Let Me Google That For You: The Steady Decline of Initiative

So let me paint a picture for you. Someone in your office asks you what the address is for a local business or someone on the phone asks you if you know the phone number of a certain business. And you, always willing to help, pull up google.com and enter the search terms, and then, read off the answers. Simple. This situation is a common one. So common, in fact, someone created a site called "Let me google that for you." (www.lmgtfy.com) With this site, you can google a topic and send a link to the page of results to that individual. When the intended non-googler opens the link, they must first complete a mini-tutorial that will teach them the necessary steps to Google.

Now, believe me, I don't mean to poke fun at anyone or hurt anyone's feelings. It's just the creation of such a website got me thinking....

Where has our initiative gone?

And then I asked myself, "Where has my initiative gone?"

So what is initiative? Webster, according to their website, defines it as "an introductory step" or " the energy or aptitude displayed in the initiation of an action." Synonyms are drive, ambition, and hustle.

We all, at one time or another, get lost in the everyday. The commonality of it all. We get up, get dressed, head to work, make it through the day, and head home. Then it's dinner, kids, school work, TV, books, chores, and then bed. And then the next day we repeat. Not to say that we don't enjoy some of these things. Time with our kids, our work. But if we don't take initiative with what we are given, it all becomes common and expected. We stop looking for the unexpected. We tell ourselves that our dreams are too big, too much, too grand for such a common world.

While mulling over all this, I saw 2 tweets today.

1. Never insult God with small dreams and safe living! (from @craiggroeschel retweeted by @ ryanlowe_wm)
2. Am I just making a living or making a difference? (from @lindseylowe)

Wow! How timely is our God? Just what I needed to hear to get my initiative into high gear!! I was not created to live a common life. He created me to live an extraordinary life. To have big dreams and to see those dreams blossom into a reality. That is His plan for me and for you.

So I've got my dreams in check, my plan mapped out, and am ready to take on this world. Nothing can hold me back but myself. Forget the naysayers, negative thinkers and "this is how it's always been." I'm looking for how it could be, what it could be and what it could all bring.

(Man, if only I could come up with a theme song for this.)

So don't let anyone or anything wear down your initiative. When they say it can't be done, prove that it can. Don't ever be content with the status quo.

Dream big and live big! And then have the initiative to seem it all through!

Housewife: What does that really mean?

So the title of my blog really got me thinking. What is a modern-day housewife?

If you subscribe to the same philosophy as Bravo, a housewife is a socialite who while filming a TV show, manages to not only plan a fashion show, vacation in St. Barts, and produce a song or two, but also involves herself in every catfight within a 10 mile radius. Except for maybe Caroline, who really seems to stay out of things. (Yes I watch them.)

I don't really think that Bravo's idea of a real housewife is very correct. That is actually why I named my blog the way I did. You see, a housewife really isn't the same as what she was years ago.

Dictionary.com defines a housewife as a married woman who manages her own household, esp. as her principal occupation. Wrong. That leaves out single moms. Don't they manage a household? Websters online defines a housewife as a married woman in charge of a household. Again, leaving out single moms, but this definition does include those of us who work outside the home.

Now to me, whether you stay at home or you work outside your home, you are still working during the day. Many people view the occupation of stay at home mom as, well, not really an occupation at all. But I have stayed home from work with one or both of my kids when they have been sick or unable to go to school, and I know that it's work. So for those of you who think it's a piece of cake, you are wrong. But it's also hard to put in a full day at the office and come home and take care of a household as well.

So that being said, I have come up with my own personal idea of what a modern day housewife. It's me and it's you and it's every other hardworking gal we know.

We are the chefs, the cleaning lady, the nurse, the teacher. We do it all. So let's raise a glass of Sweet Tea (I am from the South) to all of the Housewives out there.

**Now before signing off I must put in a plug for my husband. I couldn't do it all without his help. It's nice for this housewife to have someone on her team who helps out more than I ever could have expected him to.

There is a bird in my attic

There is a bird in my attic

There is a bird in my attic.
And he’s driving me mad.

There is a bird in my attic.
You say “Could it really be so bad?”

Yes, I say.
It can be so bad.
It can drive me mad.

I’m not being overdramatic.
You see, there is a bird in my attic.

Where did he come from?
I don’t know.
I just want him to go, go, go.

All night long, he hoo’s and hoo’s.
And I simply reply, “Shoo, Shoo.
To leave is what I need you to do.”
He simply and sarcastically responds…..”Whoo…hoo.”