The Weary World Rejoices!

Hello, Everybody!

Hope you had a very Happy Christmas! It was a very merry Christmas in my corner of the book world! Let's keep the love and merriment going this last week of 2016.

Whatever your Christmas weekend was like, don't forget to remember the God has already given us the best gift we will ever receive: eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ! May this love fill you with hope and believe in the future God has for you.

Let your actions and words be love-filled. Remember to think about the people around you who may need an extra cheery "Hello!" or who may be dealing with the loss of a loved one! Just spread love.

My sweet Merry had plenty of cuddles all Christmas

The Falcons won their division title on Christmas Eve. Go Falcons!

With a mug of homemade hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows, you can't go wrong.

Whatever the next day, year brings, don't stop believing in God, in yourself, in your dreams, in the magic of life.

#believe
Caitlin A.

#Inspired

Hello, Everyone!

Enjoying your summer, yet? We don't have to be children or teenagers to enjoy summertime joy. The lightning bugs are still out there at sundown and the sun still shines hot no matter your age. In summers past I have found that it was easy to get sidetracked by the long hot summer days and the summertime festivities of bar-b-ques, lake days, friends' weddings, or the summertime blues. We find excuses to distract us. If you don't, good for you. You can read on about my midsummer refocus.

As summer came this year, I was thinking of ways to stay focused on work. Well, that last full weekend in June was a weekend full of inspiration showing in places I didn't think I would find it.

Thanks to a sweet friend and my sister for surprising me with birthday gift tickets for the last weekend of June to see Maksim and Valentin Chmerkovskiy, professional dancers known for their talented work on Dancing with the Stars. The brothers co-star and co-coreographed their live dance tour, Maks and Val: Our Way. As my sister and our friend headed to the show, I ws looking forward to an exciting night of dancing, and walked away more inspired and motivated by their life journey.The show was less about the men's physique and talent, but instead focused on their parents, hard work, love, and the fun they have living their lives. Before this experience, I thought I had a pretty good work ethic...afterward the show, I realized my work ethic needs more work, more hours!

After attending "Our Way", I was pumped to get started on a new work week! I was home catching up on the week's episodes of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and J.J. Watt, defensive end for the Houston Texans' NFL team, was one of Jimmy's guests. Watt was promoting his new cross trainers from Reebok and talking about his work ethic which has made him the defensive player of the entire National Football League three out of the past four years. Watt's message is one that gives charge to each individual to work their hardest to be the greatest they are capable of being. Yep, even more motivation for me to work harder and put more hours into publishing quality novels that I believe can impact readers' lives in a positive and encouraging way.

"If you do the bare minimum, expect bare minimum results. You want to be great, work to be great. Nothing just happens." -J.J. Watt

Sunday night was the last women's gymnastics competition before the 2016 summer Olympic Trials which begin in mid-July. The hard work that these young women put into their sport is incredible to watch. As I watched, I was inspired by the way they put all their effort and strength into each event no matter how tired they got. On top of their strength, their determination to win a place on the 2016 U.S. Olympic team was inspiring! They wanted the privilege to represent the United States of America in the Olympic games and they were not and are not afraid to work hard to get there. 


Dedication, commitment, and sacrifice (even during the long and hot summer days) are what gets the work done. I think its best to not overthink our daily responsibilities. Just do the work.

Comment with your summer time work life inspirations!

#BELIEVE
Caitlin A.