A Healthy Start to the Day

Thanks for all those who have been praying for my Dad. His Heart Catheterization went well, thanks be to God. The 4 Bypasses that they did 10 years ago are all open! The main Artery to his heart has narrowed, and there is about 60% diffused blockage there. Since it is diffused, they can’t put in a stint (which is used when there is a main point of blockage). So he will be starting a non-invasive therapy soon to help with that blockage and hopefully create new wide-open capillaries going to the heart – it’s called EECP.

When something goes wrong with the body, it’s usually then that we really wish we had done a better job of caring for it. Exercise and eating-right are key, and yes, I struggle with that too.  Dad isn’t much of a cook, and it can be daunting to try and do all that just for one person, especially starting in your 70′s.  He wants to eat heart healthy, but the Doctor didn’t have much to give him in order to accomplish that end. I decided that I’d start an ongoing collection of heart-healthy recipes for Dad, and to share with anyone who wanted simple, quick recipes – basically less than 30 minutes.

Today is the beginning of what I’d like to start as an ongoing (over time) Heart Healthy Recipes Series, and it’s a small but loving beginning. And when you’re at the beginning, what is more appropriate then the start to the day, BREAKFAST?

I used to be one of those people who did not like to eat breakfast. I would wake up so congested that my stomach was upset, and I definitely was not looking for anything to be put in it. But my Pediatrician at the time said that I needed to eat something in the morning, especially since I get Migraines. Now, I’m a big breakfast advocate, 100% pro breakfast, and a card-carrying member of Granola Chompers International. OK, I think I may have made that last thing up, but I wanted you to understand my heart-felt (cough) disposition towards Breakfast, and that just flowed out…sorry.

These recipes were chosen because they have few and simple ingredients, take a short amount of easy prep, and are things my Dad likes. Hopefully they will be things that you like too.

Here is a link to the download including 5 easy Heart-Healthy Recipes:

Heart Healthy BREAKFASTS

OR, if you’d just like to go to websites where I gathered the recipes, click on the titles below.

Banana-Peanut Butter Smoothies

Slow Cooker Oats

Summer Berry Parfait with Yogurt and Granola

Breakfast Tortilla Wrap

Easy Egg White Omelet

Happy Breakfast eating, friends. Share your reviews or even your own Heart-Healthy recipe suggestions in the comments please!

Prayer Before Surgery with Dad

My Dad recently had a Nuclear Stress Test and the results showed that his heart isn’t functioning properly. He had not told us that he had been having some shortness of breath and palpitations and such…ugh… They aren’t sure what is wrong — if it’s something with his Quadruple Bypass (that they 10 years ago yesterday), or something new.

In order to discover that, today they will do a Cardiac Catheterization — during which a long thin tube, a catheter, will be inserted in an artery or vein in his groin and threaded through the blood vessels to his heart. This will show them what the issues are. He is deathly allergic to Iodine (which is why he can’t eat shellfish — hives, close his wind-pipe), so they have been prepping him before and will be ready during the surgery for that.

 

There is a chance when they are in there, that if he needs something done (like a stint), it may be taken care of at the time. Not sure. 

 

Dad has been anxious about this. He’s been through it before, and not seamlessly I might add, but with Mom. Without her optimism and “everything will be fine” attitude, he’s certainly feeling it. My Florida brother and I are here, well, to just be here with him.

Dad has had trouble sleeping the past few nights. Before we went to bed last night, I searched for a prayer and found this short yet poignent prayer at Catholic.org:

Loving Father, I entrust myself to your care this day; guide with wisdom and skill the minds and hands of the medical people who minister in your Name, and grant that every cause of illness be removed, I may be restored to soundness of health and learn to live in more perfect harmony with you and with those around me. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Into your hands, I commend my body and my soul. Amen.

When we have health scares, it reminds us how out of control we are of our lives, how fragile life is, how quickly things can change. It also can reveal to us how great we are in need of a Savior, how grand our trust needs to be, how loving our family and friends are, and how we need to embrace life and do and say the things we need to right now…not wait for “someday”.

Practical Tips for Entrepreneurs Starting Up

It’s been a rather recent major life-event in which I’ve set-off on my own course of Entrepreneurship — less than 6 months actually. And although I’ve had years of experience working for and with other Small Business Owners, it’s definitely a whole new game when performing my own pulling up by the proverbial bootstraps.

For those who may have missed previous announcements, I quit my job in December to pursue building our own company full-time. It is called illuvint llc, and in one sentence,  we are a service-provider to other small businesses and ministries. Our services are geared towards supporting Entrepreneurs and Ministry workers in their weakest areas, including: building, maintaining, revamping Websites; strategizing and implementing Social Media; developing and implementing Marketing plans and/or campaigns; power-packed Copywriting and content provision; and savvy Graphic Design.  I have assembled a stellar team across the country of the best and brightest people in these areas, where it is all that they do – and do it very well.

At any rate, there are a few (hundred) lessons I’ve been learning during this start-up phase, but I wanted to skim the cream off of the top and give you a few of my top pieces of advice, from one Start-up to another Start-up. This isn’t one of those big conceptual lists like you’d find here on things like ROI or validating the market, this is about providing simple, practical tips to folks like my friend about to quit her job and plunge into the Entrepreneurial world.  For those who are debating, or just got up the courage to start your own business, I hope this gives you an idea of what to prepare for on the out-set.

1) There are only so many hours in a day, so pace yourself

In a lean start-up (like ours), with the work load immense and the hands to perform it very sparse, one can easily give into that feeling similar to trying to climb out the Grand Canyon with a step stool. I’m that ambitious person that writes a to-do list of 15 things, to only cross of maybe 2 in a day (well, technically 1 but that’s because I’m waiting for someone to get back to me on #2). The 15 point list should really be prioritized, broken down into a list ranking what needs to be done today, later this week, next week, or even next month.  A good friend once told me, “Know your limitations and be at peace with them.” So Confession time: I downloaded a free trial program nearly 30-days ago and have barely done any work within the month-long trial; but I could list you the 100 other things I was managing and taking care of during that month that were even more important, such as looking after business/personal/state taxes or creating business alliances. Pace yourself!

2) Don’t be fooled by the flexibility of your schedule, but don’t ignore it either

I recently read some advice on one of those Entrepreneur sites saying an employee-turned-Entrepreneur applied his 8am to 5pm regular schedule that he had at his previous job to running his own company. I’ve tried to adapt this, but I’m really not a morning person folks – that, plus my creative juices are often get their prime flow come 9:00 pm.  So what’s an Entrepreneur like me to do? Without kids (yet), our evenings and weekends easily lend themselves post-meals to collaborate with my business partner/Husband on current projects or go over what happened during the day. Just about every evening, you’ll see us two with our Macs in the living room, plunking away at something work-related. Outside of clients, we’ve got our company website to build, accounting system to integrate, Social Media pages to design and strategize etc etc…so with such big undertakings and my Hubs with his full-time job, it’s the work-around solution. So we’re still working on finding balance in this area. The flexibility to collaborate with my Husband in the evenings when he is available shouldn’t be avoided because it’s outside of normal working hours. But then, I’ve got to adjust my day-time schedule so that I’m not working consistent 15-hour days and burning myself out. I’m a work-in-progress on this one, but I say that there is a balance as not one cookie-cutter idea should be applied to all Entrepreneurs. Conversely, if you’re working at all hours of the day or night, that’s a problem too. A balanced approach is best regarding your schedule.

3) Create and then utilize an environment of productivity

We all know that there’s a big difference in productivity levels based on your surroundings. Working from home, I can have the TV running in the background, while needing to get up every 3-minutes to stir dinner, and doing a Google chat with my old roomie from Canada — there’s no one to tell me otherwise. During the week, when I’m ready to get down to business (and yes, often in my PJs in the morning – I’ve earned it!) I go back into our home office, aka Command Central. (Click here to see what it basically looks like when tidy).  The posture of sitting at my desk tells my body it’s time to be productive. If you’ve worked with me, you know I love music and love working to music, so I then put on a playlist that won’t distract me but makes me happy. And I keep the things I need throughout the day easily accessible (file folders, office supplies, etc…) so that I don’t get off on a tangent each time I require a document or a paper clip.

That being said, I’m not opposed to changing it up when a change of pace is needed. If I need some human interaction, or if my house is a mess and I know I’ll be tempted to take a 2-hour cleaning break, then heading out is a good option. Working from a Wi-Fi spot like the Library, our fav Coffee Shop, a Bistro, or even on my patio — can provide fresh inspiration in with a fresh view. When heading out on these excursions, just be sure you have what you need to be productive in your new environment (headphones, notepad, necessary documents, etc…)

4) Take the time and due-diligence to lay a firm foundation

Unless you’re a Franchise owner, you need to create a foundation for your company. This requires a lot of time and strategizing, from business development documents and plans to opening bank accounts, from setting up Social media pages to creating business cards, from developing processes and procedures to pricing structures…and so on and so on… I’ve worked for other small businesses owners, and it was a great disadvantage when they did not have a firm foundation from which to operate their business.  There are so many great resources out there to help you, whether you know what you’re doing or not. One excellent resource I’d recommend that a good friend gave to me years ago, “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It”. Another resource recommended by a friend setting up her own business on the side right now is “The 4-hour Workweek“, which I bought but have yet to read, since there are a couple of my books in line in front of it (including one that I’ll be promoting for client, which definitely is priority!).

5) Draw support from those who can relate surrounding you

There are a great many benefits to being a Small Business Owner, and some down-sides (like with anything). One possible down-side, at least for a people-person like myself, it that it can be isolating when you work from home by yourself on your own projects, day-after-day.  So if I get an offer to meet someone for lunch, I rarely turn it down. And if I need an eye to check over something I’ve done, I’ll ask and email it to a friend I can trust. Or if a created a form to utilize when doing a website build, I send it over to the Developers I’ve created an alliance with to provide feedback. I’m blessed to have a dear friend in my last Boss that has offered my old office as a work-space anytime I need to get out and have more human interaction. I’m doubly blessed to have found an incredible support in my Husband AND business partner.

So the point is, if you need something it may not just lend itself easily like when you worked in an office — you may have to seek it out.

Hopefully you find some nuggets of wisdom from my own experience. And for those Entrepreneurs out there – I wish you every success!

The Gift of Laughter

I’m knee deep in video editing again today for a client. In the midst of downloading my footage from our DSLR Camera days ago, I also had some family footage from the past few months that I dropped into my editing program. I’m coming clean – YES, it’s April and I am just getting to download family videos that I took from LAST year. Frankly, it seems like a miracle that I’m even doing it now, I’m so up to my ears with getting our business fully-functioning amidst the brouhaha of life.

When life gets rushed and is robbing me of much needed leisure–it is precisely in these moments when taking time for the little things, like to appreciate what a gift laughter is, is well worth it.

In the midst of all my splicing and transitioning, I clicked on this clip and heard my sweet little Godson’s voice breakthrough. Instant MELTING occurred. Seeing his little eyes peer through the cutouts of the Kickboard, I traveled back to that time and place, remembering the sights, sounds, and smells. I smiled.

My Godson and I were sitting by my Dad’s pool in his screened-in porch, on a sunny, warm Florida day right before Christmas (Hence “White Christmas” playing in the background). The night before we had played with the cardboard pizza boxes, peering through the cut-out while giving a warm, “HELLO!” to each other and laughing in between. This little montage of our Godson brought me the gift of laughter today. I call it “The Art of Salutation” by Jacob.

With all that life gives us that we could complain and cry about, it’s nice to celebrate these moments. When life gets hectic, remember to take time to savor the memories that make us laugh and be grateful for our loved ones.

Glorious Sunset

One Spring evening a couple of weeks back, the Hubby and I sauntered out onto our little slice of patio in the city. Standing there, hugging one another, we watched the sky grow auburn – as is customary when it slips past the horizon until the dawn.

I slipped back inside to grab our camera, hoping to catch a few sunset sky shots atop the roofs of condos that just lie beyond ours. I managed to grab some keepers, including the background of the icon below.

Looking at those softly sunlit pictures, it reminded me of that Third Day song I love, “Your love, oh Lord, reaches to the heavens…” (click video below, it’s well worth it!).  And that inspired me tonight to design this:

Gaining Mad Photo Skills

With 2,000+ images from a client shoot over 4 days in California, photo editing work can be a bit daunting. A Pro Photographer I do not claim to be; yet I possess an Artist’s eye and a penchant for learning. I’ve been working hard on gaining some “mad photo skills”.

Here I give you a couple samples of my latest digital photography editing work. I am using Photoshop along with a plugin a photographer blog recommended called RadLab. I am testing out RadLab with a 14 day free trial, and loving it!

Here’s a couple samples to see what a difference learning and applying photo editing can make!

BEFORE: Age to Age Concert: Curtis Stephan, Steve Agrisano, and Dan Schutte

AFTER: Photoshop + RadLab Plugin Editing

TOP IMAGE: BEFORE – Bishops with Archbishop Gomez of LA.

AFTER: Photoshop + RadLab Plugin Editing

Well, back to editing I go!

When You Are Running on Empty

It has been a profound week, my friends.

Instead of write about it, I decided to design something to fit the theme of this week.

The background image is photo I captured in a beautiful little chapel on the grounds of a religious community in a small town in Coahuila, Mexico. I have gone on Mission in Mexico about three times, and miss my friends there deeply.

This quote I found today, and LOVE love LOVE it.  It fits so much into the theme of this Lenten journey, for me, for those He’s brought to me, according to HIS purpose and design.

Many of us are struggling to find or maintain peace. Some feel completely lost. Nothing in this world, search as you may, will give the peace that passes all understanding. And just remember – don’t give up on HOPE, because HOPE hasn’t given up on you!

White Smoke, Bells, New Pope!

It’s a damp, cold night in Rome. But it is not stopping the thousands gathered, that have been waiting, cheering, praying, the hopeful crowds!

The Dean of Cardinals has recently appeared in the balcony window, and announced:

“I announce to you news of great joy.  We have a Pope! …who takes the name Francisco (Francis)”

He is the 1st Pope from Latin America.  He hails from Argentina, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. WOW. (Photo credit: CNS)

The well-respected Cardinal Edward Egan (Archbishop Emeritus of New York), says of him, “A man who calmly stands for what is right and just…have immense admiration for him, and I think you are going to like him a lot….He’s a very smart man, who will know how to govern…and appoint people who are capable.”

He stepped to the microphone and says, “Buena sera” and the crowd went wild!

What great humility he showed when he began by saying, “I would like to say a prayer for our Bishop Emeritus Benedict XVI,” and proceeded to lead us in saying the Our Father and Hail Mary in Latin.

His second request, “I’d like to ask you to ask the Lord to bless the Bishop,” beseeching the crowds to pray in silence for him.

In a true moment of humility, he bowed down as we, the Church, asked God to bless him as our new Shepherd.

“I’m here to evangelize the city of Rome,” he told the people. BOOM!

And a great blessing was then imparted by our new Holy Father. It was an electrifying moment to see him in his shiny new Pope garb, beginning his new role of leadership in the Church.

One more time he grabs the microphone before departing.

“I leave, thank you very much for your welcoming, pray for me, and I will see you soon…I will pray to the Virgin Mary so she keeps Rome…”

His first appearance has left me this impression that he has a heart of an evangelizer, passionate about the message of the Gospel, very personable, warm, and humble, a snappy dresser, and had a great Italian accent. A Jesuit, he is sure to be an intellectual.  I heard he was very much a follower of John Paul II, and thought to be “too orthodox by some” with a great love for the poor — ’nuff said. WOOT WOOT.

Was it not to St. Francis that God said many years ago, ‎”Francis, go and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.”

As Catholics, we do not believe in coincidence. It is providential that he bears the name Francis, that he is from Latin America, and possesses an amazingly simple, humble spirit.  As another Franciscan buddy, Chris Stefanick, posted today,

As Cardinal he cooked for himself, took the bus to work, refused to live in a palace but lived in an apartment instead.
He is a STRONG and clear moral teacher, unafraid to tackle issues like gay marriage…yet he embodied a spirit of service and of mercy. He showed up at an AIDS hospice to wash the feet of the patients there.
Folks, I think we’ll have a Canonizable Pope here. Glory be to God.

I did not expect to be so emotional, but it was a great moment. A very exciting time for the Church indeed!

The GRACE of State

For the record, I did not intend the title the other way around, as in “state of grace”; I did in fact want it to be the grace of state.  Intrigued? I hope so.

Mike and I attended the Young Catholic Professionals (YCP) meeting last night in Dallas. (Side bar: If you are a young person in the workplace living in the Dallas area and looking for a lively group to do professional networking and a desire to grow in holiness, I highly recommend this active group – they do this well.)  We mingled over wine and cheese, made some new friends, met up with some old dear ones too, and then settled in for the evening talk.

While the speaker last night, Steve Scanlon, was extremely dynamic and very moving undoubtedly–what I felt reminded of in my morning prayer time to share here, was actually in the small talk before the speaker.  Fr. Rudy Garcia, the Pastor of the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in downtown Dallas (where the meetings are now held), had been asked to speak on St. Joseph – the patron of YCP.

He spoke sweetly about the man chosen to be the earthly Father to Christ, St. Joseph.  While there were many points throughout his brief talk that were noteworthy, I locked in on this concept of the Grace of state.

As Fr. Rudy shared, “The Grace of state is the belief that when God chooses someone for a certain work, He gives him/her all the necessary graces to carry out that mission well in the world.”

This means that all obstacles can be overcome through God’s grace, when we are in accord with His will for us.  Whenever God chooses us for a specific mission, something important, God will also give us His Grace to carry it out in the state He has called us to. In this, we can accomplish great things for God, exactly where He has us, with exactly what He has us doing.

St. Joseph is remembered to this day for being a humble and just man.  Justice, not only in the sense of giving what was due, but in the Scriptures, he habitually fulfilled His duties and the Will of God for him.  How does this translate to us, here and now?

We can accomplish great things, YOU and I, for God, by HIS Grace in the state we are in right now.

Fr. Rudy reminded us to trust that God knows why. We like to ask that question, don’t we? Why do I have to do this? Why me? Why now? Why is this happening?

The answer is really quite simple to the WHY.  Because God wants you to become HOLY, and whatever He has brought you to is in His will for you.

“Never be afraid to take a risk for God,” said Father.

As one whose biggest strength is being strategic, I weigh all the options and then choose my course. In my process of analyzing in-depth the data at hand, it can be easy for the fear in me to begin to rise as I evaluate what each course that lies ahead will require of me. But that is if I rely on my human strength. These words are worth holding on to, certainly, especially from St. Paul in the scriptures, that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

The scriptures also reveal something of the humaness of St. Joseph as well, that he did in fact struggle in the very beginning—when Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. I get that — it’s never happened in human history before, or since, that God used the Holy Spirit to give flesh to His own son.  Joseph was going to divorce Mary, quietly, but then learned of God’s will for him through the message of a dream, and that was that. He undertook the mission that God had for him faithfully, daily, and did it for the love of God, loving Mary, and Jesus as his own son.

The GRACE of state, my friends. As we walk this road to becoming all that God has intended for us to be, may we find solace in knowing that HE most certainly has and will provide for all of our needs, including all the graces necessary to carry out our unique and particular callings in our own lives.

Questions, thoughts, ponderings? My blog is meant to be a place of dialog — I love to hear from readers, so please leave a comment!

How to Find Peace of Heart

Back in December, I made an important appointment. I felt like I was teetering along a fine line of hold-it-all-together and my-head-may-spin-off-its-axis. Can anyone relate? Hello? Bueller?

At any rate, the appointment I made was with an old friend. Back when we were young and rambunctious college Freshman, we met and became buddies at Franciscan University. Now he is known in many parts as the Skating Friar (skating as in skateboarding, and yes, Friars sometimes do other things that people do then just pray 24/7).  Our appointment was for what we practicing Catholics like to refer to as Spiritual Direction – basically, I like to think of it as some therapy and direction for the soul.

You can see, it took at least 3 tries to get a decent photo out of us LOL

So, during our time of Spiritual Direction and Reconciliation, the topic of interior peace surfaced. Fr. Pio recommended a small book for me to read, and gave me a copy. Do yourself a favor – get this book.  It’s well worth the $7.95 for this little gem, “Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart” by Father Jacques Philippe. It’s a small booklet too, so not hard to get through.

I wish I had heard of this Fr. Jacques Philippe before. He is profound, yet simple and straightforward — definitely not hard to grasp. He maintains a great balance between the flesh and the spirit, psyche and spirituality.

I’ve not read the whole book, as I am letting his words marinate slowly, and taking it a couple pages at a time through some prayer-times. Great Lenten reading, or anytime reading, really.

An important concept on peace, one that I had never really put together like he does so clearly, has become my recent revelation.  Often embroiled in the struggles of life and the vices to overcome, the battle can easily be waged in the wrong direction – focusing on the wrong thing altogether.  Check this out:

“The believer, throughout the entire battle, whatever the degree of violence, will strive to maintain peace of heart in order to allow the God of Armies to fight for him. Additionally, he must realize that this interior peace is not only a condition for spiritual combat, but is quite often the goal itself.  Very frequently, spiritual combat consists precisely in this: defending one’s peace of heart against the enemy who attempts to steal it from us.”

How silly it seems now after reading that, that I have too often focused on trying to fix whatever situation or thoughts/emotions that are disturbing the peace, rather than just focusing on maintaining interior peace.

And let’s be clear about peace here. This is not to be confused with “Kumbaya” hold hands and smile feel good stuff. Father is clear to distinguish that this is not about what the world defines peace as: “Because everything is going well, because we aren’t experiencing any annoyances and our desires are completely satisfied, etc.”

Isn’t it so easy to get caught up in that mentality – that all has to going in our favor for us to be at peace. It’s like we doggedly chase after this illusive but deeply desired state of being, barely finding a moment of peace, because we are seeking peace the world cannot give, and trying to find it in all the wrong ways.

What is peace?  Read and ponder in your hearts Romans 11:29 and John 16:33.  Then leave me some comments when your done.

And get this book. I recommended it to a friend of mine, who wrote this to me the other day,

I have been experiencing a peace in my life like never before.  I am trying to put myself into a “place of peace” and let the Lord do the rest of the work

May you experience a deep and abiding place of peace, peace of heart.