Oh, I’m back in the bathroom again and this time it’s all about the shower. Some of you know that we recently changed our toilet bowl seat and now we have done it again with a new shower-head. It is amazing to me how the simplest changes have an impact on the quality of our lives. I mean we have to shower or bath to remain sparkly fresh, well why not bring the resort experience home with you.

Everybody doesn’t have the money or space to put in an elaborate designer bathtub, but a shower-head is a simple pleasure. My new one is by the Speakman Company and it left me speechless for a few moments as I realized what I had done, *brought a little of my vacation home with me*. Simple delights are wonderful. Don’t allow the situation of your life to make you so jaded and exhausted that you fail to enjoy the simplest pleasures, like my shower-head. You better go get your own.

MizJAI.

Have you ever been on some vacation in some nice hotel is some new city and hated to leave and step back into your “regular life?” It doesn’t happen to me all the time, but when it does I take it as a need to make a change in my “regular life,” so that I have the “remarkable” at home with me. Those changes could be BIG or small, a new location, a new career or something far more simple like a recent change that I made in my throne (bath) room.

One the most inexpensive ways to spice up your bathroom life is to change your toilet bowl seat. My roommate bought a new one for us and it has surprisingly made my day. Pictures provided below because I just know you want to see it =:-).

MizJAI

A little bathroom inspiration. Life isn’t all about work. And let’s face it there are certain things that you just have to do like brush your teeth, eat, use the bathroom. You might as well enjoy something about it. Alright that’s it for my toilet talk.

It’s official! Christmas is one week away!

Are you ready? Well, regardless of the gifts that you think you don’t have yet, you are ready to show love. If your money is funny this Christmas, consider the beautifully homemade gifts. I have a few tips below:

1. Since you have pulled out the cameras since you read Let’s Make a Memory, you probably have plenty of pictures by now . Consider cropping and framing the best of them as gifts.

2. Or maybe you are an excellent singer (note the word excellent) or a hilarious performer, then make your family a cd single of their favorite Christmas song, then they can add it to their Christmas season playlist (and if you do a great job, it will set the season off next year).

3. Can you cook? Then let your gift be a feast. Or if you want to put it under the tree, then create tiny, tasty, delicacies and wrap them up.

4. Consider playing around with that vacation footage and make a movie using the software that automatically comes with most computers (movie maker for PCs or iMovie for Macs–with the mac it’s not automatic, but the download is 79.99 and comes with a whole lot of extra stuff that makes the price well worth it, plus online tutorials).

So, we’ve ‘got’ movies to make, music to record, cooking to do, photos to work on and any other creative idea that you come up with. Think of it this way, while everyone is trapped in the chaos of the largest shopping days of the year, crowded and locked in mall traffic, you get to be at home, creating your ‘masterpiece.’ Have at it.

-MizJAI-

One day about ten years ago, I was jogging/walking in a local park.

It has a dirt trail, close to a rail road track that you can hear but not see.

Trains seldom came.

For the sake of diversity and a more intense workout, I would walk certain parts and run others. For me, sometimes intensity and sometimes diversity are excitement.

There were a few people scattered through out the trail, but for the most part it was extremely silent, except for the sound of my feet on the white, crushed rocks that marked the way. Upon approaching the running-point (that I chose) & being winded from the prior two and a half miles that lead to this moment, I began to slow down in an attempt to stall. I also began to make decisions. I would not only run despite being tired, but I would run hard and give myself something to feel excellent about at the end.

And, I decided to become a super hero who had just turned on her SUPER SONIC SPEED.

(Quiet as it’s kept, I have been a secret-super-hero for years now, so it was easy for me to “turn on” my “powers.”)

When I reached the running point,

I turned that Super Sonic Speed on, and took off!

And with every stride

I could hear the sound of a train

(an actual train) gaining speed to catch up to me.

It was like superman & I were out for a morning jog and the train decided to join us.

Suffice it to say, they could hardly keep up with me.

After passing the walking-point,

I finally began to slow down,

the trains voice began fading in the distance,

and I made a mental note that I possess the power to run strong & free

Now, I am not the fastest woman on the planet, but for that moment, I not only outran all of you, but I outran a train too.

This is the point…We can find freedom anywhere that we find the big and small things that excite us. Whether it’s ‘outrunning a train’ or curling up for half an hour with a book we’ve been trying to read for months or playing a song that dances in our soul or daydreaming while looking up at a sky that calls our name or peering out the window on a rainy day with a Liz Wright or Aretha Franklin ballad playing in the background–excitement and in turn, freedom comes in all sizes. Please don’t pass it up!

Some things that excite me are:

music and singing

dancing and daydreaming

laughing out loud

trying something a little new & a little scary

spoken word & poetry

traveling & writing…

I try to do them often,
I have to do them often,
because when I don’t,
I’m not nearly as happy as I could be.

There are other momentary things that I do that aren’t necessarily my passion, but they remind me of who I am:

horse back riding (with a spirited horse),

makes me feel free

& reminds me that no matter how challenging & painful one day in my life or one season or one decade may be, I am still free, & I can gallop with the best of them (with a little, well maybe a lot of help)

white water rafting (with a life jacket),

makes me feel bold & scared at the same time, & for a woman who can barely swim, I also feel a little crazy; but I definitely e-x-p-e-r-i-e-n-c-e the water instead of only looking at it

hiking (up a mountain),

makes me feel connected

& aware that life is better when I take advantage of the things that God made, His trees, His hills, His valleys, His sunshine & His rain

taking a painting class

makes me feel creative
& appreciative of the people who actually have a gift for this form of art

oh, and the spa! (well this one may be a passion)

makes me feel like a queen and a diva with deep pockets
and liberated thoughts,

Do what ever adventurous or not-so-adventurous thing that you need to do in order to find your passion and rediscover your excitement and dive into the third part of freedom. Feel yourself wake up again, dream again, try again, renew and go after that desire again and again and again…

-MizJAI-

FREEDOM SERIES

Freedom 1: the Beginning
Freedom 2: The way I see it, freedom is . . .
Freedom 3: every letter counts in F-R-E-E-D-O-M
Freedom 4: F-Fearlessness
Freedom 5: R-Right Relationship with God
Freedom 6: E-Excitement & Passion
Freedom 7: E-EXAMPLE That We Can Follow
Freedom 8: D-Dreams & Desires that Burn in Your Chest
Freedom 9: O-Opportunity That You Are Prepared to Take Advantage of
Freedom 10: M-Money for the Mission
Freedom 11: my summary