As I sat and reflected on this year, I was honestly amazed at all that it held. There were so many ups and downs and mixed emotions. When I review a year, I like to go back and look at all of the pictures that I have taken throughout it, which is a lot of pictures. I sifted through so many pictures of food and my garden and my video thumbnails. What I found amazed me.

HOW THE YEAR STARTED

We started the year with a bang, literally. Trees were falling everywhere; a lot of people had their power out and the roads were flooded. It was a lot of rain, thunder and lightning in a short period of time. Our dry soil here in California had no idea what to do with it. It stormed back-to-back and a lot of large trees that had shallow roots had no anchor and just fell over. We woke up in the middle of the night to a huge oak cracking and hitting the ground right outside our bedroom window. I promise, January wasn’t all bad, my best friend also flew into town and visited, which was amazing. Oh, and my little girl turned 18!

At the beginning of February my blood pressure started to do some wonky things and got everyone a little nervous. I ended up starting some blood pressure meds, did a bunch of tests and lab work and started physical therapy for my leg. We figured out what was wrong with my leg and have been working through that. The results of all of my tests showed that I stress too much. I basically get in my head and make my body stress out. I knew I needed to conquer that, and that the medicine was a band aid, but I was entering into a crazy season with a lot of stress. The more I tried to relax the more my blood pressure spiked, because I couldn’t relax. So, I took the meds, got out of my head and focused on my diet and move on to the next thing in front of me.

A BUSY SEASON – MID YEAR

After that kickoff to the new year, we just kept rolling with the fun. We drove down and visited my husband’s family for a few days. We were also able to connect with my dad and my brother on that same trip. This visit was important to both my husband and I for many reasons. His dad was finishing beating cancers butt, and my dad was just finding out that he had cancer. So, it was important to both of us to make the time to just spend time with family. Both of our dads are doing great and are currently not battling cancer, which is an amazing blessing.

When we got home from that trip, we immediately went into preparation mode. My mom was coming out for another visit, and we were getting ready for my daughter’s high school graduation. We decided we couldn’t go another summer with guests coming by without a couch, so we bought a couch and boy have we gotten a lot of use out of it. We made a ton of memories during this season. The graduation and party were a success, we were tourists in our own town, and we spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool.

Shortly after graduation we sent my daughter off to Ecuador for her first missions’ trip. Sending her off on this trip was actually a whole process within itself. It was the final piece of the learning to let go process that I have been going through. It was healing and created a lot of spiritual growth in me. She came home just in time. The country shut down flights shortly after hers had left due to a state of emergency. She is home safe, and sound and she grew tremendously as young woman during that trip and after.

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Category: E-Books

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A SHIFT OF SEASONS

Fall not only brought my daughters first semester at college, but it also brought a lot of changes in our work lives. My husband I sat down, and he completely supported and actually provided a lot of business ideas into focus. I launched The Padilla Family Homestead as an LLC officially, created this blog and doubled down on my YouTube and Rumble content. On top of all of that I wrote and released 2 E-books. The last few months have been whirlwind but have been so much fun.

In the midst of my starting a new business journey, the stability of my husband’s job vanished. The branch he worked at closed down. He is still on workers comp and waiting for a consult with another surgeon and is home every day all day. Which for a lot of people would be a disastrous thing for their marriage, for us we thankfully love spending time together. It has been a huge adjustment for him though. It has really highlighted his physical limitations at this time and has been a struggle for him mentally. He loves his work, and he loves to work, so as you can imagine this has been a huge period of adjustment for him.

PERSPECTIVE IS A CHOICE

I am choosing to be thankful during this season of hardship and keep my eyes focused on our Creator and not the waves. We questioned the timing of starting the LLC. We decided that I had already created it, already set the groundwork and that I needed to continue the journey.

So here we are at the end of December. With a camera roll full of delicious food, a blog being filled with delicious recipes, a community being built on YouTube and Rumble and our lives full of love. I am finally learning how to relax, to just breathe and be. To forget the to-do list when I need to and double down on other days. I am learning to ride the waves that life throws at me, and not be drowned by them. Choosing to stay focused on the blessings this year has provided, the highlight reel if you will. Not the horror film preview it tried to create.

I could focus on the fact that both of our dad’s had cancer, my husband lost his job, my blood pressure is Wack, my kiddo is growing up and I will have an empty nest and on and on I could go. But what good does that do? So, if you are ending 2023 in the midst of crazy storm, I invite you to join me. Grab a surfboard(figuratively) and ride the waves of life. We can’t control everything that gets thrown at us, but we can control how we allow it to affect us. I am choosing peace. I am choosing to focus on the 100’s of blessings that poured on us this year, and I am choosing to ride the waves into 2024 with my head held high.

If you enjoyed this blog post, you might consider subscribing to our upcoming newsletter, and following us on YouTube and Rumble. We released 105 videos in 2023 on YouTube and have so much more fun planned in 2024.

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