Irritation

Today was one of those days where I was just really frustrated. I woke up with an attitude and a headache...not good. My attention span was short. I couldn't seem to focus on anything. No matter what I tried to work on nothing would come full circle.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I have a website to work on and articles to write. On top of a business to run. Lord, please allow me to focus on my purpose in life.

This journey is tough. I know people are not going to understand why you have me doing what you have me doing. Give me the strength not to second guess myself or you. I am your servant here to do what you have called me to do. I thank you for this gift. Thank you for trusting me to carry out this plan.

Being Confident in Being Me Day 1

As much as I love technology and love to read it only seems fitting that I would have a Bible app on my phone. For the past few months I have used the YouVersion, Bible app on my phone to look up scriptures, meditate, and read some of the many devotionals that they have. I just started a new devotional called The Confident Woman, it's by Joyce Meyer. After reading this first message I knew I would journal about this passage. Below is today's passage. My will follow at the end.

Believe in Your Value


Take a minute and look into your heart. How do you feel about yourself? If your answer does not agree with God's Word, I encourage you to begin today renewing your mind about yourself.

See yourself as God sees you. Study God's Word and you will find out that you are precious, created in your mother's womb by God's own hand. You are not an accident. Even if your parents told you they never really wanted you, I can assure you that God wanted you. You are valuable, you have worth, you are gifted, you are talented, and you have a purpose on this earth.

Not only must we ask God for things He has promised us but we must receive them (see John 16:24). If you feel unworthy, you probably won't ask, and even if you do, you won't receive by faith. Don't let feelings rule you anymore. Take a step of faith and start improving your quality of life today. Believe that you make good decisions, that you are a valuable person with a great future, and something good is going to happen to you today!

Pray: Lord, I ask You to imprint Your love into the depths of my heart. I believe You have a great future for me and that I can walk in Your purpose for my life. Amen.

From the book The Confident Woman Devotional by Joyce Meyer. Copyright 2011 by Joyce Meyer. Published by FaithWords. All rights reserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I see myself in a very different scope than I did a year ago. I'm much more happier and focused now. Working on my dreams and goals keep me motivated. I'm still spending a lot of time in prayer and studying my Bible but I do make more time for family and friends. When I would normally spend most of my time reading and just sitting in one place, I am not going out more since I moved here. One of the reasons for that is finding a church home. This was a big deal for me. I finally found a place that I feel comfortable in.

Finding a church home has helped my transition a lot over the past year. I began to really look at who I am as a person, where I want to go in life and how my relationship with the Lord was growing. I began really feel like I could step out on faith once again.

Taking a leap of faith and starting my own business was definitely something I had to pray about. But since starting Southern Roots Kitchen, I am happy and excited.  My food blog is up and running, I have implemented my Meal Planning Services. There is a lot more in works too.

I am thankful that God placed this vision in my life and is allowing me to live out my dreams. I am confident that I will succeed in all He has for me.

Blessings,

Kimberlee

Patience, Hair, Patience

You have a vision, you have a purpose, you can see the finish product right in front of you but you have so much more work to do before it is done. Patience. It is definitely something you have to learn in life.

My journey to see my natural hair texture has been just that a journey. There have been times where I want to just give up and say forget this. I don't care if I don't see the curls anymore. But then there are other times where I get so excited about the process, I look at how far I've come. My hair is growing like crazy, it's big, it's puffy and I love it. Through the entire process I have to learn to be patient, there are times when I don't want to be patient and I contemplate throwing in a relaxer or just doing a BC (big chop). But I have to remember to stay calm, be patient and just wait. I chose a long transition so I could get used to the curls and the texture.

There are weeks when I get real excited about trying new styles, other weeks I am ready to just say for get it and throw a relaxer in it. But then I remember the pain, the headaches, the money I have to spend and all the trouble I have to go through for my roots to only swell up and need a touch up in 4-6 weeks. Nope that's okay I will continue on this journey of learning my natural hair texture.

Living in VA definitely helps with the transition because the weather is so different here from what it is in Massachusetts. The humidity makes my hair big and fluffy, I have found a hair dresser that specializes in natural hair, and one of my younger sisters has decided to go natural. The two of us are constantly looking at different styles, she's always asking about the texture of her hair, different products, and hair styles. She got a kick out of using EEVO in her hair. She told the hair dresser what I was doing one night and the hair dresser said: 'Girl, EVOO will become your friend lol' So this journey has it ups and downs, but I know that being able to finally see my natural hair texture will be amazing.

Once I figure out this weekend's hair style I'll do another post.

Dream Pusher's Academy

It's a been a while since I've posted, I need to get back on schedule and post a lot more. Looks like Dream Academy will have me posting at least once a week. Many of you know I have been working with Shivawn Mitchell from L.O.V.E. Consulting on starting my home-based bakery. This has been a journey, I am learning a lot about the business, myself, and the people I surround myself with.

Shivawn has graciously taken me under her wing and is guiding me along the path of entrepreneurship. As a memeber of her Dream Pusher's Academy, I am receiving weekly business development sessions, where I go over tasks and agenda items to get my bakery up and running. There are weekly homework assignments (Yes, I said HW) and mid-week inspiring and motivational emails, vlogs...and in my case text messages too!! These emails and vlogs are called Empower Me Moments...they definitely empower you! For the past few weeks I have found myself re-reading the emails and watching the vlogs a lot more, meditating on them and really taking the time to apply them to my personal life and my business life.

This past week we had email sent to us with the title "Getting Over Speed Bumps" this one hit home pretty hard, and I didn't realize how significant it was until today in church when Pastor Lundy began preaching about going through struggles and the reason why we must go through them. Sometimes we want things to happen too fast, and try to make them happen in our time instead of on God's time. Patience is a big thing, now I consider myself a patient person, although their are times where my patiences is very thin and I don't want to wait. But waiting is all a part of live. Sometimes you want to drive right over the speed bump in life and act like you don't see it but if you do, what happens?....we can mess up our car or in some cases cause an accident. After reading Shivawn's email I had to really stop and think about the speed bumps in my life, how many things have I tried to rush and make happen to only fail in doing so? If I would have just waited and did things on God's watch I would be just fine and not back at the start line. Even today during the sermon, Pastor Lundy hit on being patient and not causing problems for ourselves by rushing God's work. There will be pain, there will be moments of solitude and reflection but trust and believe if God gave it to you, you will birth it!!

Each of us was given a purpose in this life, we have to choose to live out the mission He has given us. Like a mother having contractions during labor, the pains will be there. I have experienced some myself on this journey, there have been days where I have wanted to give up, but I can't this is a gift that was given to me to share with the world. I have also tried to rush this process by thinking I could do it all on my own and in my time...HA!..definitely learned that lesson. Taking a different approach and waiting for God to place Shivawn in my life to make this happen has been a blessing in itself. The Empower Me emails and vlogs are just a small portion of the work that she does, but each piece serves it's purpose.

I truly understand why I had to wait to get my business started, why I had to join Tastefully Simple for 3 years to learn about owning my own business, watching both my father's own theirs as well...a learning process. I can take what I have learned from each of them and bring them into my own business. There is so much that I want to do in life, the bakery is just the beginning. Walking in the purpose God gave me is allowing me to pursue my dreams and help other's in the process. Even with my full time job, I am learning things to add into my business and gaining customer's as well. See...look at God, at my last job things weren't this easy. Doing things God's way is the ONLY way for me!

I didn't mean to have this post be so long, sorry about that. I guess I was just writing what was on my chest. We have had quite a few of these vlogs and emails so what I am going to do is go back and read my notes from each of these and post them to by blog, feel free to subscribe to her YouTube channel so the vlogs come directly to you. You don't want to miss any of these.

Until next time....

The time has come.....

Over the past few weeks a lot of things have changed. I lost a cousin (which shook me the core), prayer life intensified, I've paid off some bills and I have been seriously job hunting in Virginia. But one thing that happened is God has told me to end my employment with Tastefully Simple. As much as I love this company, the products, training and other consultants it is time for me to go. I love food, my friends call me a foodie LOL. I am preparing myself for my next step. I know what I would like it to be but I am not quite sure if it is what God has in store for me. My head is spinning thinking about all the recipes that I would like to work on, cupcakes, cakes, cookies, brownies. I probably should have gone to Pastry School 10 years ago. But gotta do things God's way. So I must continue to be patient, pray and wait to see what He has in store for me.

On another not my hair is amazing! It's been 4 months since my last dose of creamy crack. I am truly enjoying the journey. Looking at the curls that are forming, I get excited just thinking about how my hair will be once it is back to it's natural state. Family still thinks I'm crazy for not having a relaxer but thanks to friends, blogs, and forums I am going to continue with this journey. Since I am planning on being a long term transition-er ( I want to be completely natural for my 30th birthday August 2012) I have created a list of hairstyles that I want to try. Now this list is LONG!!! Maybe one day I will post it as a checklist to see how many of them I can accomplish. Among that list, is a list of protective hairstyles for me to try as well. The winter is coming so I will be in the house more, on top of job hunting, I am now able to get those protective styles that I have always wanted but have not gotten before because I always had a relaxer.

I am so excited about trying out the different styles and learning about my hair. Right now I have kinky twists in, these will stay in for at least 6-8 weeks. Then I will look for another style to have. When I take these I will be cutting off some relaxed ends. I know I will. LOL When I cut off those 3 inches before it felt good and my hair grew even more. It almost felt like freedom to rid my self of straight hair. I need to post of pictures of my hair journey, maybe I will do a slide show for the next post.

Is this really my calling?

For the past few months I have been working with some friends on getting a newsletter started for our Young People department at church. Well the first issue was released in the late Spring and then two more people said they wanted to participate and write as well. Last month we had our first meeting with the new members of the staff. I should have known then that there would be a problem. Due to folks coming late and not paying for their portion of the food. I let it slide and just took it as a learning lesson.

For the past few weeks there has been a lot of misunderstanding and no communication. Each person has their role, so they need to stick with it.Well that didn't seem to be the case this past weekend. A special edition of the newsletter was put out and 3 of the 5 people of the staff didn't know about it. One of them being the Editor!! Now how are you going to go over the Editor's head and publish a newsletter without them knowing. Needless to say when it was announced during morning announcements in church we looked shocked, but knew right away who sent it out.

I had already been thinking about quitting because it has become such a headache to work with this one individual. I honestly don't know if this is something I should be doing. Is this really my calling? I know the Bible says you will endure some tests and trials but this test is pure craziness. I am truly trying to hold on, wait on Jesus to let me know if this is where I need to be.

I have so many thoughts running through my head that I just really need some answers. We are supposed to meet as a staff tonight with our president because she is just as confused as some of us are. I just don't like working with people I can't trust. I feel like I have to watch my back around them and that's not cool. Especially with them being in the church. 

Pray for me as I embark on this journey and wait on an answer.