So I’m walking my dogs, picturing my cute little son, my beautiful wife and the tangible happiness that they bring to my life.  I guess you could say that I had found a moment of true appreciation for what I’d been blessed with.  Yet the funny thing is that in those moments (and I’m sure you can relate to this) I had not a single thought of a purchased item.  Not my Macbook Pro or iPhone, not my car or house or my TV or bike or…you get the point.  OK, maybe I thought about my Macbook, but only for a second and then it was back to my wife and son.

It’s just that in these moments we seem to recognize what truly matters in life.  The rest of the time we find ourselves worrying about money, obsessing over something we want to purchase or trying to convince ourselves and/or those around us that our lives would be much better off if we could just have that one item that’s missing from our ‘collection’.

Our Return Is Always Equal To Our Investment

When you invest your time, money and/or attention into something you will inevitably receive a return that is equal to that investment (this is not always entirely true, but just work with me here).  So let’s say you spend $50 on a nice dinner out.  You’ll receive an enjoyable, short lived bit of satisfaction and then you’ll forget all about it.  Now let’s say you spend $500 on a new grill.  This item has the capacity to provide you with many occasions of enjoyment and satisfying cuisine.  It cost you more money and took you more time to save up for, but you knew this was an investment into your grilling enjoyment.

OK, so forget about the horrible analogy above and think about this.  What has the greatest value in your life?  Got it?  OK, now what area of your life takes the most work to maintain?  I don’t know about you, but my family means the world to me and yet my marriage, for example, has required more effort to maintain than most anything else.

You know the saying, “You get what you pay for.”?  Well, when it comes to having true joy in your life you find that hard work is most certainly involved.  My point is that trying to buy our happiness is the easy way out and yet the least satisfying option.  We are so easily convinced that somehow there is a price tag dangling from happiness and it’s just a matter of making enough money to purchase it.  But the fact is, this is a BIG FAT LIE!

The last 7 years of marriage to Liz have been a roller coaster ride, to say the least, but it’s only in that effort that I’ve gained a priceless friendship that will last a lifetime.  And now we get to share that love with our son and enjoy even more value for our efforts.

Let me end with this…

If you have a spouse, or a sibling or a parent or a friend or anyone in your life who brings you joy, always see the true value of that investment.  These are the things that matter, not the ‘stuff’ in your life.

The secret to spending less and having more is to take the time and energy that you would have spent on:

• …working to make the money for a purchase
• …making the purchase
• …making space for the product
• …and then maintaining it…

and put that effort into nurturing your relationships.  Do this and I promise you’ll find your greater efforts will always be matched with MUCH greater reward.

Eric Hamm

The last few weeks have been a little less than insane as I’ve been bombarded with all kinds of different life experiences and seeming to only have 23 hours a day to do it all.  I’ve enjoyed the steady flow of traffic from zenhabits as I’ve been promoting my different online ventures with Leo’s awesome blog.  I’ve been trying to maintain a level of quality with my blog posts that has kept me from just taking a quick break and tapping out an average message.  This has kept my post count quite low, but I think it’s worth it to keep my homepage packed with, as Leo calls them, ‘High Impact Posts’.  And finally, Liz birthed us a little baby boy on Tuesday, the 19th of this month.  That event shook things up well beyond normal and just past insane!

First, Let’s Talk Baby

OK, so the baby stuff is what most of you want to hear about, or maybe I’m just most eager to share, but either way, he’s finally here and I’m finally a member of club dad.

At 5lb 15oz’s little Tyson really lived up to his LT name.  He’s actually 20 inches long so he’s no shrimp, but he’s got my thin bone structure that makes people wrap their hands around your skinny wrists and say, “DUDE, I could like wrap my fingers around like three of your wrists!”  (Once they realize I don’t have three wrists, I’m already gone…but enough about. me )

Labor was quite intense to say the least.  Liz started having contractions at about 10:30pm Monday night, but they weren’t past the, “Wow, I think I just had a contraction?” stage until about 1 or 2 am.  By 3:30am she was starting to panic a bit, saying she wasn’t sure about the fact that we were still at home.  By 3:45am we were waiting for the Dr. to call back and running around the house in a controlled panic (if there is such a thing).

We arrived at the hospital by 4:30am and Liz had the wonderful pleasure of screaming all the way up the elevator.  OK, so she held it in pretty well, but the poor thing was hollering on the inside, I could tell.  By the time we got to our room, she was in the bathroom hollering on the outside.

The Dr. came in to check on her and could tell by the noise that she was definitely in full labor.  So we spent the next few hours laboring in different places, from the tub, to the oddly shaped bed to the birthing ball.  Refusing the epidural, Liz was left with a few shots of Fentanyl to take the edge off.  This got her through a bit more of the birthing pains, but by 6am she was pretty spent.

She laid in her bed while the Dr. came into tell her, “Your 6 centimeters.  If you plan on having and epidural, now is the cutoff time.”  Liz, being beaten down by the intense contractions, started to question her resolve.  She wasn’t sure if she could take much more of the pain without some kind of relief, but because we had spent a lot of time over the past month talking about the subject, I encouraged her to stick it out (women reading this, please don’t punch me through your computer screen.  I promise she was glad I did. )

I knew it was her spirit that was most badly beaten so I got her to stand up and do the slow dance I like to call ‘the 8 centimeter Waltz’.  For the next 2 hours we rocked back and forth, her head on my shoulder, working through each contraction.  Our focus was to forget the past, relax in the present and not worry about the future.  Without this, she would be in constant stress over everything that had happened, was happening and was about to happen (kind of like life, you know).

By 8am Liz told the nurse that she felt like the baby was much further down, as if he might drop out.  So she checked her and sure enough she was 10 centimeters and ready to push.

Liz later said that the pushing was an amazingly empowering process.  That it was the part of the labor where she had some form of control.  Finally she was able to do something with the contractions, not just bare them.

The time between the first push and Tyson’s first little cry was only about 45 minutes.  Being right there to see the whole thing (heck, I held her left leg for each push), I was blown away at the amazing process that takes place to bring a baby into the world.  And when he found his way onto Liz’s chest for the first time, we looked at each other with an amazement and joy that seemed to erase the past 10 hours of pain and uncertainty.

We had a son, he had a full head of dark brown hair and…we had a son!

Everything is going great and we’re loving every minute of it!  OK, so there have been a few hiccups here and there and we’re not quite enjoying the sleep routine that we once had (though it’s Liz that is baring the brunt of that burden…I can’t work if I can’t keep my eyes open…once again ladies, please don’t hurt me…)  Seriously, Liz is loving every minute of motherhood.  And speaking of mothers, hers has been in town for the last week helping us with everything from meals to shopping to feeding to just giving her motherly moral support.  Mother-In-Laws get a bad wrap, but mine is nothing short of amazing!

OK, Now Let’s Get Down To Business

I just wanted to update you on my latest biz banter, if you don’t mind.

I’ve had the wonderful privilege of renting a bit of prime advertising real estate on zenhabits for the last month and will be able to utilize it through the month of June as well.  Let me first say that I know few banner spots better on the Internet for reaching a rich audience of loyal blog followers.  Leo’s readers are some of the nicest, most valuable web surfers to grace the digits of my Google Analytics.  I’m not a sales pitch kind of guy and they’re not interested being pitched a sale.  I just get to share my products and services to a much larger audience and it’s been a real blessing to say the least.

Turning a product into a service and a service into a product.

My two online businesses, frugal Theme Dot Com and frugal Site Design, are a perfect match of product and service.  I’ve created a product, the frugal WordPress Theme and I use that particular theme to serve those who need a custom website.

I’ve been giving the frugal Theme away for free for the past few months now, but have recently created a Premium version that I sell, along with single and multi-use licences.  There’s still a free one available, but both the free and Premium versions have been updated with cleaner code and many enhancements.  And for those who just want it all done for them or who need a professionally customized version, they contact me over at frugal Site Design and hire me for the job.

By the way, for anyone interested, there’s a 40% payout for affiliates on all frugal products!  (I just had to throw that in. )

It’s been a great fit for me and seems to have been a good one for my clients as well.  So I couldn’t be happier about the venture and hope to take what I’ve learned and am continuing to learn about the unique challenges of online business and share them with my wonderful Motivate Thyself readers.

Finally, About Blogging

I know this isn’t a blog about blogging, but I figured I could sneak this in here and hope no one really notices.

I’ve really changed my blogging/writing style over the last 4 months or so as I’ve had less time and less desire to create ‘pretty good’ content.  I’ve dropped my 4 to 5 posts a week schedule and picked up a more ‘post when you’ve really got something worth sharing (and the time to effectively share it)’ kind of mindset.  I couldn’t get out of my head the idea that as a blogger who wants to regularly WOW his readers, I can’t afford to let my home page fill with mediocrity.  That words should not tap into the confines of my frugal Theme framework without first passing the test of personal passion for the piece in mind.

One of my fears when I first considered this shift was that I would lose a lot of my regular traffic.  I was afraid that my readers might come to think I had closed shop.  Yet I was pleasantly surprised to instead find a much greater influx of both regular readers and now and again traffic.  More of my content was being shared with the rest of the blogging community and I found a greater respect for the voice I was sharing.

This is not to say that every blog is meant for heavy hitting posts a few times a month.  Certainly the world of blogging would get quite boring if every place we landed tried to feed us a few thousand words in a sitting.  This is what I love about blogging and Internet content in general.  We can go from one place that gave us an inspiring snippet of encouragement, to another that teaches us an important new skill and then to yet another that makes us lol so hard that we can’t help but tweet about it.  It’s all essential stuff and all apart of a wonderfully complete blogging experience.

Final Thoughts

I guess what I’m finding as I’m typing these words, is that my time is limiting, but my experience is richening.  I’m working harder than ever, but on projects that matter to me and with new family members that constantly make me smile.

The Internet has been good to me.  It has allowed me to work at home and watch every minute of my sons first moments while assisting my wonderful wife as she cares for him.  It has brought the world to my fingertips and me to the world.  It has introduced me to an amazing community and allowed me to gain new friends and enjoy their loving support.

Thanks for taking these moments to catch up on my latest life experiences and I hope you maybe even took away a tip or two.  Either way, I just wanted to thank all who have been so supportive over these stressful and tiring weeks and just let you know that I won’t forget it.

’till my next post (or a little shoulder tap on Twitter )…

Eric

P.S. You’re always welcome to follow me on Twitter, but if you’re interested keeping up with Liz and her exciting new adventure, be sure to give her a follow as well.

What is value?

Let’s start with a simple definition.

Value = Relative worth, merit or importance.

So the value of a dollar is relative to what you can GET with it.  The value of a college education is relative to what you can DO with it.  Where does this leave an individual’s words?  Do we even put a value on a particular person’s thoughts?  The fact is, we do it every day without even knowing it.

Every time we ignore someone we reduce the value of their ideas and every time we listen, we increase it.  It’s human nature to gravitate our attention toward those we feel are worth the most to us.  Having someones attention is equivalent to a dollar bill receiving one dollar’s worth of goods in trade for itself.  Remove the receiving end of a thought and you might as well be playing with Monopoly money.

The value of a Tweet.

Twitter is an amazing barometer for value.  In a numbers driven society we are taught that more is always better, but Twitter helps clearly debunk this idea and shows us what really matters.

When someone tweets one of my posts, I may receive a bit of traffic as a result.  Depending on the tweeter, this traffic may barely hit my radar or it might open the flood gates of traffic and re-tweets (I apologize if you don’t know about Twitter, but all I can say is, “Remove head from sand…now open your eyes and enjoy the 21st century! )

You might initially think, “Sure, the tweeter that gave you all the traffic had a bunch of followers.”  This is not necessarily the case.  I see time and time again, tweeters who may only have a few thousand followers, yet command attention ten times more effectively than one with 50,000.  For some reason, this person has become so valuable to their followers that when they speak, EVERYBODY listens.  Heck, people go out of their way to make sure they didn’t miss anything.  So when I see this occur, I can’ t help but ask myself, “How did this person build their worth to a place of such high value?

It’s NOT by accident!

It’s easy to look at these attention commanders and think that it’s only their celebrity status that commands such a following.  It’s convenient for us to blow it off this way so we can get away from the idea that we somehow have control over our own value.  But their fame is only the RESULT of their actions.  Something they did established this credibility and now they reap the rewards that comes with this power.

Commanding attention opens almost EVERY door.

Whether we’re talking about our job, our family or even our social life, being able to be noticed and absorbed is crucial to our success and well being.

At work it may be that we’re shooting for a particular promotion.  If we have gained the respect of our boss and therefore their attention, we have a much greater possibility of getting that prize.  But if we just blend in, it may a lost cause.  As individuals we want to be heard and understood.  If we can’t extend our thoughts to the rest of society in such a way that attention is gained and sustained we start to feel mentally and emotionally isolated.

When I was a kid, my brother who is 6 years older and I, and my mom, would chat away in the car as we drove around town.  I always sat in the back, waiting for my opportunity to jump into the conversation.  Being much younger and less mature, I had a hard time getting much sustained attention and this led me to begin the bad habit of interrupting and talking SUPER fast.  I felt that if I didn’t shoot right through my thoughts, I may lose my audience.  The problem was that this tactic left me chasing after attention, instead of commanding it naturally.

Over the years I have learned to speak with more clarity and not rush through my thoughts.  I’ve had to re-train myself to assume people are listening, not that they are waiting to flee from my sound waves.  What I’ve realized, though, is that it’s not as simple as making that assumption.  I’ve had to learn some key communication tactics to attain the attention I desired.  It has been through these tidbits of talk tactics that I’ve found my voice and successfully begun to connect with the world around me.

10 Tips To Enhance Your Voice While Maintaining A Respectful Tone

1. Speak less often: Just like selling a product, if we flood the market, the value of our goods goes down.  Say too much, even if your words are golden, and you will overwhelm your audience and lose their attention.
2. Carefully choose your words: Lay down a few too many worthless words and you will drive down their value.  By carefully picking the ideas you present to others, you are maximizing the attention they give you.
3. Carefully choose your audience: Often times it’s not the words we share, but the people we are spewing them to that makes or breaks the power of our presentation.  After you’ve picked your content, make sure you’re audience is ripe for its message.
4. Don’t be shy | Confidence is KING: I’m a total introvert so it can be a bit scary to speak to certain types of people.  But the fact is, the posture we present when conveying our message will play a big role in how and if it’s absorbed.
5. Speak softly: If you are speaking the right words, to the right audience, with the right posture, you should never have to speak loudly.  Those around you will naturally focus on your words and do whatever necessary to take it all in.  In fact, just like a loud, obnoxious TV commercial, too much volume will inevitably reduce the desire to listen.
6. Listen to others: We ALL want to be heard.  It is a natural and healthy desire.  If you are never listening to those around you, you will find it much harder to be heard.  I know for myself, it is more appealing to give attention to someone who gives me the time of day.  (Also, we can learn a lot from those around us.  Get too caught up in your own message and you will lose out on the wealth of wisdom that exits the minds of others.)
7. Help others communicate THEIR message: One of the most powerful presentations comes in the form of sharing the ideas of another.  You not only gain their respect, but you take an already formed idea and add your own perspective to enhance its value.
8. Speak from experience: Clarity is key when it comes to effective communication.  Try and audiblize an experience that has not yet been acquired and you will lose the sharp edge of your message.  By speaking from experience we are able to add the exact sights, sounds, smells and feel of the context in question.  This enhances your clarity while defining your expertise.
9. NEVER embellish: It is quite natural to want to turn up the heat on your words to attract the most attention possible.  The problem with this tactic is that you are improperly establishing the expectations of your audience.  You may initially receive more listeners, but they will quickly become disappointed as they are made aware of your enhancements.
10. Be patient!: Building respect can be a long, uphill battle, but it is ALWAYS worth the trip.  Losing it, on the other hand, can be accomplished in an instant.  Never go with the desire to rush into your words.  You can easily add to a previous statement, but what has already been spoken can never be unsaid.

Final Thoughts

The more I share my voice online, the more evident it becomes that these principles are not only important, but crucial to acquiring an effective tone.  I’m finding that gaining respect and building the value of my message is a requirement, not only in the blogging community, but in every day life.  We are so often drawn to the powerful voices around us that we can easily neglect to seek that same resonance with our own.  Carefully walk your words into the outside world and you will inevitably increase the value of your message and the authority that goes along with it.

If you found this post to be useful and want to stay up-to-date with future insight, be sure to subscribe to Motivate Thyself by Email and/or RSS.

Eric

OK, so I decided to give “Motivate Thyself” what I feel is an up to date look.  I think it looks a bit more current and also allows me to feature more specific content rather than just have the latest appear on the top front page.  I’ll be tidying up here and there over the next week or so, but for the most part, it’s close to finished.

So first and foremost, clear you browsers cache just to make sure you’re viewing everything properly.  There’s a chance you may be seeing bits of the old theme if you don’t.

Secondly, what do you think?  I’d love to get your feedback so feel free to hand me your 2 cents.

That’s all for now, but I hope it’s a positive move and a way to encourage continued growth here at “Motivate Thyself”.  See you in the comments…

Eric

I love my wife very much.  We’re best friends, there’s no doubt about that.  I have no more fun with a soul alive than I do with Liz.  We laugh A LOT and sometimes cry as well.  Our little dogs make us equally crazy and equally joyful.  We share many of the same passions and the ones we don’t, we appreciate for the sake of the other.

Liz is the most beautiful person I know.  There’s a certain innocence about her that can’t be matched.  There’s a child inside her that has yet to taste the sour of our society.  An untarnished soul that is pure and lite.

Yet she HAS felt pain, and much of it.  Brokenness has entered her life a few too many times and she’s created her OWN pain in the past.  But we’ve shared in this unsettled history and come through it stronger and closer than ever.  We’ve felt each others pain and created some of our own.  Our imperfect affection reminds us of the reality that is our relationship.  We accept the other for who they are and yet never stop pushing ever closer to perfection.

I simply love my wife and she simply loves me.  We equally complete this one body and have never questioned our place as partner to the other.  So on this Valentine’s Day I will simply smile as I work toward baby accommodations, side by side, with my beautiful wife.  No magic, no rhymes, no amplified emotions.  Just love, that is equally embraced and a fire that can only burn with these two entangled elements of humanity.

Happy Valentines! I hope your day is wonderful and your time spent with someone special.

Eric

I’m really excited to finally unveil my latest blogging project to you guys and gals.  It’s a brand new blog about cloud computing, blogging, WordPress, theme design and general web 2.0 technology.  It’s basically the other half of my geeky personality.  As much as I’m a passionate dreamer, I’m also a technology consultant who loves staying on top of the latest trends and helping others do the same.

Cloud Cadet has two main purposes plus a bonus.

1. Cloud Consulting: I’ve been a computer consultant for the last 5 years and have decided to move my business to the cloud.  This blog/site is my new ‘office in the cloud’.  I’m offering a wide array of services from blog setup, theme design and pretty much ANYTHING WordPress (troubleshooting, tweaking, moving, etc…)  I also offer assistance with hosting services, domain manipulation, complete blog transfers and general technology consulting related to the Internet and blogging.  You can find more about this on my Services Page.
2. Cloud Blogging: I plan to focus my blogging on a wide range of tech topics, from cloud computing from a blogger’s perspective to tips and tutorials on tweaking WordPress themes, design and plenty of other things that will most certainly improve your blogging/Internet skills.  So be sure to check it out and Subscribe on your way out.
3. Bonus: This part may seem kind of silly to some, but maybe not.  I call it Cloud Cadet TV and it’s a kind of ‘sub-blog’ where I will be embedding videos from places like hulu, YouTube, Vimeo and Viddler.  The idea is that I feature a new film or show and anyone can watch it, rate it and then discuss it in the comments.  I know this can be done in a similar fashion on the original sites, but who knows, it might be more fun in a more ‘local’ setting.  Either way, I’ll be watching, even if I’m by myself.

But enough yapping.  Please go check it out!  My first post answers the question, “what is cloud computing?”,  a topic bloggers should certainly know the answer to.  Well, do you?!

Feel free to email me with any questions and any feedback would be GREATLY appreciated.  Enjoy!

Eric

P.S. I’d really appreciate a Tweet about the site and maybe a stumble for its first post if you like it.  Thanks!

I’m a selfish person.  There’s no denying it.  I think about myself all the time.  I think this is human nature, but the degree of selfishness varies based on the person and their current situation.  We certainly have a choice to be less selfish, but some choose differently than others.

Lately I’ve been quite busy.  Between blogging, consulting, family, etc… my mind sometimes turns to mush with to-dos and attention grabbers of all kinds.  As a result, I find myself less and less attentive to others needs.  I might attend to the ‘absolutely HAVE-TOs’, but I’ve been neglecting those ‘little things’ that really aren’t that little.

Reading between the lines.

In a conversation with a friend, it was brought to my attention that something they had sent out to a group of friends/colleagues had receive zero response.  It wasn’t a major event or anything, but an announcement that could have at least received a simple, “Good luck!”  As I though back on this very conversation I realized that I had been one of those individuals.  Even though he was talking to me about ‘them’, I myself was just as guilty.  I didn’t even take the two seconds to give a “Good luck!’

Those closest often receive the most neglect.

Isn’t it interesting how it’s those individuals who are closest to us that often times receive the least attention and consideration.  Maybe not always, but when life picks up steam and we get stretched beyond our abilities, it is often times our spouse and/or best friend who gets the short end of our attention stick.  Maybe we feel more comfortable letting them down than we do a stranger or maybe we just think, “They’ll understand.  They know what I’m going through right now.  That other person does not, so I better address them first.”

The true value of the little things.

Noticing the details of an individual shows them that you are truly paying attention.  Anybody can nod their head in agreement, but it is only when they return with their own take on your words that you know they’re engaged.  Liz will sometimes ask me how she looks.  Most of the time she hears me say, “You look fine.”  But it is only when I address the details in my response that her eyes light up with appreciation and a feeling of connection.

Why it’s so hard.

As I mentioned before, life has a way of grabbing our attention and never letting go.  The instant one thing disappears from our focus, another is there to fill its spot.  If we let it, distraction will take over every second of our conscious thought.

On top of this, timing isn’t always ideal.  We are often right in the thick of things when a loved one needs addressing.  This is where priorities have to take precedence.  This is where our skill of thought transition needs to come into its own.  Otherwise, we need to stop for a moment, address our inability to give the required attention, but then MAKE SURE to address it as soon as possible.  Otherwise it will just go into that ever increasing mass of, “I’ll get to it later.”  The later that never comes.

Learn to identify the little things.

We need to become experts at identifying those precious little things.  Much of what pines for our attention can be completely disregarded, but these little things become victims of our mindlessness if we aren’t aware of their presence.  If we can see these things when they are right in front of our face, then address their needs without hesitation, we will be light years ahead of most.  Nurturing our relationships can be hard to do when busyness rears it’s ugly head, but it is ALWAYS our responsibility to notice those little things, no matter how much our we have on our plate.

This was written from me to me, but I hope you got something out of it as well.

Eric

Cost: $49 (Comes with full email support from both Sean and I)

Enjoy!

The Blueprint also has a 40% affiliate payout if your interested in signing as an affiliate.

Be sure to pop over to The Blueprint and I’ll see you over there as well as tomorrow, here at “Motivate Thyself”.

Until then…

Tyson Wesley Hamm

If you’ve followed my writing over the months you may already know about our miscarriage back in March of ’08.  If not, you can read about it on zenhabits.  But we DID finally get pregnant again and Liz is due on May 22nd.  But today we were blessed to finally find out the babies gender.  It’s a BOY!!!

Now let me start by saying that we kind of had a preference, a girl, but only just slightly.  In the end we just want a healthy, happy child.  I think it’s just that my side of the family is riddled with boys so we knew it was inevitable.  But now were really excited about the whole idea.  Yay us!

But I didn’t want to just mention this exciting news, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to talk about something I have NO experience with, but hope to share my insight none the less.  This whole thing got me thinking…

What are the dangers that lie ahead?

More specifically, I wanted to talk about the danger of expectations.  Because the instant I heard it was a boy, I thought to myself, “Awesome, he’s going to be just like ______ and we can _______ together and he’ll be good at _______.”  You get my point.  I instantly started painting a picture of what I thought he was going to be like.  Actually, a picture that I HOPED he was going to be like.  But this can be a dangerous path to take.  Expectation, if not met with perfection, only leads to disappointment.

I’ve seen it happen with many other families.  One or both of the parents have all kinds of expectations before the child is even old enough to show promise or direction.  Then suddenly it turns out the child had a personality that completely clashes with that of the parent/parents.  Let’s say the father is into sports and the son wants nothing to do with it.  Or the mother is a complete extrovert who likes to socialize and the daughter is a total introvert and just wants to spend time by herself.

This is completely natural, but I would think that the proper mindset could help the parents avoid the danger of a failed relationship.  It seems to me that we should be careful to stay open to our child’s personality and perspective on life and never try and fit them into a mold.  The goal is not to love having a mini version of yourself, but to love this completely unique individual that you have been blessed with.  To look for what you HAVE been given, not what you should be or were meant to be given.

OK, so I’m a total rookie here and you can totally take this all with a grain of salt.  I’m sure that the second this thing pops out I’ll be running around with dirty diapers and yelling, “WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!!!”  But until then, I want to at least SOUND like I have a clue.

That is all for today…