I really rather enjoy these posts. I’m such an organizational freak! Seriously, I have to have my life all planned out or I get super nervous. Does that happen to you too?
What I do to dispel this anxiousness for myself is making yearly goals and setting up monthly checkpoints. I’m EXTREMELY goal driven. If I don’t have goals I’m working toward, I feel completely and utterly USELESS. I’m not even kidding you.
These twice a year updates keep me sane and on track! 🙂
Recipes
You may have noticed that I’m doing a lot more recipes on the blog. I guess that I would say I used to be embarrassed about my pictures, so I just didn’t do them. But, behind the scenes, I’ve been working SUPER DUPER hard on learning to take gorgeous pictures. It’s not just about the pictures themselves, but food staging, props, etc.
It’s a LOT to learn, but I’m trying my best. I have also hired help with recipe creation and picture taking because it is something that I really enjoy doing, but sometimes you just need an extra pair of hands to hold the bowl or discover new recipes. The girl I work with (along with my daughter) are both great.
It’s been fantastic having 3 sets of hands to provide you with the absolute BEST recipes possible, and all of our experience ranges and excels in different areas, so you get a wide variety of recipes and picture-taking skills! It’s been SOOOO much fun. I’m in love with it!
In fact, I have a post coming on the 24th of this month that will take you behind the scenes of how I’m working things. 🙂 You’ll love it. So be sure to look out for that post coming soon!
Personal Attacks
While there is a lot going on in my personal life that I just can’t talk about publicly right now, I can say that I’ve been under attack by Satan on some major issues for a very long time. I’ve been accused of all sorts of really bad stuff, but at the end of the day, I stand before God blameless. I will tell you clearly, that I am falsely accused and I’m at the point where I don’t really care who believes me and who doesn’t; I know the truth.
There comes a point in your life where you will have opportunity to compromise. Sometimes it’s major, sometimes it’s in little things, but let it be said of me, that whatever punishment I face (and it’s harsh, I assure you), I stand firm that I am innocent, that I will obey the Bible as clearly presented to me in black and white text, and that I will show my kids and you guys that I will not waiver or compromise my integrity.
Satan is a deceiver and the father of lies and I’m afraid he’s gotten ahold of some people very close to me at the moment. That’s not my concern. My concern is to be found faithful, honorable, and as godly as humanly possible. Do I fail? Absolutely. Have I messed up? Yes. But, I’m still standing, and God is the ONLY ONE who MAKES me stand in the face of such horrible oppression.
My only word to you, is that no matter what you face in your life, KNOW that if you’re a true believer, God has already won the war. While He allows us to suffer unjustly sometimes to grow us, it is always for our good. I look forward to the day, when I can share with you all that has happened, and believe me, when this trial is over, you’ll be the FIRST to know! I’ve been holding my tongue for a very long time….Sarah doesn’t hold her tongue well. LOL.
God’s still #1
With that said, as always, NO, I’m not taking God off my site. If someone is offended by God, I’m really sorry about that, but this is not the site for them….at all. My love for Christ shines through in everything I do and I’m not going to cut myself off or tip-toe around the topic. This blog is me on a plate and I happen to be in love with the Creator of the Universe.
That has led to less traffic, and I get it. I understand…and I’m okay with that. But I’m not going to change who I am. I didn’t give up God for my ex-husband and I’m not going to give it up on the blog either. I’m sorry.
Health/Medical Binder in January
This past year (since last October), I’ve lost a good 65-70 pounds and have kept it off. My health journey started with essential oils about 6 years ago and has slowly evolved into something much bigger than I ever imagined. I’m so excited about all the progress I’ve made in my life thus far and in making a binder for myself (organizational freak), I figured I’d put it on the blog and share it with all of you!
I could NEVER create such gorgeous printables, so I hired a wonderful woman to make them for me and wowzer, they are so awesome!!! I literally could not be any more excited. I absolutely love them and I know you will too. The month of January will be mostly about getting healthy and creating your very own custom-made health and medical binder, which I personally think everyone should have!!!
So, be sure to check that out in January….and yes, in case you’re wondering, it will totally be free! I thought about charging for it, just to recoup some of the money I paid toward making them, but I thought it might be nicer if I just created them as a special thank you gift for walking with me on this journey and being a fan of the blog. You won’t even need to sign up for a newsletter to get them….I’m not into playing games. 🙂
If you’d like to help, I’d LOVE it, if you’d share them with others. Share them on your blog, on your Facebook page, on Pinterest, share the heck out of them. That would really make me so very happy, knowing that I’m helping others get more healthy in the New Year and that all my hard work of helping create them is actually being seen by people and not some dud post.
And as I’m saying that, I’m going to the post that I have set up that I have not shared with a single soul before this post and it ALREADY has 681 shares and the post isn’t even live yet! How funny! There’s no links to the printables or anything in there! Sometimes blogging is just funny like that! 🙂
Wanna sneak peak? Here ya go!
New Design
I get a lot of questions about who designed my blog and where they can get a template.
What most people DON’T know about this blog is that it is 100% designed by ME! After trying a lot of different pre-made templates that never seemed to work well for me, I had an amazing designer design my blog a few years ago. As time went on, I kept redesigning until I got to the point where I was doing the designing myself (control freak!) It just rolled and rolled like a snowball.
Now, I’m at the point where I know exactly what I want and I design the entire thing myself. I ask my technician if they can do what I’d like and usually they can because they ROCK. Bada-bing-bada-boom, my site changes over time, but it’s always something I created in my head of where I want stuff to go and how I want it to look.
With that said, I have a new design coming soon! I started getting into fonts, overlays, and photo software this last month and designed a new header for the blog and a few other tweaks. I absolutely adore it. There’s a new company I found that I’m going through for fonts now. They are AH-mazing if you wanna check them out and super cheap too! I’ve become, quite literally obsessed with them.
A lot of times, they have bundles too, that end up being like 95% off the regular price.
I got a bundle for December. It’s 97% off regular price. It’s 81 design products (there ARE several blogging themes included for your blog!!!), regular retail price is $1,423 and it’s 39 bucks! You really can’t beat that price! Especially for a package that includes several WordPress themes! One is uber cute! It’s called Anissa.
But if you want that deal, hurry, because it’s only good for like 9 more days!
New eCourse Coming
You totally read that right. While I really enjoy creating eBooks, I very much enjoy creating eCourses too! And I’m hard at work behind the scenes creating for you a new ecourse. I’m super stoked!
What inspired it?
I can’t really take credit for it. I was driving out of town and all the sudden, the idea popped into my head. I told the idea to my daughter (who helps me on the blog) and within 5 minutes, we had brainstormed everything out, including the hardest part for me personally, a title.
This project is especially important to me because it ties so much into what I’m all about…helping people. I know it’s going to help a LOT of people, and best of all, it’ll be FREE!
It’s kind of funny. The other day I got an email asking why I didn’t charge more for my stuff. I guess in my heart I know I could be making $30,000-$50,000 more a month if I wanted to. I guess that I would say that because I was homeless and because I know what it’s like to not know where your next meal is going to come from, I know that many of you are suffering too and price shouldn’t stop you from getting the valuable information that you need.
I’d also say that if I started making too much money, I wouldn’t be able to relate to you guys anymore. I wouldn’t feel the pains of what you’re struggling with and it would, in a way, separate us. I want to always be able to relate to you if I am to help you, and that means being in the trenches WITH you.
While I can’t say that most all of my stuff will always be free, I can say that right now I’m content with the blog as it is, whether it makes a little or a lot and I’d rather put a smile on your face than take a $1 from your pocket.
My Newest Released Book
You guys!!! I’m so excited to announce that my newest book, How to Make Money as a Virtual Assistant (now available in the Honest Bloggers Academy Course), that went live on November 29, 2016, has already hit Amazon’s #1 best selling list. This is my third or fourth book in a row now that has hit that list and I’m just in shock.
I can’t believe how good God is to me and how much you guys value my stuff. I work really hard on these things and while nothing I do is perfect, it’s my heart and soul, so it really means so much to me that you guys like it!
I get so nervous every time I launch a new book. Your happiness means everything to me and I work so hard to give you exactly what you want. THANK YOU for being a part of my life. THANK YOU for making MY dreams come true of being a great author, because I truly enjoy it. THANK YOU for your encouragement and support. I honestly believe I have the best readers on the net.
No more Facebook
This was so very difficult for me. God had been convicting me for about a year to get off Facebook, and to be honest, I was really reluctant for so many reasons. In all honesty, I would say I rebelled from Him (and later repented) and there came a point where He shut me down in one day. It was so difficult.
I had to find someone I could trust super quick to take over the Facebook group (that was soooo hard to give up!!!) but I had no choice. God allowed both my Facebook accounts to get hacked! What a nightmare that was and the damage they did!!! It was my fault…I should have obeyed Him sooner. 🙁
Sometimes God asks you to give things up that are important to you and it’s really hard. I can only pray that He will help me be able to connect with you guys in new ways. I started hanging out on Twitter more and have found that, thus far, I actually like it 5,000 times BETTER than Facebook. It’s still premature to compare, as I was on Facebook for years and I just started getting on Twitter, but so far, I do really like it. If you’re on Twitter, check me out here. My goal is to inspire and encourage you once a day with things that encourage and inspire me.
Hopefully, it’ll grow into something more, but for now, I’d like to invest in your heart in that way and encourage you. I hope that you’ll check me out on Twitter so that I can. 🙂
And as always, if you wanna see where I REALLY thrive, check out my Pinterest page….I am ALL ABOUT PINTEREST BAYBAY!
Let me know what you’d like to see more of on the blog in the comments below! I’d love to hear from ya. <3
