My WHY

Why did I start this? The answer is twofold. First of all, being a parent is a trip! It is full of ups and downs, laughter and anger, successes and failures. For many parents like myself, you do everything you can for your kids; they become your focus, your priority. You lose a little bit of yourself because you are not always motivated to be the best you; those priorities are on your children.

I lost that sense of motivation, that focus on my well-being, and my desire to be better. This ended up not being the best thing for my kids, as I had thought. I was losing myself, which had the adverse effect. I needed help to refocus and found many social media sites to help motivate me. However, I had to actively seek it out, which some days I did, but others I did not. I thought there had to be a better way.

The second purpose was becoming the parent of a teenager. As our oldest son transitioned from a child to a young adult to a teenager, we constantly questioned if we were doing the right thing, saying the right words, and instilling the values and principles we wanted our children to hold. Some days we felt like we were doing a good job, while other days felt like we had completely failed (though the truth is probably somewhere in between).

As teenager moods and focus settled in, we struggled to make sure our messaging was being heard. I tried leaving little notes around the house, connecting on car rides, and bonding over everyone's favorite Chick-fil-A dinner. But life happens fast, and those notes became fewer and far between, car rides included headphones to block out the possibility of talks, and Chick-fil-A with the family usually had a friend or two in tow. Life changes, but I wanted to make sure our kids still "heard" my words.
Given so much time is spent on our phones these days, I thought to stop fighting it and use the technology to my advantage. Even if 20% is absorbed, it is 20% more than 0%. That 20% will go a long way in building stronger kids with more confidence and internal fortitude to face a world that is as challenging as ever.

The goal for this is to be quick and simple. No bells or whistles, just a simple text message each day. Thanks for taking the journey with me.