lifestyle

dreams, growth

1 year blogversary!!

February 17, 2016February 17, 2016by Sheridan Johnson19 Comments

1 year Anniversary

One year has come and gone sine I joined the WordPress team!

I actually wrote my very first blog Feb 10, 2014 and you can find it here.

I didn’t know what to expect when I made the sudden change.

I decided 2015 was going to be the year I took blogging seriously.

YOU GUYS (my awesome followers) have been AMAZING to me.

You have lifted me up, gave me confidence, and I finally learned my own voice.

I have passions I never knew I had, hopes, and dreams that I never would have thought of.

I have over 220 followers that actually want to read MY content, that’s crazy!!

Some more stats: Over 300 posts written, almost 10,000 page views, and over 4,600 visitors!

Thank you so much for literally sticking around and growing with me!

Let’s make year 2 one for the books!! ♥

30 days, children, Connected parenting

Exploring your own weakness

February 9, 2016February 7, 2016by Sheridan JohnsonLeave a Comment

In the last and final section of this series of the 30 days towards connected parenting, Rachel talks about the importance of exploring your own weakness.

I think for Shane and I, we both have different weaknesses that we had to address, and face, head-on.

Sometimes there are things in life, or a marriage that are hard and difficult to talk about, so most people would just avoid them, instead of putting them out there and facing them. That can only last for so long, and I am glad that we were able to discuss this with each other, and the impact it has on our children.

A couple of our examples, were that Shane has a weakness for saying “yes” to anyone/anything. He didn’t realize the impact of his generosity and kindness to others was having on our family. He wasn’t spending as much time at home, he was putting us after others, and he didn’t even realize that sometimes he can say “no” to people, and not be afraid to hurt their feelings. He had to work on finding a happy medium that worked best for him and for our family, that we could both agree on.

Me, on the other hand, have the tendency to support every.single.organization/friend/charity, by donating big or small, and while I used to be able to do that without even blinking an eye because we were making so much more money, I didn’t realize that I continued to do it, even when I dramatically cut my hours to be a stay at home with Brielle during the week and only work weekends. Spending money is my weakness, and even while it was helping others, it was hurting our family financially so we came up a game plan of how much is “ok” to spend each month, and if I pick up extra shifts and we have extra, that it’s ok to help out as much as possible!

Both situations are completely different, but recognizing them and taking ownership of our own actions, can only help us in our future communicate better, and not be so afraid to address the weaknesses that lie within us!

This 30 day parenting definitely took me longer than 30 days to complete, but I am SO happy that we took the time/energy/effort into this, and I am LOVING the outcome!

Adoption, parenting, Shop Sunday

Re-writing our Journey

January 30, 2016January 30, 2016by Sheridan Johnson18 Comments

This journey to become parents has been one of the best journeys we (Shane and I) have embarked on. We have been through so much that it could either have torn us apart, or have brought us closer together.

I am so glad God has brought us closer to Him, and to each other. We never knew we could have hope again, truly feel alive again and happy. We told each other when we first found out we were pregnant with Lamar, that we would never lose faith in the Lord, or each other. We vowed to stay true to each other, and share ourselves deeper than ever before. We made a pact to each other to always be honest about our feelings/struggles we were going through. Little did we know, God would test our strength, love, and dedication once again when we gave us Rochelle. Rochelle taught us so much throughout her short 2 months here with us, and really showed us that God can put us through the worst circumstances of our life, and with Him, we can come out of them stronger, dedicated, and more open to different challenges and changes in our lives. Brielle has taught us so much, in just having her here with us each and every day, and just amazed by how smart she is, and how much she understands at such a young age! We love being her parents!

This month, we decided to start a new, different journey. We believe God is putting it in our hearts and our mind now to foster/adopt a precious child in need. I have always known I have felt drawn to supporting other adoptive mamas in their journey to becoming adoptive parents by supporting there shops such as here and here, but I never knew I would be one of the mamas asking for prayers and support as we embark on the actual journey.

We have prayed over this for a while now, and we truly believe that if God is going to put this in our heart, He will get us through it. It’s a long, hard process to become certified foster/adoptive parents, but we are definitely ready to embark on this wild ride.

So far, we have only been to one orientation, and had to fill out our “initial” application to the state, completed our background checks, had our wellness exams from our doctors stating that we would be “fit parents” to foster/adopt, taken our TB tests(Brielle still needs hers), filled out 40+ pages of paperwork, and had our first HOME VISIT(that’s another post in and of itself), and while it may seem like we have done a lot, there is still so much to do and we start our 2 week classes this Monday (Feb 1st).

We still need:

-our FBI/fingerprinting (scheduled for next week)

-First aid classes (since apparently we both only have our CPR card–scheduled for next week)

-Brielle’s Tb test

-My parents need to fill out background checks(done Monday)

-To put up a barrier around our “body of water” (not a pool) in our front yard

-To do more gravel work in the backyard

-To get our Environmental health inspection/fire inspection completed

-To get copies of shane and Brielle’s birth certificate (that will be done monday)

And probably a whole lot more that I cannot seem to think of right at this very moment!

Please give us ANY advice if you have been through this journey, or just starting the journey as we are! We would greatly appreciate it! 🙂

nature, photography, poetry

Bubble

January 11, 2016March 14, 2016by Sheridan Johnson6 Comments

When you mix three simple

ingredients together,

such as soap, water, and air,

and blow it up,

you form a bubble.

It’s amazing how simple it seems,

to make such a weightless object.

Something that can drift away so quickly,

soaring high into the sky.

But yet with a simple touch,

it can pop and disappear.

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