Welcome friends and Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were spent with those that you love and with making happy memories to cherish for a lifetime!  Welcome to my new blog, where I hope to share joy, laughter, fresh ideas and friendship with you.  Here is my very first post on my very first blog – enjoy!!

Happy New Year!!

I must say that 2017 has started off exactly how I love to begin new chapters, being surrounded by my family, wearing comfy clothes, eating delicious food, toasting to the new year and best of all listening to the laughter of the kids playing while the adults chuckle, sipping their beverages, reflecting on the past year and gearing up for what’s to come. But this New Year’s in particular, I recall having a few very special moments while sitting at my parent’s dining room table with just my siblings and I chatting about nothing too deep, just swapping stories, smiling, laughing and chilling, for me it was such a real and emotional moment. Some may think it’s a bit crazy, as my siblings and I already have a close bond and we all still live very close to each other, but this particular day was different. You see, like all families, with the good times, comes the not so good times, and the past two years especially, have been filled with many happy times, but also many challenging times for our families, as we have dealt with health challenges, health scares, unexpected deaths of close relatives, job changes, house moves and everyday marital and family situations, so to have a few moments with just my siblings on a happy celebratory day, sitting in the comfort of my parent’s home, chatting at the dining room table where we have shared so many memories, laughing and giggling instead of crying or discussing something serious was a very sincere and emotional few moments for me that I will cherish for the rest of my life. It made me realize how important these little moments are, how infrequent they are and how very special they are given the crazy busy, sometimes stressful schedules we manage in our daily everyday lives.

So, as I begin the New Year, and reflect on the past and plan for the future, I am challenging myself to live-in-the-moment! Those of you who know me well, know that I tend to do things a bit over the top sometimes (not all of the time, just sometimes) and that I love to capture the moments and memories on my camera! Well this past holiday season, I tried to chill a bit, and just literally enjoy the moment, spending more downtime and playtime with my daughter, using my time-off from work to chat over coffee with friends and family, making more time to enjoy the hometown (and NYC) holiday events rather than perfecting the decorations or Christmas morning activities and if a moment deemed worthy of a photo, I did my best to capture it on my camera, but I didn’t play “chase the memory” with my camera, rather I respected the time and the memories being made and made sure I captured all of the special moments in my heart and in my mind.

I’ve learned a valuable lesson this past year which is that God has a plan for all of US, but he needs US to step it up sometimes to ensure WE live out his plan to OUR fullest potential and that a plan is just a plan, how WE execute that plan is up to US, but HE is Always by OUR side. God has blessed me with the most amazing family, I’m beyond grateful for my beautiful and talented young daughter who is growing up so fast but who brings the true meaning of joy to my life each and every day, I’m grateful for my supportive and most-loving husband, for the best siblings a sister could ask for (and their spouses too) who have given me the most kind-hearted and loving nieces and nephews and for my most-amazing and selfless parents who have devoted their entire lives to making sure the lives of their children and the lives of their grandchildren are better than theirs, so there really isn’t much more a girl could ask for, but there is so much more that THIS girl can give.

So, one of my goals for this year is to live-in-the moment, which means, I will be working hard at laughing more than crying, praying more than worrying, socializing more than keeping to myself,  being more optimistic and less pessimistic, talking less and listening more, spending more quality time with those I love and less time planning the “perfect” get-togethers, capturing memories on camera but cherishing all of the moments in my heart and soul, giving more than receiving, working smarter not harder, loving more and hurting less. We’ve all heard it before, we’ve got one life to live, one chance to make it special (so no pressure, right?), but we also have so many gifts to give, some many giggles to share and so much unconditional love to spread, so it’s time to “stop sweating the small stuff” and live THIS life NOW, enjoying ALL of the moments, even if we are still “perfecting” some of the details.

Another goal of mine is the decision to start this new blog. This is something I have been wanting to do for some time now and I am thrilled that I’m finally actually doing it. It’s not perfected, but yep, you guessed it, I’m living-in-the-moment and sharing the “real me” with all of you! My hope for this blog is to bring some humor, some seriousness, some resources, some news, some recipes or creative ideas, but most of all to provide an “inspiring space” to build a network of new friends, stay connected with old friends and strengthen my relationship with God and those that I hold dear to my heart. I welcome you to the real me, and promise the future posts will be less about me and more about YOU, so I hope that you will visit often to swap a story, learn a new trick or become a new friend, because I’m ready to giggle more, guess often, perfect not much and live-in-the-moment.

Cheers and Hugs!

Chat soon,
Your friend, Jen