right now... I might go take a nap...


Wishing you all the best,