Rise and Shine Girl Blog

Welcome to my blog!  I’m laughing at myself because I’m the last person I ever thought who would have a blog.  I tend to be more private and I don’t like to put my “stuff” out there too much.  Recently, I developed a curriculum for adolescent girls named Rise and Shine Girl, find out more at www.riseandshinegirl.com, with the premise of empowering girls to be true to themselves and to rise and shine to any occasion.  With that said, I realize that I’m a  Rise and Shine Girl, hence the name of my blog. I try to live my life according to being true to what is in my heart and facing what comes my way.  Notice I used the word “try”.  I’m not perfect and I’m a work in progress, aren’t we all?  My plan is for this blog to highlight the positive I see in life while being honest when life is not going as I’d like.

A couple housekeeping items:

I’m the world’s worst speller.  Thank goodness for the invention of spell check, now if someone could just invent the automatic response for me to press the button all of the time!  So, if you see words that don’t look correct, you know my finger didn’t press the button.   If I could digress here a little, remember the old fashion hardbound dictionary?  I have always found it frustrating to search for a word when you don’t know how to spell it, afterall, I’m trying to figure out the spelling, duh!  I remember Mrs. Miller’s 5th grade class when I went up to ask how to spell hors d’oeuvre (yes, I just looked up the correct spelling), her response, “You know where the dictionary is!”  Can you imagine how long it took me to find that darn word!

I’m also not the best at being grammatically correct in my writing.  So, I’m embracing my flaw and telling myself the importance of my blog is to get my thoughts across, not to show that I always know where to put the commas, what the correct tense is, etc.  What is a dangling participle anyway?

As they say…on with the show!

Ironically as I type this my four-year old daughter is on stage debuting in her first play at our local children’s theater.  I know what you are thinking, “Why are you typing away on your blog instead of sitting in the audience?’  As much as I would like to be at the first showing, I knew it would be better for Mia to not see me in the audience during the first showing, so I will make it to the next showing this afternoon, front row and center!

I’m also waiting for an arborist to come look at a sickly looking tree in my yard.  I have a pit in my stomach just thinking about what he will tell me.  I love trees!  We had to take down a large live oak tree in our yard a couple of years ago and I cried like a baby.  Yep, I’m a tree hugger!  In fact check out one of my favorite songs and singers, John Gorka Branching Out.  The link is to a live performance which will also give you a little taste of his personality.

Why do I love trees so much?   Hmmm…they are beautiful, each unique, act as a home, provide reprieve from the hot Texas sun, provide us with oxygen, and they don’t remain the same.  They are always growing!   Some trees are short, tall, thin, plump, some we can see through, others are so full we can only see the outside leaves, some turn naked in the winter while others stay full all year-long.  Some trees look soft and welcoming others look gnarly and twisted.  I can guarantee one thing, if all trees were the same, we would probably not notice them.  Have you guessed where I’m going with this?  You are unique!  You have thoughts, beliefs, likes, dislikes, you may be vertically challenged, you may need to have your clothes custom-made, you may have a disability, you may be reading this and saying, “what a bore this is”.  Then stop reading, you have the ability to makes choices!

Well, the curtains for my daughter’s play will be coming to a close soon and she will be taking her bow, oops she would correct me, “It’s a curtsie mom!”  I think I will close the curtains on my first post as well.

I’ll leave you with this.  Embrace who you are!  Embrace others for who they are!  Be happy you are different from them and they are different from you.  Sometimes you need to look past the outside to see the treasure inside.  RISE AND SHINE!