For Christmas, we bought our Labradoodle dog a special bone … a very large bone. When we put it up next to her, it measured half the length of her. We thought she’d be in doggie heaven with that gargantuan treat. However, after nearly two weeks, she barely touched it.

My daughter suggested the size was too overwhelming, so I cut it in half. Surprisingly, our dog took the half and chewed on the rawhide until she stopped to take a nap. Who would have thought too much of a good thing would be so paralyzing.

It reminds me of the saying, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” How easy it is for us to do that in life.

We take on large tasks thinking it will be fantastic, only to find that we’ve overcommitted and are now overwhelmed. Or maybe we set too many expectations for ourselves that we can never live up to.

So how can we make sure we don’t get in over our heads?

*Be honest about your limits and respect them

*Learn to say yes to the most important things and willing to say no to the rest

And  … understand that bigger isn’t always better!

What is it about a new year that prompts everyone to set new goals, commit to do better, or implement something new? There is nothing magical about January 1 as it’s just simply a marker in time to start fresh.

What if we looked at each day as a fresh start? Not just on the first of the year, but every day. How different would life be? It boils down to perspective and approach.

Often we get stuck in looking at each day as another day to live out the routine of the previous day doing the same tasks as the day before. But what if we viewed each day as a new beginning, a chance for discovering something new, and an opportunity to move closer to a goal?

Regardless if our daily tasks are the same, there are still new beginnings and opportunities waiting to be discovered every day. So give it a try. Dare to step out of the routine. Discover. Thrive!

Now that Christmas is over, the next thing nearing is the end of another year.

Life is a journey – one continuous storyline waiting to be discovered. Each day’s events build upon another. The sun sets. The sun rises. A new day arrives and the journey continues.

We all pass through chapters in our lives. At times we may wish the present chapter would end, so a new one could begin. However, each detail of the story carries importance.

Every moment counts. Each opportunity to connect with our children and spouse is a gift. All decisions matter. Laughter and fun is priceless. Life is a journey.

A truly fulfilled and happy life isn’t one that just allows one day to run into the next, but one that stops long enough to discover the treasurers hidden along the way.

Make the most of each day. Before you know it, another year will pass.

I’m no skilled seamstress. Really, I’m not. I’m just not afraid to try. So when my daughter was two, the adorable pintsize denim dress and matching hat I made her hid the evidence of my self-taught amateur seamstressing. As the years went on, I made a fleece winter jacket with matching hat, a quilt, skirts, jumpers, matching doll clothes, and Halloween costumes. She thought I could sew just about anything.

But no sewing project was like the infamous Dalmatians-with-fire-hydrants-print pajamas I made one winter.

This would be a great time to reiterate I taught myself how to sew when I was in my 20s.  To this day, I still don’t understand all the instructional jargon of patterns and only decipher it mainly by looking at the pictures. I steer away from complicated patterns, am notorious for excluding the interfacing steps, always have handy my trusty (what I call) “thread-puller-outer,” and usually make it up as I go. For the record “It’s so Easy” patterns do not mean it’s really that easy for an amateur like me! Just saying.

But I’ve digressed.

The doggie-print pajamas … it was in the early days of my learning and I just could not figure out where the pattern picture said to put the Velcro on the shoulders. Was it the wrong side of the back piece or the right side of the front piece or vice versa? After spending hours trying to figure it out, I sewed it how I thought would work best only to realize I sewed it all wrong. But it was too late–my daughter had already seen the finished product and insisted putting them on. She loved them. She adored them. Much to my dismay, she wore them all the time.

I kept my chuckles to myself as the upside-wrong-side-down Velcro attachments were just a continual magnet for her long red hair. Stuck hair and all, she loved the pajamas and still thought I could sew anything.

A few weeks ago, I tackled my biggest sewing project ever—a long formal dress for my daughter. She had a big event coming up and wanted a specific type of dress and was worried we couldn’t find one like it. So I opened my mouth …

“I could make one.”

And so the project began. The pattern she chose didn’t even boast it was easy. After hours of talking to the pattern somehow thinking it would miraculously talk back to me in non-pattern language, researching online how to do the pleats, and staring (a whole lot of staring) at the pictures, I finished even with my daughter’s requests of customizations. (Remember, she still thinks I can sew anything.) I have to say the dress turned out beautifully and my daughter loved it.

As I worked on this formal dress, discussions of past sewing projects emerged. We laughed hysterically reminiscing about her beloved doggie-print pajamas. She still looks fondly on those pajamas claiming the hair sticking in the backwards Velcro made no difference to her because she loved that I made them for her.

It got me thinking about the impact of the little things we do for our kids. Who would have thought that frustrating winter night creating what I deemed a pajama DIY disaster eleven years ago, would produce such a fond treasure for my daughter. She didn’t see the imperfections–she saw that I took time to make her something special.

It makes one pause and think doesn’t it?

Christmas is around the corner. As parents, we feel pressure to spend money we don’t have in excess, but perhaps we just need to look at what we do for our children differently. One never knows how the little things we do or make for them will be a lasting treasure for years to come.

Just saying …

Life is full of decisions—both big and small. Daily we make choices–some reap blessings, others bring messes. The hard part comes in not knowing the outcome.

It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. – Roy Disney

It sounds simple but can we identify our values on any given topic? Do we know where we stand and why? To know where we’re heading begins with knowing where we want to be.

With a daughter in high school, the topic of choices is a frequent discussion around our house. Colleges. Classes. Careers. Volunteer time. GPA. Time management. Knowledge. We talk about her passions and what she wants to do for a career, and then work backwards. What does she need to do to pursue this particular goal? What choices need to be made today to ensure that goal is reached?

Choices as a parent aren’t any different. We need to assess what is important to our family and determine what we want to instill in our children and then work backwards. We discover what we need to do to pursue a goal and decide what choices to make today to ensure that goal is reached.

Just remember, whatever the situation or whatever the goal, our choices today make up our future.