A Few Changes for 2018.

Happy Monday  Friends! I hope your week is off to a great start and you had a wonderful weekend this past weekend.  

I wanted to stop in to have a quick chat with you all about the blog.  Obviously I had a rough time keeping up the blog on top of everything else I had going on in my life towards the end of last year.  From some aspects I felt very sad that I was not able to keep up with the blog, but on others I was relieved to not have the pressure of generating topics for the blog and maintaining all the social media aspects of the blog. 

Now that 2018 has arrived and I have taken a few months to collect my thoughts, I am happy to get back to blogging.  But this time, I want to make sure that I do not burn myself out in a few months and disappear for the summer again {then again around the holidays}.  Blogging is something I very much enjoy doing and I want to make sure that I reincorporate it back into my life. 

So here's the plan I have come up with for 2018:

1. I would like to do 2-3 posts per week.  These posts can range anywhere from Month @ a Glance posts to What's Up Wednesday posts and everything in between.  

2. If I am doing a non-regular post, I want to make sure that it adds value to both your life and mine.  I do not want to become one of those bloggers who posts for the sake of posting.  Not only is that boring for you, it is a waste of my time.

3. I want to connect with you more.  Have a topic I haven't covered but would like to see me post about? Send me an email at runwithjackabee@gmail.com or comment below.  I am happy to address different areas of my life or topics that I might not regularly cover.

4. If I do not have posts or topics, or I need to take a break, I will make sure to share with you all my plans for a break.  That way you know how long I'll be gone for and what to expect.  I know, for me, it's frustrating when I go to read a blog and the blogger has just disappeared so I want to make sure I do not do that to you.  

I think that covers everything I wanted to {so far}.  If I think of anything else that I want to share regarding the blog, I will make sure to post an update on this post so everyone is in the loop.  

Question of the Day: What topics would you like to see covered on the blog?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Who I am Hates Who I've been

Music.  It is one of the most power forms of communication that human beings can use to connect with one another.  Music can build someone up, it can change their life, it can help them through a difficult time and so much more.  

Have you ever gone back to your "throwback" music and been so caught off guard by a song that it stopped you dead in your tracks? 

I personally had one of those moments yesterday while I was driving home from work.  On a whim, I decided that I would throw on some Relient K (the old stuff from early 2000) and reminisce with some of their silly music like Sadie Hawkins Dance.  But while I was letting Spotify jump around through their songs, I was caught completely off guard by the words of one of their songs {which I ironically knew all the words to because I listened to this CD on repeat when I was 16}.  

But for some reason, the words sunk in this time....

 While I was "happily" moving along with my life, I had become a completely different person and was unaware of that change until one day I completely fell apart.  I was completely overwhelmed by the simplest things, I was making harsh and irrational decisions and to be honest, I was a complete jerk.  At times, even I was shocked at the words coming out of my mouth, but there I was saying them and suffering with the consequences later.  And my actions and words resulted in me pushing away some friends that I love dearly and semi-destroying my friendship with my best friend.  I was going down in a blaze of glory, that was for dang sure.

I had let my anxiety and my depression completely take over my life until one day I could no longer pretend that I was okay and I fell apart.

And let me tell you, when I look back at that time in my life,
who I am now really does hate who I had been.  

But I have to say, I learned a lot during that time.  I learned that I am more resilient than I give my credit for.  I learned that no matter how "grumpy" I get, I have friends and family that will stand by my side and support me.  I learned that there is always things to learn in every circumstance.  And I learned that the only way to learn and grow is to continue pushing forward.

Now, almost three years later, I am back to the "old" me.  Except, I am not 100% the old me.  I am a new/old me that learned a valuable life lesson and grew from it.

The best part? An old friend of mine and I reconnected and she told me that when we got back together she thought, "Oh there you are.  There's my friend that I love and not this thing that she had became."

Sometimes in life we have to go through hardships and lose connections with people in order to "get back" to who we are.  The process is not fun, in fact it is very painful, but once you are on the other side you will be stronger and grateful for the chance to grow and reflect on your life.

And like me, you could hear a song that almost perfectly represents your hardships/your life and reminds you how far you have come.

If you want to listen to the whole song, check it out below.

Question of the Day: What valuable life lessons have you learned over the last few years? 

I'd love to hear from you!

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Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Read my full disclosure policy here.

To blog or not to blog... that is the question

Hey there everyone! How in the world is it already the end of August? I hope this post finds you well and thriving. 

I wanted to stop by really quickly to let you know that I have not forgotten about you.  And tell you that I have not completely given up on the blog, but I have also been having a hard time coming up with content that I felt would be valuable to my readers.  

When I started RunwithJackabee back in 2012, the thought was for my blog to be a place where I tracked my exercise and tracked my training for my first ever 1/2 marathon.  But if you've been around for a while, you know that I never ran that 1/2 marathon in 2012, and the blog kind of took a wild turn and became something completely different.  

To be honest, that is how my life goes.  One month, my passions will be focused on time with family/friends, the next I will want time to myself and will focus on reading books or doing individual activities, then the next I could be completely interested in something completely new to me.  And for the most part, I believe my blog has been able to keep up with the ebbs and flows of my world.

But this summer, something felt a little different to me.  I felt like I was creating content for the sake of "views" over creating something that brought me happiness/brought you happiness.  I realized that instead of being excited about my blog, I dreaded sitting down and coming up with what I wanted to share and eventually the blog fell by the wayside and I focused on other areas of my life.

Over the past two {almost} months, I have been taking time to reprioritize things in my life because instead of focusing on what is really important, I was focusing on doing things that made other people happy - often at the expense of my own happiness/health.  This realization has forced me to take a step back and start making a few changes in my life.  

So what does that mean for RunwithJackabee?

I  love writing, I love connecting with other bloggers and I love connecting with you all.  So the blog is not going anywhere, but for the next while you might find that it is a little scattered.  I really want this blog to reflect me and not be another item on my "to do" list.  My goal is to provide you with mostly fun content with some heavy hitting content sprinkled in.

I will continue to do some of my posts like Month @ a Glance, Monthly Book Reviews and other fun topics, but I will also be adding topics that come to mind as I go about my day-to-day life.

So what do you think? What would you like to see on the blog that I maybe did not cover before? 

I'd love to hear from you!

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Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Just stopping by...

Happy Friday Friends! I hope you are having the most wonderful week and are looking forward to some fun and exciting adventures this weekend! We are looking forward to painting the dining room and a Going Away/Halloween party tomorrow.

I wanted to pop by really quickly to apologize for disappearing! This week has been a bit chaotic and I felt it would be unfair to you all to just throw together a few posts for the sake of posting.  The last thing I want to do is just post something.  I will admit I am a bit sad I missed another fun round of Show and Tell Tuesdays, but such is life.

On a super exciting note, I finished the Detroit International 1/2 Marathon this past Sunday and I got a new car this week! 

Quick Recap of the 1/2 Marathon

If you do not know what the Detroit International 1/2 Marathon is, it is almost exactly what you would expect it to be.  We run from the U.S. into Canada and back via the Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor Tunnel.  

I have to admit, I really did not enjoy this race {the above picture was taken at mile 3}.  I really struggled to finish this race and was having a hard time overcoming the mental part of running a 1/2 marathon.  I am grateful I had the opportunity to run and finish the 1/2 marathon, but I did not leave this one feeling awesome about myself.  

However, now that a few days have gone by and I have had a chance to really digest the race, I feel super proud that I finished the race.  And I am really grateful for the team with which I run and the organization {and people} we run for.  I look forward to running the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon in 3 weeks!

Getting a New Car!

If you remember, last week I shared about my car being totaled.  Thankfully, the insurance came back and offered us $3000 more than we owed on the car which allowed us to get me a new vehicle.  We had picked out a new car a few weeks back, but the car could not have the deals applied to it until October 18th, so we had to wait to pick it up.

Well, at 9:00 am on the 18th, we got the call we could come get the car and on Tuesday evening we rushed after work to pick up the car.  We ended up buying a 2016 Chevy  Malibu and so far I am loving the vehicle! I feel a little technology challenged because it is so much more advanced than my old car.  

Do you name your cars? My last car had the name Fausta Fiesta and my new car has been aptly named Merida Malibu.  We thought it was a fun name and seeing as I have bright red hair currently, it felt only natural to give her a name after a red-headed character. 

As I learn more about the car, I will be more excited to share with you all! So far, I am most excited about the Apple CarPlay - now to figure out how to actually use it. 

Well that is all for my quick pop in - I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to catching up on Monday!

Question of the Day: Do you name your car? What is your current car's name?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Stuck in an Elevator....

Happy Tuesday friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and you are looking forward to some fun things this week! The weather is lovely here and I have been enjoying breaking out my fall clothes and shoes and of course all of the fall drinks at Starbucks.

Today I wanted to share with you another fun prompt from The Sits Girls and their monthly writing prompts.  Every now and then I check out their prompts to see what fun things that have suggested and I thought this one would be a fun topic to share!

For today's post we are going to talk about if I was stuck in an elevator, who would I want to be stuck with?

Honestly, if I was stuck in an elevator, I might freak out just a little bit.  I do not do well in small places unless I have windows to look out of.  Thankfully, my work has all glass elevators and they move quickly so if the elevator would to get stuck I would be in good shape even if I was stuck by myself at work. 

But when it comes to being stuck with someone in an elevator, I think I would want my husband to be there with me.  Not only is he a generally calm person, he knows what to do to keep me calm when I am having a freak out of any kind.  On top of keeping me calm, he is easy to talk to so we could just sit and talk for a while until we were able to get out of the elevator.

But honestly, getting stuck in an elevator would totally suck but we are surrounded by technology.  It would be easy to grab my phone and watch something on YouTube or spend some time catching up on Facebook while I waited for someone to come and get me.

Question of the Day: Who would you want to have stuck in an elevator with you?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Life Flashing By

Happy Thursday friends! We made it halfway through the week already! I hope that you have fun things planned for this upcoming weekend and finish your week out strong.  

Today I wanted to share another fun writing prompt from The Sits Girls and their monthly writing prompts.

Today's prompt from The Sits Girls is:

If your life flashed before your eyes, which three moments do you think you would see?

This is such an interesting thing to think of because so often we take for granted the things we have in our lives.  So when I sat down to really think about the three most significant moments in my life, these were the first three that came to mind.

The first one is our wedding.

This is probably one of the most commonly thought of moments in a person's life, but for me this represented more than just the two of us.  Justin and I had been together for seven years before we finally tied the knot and when the day finally came for us to be married, my heart was filled with so much joy.  But it goes beyond just us saying "I do", that day was filled with love and happiness from everyone and I have never felt more joy than on my wedding day.  Honestly, if I could repeat that day over and over I would because it is one of my favorite days in my lifetime.

The second thing is my family.

For my entire life, Christmas has always been my favorite time of year because it is a time filled with family and love.  Since about the age of 5, we have been doing a cousin sleepover every year at my grandma's house.  This tradition started as something fun, but as we got older, it became obvious that this tradition was not going to die away.  And since my grandma's passing in 2014, the tradition has not been the same, but it will live on and we will hopefully pass it onto our children some day.

I will always have fond memories around the holidays because of the traditions my family has and I look forward to sharing those traditions with my children some day.    

The third thing is my world travels. 

It is super hard to just pick one of my trips since I've been to a few really awesome places, but when I was thinking about my life, I feel like my travels have been a significant part of my life.  Whenever I travel to a new country, I discover a part of myself that I did not know was there.  And each trip I leave a piece of myself in that country because it was influenced me in some way that I never knew possible.

Question of the Day: What 3 memories would you see if your life flashed before your eyes?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Responding to Change

Happy Wednesday Friends! The week is almost half over and I am looking forward to a fun weekend filled with friends and family.

Today I wanted to share with you a little bit about handling change and how absolutely awful I am at it.  The idea came from The Sits Girls and their monthly writing prompts.  Every now and then I check out their prompts to see what fun things that have suggested and for some reason this one just struck me as something that would be fun to talk about.  

Have you ever had someone call you stubborn? Well I have.  And often.  Honestly, it used to bother me at first, a lot actually, when someone called me stubborn, but I have started to realize over the past year or so that sometimes being stubborn is not a bad thing.

Over the past few years, I have had some major changes in my life.  Like MAJOR.  Some of them I have talked openly about on the blog while others were a little more personal and not something I wanted to talk about on the blog because, well, I did not want to deal with what was happening.

For as long as I can remember, I have hated change.  It would make me very upset when someone would change things on me at the last second.  I mean, how could they? Do they not know that I was counting on things to happen one way and they are not? And it felt like a giant inconvenience that they were changing things on me at the last second.  I mean, I was so set into my routine that I would be frustrated when someone scheduled a meeting when I was planning to leave work at that time.

Talk about stubborn, right?

Well my hatred of change has caused me a little bit of grief over the past few years and I realized that something had to change (ironic right).  So after spending some time reading articles on how to be flexible and open to change, I came across this article from Psychology Today and decided that I would start putting this into practice.

So here are the 5 "P's" for Responding to Change:

1. Learn Patience Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.  Things will not happen overnight and you will be happy you practiced patience.  Feeling anxious? Do not try to rush the results - good things take time.  Make it a point to find a good place where you can be patient while still working toward change.

2. Be Persistent Have you heard the phrase "consistency is key"? Well this is true here.  As mentioned above, it takes time for things to change and the best thing you can do is to be persistent in your pursuit.  Just keep pushing forward, the change will become apparent before you know it.

3. Be Practical While change is a good thing and is something to be celebrated, also remember to find balance between your life and your goal.  Find ways to keep yourself in the present so that you are able to focus on what is right in front of you and not dwell on what is out of reach.  This will help you keep a steady focus on what you need to do.

4. Be Positive During any change, there will be ups and downs.  When you are in the downward slope of change, remember to stay positive.  Being optimistic will help the drops and climbs not feel as staggering.

5. Have Purpose While undergoing any change, always find one thing that keeps you grounded.  Are you making this change for yourself or for others? Focus on the "why" of the change and you will find a purpose in your pursuit

No matter the situation - the loss of a friendship, the changing of jobs, fitness goals - these will always be applicable to any situation.  And they have helped me build a better way to handle changes both big and small.  And hopefully they can be helpful to you as well!

Question of the Day: How do you handle change?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Inspired by Post: Moving

Hi Friends! Sorry I missed yesterday's post! I've been trying very hard to post at least every day during the work week, but yesterday got away from me and I blanked on scheduling the post.  I am a bit sad as it was a Show and Tell Tuesday post too! But, such is life, right?

So a while back, I was having writers block and reached out to some blogger friends for inspiration.  Thankfully, they are amazing and recommended that I check out the monthly writing prompts from The SITS Girls. Let me tell you, if you are a blogger and have writers block, check out their site! I've written down easily 20 to 30 ideas in case I ever get in a bind and need some inspiration. 

All of that being said, one of the prompts they gave is to do a post inspired by the word "moving" and I thought it would be perfect to share with everyone today.

Image Source 

Moving

Right now moving means a lot of things.  Justin and I are in the process of buying our first every house (eek!) so that means in six weeks or so we will pack up all of our stuff (well whatever is going with us) and start a new adventure together.  It is kind of crazy to think that we have been in this apartment for the past three and a half years.  This place has been our home and moving from here will be strange. But it also is extremely exciting. 

We knew that when we moved into this apartment, it would be (most likely) the last apartment that we will live in, so we were a bit picky when deciding on a place to live.  That and we had to have a place that accepted pets because we had Frye.  In this apartment we've celebrated some wonderful holidays, started some wonderful traditions with friends and even added to our family by adopting Leilah.  It will be crazy leaving this place and moving into our first house.

The other thing I think of when I hear the word moving is the thought of moving forward.  The last year has been all about moving forward in life.  I had gone through a rather long period of serious depression that ruined some relationships and caused me to be almost unbearable to be around.  I'll admit it now - looking back on it all, I was pretty awful.  Thankfully I have some friends that helped me through that difficult time and continue to help me move forward.  So when I think of moving, I constantly remind myself that I need to just keep moving forward instead of getting stuck in the past.

So what do you think of when you hear the word "moving"? I am hoping that for you the word brings hope and excitement like it does for myself.

Question of the Day: How does the word "moving" inspire you?

I'd love to hear from you!

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A Social Experiment: Smartphones and People

Happy Wednesday Friends! I hope your week is off to a great start and you are ready to finish the rest of the week.  Last week, my friend shared this article on her Facebook about the affects smartphones have on our relationships and I found it very interesting.  

Did you know that using your phone around someone else can make you seem less trustworthy? Think about that - how many times do you go out to dinner or coffee with a friend and you have your phone sitting on the table? You may not be using your phone, or even interacting with your phone, but just the mere presence of your phone can actually cause a level of distrust from the other person toward yourself.  

I know that for myself, it really frustrates me when I am talking to someone and they are looking at their phone.  It makes me feel like I am not important enough to listen to for the two or three minutes I need their attention.  

So, I thought it might be interesting to participate in a little social experiment of my own. I am going to call this experiment Operation No Smartphone.  For the rest of the month of February, whenever I am in the presence of another peer, I am going to put my phone{s} away.  Obviously, there will be extenuating circumstances where having my phone will be a necessity, but for the most part, I believe it should not cause me too much angst to put it away.

Question of the Day: Do you think you could put your smartphone away in front of other people?

I'd love to hear from you!

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6 Things I Learned from College

Happy Thursday Friends! Last week I came across this list of fun blog topic ideas and thought it would be fun to try and do most {if not all} of the items on the list.  For today, I am going to share 6 things I learned in college.

1. It's good to make new friends 
If you had told me when I started college that I would be making some lifetime friends, I may have doubted you.  One of the biggest and best parts of college for me having my friends close by.  These are the people that you will spend time with, complain about classes with and really grow up with.  

2. However, it is also important to maintain your old friends
Making new friends is one of the best parts of going to college, but it is also important to work and maintain your old ones.  Today my friends are a mix of old and "new", but I find myself spending most of my time with my friends from High School.  There is something so comforting to know that these people know who you were before college, who you were during college and who you are now.

3. It is a time to try new things
One of the biggest things I did in college was make sure I tried new things.  At one point, I joined a fraternity, worked part-time and was on student government.  Turned out that the only thing I really wanted to do was work, so I did not do all of them for very long.  However, it was a good learning experience for me since I would have not known what I thought about the fraternity and student government had I not given it a try.

4. Travel is very important
While in college, I traveled to Italy and France with my best friend Sarah and it was honestly one of the best trips of my life.  Going to another country exposes you to so many exciting adventures and teaches you to be more open and accepting of other people.  Plus, the memories you make on trips like that are ones that will last a lifetime.

5. Do not be afraid to walk away from friendships/relationships that are toxic for you

One of the harder lessons I learned in college was knowing when it was time to walk away from a relationship that had turned sour.  I tend to hang onto relationships out of fear of change, but I realized in college that it was not healthy for me (or the other person) to keep trying to force a relationship that just was not working.  It is much healthier to walk away and remember the good parts of the relationship.

6. Pay of your debt as you go (or at least your interest)

Okay this one really happened more at the end of college and right afterward.  If I could go back and make any changes, I would make it a point to try and pay down my loans as I go.  Unfortunately, I really did not have a ton of extra money so I would not have made too much of an indent on the loans.  

  

Question of the Day: 

What advice would you give a person just starting college? 

I'd love to hear from you!

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You Can Always Pick Yourself Up Again

Happy Wednesday friends! I hope you are having a great hump day so far.  

Yesterday I was home sick with a stomach bug and let me tell you, it was awful sitting at home all day.  I have been dying to get out for a job/run and my stomach has not allowed me to do anything since last Thursday.

Thankfully over the weekend I did a ton of walking in Downtown Grand Rapids so I do not feel as bad about not exercising as much.

Today I wanted to share a video with you that I came across while browsing Imgur.  It is about Jose Mujica - the president of Uruguay - and his views on how countries and democracies should be ran.  But he does not talk only about politics in this video, he talks about life and I am inspired.

It is a bit long so I apologize, but I promise that it is well worth your time.  

 

"You can always pick yourself up again. It's always worth it starting from zero again, once, or a thousand times, as long as you're still alive - that's the biggest lesson in life."

So what did you think? I hope he inspired you in the same way he inspired me.

Question of the Day: Who or what has inspired you recently? 

I'd love to hear from you!

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