The WAR and the ROSES!

Pursuing a dream is not easy.  In many ways it like fighting a war, you know it’s going to be a fight, you know you will come up against enemies (whether in the form of people or circumstances), you know there is a possibility of there being casualties along the way but ultimately you know you want to win.  

I know this first hand because I do my best to live my dreams in all areas of my life.

 

It sounds good, it feels good (in the beginning anyway) but once you get into the swing of things you will inevitably encounter many challenges and seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  Home schooling is no exception.  The good thing is I was never fooled into thinking it would be easy so I’m not discouraged J

Last week I engaged in emotional warfare.  The boys have been great, very excited and really engaged but the challenge has been ME. I desperately needed to get some personal stuff done but somehow could not muster up the motivation, the laundry pile in the bathroom was looking more like a second hand charity shop in the process of sorting the  countless donations that had recently come in and  I longed  for the constant calling of my name to cease.!! (I told the boys  that I changed my name and unless they could  guess what my new name was  they are not allowed to call me, that made things worse because they just spent the next half an hour trying to guess which was almost driving me craaaazy).  I did prepare myself for these times (in theory) but what I failed to do was put it into practice.  I had not taken ‘time out’ that I promised myself and with the intense weekend that we had (my husband hosted a monthly personal development boot camp) by Tuesday I was ready to scream really, really loudly!!

 

 

That’s when Len popped out the road to get some milk and came back with a beautiful bunch of roses.  He continually ensures me that he appreciates what I am doing and this was just a reminder  that I was doing a great job J It was as if someone slowly took the top of a pressure cooker. Ahhhhhhhh (EXHALE SLOWLY)!!  The boys soon followed his lead by letting me know how much they loved me and how glad they were that I took the time out to home school them.  By the end of the week they presented me with a handmade card, painted a love heart and did a video clip of Alex singing ‘Just the way you are’.

 

So, fighting wars are not so bad after all.  Especially if you have the sweet smell of victory as an incentive.  I’m sure you are fighting your own wars in many different ways, my encouragement to you is don’t give up, your dreams are always worth fighting for.

Have a great week ahead.

 

Karen. xx

 

 

 

 

Nouns and Nerds...

The past week and weekend has been quite hectic for the Allen family (in a great way I hasten to add :-) As well as being a wife and mother I am also blessed to be an author, a conference host and an inspirational speaker. Two of my favourite things to do include, spending time with my family and speaking to groups of women using my gift to inspire and empower them to live the life of their dreams.

 

 

On Friday of last week it was my privilege to be invited to speak for a woman's inspirational evening in Tooting.  To be honest with you although I was excited about the opportunity I didn't raise my expectations too high as most of my energy had been consumed by Allen Eagles.  Due to my schedule I've had to use early mornings and late nights to prepare so in many ways didn't feel as 'ready' as I would usually.  We arrived at the venue about 7.10pm to get ready for a 7.30pm start not expecting more than about 20-30 women (based on past experience) and to my surprise there were already at least 80 women seated anticipating what was about to take place.  By the time it was my turn to take the stage over 150 women were in attendance!! My keynote for the evening was entitled 'What will you do with your DASH'.  The essence of the talk was me asking the audience what impact their lives will have made when it is their turn to transition from this world to the next. It was one of the most memorable evenings of my speaking journey thus far.

 

 

On Saturday I attended one of the most refreshing spiritual retreats for women hosted by a good friend of mine Rev Jacqueline Peart and again I was one of the main speakers.  It was such an amazing experience, I met some outstanding women and had the opportunity to really relax and be blessed.  One of the things I love most about speaking is being able to talk to people afterwards who often say things like 'I wish I could do what you do' or 'I wish I was confident like you are'. I get to assure them, that the person they see before them did not start of with such confidence and eloquence ;-) I then explain that it has been a long, hard and often very painful journey to get to where I am today. It is on these occasions that I get the opportunity to reassure at least one person that if I can do it, anyone can :-)

 

 

As for the 'Eagles' they are all doing well.

 

 

My sister had all four boys while we were away which was a blessing, she is truly a gift from God.  Baby Ashton was not too well over the weekend, we think he may have picked up a stomach bug but he is much better now :-)  

 

I posted on Facebook earlier last week that almost every day the boys give me something to laugh really hard about (notice I said 'almost' :-). Last Monday we were covering English Grammar with the younger two and I asked Anton to describe what a noun was, to which he replied '... A noun is a person, place or a thing', I then asked him to give me an example, he said 'Alex is a noun'.
  

 

 

This is Anton, he called Alex a 'noun'.

 

Alex, who wasn't paying much attention turned round and out of nowhere called Anton a 'NERD'. I said to him 'Alex, don't call your brother a nerd, say sorry'. His response in defence was 'But mum Anton called me a NOUN'!!!  You just gotta love 'em.

 

 

This is Alex he called Anton a 'nerd'.

 

Today I was writing a post on Facebook and my oldest son Amario was sitting next to me.  I wrote 'God had blessed me with an AMAZING husband and some outstanding sons'.  Amario (who I didn't realise was looking over my shoulder) said 'Mum aint you gonna put 'outstanding' in capitals'.  I laughed so hard!!

 

 

 

 

This is Amario, he is the one who 'got jokes'.

 

I hope you have a fab week.

 

Speak soon.

 

Karen. x