Reaching For Your Stars

Challenge Of This Week

2011-07-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for this weeks challenge? Of course you are. You have been ready for quiet some time now haven't you. This weeks challenge is to...

SMILE!

Now you are looking at this and thinking, well that is not much of a challenge but believe me it is. I want you to smile at EVERYTHING. I am not just talking your smiling at a person as they walk by but also at your daily routines that could have mishaps.

The other day I was in the store. Now I do not believe I have told this but I had an injury a while back that has hurt my back. So I am very cautious when it comes to doing certain activities. However I was not cautious enough or in time for what was about to happen. There I was standing in line waiting patiently. I notice I seem to find the lines that make me wait. Oh well. I am standing there and then it turns to my turn. So I am putting up my items, now I do not know about you but I like to watch the items get rang up so I know I am getting the same price I saw on the shelf. So I am trying to quickly load onto the conveyer belt as the cashier is checking my stuff. I figure I will count it in my head. I finish up and push the cart in front of me and go to pay. When a shooting pain goes down my back. The person behind me was not paying no attention and hit me with their cart. I was about to turn and say something along the lines of "Excuse me, am I invisible." I was only going to say that due to the person not apologizing. Yet my thoughts hit me all at once. As I am thinking away I am slowly finishing up paying and walking to the car. It takes more effort to be kind then it does not to be.

I thought what if the person behind me didn't realize it? Was that person to busy talking to notice? Should I start a fight just because I felt upset? If I did that would make me look just as bad as the person. So instead I walked away and as I walked away I found a penny and then smiled. This may not seem like much but there is a poem I loved growing up about how when you are down a angel will toss down a penny to cheer you up. For the rest of the day I smiled and I had a really nice day. I even got smiles back from other people.

So your challenge is smile. Even if you spill coffee, trip, make a mistake I want you to smile and look out because there may be a pe nny from an angel coming your way in the days to come.

~Keyria Lockheart~

Today is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it!!

2011-07-01T00:12:00.001-07:00

Beautiful

By Kristina Hollon

There I stood in a lush green field with decorations of scattered weeded, blue and yellow flowers. The breeze whipped through my hair with gentle short breaths. The decorated grass danced back and forth to the melody that was being played by the quartets of crickets, frogs and humming bees nearby. The sky was painted with yellow, orange, red and purple blotches and streaks.

Beautiful, was the only word that could describe something so beautiful. I couldn’t take my eyes away from the view that was presented before me nor plug my ears to ignore such beautiful songs. Instead I sat down in the grass that laid belo0w my feet and joined the grass in dancing to each of the melodies. I swayed back and forth rocking slowly to each wave of new songs as the birds joined into the melody by giving their own rendition of how the chorus went as they flew by. There was a faint sound of the sheep baaing on our neighbor’s land. I listened and tried to decipher their voices to see if I could recognize which voice belonged to whom. “Baa Baa,” That was Spot. “Baaaaa,” there was patches. “Baa Bah Baa Bah,” was that Callie? Or was that…

Suddenly I was moved forward by a force other than my own. It was not a harsh force but a gentle strong one. I smiled realizing what the force was from. “Hey Virtue,” I said to my horse as I reached up giving her a loving pat on her nose. She rested her head on my shoulder for a little bit as we looked out at the scene. A few moments later she moved and laid down next to me. “It is so beautiful isn’t it?” I asked her as we sat watching the colors of the sky, acting like mood rings, change form and color. New streaks of color were placed on the masterpiece before us as it laid majestically across the sky.

“The sky is so beautiful. This place was beautiful. Virtue, you are so beautiful” I said giving my horse another loving pat. She gave a whinny as if she agreed with me. “How did I get so lucky? That I get to be here?” but I left the questions unanswered as I smiled at the views and sounds all around. This was a day of peace, this was a day of serenity, this was a day of happiness, this was a day of beauty, this was NOT my day. I am sure it was someone’s day but mine was going to get milk.

GOAL OF THE DAY POEM

2011-06-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

Today is something simple. Just a goal for you to do.
One that will only take a second and then you will be through.
I want you to send me a message. You can choose whether it will be short or long.
A message of a question "What is the hardest thing about a goal you are working on."
To be fair I will tell you mine. That way you can see if you relate.
I am always in fear of failing, that is something I truly hate.
Yet, if I never try then I will never know. For that I have already failed.
So, instead of fearing it as I do, I face the fear and scream and yell.
"You will not scare me today! I will succeed in every way!
Even if I make a mistake and even if it takes all day!"
With that I pray to God and ask him to help me through the day
I call a friend for moral support and I work my hardest in every way.
The goal gets finished and I feel relief.
I thank the Lord for helping me.
Then I go out and what do I do?
I find a friend that needs help and I help the friend too.
Let me know what is the hardest for you
lets brainstorm to find a solution that is true
A solution to get you back on your feet
and past the goal that is stating its defeat.
We can do this yes we can
For we all have it in us, isn't that grand!?!

Goals for fun

2011-06-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

There are many kinds of goals but my favorite are the fun goals. These are the goals that we make up ourselves. A goal to beat a high score on a game, a goal to jump 100 times in a row. Of course some of those goals do require practice but we have fun doing them.

One of my favorite goals is to spend a day taking pictures. I love going out and seeing what I can find and the beauty of it. Sometimes I take pictures of friends and family or other people, other times I take pictures of animals and sometimes just of nature. For me taking pictures relaxes me. I can take over 1000 pictures because I enjoy doing this goal. You see for me if I am asked for one picture I will take that picture in different angles, different ways and over twenty times because I know not all pictures are alike. If I use one roll of film and out of the roll of film only one picture comes out the way I want it then I say I invested perfectly.

Fun Goals are always something you like to do. Another fun goal for me is writing. I love to sit outside against a tree and write. I love to let my imagination take me places and the adventures that await. I am always in wonder of where the tip of my pen will lead me next. I would love to write a book one day but as for now my goal is to keep writing. I write short stories, long stories, poems and lyrics that can be uplifting, or depressing, happy or sad. Yet they make people think. My writing is for me and I want to share some of it to others and I hope they find enjoyment in it as much as I do. I also love reading. Reading and Writing go hand in hand.

Below are some of the pictures I have taken on my fun goals along with a couple of my writings. I thought you may enjoy seeing and reading :)

A day at the beach

By Keyria Lockheart

In the wind the waves crashed all around upon the salty air of the sea. The smell of the mist entrancing me. Up high, seagulls fly by dancing. On a driftwood I sit, thanking God for everything. Flipping dolphins and breaching whales perform their tricks while ships nearby with passengers await each unscheduled performance.

Crashing sounds fall upon rocky shores of the sandy beaches and inside each

of the cracks of rocks that are strewn about are crabs and starfish as they are hidden amongst the wide world around them. Out by

the shallow waters, kid

s prance gleefully about, searching for sea shells very carefully. The sun shines, upon the invisible diamonds that appear on every wa

ve always out of reach for all of those who try to grab them up. The water, oh how it glistens, calling out for all. Adventure awaits, of exploring a world of unknown. What must it be like? I wonder inside my lost at sea mind ...to be living in the sea, as the waves crash, the dolphin jumps, the fish that swim and the kelp that grows, always imagining. Maybe one day I will find the treasure of the oceans secrets and instead of being

lost I will become free in the sea.

Wedding Day Greeting Card
~Keyria Lockheart~

Yay! Congrats! Hip Hip Horay!

I am so honored to share this special day.

A day of beauty and surprise,

A day of wonder and love in our eyes.

With friends and family all around

Crying tears of joy from a certain sound

Of two special words that are spoken by two.

“I love you” comes after the words of “I do”.

I am so grateful to have you both in my life,

And thankful to have witnessed the becoming of husband and wife.

May the Lord bless you in all that you do.

And always remember that I love the both of you.

It is that time I must go
I will be back for another show
Well, I hope you enjoyed those pics and the writing too.
See how many fun goals you can do.
The send me a comment or an email and tell
what you did, that you do so well.

Hugs and smiles to you my friend
and I will see you again and again.
~Keyria Lockheart~

Catching up

2011-06-03T02:48:00.000-07:00

First I need to apologize for not writing sooner. I have to tell you though I finally finished one major goal on my long term goals list. I am now a graduate and have my AA. YAY lol.

Now here is something I did while I was working on my goal to finish college:

Morning Goal Blues

I woke up early, gave my dog a hug

I rolled to the right and screamed, there was a bug

Just lying on the pillow I hope it had a nice nap

I threw it in the garbage then adjusted my night cap

I went to a take a shower because now I felt icky

Of course didn’t help when I stepped in something sticky

This cannot be happening I said looking down

Sure enough doggie love pile was splattered on the ground

I went to the bathroom to grab some T.P.

It was all gone, lucky me

Time for a shower, I was washing my hair

When soap got into my eyes, ahhh! This was not fair

I put on my robe and into the kitchen I went

Thinking coffee might help oh and I must pay the rent.

I go to find my checkbook and my pen

When I heard my phone ring again and again.

Now I was in a frantic as I was throwing things all around

Trying to find where my phone was by its ringing sound

When I finally found it under the cushion that I threw

I pressed talk “Hello?” “Hey Kyra, it’s is Drew,

Was wondering if you wanted to go out today

That sounds wonderful I thought then said “O.K.”

I hung up the phone with information got

Wasn’t paying attention when I grabbed the coffee “ouch that is hot”

I screamed as it shattered to the ground

More too clean up, messes were coming in mounds

But first my checkbook last night it was on the table

When I was listening to the self help tap….ahem I mean watching cable

There it was lying down on the floor

It had bite marks from my puppy ding dong, there was the door

I went to the window to see who was there

It was my land lord lady with purple dyed hair

“Hello Mrs. Micheal and how are you today?”

“I am fine, need the rent and I will soon be on my way”

I grabbed my checks with the puppy teeth marks

Looking for a pen while my puppy did bark

Mrs. Miceals left, and I turned around

Looking at all the disasters on the ground

I took a towel and cleaned up the messes

Taking away some of my stresses

Ding dong ding dong went the front door

I was surprised that I fell with a kaboom to the floor

I looked once again to see who was there

It was Drew standing with his friend Claire

I started to mumble inside my mind

I thought this was a date oh well this is fine

I welcome them in they asked “What went kaboom?”

I tell them it was something in the other room

My laundry was still going and I wasn’t prepared

To start this day oh why should I care

I get dressed, grab keys and phone

Told my puppy to be good while he is alone

Off I go to start my life

Praying that it will hold no strife

Even though not much was done

The rest of the day turned out to be fun

In the back of my mind I had much to do

So here is my quick poem just for you

This I must confess

That sometimes life can be a stress

With all our promises and all our goals

We walk around counting Woes

I have this to do and that to have done

I have this to get and that to have run

Work, school, errands, meetings

Hello! Goodbye! Oh Simple quick greetings

In and out of stores

In and out of doors

Clean the house, mow the lawn

Run another errand won’t be long

Run around all through town

Sometimes I feel my world upside down.

May you have a Blessed day

With successful goals in every way.

~Keyria Lockheart~

Phil 4:13 You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Early Easter Eggcitement

2011-04-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

The story of the NEVER ENDING EGGS

I woke in the morning and rubbed my eyes

I opened them up and to my surprise

Funny things should appear

Why there were eggs everywhere!!!

I gathered them up and counted to ten

But when I looked around I saw more again

I gathered up fifty and went to the door

I opened it up and found 100 more!

I couldn’t collect the eggs all alone,

So grabbed my coat and dialed the phone

I asked my wonderful friends to help out

We started to look and search all about

We laughed and we giggled and thought it was funny

How we started to hop and act like the Easter bunny

Inside we went with our Easter egg collections

And decorated them each giving an inspection.

We then went out and had some fun

As we hid them in neighbors fields and took off with a run

-Keyria Lockheart-

Have fun finding Easter eggs lol

Christmas Time Is Here!!!

2010-12-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

Everybody cheer, Christmas time is here. Finals are done, now I start to run around that is, for gifts for friends. There is so much to grab, so much is needed I asked for so much, I begged and I pleaded. I grabbed all the tinsel and three it on the tree I grabbed a few stockings for family, friends and me. I threw up some garland and put on a Santa Hat. My friend got into the Santa suit and petted our cat I grabbed my debit card and off I ran buying my gifts with lots of bags in my hands. At home I wrapped and placed near the chimney Oh I nearly forgot to get and decorate a tree. Off on another adventure I found the right one Home to decorate and have a little fun. Once it was lit and all was hung I knew my job had just begun. wait or was it done ....wink wink

Christmas time is full of errands to run, things to do, people to see, and songs to sing. It is supposed to be one of the most exciting and fun seasons of the year. Sadly though i have run into many people who do not like Christmas. HOW CAN THEY NOT LIKE CHRISTMAS?!?

That is a good question. Who would not like Christmas? Scrooge....well before he changed. Yes that is a symptom for Christmas. People turn into Scrooge's. So How do you know if you are turning into one?

Do you have trouble going into a store because you cannot stand the ringing of the bells?
Do you have a dislike for wrapping Christmas Presents?
Do you dislike Christmas Trees, all even the fake ones?
Do you gag when you hear Christmas Songs?
Do you avoid going out and shopping during Christmas?
Do you want to scream?
Do you hear chains in your home?
Have you been visited by a ghost?

If you answered Yes to any of the above you are having a symptom of Christmas.

Remember Christmas time is a time for smiling and having fun. Yet if you are stressed out how can you have the fun? Breathe enjoy looking at all the decorations around. There are so many lights. Do not stress about small things. A nice gift for 20 dollars for most people is a 10 dollar gift card to food and a 10 dollar gift card to the movies. Gift cards are fun, you don't have to stress about not knowing what the other person wants because they can go get it for themselves.

A gift for a family under ten dollars: the dollar store

1 basket
2 movies
popcorn
Hot cocoa
4 mugs with candy in them

Arts and Crafts family:
Find a place that will teach you how to make something and you get to keep the product. Pay the ten dollars for each person or whatever the price is. I know a family that makes candles and they let people make the candle and take it home and it ranges in price. The price I did was 10 dollars. I got a heart candle and got to pick out my colors, my scent, my designs, and then I got to make it myself with the help of their time.

Gifts for the whole family to give away:

approx 7 dollars for the chalk spray
you can get jars from the dollar store or recycle jars you have
Marshmallows dollar store
Hot cocoa dollar store
Chocolate chips dollar store
Ribbon dollar store
Chalk dollar store

Spray the jars outside of the house the day before with the chalk spray. (only spray the OUTSIDE of the Jar ONLY) The next day: inside the jars fill up with hot cocoa, marshmallows, chocolate chips in layers. Place on lid and tie a ribbon on it. Let the kids use chalk and decorate. Dollar store mugs work as well.

You can even do these jars as surprise jars... guess what is on the inside with a clue drawn with chalk on the outside. This is a fun craft.

Good gifts right now would be gift cards to an all purpose or grocery store. Such as Walmart where they can get clothes if needed, or bathroom items, or A grocery store for food. Right now a lot of people are struggling and this can help them get by. Or be creative and make a gift basket of those items. Dollar store would be good to pick up bathroom stuff for a gift basket.

Another fun thing for Christmas is to get the kids involved in cooking and baking and make plates (dollar store plates) and fill them up with the goodies you and the kids made.

** Can you tell I like the dollar store**

So what if you don't have a dollar store where you live?
The thing about Christmas is not to stress. You can always come up with something. If you don't have a dollar store or money then think about re-gifting nice items that you have not used and would not use. Be truthful. If you had a sweater that still has the tag on it that you have not touched in three years then more then likely that should be the first thing to re-gift.
Another idea is to make a coupon book yourself add things like:

One free day of hugs
One hour of cleaning
One hour help with baby sitting
One silly song
One hour foot massage or back/shoulder massage

****Be creative****

One year I had beads that I had not touched in a very long time and I had some of my friends kids over and decided we were going to make bracelets for everyone for gifts. In fact any crafts is good for people. I had a friend that loves to do puzzles so they put a puzzle together, glued it, framed it and gave it to me as a gift. I LOVE IT. It is hanging in the front room. Everyone gets to see it when they come in and I had a lot of people comment on how beautiful it is.

A gift could be a day together. Me and my friend took a gift day for each other and we just made food, watched a movie, and laughed talking about things that happened in the past. Remember if you have no money and you know you get paid after Christmas you can do a IOU a dinner or whatever you want to owe.

Just remember not to stress you can always do something for someone. Just think positively and pray. God always provides. An example of that is one year I had no money to get everyone a gift. I prayed and prayed and got nervous as time got closer. I started to stress but stressing was doing nothing. I prayed again asking for help. I was told to be patient, think positive and everything will be fine. Well a week before Christmas I got two gifts early, one from a secret Santa and one for a belated birthday. (My birthday is December 7th). Both were candy which I don't really like. It was the nice kind of candy that was in a box set that they order through places like sees candy and such. I was so excited because I needed two gifts for two people and I just got them from other people. I re-wrapped them still unopened and gave them to others.

Other ideas:

Get a notebook and write out recipes
Draw a note card
Offer to walk with a friend for a week and do other fun things like Bob Harper's or Jillian Micheal's workout (works for those who say they want to go to a gym)
Offer to be a chauffeur for a day
Offer to do some house work or garden work
A gaming day where you compete on video games all day at your house if you have the consoles or theirs so they have a friend to play with.
A day going around looking at all the Christmas lights.

If you need more ideas you can always ask me or a fun site for cheap gift ideas is:

http://www.saving-money-makes-cents.com/
http://tr-work-from-home-ideas.com/
http://find-your-abs-fitness.com/
http://www.online-games-your-way.com/
http://www.kidpartyideas.blogspot.com/

Stay tuned for fun decorations for Christmas

~Hugs Keyria~

f ffi fifi fiinaaa I am to scared to say the word... FINALS ahhhhh!

2010-12-13T08:11:00.000-08:00

Wow, where did the time go? Looks like my clock broke down for a long time. Finals are coming up, Christmas is coming up, and more. There is so much to do that we start to panic. Where did the time go?

What was the first step of de-stressing???? We start to panic... just remember BREATHE. Lets start with finals. If you can get into a study group. It does wonders but if you are like me and don't have a way then take the time to review your past notes. There is plenty of down time for this:

If you are a passenger in the car bring your notes.
If you are waiting for the kids at the school for pick up, bring your notes.
If you are in your car waiting for your partner to finish shopping in the store bring your notes/book. In fact, my friend and I went shopping and he took in his book (for his class) and pushed the cart and read as I shopped.
There is always a ten minute part of a day when you can read the book. Do not make excuses. Instead find time and use it.

I also learned that after I write the notes for class, I type them up. To make sure I am typing them up I send them off to friends to help them remember as well. My friends in return on days that I am sick cover for me by taking notes or if they see I left something out in my notes they send me an update. This helps me not only remember what I just wrote but it is like rehearing it and helps me to retain it better.

What really helps me learn is I try to make a study guide. I will make up questions from the notes and then have to answer them. Sometimes I will do flash cards. Yes this may seem a bit silly to others but if you really want to pass and you really are learning these methods can help. I will also put poems or songs to words or phrases that need to be remembered. We all remember some of those poems. Never Eat Sour Watermelon = North East South West. Or In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

The best thing I can tell you other then to study is come time of the test. RELAX. Take a deep breath and just relax. If you cant remember a question answer go to the next question and return to the one you cant remember later. Usually test will give away certain answers in some of their other questions. Not always but sometimes. Even still after you finish the other questions you have made time to clear your mind and when you go back you can normally remember. However if you still cannot remember, you have gone blank, do not stress!!!! The more you stress the harder it is for you to get through a test. Take another deep breath and try to remember your notes. Have patience. The more you rush the more you will forget. Patience gives you time to remember things, and it means to be calm.

Remember if you do not pass the test it is NOT the END OF THE WORLD. One of my friends didn't pass her test she was so upset about it. I told her to relax and just redo the class. She wasn't happy about it but she did follow my instructions. She came to me and said she was glad she did because she was able to not only pass but she said she caught on a lot more because she remembered stuff from the first time and then she was able to follow along with the other stuff she missed. She passed the class with flying colors and instead of getting the C she was hoping for on the first time when she got the D. She got a A on the second time and that looks so much better then a D let alone a C.

So remember life goes on and sometimes we have to redo courses to learn them better. That is the same with life sometimes we have to redo lessons in life to understand them better.

To learn about Christmas de-stressing... stay tuned to this blog and it will appear.

~Hugs Keyria~

2weeks down 2 challenges to go

2010-08-27T03:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have been back and forth getting all my stuff ready for the college and having meetings that I have not had time to catch up. I am very sorry for the looooooonnnnnnggggggg gap lol.

So here we go: Goals I had for the past two weeks.

1) Get books for college- This took some time in looking for where I can find the cheapest books since most of my books were over 100 dollars a piece!!! (I dont even pay that much to do my hair, nails and get a massage lol. Gotta love places online like half.com, amazon.com, ebay.com and textbooks.com. Wonderful used books from students help too.

2) Made sure all classes I needed I was signed up for. It is easier for me to sign up online then in person. The lines for in person can be very long and sometimes the process is very stressful.

I made it into the classes I needed

3) I had to make some appointments which I did.

4) First day of classes- find class. I went early. Classes were full. Got homework first days of class in all my classes!!

5) 2nd day of classes find out I am having 3 quizes on the third day of class and that I have Tons of notes to type up plus homework to do.

6) More appointments.

7) 3rd Day of class. More notes, more homework and you guessed it the quizes. Took dog for a long walk. Took pictures. Looked for a treasure.

8) More Appointments

And the list goes on... but I am now here yay!!!

So what goals have you been achieving? What goals have you set.

I decided to set a goal for myself. I am going to learn about exercise and nutrition. One goal I have set for myself is for this semester I am going to try and not drink ANY soda!!!! Wish me luck. I am addicted to it and it is a very hard habit for me to break.

Soda has unnecessary calories and sugar that I dont need. Another goal I have for this semester is I am going to try and walk 10,000 steps each day. This is my challenge for everyone this week.

Challenge: Walk 10,000 steps each day for a week. Have fun doing it. Dance to it, walk a dog or cat lol, walk with a friend. Here is the extra kicker for this challenge, since we missed two weeks I want you to set one more goal this week. one of your choice. Maybe it is to not drink soda as well, or to eat more veggies. Maybe it is to go to the gym at least once this week.

Good luck!!! let me know about your goals and how you did at the end of this week, during this week, and starting this week. Lets encourage one another.

*Hugs Keyria*

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105

Goals: Preparing for school

2010-08-11T10:43:00.001-07:00

School can be overwhelming! You have to make sure you have the basic items (pen, paper etc), you have to know your classes and schedule and ......I dont know about you but this all can become overwhelming.

Since school is around the corner I want to talk about the college and possibly highschool. Lets break down the goals.

1) Apply in ADVANCE
Find a few schools that you like. Apply as early as possible. The reason for applying to more than one school is that schools tend to fill up quickly. Sometimes they can not add everyone. So you may not be picked to go to that paticular school. It is always good to have two or more other favorite schools to choose from.

2) While you are waiting to find out which school you are accepted to go to, go get basic nesecarry needs.
What are those? Those are the things we have had since we were kids:
Backpacks, Pens, Pencils, Markers, Color pencils, Paper, Binder, report covers, etc. If you know what area you are going to study then get some items to relate to it. Example: if you are going to study art you may take a drawing class and need professional drawing pencils, or maybe a painting class and need oil paints. However make sure what you are buying is accepted in each of the colleges you applied. For some colleges may want you to use a certain brand

3) Once you figured out what school you are going into you will need to figure out the payment schedule.
Some can pay up front since they have been saving. Others who may not have had a way to save can opt for another option such as finacial aid, student loans, scholarships or grants. I would look into each one the school offers. (Tip: I heard it is really hard to pay back on student loans. I would look for things you dont have to pay back). Also check and see if they have what is called a bog waiver. A bog waiver is a program that will pay for your tuition fee. Sometimes all or most of it. (you may have to pay your health fee yourself). Once you have the payment down it is time to move on to the next step.

4) Sign up for classes.
This is always a challenge in its own for not becoming overwhelmed. The best thing is to get a foot into the door. For each year you attend you will move up on thier priority list and soon you will be one in the first group to sign up for classes. (groups: Usually schools do a lettering system where those in group A have high priority since they have been there, in the lower levels they dont have priority do to lack of academic attendance or they were on probation)

If it is your first time I would not overwhelm yourself with alot of classes. But I would pick out several classes that you may be interested in taking and seeing which ones are available. Try to take some easy classes in with the hards. I would not suggest doing all hard classes for you will be overwhelmed and alot of people drop out because of it. I would suggest maybe a fun PE such as swimming or bowling, and a drama, music, art, or something that interest you class, then a couple of general classes.

Another thing is to see about the teachers. Ask around and see what teachers do a good job teaching on those subjects. Of course you are the final decider on that. I know one teacher I enjoyed a friend of mine didn't. But more than often you will notice the good teachers have alot of people saying great things about them.

Don't get upset if the class you chose is already filled. Try to get on the waitlist and always rememebr you can take it later when you are on higher priority on the schools list.

5) Books.
Oh the joy of books. Some like to buy thier books as quickly as possible, some like new some like old. I am one for the cheaper the better. What I typically do is find my classes out. Go see what books are needed for it by looking in the book store. Sometimes I can find some used books for half price of the original book there. I write down all the books I need (if cheap enough 1-5dollars I will pick up the book...but how likely is that?) then I will check and see what books the students are selling and see if I may find the book I am looking for at a good price, if not I take the list home. I get on the internet and look up the books. Halfprice.com is always being mentioned in my school. Look for the good deals.

Things to note: I write all this down
Same Title
Same Description
Same AUTHOR
Same UPC
Same Edition
Prices so I can compare

I once just wrote down the author and title and came out with a totally different edition and had to return it since it was not the same book for the class.

6) Breathe

Once you have:
* Your school picked
* Payment started (or finished)
* Class schedule
* Your basic needs
* Your books

It should be near time to go to school. This is the breathing stage as I call it. It is where your nerves are a wreck because you are anxious, scared, excited and so forth to go to school. This is when I say breathe. Take the extra little time you have here and do something fun. Some like to get thier hair cut, go buy some new clothes, get their nails done. So relax. Find a book and read it.

7) First day of class!
To be honest I do one step before I go into my first class. I usually either go the day before or I will go an hour before each class and go find my class doors. I like to be prepared as to where I am going into. So usually the day before is best for me. I will go over my schedule and see where each class is. I make a note on my schedule as to where it is so I will remember the first day.

*Take an hour or a day before the first day of class and go over all your rooms to see where they are so you wont be lost the first day.

* Smile (a smile will help you not only calm down, be excited but will help make a friend.) People who see others looking confident will usually smile back at you.

* listen to the instructer!!!

*Make sure to get the SYLABUS: Most important

*Take note to what is due next class (always important and most of you should know this already)

Two things I want to note here. Listening to instructer and sylabus.
Why do I think those are important?

Listening to instructor:
If something seems out of place then more than likely it is. Listen to your feelings if you dont think you should be there then leave. Find another teacher that is teaching the same class and see if you can transfer.

I once walked into a class and listened as the instructer pointed to several students and told them they were going to pass, he then turned and told the rest of the students they were all going to fail.....At the end of his class those he pointed to Aced his class the rest did not. ~Cameron

I went to a class where the instructor made fun of his students. It was the first day and he already was pinpointing out students. He said here is my email but i never check it, here is my phone number but I will never answer it, here is my class schedule but do not disturb me and my office hours are on the back but it better be important for you to go there. Then one student got up to leave, he took the sylabus with him. As the boy was leaving the teacher said "Oh you are leaving? That sylubus will look good pinned up to your failure picture on the wall" I waited until class was over then I went and transfered to the night class. The teacher there was wonderful. ~Judy

NO STUDENT SHOULD PUT UP WITH MOCKING TEACHERS>>>>> Same goes for NO TEACHER SHOULD PUT UP WITH MOCKING STUDENTS. If you see this happening please report it. You can do it anonomously.

The sylabus:
This is important because it tells you what your class is going to be like.

When reading you will see what all you need: if you have the right book, what test sheets, or other items that are needed that you didnt know about before. It also breaks down how many assignments and when they are due. Pay attention to all the rules. (Even though most sylabus are the same, some teachers are different and may throw something different into a sylabus)

I went to school one day and the teachers instruction was: I want you to read the sylabus I have placed in front of you. Make sure that you do as it says...like no cheating, the assignments and so forth. After you are done doing so you may leave. Quite a few students got up and left. As I was reading it I noticed something odd. It said: if you are reading this like you should please take out a sheet of paper and write your name on it. The more I read the sylabus the more I had to do. It was kinda fun and like a treasure hunt to go through the sylabus and see what we were supposed to do. When we finished we turned it in he gave us an A for our very first test in the class!!!! Then we were allowed to go when he stamped a star on the paper we left. It was great. Alot of students were upset they didnt stay and tried to redue it but the teacher said only those that followed the instructions got an A... the rest had to do a differnt test and got points off of it. After that day EVERYONE followed the instructions. ~Kiley

I hope you all are getting prepared or have been. I know for us here classes are right around the corner. Have a wonderful day and I will see you next week!!!

~Hugs Keyria~

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. ~Phillipians 4:13

Goal: Throwing a party

2010-08-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

The other day I was going to talk about having a birthday party. Your goal would be set up a birthday party and successfully run it. First and foremost we need to make sure we can do it stress free.

The first thing I always do when planning anything is make a list. Since this is a party my list will include the following:

When and where I can have it.
Decorations and what kind of party (costume, birthday etc)
Foods
Prizes and gifts
Who is invited and how to invite
Games and props
How much I am willing to budget for everything.

Most of the time it is hard to have a huge party due to lack of funds. I find it more creative when you can have others particiapate. Here is a fun stress free party idea that may help you see what I mean.

Problem: I don't have money to take all my friends to the movies, bowling or some other activity.
Solution: Instead of them bringing a gift maybe they can use that money to pay thier own way in. Remember the fun is having friends there with you!

For my party I invited 7 friends to do bowling and movies. I knew I could not afford to pay for it. My friends and I decided that we would have fun by doing a carwash. We asked a store if we could use thier parking lot and we would give them 10% of our earnings. The store agreed. We then made signs saying birthday car wash. We used the theme that every car has a birthday and needs to be cleaned. It was great! We had a lot of fun. We were able to pay for not only the movies and bowling but also for food. After all of it was over we still had enough for each of us to have 20$ in our pockets. It was the best birthday I had ever had.

Problem: I can't have a party at home for personal reasons and I don't know what else to do since I dont have money to go do things.
Solution: Have it outside at a park, or maybe at a friends house or even in the backyard. There are alot of places you could have a party. Maybe just a few of your friends are invited and you can all car pool (all chip in for gas) and go have a beach party.

I did the beach party I invited four girl friends and we all carpooled up to the beach. We had a blast. Girls day out. What made it even better was the surfer guys we met that taught us a bit about surfing. A girls dream come true.

Problem: There are too many people invited and not enough food
Solution: Potlucks are best. Cheap snacks from a local dollar store such as cookies are good for layouts. Or do pizza but cut the pieces into smaller slices.

I once had a party that was themed as a casino. The only way you were allowed in was the cover charge of $2.00. This would enable each guest to play all the games inside and gave them $20 in chips to play with. Plus one free soda. After that we charged .50 for every can soda after and $.25 for every extra needed chip. This helped us make the money to order the pizza that they got to eat. Basically the guest paid for thier own meal.

Problem: I can not afford alot of decorations. I am on a very tight budget. Balloons alone are very expensive.
Solution: Sometimes we have to get creative. If you can't afford much the dollar stores have some fun party supplies and some even have balloons. Get creative with what you have. you can make confetti by shredding papper or cutting it into odd shapes. You can make streamers out of popcorn and ribbon.

For my childs birthday I had some colored ads that I normally toss but instead used the back of them and cut out each letter shape in Happy Birthday. I taped them to the wall. I bought a teenbop magazine. I cut out The pictures and taped them to the walls, chairs, tables, and hung up with ribbon the poster ones. I got some fun eyeshadow, blush and lipstick from the dollar store and layed those out along with nail polish. I put up pictures of her and her friends around the room as well. I used some dollar purple (her favorite color) material to cover the table where they could do thier make over. She was estatic when she came home and saw all the fun surpises.

Problem: Can't afford any decorations.
Solution: Become Creative. Use your mind. What pictures do you have that you can place out, what colors of materials can you use to decorate. What ribbon do you have left over from christmas, what about wrapping paper that you can use to cut out words and decorate walls with?

I just moved into a new studio. I had nothing on the walls yet because I had not unpacked. My friends thought this was perfect. I had no decorations and they had tons. They all came over with decorations and decorated my new apartment for my birthday. We had such a good time that we planned to do this for each time we get a new place. Mark who posted a picture of Santa Clause on the fireplace and his pic on my cieling said he is next. I am already getting ready to get him back for all the silly decorations he did to me.

Problem: Not sure what kind of theme to do
Solution: Be reasonable. Don't pick a theme that you can't afford to pull off. Costume can be fun, that way the decorations are basically on the person themselves lol. Game night have everyone bring thier favorite game over, Casino, Character night... are just a few fun ones

I did Casino and character. Both are fun to do. Character night is when you give each person that comes a certain idenity. Only they know who they are at the beginning of the night you have them reach in a hat and pull out a piece of paper. On that paper is an identity of who they will play the rest of the night. (course you and someone else has to put in identities so that you have some you know and some you dont. All night they have to go with that character. Then at the end you have everyone guess who they were. If you ever seen whos line is it anyways then you already know how to play. For the casino we had gone to the dollar store and picked up games.. tried to find casino type games, but used other games as well. We bought alot of cards and then enough so that each person can have a deck of thier own as a party gift.

Problem: What can I give as a party favor when dealing with a tight budget?
Solution: Alot of fun stuff can be from the dollar store. Since that place is cheap and you can find some fun things. Another idea is stuff that you may have that is in good standing that you may not want anymore.

The one I recomend is brown bag byes. Everyone invited brings a brown bag with an item in it. The idea is that there is a set budget on it like five dollars to a bag. So someone may put in a five dollar bill or another person may have put in a five dollar item. How it works is all the brown bags are the same but what is inside is different. They are mixed up and before each person leaves they get to have one of those bags. You never know what you may find. But it needs to be appropriate. (exp: Rags, makeup, hammer are not appropriate for a 7 year old all boy party.) This way you dont have to spend alot on party gifts instead you just do the one for the children of the household that are throwing the party.

Problem: I want the gifts to be originals not just same for each child.
Solution: You can go pick up some cheap gifts that are all different, or you could create crafts with your own supplies at home. (Sometimes you can get coupons for supplies at art stores)

The party favors I did for my children were they got to make things and take them home. I did alot of arts and crafts (cutting magazines, glitter, ribbons, beads etc) and alot of food crafts (we did worm in the dirt plus some other fun. These they got to take home and keep and it was arts and craft stuff I already had. I still can use the left over for children school projects and more.

Problem: Who should I invite.
Solution: Depends on what your planning for the day. If it is an out of town trip I suggest not taking as many kids. Where as if you are planning a home party then I say go ahead and invite more. Also pay attention to the ages. For a four year olds birthday you would not want to mix with alot of 10 year olds.

WHY?
Out of town trips are different when it comes to numbers. The more kids you have the less time for activities. It is easier to keep an eye on a few then on alot of kids plus it is safer. Unless you are in a school setting I don't suggest having alot of kids. Sometimes they can be overwhelming especially when there is not enough supervisors.

At home party is best for alot of kids. You have a set time of when you will start and end the party. Kids can come any time in between those hours. That helps you not to be overwhelmed with an all day trip, plus you have more supervisors as some parents like to stay with thier kids. This also helps kids to be available to participate since some parents wont let children go on long trips away.

The same concept goes throughout kids to teens to adults. If you go on a trip I suggest a few very close good friends this is so that you wont get drowned out by a crowd. Where as if you are close to home you can have people come and go as they please.

Age appropriate is meaning if you are throwing a party for a kid, then have kids around the same age. A young child will not understand if there is all adults and no one to play with, same with age difference. Kids like certain things at certain ages. You can't expect 10 year old boys to want to play dolls with a little four year old girl on her birthday. If it is an all boy party do things boys like... lazer tag, water balloon fight etc. If it is all girls then do girl stuff: Makeover with hair, nails, and makeup. Make sure it is age apropriate.

Problem: Invites are expensive these days
Solution: One of the fun things about doing a party is sending out the invites. You don't have to buy invites. Instead you can make your own. Draw different things and then write the info on the oppisite side. Get creative and pull out art supplies, glitter, beads, coloring pencils etc. Have fun making invites. Hand out instead of send... or do a singing invite on phone message machines.

My child once went to class and this person walked in all in a cowboy outfit. He sang to them about a wild west party. Then handed out hand made invites to a birthday party thrown by another boy in his class. He was so excited that he came home asking me to make his outfit right away. My older daughter thought paper invites were outdated so she text her friends which was the cheapest invites I ever had to pay for lol

Problem: What activities and games to do?
Solution: That all depends on you and what kind of party you want to have.

If you are planning on staying home for the party:
Any games can be fun: board, cards, video system like the wii
Casino party: play card games (solitare, black jack, poker, etc)
Wild West: Western dancing
Safari: Scavenger hunt, Picture find
Princess: Makeover
Outer Space: Crafts Outerspace Mobile
Cooks: Make differnt kinds of fun food (Playdough for in between while things are in the oven)
The most important question to ask is:
How much I am willing to budget for everything.

This will be your main focus on all that you do. From Decorations, Food, Party favors and more.

Free-$10
Place: House, backyard, park
Decorations: Ads cut into shapes, letters and confetti, old magazine pictures or pictures of family, friends or birthday child
Invites: Text, handmade on paper at home
Food: Pot luck
Party favors: Brown bag byes (one persons junk is another persons treasure)
Games: Scavenger hunt

Whatever you plan on doing have fun :)

~Hugs Keyria~
Oh yes and before I forget. I am going to be doing blogs once a week for a bit. I am starting up some new goals in my life and I have to get them in a routine that works. This is why this weeks blog is so long. Once I have the routine down of my new goals I should be back to once a day or once every several days. We will see how it goes.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~Matthew 6:19-21~

Happy Birthday To you

2010-07-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

You know there is alot of work that goes into a birthday.

You have to order the supplies, rent a place or prepare a place (if you plan on doing it outside of your home. Put up streamers, banners, balloons, confetti. Not to mention all the food that goes into preparing for it.

Well tomorrow I think I am going to do a blog about birthdays as of today. I have a very special birthday for me to get ready. My brothers!!

My goal for today is my brothers birthday... So I would like for all of you to go wish him a Happy Birthday.... Go to his site: www.online-games-your-way.com and wish him a very special happy birthday.

Todays Challenge: Take today off. You worked hard this pass week. Today is an off day. Unless you have a fun goal that you want to do such as a mini vaccation, a birthday bash needed to get ready, or a paper due.

~Hugs Keyria~

Phew

2010-07-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

What a week!!!

How did you do on your challenge? Were you able to save a few dollars? What about do a few things around the house? Were you able to complete a goal?

My friend had a goal of signing up for classes at a college and for applying to a job. That was his goal for this week. Two small achievable goals. He went and got the application but that was it. The rest of days he just worked and rested at home. I decided I would help him finish the goals.

So I told him I wanted to hang out this afternoon. From 2 to 6pm. I told him we had some errands to run and his reward would me treating him out to eat. Lol Men and thier stomachs :)That gave me time in the morning to do some of my own goals (taking meds, cleaning, and doing other chores).

He showed up around 2 and we went straight to the college. We went in and found out what classes he needed and which ones were open. We then proceeded to fill out the paper work and get a councelors signature and sign up for classes :)

I was excited to see that he was able to get into one of the classes he really wanted to be in. Especially since most classes were full right now. He did sign up for a class under waitlisted. I was happy to see that it was not waitlist full either.

From there I helped him fill out the application and then turned it into where the drop off was.

Surprisingly he treated me to a quick look around the zoo. (I love animals) and then I took him to go eat.

I just walked throught he door not to long ago and finished getting my laundry together for tomorrows goal.

It was really nice to have a friend to go do things with. I know he was happy. He told me that I completed him. He means that without me going with him he may not have gotten these goals done today. This worked for me, I needed a break from my goals and wanted to visit with a friend. We both had a good day and both achieved goals.

The reason why todays was more of a journal entry is because I want you to see that you can achieve goals and still have fun doing so. Goals do not have to be stressful.

My friend kept pushing them off which would cause them to be stressful come the deadline. Instead we took a day that normally we would have gone to the movies or just goofed off and used it to achieve goals... plus we squeezed in fun with food and going to the zoo.

We made the goals into a fun day!

Ok Now your turn. Write me and tell me what goals you finished this week...or made progress on. It doesnt have to be fully achieved even if you just moved and only unpacked one box that is an achievement in itself.

I will try and post pics of some of my goals that happened last week for you during this week
.
Cant wait to hear from you!!!

~Hugs Keyria~

"I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength"~Phillipians 4:13

Check up#1

2010-07-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

How are we doing? Are we still doing good? How is that fifteen minutes a day? I hope it is going well. Remember don't loose hope or give up. Even if you slip up and missed the 15minutes. It is ok. Just start again. We all make mistakes and if we all gave up on the first try then we would proably not succeed at much. That is why we have sayings like:

If at first you don't succeed, try try again- This I hear a lot!

Never say never whatever you do - Course that is from a song

It is better to have tried and failed then to have failed to try -learned this one from my parent

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try- I like this one it reminds me of the "You will never know if you dont ask, dont do, dont try"

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need- this one is true. I mean there are many times we go for something and something else happens that is better for us

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try - If you don't try then you will never know At least that is what I always say.

If you trust before you try, you may repent before you die- I like this one. I think it is a Proverbs quote

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try! - Can't leave out a Dr. Suess quote.

As you can see there are many encouraging things about trying. Focus on your goal and keep trying! If you want write 15 good reasons why you want to achieve your gaol and then post them up to remind you everyday. Write 15 nice encouraging quotes and post them up as well.

*I am unsure of who all the quotes belong to above. I have heard them from time to time or have found them off of a book, mag or other. *

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK. I KNOW WE CAN MAKE IT THOUGH THE WEEK

~Hugs Keyria~

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. – Galatians 6:9

Random: WEEK

2010-07-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

I decided to let you take a week and do 15 minutes a day for a goal. Using the same concept as yesterday. I want you to pick ONE goal.

The reason Why I want to do it for a week is so you can see the difference 15 minutes can make.

If you are cleaning 15 minutes a day by the end of the week you are going to see a big opening in your room all because of 15minues. If you can expand do 15 minutes in more then one room or try doing 15 minutes more than once a day. It is the same concept in exercising. You are to do 30 minutes three times a day.

Or if you are saving since I know we all dont get paychecks throughout the week I want you to try something. I still want you to put 15dollars into a bank account each check but for this week I want to show you how much 7 checks will get you. But instead of putting dollars into a bank throughout this week. (other then the actual paychecks) I want you to put 15 cents into a jar. From today until next friday. I want you to do this each day dont count it. just place it in. I know some of us are math wiz and can already know the answer to how much it is going to be on friday. this is just to show you how much you could save if you were placing it in each paycheck. Remember this would be savings for not a week but for almost two months made into one week of savings.

Whatever your goal is try and do 15 each day this week.

I once read a card that said:

You can do it!
Yes you can!
Just ask me your biggest fan!
Step right in and dont be afraid.
If I know you, you have it made.
Trust in yourself!
Just wait and see,
how proud of you we are all going to be.

~Hugs Keyria~

"We love Him because He first loved us." 1 John 4:9-10

Random Challenge: 15

2010-07-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Today all I want you to do is focus on ONE goal. You can choose your own goal. Be realistic with it. After you choose your ONE goal I want you to spend 15MIN. Working on that goal. That's it! Seems simple right?

Lets say your goal is cleaning your room. Take 15 min and pick up all the pieces of garbage you see laying around, or sort through clothes throwing dirty into the hamper and clean onto hangers. Or if your goal is to clean any other room take 15 minutes and work on one area.

Maybe your goal is to save money. Take the next pay check you have and take 15 dollars out of it and put it into a separate account. Do not use that account. But each pay check put 15 dollars into it.

Maybe your goal is to do a vacation trip. You have the money and the time you just haven't sat down and done the budget up. Well today's that day. Take that 15min and start typing or writing. Look up discounts, put money aside for food, hotel, souvenirs. (We like to look for hotels that include free food like breakfast. It helps save that extra bit) Maybe look up package deals.

Maybe your goal is to have 15 min to yourself. Take that time. Go do something for you, or to a secluded area so you can have your alone time

Whatever it may be take 15

~Hugs Keyria~

Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms118:24

Stress Tip #30 Soft

2010-07-17T00:45:00.000-07:00

Did you all have a nice three days off from the blog? I had a few Goals I needed to finish. I am glad to be back. So where was I oh yes that is right, I was right here...... #30 SOFT

When you look at the word "soft" what do you think of?
Blankets
Fur ~ Pets
Rugs ~ Carpets soft
Bed ~ Some are firm, some cushioned, some real soft
Robe ~Fluffy
Skin ~Smooth and soft
Paint ~ Liguid
Flour ~ Fun to squish through your fingers
Sand ~ Sometimes

There are quite a few things. Name three more just for fun. Those above were what people told me when they think of soft. Soft is to each person something that is normally gentle, delecate, smooth, and can be fluffy or furry.

When you wrap yourself up in a robe or blanket you feel calm, protected, comforted like if someone was hugging you. You even feel kinda lazy and just want to relax on the coutch, by a pool, or anywhere reading a book.

Soft could be the carpet that you just got on your floor. Oh how you first place you feet gently on it moving your toes back and forth. Then you start to really get into it by sitting down on it and rubbing your fingers through each twine of yarn or material used. Then you start to progress and use your whole hand until you cant help it and you are lying directly on the ground on the soft carpet.

A person skin can be soft and smooth however it can also be hard and bumpy. So people use lotion which makes thier hands and body soft and smooth. Flour and some sands will feel very soft as they fall in between your fingers. As you dig your toes into the sand near on the beach watching the waves rolll in.

Soft can be running your fingers back and forth slowly and very gently into clear waters like a pool. You can feel only grace all around under the water how you move slowly and calmly. You feel the gentle movement of the waters going through yoru fingertips.

When I go to bed I like a soft matteress that I can just sink into. I like how gentle it is on my body. It usually forms into my position. I love also how my cat will lay with me all cuddled up as I gently stroke his soft hair.

Speacking of hair...It is soft and silky too. To run your fingers through your hair especially after getting a haircut. You like the style and all the stress seems to vanish as you embrace a new look.

Todays Challenge: Go get a haircut, go wrap yourself into a robe, go lay down on soft carpet or on a soft blanket. Today just feel good by being around soft things :)

~Hugs Keyria~

"Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." Philippians 4:5

Remember A Time

2010-07-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

This morning I would like you to remember a time when you had to overcome stress to achieve a goal this year. How did you do it? How did you feel? What actions did you take? Then I want you to just breathe for a while today. Go back and read the first stress tip up until now.... Use one of the methods mentioned for today. You can just breathe for the rest of the day, go on a mini vaccation, go get a massage, sit under your favorite tree, do a hobby, write and much much more. Pick at least one and just relax today. Keep yourself calm.

~Hugs Keyria~

Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Psalms 37:3-6

Stress Tip #29 Two day blog day 2

2010-07-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

#29 Fantasy Vrs Reality

In our world it is hard to grasp what is real and what is not. What is achievable and what is unavailable to achieve. We sit there and dream more we do when we apply. We sit and say if I can only just win the lotterey then I could have everything I ever wanted... It would be nice if that were to happen but to be honest not many get to have that fantasy become reality. So most of us have to work for what we want. We cant wiggle our nose, blink our eyes, point a finger or even touch a picture and suddenly it appears. It is not that simple.

We live in a world that is confusing. It says you can have whatever you want... than in tiny print aka fine lettering it says restrictions may apply, batteries not included. We try to please others but we need to realize that fantasy and reality are two seperate things. Sometimes they can merge but it is highly unlikely that it will happen....

Todays reality was there was a blog to be posted. My fantasy that it would be perfectly posted this morning with no problems. That I would have all my goals finished by the end of the day. But unfortunately reality took ahold. I ended up not getting the blog posted until late because of a friend that was in need of some help, errands to run and health problems that decided to occur.
I may dream for that perfect house, backyard, car, mate, children, job, money, etc. It is a nice dream but dont consume yourself into it. If it happens be greatful but if it doesn't don't stress about it. Somethings come easy others come harder. We have to practice those harder things to make perfect.

Our fantasy: All goals achieved succesfully
Our reality: Goals are in progress, daily life stressors needing to overcome.

As one reader wrote: Be content with what you have. Take small steps to get to our goals. ~T

Don't go to fast for you may fall and miss something important. So take your time, be strong and you will succeed remember the story of the turtle and the hare?

Todays Challenge: See if you can find the difference of reality vrs fantasy in your goals right now.

~Hugs Keyria~

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13

Stress Free Tip #29 Two day blog

2010-07-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

Haley peered closer to the picture. She was looking into a princess book her mother had got her for her birthday. The picture she had been engulfed in was that of the princess bedroom. With wonder in her eyes she looked at all the clothes in the closet. "Oh what beautiful dresses" she thought in her head. She looked over at her closet to see the most common clothes then back at the picture. She looked at the huge bed in the middle of the room with the veil lace around it and on top as if it was its own secluded room. Her bed was a simple small bed no lace veil or anything. She sighed. She looked at the huge rug on the floor and the chandelier light. She looked at the huge mirror and how the room was all glittery pink and white. Her room was a disaster zone: clothes lying on the floor, toys everywhere, no real color but a throw up of random colors everywhere. Again she sighed. She crossed her legs as she peered back into the book. Then all the sudden she jumped up. Almost knocking the book off the bed.

"I can do this." She said to no one in particular. She made a goal to make her room into the same looking room of the one in the book. She started to clean. As she cleaned she found toys she hadn't seen in a while and would be distracted playing with them. After a while she would realize she was forgetting to clean and start to clean but get tired real soon. Weeks went by and she did try to clean but it was not going like she had expected. after a month she looked in her room. There wasn't much that changed other then the clothes were now in a pile on the floor instead of spread out. She sighed. Nothing is ever going to change.

When her mother came in she saw that Haley was down. She asked " Why the sad frown darling?" With a sigh Haley explained she wanted the princess room. She said but she can't because of the mess. Her mother smiled. "I seen you did try. So why not if we can get a hamper so you have something to throw your clothes into. And a Toy box for the toys. Lets see and we can move those there and this here..." Her mother went to work planning. She explained that even though she had ideas that meant full commitment on Haley to do as she is told.

A couple days later her room was cleaned with a new hamper and toy box. She looked at her room then at the picture then back at her room. She sighed once again as her mother came in to wish her a good night. "What is wrong dear?" Haley shrugged and turned away. Her mother looked down and saw the picture of the room. "Oh that is a pretty room. Still I like yours better." Haley squished up her face. There was so much more to do. She had to paint, get fancy dresses, a rug, chandelier and more. Oh why couldn't her mother see this isn't even close to a princess room. Her mother seeing her daughter disappointed still kissed her forehead. "When I was younger I wanted to have a pony. I had to have a pony. It was my dream." Haley turned and looked at her mom. Her eyes were now in wonder. Her mother wanted a pony? That is silly where was she supposed to keep it? She had seen her grandmas house where her mom grew up. There was no room inside or out for a pony.

"I wanted it sooo bad. I didn't understand the reality of my situation. I never asked myself: Where would I keep my pony and who would care, clean, feed and pick up after it and how could I afford it." I was to busy dreaming of having a pony that I never thought about those things. Your grandma got me a stuffed horse for my birthday, a rocking horse and a tkt to the fairgrounds to go ride the ponies. As much as those were wonderful gifts I was not happy. I wanted the real pony not a fake one. I wanted to own not just ride one." Haley's mother stopped and smiled. "It took me some time to realize what I had was wonderful. Not many kids in my class had a rocking horse of their own, nor did the get to go to the fair. Yes it would have been fun to have a horse but allot of work goes into having one and I know I would not have been prepared for it. We don't always get to have everything we want but we do get to have things and make them our own special things. I never got a pony but that birthday ended up being one of the funnest birthdays I ever had. Everyone wanted to come over and play at my house with the rocking horse, my friends were all jealous I got to ride on a pony and everyone believed I was a true cowgirl. I believed it too. I didn't have to own a horse for that."

Haley looked at her book. She sighed again. "I just wanted to be a princess" she said softly. "But you are. You are my princess!" She looked at her mother and smiled. She sat up and hugged her.
"You know, I think I have a crystal ornament we can hang from the wall to make into the chandelier, and that pink rug at the store would go good with the pink paint we found for your walls. And I was thinking maybe we can invite a few of your friends to come over and help put glitter on your walls. What do you think?" Haley's eyes widened and excitedly she said "Mom I love you! You are the best. You are my Queen and I am your princess. This is going to be better then that princess room." Her mom stood up and started to go for the door. "You know I was going to save these for your birthday in two days but I think you might want to see how they will look now." Her mother left the room for a second then came back with some wrapped boxes. "Go ahead open them up" Haley started to unwrap the three boxes in front of her. Each box had two princess dresses in them. Her mother hung them up in her closet then kissed her night. As Haley was lying she stared into her closet. The nightlight glow made a soft glow around the dresses. Haley fell asleep peacefully.

Todays challenge: What do you think this story is about that could help us to be stress free? leave a comment or email me. I just want you to enjoy the story today and tomorrow I am going to discuss the tip.

Stress Free Tip #28 Read

2010-07-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

"Hahaha lol Hahha I love 'Zits' it is the best comic strip out there" Jenny kept laughing. She had the newspaper in her hands. She smiled at some of the other comics but 'Zits' was no doubt her favorite comic of all times. She had to read it first before any of the others or sometimes she would savor the wait and read it last so she would end on a good note. Her father liked reading about investments, her mother about world crises, and brother the sports, but comics was her thing. Each of them would sit and enjoy their section of the newspaper. It was a daily family thing that they did. It relaxed them and got them all prepared for the day... (well sometimes her mother wasn't relaxed because of the horrid stuff she would read, or her dad because of investments going down or even her brother if his team did bad... still more than often it was a quiet peaceful time)

#28 Read

I love to read. I love that you can actually get into a book and feel as if you were someone else for a while. How you can actually become that person you feel what they feel as you read their life. You become that character yourself and you relate to the character. Reading is a past time that most find very relaxing.

When I was little I would read alot! I loved all the different books. However as I got older I stopped reading and more stress came into my life. I started to read again and the stress lowered. Whenever I start to stress I sit down on my couch grab a good book and blanket and start to read. I became a different person. Then when I have read a chapter I get back up and start to refocus on what it was that I was having trouble with. Normally I fix it as if I never had the problem after I read. ~Mel Smith

There are many books out there: mystery, sci-fi, romance, childrens, comics, self-help, biography's, etc. There are different books for different people. Not everyone likes the same things, not everyone will relax to a book about romance, some will relax to a book about how to beat a video game, how to fix up old cars, how to play the piano and more. You have to go and check out the books yourself to see what will relax you. Maybe you like the how to books, or magazines about clothes, maybe you are a child at heart and love the children books.

When I was little I enjoyed reading Dr. Seuss and now as I am older I still do. I see more of wisdom in his words and not just fun sayings as before. Dr. Seuss books are amazing you can enjoy them all through life. Mark Twain did a great job on Tom Sawyer, and the Adventures of Huck Finn, and Robin Jones Gunn was wonderful in doing books for all ages, children, teens (Christy miller series) and adults (SisterChicks). Of course then there is the greatest book of all (to me that is) Called the Bible. I look up to these authors. Their joy for writing, where it came from and how I could get it. I love to write but when I can not write, I enjoy reading. ~Kristina Hollon

I could feel the seamist breeze of the ocean as I watched the sea gulls fly above me. I looked back out at the gentle waves. Oh how the sun glimmered across the water. I dug my toes deeper into the wet sand and wiggled them around a bit. It felt good. How I wish I could stay here forever in this moment. I wonder what it would be like to live out there in such a different world. I looked down at the sand all around me. There was a few shells near by, but not many. I knew where to go if I wanted shells instead in fact it just amazed me that right here was not hardly any shells but not more then a few steps away over the rocks was another sanded rocky beach that had lots of shells. Not many people knew of this place. Nor was I about to spill my secret to them. It was my hiding place. Oh what a perfect hiding place it was. No one around to bug me, just the sound of the waves as they roll in and the seagulls talking to each other. I seen a crab scurry by busy with its ocean life. I looked back out at the ocean. I wanted to savor every bit of this moment. This was my home. This was where I was meant to be. ~Author Kristina Hollon from "Seamist of Oceanbreeze" ~ (Story is copyrighted, if you would like to know where you can read more from her, Send me an email and I will give you information on how to order her books)

You can find yourself in new wonderful places you have never been before if you open a book and begin to read. In fact alot of movies out now a days are originally from books or made into books. I am sure you can name a few like Twighlight series, Harry potter series, Lord of the Rings, Notebook, A Walk to Remember...the list can go on for hours.

Reading can also help you to expand your knowledge, learn something new, try something new, and live outside of the box for a bit. Turn your world upside down for a bit. Be an adventure, become involved in a mystery, fight for justice, become a princess rescued by a prince. Enjoy a good laugh, cry, a learned lesson from the moral. Just like the tale of Despereaux, the little mouse begins to read and learns how to be a gentleman and more, from reading a book and putting it to life.

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities. ~Dr. Seuss: US author & illustrator (1904 - 1991~)

Today's Challenge: Go read a book. Take a chapter a day. Find a fun book that looks interesting and start to read. It can be a story, a biography, a how to, mystery, or anything else that catches your eyes. Just go out and read a book. Have a little imagination today.

~Hugs Keyria~
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, & he shall meditates day & night ~Psalms 1:2~

Poem Time

2010-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

This I must confess

that sometimes life can be a stress

With all our promises and all our goals

We walk around counting Woes

I have this to do and that to have done

I have this to get and that to have run

Work, school, errands, meetings

Hello! Goodbye! Oh Simple quick greetings

In and out of stores

in and out of doors

Clean the house, mow the lawn

Run another errand wont be long

I forgot this and that

I think I left it under the hat

Run around all through town

Sometimes I feel my world upside down.

To face my goals I must prepare

For stress to leave and me to share

my fustrations, and concerns to a friend

so they can help, they jump right in

Soon my stress seems far away

and goals are completed each new day.

Here I am to tell you

dont be afraid to ask too

With a prayer, meditation talk to a friend

somehow stress starts to end

And a smile appears upon your face

as relaxation is in your body from grace

May you have a Blessed day

With sucessful goals in every way.

Stress Free Tip #27 Fish Tanks

2010-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we talked about water well I thought I might add this one in.

"Blub Bloop blub bloop" four year old Kalvin said. He was looking into the fish tank. "Are you talking to the fish? Have they said anything back?" Kasandra, kalvins older sister asked him. She had just turned six and her family had gotten her a fish tank. Kalvin loved going into her room and watching the fish. Kalvin didn't respond. he was to busy looking into the fish tank. "Which one is your favorite?" Kasandra asked. She already knew the answer for she had hasked it many times before. She just wanted him to talk. He was not much of a talker yet. He pointed to the small guppy. She smiled. Her favorite was the algae eater. She could not pronounce its full name so she named it plexy for short. She got closer to the tank like her little brother and they both peered in. "Do you know how many fish are in there?" Kalvin held up four fingers. "That is right. The same number as your age!" Kasandra answered back. They peered into the tank for quite some time.

"Time to get ready for bed." Thier mother said as she entered the room. "Can Kalvin do a sleep over again?" The kids had seperate rooms and at night Kalvin would sneak into her room to watch the fish. Thier mother found out and started to let him do sleep overs. "Kalvin would you like to stay in Kassys room tonight?" Kalvin nodded not taking his eyes off the fish tank. A smile spread across the mothers face and she started to get his bed set up in Kasandras room. At night all you could hear was the water running through the filter and see the fish swimming around. This soothed both kids and put them fast asleep.

Within a few months Kalvin had gotten a fish tank of his own. It calmed him when he felt like crying, it calmed him when he felt like screaming. The fish tank calmed him as he watched the fish swim in circles. His mother seemed to notice this helped him to think more and stay calm and relaxed more. You see before he would scream and cry all the time. In a few days they had a small fish tank in almost every room of the house.

#27 Fish Tanks

There is something magical, mystical, something just plain peaceful about fish tanks. We love to see what kind of fish are in there and we are glued to thier every move. They glide so peacefuly around in the tank. So graceful that we are at ease. There are all different kinds of fish; big, small, round, long, brightly colored, dull colored, some with long noses, some with a wave to thier movement. Yet we are all entranced into thier world of magic. We sit and wonder what it may be like to be a fish or we just enjoy the serinity of it.

I like a ghost fish. They move while staying in one spot. My younger brother loves sharks. typical boys lol. My little sister loves our guppies. She thinks those are the prettiest things ever. One of our guppies had babies, we were not at home when it happened so when we got home we only saw one left. So my sis got to keep it in a smaller tank in her room. We didn't tell her the other ones may have been ate. Our molly had babies too. We found two and saved them. -Brenda

My favorite fish is the plecostomus. Alot of people that don't know fish really well ask me "What is that?" A plecostomus is a fish that eats algae from your tank. they are not much of swimmers but you will find them on inside of the tank walls, on the rocks, and any decoration you have in your fish tank. They are good at cleaning it so you don't have to clean as often. I think they are gorgeous and they can grow to be quite huge. There is this game I like to play online called fishworld and you can actually buy fish and one of them is the plecostomus. If you get that fish your tank will be clean and you dont have to clean it lol. -Kiley

I have a small fish tank and keep hardy fish like a betta or gold fish. However I love to go to the aquariums at zoos. Especially Monterey Bay. They have such a wide view of OCEAN fish and I love it. I think my favorite is the sun fish and the jelly fish. Those jelly fish are so amazing to watch. They move slowly and gracefully that I am hypnotized by them. In fact it is hard to move me away from that tank once I have seen it. My friend gets the same way with the Dolphins at Discovery Kingdom. She says she loves to just sit in front of the tank and she would sit there all day everyday if she could. -Trista

There is just something about fish that makes us forget about the world around us. It eases our minds and stress.

Todays Challenge: Watch fish! Go visit a pet store and look at all the different fish, if you have your own tank watch your fish, or go online and watch a video on fish. Today just look at the fish and watch them move.

~Hugs Keyria~

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:7-10

Stress Free Tip #26 Water

2010-07-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's Summer time here
so there is nothing to fear.

I am all set....to get wet.
Jump in the pool just to stay cool.
The water is refreshing,
an honest true blessing.
The water how it shimmers.
Oh look at all the swimmers.
They jump in, for a swim.
Grab your bathing suit, trunks & fins
then come on over and lets begain;
To have fun ....in the sun.

#26 Water

I love water! I love to go to the ocean, lake, rivers, pools and just to watch how the water shimmers from the sunlight that hits it. I get filled with joy. In fact Incubus said my exact feelings in thier song "Wish you were here." Thier lyrics "I dig my toes into the sand. The ocean looks like a thousand diamonds strewn across a blue blanket. I lean against the wind. Pretend I am weightless and in this moment I am happy happy" is exactly how I feel.

Most of us don't just like to look at the water but we love to jump in. We go out to the lake, ocean, sometimes rivers but mostly pools and we dive in and have fun. Splashing about enjoying the feeling of being light as a feather. Almost like flying but in water. We love how it cools our bodies. It even helps us stay fit. Amazing how water can be so healthy for us.

When you are stressed out have you ever noticed that if you go take a warm shower, get into a hot tub (even a pool) and slowly move around or just stay in one spot letting the water hit you sooths you. The shower is like a warm massage against your back, the jacuzzi is the same. The pool you slowly move and can just feel grace. By being in water you calm yourself down. (of course some have exceptions like being afraid of water, stranded, or not able to swim but you can still enjoy water)

When you swim you feel different then when you are out of the water walking. It is a different kind of feeling. You feel graceful, peaceful, and some feel mighty. Maybe that is because you can lift heavy things in the water easier then out of the water.

Water is a way of health. You should be drinking water all throughout the day to stay healthy, also you can use water as a form of exercise. You can swim, do areobics in the water, use water wieghts, water fights, go on water rides, water rafting, kanoeing, sailing, or water slides, water parks, water is a great source of fun.

So what are you waiting for? Go have fun with some water lol

Todays Challenge: (You have two this time)

First Drink a cup of water. Your choice of how cold warm or hot you want it to be.

Second have fun with water by: jumping into some water if you can or just got and watch it shimmer in the sun! Go to the lake, to a pool, a beach. However if you can't do any of those things set up a sprinkler go run through it or even just get the water hose and spray it on yourself. You could get friends together and go to a water park, go have water guns or even water balloon fights.

~Hugs Keyria~

With joy you will draw water from wells of salvation~ Isaiah 12:3

Stress Free Tip #25 Addictives

2010-07-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Mmmm Coffeeeee" "No way SODA is the best!" "You both wish. Pixie stix are the best" Melanie, Kindra, and Josie were all sitting in a circle talking about thier biggest crave and which was the best. "Pixie stix?" Melanie asked sarcastically? "Yes, Pixie stix. Have you ever heard of it?" Josie asked back sarcastically. "Isn't that the candy that is basically just sugar? It comes in a small tube and is all different colors?" Kindra asked. Both Josie and Melanie nodded their heads. "Oh I love that candy. Ooh now I want that and soda" Kindra said. Both Melanie and Josie started to laugh. Kindra joined in.

#25 Avoid addictive activities

Ok most of us love getting either coffee, soda or candy. We love the way it taste and we become addictive to it. Sugary items are definitely not healthy for us to have a lot of. Yet we all have a lot of it and before we know it, we are out of control with it. How can coffee, soda, candy or whatever it is you are addicted to get out of control? Glad you asked, lets look at soda:

If you live in America most if not all have tried soda at least once. Those of us that drink soda usually start off slow and have a soda every now and then. However soon we start to have soda once a day. That once a day soda then turns into three times a day. Later on it turns into seven times a day and so forth. Or the soda may stay at three times a day but now we start using a bigger cup then before. Ok, so we drink alot of soda. No biggie right? Wrong, It wouln't be a biggie if you were not addicted but since you are then there is a problem. WHY? Glad you asked again:

We are so addicted to these items that we cant handle being without them. And when a health issue or some other reason arrives that says "Sorry you cant have that anymore." We become angry, aggravated, irritated, annoyed and so forth. Not fun to be around and we are very upset that we start to stress.

I know a person that is so addicted to sodas that if they don’t have their sodas they get really bad Migranes. They also become very cranky until they have thier next soda. Migranes, emotions are your body fighting the withdrawal of the addiction. Though these are small addictions they can lead into more unhealthier addictions like Drugs and alcohol. Some can even skip the small and go straight into addictions that are more harmful then just a migrane.

You can have these items however do so in a appropriate manner. Take notice to how much you consume. I know a person that does a journal. She writes all the foods, drinks, and activities she did that day. She says this helps her monitor her addictions.

Did you know activities other then eating and drinking can be addictive? I am not just talking the typical drugs or smoking but other activities. Some run to get healthy, others run cause that is an addictive behavior for them. It gets thier adrenaline going. Some use not eating and become very unhealthy. They stress thier own body out by doing this. Some get so addicted to the television set they forget thier reality and the television series become thier reality.

Some love drama and they gossip just to have that drama in thier lives it is a addictive behaviour, Some prepare for a concert so much that winning is all they care about and forget their friends this is an addictive behaviour, Some lie so much they forgot the truth this is an addictive behaviour, Some what to look the best that they stress thier bodies and some love money so much that if you don't help them succeed with that then they have no want or use to be your friend. These are a few of addictive activities.....What is yours??

We have to watch what we do and only do it in moderation. Be aware of our surroundings, our actions, and our consumption. Alot of us become to addicted to something that we forget about our life. By doing this we stess us, our bodies, and our family and friends out.

Todays Challenge: What are you addicted to? Is it soda? Coffee? Candy? Money? Shopping? Your challenge is to give it up for a whole day. If you love to play video games for one day you are not allowed to play them, love to shop, for one day dont shop. It may be hard because you are addicted if it is not then try something more challenging give it up for a week. See how well you do. If you become upset, cranky or irratible try having a friend help you out or take and make substitutions. You cant shop but you can go window shopping, you can play a game about shopping. Try Super Poke Pets, or Petville both are shopping and decorating. Can't drink soda then try lemonaide or punch. Can't have candy try a fruit it is just as sweet. Good luck.

~Hugs Keyria~

For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made. Isaiah 31:7

Stress Tip #24 Dim the lights

2010-07-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Hahaha that is great do it again of on of on of on!" Tabitha said to her older sister Danielle. Her older sister was making her laugh as she turned on and off the lights to make a strobe look for her. "haha I love it. I wish it could do that all the time." Danielle turned on the lights full and left them there as she went over to her bed. "O.K time for us to do homework." She said and pulled out her workbook. Tabitha giggled then calmed down. Tabitha got up went over to the lights and started to flicker them on and off. "Come on Tabby we had fun lets do our homework before mother yells at us." But Tabby kept going. She giggled and giggled. Then she stopped the lights went off and there was no sound. "Tabby?" Danny said confused. She could barely make out the form near the light switch. "Turn on the lights" but the form didnt move. Danielle got up and moved slowly to the lights. Her sister still didn't move. "Tabby, are you ok?" She said as she turned ont he lights. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Her sister screamed at the top of her lungs. danielle got scared. Something was wrong. "Turn them Offfff!!!! Tabitha screamed. Danielle could see the tears coming from her sisters eyes. She shut off the lights quickly. Tabitha was still making noises but she wasn't screaming. "What is going on?" Danielle asked after a while of waiting with her sister in the dark. "My head hurts" Tabitha said through the sobs. Right then Danielle understood...Migrane. "lets get you to the bed. Lets lie down and relax you can see the glowing stars on our cielings it will relax you because it is not to bright. I will go get mother for her to help with meds." Danielle got Tabitha into bed and went and got her mother. As her mother talked to her they realized the flickering lights were fun at first but then they caused a migrane on tabby and that wasn't fun. Her head was hurting when they first started but because Danielle kept stopping it was slowly becoming intense. Then with Tabby she kept going which caused it to peak. After sleep and her medication Tabitha felt better. But to be on the safe side they lowered all the lights and made it a calm setting house for her.

#24 Lower the lights

You know how when you have a migraine you can’t handle sound or light. Well to relax yourself you turn off or lower them both. We do this cause it causes more of a relaxed calm setting. This helps wtih the pain we have to lower itself or vanish completely. In this same way we can relax by doing the same. We feel at ease after we lower the lights.

Bright lights are good for certain activities but we lower the lights for alot. I like to watch movies but I dont like bright lights in the room. It draws away from the movie and distracts me. It makes me to focused of what I may need to do around me then for me to relax. So if I lower, dim, or shut the lights off and watch a movie. I am more relaxed and focused on the movies. -Jim

The only bright light I want to see is Jesus Christ. There are so many bright lights that they do give headaches. You walk into a store and thier lights are on so bright that you are blinded and want to leave as quickly as possible. I tend to shop in a low light setting stores. I like when they have one light on one light off throughout the store. For one it feels like they are saving energy and for two it is not so bright that it hurts me. Usually they tend to be the smaller stores. It does help cause if you want to draw attention to a paticular selling items you can use a light right there and it drowns out what you may not want to be noticed around it. But dont think it will drown out all things. When I go into a dim lighted store I want to stay in there longer checking everything out and seeing what I want whereas when I go into a bright light store I may quickly walk out or I may try to grab what I want really fast and then run out. (of course I pay for it first). -Amy

I like when the lights are low or off because you get to see more light! What I mean by that is we just had fireworks for the Fourth of July. If we did it during the day it just would not look as nice but at night it looks wonderful. At Christmas we use lights to decorate our houses. During the day they are not much to look at but at night they are bueatiful and we have gone to a black light mini golf. It is dark but bright on the course. It is neat to see these things. Had the lights been on brights we would not see them to thier full potential. -Chris

I love candles. I use them to unwind at the end of the day. Instead of having on all the lights I put on a candle. Read a book and just injoy. Besides candles are very romantic and what girl does not like romance? -Elaine

Bright lights, Low lights, no lights. It is amazing how a light can affect us in different ways:

No lights makes us want to sleep
low lights we are at eased (typically romantic, relaxed or stress free)
Bright lights is more for having fun (waterpark, concerts here we come!)

Todays challenge: Take 15 minutes or more and lower the lights at your workplace, home or where ever you may find you need. Sit back and relax. You can put on music, watch a movie, just do something in low lights. Check out the difference.

~Hugs Keyria~

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

Stress Free Tip #23 Have a good meal

2010-07-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

The aroma coming from the kitchen was almost to much to bear for Martha. She knew she was not allowed in the kitchen still she stared at the door. She could just barely taste each of the smells that were being released out of the kitchen on her tounge. She never really had to sit at a table and wait for a meal. In fact she never really got to have a meal other than what she could scavage from the garbage bins. This was her first "True" meal that she could remember. She couldn't even imagine this moment a day ago even if she tried but here she was now in brand new clean clothes not the rags she had worn for years. She kept fidgeting with her dress and looking back at the kitchen doors. She never wore a dress and it would have been more of a concern to her but the smell of the food was more exciting than anything.

"Hang in there. It wont be much longer." Josh, a blonde hair blue eye lad said. He was near the same age as her and was all dressed in a nice pant and shirt. She smiled weary at him. He chuckled. Josh was the son of the family that took her in. They had met her the day before. She was in a alley way being bullied by a few boys. She had been bullied by them before. Josh had seen it and said something to his dad. Less then 15 minutes later she was in a car being driven away from the world she used to live in. They had finalized everything with lawyers and others on her legalization to become part of thier family. "Family" How wonderful that sounded. She never had one before...well agan not that she could remember. She looked at the plate and silverware in front of her. She was unsure of those items but she thought if it has to do with food it can't be bad.

Suddenly a wiff of the most tasty aroma hit the air and onto her tounge. She looked up to see Chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, and more being brought out to the table. Martha's eyes widen as she looked at all the food. She had never seen so much of it before. She had seen parts of a chicken that was left but never a whole one. She couldn't take her eyes off the food. This had to have been the happiest day of her life.

#23 Have a good meal

I have heard it said "A way to a man's heart is through food." It is true. It pleases him. He becomes happy and satisfied. Have you noticed that if you are stressed out you tend to go out to eat. This helps lower the stress level of cooking a meal. Then you tend to eat something you enjoy and it seems to take the edge off things. This may not be a complete way to cancel the stress but it does lower the stress.

"Eat something you are going to enjoy eating. Whether it is a home cooked meal or a out to eat restaurant. Indulge in something that will fill those taste buds with pleasure. Or skip the meal and just indulge in a desert. Sometimes all we need is that sweet taste and we are more relaxed." ~Janelle

Tip: Dark Chocolate has been known to bring out the happiness in you. So, go ahead and have that apple a day..... but make sure you ask for it to be dipped in dark chocolate lol.

Todays Challenge: Have a piece of dark chocolate!

~Hugs Keyria~

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!~ Psalm 119:103

Stress Free Tip #22 Grumpy and Friends

2010-07-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the 7 dwarfs? Doc who was like the head of the house hold, Sleepy who was always tired, Sneezy who couldn't stop sneezing, Bashful that kept batting his eyes, Dopey who most everyone loved. He was the quiet yet sweet hearted one, Happy was always cheerful and then there was Grumpy.

#22 Grumpy and Friends

Sure we all find Grumpy so cute on Snow White, but in this day if we saw someone else being grumpy we would not find them cute. Nor would we be happy around them. We would actually more then likely be pulled down to thier level, thier emotion.

When you smile you have a high chance of someone smiling back at you. Same goes for Grumpy when you are grumpy you can actually make othes around you just as miserable. Funny how that works. It doesn't take much to bring someone into a grumpy state either. You could say one thing wrong and hurt or offend someone. You really do have to be careful.

When you hang out with someone that is down, grumpy, angry, or just being rude, you tend to take on the same qualities. You become upset, down, angry, and rude right back. This is not healthy nor is it helping your situation let alone thiers. I am not saying if a friend is having a hard day to avoid them, but I wouldn't hang out with them for a long period of time. I would say try to cheer them up by taking them on a fun trip to the local zoo, go out for a bite to eat, go see a movie or just go to the park and walk and talk. But if they are still being grumpy after half in hour I would call it a day. Tell them you hope they feel better and if they feel up to something fun later on to call. Then check on them the next day. Sometimes people just need that one day to themselves. At times there is not much we can do for others when they get into this state. They have to pull them out of it themselves. But dont let yourself get consumed into the wallowing and pity.

Grumpy (not Snow White Grumpy) has other friends. These are the ones I would try to stay away from if you can: (using nicknames)
Downer -Down
Loner- Lonely
Saddner- Sad
Angry- Angry
Whiner- whining/Complaining
Dopey (not our cute sweet hearted from Snow White) The drug user
Depress- Depression
PP- Peer Pressure
Lazy- Lazy
And a few others

Instead I would make friends with:
Happy
Joyful
Excited
Laughter
Friendly
Funny
Fun (funny's little sibling)

Peaceful
Harmony
LOVE

Try to only surround yourself with positive.

Todays Challenge: Watch Snow White and the 7 dwarfs. Which character best resembles you? Why? I want you to watch your actions and write them down during the day. This is so you can see your attitude during the day. Are you like happy always laughing and smiling? Or like Grumpy always seeing the bad?

~Hugs Keyria~

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23

Stress Free Tip #21 Shopping!!!!

2010-07-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a fun 4th of July. I hope you didn't spend too much on the fireworks. On with today:

One of the best ways for us to feel good is through a simple activity. It is called Shopping.

Most if not all of us LOVE to shop. It is just something fun that we can do. Wether it be to the mall where we can check out clothes, to a toy store for fun and games, Candy Store or to a electronic store for the newest video game equipment it is fun to shop.

#21 Shopping

Now I know some guys out there would say they disagree, however if I said you get to shop anywhere you want then that would change. You see shopping for socks can be a bore, but for tickets to the next game or for fishing/hunting gear. Suddenly you see guys start to jump up.

Shopping is a good stress relief. It lets you get out your fustrations by buying something you want that may please you. However, you should be strict but have fun while shopping. What I mean is this: Be strict by putting a limit to how much you can spend. Look at your budget. If you have an extra 50 dollars only spend 20 that way you still have more for a later shopping spree, if you need it. Or if an emergency should arise you will be more prepared. Have fun as in go out to your favorite store and make a list of what you would love to have and then you can either save that 20 in a jar for those items or you can use that twenty for something else you want. You can even be silly and go buy kid toys.

They other day I was just having a really rotten day. The only bright side was at the end of the day I made 75 dollars in tips. I was going to go home and cool down since it was so hot and yucky when I thought no let me just go to the mall and walk around a bit. I went by my old favorite store that I used to go into as a kid. It had comic books, books, a few toys and odds and ends. I looked around at all the stuff I used to love as a kid. I ran across some water balloons for a dollar. Suddenly a thought came to mind. I picked up a couple of those water balloon packages and headed home. I filled up all the water balloons and stuck them into two buckets of water. I placed them at the corner of the house. I then took up three water balloons and took them out to the balcony. I then called a few of my friends over and said I wanted to take a dip in the pool and to see if they wanted to join me. A couple hours later we were all relaxing in our swimming gears when I said I needed to go get something. As they sat there they didnt know what hit them. I started a balloon fight. It was a blast. They found my stashes of water balloons downstairs and we just acted as if we were little kids again. It took the ease off of my whole day. - Micheal

I have been looking at this dress in this shop for over six months. I never bought it because I didn't have a need for it. One day I just had alot of stress being put on me. I was in the verge of tears. Anything that could go wrong did. I tried to fix it but it just got worse. Finally I gave up and was walking in the mall. When I saw the dress. I walked in and found my size. I tried it on and I just smiled. It was so pretty. I took it to the cashier and purchased my bueatiful dress I had been longing for. I quickly ran home put it on and wore it for the rest of the night. I felt so bueatiful in it that my troubles vanished. A few days later I rewore it and everyone complimented on it. It was wonderful. - Felicia

When me and my friends shop we tend to have fun. We love shops where you can sample things or try things out. I remember going to a toy store once and the workers there were having fun with the customers! It was funny they would challenge them to hula hoop, or jump rope games. Then they would give them a coupon for participating. The workers always looked like they were having fun as well as the customers. We love to find shops like candy stores (free candy) or stores with chairs, swings, and benches. This way if some get tired they can relax while the others shop. - Kirsten

Be wise with your money. Alot of people start to spend and then they spend it all, way to fast. They start to realize that they dont have the money for what they really needed. You really do need to look at your budget first and see what you do have that you can spare. I would not suggest spending more then 1/4th or less then that of what extra you have. If you have 100 to spare spend 20 if that.

People who tend to love money to much, tend to get into trouble.

A good way of learning how to be wise is to visit: saving-money-makes-cents.com. There you will find lots of tips on how to save money and to enjoy the simple things.

Challenge of today: I want you to look at your budget. See if you can spare 5 dollars, I want you then to take that 5 dollars and go by whatever you want. Maybe you like ice cream or are like me and love the dollar store. What ever it is you do have fun.

~Hugs Keyria~

Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. Proverbs 23:5

Happy 4Th Of July

2010-07-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

Oh No, Is it here?
I am not even ready I fear.

I forgot all about today,
In almost every way

I forgot to get the hotdog buns,
off to the store I must run

grab katchup, hotdogs, chips too
don't forget soda, and snacks ok through.

Now back to home I must clean,
wash the dishes, wheres Mr. Clean Green?

Straighten the living room, the bathroom, bedroom ok,
what is next on my list today.

Invite friends with a few calls
All are coming good now to the mall

The perfect outfit I must wear
Yay I see sale tags everywhere

Found it! It's perfect how much does it cost
Ok well that is a few bucks now lost

Well now I am all set lets get started on the food
Oh no I forgot the fireworks, now what must I do?

Run out really fast grab the next cab
The next fireworks stand, heres pay for my tab

Run up, I am lost so much to choose
"Here is the best one, with this one you can't loose"

Run back home get changed, food is ready to go
Sit on a coutch, catch your breath, ding dong, they are starting to show.

Hi, How are you? I'm fine Thank you,
You looked stressed, how funny I felt stress too.

I was on my way here when I started to fear
I would have nothing to bring to your fourth of July thing.

So I went out and grabbed all I could find
I grabbed a lot I hope you dont mind

Here is a box with decorations, one with food
One with fireworks, to put us in a happy mood.

In walks another friend, all smiles to bear
I didn't have anything, But I decided to share

My services tonight, all you do is rest
I am going to take care of everything, since I do that best

Relax, Unstress, I clean and I'll cook
I want to do this, so dont give me that look

So everything worked, I got to destress
while Jenna, and Martha cleaned up all the mess

We went outside and watched firework lights
This day was amazing, With a bueatiful sight.

Happy Fourth of July
To Everyone Now Go Have Some Pie!

Todays Challenge: BE SAFE!!! Don't stress about getting everything ready for tonight. Call some friends and see if they want to come over and help. Have a potluck so you don't have to do all the food. Have everyone pitch in to get fireworks. Just relax and enjoy the day. Today was meant to be a fun day not a rush around stress day. Watching the fireworks always calmed me, It was the best part of the day. Be safe! Happy Fourth Of July

Available from Phantom Fireworks

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Genesis 1:3

Stress Free Tip #20 To Bee Humble

2010-07-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

I remember a time when there was this lady, who went to my church. She didn’t have much money but she gave all that she could. She never complained about anything. One day she went to go visit some friends of hers out of town. She would be back in a few days. The youth pastor was in care of her home. He knew everything that was in need of fixing and for those few days us youth came over and we fixed things.

Some of us cleaned the yard up, planting flowers in front of her house and mowing, raking leaves and getting rid of all the weeds. Some of us were painting her house a purplish pink light color. She had mentioned once that she would love to have her house painted that color but she was grateful for the house she had. Others had done some inside cleaning and fixing up. When we were through it looked like a new house.

The lady came back after her trip and she didn’t recognize her house. She stared at this house that was in front of her thinking this can’t be mine. But when the pastor showed up to drop off the key she realized for sure it was her own house. She asked him how it became like this at first he said he didn’t know and it must have been angels but she kept on asking so he explained that us kids needed to get some energy out. He said we were being too rowdy and he decided to calm us down. She laughed, yet had tears rolling down. She said this was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done.

Our Youth pastor said it was God who did it. God made sure all of us kids were free for those days to work on that house. Had it been a few days earlier or later a lot of the kids wouldn’t have been able to do it for many of reasons. That was the best time I had. The best part was she didn’t even know us kids.”

#20 Humble

Don't you love when you give a gift to someone to see thier smiling faces? It brings joy to your heart as well as theres. I love giving gifts. I remember there was a program called Secret Sisters and what we did was we would get a name and then send secret gifts to that person. They never knew who we were not until the end. The joy was to send something to them. For me that stuck with me. I would try and send secret gifts to others that I thought needed them as I grew up. Just the joy of knowing they are getting something they need filled me with happiness. I didn't have to be there to know thier smile. Sometimes I would hear about it later.

I once found this angel statue at a store. It was the only one and I knew exactly who I thought should have it. This lady from work is always smiling, always kind and she is an angel. It needed to be given to her. So I bought it, snuck into work early and placed it on her desk. Later that day I seen her crying. She came over to where I was and I asked if she was ok. She said "You will never believe this. My mother just passed away yesterday. I wasn't even going to leave the house today but when I walked into work and saw this bueatiful angel statue on my desk I felt better. I couldn't help but cry but a cry of calmness. Like I know she is ok. I know everything will be ok. You see my mother collected angels and the one on the desk is the last one she needed. So it just made me feel as if she where here still saying it will be ok. I dont know who placed the angel there but I really believe it was an angel themselves."

I love the smile of another person, it actually can make me smile. If you are stressed out and need a break go volunteer to help others somewhere. The smile on thier face can bring a smile on your face. Don’t do it to get credit but do it to actually help. If you do it to get credit for yourself then you can’t really understand the meaning of helping for all your focusing on is greed.
Todays Challenge: Do something for others and not so much for you. Here are a few ideas that you can do. Go to a person’s home that you know cant care for their yard very well. Ask if you can take care of it in return for some of the flowers they have growing, or do it for free. If you can get flowers take those flowers to the hospital and randomly give them to someone who is in pain. Become anonymous and give items to people that need them. Then come back and send me an email or commet below what you did or even how you felt.

Until Tomorrow...

~Hugs Keyria~

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you ~1 Peter 5:6

Stress Free Tip #19 Compliments

2010-07-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Wow you have some really nice muscles there" Josh smiled. "Thanks." Josh was just finishing up his last rep of wieghts when he ran into Betty. He was not doing good earlier and decided to go to the gym to let some of his fustrations out. Guess going to the gym is paying off. He thought. They chatted for a bit then Betty went off to do her own exercising. Josh started to work out again but in a better mood. He felt better and happier.

Betty went upstairs to the treadmill room. She wasn't having the best day in the world but she wasn't going to tell others about her problems either. She pushed start and started to walk. Her thoughts running through her head. She wasn't paying attention to anything around her only her thoughts. "Wow, I love your nails!" A woman had gotten on to the treadmill next to her and started walking. She hadn't noticed her. "Huh?" "Your nails they are bueatiful, where did you get them done at?" "Oh thank you. I got them over at FingerSpa." Betty said looking down to see the artwork on her nails. "They are bueatiful. I am Jenna by the way." The woman held out her hand. "Betty" As they talked all of Betty's troubles seemed to vanish. This lady was so kind, telling her how nice her nails, clothes, and hair was. She felt so good. Betty and Jenna ended up becoming workout buddies.

#19 Flattery Flirtatious Fun

This is seriously silly but it can help. Did you know words are a powerful thing? Of course you did. Words are very strong like Honor, Love, Friendship, Supercalafragilelisticexpealadosous (Mary Poppins song), haha ok well most words. You see a word can go along way and when we use them positively we can actually calm ourselves. Flattery, flirty, and compliments are ways that others and you feel good about yourself. If someone were to come over while you were stressed and say “Wow you are such a bueatiful person, or wow how talented you are. You suddenly feel better. You don’t feel as stressed. So why not use that same action. Either tell someone else a compliment or (here comes the silly part) sit in front of a mirror and tell yourself positive things about you.

Wether you see someone looking stressed or it is you that are stressed we need to remember we all need a nice word once in a while.

Today's challenge: I want you to go out and compliment at least one person. If you can make it someone you DON'T know. Yet if you are to shy for that then go ahead and compliment a friend, family member or someone else that you may know. A Smile and a Hi go along ways.

~Hugs Keyria~

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. ~Deuteronomy 31:6

Stress Free Tip #18 Vaccations

2010-07-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Ocean, The Beach, Whale Watching, Sailing, Kayaking, Snowboarding, Skiing, Sledding, Snowmen, Snowball fights, Camping, Safari's, Photography, The Lake, Fishing, Old Western Town, Sports Games, Fairs, Museums, Zoos, Amusement Parks, Horse back riding, Hiking, Dance Clubs, Concerts, Casinos, Las Vegas Opera, Broadway, New York City, Pairs, Londen, Rome, Cruises, Hair and Nails, Massages, Spa Getaway, Shopping, Pampering, A day away from work and chores

The list goes on and on and on and on and on......etc.

There are many ways to take a vacation. Whether it be on a weekend getaway or just to the next town over for a dinner and movie. We enjoy just changing our normal routine to do something fun. This helps us change our mindset. We become excited, anxious, happy about the trip that we are going to take. We wish it was right away and then when it comes we enjoy every moment.

I remember when I was younger I would get stressed out with school work. So my mother would always take me on these short trips. She would say "Go get your camera" and off I would run happy as a lark. We didn't have to go anywhere fancy we would just go down a country road and I would get to take pictures. Pictures of squirls, cows, trees whatever we could find that looked interesting. I loved it. My heart would be filled with joy that my troubles would go away. I forgot why I was stressing. When I got home I would go back to my school work and be fine as if I never stressed. ~Kristina

#18 Take a vacation

I know that sometimes there is so much on our plate that we don’t like to think about why we can’t do vacations. So we dream about taking one instead. However dreaming is not the same as actually doing. Everyone needs a vacation. Do it for you. Vacations help lower our stress level. We forget about our work and learn to focus on relaxing. A trip to visit family, a road trip, a long anticipated trip, a trip to the beach and so on. Trips don’t have to last for a long time.

"But I cant afford a trip!" I often hear this. In fact I have gotten in a habit of saying it myself at times. Sometimes we cant afford to take those month or week trips. Instead why not try doing a day trip. A day trip can be just as relaxing.

In fact just to take one day off from everything; work, house chores, errands, school work. Just to take that day off and do nothing but little things you enjoy like watching a movie, going to a park near by, relaxing on the sofa reading a book. No matter what it is, it can help take the stress off. But if you choose this option then you need to make sure you don't do anything! I have met a lot of people that think oh that sounds wonderful so they try to take a day off for themselves. And instead of relaxing they tend to do laundry, wash dishes, clean up, or their husband/wife, kids, friends call and want them to run them places or do things that are not on their agenda, and then feel as if they didn't have a day off. No chores are allowed to be done on a day off.

I don’t have the money to take off for weeks on end. I wish I could but I make it up by doing mini vacations. This actually helps for when my stress level is rising I can take a mini vacation and it will lower it back down. I work five days a week. Two days I have off I use for my mini vacations (once a month I use one of those days as an all cleaning day. That helps me play catch up on house work). I normally ask to have the two days I get off in between my other work days. The reason I do this is for my stress to stay low. I work, then I have a mini vacation day, then work, then mini vacation day, then work, and so forth. I look forward to the day I have off so I am always in a good mood since it is just around the corner. ~Evie

For me I like to save my vacation time. I like to have my month vacation time off. I like to go visit my family and one day is not enough time. We usually plan trips to Disney World, The beach, To the snow, and camping. You really can't do all of that in one or two days. I usually de-stress on my lunch. I will take a walk to refresh me for the rest of the day. I try to do all my work so that I may get off a bit early if possible. After work my friend and I have a system that we always go to the cafe around the corner and get us dinner. We talk about our day this helps me relax. ~ Mark

I like to do one big trip and a couple small trips. I try to make the big trip to be one place like Marine World. I spend a week or two up there just walking around enjoying all the shows, rides, and animals. Then I go back to work. I do a few mini vacations like go to the movies, go out for dinner, a shopping day or a day trip somewhere. Even to the local zoo where you can go pet the animals. But I don't do it all the time maybe once or twice a month if I can. I try to do one fun thing at least once a month. ~ Sally

Today's Challenge: Take a mini vacation. Go see a movie, Go out to eat or for two hours at your house do nothing. No matter how much those around you beg say you are off duty and enjoy reading a book, sipping hot cocoa.

~Hugs Keyria~

Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. Proverbs 12:25

Stress Free Tip #17 Tomorrow Is Just A Day Away

2010-06-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Jon, seriously, I dont think she is going to be able to help you." Matthew and Jon were walking down the dirt path to a little old cabin. Inside that cabin was a woman by the name of Jazmine Jerlini, the town's palm reader. "I can't stand my life right now and I need help to see the future. To see if it is going to get better than this. I know she can help me. My life right now feels like a wreck. She is my last resort. If she says my life is not going to get any better than..." Jon voice trailed off as he thought. Still he was not slowing down for anything. Matthew trying to keep up, kept on trying to stop him but Jon just would not stop. They made it to the cabin door. Matthew looked down "What if it is just a waste of your money and time?" Jon took a huge sigh then pressed the door open. Matthew watched as he went in out of sight.

#17 Stop Worrying About Tomorrow

How many of us do that. We focus on our future, what tomorrow is going to have in store for us. We are to worried about having the perfect life. We either stress to much about the present, past and/or future. We stop realzing that we need to just relax.

“Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love you! Tomorrow! You’re only a day away!” Sang Annie. Do you remember that story of an orphan girl? No matter what she tried to have high hopes. She didn’t worry about tomorrow instead she looked forward to it as a positive thing. So when you start to think oh I have to do this and this and this and that and this and that and that and etc lol. Think instead of Annie. She didn’t know if she would ever be adopted but each day meant new possibilities of her being adopted.

This is how we should view tomorrow. As a joy, a brand new day with new possibilities.

Today's Challenge: Watch Annie. Go rent it, go borrow it, or go buy it. At any rate go watch it.
~Hugs Keyria~

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ~ Lamentations 3:22-23

Stress Free Tip #16 Deactivate to Reactivate Yourself

2010-06-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Mommy, it's broke. I can't fix it." June was almost in tears when she handed me her newest doll which she named Melody. "What is wrong with Melody?" I asked as I looked the doll over. "She is not talking no more." June whispered. You could see the tears about to burst through her eyes. "It is ok, Dr. Mommy is here for the rescue. It says unscrew the back of the toy, press the black button and hold it down for five seconds. Then release and it will be reset. Lets give it a try." I flipped the doll over and did as instructed. Within seconds the doll begain to work again. All it needed was to be refreshed. "Looks like she is going to make it." I said handing the doll back to June. "Thank you! Thank you Mommy! Your the best Doctor in the whole world! And the best Mommy!" She hugged me then ran off to go play with Melody some more.

#16 Deactivate to Reactivate Yourself

Now I know that must sound so funny to hear. Deactivate to Reactivate? But seriously it works. How can you deactivate? Start by not overwhelming yourself with activities. Alot of people put to much on themselves.

I have to go to college, go to work, go pay a car bill on my break, go back to work, get off go pay another bill, get groceries, drop them off at home, go back to college, go home fix dinner, while doing laundry, clean up after dinner, email a few friends, then head to bed to start the day over. It gets overwhelming especially now that I am joining the chior and have a few extra one day classes that I decided to squeeze in. I know I can do it but it just gets exhausting at times. - Mary

Many people just keep adding and adding until it becomes to much for them to handle. We dont realize we are doing it until the last moment. This brings us to the point of exhaustion, overwhelm, stress, and even can go into extremes. I have heard of people feeling they have to do everything and as soon as they mess up on a minor detail they become majorly depressed even to the thought of suicide. That is not how it should be.

We should enjoy what we are doing at the moment not worring about what comes next on our lists. This is where the lists do come in. Write a list of all that is needed to do and only do the few that needs to be done right away. I am sure I have already written on this before but it is good to reread again. Add a fun activity in with all the normal activities and take out those that don't need to be done.

It is like cleaning out a computer. You delete all the old files, pictures, and programs that you dont use, dont want, and/or dont need. This is what you need to do wtih your normal day to day activities. Do you really need to take that extra class right now? Can it wait until you have finished the classes you have now? Focus on what you have going on now.

Ok I would like to do the cooking class now but I would be so worn out... oh it is being retaught in August. Oh that is better because I dont have as much going on. let me do that instead. I am glad that worked out because I proably would have been stressing about not having time to finish things on time or money to afford the materials since I have other things needing to be paid right now that take priority. Plus this will give me time to relax at home for a bit.

Find the activities you truly enjoy or alternate from activities. Don't let your activities beat you up, instead give your activities the time you and they deserve.

I know I could have graduated along time ago but I am glad that I am not stressed like alot of my friends. I take a couple of classes, work part time and enjoy breathing the rest of the day. I can go for walks with my dog, do my grocery shopping with out having to rush. I enjoy life. I may not have that fancy house like I have seen others have. Instead I have an apartment which I love. It gives me shelter and I can enjoy being in it longer then some that have the fancier houses. They dont get to enjoy them because they are always in a rush." - Melanie

Todays challenge: Take five minutes, make a list of all you do. Wean out what you don't need to do. Make sure you do have one fun day in each day of the week. It doesn't have to be going on trips all the time but maybe watching a movie at home that you have yet to see. See if it makes a difference.

~Hugs Keyria~

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2

Stress Tip #15 Secret Hide Out

2010-06-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

It was perfect! Just the right size and everything. All I had to do was crawl under a couple of bushes and there I was in the middle of a hideaway. See there were bushess all aoround these four trees. You couldn't see in unless you pushed back the branches. It was great. I would crawl into where the four trees were and there was enough room for me to stay on the ground or climb into branches. It was my favorite place in the world when I was little. ~ Sophie

#15 Quiet Time and Place

Remember when you were little and you would find a perfect hideout? A place that was hidden to everyone other than you(even though your parents knew where it was it felt like they didn't). Maybe it was a club that you and a friend or friends found, or a treehouse. Maybe it was amongst a bunch of trees that hid you from others, or down the ways at the beach near rocks where no one goes to because they don't know about it. These were all places we would run to just to get away from everyone, everything, or just because. Alot used it to get away from the stresses of thier parents, or of school.

Do you remember how it felt? How you could sit there in the tree and look at the sky, sit on that smoothly hidden rock and listen to the waves of the ocean, or sit in the wooden tree house where your world lived. Yet as soon as you stepped out of those worlds you were hit with the stresses of reality, So you tried to stay there as long as you could before being called away.

I had so many of those places growing up. I loved them. My favorite ones were the ones outdoors. I got to just imagine life how I liked it. It actually would calm me if I was upset. I remember thinking I could talk to the animals and I did so. I would see a bird in the tree near by and talk to them as if they were there to visit me. I was calm and relaxed. Nothing would worry me.

Everyone needs thier own special place that is only for them. It is quiet and lets them think, calm down, relax, and refresh. Just like closing your eyes for fifteen minutes, being alone in your own special hideaway can help rejuvinate you from everything. Lets you catch your breath and prepare yourself for everything that is going to come after. This place should be comfortable. Maybe it is a tree outside that you can sit down lean against, a certain room in the house, a rock in the fields that you can sit and listen to the birds and wind, a park where you can go and relax on the grass. Take time to read a book, write a letter or in a journal, close your eyes for a bit, or just watch the clouds as they roll by. Use this place to be free! Just like you did as a kid. Make up an imaginary place that you are in, sing songs to the imaginary trillyhills family of wallyhoops or whatever imaginary friends you made up.

Whatever you do, DON'T think of what you have to do the whole time! This will bring you down and it will feel as if you didn't rest at all. In fact, DON'T think like an adult at all. Think like a child and be free. Think of your favorite things and have fun doing those things (within reason). Maybe Decorate your secret spot (hanging pictures, painting the outside exterior, etc. Bring a snack and munch as you color or read a book. Just be a kid in that hideaway. Become Peter Pan, or Tinkerbell.

Secret spots can be in the open, like I said before, a park or the beach so don't go to crazy with being a kid lol. Yet DO focus on you. A friend of mine goes to the beach and she takes her notebook and writes about when she was a little girl. She says if she keeps it up she may have a book on her hands soon. I think it is wonderful and I would read it.

Today's Challenge: Go out find a secret hideaway.Your Secret Hideaway.Let me know about it. Comment below or email me. Tell me why you like that spot and what you do there. Then later go to your secret area and write about your favorite childhood memory. You may comment about that too if you like or email about it. Just have fun doing this today.

~Hugs Keyria~

You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah ~Psalms 32:7

Stress Free Tip #14 Writing

2010-06-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

I love to write. It is a passion of mine. I love writing lists like: what I need, what I need to have, what I wish I had etc. I love to write down questions or thoughts I have. I love poetry or even if I hear something funny or a quote that I like it goes down into a notebook. Most of all I love to write down stories. I always have a notebook on me. When I don't I feel like I am well not all there. I have to have a notebook and pen (or pencil) and then I am complete.

#14 Write

I know I mentioned this under hobbies but outside of hobbies this can help. Write down what I was talking about before:

Why are you stressing?
What caused it?
What were you doing?
How were you feeling?
How do you feel now?
What can you do to avoid that? What day is it?
What time is it?
And so forth...

Writing can not only help you remember things but it also can help in case you forget something you have it written down and can go back to remember. Also if you can’t explain it outloud others can read what is going on and understand. Also write down your stresses and concerns. Sometimes it helps to see it on paper and then work out the problem.

Writing also is good at documenting something that later you need to refer to. Or Writing down facts that are needed. You write to remember dates of events, phone numbers, and birthdays.

But most of all if you are stressed it is best to write down your feelings. Get it out, let you see why you are stressed, how you are stressed, and possibly may give you an idea to how not to stress. (Maybe writing can be your stress free main sourse.)

Today's Challenge: Go out and write in a notebook how you felt today. Don't hold back but be honest on how you feel. Write what all happened good and bad. Then keep going from there. Let today be your first day of writing.

Like I said it is always good to have a notebook to write. Besides where would we be if no one had ever written? I know artists lol

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
–Richard Bach

“I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.” –E. B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web

"Life is like a writers pen, you never know where the tip will end!" -Kristina Hollon, writer and author

~Hugs Keyria~

I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Gives Me Strength ~ Phillipians 4:13

Stress Free Tip #13 Exercise

2010-06-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

"And a one, and a two, and a three, and a four, and a five, and a six, and a seven, and a eighhhhht.Phew" Josh wiped the sweat coming off of his brow. He looked down the line of exercising strength machines. At first he seemed to have a worried face but then it was quickly erased with a grin. He got up and moved to the next machine "And a one, And a two, And a....." He did the same thing to each of the machines. Afterwards he was all grins. What would cause such a smile? Did you know that when we exercise we feel good about ourselves?

#13 Exercise

This is one of those stress free things that we have half people wanting to do and the other half of people think eww I don’t want to exercise. Exercising actually can destress you. If you have stress that is more of a aggression getting that out at the gym helps your body not only physically but mentally as well. You go and get all your frustrations out by lifting the weights or running on the treadmill. (Make sure you don’t overdo it for that can cause stress on your body) exercise will raise and then lower your heart rate. This causes your body to focus outside of the stress they had and use their focus on what is going on at hand. After a good workout you normally feel refreshed. If not than at least you are tired enough to get that well needed rest you have been needing.

There are many kinds of exercise it is not only for getting out agression but you could also go and exersise through actions:

Go out to a dancing class. Any dance class will do. Dance to the beat of the music. This was always one of my favorite things to do as a child and still is. Go take want some shaking and twirling? Try: jazz, salsa, or western. Want something that moves your feet? Try: clogging or tap. Want something a bit softer? Try going to a ballet class

Ok so what if dancing is not your style? There are many other activities that are fun that you can do for exersice: Biking, Jogging, Running, Swimming, blading, skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, are just a few. Want something slower then that? Try walking in the park, or doing a yoga class.

Todays Challenge: Go out and do one exercise today. Have it last from 3o minutes to 1hour. (Longer if you want just dont overdo it.) Have fun with it.

Anything that gets you moving off your seat can be considered exersice (within reason). So go out today and do some exercise. Even better grab a friend and go for a bike ride, go to the gym together, go swimming or even bowling. Whatever you are doing go have fun!

~Hugs Keyria~

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. ~1Timmothy 4:8

Stress Free Tip #12 Warm Drink

2010-06-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

I just love hot cocoa on a cold winter day. It just warms the heart. I get all cozy under my blankets, listening to the fire crackle as I sip on the hot cocoa. I was at ease. It was as if the busy days were never there. Oh how it is so fun to have a night like that.

#12 Drinks

Do you all remember when it is late at night and you would have hot cocoa, or warm tea. You may even had warm milk, all things to get you to go to bed. This was another way to calm down your body from a long day of work. They are warm drinks that you have to take time to drink. You sip them. These were drinks associated with getting into your pJ’s, curling under a blanket in front of the fire with your warm drink. This was a distressing method. This caused your body to destress from that days work even if you didn’t realize it was stressed.

You know I think that is how I am going to finish my night..... oh hehe sorry was about to go off and get cocoa.

Today's Challenge: Tonite to go get some hot cocoa, or tea, or milk or whatever is nice and warm. Sit down and cover yourself with a comfy blanket. Some may get to use thier fireplaces tonight but if you dont have a fireplace then go and put on some calm soft music and listen to it (you can do this even if you have a fireplace too) and just relax to the music. Don't think about anything but focus on the fire or sipping your drink. Have a wonderful quiet soft evening,

Well my hot cocoa is calling me so I will talk to you all tomorrow :) Have a wonderful night.

~Hugs Keyria~

*Thank you to my friends for sending me the coffee cup. If anyone would like to know more about the coffee cup please leave me a email or comment. Websites on cup are found to the right 0f this blog*

Stress Free Tip #11 massages and aroma therapy

2010-06-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

"I love the smell of spring time. The flowers are blooming the birds are chirping. The bees are huming" Said Tori as she and her best friend Amy walked through the park. "mmm honey!" Said Amy. Amy was always baking and cooking. She was in college to be a chief. "Yes I love the smell of honey" She repeated. "I wish it was always like this. Where we smell the freshness of the world around us...but we have to go back to the city sometime or another." Tori looked down at her shoes. "Camping" she said thinking of the way pine smells and the early morning frost. "BBQ" Said Amy. "Christmas, oh I love the smells of Christmas." Tori said. "Yes, Gingerbread men or thanksgivings pumpkin spices, or valentine and easters chocolate delights" The girls started to laugh. They turned the corner to where the city stood. It was a nice early morning stroll but now it was time for some pampering. Up the stairs and into the second building they went. "Welcome to renew you spa" Said the lady in the building.

#11 Smells and Massages

Oh the spa. What a pleasure to go visit. Whoever came up with the spa and retreats idea were very smart. They knew that everyone has stress and wants to become stress free. So the made up a spa or retreat or both. From massages that help our muscles relax to warm baths to relax our tension. We have wonderful soft music and then to top it off they have aroma therapy… yep smells.

How funny that smells can actually affect us. In a good or a bad way. We love the good way where we are smelling the things that bring that smile to our face. Those are the smells we have on our incsence, pillow sprays, and lotions. Aroma therapy is smells that help relaxes us. Lavender is actually a calming smell. It is used to put someone at ease.

However, did you know you can get headaches from a certain smell, or you may even be allergic to a smell. So we have to be careful of the smells that we use to relax us. Always pay attention to the smells around you!

Todays Challenge:

Take today and go for a walk in the park, go check out all the different flowers and thier smells or if you are allergic to outside pollen try finding some insence and burning it like lavender.

"The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land" Song of Solomon 2:12

~Hugs Keyria~

On Look Out

2010-06-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I came in early to make sure no one was hiding like OG Richie did. I wanted to make sure he wasnt back to throw my tips around again. I can't believe he did that just to put up a blog of his own. Sheesh some people....

so I looked:

in every corner,
every hole,
above,
under,
left and right and I dont see anyone.

I even checked to make sure all avatars, game role players , and any other gaming spy he may use was not in here. Hmm it looks like for sure he is gone. Either way I locked the door so no more distractions...

I mean it was kinda rude, even though he put up some great information, for him to just take over my blog. Plus to throw my tips all over so I would be busy picking them up just so he can write what he wanted.... I think he was trying to start something....

I wonder if I should get him back... if not just for throwing the tips all over. Well if you all have any ideas let me know. Comment or email me.

Oh that reminds me, I picked up all the tips and are you ready to hear the Tip number 11? Tip number 11 is.....

....wait. Shhh! I hear footsteps....

Sounds like they stopped at my door. The handle is being rattled.....

Oh man I am biting my nails this is not good! Shhh .............................................

........ok looks like the footsteps are leaving.. I have to be quiet or he may hear typing clicks.... Come back at 9:00 Am to read it. It will be up then. For now I need to do my own investigation to see if that was him coming back to try it again....

~Hugs Keys~

You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah ~Psalms 32:7

Stress Free Tip.....Who just took my blog???

2010-06-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wow this has been a week full of tips already...... Hey..... wait..... what are you doing? .....Give me back my keyboard...My tips you knocked them over they are everywhere.... Give me baaaaacccck......

This Blog is brought to you by Online Gamer Richie Of Online Games Your Way

GAMING WOOT YEA!!! - Stresser or Not?

Ok gaming is my favorite way to de-stress, but you can't de-stress with all games.

Some games can actually add to your stressing, or even parts of some games can stress you out.
Example: World Of Warcraft, great game lots of stuff to do. This game can be very stressful, in many ways such as raiding or PvP. Most mmorpg's (massive multiplayer online role playing games) are like this.

The games you want to de-stress with are known as Casual Games. Games like Bejeweled or Hidden Object games, one where the objective is simple. You can find many of these casual games on my game site Online Games Your Way, The Flash Games there are great casual games. There are many types of games there for all types of players.

So Why are some games stressors and others not? This is all dependent upon one’s own personality. Take me as an example. I am “Highly competitive”; So PvP (Player Vs Player) can be a stressor for me if I am in the wrong set of mind for it. If I hop into say a mmorpg and go to PvP I could be stressing myself out even more.

However If I instead head out to do some simple quests or grinding (it’s a repetitive way of fighting mobs for loot), often at times that relaxes me.

But if I want to truly relax I go Play games with simple goals, Puzzle, Hidden Object and Physics type games are my favorite to relax with.

Puzzle games - These get your mind working on figuring something out distracting it from all the stressors you have been under.

Physic games- No you don’t need to know math or science for these. It’s just these games are based on that. Often times you’re figuring out how to get things to something or set up in a way to allow something to get somewhere. It’s like a puzzle but more interactive.

Hidden Object games- These games get you to relax because if you do not, you can't find anything on your screen. Besides these ones are fun because sometimes the objects you’re looking for are strange and funny.

So Remember Gaming can be a great De-Stressor but you have to be careful not to take the game to seriously.

As Always
Play The Game Your Way
Laterz

......... Now wait, come back here! You cant just type and zip file away....or can you? Well that was very informative, Games, a fun way to de-stress. He did say I can go to Online-Games-Your-Way.com and play alot of free games right? Well since I feel kinda stressed about trying to get the tips back in order I think I am going to head over and play a game or two... Tip Number 11 will come tomorrow.

Todays Challenge: Go to the link above and play a game or two or read some blogs.

~Hugs Keyria~
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalms 119:105

Stress Free Method #10 They Joy of Laughter

2010-06-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hahahahaha Hohohoho hehehehehehe hahaha lol lol ROFL hahah hehehehee Hahahahaha! Oh I love to laugh don't you? Laughing is a joy of life. Can you imagine if there was no laughter?

#10 Laughing

Knock knock….who’s there.” We have all heard many of these jokes, and with most of the jokes we laugh. We say “hahaha Thanks I needed that.” This is true. A good laughter helps with distressing. When they say laughter is the best medicine they are right. Laughter is a great medicine. Laughter actually makes you move and tightens some of your muscles up for exercise lol. And we all know exercise is good so laugh and laugh some more. Give your tickle bone a good work out.

Everyone has different senses of humor. I am very kiddish and I like humor that you can find on kiddie shows, movies, series. So go look up George Lopez, Bob Smiley, Bill Engvall, Jeff Foxworthy, Jeff Dunham, Dane Cook.... or whoever you like to watch and get out a good laugh. There are so many great comedians out there. Find some you like and go for it.

Knock knock
Whos there
Seal
Seal who?
Seal you tomorrow ......(Seal = see all )

haha ok not the best one but it is my own lol.

Todays Challege: I want you to go find a joke you like. Tell a friend, write it down or just enjoy the joke in itself. Or go look up a fun comedian and laugh. Today I just want you to Laugh!

~Hugs Keyria~

A joyful heart is good medicine, a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Prov. 17:22
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,and your lips with shouting. Job 8:21

Stress Free Method #9 Music and Pets

2010-06-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

I went out and was asking my friends.... What calms you from stress? Almost all of them mentioned these two things: Music and Pets. What a combination huh.

#9 Music and Pets

It is amazing how little things can affect big things. Just to turn on some soft music, or music you enjoy listening too can actually calm your nerves. When I put on music (I like a lot of kinds especially: Christian, Jazz, Classical, Oldies, Pop…ok ok this can go on for a while) it relaxes me. It is a meditation in itself. I like to also put on sounds of the ocean, I can close my eyes (remember to rest) and pretend I am there. This takes my mind off of the stress at hand. This lets me relax and clears my mind. That way I can take on the problem with a fresh new start.

Also, having a pet can actually lower your stress level. I have read so many things about how petting a animal can lower your stress level. This is great! (Especially if you are an animal lover and you are non-allergic). This also keeps you from going into extremes because you know you have to care for something. I met a person that once told me if they didn’t have any pets, they probably would have done suicide already. But they can’t stand the idea of leaving them with anyone.

Todays Challenge: Go put on some music grab your pet and dance lol. Ok maybe not in that order. Go put on music and relax to it or have fun with it. Take your pet and give them a good brushing, pet them to let them know they are loved.

~Hugs Keyria~

Stress Free Method #8 Family and Friends support

2010-06-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Many people dont like the idea of asking for help. They would rather try to finish the goal at hand on thier own. They dont realize that asking for help may be the the solution they needed:

#8 Support from Friends and Family

Invite over your friends or family. Whenever you stress a good stress reliever is having another person being around. It is amazing how we can stress and then a call from a friend or a visit from them can make that stress just vanish. Friends and Family will take our minds off of stress, they have this magical touch to cheer you up. They start it off by making you laugh, they keep you laughing and follow to the end with laughter. They can be the solution to any problem you may have, all you have to do is ask.

“It is hard to be stressed when my friends show up. They make me laugh and release my tension I am having. I will be cleaning house and you all know that cleaning house is not a fun chore. Yet, a friend showed up and we laughed as they helped me clean. We were doing mop shows and singing at the top of our lungs as we danced with the dust pan and broom. We had a blast. It didn’t seem like the mess I had before and the stress was gone. We often kidnap each other and run to the beach alot. This makes it hard for us to be down when we are out in the water having fun.”

Isn't it amazing how a friend knows the right words to say to make you laugh? Or how your family knows the right words that can make you feel comforted and safe? Yet we take asking friends and family for granted. We just assume they can not help when in reality they may be the only solution left. They may be the ones that can cure the stress and finish the goal. We assume the wouldn't want to help with our little problem. Yet if you ask friends and family they always have an open ear to listen and a mouth to give good advice through. They also feel comforted when you share with them. The best of it all is that they are close to you so you don't have to feel judged. They dont look down on you instead they are filled with love for you.

Todays Challenge: So what are you waiting for? Go tell your family, go tell your friends why it is that you are stressing. Brainstorm together and find a way for you to overcome this feeling. Go have a fun filled day with them or even a few minutes. Let everything out and just enjoy the company. If you can treat them out (to the movies, dinner or whereever) maybe they are the ones that need to destress.

Ready for another method? Well than come back tomorrow to get it.

~Hugs Keyria~

And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” ~ 2 Corinthians 6:18~

Stress Free Method #7 They joy of a catnap

2010-06-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ok so I am sure we all have been told this one before. In fact throughout our life we were told this one. From being a child and our parent saying "You'd better be asleep when I walk in that room" whether that was our nap time or bed time we knew our parents meant it. Then as we got older we would hear others all over saying how important sleep is. I remember being little and thinking how can you want to sleep there is soooo much to do. Yet as I grew up I found myself more and more exhausted and thinking if only I could have a break.... a nap. Just a small catnap.

#7 REST

We all need it. Sometimes all it is for us to stress is that our body is lacking sleep. Go take a nap for a little bit. If you are at a place that you can’t take a nap, then take a break and rest for a bit. Just closing your eyes for 15 minutes can help your body feel more relaxed. We need to try and get our full 7-8 hours of sleep in. If we can’t then our body will react on us and not always in a good way. We may have bags under our eyes or we may fall asleep in a very important meeting we were supposed to hear. Some may get headaches or can’t focus clearly. Rest is really important if you even think you need close your eyes then do. Your body is telling you it needs to rest.

“I work long hours at a very fast pace job. It is always rushing around, loud noises, and fast talking. As soon as my break hits I do the opposite. I put on a little music and I rest my head as if everything were slow around me. I don’t move I just stay still and let the music dance slowly in my head. This helps me to feel more relaxed when I go back to work after my break. I get to just slow down and feel a refreshed start again.”

Todays Challenge: Take a 15minute cat nap today. You may be surprised about the results of the rest of your day! Well I will see you tomorrow for another stress-free method.

~Hugs Keyria~

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" ~Matthew 11:28

Stress Free Method #6 Be a child at heart

2010-06-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I don't want to grow up I love being a kid, there are lots of toys that I play with from video games, bikes and planes, I just want to be a a kid, .... of course the song for that goes differently and is for a toy store but basically that was our thought process as we got older. A lot of us take for granted the youth we once had. We wanted to grow up so fast that we completely missed the joy of being that kid. The 6th method is:

6) Be a Kid Again

Have you noticed how when you were a very little kid nothing really worried you? You were fearless, brave, you didn't understand pain until it happened. You were free to run around and a play. Your stress wasn’t there in your life at that age (..In most cases that is). Pretend you are a kid and go back to doing kid activities. This, like finding a hobby will change your thoughts to focus on something else.

Here are a few kid activities you could do.
*Play legos (we even have lego land out there for us big kids)
* Color, draw, Paint
* Sing a silly song
* Dance a little
* Read a story book or a comic book
* Play with play dough or finger-paint
* Have a water balloon fight, Water gun or even paint ball.
* Play tag or lazer tag
* Go to an amusement park, they're a playground for big kids and little kids of ALL ages)
* Play a video game. A fun gaming site is Online Games Your Way

When we act like a child our worries are not there. We do not know what stress is or even what it means. To us we only know that we want to be Peter Pan the boy that stayed a boy forever (that is unless you watched Hook). The second star to the right and straight on till morning is Neverland, a place that we all need to go back and visit.

Todays Challenge: What was your favorite childhood activity? Write a comment or email me and let me know. Then I want you to relive one of the activities: Go get on a swing at a park, go play with playdough, paint or color, or pull out a old kids board game and get your friends and family involved. You will remember how much fun it was to be a kid or even what it was like to be a kid.

~Hugs Keyria~

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." ~Jesus in Mark 10:14~

Stress Free Method #5 Hobbies

2010-06-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite stress free methods

#5 Find a Hobby

When stress hits always STOP whatever you are doing and do something you enjoy doing. Find a hobby. Hobbies are things you enjoy doing. This will cause your mind to focus on something fun and pleasurable that it will calm down the stress. Hobbies are great because they are part of who you are. Not only that they can sometimes take off and become a source of income. You can have a career in your hobby.

I know many people who have different hobbies. Like Adam who played football that was a fun activity but for those who play it alot more it can be a fun hobby. I know guys who love sports. I have a friend that plays the piano non-stop. It is very hard to pull him away from it. The piano is his hobby. Maybe that is a hobby for you to find a instrument and start to learn how to play it. I have another friend that loves to do arts and crafts like scrapbooking and stamping. I know a friend that likes to draw and another who collects things. One of my friend makes me laugh her hobby she says is to color. I myself love Photography. This allows me to go out on walks or different places and see something that God made so beautiful and try to capture that exact moment. My other hobby is traveling, I love to go to the ocean. But it is not always easy to just get up and go so try to find a hobby that you can do anywhere at any time like photography.

Todays Challenge: So find a hobby you enjoy and can do any time you need to. Once you find the hobby start working on it by hands on and researching.

TR's Work From Home Ideas, Tips and Resources is a site that talks about turning your hobbies into profit as well as much more.

What are some of the hobbies you like to do? Comment or write a message about your hobbies. See you tomorrow with # 6.

~Hugs Keyria~

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 1:6 New International Version

Stress Free Method #4 changing activities

2010-06-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

The first three stress Free methods I gave yesterday, so look at the blog before for those three. Todays strees free method is one I would like everyone to try.

#4 Change of activity

Sometimes we stress because of the action we are doing. We just need to change how we are doing the activity or change the activity all together. Changing the activity can help with your health as well. Imagine if everytime you were to get on a stage to sing a song you would have a panic attack. This caused you to start gasping for air, and then you faint. Each time you get on stage the same out come would happen. So the problem is being up on the stage. So what if you were to change the activity a bit. Maybe change the act a bit. Instead of being on the stage use puppets and be the voice over, or have your focus on something instead of the crowd. Maybe even sit in the audience and then sing when it was your turn. This would shock the audience that you were part of the act. Maybe even try singing offstage... if these dont work maybe singing on a stage is not for you. Maybe try something differnt, like teaching others to sing, singing in a studio, singing for just friends and family or even singing and video taping it and placing it up on the net.

"My friend loves going to the ocean. She finds so much pleasure in it. It calms her nerves and feels her with joy. The best part of it she says is going on a boat to go see the whales. She is up front with the wind in her hair as the boat bounces above the waves. However I am not calm wth the water. I get so nervous when I am on the boat. So nervous that after we get off I am usually sick. My stress level peaks while being out in the ocean. My friend is amazing though. She wants to make me happy so to help me change our activity of going to see whales, we go to the beach and just rest near the shore on the rocks. Then we go to the museums and watch videos on the whales. I know that she would rather be out there on the shore but she knows my nerves wont allow it. So we have redirected our activity to do other activites that are just as fun. We now not only go to the beach but we have time to go do other stuff. The last time we were up near the oceean we watched in 3D a movie about Sea Monsters. It was amazing and we didnt have to have bonoculars to go see them." ~Sean

Adam loved playing sports especially football but his leg had been injured during a game. This caused him not to be able to play the sports he loved. He didn’t like the idea of this so he would try to sneak out and play with friends against the wishes of his parents and doctors. This made his leg even more hurt. Adam couldn’t imagine not being able to play a sport. For treatment on his leg he had to do water therapy. As he was in the pool one day his friends came over and said “This is great!!! “ “What is great?” Asked Adam. “You know what kind of sports we can do in the water?” Adam never thought of switching over to water and he still would be doing water therapy. The rules of games changed to accommodate his leg injury. This was so that no one could swim on top or on accidently hurt his leg. Instead of being on a field playing foot ball they were in the water playing volleyball. Adams leg got better and as it did he was able to do more things. The redirected his games from outside the pool to inside it. He never did sneak out to play with his friend for they were all there in the pool with him.

Todays challenge: What ways can you redirect the activity causing you stress? Or what can you do instead? Make a list then try one of them.

Ready for #5? Come back tomorrow to find out what it is.

~Hugs Keyria~

He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.

~Proverbs 21:21 ~

Stress Free Methods #1-3 breathe, enviornment, change mind

2010-06-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Did you miss me? I missed you. I haven’t been on in the last two days because I had a goal which had a deadline I needed to finish. This goal was to make a lesson and teach it to kids the next day. I decided to put all my focus into that and learning what I needed to make sure the lesson ran through smoothly. And great news the goal was completed successfully. Yes I did do a few other things but I didn’t overwhelm myself with trying to do EVERYTHING. I picked a few goals out and worked on them. Focusing mainly on the deadline one. I was even blessed to go see a couple of movies at the theater which I normally don’t do often. And I did a small bit of cleaning around the house. I told myself that if the other goals didn’t get done it would be ok. For those goals were not hurting anyone, wasn’t a do or die situation and it would still be there later for me to pick up where I left off.

I wanted to give you some tips on destressing. There are many ways to do this. Each person deals with stress differently as I have said before. So for the following week or so I will be giving you a tip or a way that you may destress your life. Now some of these you may have already heard before, some you may already do and some you may not do. However some of these you may have wanted to try. These are just ideas for you to go out and use and see which one works for you. People say all the time I have tried everything and I still stress…. But have they really tried everything?? For the next week or so I want you to try each one of the following and write me to say which ones worked or did not work for you. You would be surprised at what may work and what you would think does work doesn’t really work.

#1: Breathe

The very first thing we should do is focus on our breathing. As soon as you feel stress is coming on stop whatever you are doing and focus on your breathing. Most people don’t focus on breathing. They are too busy worrying that they may find that they stop breathing for a period of time. This causes your heart to overwork. It may cause many different symptoms like chest pain that we saw with Tommy or it may even cause a heart attack. Breathing is the very essential of our life. We need to breathe to live. So when you start feeling stressed out STOP whatever it is that is going on around you and focus on your breathing

A friend of mine remembered a time when she got on to her first roller coaster. She was very frightened. She started to feel very stressed and kept thinking “What am I doing? I need to get off of this thing” before the ride even started. But before she had a chance to say anything the roller coaster took off. Her friends were screaming and smiling and laughing enjoying the ride while she was holding on for her life and was tightened all over. When the first downward motion of the train happened she started to panic, turning white all over. “Relax” She told herself. Realizing that she was holding her breathe. “Just breathe.” So for the rest of the ride she focused on breathing in and out. After the ride was finished she realized it wasn’t that bad. You just have to relax and let your stress go. She actually went back on the same roller coaster!

Because I was off for two days I decided to give you two more:

#2:Change of Environment

This is one thing I can say really does help. If you are cooped up in a room all day just a step outside for five minutes to get a breath of fresh air can make a world of a difference. You need to be able to change your surroundings. When most stress it is because of the situation they are in at that moment. So to distress take away the situation. Move away from it. This change causes your body to relax more. This does not mean run from the situation but like above take a breather. Just being out in the sun can help a person who has been cooped up way from the sun. That natural light helps reenergize us.

“I work all day inside a cubicle in a office. There are hardly any windows and the lights are not the brightest. It is tedious work. It can be very mind draining at times. There is so much paper work that it can get very stressful. To help me from stressing so much I go out and take a walk around the block. I love the fresh air.This helps me to clear my mind and focus more.” ~Kimberly a business executive.

#3: Clear Your Mind

Redirect your thoughts to more positive things. It is the same aspect as looking as a child. When they have gotten something they are not supposed to we take what they are not supposed to have but replace it with something they can have. Example a young child found a pen and has started to scribble in a book. To redirect we would take away the pen and book but lead them to a table with crayons and plain sheets of paper. So to redirect your mind is to change your mindset. This can be hard at times but luckily there are many methods out there that can help you do this.

*Meditate
*Pray
*Yoga/Exercise
*Call a friend
*Read a Book
*Watch TV
*Watch a movie
*Look up jokes
* That is just a few I am sure you can make a list of more ways.

With each tip I am going to have a challenge. I want you to try and do each one of those challenges. It is only one a day and they are not very hard. We will start with today;

Todays Challenge: JUST BREATHE! Yep, it is that easy lol. All I want you to do today is breathe. If you start to feel stress come on. Stop what you are doing and breathe.

Until Next time....

~Hugs Keyria~

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. ~Proverbs 3:3 ~

Tommy's Story Conclusion

2010-06-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

"Excuse me, But you are you are in MY tree house" This red hair boy said. "And you did not ask for permission to be here." "Oh I am sorry, we didn’t think anyone owned it, there was no houses around it and it looked old, dusty and abandoned. Come on Joshy we need to go." Tommy woke his little brother up, and tried to get him moving. "I don’t want to go Tommy, pleeeeease let me sleep a bit longer" he said as he curled up tighter into a ball. "Joshy this tree house is owned by someone. We have to leave." Tommy turned to the boy. "We really are sorry" the boy looked at both of them. He saw the dirt all over their faces and clothes and the scars from sleeping on the rough pavements at night. He could see the bags under their eyes. Joshy coughed as Tommy tried to pick him up.

The boy looked back and forth. "Are you two homeless? Where are your parents?" Tommy said sorry again and he rushed Joshy out of the tree house. "Hey wait, maybe I can help." Tommy stopped and looked at the boy. "Thanks but we are ok." He started to turn when the boy said. "Are you hungry?" he looked again at the boy. "Stay here; let me get you some food." Tommy was nervous to do so but he looked at Joshy and knew he needed to eat. Tommy anxiously stayed watching around them like a hawk. Making sure no one saw them. The red head boy returned with some food and drinks. "I am Danny what is your name?" he asked, as he watched Joshy scarf down the food. Tommy placed his food into their backpack thinking he can use it later for Joshy when he needed to eat. "Mmm this is soooo good." Joshy said. Tommy wasn’t sure giving their names was a bright idea. "Thank you, so much for your kindness. We really ought to be going." He started to move Joshy while Joshy was still eating.

"Don't leave. I can help you. Please let me help. My church is always taking care of the homeless. They give FREE bags of food and give FREE shelter to those that need it." Joshy looked at Tommy with begging eyes. Tommy knew Joshy just wanted to have one night indoors in a bed. "Thanks but..." before he could finish Danny said "I have video games! Come with me. You don’t have to stay, just come play for a small bit." "We can't...." again he was interrupted but this time it was Joshy.”Oh Please, Tommy please." he looked at Joshy. Then back at Danny. Tommy sighed "Ok but only for a small bit. When I say we have to go, then we have to leave. No complaining." Joshy grabbed his waist and hugged him. He coughed again.

Danny took them down the street to a house on a corner. Tommy started to have second thoughts. "Come on. It is ok. My big brother is the only one home. Mom and Dad went to get some groceries." Danny led them into the house up some stairs to the first door on the right. Inside was a bed and lots of toys and a TV with a video game system hooked up to it. "Sit." Danny said as they came in. Danny Turned on the video system and handed both of them the controllers. Tommy turned it down "If you don’t mind, I would rather just watch. “ Joshy and you should play.” Danny shrugged and began to play a video game with Joshy.

A few hours later Danny's parents came home. His mother heard a cough coming from his room. "Oh that does not sound lovely. It sounds like Danny has caught a cold." She headed up the stairs to see if he was ok. Danny overheard his parents coming home snuck quietly out of his room and met his mother on the stairs. He put a finger to his mouth to tell her to be quiet and led her back down stairs. As soon as she reached the bottom she heard the cough again, still coming from his room.

She turned to go back up but he grabbed her hand and led her into the front room where his dad was already sitting on the sofa. "Before you ask let me talk.... We have to help them. I found them hiding in my tree house...." "Who?" His mother asked. "These two boys: Tommy and his little brother Joshy. I think they are homeless. The little one seems really sick and the older one has grabbed his chest a few times. I don't think they have had a lot of sleep. Tommy fell asleep less than ten minutes after being here and Joshy 30 minutes later." His mother held her hands covering her mouth as Danny spoke. His father kept looking to the stairs. "Please we need to help them." Both parents went slowly and quietly up the stairs. They peeked inside his room. His mother gasped. Then she whispered to Danny "Don't wake them. I need to talk to your father."

Tommy woke a few hours later and found a blanket on him and a pillow tucked gently under his head; he looked over and saw Joshy had the same thing. Suddenly he got scared. We need to go, before they call the cops to come get us. Tommy thought. He went over to Joshy and quietly woke him up "Shhh it's time to go." "But I don’t want to" Joshy said. "Remember you promised no complaining." Joshy remembered and nodded his head. They slowly moved around folding their blankets and placing them neatly next to the pillows that were given for their use. Tommy looked around. Danny was asleep in his bed. I wonder what time it is? Tommy thought. Joshy coughed. "Shhh" Tommy said. Suddenly he noticed their backpacks were nowhere in sight. He looked at Joshy "Do you know where our bags are?" he whispered. Joshy just shook his head no. He started to quickly and quietly move around the room looking for them. Fear struck him. "We have to go now, with or without those bags. He grabbed Joshy and started to leave. He quietly closed the door behind him and turned around to see a man standing nearby. His chest shot a pain like none before. He grabbed his chest and fell. "Tommy!" yelled Joshy.

Tommy was picked up and carried down stairs. The man started checking his pulse. "I am going to take them to the doctors. Go wake Jamie to watch after Danny" he said to the lady who had come to the stairs after hearing the scream. She went and woke the older brother and told him to watch Danny. Luckily both boys slept through the scream so she didn't have them worried too. She grabbed a blanket, her purse and met the guy out by the car. He had already got Tommy into the seat and Joshy next to him. "If he starts to close his eyes I need you to tell me" he told the little boy. Joshy just nodded wide eyed. "It is going to be ok" Tommy tried to protest everything but was too weak and felt the pain attacking him non-stop.

The doctor came in with the father and mother of Danny, and sat next to Tommy's bed. Tommy looked at them then looked down. He knew this was it. They were caught and would have to return to an abusive father and a bickering mother. He was prepared to do this all over again if he could save Joshy. Then he realized Joshy wasn't in the room with them. "Where is my little brother?" "He is ok, he is being looked after by Michelle one of our nurses here. He is a very funny boy that Josh" "Joshy" Tommy mumbled under his breath. "He is very brave, just like his older brother." Tommy looked at his hands. He knew the question was going to come up and here it came. "Where are your parents?" the Doctor asked. "We don't have any...we are .... Orphans" Tommy said. Hoping that would end the questioning but of course it didn't. "Orphans huh, Well you are a very brave lad taking care of your brother. However I think there is more to this story then you are telling me." Tommy looked at his hands again.

"Your brother had a very bad cough. He could have died. I know you mean well by taking care of him but how were you going to support yourselves?" The mother spoke up. "Do you know why you were rushed to the hospital?" The father asked. "Because I fell?" Tommy asked but knew better. "You are stressing your body out, both of your bodies. Your little brother is not ready for this kind of environment and neither are you. The pain you are having is from stress." The doctor said. "What is your goal?" asked the father. "My goal was to keep us safe, to protect Joshy, to take away the hurt and pain we are having and to live stress free....." he trailed off as soon as he said stress free. "This isn't stress free is it?" asked the father. "Tommy shook his head no. "You can’t run from your problems all they do is catch up with you. Your problems hang on to you so it is easy for them to catch up." Tommy fidgeted in the hospital bed.

"Here is your choice. You can keep running and never go anywhere or you can let us help you. It is up to you. My wife and I would love to help you and your little brother." The mother reached across and placed her hand affectionately on his. He never could recall a time when he felt true warmth from love. He looked up at her. "Please, let us help. Not always are things going to be easy in life but we can help you through them."

Tommy never asked for help instead he was being asked if he could be helped. His mind processes was always put up a wall, don’t trust others and protect what you have. Here was someone telling him to take down that wall and trust others, even if things get rough there is always a way out. He was not used to this. At first Tommy struggled with opening up, later he started to open up more and more. It took a long time for him to fully trust another person.

Now I can tell you it was mostly happily ever after. Tommy and Joshy's real parents lost custody of them and they were adopted by Danny's parents. The pain that Tommy had and the cough that Joshy had went away. Their life is a lot different. The father has taught Tommy that when he stressed not to run instead to face it straight on. He showed him different techniques of how to overcome things. Like instead of struggling on not remembering things for a test he makes up a rap to remember what he has to learn, or when he gets pains he goes into the front room sits down and prays. Tommy and Joshy's life have changed for the better.

Phillip opened his mailbox and received a card: Hey I am stoked over the ski trip we have planned. Danny, Jamie, Joshy You, Dawn, and I are going to have a blast lol and of course our parents will too. Dad has already rented our cabins and equipment. You don’t need anything, other than yourself!! Phillip smiled.

So as you see each deals with stress differently. Phillip ignored it, and Tommy ran from it. Both learned that ignoring and running does not make it go away. They had to confront stress and work on solutions. It is not always the best idea to do it alone. You may learn so much more with others help. They can support you.

How do you cope with stress? Send me a comment or an email and let me know.

~Hugs Keyria~

I love you, Lord, You are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my Savior. My God is my rock in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me and my place of safety. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and He saved me from my enemies." Psalm 18:1-3

Tommys Story continued again

2010-06-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

Tommy had thought of a plan that night.

A few days later he was in his room late at night. He had started to pack some clothes for him and his brother, he grabbed a few necessary items, and some money he had saved from doing odd jobs his parents didn’t know about. (He never did get allowance from his parents). Ok I think I have everything he thought and she shoved it into his backpack. He was all ready that morning to leave the house. He had an extra bag with more items needed and he was glad it was a bit cold outside to give him an excuse for them to have their jackets. He knew it was going to get cold for what he was doing.

“What do you go there?” His dad asked as he was heading out the door. “Oh it is my art project for school I didn’t want it to get smashed inside my school backpack.” “That looks pretty big let me see” Tommy froze right then he heard a honk. “oh there is our ride, I will show you when I get home.” Tommy said running out the door with his little brother. They ran over to the bus which his mother had agreed to let him and his little brother take this morning. They hopped on and sat down. Sharp pain happened again in his chest. He was getting used to how to stop it. He held his breath and waited. Sure enough it ended after a little bit. They hopped off the bus and started on their way to school. Before they got there Tommy told joshy to turn down a road before.

Joshy looked confused but he obeyed. They headed towards the end of the street. They walked for quite some time until they had made their way to the train station. Tommy handed a paper to the person selling tickets. She took it read it then looked at him. “Ok so you two are going to visit your grandma.” She said not really in a question but a statement. “Why can’t parents be more responsible? I know you are old enough but still I can’t imagine having my highschooler going off alone. ” She sighed and told him how much it was. Tommy was holding onto joshy’s hand tightly. He relaxed his grip as soon as she handed him the tickets. His plan was working. A few nights ago when he thought of the plan he worked everything out. One of his ideas was to call in advance the next day to order tickets. He used a pay phone near school to call in to the train station and pretended to be his father.

They sat down and waited for a train. He was grateful joshy was being so quiet and not asking questions. He wondered if joshy knew what was going on. But he didn’t want to ask him right then. Not there at the station where someone could overhear them. The train came and they boarded. A few minutes later they were gone away from the place that he had horrid nightmares from. Away from that awful stressful place.

For Tommy this was the only solution he could think of. To run away from the stress, To run away and save his brother from the pain. Many of us are like this. We cope by pushing it to the back of our heads, pretending there was never any stress or trying to run away. But is that really how we can cope with it?? In reality it comes back to us.

Sadly I would love to say Tommy’s story was a happy ever after but…

A few months had gone by they were living on the streets. Tommy was very protective of his brother and they learned where to avoid walking. Tommy found a few odd jobs but money for food was scarce, and joshy was getting sicker then he had ever seen him get. To top it off his chest pains were more frequent and he was more scared for their lives than ever. He thought this was a stress free plan but it turns out it only added stress. They were in fear of going home so they hid every time they say cops. They were in fear of certain alleys and fear of not finding a spot to sleep at night. He was able to get one blanket into a bag of course it was a light weight throw blanket but it kept joshy warmer at night. What did I get us into? Tommy Thought?

Each person deals with stress differently. Phillip at first pushed it to the back of his mind, but then he faced it head on. Tommy ran away from it. He ran to try and save him and his brother but running away and pushing it to the back of their heads seemed to be backfiring. I wonder if Tommy will find a way out of the situation, away that will cure all this stress. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

~Hugs Keyria~

"I come to You for protection, O Lord, my God. Save me from my persecutors-rescue me!" Psalm 7:1

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He recues those whose spirits are crushed." Psalm 34:18

Tommy's Story continued

2010-06-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yay your back well lets find out what happens :)

As school started his thoughts were far from the subject being taught.

During break Phillip and his girl Dawn came by. “Hey I have an idea. Why don’t you study with us on the breaks and after school come get some grub and do your schoolwork.” Phillip said excitedly. Tommy smiled “The breaks may work but I have to be home for chores after school. I am not allowed to dilly dally as my parents call it. Thanks guys you really are good friends. “So for the rest of the break Phillip tried to help him with school work. Phillip could see Tommy’s mind wonder away from the school work and he knew this was going to be a bigger struggle for Tommy than it was for him. Tommy gathered his things got his little brother and was on his way home. His little brother had a bruise on his arm that he doesn’t remember if he saw in the morning or not. “What happened?” He asked him.

His brother kept quiet and looked down. “Did someone in your class do this to you?” The little boy shook his head no. “Did someone at school do this to you?” He asked thinking maybe it was someone in a different class, but again his little brother shook his head no. He looked at him and could see the tears swelling up in his eyes. “Who did this?”He asked again getting upset with the person who did it even though he was not to sure who that was right now. The little boy kept quiet.

At home Tommy finished doing all the chores on a paper that his mother pinned to his bedroom door. Chores like: raking, mowing, taking out the trash, cleaning the dishes, getting the table prepared for dinner, cleaning his room, putting the laundry into the laundry machine, sweeping the tile floors and vacuuming the carpeted floors. There was more than he had time for. By the time he finished, his mother told him to make dinner because she was too tired to. He walked into the kitchen tired and sighed. His mother heard the sigh and yelled “If you are going to have an attitude you get to make it and not eat it. You will have to go straight to bed. Is that what you are wanting?” “No, Ma’am” Tommy responded.

He heard his dad come home and slammed the door. Two seconds later Tommy’s little brother was standing next to him and his eyes watering a bit. “I know I don’t like their fights either” Tommy whispered. He could already hear the fight start up. His mother was asking why Father was home late and he accused her of being a spy. “Where’s dinner” his dad demanded. “I didn’t make any” She responded back. This blew them up into a bigger fight. His dad came storming into the room. Looked at Tommy who was making dinner and then at joshy who was standing next to him. “What are you making?” he asked. “Hotdogs and macaroni and cheese” Tommy responded carefully. His dad grunted and walked out of the room. Joshy clinged to Tommy’s side for the rest of the night.

Another sleepless night he thought as he looked at the clock. 2 am it read. He sighed looked over to see if Joshy was still next to him. He was. Well I guess I should try getting some school work done since I didn’t get to after dinner. The onetime joshy didn’t cling on to him was when he was out chopping wood for their fire place. That was when their dad came and got joshy saying he should not be around the dangerous items. As soon as Tommy had gotten done with the wood cutting it was bed time. He had heard a knock at the door not more then ten minutes later and let his little brother in. As he sat there doing homework he noticed joshy was read around his arms and it looked as if there was another bruise this time on his right leg. He examined it as joshy slept. Shrugged it off, kids get hurt all the time he thought and then went back to homework.

Not more then five minutes later he had a painful realization. He remembered joshy’s watered eyes as soon as their dad got there and how he clung to him as much as he could. He then remembered how he had gotten hit as a child but thought it was because he was a bad kid. But joshy doesn’t do anything wrong. The sharp pain came into his chest again. He tried to gasp for air but it only hurt him worse. He held his breath and waited a few seconds later it was gone. The stress was hurting him and he couldn’t take much more of it. We have to get out of here. He thought But how?

Tommys Goal: To get his brother and him out of the situation they are now in.
Ok so he hasn't figured out how to handle his stress. Instead it looks like more stress is happening. What do you think Tommy should do? Write a comment saying what you would do.
As far as finding out what happens well we know we must wait till tomorrow. I will see you all then.

Have a blessed day

~Hugs Keyria~

You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. (Psalm 32:7-8)

Tommy's Story

2010-06-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

So what do you do when not everyone can use the same advice you did for overcoming stress to get a goal done? Each person is different in how they stress, why they stress, and what solutions should be taken to cure stress.

Tommy came up to Phillip to ask him a question. Phillip had learned to cope with stress and he wanted to know how he did it. They talked for a bit before Tommy asked “Phillip you have parents that helped you out. What if your parents don’t help you. I mean what if all they do is fight and bicker all day long. They would rather do that then deal with your problems?” Tommy could tell Phillip was taken aback by this. His parents did love him and didn’t fight. Tommy wondered what that must have been like.

You See, Tommy was failing his classes just like Phillip was doing. Only, Tommy had other problems to follow, different ones then Phillip. Tommy came from a broken family. He had an older sister and a younger brother. He was always protecting his younger brother and his older sister was always picking on him.

His parents were always fighting and screaming. It was hard for him to concentrate and his younger brother always wanted to be near him. He knew it was for safety but he hardly had a time to be alone, let alone a time to be quiet. His parents always made him do the chores in the house. His sister would go off do whatever she wanted as she yelled back at her parents. His mother blamed their daughters attitude on the father and the Father would just get up and leave. Tommy learned that he was the one that everyone took things out on. Whenever there was a fight and Tommy was near be got the brunt of things. He had to take care of it, as well as whatever else that was needed.

I am a Cinderella …er Cinderfella he wrote in his journal. I am tired of all this mess. I am tired of the fights, sleepless nights, the attitudes, the tears, the throwing things, the cleaning things. One of these days I am going to go far away from here and never come back. His younger brother walked into the room with a tear down his face. “Come on over” he said. His younger brother sat down next to him saying “My ears are hurting” Tommy reached over and hugged his little brother as he listened to his parents bicker about money. One of these days he thought.

At school things were only worse. His parents had so many teacher parent conferences about their kids grades that they would call them stupid, dumb. The teachers were getting upset that they were not getting passing grades and some of the kids would avoid going near well him. Why does my life have to be like this? He thought as he walked to school one day. He had his little brother hanging on to his every move. He feared of becoming angry like his parents, he feared of hurting his children like they did with him and his siblings. He feared of not being able to get money to leave.

I have to find a way to get money, so that I and my brother can leave here. I need to find away to get out of this mess. I can’t keep having headaches all the time. And Joshy (little brother) needs to see the doctor. Why can’t they become parents? Why can’t they take responsibility? Tommy felt his chest tighten and a hard pain ran through it. He stopped breathing for a second as he grabbed his chest. A few moments later the pain and left. His little brother watched with a scared look on his face “Tommy are you ok?” all Tommy could do was just nod.

What a scary moment!!! Can you imagine having pain going through you? Or having to protect your little brother all the time? Can you imagine having to hear your parents fight all the time or the thought of running away? For some this is all too familiar. There are many things going on in Tommy’s life. I wonder how he is going to handle the stress he has.

Well to find out lets come back tomorrow and see

~Hugs Keyria~

So do not fear for I am with you, Do not tremble for I am the Lord. I will strengthen you and keep you safe and protected. Isaiah 41:10

Phillip's Story conclusion

2010-06-08T09:00:00.001-07:00

“Wow These look like the stressors!” Phillip said as he sat down next to his parents. Phillip felt overwhelmed after seeing all his stressors and decided to go ask for help to overcome the stressors and achieve his goals. He figured who best to ask other then his parents. He was sure they would have some great ideas and could help him not to feel so burdened with all his stress and he was right!

Look at what they came up with:

“I am sure there are more I need to write down but these are the main ones I can think of. Me and my parents sat down and found solutions to go along with my goals. This was to cut the stress out of the picture.”

Goals And Solutions

Catch- up work- I have three breaks at school, two breaks and a lunch. The two breaks I will be in the school library playing catch up. (lunch is with Dawn sigh) I will do catch up also 1 hour before bed time. (bed time no later than 11pm)

Balancing foot ball and games- This is going to be the same time as always from 3:30 to 5:30 during down play I will catch up on work

Hang time with friends- Parents and I discussed it supper is now going to be with friends unless I want to come home for supper. This is only allowed until I am fully caught up that this way I don’t have to worry about catching supper at home. How cool is that?

Hang time with Dawn -So from 5:30 to 7:00 it is hanging out with friends and Dawn. I am also having lunch with her at school. Once caught up I will be allowed to be out later and can take her on more dates.

Study – Starts at 7pm sharp and I must study the subject that I will be testing on the next day. To make sure I am paying attention to studing my father is going to study it with me asking questions. This will make my studing not so boring lol.

Unpacking- Father is moving all my boxes into my room closet so all I have to do is unpack. Mother has decided that they are all going into the closet until school is over. Once school is over then I will be allowed to unpack. yay! No nagging to unpack (oh sorry mom) lol.

Phone calls and house warming: If it is a phone call I am allowed only 30 minutes to talk this is so I don’t get stressed from loosing time on catch-up. Later that time will go back to be unlimited (during the summer when there is no school more likely). As far as people coming over to the house I am allowed to talk for 15-30 minutes then I must excuse myself and go start on my school work. Mother said she is going to try and have less people over so I wont be distracted. She said she may even have them come over earlier before I get there.

Fatigue: Father has postpone my working at the factory until I am all caught up. I did like working at the factory but I am glad I am getting more sleep.

Regular homework from the day before- this is to be done right after study time with father and right before catch-up time.

Phillip started his new goals. At first he struggled cause he wanted to hang out more with friends and trying to get his mind to switch from goofing off to studing was a bit harder. But then things started to change. Dawn at lunch time would help him study for tests. His friends would quiz him on tests or they would all work on thier homework together during supper. His grades improved so much that his parents told him they would throw a pizza party for him and his friends. His energy came back and he was less fatigued. In fact he had a better attitude and didnt look at stress as something that could over come him. Instead he looked at it like it was a piece of dirt that could quickly be dusted away with one swipe. Before the school year was over he had time to start up the factory again and to unpack a small bit. He was not sick or sore anymore and was excited to find out he would NOT be going to homeschool.

Amazing enough is that when we look at our goals we notice that we try and get it done ourselves. We focus on the wrong things and never get it done. Phillip did something that I think we all should do. Not only did he make the list but he went to others for help. He got advice.

Phillip was talking to his friend Tommy one day when Tommy said something that made Phillip think. "Phillip you have parents that helped you out. What if your parents only biker and fight and they dont even want to deal with you and your problems?' Phillip was taken back by this. He did have parents that didn't fight and they loved him very much.

So what do you do when not everyone can use the same advice you did for overcoming stress to get a goal done? Each person is different in how they stress, why they stress, and what solutions should be taken to cure stress.

Tommy, was failing his classes just like Phillip. Only Tommy had other problems to follow. Tommy came from a broken family. He had a older sister and a yonger brother. He was always protecting his younger brother and his older sister was always picking on him. He would often hage himself and.......

Guess what my ink ran out lol so I have to finish this story tomorrow :) Come back then to see Tommys story.

(If you like what you are reading or maybe you have something you want me to add or write about send me an email. let me know what your thinking. I look forward to hearing from you)

~Hugs Keyria~

I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4)