May 14, 2012

 Fun With Music and Video Mondays

Oh my goodness, this trailer for this documentary brought tears to my eyes. As a dancer, I started at the age of 3, it is so hard to get people to understand what this means. It's like so accepted if your child is training to be an athlete, but no one gets the sacrifice, dedication and love you need for a dancer. I've always told my students that dancing is very black and white in your dedication. You either love it or you don't. Whatever discipline you choose, ballet, tap, jazz, modern, ethnic, praise, hip hop, ballroom - you have to love it! It's not a Flashdance moment or a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland party - it's hours of work, work, work!

Finally, a contemporary documentary for the masses to see just that.

February 13, 2012

Fun with Music and Video Mondays!

Most of you know that I am a dancer by choice, by nature and by God's path. This week's video is a song by Elton John (one of my favorite artists) and features Complexions Dance Company ~ "Answer In The Sky".

Love the song, love the artists involved, love the whole thing.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Social Media Thursday

These awesome images are from my Pinterest "Breathless" board.

What makes you speechless...takes the breath from you simply because it's beautiful, fantastical, inspiring....What makes your mouth drop open and your eyes open wide, like you did when you were a small child seeing holiday lights for the first time.....What makes you reach out, unconsciously, and hold his/her hand, so that you know someone special is sharing a special moment with you....What makes you....Breathless?

Pinterest is a great place to indulge your ultimate wish list. Go shopping, find a new book, read a blog, try something new, find a recipe...whatever. It's all there waiting to be pinned!

November 15, 2011

Hello there and Hello Tuesday! The second day of a lovely week. I have two items that I'm posting today, both of which I found on other blogs that I follow. Since this is LL's Guide to Renewal - I guess I need to get back to the renewal part of the blog. First the ABC's of me - I thought this was a great way to get to know some things about someone. I saw this first on Edi Royer's blog, memoriesforlifescrapbooks.blogspot.com and decided to try it here.

 

The ABC’s of ME

A – aunt to 5 wonderful nephews, B – bargain hunter, C – choreographer,  

D – dancer/dance teacher, E – ex- tax preparer, F – forty something,  

G – God fearing, H – happy (much of the time), I – Internet addict, 

J –jelly beans (2^nd favorite candy), K – kids (four of them), L – Lostlemonade

M – multi-tasker, N – Nerd for life,  

O – Operations Manager (for art shows/festivals),

P – popcorn (favorite snack food), Q – quiet, R – rebellious,  

S – sister (second oldest),

T – tinkerer, U – upbeat, V – violet (favorite color), W – Wii Player,

X – xenodochial (isn’t that a cool word? Means hospitable)

Y – yellow roses (favorite color to receive), Z – zealous

This was so much fun to do. I am a list maker as well, so this was a task right up my alley. Try it and let me know how it goes (you can post your link in the comments).

The second thing I borrowed is from VictorianSwag.blogspot.com. She talks about personal progression and goal keeping. In this particular, she mentions a professor she had that required the students to daily chart their progress in each of five areas:

1. Spiritual - Examples: Reading Scriptures, Prayer, Meditation
2. Mental - Examples: Learning a new word, starting a new book, watching a documentary
3. Physical - Run a mile, Do 30 lunges, run the stadium steps, eat a healthy breakfast
4. Service - Call an old friend, find a way to get involved with community, volunteer
5. Other - Come up with something on your own, something you've been putting off

This was so simple and life changing to me, I have decided to adopt it into my own life (thanks, VS!). So last week, I added this plan to my Renewal process and here's what I've done so far this week.

• 1. Spiritual - Meditated 10 minutes each day, returned to Women's Bible Study classes on Thursday.
• 2. Mental - Read two new books, learned a new word (see X above)
• 3. Physical - Added work out portion to Monday night dance class, walked 7 total miles this week
• 4. Service - Involved in two fundraising activities with sons' schools (two schools)
• 5. Other - Staying away from my bad habit (I'll tell more about that at later date)

I've set up a little bulletin board on the wall (right behind my trusty laptop) and I've added my ABC's and my Personal Progression Goals Overview List to it. It's my Daily Motivation Board and it's simply fabric covered foam core board with some bricbrac edging, double sided foam taped to the wall so that I can "push pin" and "thumb tack" and "post-it" everything I need to follow my path towards renewal.

So far, so good! I ended my week with a positive affirmation of things about me, a refreshed zeal and a positive attitude about the week ahead! 

How do you "re-new"? Any ideas that you use to keep yourself going on those days you don't quite feel like doing anything?

September 22, 2011

Yesterday was such a crazy emotional day. After having a gut wrenching cry early in the morning, I jumped into my Etsy teams discussions and got busy. Went down into the workshop and made some new items, prepped some others for shipping. Got a severe case of the sleepies and took a nap. Got up on the run, to get ready for kids to come home from school and then off to TaekwonDo. Stopped by an old friend's dance studio and she asked if I wanted to teach for her again. YES!!!!!!! Had a great ride home with the kids, singing Michael Jackson songs and other great oldies, like "Scrubs" by TLC. Now I'm up at midnight, typing this crazy rambling blog post. Yea, exactly.     I have no idea, but I wanted to do something before I went to bed.

See you through the screen.

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

August 22, 2011

Today's theme is: Time For Change. I spent the weekend at a wonderful dance workshop in Kalamazoo, MI. It was really a great time. Besides learning some new dance routines (choreography, to us dance-y types), I met some great women, and men, had a chance to focus on my goals and get some cool business promoting/growing tips. It was, again, a really great time. Now, it's Monday and it's time to begin putting all that I learned into action!

I also started reading a new book about changing my children's attitude, behavior and character in 5 days. I love my kids (ages 20, 14, 13, & 6) and I think that, overall, I have good children. They represent house and home training pretty well when they are with others. Are they "pod children" (think Stepford Wives)? No-by no means are they scary good. We have issues like many families, rebellious moments, whining, temper tantrums, etc. So this book tells me that I can have better behaved children, mainly by focusing on my behavior. Okay, that makes sense. I just have to have the consistency and will power to maintain the "rules" and not back down. That's where you come in, dear follower and reader. I'll be listing this week, the things that I need to achieve to affect...effect...create change in my world. You see, I know that if I am accountable to someone, I will get it done, because I don't want to say I didn't do something.

So, here's the plan for this week - 1. Have a "Meeting Of One" daily - this meeting with myself is the first order of business everyday. The goals of the meeting are to assess what needs to be physically accomplished for the day, list my business/personal/family goals and brainstorm ways to meet those goals, record progress, problems and possible solutions to stumbling blocks and map the plan of action for the day.

Today's List (Monday, August 22, 2011

• Prayer Session
• Meeting Of One
• Walk Two Miles
• Daily Blog Entry
• Read "Have A New Kid..." Intro & Monday Chapter (complete lessons)
• Task List - Physical Needs (short term)
• Task List - Virtual Needs (long range)

So I'm off now to get started on the things on my Physical Needs Task List. Check out my Artist of the Week on the Art Commons page and have a great Monday!