Happy Thanksgiving, Friends

Hey hey friends and Happy Thanksgiving! Wherever you’re spending your day, I hope its filled with all the food, programs, and people that you love most. Each year I compile a list of the things that I am most thankful for. So this year I’m giving you 18 things I am thankful for and next week I’ll share 18 reasons to be thankful even when you can’t see them. Let me know in the comments what you are thankful for today!

 

 

1. I’m thankful that in this crazy world, Jesus is STILL enough – His Blood STILL covers all – He is STILL moving and working things out for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28)
2. My Momma
3. A family that I can always call in for backup
4. my sweet boyfriend and his family, who I’m spending the day with
5. warm socks
6. warm beds
7. the freedom to worship Jesus when and as I please because of those that fought and died for this country
8. Church leadership that truly cares about the flock and takes time to nurture and nourish each member
9. my church family, y’all I have been blessed with the best
10. 20 Thanksgivings with my Pawpaw watching the Parade and the Dog Show while drinking coffee
11. Apple Pies
12. Strong coffee
13. Strong Attitudes
14. Broken hearts – yeah you read that right – this year I am thankful for broken hearts because its in brokenness that we grow and learn – I did a lot of that this year
15. College Football Rivalries (call me crazy, idk)
16. my Boston Red Sox – World Series Champs BABY
17. I’m thankful that when you take something to the Lord, when you ask something of Him, He is faithful to exceed expectations – Ephesians 3:20
18. YOU. I am thankful for each and everyone of you that take the time to read these post, to comment on them, and interact with me. The Framily I never knew I needed. 

So this is me, 

Siempre Danielle

Mornings, smournings.

 

Hey y’all, today on Siempre Lifestyle we are talking mornings and how to handle them.

I don’t know about any of y’all – but I used to HATE mornings. I hated them with a passion. Think mornings were to Danielle as Christmas was to the Grinch. I never wanted to get out of bed, and when I did I stomped around until coffee magically found its way into my hands where it would stay until I went to bed that night. I wasn’t a morning person, but I also wasn’t a daytime person. I was someone that dreamt of productivity but didn’t know how to achieve it, I was floundering though out my days doing things and making goals but none of it was in a productive way. Y’all that’s when it hit me – if my mornings weren’t productive then my days and nights wouldn’t be productive either. 

But what do you do? I mean if you’re anything like me you’re up till 11:30 texting friends and snap chatting your boyfriend. Or you’re binging the newest season of “Stranger Things”. You’re too busy to give up time to sleep better and have more productive mornings, right? WRONG. Studies show that the most productive hours across the country are from 5 am -1pm. So let’s think about that for a minute. If you’re someone that likes to sleep in till 10- 10:30 am you’ve lost 5 1/2 hours of prime productivity. Studies also show that we are more likely to get things done earlier on in the day as opposed to later because things always tend to come up to block those things you said you’d get done latter. 

I bet  you’re all looking at me now like “Hold up, Ellie- how am I supposed to turn into a morning person over night?” To which I would reply – “you’re not”. I was not born a morning person, there are pictures from my teen years that prove I was the furthest thing form a morning person – but then I got to college and I learned real fast that life will pass you by if you’re sleeping till noon with class from 2-8 and then trying to party. So I made a simple change – I gave myself a bed time. Nothing extreme, but a bed time. The average human adult needs between 7-9 hours of sleep for their brain to fire on all cylinders. Setting a bed time meant that I was going to wake up refreshed, with my brain refueled, and ready to tackle my day!

My 2nd advice for you is to put something on your morning schedule that you love but make yourself be productive to get it. For example – I love coffee, I LOVE COFFEE, its an obsession, but here lately, I’ve been making myself walk around the neighborhood and drink a full 32oz of water before I can have my coffee. I swear that cup is the best one of the day because I did something to earn it, something that benefits my overall health. 

Last tidbit of advice for living a productive life: watch less, read more. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you cant watch Grey’s Anatomy or binge NCIS for a week. However studies show that our brains are sponges and they are constantly absorbing the information around them. I don’t know about y’all but I’d like my brain sponge to be picking up things that are going to benefit me and my family. 

So friends, I hope maybe this helps you be a little more productive with your mornings. However my number 1 piece of advice would be to slow down. Wether you’re a full time bussinsss woman, a stay at home mom, a work at home mom, or wherever you may fall on this spectrum: SLOW DOWN. We’ve heard it a million times growing up in the church “You cant pour from an empty cup” and it’s so true – so here’s your last little encouragement – slow down and smell the roses. The dishes can wait. The mess can wait. Go live in your chaos because one day you’ll be wishing these days would come around again.

So this is me, 

Danielle

Oh hey, LDR, how you doin’?

Hey sweet friends and welcome back to the Lifestyle section of Siempre Danielle! I feel like my lifestyle posts are opportunities to sit down with you and swap stories and share advice. So just imagine for a minute that we’re all gathered around a warm fire with mugs of coffee or hot cocoa or whatever your personal preference is. Today we’re just gonna chat like we’ve been girlfriends for years and we’re taking on a doozie: Long Distance Relationships!! I have never been a fan of long distance relationships; I thought they were hard, that people in them lack the means to communicate with each other, that their conversations were shallow and hollow. I believed that those attributes all described Long Distance Relationships and contributed to their failures. I don’t know about any of you, but I would have done anything to avoid a LDR and a failed relationship until I met Cameron.

I think part of the reason that I was no longer wary of those things was because of how I felt about Cam, but another part was because we decided very early on that we would not fall into those stereotypes, what we’ve called the “relationship trap killers”. So I wanted to share a few things that we do that make this crazy LDR thing a little easier as well as answer some of your questions that you sent to me through Facebook  and Instagram. So without further ado – let’s get this girl chat started!

The biggest (and most asked) question I got was about communication and intentionality in our conversations. Now if you know anything about me you know that I am an 8 on the Enneagram – I work well under pressure and through conflict – I am, as my mom calls me, “aggressive-aggressive”. If I can describe Cameron without all of those words it would be “exact opposite”. Where I am high-strung and very vocal about my emotions almost immediately, Cameron is not. He is very calm, very even keeled, he takes time to process his emotions before he speaks, and can sometimes be very passive when it comes to disagreements. Our first really big disagreement stemmed from him processing internally instead of talking to me because that was what was comfortable for him. So your first tip is this 1) Discover how you communicate but also how you need to be communicated with. If your partner communicates by using firm and annoyed tones but you don’t respond well to those tones and just shut down when someone uses them then neither of you is going to get anything out of a conversation. You will travel in circles never getting anywhere. Now as for intentionality – we’ve been reading through a book that was given to me by a friend called 101 Questions to Ask before you get Engaged by H. Norman Wright, and let me tell y’all this book has made our conversations have so much more depth and intentionality. The book is written by a Christian author, and while it does contain questions to ask your partner, it also contains the reasoning behind the questions. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone – not just couples in LDRs but to all couples. I’m a firm believer in asking the hard questions now so that you’re not trying to figure out how to mesh beliefs while planning a wedding or raising children.

I also got several questions about staying positive in a Long Distance Relationship and while I don’t believe that I’m the person to give anyone any tips on this – I can tell you what I tell myself to bring my mood up when I haven’t seen my boy in 10+ days, I’m having a rough week, and I just want to sit down and watch a movie with him but that can’t happen because he lives 125 miles away. Y’all, long distance is HARD but video chat is a lifesaver. My number one tip, and Cam will tell you the same, plan out your video chats, plan out when you will see each other. Countdowns give you something to look forward to knowing that the end of the separation is coming. My second tip for y’all is to make traditions – set goals and traditions to follow when you’re together. We’ve set a goal to spend at least 2 weekends together attending church. Sunday’s are for coffee, church, lunch, and naps. We stick to those traditions as much as possible because we know they bring us closer together.

Y’all, Long Distance is hard, but its worth it. I have learned so much in the past 5 months about myself, about who I am, what I am looking for in a relationship. This boy has CHANGED my life for the better. And I know, one day, the long distance will be over, and I’ll look back on this time thankful for the growth, the pain, and the joy this season brought us.

 

So this is me,

Siempre Danielle