March Rewind

I’m trying out a new monthly re-cap, which I will post at the end of each month just to summarize any good resources, events, daily happenings, or funsies I was able to uncover. I’ll try to keep it from becoming too convoluted to read the entire port; but if it does, please excuse my rambling, and next time will be better.

Here goes!

March in photos

Me and my beautiful ladies at the Hearts of Valor San Diego Retreat

March in one word

Enlightening

Quote you lived by in March

“Take ownership of the energy that you bring into a room, as well as the energy that you allow others to take from you.”- Oprah

Song(s) in heavy rotation on your iPod in March

Hold On by Alabama Shakes

Radioactive by Imagine Dragon

3 personal accomplishments in March

Increased exercise by 60%

Officially knocked out ¾ of my debt (100% debt free by 30 here I come!)

Soda/sugar free for entire month

Most popular blog post in March

This is kind of pathetic since I hardly blogged in March, so….

3 important WW resources found in March

National Caregiver Support Line (TBA in upcoming post)

Wounded Warrior Family Support (Ditto)

VA Benefits for 100% disabled combat veterans (ditto-o)

3 awesome things you did in March

Hearts of Valor Retreat San Diego!

Magic Mountain with the kiddo

Day trip to Ojai with the hubby!

*Shout Out!* Favorite WW resource blog for March

Top 5 March Obsessions

Benefit “Bad Gal Lash” mascara (but really, Benefit cosmetics in general)

Gin Wigmore’s album, Gravel and Wine

Mindy Kaling- The Mindy Project. Seriously, how are we not BFF’s by now???

Trips to my local Farmers Market

Alabama Shakes

March Reads

Here I Go by Jen Lancaster

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

Things I’m looking forward to in April

Temecula Wine Country trip with my girls!

LA Times Festival of Books

March Pearls of Wisdom

March came and went with quite a few unexpected problems. The usual exhaustion, issues getting appointments at the VA for the hubby, and wearing multiple hats of wife, mom, cook, nurse, and fulltime employee were all to be expected. Becoming an overnight foster parent (for reason that I won’t go into) on the other hand, quite literally threw the hubby and I into a tailspin of frustration and chaos. Somehow with each issue that was thrown at us, and each issue that we safely dodged, one of my Grandma’s most recognizable quotes kept coming to mind, and pretty much became the theme of March.

My Grandma (Grammy as we call her), would always tell me that strength -true strength- doesn’t evolve from struggles you face, it evolves from the way you handle yourself through the struggle.

Smart one that woman is I tell you.

I remember being 10 years old, and running to her house one day after school, tearing through her front door to immediately fall into her arms sobbing hysterically. My face, completely saturated in my own tears, and distorted from what Oprah calls “The ugly cry” due to an entire afternoon of hard core teasing, when my always affordable payless brand shoes quite literally fell apart during a strenuous game of flag football. You see, my mom was on a very tight single mom with two kids budget, so we couldn’t afford the stylish kicks that all the other kids had. Of course- having a flair for the dramatics at that age as I did- I was convinced that my life at school as I knew it was over, and swore to never return until all the Curella’s (a term that I use for mean girls) ceased to exist and proper balance was restored. Oh wishful thinking…

Well, Grammy wasn’t having any of that. She swiftly pulled me up by my chin, looked me in the eye, and said in her deep southern voice, “Child, there will be plenty more to life to be hurt over than some silly kids teasing about your shoes. There is nothing wrong with where you buy you shoes from, and if they don’t like them they need to buy shoes for you then. Either way, we don’t run from our problems in this house, we face them head on. If you get in the habit of running, you’ll be running for the rest of your life.”

Grammy believed that how we choose to handle our struggles is what makes the difference between truly overcoming them, and being stuck in them. Instead of sulking and wallowing in the things that I can’t change- the things that I feel have forever changed my life- I can choose to get up and keep moving forward to make my new path work for me. Instead of complaining about the things that I don’t have, I can choose to make the absolute best of what I do have (and pardon my French, rock the shit out of them). Instead of reciting like a broken record, how unfair these challenges that I face are, I can choose to embrace the fact that regardless of the struggle, I have the resources, fortitude, and capability to get through them. That’s what she meant by strength being determined by how you choose to handle what life throws at you.

It’s almost amusing that now- after hearing her say this all those years- I finally understand the depth behind her words. I can definitely say that being a wounded combat veteran wife, certainly comes with it’s fair share of struggles, but for the first time ever, I can also say that I am truly say my strength grows each day because of them.