Women Winning Wednesday

As mothers we need to be resilient!  The topic of resiliency had been heave on my friend, Lindsy's heart so I asked her to share her thoughts in hopes to encourage all mothers and women in general to stay resilient!  She's is a wife, mother of 3, full time employee, author and entrepreneur!  Once Lindsy completes her latest book, I'm sure she could write one on this subject!

Lindsy, what is your personal definition of resilience and how do you stay resilient wearing so many hats?

Resiliency is being mindful of the original plan and sticking with it.  Sometimes that may look like a zigzagged line, but stay the course anyway.  I've been guilty of getting distracted and even spreading myself too thin, but somehow come back to my original vision.  I am committed to accomplishing every dream God has given me.  That's being resilient.  I keep trying because I believe with full faith the dreams God gave me will manifest.

I've struggled over the years to balance home life, professional life and ministry.  Finding it was only part of the puzzle, I had to learn how to keep too.  Holding to my vision has helped me persevere.  

Why is it so important for mothers to be resilient?  

Parenting can be tricky at times.  It's the most important job I have.  As a mother I’ve had to be strong even when it seemed overwhelming.  I’m still learning how to be the biggest supporter and source of encouragement when a teacher or administrator would otherwise try to put a negative label on my children.  Being resilient is having faith that my children will fulfill their purpose.  It’s speaking life to them when they’re frustrated academically or socially among their peers.   Being a resilient mom is taking time to encourage my children, reading to them and making the occasional trip to the school is part of it.  Feeding my children balanced meals and keeping house is part of it.  It’s setting the right example in not only word, but deed.  I cannot get so busy that I lose sight of one of my greatest responsibilities: my home life. 

What advice can you offer women who might be at their breaking point or feeling overwhelmed to encourage them to stay resilient?

Stick with it!  Whatever ‘it’ is in your life, it’s worth working at.  We often face our greatest challenges when we’re on the right track. Stay with it.  Finish the course.  Don’t throw in the towel because it feels like your toughest fight; allow the very things that frustrate you to better you.  Be resilient.

Lindsy, you're currently working on a book about sisterhood.  How important it is for women to support one another and to find a support system?

My upcoming inspirational book titled Sister is all about sisterhood.  It has an overall theme of women supporting women.  Support is often overlooked, but has been a crucial part of my success. There are people behind the scenes praying for me and encouraging me to keep going.  We really need that in life.  Sure, there will be times when I have to believe by myself; but thank God for the times I don’t.  I’ve found that having the right people around helps.  I honor those that build me, hold me accountable and are flat out honest with me.  Key ingredients to success.

Lindsy continued with: 

Being resilient is a personal thing.  For me, I’ve been writing for nearly two years.  I’ve had my third baby and faced a few challenges in the middle of it.  I felt very defeated.  I had an on again-off again work ethic which prolonged what could have taken me a few months tops.  Now as I near the end of this project, I realize there were a few speed bumps in my path.  They weren’t meant to deter me; instead they helped to pace my progression.  It seemed to take every ounce of me to finish and now I understand why.  There were several lessons built into the process to get to my finish line.  God was developing resiliency in me.  That is, a spirit to go on anyway.

I'd just like to end by saying today is my fit-anniversary (I'm so excited:)!!  A year ago today I started this healthy lifestyle journey and there is no turning back..  If you all read my story then you know I lost 60lbs in less than a year by changing my eating habits from unhealthy to healthy and working out 5-6 days a week.  All of this took resiliency!!  Whatever goals you have in mind, cultivate resilience and you will see yourself not just meeting but exceeding your goals!

Thank you Lindsy for sharing with us today!!  To find out more about her books, visit her website: www.lindsyb.com.  

Seasoned with Grace,

QueenZadia

Mother's Day Theme

Sooo.. my thoughts have been consumed by my upcoming anniversaries!!  My fit-anniversary is tomorrow (yay) and my 15th wedding anniversary is Thursday!  I'm equally excited about both of them as you have probably noticed because I've forgot the fact that Mother's Day is this coming Sunday!  That's fine though, because I'm celebrating all month long.

Have you thought of a theme for your Mother's Day gathering(s)?  Anytime I have a get together I love to attach a theme to it.  Here are some themes I've done in the past!

Golden Girls, Golden Life!

Living life like it's golden!

I held a new years celebration in place of my usual Christmas dessert party.  I've mentioned how my whole perspective on life changed when my mom passed and this party I wanted the ladies in my life to set a theme for their new year!  My family's theme this year is The Best is Yet to Come and my personal is Living My Life Like It's Golden (think Jill Scott song)!  I just want to live my best life!!  Anywho.. I provided blank canvasses and all of the ladies made their board based on what they wanted 2014 to look like then we all presented the boards (singing 'knock it out the park' a theme song I made up lol).

Ya'll know Christina!!

Ya'll will get to know these ladies soon!

Me presenting my board!

Fascinator Crafting!

Spring is here which makes a hat crafting theme perfect!  As women we wear many hats so a whole theme surrounding that thought would be simple to put together.  I recently had a lunch with my adopted grandmother, my best friend and her grandmother where we made fascinators.  My adopted grandmother loved it so much that she's picked this up as a hobby!!  She recently went to Puerto Rico for a funeral and brought back feathers, flowers and jewels for us to make more:)  

It's so funny to me that she text at her age!  This was texts she sent while in Puerto Rico about the hats!

  My best-friend making her fascinators

Dessert Party!

An invitation for my dessert party in 2012 

Let the ladies in your life know how they make your life sweeter by hosting a dessert themed party!  I love this type of party and have hosted one twice during the Christmas holiday but this can be hosted any time of year!  You can do so much with this theme as well.

My best friend and co-host for the dessert party

My lil sister to the right who helps me with ALL of my parties, her best friend on the left!

These were some blasts from the pasts but I hope it gives you some ideas!!  So, what is your theme? Here is my theme for this year:

 Inspired by this picture:

Seasoned with Grace,

QueenZadia

Happy Mother's Month

This upcoming Mother's Day will mark 100 years of officially celebrating mothers!  So on the blog I'm declaring every day to be Mother's Day.. In fact, let's just call it Mother's Month!  

I'm usually excited about the month of May because of my wedding anniversary, Mother's Day, and the school year is coming to an end!  Right now I'm feeling all kinds of emotions because this will be the first Mother's Day without my beautiful mama :..(  She was and is my biggest inspiration in life.  She's actually all of my siblings biggest inspiration.  One evening we were all sitting in her hospital room reminiscing (we found out that day cancer had spread to her brain).  After a while, my brother said 'I don't know what ya'll think but mama is perfect to me'!  I asked him the other day what he really meant, he firmly said 'she was perfect'!  Of course she was not perfect but she did her absolute best to raise us well.  She passed on to us values money cannot buy!  Her impact on my life is a reminder for me of how important the role of mother is to children.

When my mom passed my whole perspective on life changed.  The legacy she left for me made me examine and reevaluate my life to make sure I was living the values I want to pass to my sons, god-kids, nieces and nephews.  Her death reminded me that my days are numbered and there is no guaranteed length of time I'll be here.  I want to leave a lasting impression just like she left for my family.  

Love this pic of my mom.. it shows so much of her character:

Such a lady (always had those legs crossed & carried herself like a lady)

Joyful (kept a smile on her face, that's why we call her Merry Mary!)

Praiser (no matter the situation or circumstance she praised God!)

If you only had two months to live, how would you be as a mother?  What legacy would you want to leave for your children?  Would you change anything you're currently doing?  If so, start that change now.  When we know better, we do better!  

As mothers we need to do our very best because anything less is just simply unacceptable.  There will be days when our very best looks like failure and that's okay.  It actually help our children when they see how we handle failure.  We just need to keep in mind our purpose and forget about perfection.  

Our last Mother's Day together {2013}

As you can see from the card above my brother and I were in competition about being the favorite child!

To help celebrate the mothers in your lives (and yourself), this month I will post Mother's Day get together ideas (I am a wannabe party planner!).  I would love to hear your ideas on celebrating the mothers in your lives!  Also, my Women Winning Wednesday posts will focus on topics that will assist mothers and women in general (you don't want to miss next Wednesday's post about resiliency!).  In the meantime, think about the legacy you want to leave and start living it!

Seasoned with Grace,

QueenZadia