Haston Helping Hands

I know this is a hot topic, at least it is for me.

I am 24 weeks pregnant, My baby is the size of a half an ear of corn and I am really getting excited about meeting her, please don’t deprive me of that chance because you needed to “like” “comment” or “text” someone. Does that sound dramatic to you?

On my way in to work today, I saw at least 5 people texting while they were driving. One of them nearly hit me, another went into the wrong lane and someone else honked at them to correct them but NONE of it was necessary. Just put the phone down or wait till you are where you are going.

No text is worth it.. please for the love of all things sacred, including the people who love you and would miss you, STOP TEXTING AND DRIVING!!!

I gave this speech last year and I am proud of it, but this is still a problem, so do your part and don’t text and drive.. please!

Here are some words from the StopTextsStopWrecks team-

We live in a connected world where multitasking is second nature and communication is instant. This, coupled with the compulsion to stay connected at all times, makes drivers overly confident in their ability to ‘safely’ text and use their cell phones while driving.  Many drivers believe that they can practice unsafe driving habits such as “driving with their knees,” “glancing up and down from their phone,” or “creating singing vines while driving,” but these drivers often do not realize how many consequences these behaviors can cause. It’s imperative that every driver remembers- all distracted driving is dangerous.

THINK ABOUT IT!

 

Dear Readers!

We went on an epic road trip (12 states in 10 days!) recently to celebrate being debt free! Let me say that again, we are DEBT FREE! This was also our “babymoon” which is something I only heard about recently from my fellow blogger and friend, Chelsea!

This is a trip you take to celebrate the two of you before you add another person to your family.. FOREVER!

I am going to go on record saying that we had some things planned but a lot of them were not.  (shock, gasp, and gaping inserted here) – My company was VERY generous last year and awarded me with a free vacation rental stay (my first) for excellent performance.      (Go me!) – so that was planned.. but everything else was “stop as we are tired” which by and large actually worked out much better than expected— color me shocked and surprised because I REALLY like to plan.. for more on this see this post– https://jenniferhastonsays.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/go-with-the-flow/

One of my favourite things that happened, was that because we had NOT planned each and every detail of an itinerary we were able to stay an extra day in Florida on the beautiful white sands of the beach. I LOVE THE BEACH and find it the most tranquil place to be so that made the vacation an even sweeter one. Which would not have happened if we had “stuck to the plan”- We also didn’t know that our sweet friends Mike and Leanne were going to show up in Nashville and surprise us while we did our debt-free scream live and in person with Dave Ramsey himself!  (thanks again y’all!) (this did take planning, so if you do want to do one yourself be sure to contact the office in advance.. it’s about a 6 week wait right now and you also have to do it within 6 months of getting debt-free)

Here is our scream if you would like to see it..

 

Also not planned– we did a stop in St. Louis to see my Aunt and Uncle and cousins.. what we didn’t know is that my aunt and uncle were going to put us up in a very swanky hotel towards the end of the trip when yours truly REALLY needed some room service and some luxury amenities!

So what has this taught me? Well I still like to plan and heading into parenthood I am doing a fair bit of planning but I am coming to realize, planning is not everything.. it’s definitely important but it’s not as important as I thought.

 

This represents some major thought process change for me and I hope it helps you re-examine how you “know” some things to be true.. All I ask is that you …

Think about it….

Dear Readers,

Have you  been in this situation? Someone you manage is having difficulty and it’s your task to help them but you still struggle with the task at hand? I think we are told over and over again that in order to criticize someone you necessarily have to be a jerk or to criticize someone is considered jerk behavior. Think about it, if you know someone is not performing to standard and you don’t tell them about it and offer them the chance to improve, who is more at fault, them or you?

A good friend who was teaching our class today (My company is awesome in that they give us time for professional development) reminded us all that conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When handled with diplomacy and tact, it can be an opening to a great conversation and fantastic results.

When I think back to some of the greatest growth I have experienced, it’s usually in direct proportion to the type of feedback I got and what I did after receiving it. 

Toastmasters is an excellent example, when you sign up to speak, you automatically agree to be evaluated or criticized. It’s all in how you frame it really. I have improved dramatically as a speaker because of critique received in a meeting, on slips of paper or conversations after a speech telling me what they liked and didn’t like.

One of the hardest notes I have ever gotten was that “I didn’t GO FOR IT” which

in that context is being truly authentic and vulnerable..(they sensed I was holding back and to be honest they were right) and ever since then I have made it a point that any time I speak, I give a message from the heart (thanks Ryan Avery) and I am 1000 percent me. Sometimes that is hard, but it’s always rewarding.

So the next time you find yourself in a situation where you have to criticize someone try your best to avoid the apology part. Come from a place of “I want to help you improve and I have the tools to help you” and stop there. Listen to what they have to say and work together for the betterment of the situation. What greater gift can you give than your real, authentic self.

Think about it…..

Dear Readers- Why are these words so hard to utter? I guess it’s because we all want to think we can do everything alone. Why is is so hard to admit when we can’t?

If you are anything like me and I think you probably are… it’s hard to admit something isn’t working or you need help. Being pregnant, I find it hard to admit it’s harder to pick things up than it used to be or that I get tired much quicker than I used to. As my good friend Meredith put it, “growing a human is exhausting” —

For the last couple of months, I have been working on getting more fit and working towards healthier eating and living a healthier life. Don’t get me wrong, I still love chocolate and will likely always have it as part of my menu but both for myself and the little one on the way, a more consistent level of healthy eating is a must.

When we got back from vacation I realized how much junk we ate (yes, we were on vacation, so there are some allowances to be made- I don’t know about you but I can’t be in New Orleans and not eat an oyster poboy…) and I realized.. that is not how I want to live or how I want to raise my daughter. It’s still very exciting to type that because it’s becoming more real with each passing week.

My mom says it all the time and it’s incredibly good advice..

“Begin as you mean to continue” – My goal is eat healthier food and to occasionally eat junk as a treat. My goal is to make exercise a part of the conversation or the natural flow of what we do as adults and model that healthy behavior for our child.

So in taking a long, hard look at what I have been doing over the last few weeks, it was unpleasant to see how much junk I have been eating.. and by junk I mean all the things that have ZERO nutritional value. So I go back to her advice.. I will begin again.

I was talking to a dear friend yesterday and it came up we both needed to get back to fitness goals and I was struck by how easy it would be to build that into the conversation we have weekly anyway.. and I asked for help. I said, “let’s check in with each other each week and outline what our plan is to tackle fitness” She readily agreed and I instantaneously felt better because I had an action plan. What changed? I asked for help, I admitted it was a problem and said what I was going to do about it. I also belong to a facebook group that champions the idea of “eating real food” and as if they sensed I needed them, a challenge was issued yesterday to not eat drive thru for a month. I have done this before, but it’s difficult, but I signed up to do it again.

Starting today, I walk up the stairs to work, I will do a brisk walk around the block when I get home twice and then take the dog for the third lap, I will commit to joining the Y (have been going back and forth between gym options since February. No more.

I think that these are achievable goals and small tweaks to build healthier habits.

While I am asking for help… What do you do? How do you eat? I grew up with such a horrible cycle of using food for comfort, I still struggle with it to this day. We did paleo for a while and it worked for a long time but I think it’s time to admit we need a change.

What do you think? How do you decide what to eat? Do you have a specific discipline you follow? How does that work?

Think about it.. and please share in the comments- I would love to know what your strategy for healthy living is and how it works for YOU.

 

 

Dear Readers,

 

This is a picture of something some people did for me around Christmas and it was a small gesture.. (they had NO way of knowing how much it meant as I was having a particularly rough Christmas season) and it REALLY helped me to soldier through that day.

I love the idea of Pay it Forward and this morning, I paid for someone’s latte (I think).. I didn’t ask what it was.. I just paid for it.

The point of this is not to brag on me, but to inspire you to do something altruistic and something that sends a ripple of “nice” out to the rest of the population.

I enjoy thinking that my small act put a smile on someone’s face, and perhaps led them to have a nice start to their day.. Maybe the rest of their day was better because it started off on a good note.. or maybe they are a sourpuss determined to have a truly awful day and they saw my act as hostile… I choose to believe the former, and having that outlook allows me to live a happier life. The most important thing about paying it forward as they say in the movie.. I love this movie..the idea is that you do something nice for someone who can’t pay you back.. with the idea that they pay it forward and make the world a little nicer for someone else… What can you do that would help someone else smile today?

 

 

 

Think About It!

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Readers,

Howdy from the beaches of Destin, Florida. That is right, I am posting on vacation. I struggled with it for a bit but ultimately decided that I had something important to say this week. It’s about the need most of us feel to constantly post pictures of our lives and sometimes I think it gets the better of us, well me. I have made a conscious effort on this vacation to post a few pictures but not everything. It’s hard because this is a great time in my life. We are debt-free, I am 19 weeks pregnant (this is a picture of me saying- “wow, I really am pregnant!) and married to the love of my life. I just got a great promotion and raise, so why wouldn’t I want to document every single second?

Simply put, if you are taking a picture and focusing on that perfect angle and caption, are you really living in your moment?
As an actor and an artist, I have a responsibility to myself to “fill up” which means keeping some things private and not sharing everything. A concept lost on many in our “overshare” society.

Does this mean that you shouldn’t take pictures at all?

Of course not! What I am suggesting is thinking about “why” you are taking that picture and “why” you feel the need to post it.

Something we are doing on this trip is taking pictures but not posting them right away or at all.

But the “thinking” of “why” and “when” is causing us to “check” ourselves and help us enjoy our vacation and by extension live more than we post.

Think about it!

 

 

Dear Readers,

Last night at our Toastmaster meeting, the theme was fear and we had some really great like Ted-Talk caliber speeches about the topic. Some of them were even in the table topics section. It reminded me how important it is to spread the message far and wide. Fear is a liar and thief. When you worry, it steals time from you.. When fear tells you “it’s too late” it will also lie and tell you, “You are too young” or “You are too old”.. the list goes on.. I am sure you can think of some new and different ways to express those fears that hide in the dark. I heard a great speaker, Jon Acuff, discuss this in his book, “START” and while this is not an ad for his book, the message is incredibly important and what I took away from it is the idea that you shouldn’t judge your start by someone else’s middle…

I wish I had written this list that someone posted on Facebook but it’s just such a good list I have to pass it on. I can NOT stop thinking about it… so g about it so decided it would be the focal point of my post today. So in conclusion, I say, feel the fear and do it anyway, as was mentioned in our meeting last night, “Jump and the net will appear”

“At age 23, Tina Fey was working at a YMCA.

At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.

At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer.

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.

At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 28, Wayne Coyne (from The Flaming Lips) was a fry cook.

At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.

At age 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker.

At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-home-dad working odd jobs.

Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39, and got her own cooking show at age 51.

Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the Editor-in-Chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40.

Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40.

Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career to pursue acting at age 42.

Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first movie role until he was 46.

Morgan Freeman landed his first MAJOR movie role at age 52.

Kathryn Bigelow reached international success after making The Hurt Locker at age 57.

Grandma Moses didn’t begin her painting career until age 76.

Louise Bourgeois didn’t become a famous artist until she was 78.

Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it. You aren’t a failure because you haven’t found fame and fortune by the age of 21. It’s okay if you don’t even know what your dream is yet. Even if you’re flipping burgers, waiting tables or answering phones today, you never know where you’ll end up tomorrow.

Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it.
Never tell yourself you missed your chance.
Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough.
You can do it. Whatever it is.-“

I want to give credit where it is due- Here is the blog that I got this from today-

https://runningfromadventure.wordpress.com/

Thanks Drew, through the magic of the internet, I now know about you, and

am following your blog.

So back to my words, Fear is a liar, a thief and a cheat.. Don’t let it win..

DO WHAT YOU FEAR MOST and CONQUER IT!

Think about it……

 

 

Dear Readers!

My good buddy and fellow blogger, Chelsea does a post on Fridays that is called “Tell Me Something Good” (hearing Chaka Khan now in your head? I Know.. it’s awesome!) In case you are not.. Here you go! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR–nDR88b0

Here is Chelsea’s Post-

http://thenewwifestyle.com/tell-something-good-neighborly/

But back to my high! My fabulous and wonderful friend Dr. Keya Howard is getting married this weekend and I can’t believe it! Not only do I get to be there, I get to be her bridesmaid and to my fellow Toastmasters, I am actually really excited to be asked to give a toast. Believe it or not, I have been in Toastmasters almost 16 years and this will only be my third wedding toast!

Beyond being in the presence of her greatness and sweetness for 12 years, it reminds me of how that friendship started and it still kind of blows my mind. She was a receptionist at Apple (where I worked way back when) and on my way to cafe I asked if she wanted some french fries.. (I used to be a receptionist and I know that you don’t often get to walk away from your desk and if you take a lunch it’s usually abbreviated) she said yes and when I brought them back to her and we started talking about this and that and then I had to go back to work but the contact had been made and we started coming by each other’s desks and just talking.. then I asked her out to see a movie which is a very big deal. It’s not a test but (okay, who am I kidding, it’s totally a test) .. If you like the movie I pick, it means we have more in common and there is more to build on.. etc etc.. we went to the Alamo Drafthouse and saw “I Heart Huckabees” which if you have not seen it, I recommend it, it’s a quirky, existential movie with Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman, and Lily Tomlin. We bonded over it and a great friendship was born.

It’s been said about me, and by me that I collect people, not things, I think that is true..

This friendship story is one of many that I could tell about how people come to be in my “people collection”— but the thing I am most struck by is how easy it was to start something….one contact, followed by several others…. however, sustaining it over miles, time zones, (she lived in Switzerland at one point!!) weeks, months and years.. that is the real accomplishment. My darling doctor, if you are reading this, know how much I love and cherish you and am so PROUD to call you friend!

Think About It….

Dear Readers,

I am not a “go with the flow” kind of woman. Allow me to illustrate.

When I moved from New Orleans to Austin, I had an apartment and a job before I put one foot in a moving truck. (Never mind that my car broke down on the way here and I had to take a bus from Mount Pleasant, Texas to Austin) 

I meticulously planned our wedding within an inch of it’s life.  (Never mind that many, many things did not go according to that plan) 

If I have a new place I need to drive, I ALWAYS do a trial run. (Never mind that I still sometimes get lost) 

So to say I like to organize and plan is really an understatement.

But after being pregnant for 16 weeks (today!) I am beginning to realize that NOTHING is going to go according to plan, and we can plan all we want to.. but in observing my very organized friends who are parents (you know who you are!) I watch them have to “flex” and “change” all the time.. so I guess I need to think about that being something to adopt.

As you can see,  in looking back at all those events, some “going with the flow” was required and it’s important to note, the planning was NOT infallible so I suppose “flow” is not all bad and in anticipation of becoming a parent, the adoption of some “flow” wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Think about it…… 

 

Dear Readers,

For a long time now I have been actively seeking a healthier lifestyle, I eat mostly healthy food, I exercise and I drink a lot of water.

Of late, this has become even more important as I am growing a human inside my belly. It still boggles my mind to type that. The optimum diet is best for a healthy baby and I know that with my head..but then emotion takes over and the minute things get a little stressful, I run to Taco Bell and indulge the impulse to eat food that is not only unhealthy but contains lots of high fructose corn syrup which continues the cycle.. the more you eat, the more you want.. and it also has a property in it that doesn’t tell you when you are full which is even more fun!

So in talking to my Mom, who is very wise, we discussed it rationally  and logically and she pointed out a few things to try when encountering the impulse.

1. When you get a craving, why do you have it? Are you hungry, angry, lonely or tired? HALT..Stop and think about it! Be intentional.
2. If you get the impulse to go eat something not very healthy think about it and try to hold of for at least 20 minutes while thinking of all the rationalizations for eating the not so great food.
3. My doctor has said that the most weight I should gain for the baby is 10 pounds so it is my responsibility as a mom in the making to do the right thing for the baby.
4. Pregnancy weight is easy to gain, hard to take off
5. Begin with the end in mind. My end goal is to model healthy behavior for my child. That means that I need to have healthy habits myself that she can emulate

 

All this is NOT to say that there will not be times when I eat cake and chocolate and yes, even Taco Bell.. I know that I will give in to the impulse but at this point, I am trying hard to “THINK” before I “EAT”

I think it’s just as important to discuss the struggle as it is to discuss the triumph so right now I am celebrating the fact that I didn’t eat Taco Bell or other fast food for lunch today.

Think about it!