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Happy Fall Y’all! Halloween is soon approaching and then it will be time to put on our stretchy pants for Thanksgiving!

If you haven’t visited my other blog ‘Our House Has Wheels’ you may not have seen our recent vacation to Chattanooga Tennessee. We had a blast, but we did have some troubles.

Today I wanted to write about having a ‘grateful’ heart. It’s easy to be grateful when things are going well, we’re getting along with our spouse, work is fruitful and the bills are paid.

What’s important is being grateful in times of stress! On our journey home, we have had not 1, but 2 blowouts on our RV tires! It delayed our travel home, but more so than that, it gave me time to think!

I was aggravated at Brett for not leaving early enough on Monday when we were headed to Tennessee. He still hadn’t finished packing and checking and double checking everything he needed to.

But it was last night and today that I realized, the time he took to make sure we were completely prepared for our trip, made sure that when we had troubles, we were prepared.

Being grateful doesn’t take money. Being grateful just takes time. Look for ways to show your gratitude to someone in your life today. Whether it’s someone at the grocery store that you don’t know, or a family member that does something small to make life easier.

Motivation is a powerful thing. Successful people everywhere are often described as being motivated. But what motivates you, how do you stay motivated and where do you find motivation when its been lost? Motivation is the reason behind peoples actions, desires and needs.

When you start a new task, new job or new hobby, motivation does not seem to be a problem. The excitement of trying something new becomes your motivation.  Often, the reason you started this new thing is driven by the motivation of more money, or satisfaction.

Motivation factors include money/rewards, helping others/better world, power/fame, desire to be #1/best, recognition and passion. There are often multiple motivating factors as well as changing motivating factors. You may start a new job to obtain more money, but then find that you are passionate about the career you chose. Maybe you received a reward and then become motivated by the desire to be the best in your field.

But there is another factor that has to be considered…drive. Behind a persons motivation is their drive. Drive is defined as ‘ an innate, biologically determined urge to attain a goal or satisfy a need’. It could be a basic need such as food and warmth or a need of material possessions. It can be seen when motivation and success are evaluated.

When a persons motivation results in success, they receive a positive feedback and their motivation often increases in order to repeat or increase their success. But when motivation results in failure, their motivation may increase in order to prevent a second episode of failure or, their motivation may decrease, to prevent a second episode of failure. This is often seen with exercise/health, school/education, career/work or personal relationships. If you begin to have success after beginning an exercise program and you have a noticeable weigh loss, you are motivated to continue to repeat your success. If you do not have the weight loss you seek, or you gain weight, you may become frustrated at your efforts and become less motivated to continue.

I challenge you to look at what aspect of your life needs increased motivation. What do you desire to achieve? You can channel your motivation by identifying what is your motivating factor and revisit this during your efforts. If you wish to lose weight, what is motivating you? If you wish to be successful in business, what do you wish to achieve? If you revisit your goals, you can increase your motivation and ‘keep your drive alive’!! I encourage you to find others that are motivating and let them help you in your efforts to be successful at attaining your goals! Get yourself some cheerleaders!! There is nothing more motivating than a group that wants to see you succeed. I have experienced this in my time with Mary Kay! You should see these ladies in action, each one helping the other to succeed! I feel like I can conquer the world after sitting down with some of my Mary Kay friends! Find that for yourself!

Go out this weekend and enjoy your days! Look at what motivates you and tune up your drive! You’ll be so very glad you did! And I’ll be here, cheering you on!!

Tracy

Well here we go! Happy Monday everyone! I hope your weekend was great!

Brett and I have ventured out for our first ‘for real’ long distance road trip with everything in tow…..pups included! We loaded our suitcases, pillows, blankets, cooler, table and chairs and puppies in the truck and headed up I95 for Pennsylvania!

If you want to learn about a person, take a trip with them! Like, a for real, no time apart trip! Since leaving town, we have spent every waking moment together. And our sleeping moments were together as well!

Whoever said ‘You can’t go home again’ was right! Brett and I made it to my hometown of Hope Mills about 12:00 midnight after having to take a backroads detour. After finding ourselves back on familiar roads, we decided to take a bit of a nap in the parking lot of a Bojangles restaurant until morning when we could grab breakfast and head back out on the road. There was a county sheriff nearby, so we felt safe enough to go to sleep.

The puppies had settled in, the parking lot was dark except for occasional headlights and the blue lights of the sheriff deputy car. This seemed too good to be true, and true to it word, it was.

Me: ‘Brett, there’s a car behind us.’ Brett: ‘Where?’ HMPD: (knocking on window of our truck) ‘Sir, everything okay here?’ Brett: ‘Yes sir officer. Just trying to catch a quick nap.’ HMPD: ‘Well sir, this business is closed, so you can’t park here. You can go park by the gas station across the street.’ Brett: ‘Yes sir. Thank you.’

So at this point, we are run out of town! LOL! But seriously, it’s moments like this that you realize the type of person you are traveling with. About 10 minutes later, we are parked in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel and trying to sleep in the front of our truck!

I’m so glad to spend these days with Brett, he is absolutely one of my favorite humans! Our adventures are so fun, if not at the time they are happening, then definitely when they stories are told later!

See ya on the road! Eagle V out!

Tracy (Brett and the pups too!)

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Happy Friday everyone! I hope your work week was quick and your weekend goes by super slow. I heard a comment this week on a program I listen to every morning, ‘Don’t compare your insides to someone else’s outsides‘. This got me to thinking about social media and how we portray ourselves and our lives to others in our circle. We want to be seen as having lives that are enviable, posting pictures of our foods, our travel and our recent purchases.

Brett and I are planning a trip to Pennsylvania to see our grandsons (and their parents, LOL!) We cannot wait to hit the open road. We plan to take our pop-up camper and spend the week camping. I did some camping when I was a child, my parents had a 5th wheel camper and I have some amazing memories in our camper. My favorite is the wild horses on the NC shore and a unfortunately large turkey, too big for the camper oven at Thanksgiving!!

Brett and I would often camp in a tent when we lived in North Carolina. We’ve camped in the Uwharrie National Forest and on Carolina Beach. Both of those locations have some amazing benefits …… the sounds of nature with rolling rivers and creeks, the wind in the trees, the birds and other animals that live in the woods. We also enjoyed the sound of the beach, with the waves breaking right outside our tent, hoping we calculated the high tide correctly.

The more we work on our pop-up, the more I recall how amazing it has been to explore the new areas we have been. We have talked about travelling more and exploring the amazing countryside. We would love to mark off many of the National Parks in our travel book!!

Then our discussion became more serious. We were talking about our long term goals and travel opportunities. We discussed our material possessions and what we want at the end of our lives. Brett said he would like to have memories of our travels over things in our house. This sent excitement through my whole body!! Travelling the country with my husband by camper!! My dream come true! So now…..we start the planning for the rest of our lives!

We have decided that our material things are not as important to us as our memories! So we have decided to make the jump into full-time RVing. Of course this isn’t an immediate change (much to my dismay!) We have gotten our 5 year plan to make this a reality. There are many things to prepare for and now begins the real hard work!

I’ll be sharing our plans for full-time RVing and how we are pulling this off. Stay tuned for our adventure!

Enjoy your weekend! Live your life starting today!

Tracy

Happy International Women’s Day everyone! Today has been set aside to recognize women and their contributions to life and love. But today is not just for women……it’s for men too!

Women are a wonderful, beautiful part of life. Women are nurturing, caring, beautiful and strong. Women are scientists, doctors, lawyers and airline pilots. Women can run Fortune 500 companies as well as running a home with the skill of a CEO. Women are teachers in primary education as well as professors in secondary education. Women are head chefs in 5 star restaurants and journalists at internationally known publications.

But as I said earlier, International Women’s Day is for men also. Men can be wonderful partners to women. Helping in the home or in the work place- not ‘helping’ women because women can’t do a job, but rather, helping women as a partnership. Helping each other succeed should be a human action as a compassionate act and not seen as a man/woman concept.

I’d like to encourage women to allow themselves to be helped, partnered with or assisted by other women, or even men. Life is so much easier when we go through it with help! As the Beatles said… “I get by with a little help from my friends!’ And it shouldn’t matter if those friends are women or men! So go help out a woman in your life today!

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! Hope your week has been fabulous. It has been an exciting week here! Brett and I are watching our dog Dino get better each and every day. For those of you that aren’t aware, he had a stroke 2 weeks ago. We are watching him improve everyday and are amazed at his determination.

Watching Dino wake up every morning trying to walk (despite looking like a newborn deer) has got me thinking about his determination. He attempts to walk, but due to the weakness in his front legs, he continues to fall down. He often bumps his head when he falls forward, but will try to get up again.

He doesn’t remember falling down earlier that day, he doesn’t remember falling down the day before and he doesn’t remember that he had a stroke. He tries to stand, tries to walk and tries to keep up with his brother and sisters. In his head, he can walk and run and so, he continues to try.

I am amazed at his determination. I don’t know what drives him, but he shows no signs of giving up! I wonder what is in him, despite the obstacles he faces, that drives him to try over and over and over again. What can I learn from my sweet 7 year old dog? That challenges should be met head on!

I love the phrase from the character Barney Stinson on ‘How I Met Your Mother’ when given an almost impossible task. He will meet the invitation with “Challenge Accepted!”. This is how we should meet all our obstacles… Challenge Accepted!! Imagine the heights we could reach or the goals we could meet if we accepted every deterrent or difficulty in our lives with that phrase! At work, at home, in relationships….Challenge Accepted!

I can’t wait to see Dino’s recovery and how he will meet his hurdles head on! I hope to use his determination as my drive for my own obstacles in the future. I am going to get up over and over and over again until I too am running!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Tracy

Hello all! I am writing to you on this sun shiny President’s Day. (Well it is sun shiny in Florida, for my daughter Kimberly, it’s a snowy President’s Day!).

Our family has just gone through a health scare with one of our dogs. It is a scary thing when your pet is injured or sick, but can’t quite tell you what is wrong, how he/she feels or how the injury started. Talk about some detective work! My brain is set up to assess and treat people, but I was using my knowledge to the best of my ability. We have figured out that he has had a stroke and now are working towards recovery.

During the initial time period, we were very worried that we may lose him. We have had Dino since he was a brand new pup, this would have been devastating to both my husband and I as well as his sister Pebbles who is his litter mate. They have been together even longer than we have had them!!

During all this stress, I used my go to mode of comfort and it got me thinking about what people do to find comfort. I remember the feeling of comfort when laying my head on my mother’s lap and her playing with my hair until I fell asleep. I remember the feeling of my grandmother’s wrinkly skin on her hand being so very soft and tender and it gives me comfort to think of this now. Certain songs bring me a feeling of comfort- music is often used in hospital settings during procedures, especially with children because of its’ ability to comfort the patient.

Then there is religion that is a comfort to certain people. It often brings comfort in times of stress. Prayer, meditation and biofeedback are all ways people find comfort and attempt to decrease stress.

Then there are the more unhealthy and dangerous ways to find comfort. Those include alcohol, drugs and reckless behaviors. These may provide temporary comfort, but the lasting effects of both of these are perilous to the mind, body and spirit.

You can surely find a person to help you with meditation, a yoga studio, spiritual director or just a friend to stroke your hair when you need some comfort. Its good for your health, both emotional and physical.

Have a Great Day!!

Tracy

Happy February!! You have made it through January!! Does it seem to anyone else that January lasted about 6 months? I know I am ready for spring, and I live in the South. My husband and I visited Detroit December 2017 and I can not imagine living in an area where the temperature is in the negative numbers!

So did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? Eat better? Join a gym? Lose 10, 20, 30 pounds? How about resolutions with a different benefit? Travel to new places, read more, spend more time with family?

These are all great resolutions, but usually about this time is when those resolutions and the enthusiasm behind them seems to fizzle. What can we do to help keep those resolutions that we make? No one likes to fail at a goal they have set and New Years’ Resolutions seem to be that automatic disaster, set up for failure that we self sabotage with.

How about make a resolution to make small changes in your behavior, your life, your habits? Small changes are more likely achieved, therefore are more likely successful.

Start with reading for 5-10 minutes a day. Exercise 2 times a week. Take you lunch every other day. Volunteer once a month for Meals-on-Wheels. Then as you are more and more successful with achieving these goals, you can expand them even more!!

Make your world a better place and you will notice the ripples to your surrounding world!! I’d love to hear your ideas and how you are making these small changes!

Have a GREAT February!!

Tracy

Hi everyone!! How has your January been? Can you believe we are 2 days away from February? It seems like we were just running around like crazy getting ready for the Holidays and dealing with all the stress that comes with that!

So….this Sunday is the NFL’s Super Bowl! Football is not for everyone, but almost everyone enjoys the Super Bowl commercials and/or the Halftime show. This year will be Maroon 5 and Travis Barker, so it is sure to be entertaining. Folks I work with have been talking about hosting the perfect Super Bowl party and what party foods to serve for weeks. Pinterest has been abuzz with the best finger foods and how to decorate and host the biggest party in your neighborhood.

I would like to issue a challenge to you! How about hosting a different Super Bowl….or Souper Bowl I should say. There are so many people that depend on the local soup kitchen, from the homeless community to those that just can’t make ends meet and have enough left over for the end of the month food. This is a harsh reality in every community and is especially prevalent with the recent government shut down.

So grab your closest friends, go down to the local soup kitchen, Ronald McDonald house or even drop off a grocery bag of non-perishable foods to the local food bank! Your version of the Souper Bowl can be a huge hit and help out those in our community that are the most vulnerable!!

A lot has been in the news recently about how to wish folks well in the holiday season and stay ‘Politically Correct’. I just don’t understand how hard it is to be kind and considerate when you wish someone well!! If you want to address someone first thing in the am, say ‘Good Morning’. If you want to wish them well at the end of the day, say “Have a great evening’. If your friend is Jewish, wish him/her Happy Hanukkah!! If your friend is Christian, tell her or him ‘Have a Merry Christmas’. This goes for the other various holidays at the end of the year as well as throughout the year!! Tell your landscaper ‘Happy Arbor Day’, tell your Canadian friend ‘Happy Boxing Day’ (which happens to fall on my mothers’ birthday as well, December 26th!). How about your best friend that has Lithuanian heritage……like my friend April? Wish her a Happy St. John’s Day on June 24th! Do you have someone at work that is Jamaican? Happy Emancipation Day on August 1st!! That’s you Michelle, even though we don’t work together any longer-  sad face!

I feel that if you take the time to learn something about someone else’s heritage and take the time to wish them well on a special day, they will be happier than before!

Take a few minutes and use Google, Alexa, Siri or any other search engine to find out what holiday is coming up, and seek out someone that may celebrate that holiday!

If you see me out and about…feel free to wish me a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!