Archive for category: Inspiring Posts

Good Afternoon Everyone,

The weather here in Indy is going to be fantastic this week! It’s still cold but it will be sunny and over 40 this week! Yay! Yesterday I decided to go to the At Home store and look around. I wanted to replace my lampshades. I felt like the ones in the family room needed a refresh. I tried cleaning them over and over and now they have stains so I just purchased some new ones. I love the way they look! I also found some new faux flowers and some new bedsheets. It was a nice shopping trip. 

So I recently picked up the newest issue of Victoria magazine (March/April) and I flipped through it quickly to see what treasures they had this month. I came across an article at the back of the book called, “A Lesson in Beauty” by Abigail Wurdeman”. In this article, this woman talked about her mother. The first sentence captured my heart immediately. It said, “My mother creates beauty.” 

photo credit: Samantha Stortecky 

She goes on to say, “I didn’t recognize this talent when I was a child, despite how frequently other grown-ups mentioned it. “Your mom has a gift for making everything lovely, “her friends would tell me.” The world my mom designed was the only world I’d ever known. I didn’t see what was so special about it until I was an adult myself, fumbling to make a home out of a wood-paneled studio apartment and mismatched dollar store silverware”. 

These two paragraphs stopped me in my tracks. I was immediately thrusted into my childhood. I went to our house when I was in middle school. We moved constantly so I could never really call any home my childhood home. But for some reason, my mind went back to this home. I remembered my mother’s colorful furniture, glass dining room table that was set for dinner but we never got to sit there, her items that we could never touch, street incense (never candles), and there was never an arrangement in the house. I don’t remember my home being feminine. There was never any classical music playing just rap. There was never any decor shows on the television, just whatever junk. And then that’s when I realized, how and where did I come from?  

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

Even looking at the photo above, it baffles me. My mother was nothing like what I project. Nothing…. so I still wonder where in the world did I get this inspiration from? I believe that it has always resided in my heart. So now with my daughter (who turned 16 today, yikes) I wonder how she sees me. I hope so much that she will see me the same way this woman in the story eventually saw her mother. She said, she knew (her mother) how to design a refugee, and she knew how to share it with people like me who struggled to create beauty for themselves.” 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

Right now my 16-year is annoyed with all of my arrangements, candles, pink, and pearls. But when her friends see me they stop me and ask questions and this and that and it drives my daughter crazy. She hates the attention and I get it. But I told her, “Lauren I was like those girls once”. Whenever I saw a mom who had a beautiful home and dressed well I admired it greatly because I was never privy to that. She still rolls her eyes but I just believe that in the future the Lord will open them and she will see how I created beauty. 

Have a great Wednesday! 

Happy Friday!

It is a cold day here in Indy. We got 3 more inches yesterday…. I think everyone is hating snow this season. I hope things get better in Texas. I pray that they do. This weekend I have some errands to run. I really want to go to Kohls. I heard that the Harry Slatkin candle collection is at Kohl’s. I want to go and give those a smell and I may stop by DSW to have a look at their sandals. Well, let’s get into today’s post. 

In 2018,  I wrote a blog post called Trying to Live Well, and in that blog post, I discussed my frustration with rude people. I can’t believe that I wrote that almost 3 years ago! Time is just flying. Well, my frustration with people has since calmed down but the world is still a rude place. 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

We are now in a new year and I always try to think about my year ahead. It’s hard to do that but I do know that living a good life is always on my list. I was on Amazon (like always) and spotted another Alexandra Stoddard book called “You Are Your Choices; 50 Ways to Live a Good Life”. 

Alexandra talked about how past philosophers “believed we should live by the Golden Triangle of what is true, good, and beautiful. When we grasp what is true and good, we elevate our lives to become beautiful”. 

photo credit: Rachel Parcell.com 

Alexandra goes on to say that “the good life is a life of moral excellence that leads to happiness. We need to be hungry and thirsty for life abundant in order to fulfill our highest aspirations day to day. While some people just want to get by, we should choose to thrive”. 

photo credit: Gal Meets Glam.com 

The last thing that I wanted to share from the book was this, “a well-lived life is not an accident. The challenges that some of us will face in the future are unprecedented. We must be prepared. We are not saints. We are often tempted. We will not always make wise choices, but we will have to live with the consequences and hardships as a result. Nonetheless, we can recommit ourselves to true, good, and beautiful. Never mistake your choice to live a good life as selfishness. This is what all of us ought to be choosing. By having a proper framework for right thinking and right action, we come to understand that we have a right to pursue personal happiness”. 

I hope this helps some of you today. Choose truth, good, and the beautiful! I also believe that the Lord will guide us to it. 

Have a great weekend!