I went running with my mom and I was out of breath.
When it was over I was thankful to be back at my house, ready for a shower.
Until I realized I locked my keys inside.
More importantly was that my mom was ready for a shower more than I was. Her hot water heater was broken and she had taken cold showers for the past 3 days. She asked if she could use my shower so she could take a hot one.
We were both locked out of my house.
After 20 long minutes we found a way inside. It involved me squeezing myself through a window and trying to forget my fear of small confined spaces.
I let my mom shower first because she had been complaining for days about cold showers. I wondered if she would use all the hot water and leave me with a cold shower, but I knew she needed it more than I did.
I went to work and I told this story to my co-worker.
He said “Are your parents waiting for a repair man to fix the hot water heater?”
The question took my by surprise. My answer, “Uh, no they are waiting for my dad to fix it.”
I forget that people have professions in fixing things. If something is broken I would never call someone to fix it unless that person is my dad. He has fixed everything in our house growing up. If the hot water heater is broke the only person who can fix it is him. It’s his job.
The hot water heater is in the basement. Fixing it requires him to get out of his wheelchair and to slowly lift his body down each one of the stairs. He doesn’t need any help except for someone to bring his wheelchair down the stairs. He might also need a few tools.
After work I went to his house and the basement door was open, I knew he was down there. The upstairs had a hose leading outside and puddles of water with footprints. I knew those footprints weren’t my dad.
I peaked my head in the basement to see him downstairs in his wheelchair. I say he was in his wheelchair because sometimes he’s on the ground. I hollered “do you need help?”
He yelled back “No your brother is helping me.”
My brother was no where to be seen, but whatever works for them. I left and I knew that in no time they would all have hot water.
I knew that after it was fixed my dad would have to lift his body up each and every step and need someone to bring his wheelchair upstairs for him, but he would get the job done. There was absolutely no reason to hire someone to do it for him.
What kind of a person are you? The hiring type or the do it yourself type? I am personally a little of both. I am the do it myself type, until I can’t do it myself, and then I am the ask a family member to do it for me type. If me or someone I know can’t do it, then it won’t be done.
At what lengths do you go to accomplish a task? Do you take yourself down the stairs carefully one at a time? Do you go into things knowing that they won’t be easy?
If there is something you need to do but it seems daunting just remember to take it one step at a time. Start slow and you’ll get there. You may have to drag your body and maybe you need someone to bring you the tools to accomplish your goal, but with perseverance and a little help you can truly do anything.
Keep Rolling On. Even if it is one step at a time.
June is the month we decided to push the button to start a blog, but even before June we took weeks to decide what our name was going to be. It took countless e-mails, lists, text messages, and arguments before we settled on The Wheels of Grace.
After knowing that The Wheels of Grace was our name we dove into learning how to build a blog. It took 4 months of learning and writing before we officially released it to the world.
I did what I do in any life situation ever, I bought a book. I read that book and read articles, watched videos, and I put all of my little soul into making a website.
I like to think of this as our pre-birthday. The time when we were conceived. The gestation period for our blog was 4 months and when September came we were born.
I can safely say that it is the most enjoyable thing that I have learned and the thing I have been most passionately driven to do.
I believe in the three of us more than I have believed in anything else in the world.
In September we will celebrate our birth and today we will celebrate our conception.
Here are the things I have learned.
1. Practice
1 year ago I knew nothing about blogging and only barely realized I wanted to be a writer. I now have a year of practice and I am better for it.
Any goal of yours can be completed with hard work.
2. I cannot learn it all immediately.
I immersed myself into learning and I learned a lot, but at times I tried to learn too, much too quickly. I read advice from other bloggers who were in a different blogging place than I was. It took this entire year to figure out what speed I could handle learning at. The beautiful part is that I still have so much to learn and learning is my favorite activity!
We are meant to learn every day for the rest of our lives, the learning process is never over. That fact should make us joyful.
3. I found who I am.
I started this project with the intent to help Norah and Sergio pursue their dreams but somewhere along the way I found out a few things about myself. I found that I love to write, which is something I used to hate doing. I found my long lost passion for photography, which I am still very much learning and would not call myself good at all. And I found a passion for wanting to design our website to be beautiful. I have designed our website several times and it is still not how I want it to look, but I have learned so much along the way.
Finding your own dreams often comes from helping others pursue their own.
4. The internet can teach you anything.
Most of my learning has come from Pinterest and Google Searching. If there is something I want to learn how to do there is someone in the world who knows how.
Community is the best way to learn.
5. Jut do it!
I still don’t think this blog is good enough for people to see, but how was I ever going to learn if I didn’t dive in a try.
I participated in a 48 hour challenge in which Jeff Goins from challenged all of his readers to learn something new in 48 hours. The winners of the challenge had the opportunity to win his Art of Work Course. I was determined to win, and I honestly felt deep down in my heart that I would. My heart told me I had a chance at winning because I prayed to God asking how I could become noticed in the blogging and writing community. I wanted to take the course but I didn’t know how I would pay for it.
I was determined.
I decided that I would learn how to shot and edit a video, something I had never done before. Sergio and I talked about making a video for a while but we put it on the bottom of our list. He was going to be the star of the video and we needed to figure out what he was going to say and find the time to shot. As soon as I read the challenge I knew we had to make the video. Other people made art, sold art, wrote e-books, roasted coffee beans, or anything that they wanted to learn in 48 hours. I learned that if you put your mind to something you truly can accomplish anything you want in 48 hours.
I actually did it in about 8 hours because I was out of town for the first day of the challenge and when I arrived at my parents house my dad was doing yard work. I knew I couldn’t interrupt, he values his lawn, and can often be found outside watching the grass grow. I joined in on the yard work but it was very painful for me because the clock was ticking. I knew I could get it done but I needed his participation and I knew how long it would take him to finish his yard work plus admire his lawn after the work was done. Seriously I have seen that man stare at his lawn longer than I have seen him stare at anything else in this world.
Afterwards I made him take a shower and then I prompted him to get in front of my camera and speak! I uploaded the material on my computer and guessed how the editing software should work. I usually learn by trial and error and googling. The longest part of the entire process was waiting for the footage to upload.
About 1 am the program quit unexpectedly and I almost burst into tears. I looked for my video that was one last step away from being completed and I couldn’t find it. I realized that even though it took me hours to edit the first time I would be faster the second time since I already learned how to do it. I was ready and willing to re-do my work at 1 am because I was DETERMINED to finish and I knew in my heart I could be winning something I really wanted. I had faith that I had a chance at winning. I started to make a new video when some feeling inside of me said to check again for the video and I found it!!! I was so grateful to find the video. I uploaded it, shut my laptop and went to sleep for 4 hours. I got up at 5 am to finish the e-mail to go with the video, and the picture on the home page.
This was not a story to say “look at what I can do in a few hours” but instead a motivation of what you can do in a few hours. What are you motivated or determined to do. Try it out this weekend to be able to learn something new in 48 hours, or even in 8 hours. If you lose a little sleep in the process, don’t worry because it will be worth it.
I waited anxiously ALL day for the results of the winners. And right before I went to bed I found out that I won, along with 2 others. I texted my dad and he was excited for me and immediately following the text I got one that read “Can we re-do the video, I think I can be better at speaking” We both knew that it wasn’t either of our best work.
We knew the video wasn’t the kind of quality we wanted people to see, but we knew it was important for me to finish. This week we took more time and re-made that video. We think this one is of better quality and we know that we can only get better with time at speaking, shooting, and editing.
If you already subscribed to our e-mail list you should receive a new e-mail with a link to the updated video. If you haven’t subscribed yet now is the perfect time. Sign up form is here. After you sign up you’ll get to watch Sergio’s Ten Ways to Keep Rolling On, a video for the walking, rolling, sitting, or standing.
Please check out Jeff Goins and read his new book The Art of Work he has inspired me in so many ways and presented me with an amazing opportunity.
Don’t forget to challenge yourself this weekend. Find something you have always wanted to learn how to do, and do it! Tell me about it, I would love to hear what you learned!
I have a time or two in my life and when I come back to myself and find who I really am, I am always shocked to find how lost I was.
Losing yourself comes in small slow steps until one day you wake up and realize you are someone you never set out to be. You became the worst version of yourself and are very unsure of how to get yourself back.
I’ve woken up and forgotten who I was and tried to change my ways to be more of myself.
It is like living in a vacuum because I was aware of my not-so-me self, but I still continued to do the things that doesn’t make me, me. It is an out of body experience where the true you is trying to tell the lost you to stop, but the lost you forgot who she is and doesn’t remember how to get back.
I have a lot of these moments when I struggle to get back to the me I really am.
One day I went to church (which admittedly is not a place I attend regularly) and the old me found this other version of me.
Church starts out with worship music played live by the worship team comprised of bass, guitar, piano, drums and singers. There are two monitors to display the lyrics of the songs, allowing the congregation to sing along. But on this particular day when I remembered who I am the lyrics did not appear on the screen.
Some members of the congregation was lost without those lyrics, they could not sing the song if they didn’t know the words.
But not me!
I knew every single word to the song, and it made me remember who I was. I grew up in the church singing and Shout to the Lord was always one of my favorite songs. This part of me that I had lost for so long came rushing back.
Music has an indescribable impact on the human spirit. Part of me wonders if I would have felt so great if the lyrics were on the screen. The lack of the words made me dig deep to remember myself. The girl who loves to sing songs at church.
This is a moment that happened months ago, and I search for that moment when I know I need it. I make myself remember how I felt when I was singing that song, and what that song really means to me. I still struggle and I still don’t admittedly attend church every Sunday but it is something I know I need to work on.
Maybe I wrote this for myself, to remind me who I am and to remind me what being who I am feels like, but I do know that everyone has to feel this way at some point.
Here are 40 things about the wonderful woman I get to call mom.
40. She is 14 years older than I am and I can feel it the older I get.
39. When she’s 40 I’m 26.
38. When she turns 50 I’ll be 36. I can’t help but think we’ll both be in our prime at those ages and have so much fun together.
37. She is my best friend, my rock.
36. I know she thinks that I give her strength, but really it is the other way around.
35. She is the strongest person I know and without her guidance I’m not sure I would be the strong woman I am today.
34. She pushes me to be the best I can be, but she doesn’t push me with her words she pushes me with her actions.
33. She has never told me what to do, even when I ask her to. Sometimes I wish she would make my decisions for me but she never does, even when it is as simple as which book I should purchase.
32. She has led me to be the free spirit that I am.
31. We have a special relationship that I absolutely love.
30. She is my biggest supporter.
29. She listens to me complain about dumb things.
28. She knows that I am one of the most annoying people in her life and yet she still loves me.
27. I know she wonders why I have to be particular about every single detail in every single thing, but still she accommodates those details, or at least listens to my reasoning as to why things have to be a certain way.
26. She cleans better than any one I know.
25. She claims that she doesn’t love to clean, but secretly it is hands down her favorite thing to do.
24. She watches stupid tv with me even though I know she hates it at the same time that she likes it because it makes her laugh.
23. I don’t know how she has time for all of the things that she does.
22. I can call her when I’m sad and she’ll listen to me cry.
21. She still spoils me when she can and takes special dinner requests from me.
20. Sometime she only texts me in emojis, and I enjoy trying to figure out what she means, but I know her so well that it isn’t difficult.
19. When she misses me she calls me more times than I want to talk to her.
18. I talk about her way to much. So much to the point that people automatically say “what does your mom think about that?” because they know I tell her everything.
17. She cannot keep a secret. Everything I tell she tells my dad even when I ask her not to.
16. I am positive her best friend knows every little detail of my life because my mom is the worst at secret keeping.
15. If you upset her or make her mad she will tell you exactly how you made her feel (there is a chance I am that way too.)
14. More than anything I hate to see her cry and never know how to comfort her.
13. I cannot imagine the weight she carries everyday by being a mother to kids who very in ages from 7 to 25.
12. Sometimes I give her hugs to remind myself that in my mommy’s arms I am safe no matter how old I get.
11. Other times I wish she would leave me alone and stop hugging me, I’m an adult!
10. I am way too much like her and it scares me every single day.
9. It scares me even more when I hear my siblings act just like her. She has phrases that tend to rub off on others.
8. When she sees me she usually says “Fancy meeting you here” in the most ironic situation possible.
7. She makes the best rice and beans in all of the land.
6. She has beautiful traits that she did not give to me, her beautiful skin tone and curly curly hair.
5. I made her listen to Spice Girls when I was growing up and she still knows all the lyrics.
4. She also knows all the lyrics to Madonna songs from when she was growing up.
3. And all the Michael Jackson lyrics.
2. She is extremely loving, compassionate, and kind.
1. I can always see God working through her at all times.
