Goals and Not Accomplishing Them

January 7, 2015 Pamela Stephens

Setting goals are pretty much my driving force in both my personal life and my career. (See all of my posts about goals here if you don’t believe me.) Today I’d like to talk about the opposite of accomplishing goals...not accomplishing them.

Honestly, I could go on about this for quite some time. I think that the first thing to realize about not accomplishing goals is that it’s usually not a bad thing. Here are a few reasons why not accomplishing something that you set out to do can be a good thing:

1. You may realize that it’s not actually something that you want to do. This is the case for me right now. One of my 2014 goals was to start a Project Life album. I bought the supplies. I created a cover page (which had a spelling error on it…oops). And then I never touched it again. I didn’t complete a single page of photos for this album last year. I attributed my lack of success with this project partly to lots and lots of struggles with trying to print photos at home. However, a little more self exploration reveals that I really wasn’t very passionate about this goal. While I would like to have printed memories of our daily life, it’s just not something that excites me, and I’m not really willing to push through the challenges. Guess what? That’s ok! Sometimes while working towards something, you might realize that it’s not actually something that you’re passionate about. In this case, it’s perfectly acceptable to not accomplish that goal. Channel your energy to something you are excited about instead.

2. Sometimes the journey is more important than the finish line. Sometimes we spend lots of time working towards something but we don’t quite reach the end result. You might have set a goal to lose 50 pounds and only lost 45. You might have intended to take at least one photo a day for a year but missed several days. Missing goals of this nature are ok! Chances are you still documented more of your life than you would have without the goal in place. Losing 45 pounds is still amazing and something you might not have done without the initial goal. I was $750 short of meeting my financial goal for 2014. Does this mean I failed? Absolutely not! I was close enough to the goal to feel like I won. Just because you might fall a tad short, doesn’t mean that you didn’t still do something amazing.

3. Not reaching a goal can be the driving force you need to accomplish it later. Maybe your timing wasn’t right. Just because you didn’t reach a goal the first time you tried, doesn’t mean that you won’t knock it out of the park later. Sometimes, we just need to reevaluate our methods and approach things from a different way. Didn’t lose the weight you wanted to last year? What can you do differently this year to make yourself more likely to succeed? Maybe you need to workout at a different time. Maybe you should keep different foods in the house to remove temptation. Whatever the goal is, there’s still a chance that you can reach in this year. Don’t be discouraged by past failures. Instead, reevaluate and adjust as necessary. After all, if success was easy, we’d all be great at everything!

As we begin a new year, I thought it would be great to talk about the unspoken...not reaching our goals. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It doesn’t mean that you’ll never succeed. Instead, it could just be a learning opportunity or a chance to regroup. Don’t hesitate to set goals for yourself this year, just because you weren’t successful last year. Each day is a new beginning, and I think a new year is a perfect time to dream about what you want the future to be like. Then go get it! Most of the time, we are the ones stopping our own selves from doing great things. Dream big and then go after what you want. There’s no time like the present!

On Taking a Day Off..

January 5, 2015 Pamela Stephens

I laid in bed on Christmas Eve morning reading blog posts and drinking coffee, which is basically my favorite thing to do. Truth be told, I don’t get to enjoy this sort of down time very often, so when I do, it feels amazing. (I almost always post something on IG.) The previous week(s) had been so busy that I was pumped about the chance to just rest for a bit before getting up and getting ready for the holiday festivities. I read a post about taking some time off, and it led me to think more about what taking time off means for me.

In 2015, I hope to share more about what the real estate industry is like, and I think this post is a great start. When it comes to taking “a day off,” let me begin by saying that never actually happens. Before you think I’m being a Debbie Downer or complaining about my job, let me be clear….this isn’t a bad thing, and I’m certainly not complaining. The reality of real estate is that your always working. (We’ll talk more about what “work” means for me later.) For a variety of reasons, there’s really no such thing as a day off. I work primarily from my cell phone, so I’m almost always available, even if I’m not at the office. There are probably only one or two times in 2014 that I didn’t do any work on a given day. Owning your own business most often means that you don’t get to leave your work at the office over the weekend or holidays. Instead, work comes home with you and follows you every where you go.

Our trip to Gatlinburg would be somewhat of an example of this. I planned to be completely off for a week. I terribly needed a break after the whirlwind that was May. I forwarded my phone calls to another agent and tried to do as little work as possible while on this vacation. However, I still responded to texts and emails every chance I had and had to handle a mini crisis from afar, that ultimately led to me crying in a restaurant bathroom. Embarrassing, but exhaustion will do that to ya.

The Gatlinburg trip shows how days off go for me in this business (minus the crying usually). I was technically “off” on Christmas Eve, but I had already handled two items of business by 8:30 am. It’s highly likely that I’m still working, even if I’m at home, at the mall, or on vacation. Being able to separate my life from my job can be a tough battle to fight. It’s very, very easy to let your work-life take over your personal-life, especially when you’re a workaholic, like me. I struggled with this a lot in the beginning of my real estate career. Here’s the kicker though…sometimes my work creeps in to my personal time, BUT I get to do my job from practically anywhere!

At first glance this post probably seems negative. (Read: I can’t ever get away from my work!) However, after a few cases of burnout and tears to my husband, I realized something magical – I can do my job while simultaneously doing other things, giving me a ton of flexibility. Yes, I may never actually get a “day off.” However, I can get my nails done in the middle of the afternoon while simultaneously securing a deal on someone’s dream home. I can leave the office if I’m feeling shut in, and work from my patio instead. How amazing! Yes, I may technically have to do a bit of work on Christmas, but I can likely do so while getting back to my family quickly and easily.

As I sit and reflect on the past year, one of the things that I’m most thankful for is this career. I’m thankful that I took the leap of faith to start a new business (and for my support system who encouraged me). I’m thankful for learning how to really work this business in a manner that suits my needs. I’m thankful for a successful, mind-blowing year and the fruits of my hard work that Matthew and I are enjoying. I’m thankful for how much I’ve learned about this career and making it work for me over this last year. I’m certain that I’ll still struggle with carving out time for myself, but I’ve learned so much about making that happen this year, and I’m looking forward to an even better 2015.

If you’ve ever considered a career in real estate and have questions, I’d be happy to talk to you more about it. It’s a tough industry sometimes, but it’s also one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. There are so many things that I love about this career, and I’m happy to talk to you more about it if you’re interested. Click this link to get more information about the company I work with and feel free to email me!

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2015 Goals

January 1, 2015 Pamela Stephens

It’s that time of year again….the time to set goals for the upcoming year. Once upon a time, I had a serious problem with setting “new year’s resolutions.” I talked about that a bit in last year’s goal post. As a matter of a fact, I still don’t like that term. However, I do like setting goals. 2014 was a big year for goal setting for me. I set several goals for the year. I even ended up setting goals for the month, for the last part of the year. What I learned from my obsessive goal setting in 2014 is that I love setting goals. Turns out, I respond really well when I set realistic and manageable goals for myself. I quickly learned that making these goals public gives me just the push I need to actually make big things happen. In thinking about what my goals would be for 2015, I knew that I’d end up sharing them here with you.

I actually started lining out my 2015 goals in October. Yes, that’s a tad crazy. Nonetheless, I was getting very excited about wrapping up 2014. There’s just something about the fresh start that a new year brings that gets me excited! I started getting a little carried away (too many goals), so I spent quite a bit of time trying to narrow them down and make them more realistic and specific. Remember, a good goal must be realistic and attainable. Setting a million goals for one year was neither of those things, so I had to force myself to pare themdown a bit. I decided to approach goal setting a tad differently this year, so I broke my goals down into three different categories: personal, business, and home.

Without further adieu, here are my personal goals for the year:

Maintain a regular fitness plan. – My goals is to do something active at least three times per week.
Be up by 6:00-6:30 every weekday morning. – I’ve never been accused of being a morning person. I tend to wake up just in time to get dressed and make it to where I need to be. (I literally count this down to the second sometimes.) Instead, I’d like to be up early enough to have a few minutes of quiet time (sipping coffee of course) before starting the madness of my day. I might have to increase my coffee intake a bit.
Blog 2x per week. – This was one of my goals for 2014 too. While I didn’t quite make it, I did definitely feel like I improved on posting regularly here. I’m going to do even better this year! (Fun fact: I made 50 posts in 2014. Doesn’t that seem wild??!)
Have monthly quality time days with Matthew. – We’re busy people. Sometimes finding time to really spend together is tough. I didn’t want to say “date nights” here, because some of my favorite times together are days that we take off and do something special during the day. The goals here is to be sure we disregard everything else and actually spend time together at least once a month this year.
Complete three random acts of kindness per month. – Last year, I wanted to say more nice things. I definitely did better at this, but sometimes I’d forget. Life gets busy and it’s sooo easy to forget to do little things like this. This year, I want to continue trying to say nice things, as well as doing other random acts of kindness. I hope to do this at least three times per month.
Volunteer 4x. – I love to help people. Sometimes that’s actually a flaw of mine…I get too involved. However, my good intentions sometime get the best of me and I don’t actually make it to helping out causes that I care about. This year, I want to be sure to volunteer my time at least four times throughout the year. Four doesn’t sound like a big number, but I know that a quarter of the year will pass before I know it, so I’ll have to be very diligent on this one.
Host at least two parties/events. – There were several times throughout this last year that Matthew and I would run into old friends. I felt like we were constantly saying “we should get together soon,” and yet not actually doing it. This year, I want to be sure to host people at our home at least twice. These can be big or small gatherings…I just want to be sure to focus on spending time with thepeople we love.
Replace 3 mediocre things with 3 beautiful things. – I talked about living a beautiful life before. I’ve been working hard to put an emphasis on surrounding myself with things that I love, but it’s a daily battle. This year, I hope to replace at least three things we don’t love with things that we do…big or small.

Amanda and I starting meeting in late October/early November to talk about goals for 2015. (We had regular goal tracking meetings in 2014 but sort of dropped off later in the year.) We agreed that we needed some sort of way to track our progress this year since we both love that feeling of marking something off a list. We decided that we’d create some sort of spreadsheet to track things quarterly and then meet back up to talk strategy. Then something magical happened. Elise released her December Make29 product.

I follow Elise’s blog religiously, and I think she might be the master at getting things done. (She’s releasing a Getting Things Done workbook/calendar later this year and I can’t wait to see it!) As I looked over her December product, I realized that this was exactly what I needed to track my goals for this year. As soon as it was available, I purchased the PDF and began printing sheets for each of the items that I wanted to track. I knew that I might get a little carried away (with too many sheets tracking too many things), so I decided to combine some of the smaller, more yearly items on one sheet. For example, I have just one sheet for all of my home goals. (More on that later.) If you’re looking for a way to track your goal progress in 2015, I highly recommend purchasing this file. It’s a mere $4 to get an instant download that you can print as many times as you need.

I ended up with eight sheets tracking some of my personal, home, and business goals. I envision these being marked up, tattered, and stained (most likely with coffee) by the end of the year, and if that’s the case, I’ll be thrilled. I love how these trackers focus on the big picture. You can miss days here and there. Not every circle has to be filled. Instead, the goal is to see that you have 365 days to work towards something. If you fill in even half of the circles, that would be an amazing accomplishment! If you feel overwhelmed by goal setting, pick a few simple goals, purchase these sheets, and then begin chipping away at it one little bubble at a time.

It’s not too late to set a few simple goals for this new year. After all, it doesn’tmatter when you start working towards something….it only matters that you do start. What are you hoping to accomplish this year? I’d love to hear about your plans. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a great year!

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Christmas 2014 Recap

December 30, 2014 Pamela Stephens

I simply can’t believe that the Christmas season has already come and gone. They say that time flies when you’re having fun, and that’s totally a reality here in my neck of the woods. The holiday season is always a blur for Matthew and I. I thought I’d take a moment to recap what our Christmas season was like this year.

We began the month with our annual trip to Ernest’s in Shreveport with Matthew’s grandmother and cousins. This is a tradition that she’s held for several years and everyone always looks forward to the event. We dress up, ride over, and eat lots (Seriously….lots.) of fantastic food. This year, I wore a black, velvet dress and a gold, vintage belt that I hadn’t had a chance to wear yet. Velvet is one of my favs, so I was pumped about the outfit. We were missing a few cousins this year, but we definitely had a blast catching up with the ones who were able to make it. (Holly, I’m still laughing at Tanner’s plunger stories…too funny!)

Next up on the Christmas agenda was Amanda‘s birthday. We went to Cotton for her birthday dinner and ate all of the duck wraps. Then, that weekend we had a small game night/marshmallow roasting party at our house for her. I was blown away that Amanda and I have been friends since 2006 and I had no idea that she has a SERIOUS love for toasted marshmallows. You learn something new every day!

The weekend before Christmas turned out to be quite a busy one for the Petruses. (Side note: I just learned that this is the correct way to spell our last name in this context. Maybe December was the month for learning new things!) Friday night we attended the Keller Williams Parishwide Partners Christmas party at a new downtown venue that I hadn’t been to yet. I’m now considering it for possible location for my 30th birthday party…more on that later. Matthew and I enjoyed the party. It’s always great to get together with colleagues in a non-work environment. I also starting working on some of my 2015 work goals while at the party, which made me happy.

Saturday night, we had our real estate team Christmas party at the new Doe’s Steakhouse in downtown Monroe. I work closely with 9 or so agents at Keller Williams through the Shane Wooten team (plus several assistants), so this was our chance to celebrate a successful year together. I prepped centerpieces and little bags of peppermints for each guest. My mom is great with flower arrangements, but it’s never been a prominent skill of mine. I think these turned out pretty well for how quickly I threw them together though! It was a lot of fun getting together with everyone and recapping memories from the past year. Plus, the food was outstanding!

Sunday brought along two more Christmas events for Matthew and I. For lunch, we gathered at our house with Matthew’s mom, step-dad, little brothers, and grandparents. Matthew made a delicious roast and the most amazing mashed potatoes I’ve ever had. We enjoyed catching up with family that we don’t see often. Then, we took a quick (and much needed) nap, and headed over to my father-in-law’s for dinner. We had a great dinner there and then watched the kids open a few gifts. (Jordan and Roxie, you were missed!) I just realized that we didn’t get any pictures from dinner here, which is a bummer. By this time next year, this side of our family will have grown and that’s exciting! Our newest niece or nephew will be making his/her debut next month!

After a fun-filled and crazy weekend, Matthew and I spent Tuesday night opening a few gifts for each other and looking at Christmas lights. I’m excited to see what next year will be like without Matthew working retail AND being in nursing school. We both worked retail our first Christmas together, and it was exhausting. I’m excited to see what next year looks like for us, even though I’m quite nervous about our daily routine changing completely.

Christmas Eve we hosted my side of the family at our house. Hosting gatherings is one of my favorite things to do, so I was excited to have everyone at our new home for Christmas. I also baked my first turkey, and it turned out edible…I’ll take that as a win! Basically, the night was filled with lots of jokes and candy-eating. What more could you want??

After my family left, we headed out for Texas. We arrived a little after midnight and spent Christmas Day opening presents there and playing board games. We got to spend some time with Matthew’s step-sister, Jenna, that we don’t see often. We had a blast learning to play Killer Bunnies (Such an appropriate game for Christmas, right?!) and having an easy day with family.

All in all, this Christmas season was a success. Matthew and I were really busy towards the end of the season, but I think we still enjoyed the hustle and bustle and made some great holidays memories. (I also got lots of pictures of us in front of our Christmas tree, which makes me happy!) In case you missed it, you can see some of our Christmas decor here and details about our Christmas card here.

I’m sort of sad to wrap up the 2014 holiday season, but I’m definitely excited about 2015. I have a gigantic list of goals and plans for the year, and I’m expecting big things to happen. I hope you’re wrapping up 2014 with lots of great memories and equally great plans for this next year. Here’s to 2015 being a fantastic one!

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Merry Christmas!

December 26, 2014 Pamela Stephens

Matthew and I wish you the merriest of Christmases! We hope that this holiday season has been splendid and that you’re looking forward to a spectacular new year!

A word on this year’s Christmas card:
I mentioned that this card wasn’t “perfect” but that I was on a time crunch. I had big plans for this year, but time got away from me, so I had to settle for the quick and easy route….Walgreens.com. I ordered both versions of my Christmas cards (business and personal) from Walgreens this year, and was rather pleased. I chose this “year in review” card from their website for our personal card and plugged in some photos. Then, I created this graphic with an app on my phone and put in on the back of the card to update everyone on the biggest events of our year.

The photos are from (in order):
1. Matthew’s Birthday at Landry’s Vineyard
2. The Color Run in Ruston (my first 5k)
3. Our mountain hike in Gatlingburg
4. Halloween as Little Red Riding Hood and the woodsmen
5. Our last trip to Nashville
6. When we bought a house!
7. At Puckett’s Grocery in Nashville
8. At Ernest’s in Shreveport with family
9. Getting out the Christmas decor this year!

Again, I hope you’ve all thoroughly enjoyed this magical season. Best wishes from my family to yours!

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Deck the Halls

December 18, 2014 Pamela Stephens

Deck the Halls Christmas is in full swing at the Petrus household, and I only barely got the Christmas decor up before the madness of the season arrived. Christmas tends to be a little hectic for us with so many places to be and things to do, but I love every minute of it.

PRESENTS! For the past couple of years, I’ve put up two Christmas trees and since the new house has more space, it was even easier to do this year! The big tree is my “themed” tree. Everything matches, and it’s more decorative. (Shout out to my sister for making me that “P.”) The second tree is more of a hodgepodge of old, sentimental ornaments…most of which were made by my mother. I also put my retro Santa with this tree that I’ve had since I was a little girl and used my Grandmother’s quilt as the tree skirt.

Vase with Mini Ornaments I snagged those Southern Living books at the Nashville Flea Market. Long live the 80s! The jar sitting on top was given to me by my mother-in-law and is filled with mini ornaments that were my grandmothers. I loved finding a way to incorporate those into the decor this year. That vase was something Matthew and I picked up on our trip to Memphis, and he surprised me with those flowers (and strawberry shortcake!) when I got home from a work trip recently. Using the vase here gives me a good excuse to keep fresh flowers through the season!

It took me what feels like forever to decide on mantle decor that I was somewhat happy with. I just couldn’t quite get it right. Those stars are from the same flea market as the books. Thanks to my sister (again) for the “Noel.” I really do hate that my sweet niece got the flu, but I certainly don’t mind all of the handmade decor I ended up with from my sister being trapped at home. Let’s call that a silver lining.

I wish I would have had a little more time to decorate this year because I would have loved to go “all out” for our first Christmas here. No worries though…I’m still happy with the decor that I was able to do and it’s plenty to enjoy while I drink all of the hot chocolate. (Seriously, check out my Instagram feed. I’m literally drinking all of the hot chocolate.)

Chalkboard Tree I hope your Christmas season is off to a wonderful start! And remember, be sure that you don’t get too caught up in the hustle and bustle…it’s time to enjoy this magical season!

P. S. If you’re looking for fun Christmas things to do around the Monroe-West Monroe area, be sure to check out the Christmas on the River website.There’s still a ton of fun Christmas events on the agenda. Oh, and shop local when you can!

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On waiting for perfection.

December 15, 2014 Pamela Stephens

I stewed over starting a “what I’ve learned series” for months before actually doing it. I think my desire to write about things I’ve learned comes primarily from the fact that I feel like I’ve learned so much lately. I also feel like our entire lives are based on learning. With each passing day, we learn something new. With each passing year, we grow into better versions of ourselves (hopefully). We are constantly learning new things about ourselves and this world we live in, and that’s something that I’ve felt called to talk about.

So here we have it…a post that’s hopefully a part of an ongoing discussion about what I’ve learned and what it means. Today, I want to discuss what I’ve learned in regards to striving for perfection. I have been known to wait to do things until it’s perfectly planned out. I may or may not have proofread things to death before ever letting them go. It’s possible that I’ve avoided certain things altogether because I didn’t feel like I had time to do it to its absolute best. I’ve definitely been called a perfectionist a time or two, and while having perfectionist tendencies can be a good thing, it’s certainly not a title that I love. Actually, I’ve found that the goal of perfection is often debilitating. Often, this mirage of perfection sucks up tons of valuable time or worse, prevents us from accomplishing anything at all.

I don’t remember when it happened, but at some point in the past year, I finally realized that I had to let some things go. I needed to learn to delegate tasks in order to grow my business. If I spent less time perfecting every little thing, I could get so much more done! Sure, every single person that I know might not get a beautiful birthday card with a wonderfully scripted message, BUT if just a handful of the people I knew got a card, that was better than none. If the card was basic and simple, it was better than no card at all. I finally realized that I was spending way too much time trying to do everything perfectly, such that most of my good ideas weren’t being implemented at all. A church sign once read, ”The smallest deed is better that the grandest intention.” I was full of intentions…not deeds.

If you, too, suffer from dwelling on perfection, what do you do to overcome it?? That’s a hard question and my solution isn’t too elaborate. You just start doing things. I had to learn to just throw things out there. Within the last couple of months, I’ve “just done” several things that would have normally taken me months and months to implement. For example, this year I mailed a Halloween letter to anyone I had a mailing address for. I ordered the supplies, drafted the content, and then basically turned the rest of the project over to my assistant. I didn’t even see them before they were mailed! (Those of you who know me pretty well know this was a HUGE step for me.) I did something similar with a Thanksgiving promotional piece. I created the plan/content and then handed over the reins. These were prepped and delivered while I was in another state! To take this a step further, I began working on and produced two different Christmas cards in less than 24 hours. Something of this nature would have normally taken me months!

Here’s the deal though. I accomplished four tasks in a short amount of time that I wouldn’t have otherwise done if I’d approached them with my usual mindset. I’ll admit, these four tasks could have been done better. However, with my usual approach, they likely wouldn’t have gotten done at all. This is especially true for our personal Christmas cards. I had to settle on something less than perfect because of time constraints. If I hadn’t sacrificed perfection, we wouldn’t be sending a card this year. Which is worse – a less-than-perfect card or no card at all? We all know how much I love paper products. For me, it was no card at all.

I did something similar with this blog. I spent months and months toying over the idea of starting a blog. I was doing all of the “research,” (In many cases, “research” is code for avoiding the jump.), but I was so caught up in knowing how to do every little thing, that I postponed starting it. Finally, I dove in head first with this post. If I would have known everything there was to know before making that first post, it would have never happened. Most of the time starting it the hardest part. After that, the pieces tend to fall together. Actually, I struggle with this on a daily basis with this blog. Most of the time, I have to make myself hit the publish button. Usually it’s with my eyes closed and a cringed face. You know…that one that looks like you’re about to get hit with a bat. The reality is, some of my posts have typos. Most of them could be written so much better. However, if I read every post 30+ times, nothing would get shared here. I’d change something every single time I read it and eventually I’d be so burdened by the roughness of it, that it would never get posted. Instead, I write, proofread a few times, and then cringe while clicking submit. I take a gamble with every post that it’s poorly written, no one will relate, and I spelled every single word wrong. However, it could be my best post yet. It could really make a difference for someone, and I could be thrilled to come back and read it years from now. (That’s a truly scary thought.) It’s worth the risk.

Is there something you should just hit “publish” on? Is there something that you’re waiting to do until you have a perfect plan? Is there something you haven’t been able to mark off of your list because you keep analyzing it from all angles? If there is, take some time to really think about the time you’re wasting. If you jumped in head first today, would you really regret it? Would it be detrimental to your life? Most likely not. Instead, we’ve been wasting valuable time waiting. Waiting on the right time or the right plan. Waiting on perfection. Well, I’ve decided that imperfection is beautiful. Imperfection is real. Maybe, just maybe, putting things “out there” without them being perfectly polished might make you more relatable. (Please say that my typos make me more relatable. I’m counting on that.) I haven’t mastered this yet, but I’m going to keep working on putting more things on the “deed” side of the balance and less on the “intention” side.

“Life is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous.” – Isabelle in Downton Abbey. Don’t be afraid to look a little ridiculous sometimes. That’s just life.

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Nashville in November

December 11, 2014 Pamela Stephens

Matthew and I try to make it to Nashville to visit his family there at least a couple of times year. We’ve already made lots of great memories there, and this trip was no different. It just so happened that my friend Amanda was going to Nashville for a work event the same week as us, so we decided to carpool. I promise that Amanda was with us even if this photo looks like she was photo-shopped in!

As you’ve probably noticed, one of our main focuses during our travels is food. (Don’t judge.) This trip was no exception. We recently learned that Nashville is known for what they call “hot chicken,” sort of like Memphis is known for BBQ. We’d never had hot chicken before, so we made it a point to try some! After doing some research, we settled on a location called Pepperfire. We were told to order down two levels of spice from what we normally do, and I’m glad we heeded their advice. This was a very cool to-go style environment, and I loved that they text you when your order is ready. Also, the potato salad was phenomenal!

We also met Amanda for dinner at our favorite, Puckett’s Grocery. I think it’s safe to say that we’ll stop by Puckett’s every time we’re in Nashville. Unfortunately, the scheduled artist didn’t show up, so “Zach the Server” stepped in to provide a show. I was very impressed!

In other food news, we stumbled upon a quaint little chocolate shop while walking around the Gulch. After chatting with the clerk at Colt’s Chocolates, we realized the shop was owned by a former Hee Haw cast member, which quickly gained my interest! I have the fondest memories of watching that show as a little girl. (The clerk had also worked in Monroe for a bit, which was cool.) The best part about this shop was that they had little tasting bowls in front of each item. After tasting them, we started filling a basket! FYI: The salted caramel butter bites are to. die. for. Also, you can order online…so dangerous.

We did quite a bit of shopping this trip, (Thank you, Matthew!) and one of my favorite stops was the Nashville Flea Market. I literally could have loaded up two truckloads of stuff! I made some tough decisions and only purchased smaller items that I couldn’t live without, including these stars. This resulted in me leaving behind several amazing finds, including two doors that I think would have made great sliding doors in our dining room and master bath. Sad face.

Another favorite from this trip was a visit to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. We weren’t allowed to take any photos inside the center, but it was beautiful! The building was the old post office and was filled with art deco architecture and the original wood floors (which were cut ends of 2x4s). It was so pretty! We also thoroughly enjoyed the make-your-own-art section of the center and left with lots of new masterpieces. If you’re ever in Nashville, I definitely recommend stopping here for a bit!

Before heading home, we made a quick stop in Downtown Franklin, which is always lovely. It was especially nice to see things decorated for Christmas and feel the holiday vibe there. We grabbed brunch at 55 South and did a bit of shopping before hitting the road. I could spend hours downtown!

For the first part of the journey home, we drove down the Natchez Trace. We hadn’t been on this end of the trace before, and it was nice to see some new scenery. Eventually, we hope to travel the entire route. We made a few stops along the way to see a waterfall and the burial site of Meriwether Lewis (Lewis & Clark). The history along this route is rather interesting. Before we hopped on the Natchez Trace, we stopped for gas (and a bathroom break…I’m a joy to travel with) at another cute little general store. This one had raw woods floors and a very homey vibe. You can read my post about the gem of a general store we found on the begging of the trip here. It looks as if my new goal might be to find all of the cool general stores, and I’m totally ok with that.We had a great time on this trip and can’t wait for the next one. If you’d like to see more from our travels, check out the travel category. You can see more of our trips to Nashville here. And if you still haven’t had enough of reading about my thrilling life, the posts from our trip to Memphis are good ones. Hopefully you’re planning some good trips for 2015. We certainly are. There’s an entire world out there waiting to be seen and explored!

2 Comments Travel #maptennesse - 2014 - Amanda - art - family - flea market - Franklin - friends - husband and wife - Nashville - Thanksgiving - travel

Happy Thanksgiving – Take two!

December 4, 2014 Pamela Stephens

So, Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas season is in full swing. This is when I should start sharing Christmas decor galore and all things holiday related. Well, I’ll likely do that, but not just yet. I want to focus on being thankful a little more.

As I laid in bed on Thanksgiving morning, sipped coffee and read while Matthew slept peaceful beside me, I realized that I had so much to be thankful for. My Thanksgiving Day post talked about how much I love stationary and the new ABM Happy Mail program. While totally honest and true, this post was a little tongue-in-cheek. I wanted to post about something trivial and unconventional, because everyone else would be making posts about their families and such. (Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m definitely thankful for those things too.) However, I wanted my post to be different, and the timing was perfect with the release of something that I am so happy about.

While in bed Thanksgiving morning, I text back and forth with sweet friends and commented on lots of Facebook statuses and photos (something I seldom take time to do, unfortunately). Then I realized something. I was/am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to lay in bed, sip coffee (with a new creamer!) and have the time to catch up with folks I care about. I hardly ever give myself this freedom, and I loved it.

On this Thanksgiving, I was thankful for not feeling guilty for taking a day off. (I almost always do.) I was thankful for having such a huge group of people that I truly care about…even if I don’t tell them regularly. I was thankful for this house that I feel comfortable and safe in. I was thankful for the resurgence of creativity that I’ve had lately. I was thankful for how SIMPLY AMAZING this year has been for my career (more on that later). I was thankful for the ability to buy Christmas presents for my friends and family and for having made such a great start on my shopping. I was thankful for my abilities…for the things I’m both amazing at and not-so-great at. I was thankful for in-laws who welcomed me in to their family…some people aren’t so lucky. I was thankful for the realizations that I’ve had over the last year. My personal growth has blown my mind a bit, and I’m thrilled about that. I was thankful for this online space to talk about what I’m thankful for…ha!

Most of all, I was thankful for the opportunity to sit and think about all of the positive things in my life. It’s so incredibly easy to get bogged down by the negative sometimes. Having a day that’s focused on thankfulness is a good reminder to keep your life in perspective. If you didn’t get a chance to think about the things that make your life amazing, do it now! This doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) a one-day-a-year activity. We all have so many things to be thankful for, both big and small. Make a list if you need to. Turn you phone off for a bit and really sit and think about how lucky you are. If you need my help pointing out some positives, feel free to ask! I’d be happy to help you rediscover the brighter side of things.

Let’s use this holiday season to focus on how amazing our lives are and to share some joy with others. Happy Holidays! (That’s appropriate since it’s technically Christmas, and I’m still talking about Thanksgiving!)

Up next – something Christmas related, I’m sure!

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December Goals

December 1, 2014 Pamela Stephens

Well, here we are! It’s the final month of 2014, and it just so happens to be one of my favorite times of the year! If you’re like me, you can hardly believe that it’s December, because it literally feels like this year just began. Nonetheless, December is here, and I’m ready to have all of the Christmas fun! Before I talk about my goals for this month, let’s review what I accomplished last month.

November’s goals were to:

Purchase five Christmas presents. – Check! Actually, I bought more than five by November’s end and I don’t have many left to get!
Spend a week in Nashville while working as little as possible. – Check! Well, except for that part about not working. There were a couple of issues that I had to handle from afar. However, I learned a valuable lesson this time. I need to be sure other people handle their business before I leave. Most of the issues that arose on this trip were due to someone else not handling their tasks in a timely manner. Next time I plan to go out of town, I’ll work harder to encourage others to take care of things before I leave. Nonetheless, we had a great time! (Read a little about our trip here. More to come later!
Find a coffee to brew at home. – Check! I’m doing great at this! I’m still experimenting (and learning), but I’ve found a couple of creamers that I really like. I’m pleased with my progress.
Review my 2014 goals. – I mentioned that I’d probably move this one to December, and I did. There was just no time for goal review in November!
Finalize 2015 goals.- I wouldn’t say that these are finalized, but I did make some progress on deciding which would stay and go. I’ll continue to work on this in December.
Enjoy this season. – Check! I’m happy that I gave myself a bit of a break in November. I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinners with family and prepping for the Christmas season. It’s funny though…even with less stringent goals for November, I still got a lot done!

After looking through these goals and planning for December, I decided to make most of December’s goals revolve around the Christmas season. I’m already booked up for most of the weekends in December (and lots of weekdays), so my main goal is going to be being present at all of these parties and events. This is a lovely time of year, and I want to enjoy it! Without further ado, here are my goals for the month of December:

Put up two Christmas trees. – I’ve had two Christmas trees for the last two years, and I’ve love it! This may prove to be a little more difficult than planned because the legs to one of my trees seem to be missing. However, I think Amanda has saved the day!
Host two Christmas events at our house. – We have two events already on the calendar, so this shouldn’t be a problem. I’m excited to host events at our new house!
Attend at least one public Christmas event. – There are a ton of great holiday events around Monroe-West Monroe, and I want to make it a point to attend at least one of them. With so many private parties and family events, this might be a little tough. In an ideal world, I’d go to every single Christmas event, but I know that won’t be possible. Instead, I made my goal a little more realistic…I want to attend at least one. (But the more the merrier, of course!)
Watch two Christmas movies. – We kicked this plan off by watching Elf over Thanksgiving weekend. I just couldn’t wait to get started! It’s likely that we’ll watch way more than two holiday movies, but with such a busy schedule, I didn’t want to push it. Home Alone is my next pick. What holiday movies are you hoping to see??
Finalize 2015 goals. – Enough with the fun stuff. It’s time to handle up on my 2015 goals. I plan to make the final list and create quarterly tracking sheets for monitoring my progress throughout the year. Can you tell that I take goal setting pretty seriously?? I even ordered this shirt from Duck & Dressing this morning. Too funny! Side note: They’re having a pretty awesome Cyber Monday sale…you should check it out!
Review 2014 goals. – Obviously, I’m bringing this over from last month. I mentioned before that I’m pretty much over 2014 goals. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I do want to spend a few minutes looking back over what I wanted to accomplish and how I did. I’ll be making time for that this month.

How about you? Have you started thinking about what you’d like to do next year? How about this month? I hope your biggest goal is to have a splendid holiday season. If you’ve started working on your 2015 goals, share them with me! I love chatting goals/plans, and I’ll be happy to check in with you throughout the year. For now, let’s drink lots of hot chocolate and make Christmas lists galore. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Click here if you want to read more about my monthly and yearly goals.

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