I'm HOME!!

 WOW!  I am back home.  Finally!  My girlies would get up every single day and slap on that bathing suit and head back down to the pool or beach.  There were other things to do, but you know, as they say, "When in Rome..."... and so, when at the beach.... we swam!

Well, mainly THEY swam!  I go so much done!!  Above are my two idea binders for leadership training, strengths based leadership and some of my favorite books, condensed into summaries.  Brian, from MMPT, has as one of his strenghts, "learner" so he is constantly researching all kinds of subjects.  And "input", which means he likes to categorize things and have them orderly and then... to my benefit, he likes to share them!!  So, I pretty much read through a good chunk of this information.  I also made a new idea binder with tabs to put my ideas behind.  The ideas come from those index cards in the picture below, which I have learned to have beside me on my console, in my purse, in my beach bag, on my nightstand... wherever.  Cause when an idea hits, it needs to be recorded, or for ol' Mel, it's a goner!!  And as I've been learning in my Think and Grow Rich online course, you just never know when the idea that comes into your head is THE idea, inspired by God, to see if you are listening and paying attention.  Think of how many times, something has been invented, and you said, "well, I thought about that years ago" but just never acted on it.  Or maybe, when you have an idea, and you just sort of mill it around, and then you share it with someone else, and it goes gangbusters.  It was their time!!

 I KNOW that I am in the midst of some big ideas and growth and change and feel an explosion of ideas going off in my right brained self, so I have learned to use a system of recording them, circling the word at the top of the cards to direct the idea to the correct tab in the binder, and then let someone else add it for me.  Cause the "organization" sort of stops there.... now I am at the mercy of another!  I am interviewing someone as a potential personal assistant this week, and I have my Mary Allison working for me as an intern all summer, so I am looking for that person who can best complement me and my shortcomings.  That book, above, is the beginning of a planner that I am working on for 2015.  The first one I intend to have printed is for teachers, and will be ready for July when most teachers start planning their new school year.  I will have several other varieties ready for November or so if all goes as planned.

Speaking of ideas... I know I've mentioned this before, but I screenshot things ALL. Day. LONG! Like this...

 Initially, I thought I'd pin all the places I'd been to this year, particularly because I am focusing on the word, "explore".  But I also like the idea of using a pinboard to mark all the places that represent somewhere that I have had a class participant or a retreater come from... so far, there's been Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Wisconsin, and NewYork.  And that is just in one retreat.  Anybody thinking about coming to the one in July?!  It is a mother/ daughter event or maybe a couple of friends signing up together.  Of course, you can expect some of my positive thinking, John Maxwell, affirmations as well as cool art projects.  I hope to post the syllabus by the end of June.  If I add people who have been to a MoJoy event in years prior to this, who am I omitting?  I know Susan and her daughter were from California.  I had Nena Beth from Alabama.  Ok, who am I forgetting about?!  Don't let me leave out your state!!  And don't get your feelings hurt.  My memory SUX!

 So, let's talk a minute about The Beach Club.  Can I say I LOVE that place?!   Well, I think I already have, but I am going to say it again!

 The daily art activities is reason enough!!  The girls would be in the pool and see the crowd gathering and jump right out to go get in line.  The Beach Club has a team of teens whose job is to make sure that the kids are having a fun experience every day.  It's like a dang cruise ship, but on land, and EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!

 On this day, they were making Christmas ornaments with sand and paint pens.

 And they had a whole smorgasbord (how in the WORLD do you spell that?!) of tiny seashells to choose from.  They could put as many shells in the ornaments as they wanted.

 I only had one little issue with the project that day... it had been raining, and they brought the kids wet sand to use.  I asked them if the sand would dry later and look more like the sample.  They assured me it would.

 It didn't!!

 And so I am predicting that we will be pouring out the original project and saving our tiny shells and reworking it someday this summer!

 I snatched a few of these small, colorful shells to use in my scrapbook of our trip also!  Thanks, Beach Club!

 So, if you have kids and are looking for a little getaway this summer, might I suggest The Beach Club.  We had a ball.  I hope I don't break out in a rash tomorrow when I go back to work.  I'm hoping I haven't developed an allergy!  ha.  Just kidding.

 I definitely used my time away wisely, and am ready for really big things this week!!  I will be interviewing and building my team.  I have a speaking/ training engagement this Friday where my job is to motivate and inspire and promote comradery.  I start a four week Creative Lettering Class for adults for four weeks.  And I should be finalizing the teacher's edition of the planner/ calendar and getting to the printer ASAP.  Oh yeah. PLUS... I have all my patients and family members at the clinic to tend to and love on and encourage.  I have the greatest "job".  Thank you, God, for my blessings.

Living in high favor,

MO