blogging followers that comment

Dear Blogging Followers that Comment,

I wanted to write you a letter to let you know the fact that when I get an email that says I have a comment that needs to be approved, just how much I anticipate reading that comment to see what someone had to say about what I wrote. 

You don't know that it is nice to know the fact that what I write is encouraging you to comment and share your thoughts, how this makes me smile.  

You don't know, but sometimes I question how my writing is received and if my thoughts conveyed were understood.  

You don't know, but I doubt my writing is good enough.  

You don't know that I wonder if my writing bores you or if it inspires you.

You don't know that sometimes I feel I am writing to myself.

You don't know that even if I am writing to just me, I will still write.

You don't know that I wonder if my blog posts have encouraged you to start a blog or a journal, maybe simply write an email to a friend or send a note through the mail.

You don't know that I wonder if my blog posts have sparked conversation with your husband, your sister, your children, your girlfriends, your bible study group, your journal.

You don't know that I wonder if there is something I could write more than I have to share more of my life, which is why I feel I need to write a book to share my story.

You don't know that writing has helped me move past some issues in my personal life.

You don't know that I never dreamed I would love writing.

You don't know how becoming an author actually truly does scare me.

You don't know the amount of criticism I have received for what I write about, for having a blog, for posting things online, and for the disapproval that has been expressed and I have received for years over all this with my blog.

You don't know how much this 31 Day Challenge to write 500 words a day has truly inspired me in my blog writing and book writing.

You don't know what lessons I have learned from learning to write 500 words daily.

You don't know what benefits writing has until you do it.

You don't know that words can actually help heal a hurt until you write them, speak them or see them.  

You don't know that I have no expectations out of anyone to follow or not follow my blog.  I don't write to create a following, I write to encourage you.

You don't know this, but you bless me.  Particularly the blogging follower and commentor logged as Lana M. because you have commented the most and since we live states apart, this gives me a feeling of connection with you.

Or maybe you did know these things.   Either way, you know now.

May I encourage you?  Go write.  Today.

another set of baby booties

This is my first time to make this pattern of booties.  

I had helped a friend a month or so ago with the "recipe" as she calls it and thought they turned out cute, and so I made a set for a friend that had a baby the first week of November 2013.  

I just crocheted the ties instead of using ribbon or leaving it plain.  I think it turned out cute, if I say so myself!

Cream Baby Booties
for April Meekers little baby girl

Day 14 Writing Goals

Day 14: Blog writing = 500 words {right on the money!!!}. Book writing = 0 words. 
#my500words challenge with @JeffGoins #2014Goals

I just called to say Thanks

When I am with a client and either in a meeting, doing a consulting or training session, in the bathroom or asleep, I don't answer my phone.  I frequently get voicemails left for me during these times.  These voicemails are typically:  This is so and so calling, maybe even with such and such company, please give me a call.  Sometimes it is, hey this is so and so, I was checking on this or that, call me so we can discuss.  Sometimes it is, this is your friend and I was hoping to catch you, call me when you have some time so we can catch up.

I don't know if I have ever got a voicemail like one that I got a few months ago, back in November.  It was truly such a blessing to me, that I save it.  I have listened to it several times.  

It has made me wonder why we don't leave these kinds of messages more for people.  Why we don't just leave a verbal note as if we were to write a note to the person.  Something they could have to encourage them on another day?  Something that would make their day, more than once.  

I am not one to save voicemails once the issue has been tended to.  But this one, I didn't have the heart to delete.

I will share it with you:

Hey Misty, this is [name of friend].  Sorry I missed you.  I just called to say thanks.  I just landed.  I just called to say thanks.  Appreciate it.  Your great.  You are a great listener...a great person.  I am sure we will talk more, but thanks, thanks very much!

Awwwhhhhh, a voicemail just to say thanks???  Wow.  Thanks for being a friend.  Thanks for listening.  Let me tell you, when I got this voicemail the next day it made me happy.

Who can you leave a voicemail with today to say thanks?  Thanks for being a part of my life.  Thanks for encouraging me.  Thanks for supporting me.  Thanks for helping out.  Thanks for taking time to send me that information.  Thanks for loving me.  Thanks for caring.  Thanks.  Just a simple thanks.

I don't know how long I will keep this voicemail.  But as long as I feel I need it.  As long as it continues to bring a smile to my face.  As long as I can remember to hit save every time I listen to my voicemails.  As long as is needed to remind me to continue to be a friend.  To listen.  To encourage.  To bless others.  To make phone calls to friends and when I leave a message not just say:  Hey friend, this is Misty, call me when you get a chance.

Awwwhhhhh, love friends who teach me a lesson and encourage me.  These are people I want in my inner circle.  These are people who I looove!  These are people who are my family, because they truly show me they care.

persistence

The Power of Persistence: Persistence will trump talent. Persistence will always win. Persistence is the key to success. 

If you stay committed and press on long enough, you will accomplish whatever you put your mind to. Stick with your goals & dreams. Don't give up...even when the world is pressing against you.

- 5 min video by Gerald Rogers on January 6, 2014

Day 13 Writing Goals

Day 13: Blog writing = 0 words. Book writing = 3102 words {grand total to book 18,255}. 
#my500words challenge with @JeffGoins #2014Goals

Quotes

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. 
— Soren Kierkegaard

Day 12 Writing Goals

Day 12: Blog writing = 768 words. Book writing = 354 words {grand total to book 15,153}. 
#my500words challenge with @JeffGoins #2014Goals

{one thing I wish} the truth about simplicity

I think about things people said when I was young and growing up into the double digits and then on to full teenage years, when life looked like forever before me and the chance to do things and live a real life seemed forever before me.    

I think about comments like, life goes by so quickly, before you know it, you are old.  I thought how can that be possible.  A year is a long time and 70 of them is not like that is fast.  70 is a big number.  70 years would be a long life.

I heard people say, I don't have time for this or I don't have time for that.  I thought that that comment was strange because we all have time.  I felt people used it to get out of doing something, learning something, being something more than just a person going through day to day life without a plan.

I still think all those things are true.  Though obviously your perspective changes as you live life and you learn that a day in a life of a child vs the life of an adult is certainly different.  You learn that we don't always have time to do all we want to do even if we want to.  

The one thing I wished people had conveyed to me more in my learning was the benefits and blessings of simplicity of/in life.  

I believe there is a simplicity in learning to do something and learning to do it well that has significant benefits.  I am not sure it is better to learn to do everything. I am not sure it is better to just dabble here and there with your fingers in too many things and with too many options before you to choose from. I am not sure that it brings greater satisfaction but actually takes away from the benefit of a skill.  

For example, in home economic hobbies and studies, my mom stressed learning to do it all.  We were not permitted to have one hobby.  We (me and my sister) were introduced to crochet, knitting, cross-stitch, sewing, traditional hand embroidery, machine embroidery (with a sewing machine, not an embroidery machine) ribbon embroidery, smocking, finger painting, brush painting, colored pencil drawing, dried flower making, handmade card making, scrapbooking, cooking, baking, cake decorating, piano playing, singing, etc.

I never felt good at one thing.  I had to do a certain amount of time in three hobbies each winter according to mom.  I could not focus on one area lest I became proud of my abilities.  I was not allowed to spend too much time on one thing for supposed fear by my mom that I would get bored or burnout.  The number of things we were required to learn was extensive.  Though I think there are benefits to teaching people to do lots of things, I am not sure it has benefited me well in life. I now feel the requirement to do all these things.  I don't feel I can say that one hobby or craft is not for me and cut it out.  I now have a collection of tons of stuff because I feel that I need to do each of these hobbies and improve my skills.  I feel that I have to keep these things because I spent money and time on them.

I wonder what would have come from the simplicity of learning one thing and learning it extremely well.  I know that there are people who think that I do things, many things, really well.  I am not here to convince you otherwise. I am here to share how I feel.

For example, I love to knit.  What do you think would have happened if when I lived at home I could have bought all the knitting needles I have now in metal and wood and various sizes at that time?  What do you think would have happened if I had spent all the money on all these various crafts on one craft?  What do you think I would have done?  

I believe I would have perfected my skill.  I would have done more with my skill.  I would have studied my skill more than just learning to do the skill to master knowing how to do it.  I would have increased my learning to other depths of it than I have now, like motif knitting, multicolored knitting through intarsia knitting or fair isle knitting (yes I have done some of this but not very much) and indepth stitches.  

More thoughts on simplicity in tomorrow's post.

Day 11 Writing Goals

Day 11: Blog writing = 898 words. Book writing = 0 words. 
#my500words challenge with @JeffGoins #2014Goals

completed two days of ICD10 boot camp training

Thursday & Friday this week I spent the day at The Sheraton Hotel in Fort Worth attending the American Academy of Professional Coders Boot Camp on ICD10.  Class was 10 hours each day.  Breakfast and beverages all day were included.

I had toyed with staying at the hotel to sort of get a break and when it got moved from Dallas to the Fort Worth location, I opted to save the money (its not a cheap hotel) and stay at home, I am not that far.

I have been in the healthcare industry for 17 years (it will be 18 years in March).  The last few years, our industry has gone through some major overhauls.  We have another one coming up.  ICD10.  You ask what is ICD10?  I will try to explain in simplistic terms.

ICD9 is the International Statistical Classification of Disease and Related Health Problems, version 9.  This is the diagnosis code that gets attached to your medical record and billed on the claim sent to your insurance carrier with each code and each service that is rendered to you.  

So that means that ICD10 is the 10th version.  No big deal.

We currently have approximately 13,000 codes in the ICD10 version.  We will have approximately 87,000 available codes (currently there are approximately 75,000 in the draft version with the final version to be published this year).

That alone is a big deal.

The reason ICD10 is an even bigger deal is that the whole medical billing and coding concepts relating to the specificity of your condition is changing.  There has been a proposed change to version 9 for at least 2 years (though it was actually initially started with development in 1992).  The reason is that the medical industry wants to track health statistics and be better at understanding why some diseases and conditions affect certain part of the population.  This will allow them to do this.  

The caveat?  It will require providers to be explicit, VERY explicit as to the nature of your condition, how it occurred (this has been attached to your medical record but never apart of your diagnosis), what exactly you were doing, where you live or what type of public place, what you do for an occupation, whether the incident was paid or unpaid (were you at work  - a volunteer - was this for pleasure), the severity of symptoms or condition, the laterality (beyond just a right or left limb - it now applies to all parts of the body), etc.  

You think I am joking?  I am not.  I am beyond joking.  I won't bore you with more details of this, but let me suffice to say that an industry that has been pretty straight forward, though yes very complicated with certain aspects, will be changing this year, effective October 1, 2014 and will be thoroughly complicated on so many levels.

The two day AAPC Boot Camp Class was to educate us on the changes from ICD9 to ICD10, review the new look up strategy in our coding books, review the criteria required for these codes, and we did 23 tests and 32 case studies.

Even for someone who loves research and a challenge, my brain is mush.

baby gift finished

I have several friends that had first time babies this last year.  I have been working on some things. I love to knit...but sewing up the item to complete it, ugh, not my favorite part!  I would rather start another project.

I know.  You can say it.  Bad habit.

2014 Goal?  Finish up the projects started and give them as gifts.  Here is one that is completed for Erica {Green} Jones.  Probably won't fit her sweat pea anymore, but hey, its the thought that counts, right?

These pictures don't do the color justice.  My apologies.

pistachio leaf green sweater with sleeves rolled up

pistachio green booties

pistachio leaf green sweater w/unrolled sleeves

Day 10 Writing Goals

Day 10: Blog writing = 545 words. Book writing = 0 words. 
#my500words challenge with @JeffGoins #2014Goals

why I accepted the #my500words challenge

Those of you that are my blogger followers may be wondering why I am blogging daily when I haven't before.  

You may be overwhelmed by the daily blog posts.  I can understand.  Feel free to delete if you are a subscriber  Feel free to not read if the title post doesn't intrigue you.  Feel free to not feel pressured to join me on my journey to dig deeper into blogging, writing, communicating, and sharing of thoughts.

Someone said, you already write so well, why do you feel the need to do this?  That is one persons opinion.  You too may be questioning why I have accepted the #my500words challenge by Jeff Goins.

First, I met Jeff Goins at The Platform Conference, the conference I went to over my birthday, November 2013 in Dallas that was put on by Michael Hyatt.  This conference is what encouraged and prompted me to buy a domain for my author platform.  This conference is what encouraged me to really move forward with a deadline to publish my book.  This conference is what made me realize I had a dream of being a writer.

So, when Jeff Goins put on Facebook (probably on his blog too, but I haven't read all his posts) to challenge those that write to do so daily and to write 500 words, I signed up.  There was criteria to be met, but really very few rules, and simple accountability.  This was an uncomplicated goal and it inspired me to do it.

Here is why I accepted the #my500words challenge:  

• I want to meet my goal this year to complete my first book.
• I want to do better at writing.
• In order to do anything better, it takes practice.  And more practice.  And yet, even more practice.
• I could keep my practicing and what I write outside of my blog, but then you wouldn't be able to share in what I write.  You also would not see the improvement.  You would not be able to encourage me along the way.  You also wouldn't be a reason to keep me accountable.
• I want to learn more about writing.
• I want to expand on the thoughts I blog about.
• I want to learn from other bloggers.
• I want to be apart of your life and share in your journey.
• Writing challenges me.
• Writing makes me feel vulnerable and forces me to tear down walls and face my fears.
• Writing inspires me.
• Writing helps me look back and reflect to look forward and have hope.
• Writing connects me with you.

So there you have the reasons why I decided to move forward with participating in this #my500words challenge for the month of January 2014.  I am 10 days/one third of the way into this challenge.  Some days I wonder what I am going to write about.  Some days I decide whatever comes first to my mind is the topic.  This has been an amazing thing to do because it forces me to write about something that may not be the very top thing on my heart and mind, but it makes me push through which is exactly what I need to be doing.

Want to join me?

Reflections on Girl with No Fingers

I have all my fingers.  All my toes.  My eyes.  My arms.  My legs.  My hands.  My feet. 

I have been given an intellectual ability to learn.  I am not stupid.  

I am a fully functional adult with no deformities.  Do I have some health issues that sometimes prevent me from doing things I want?  Yes.  

Yet this girl in this video can play the piano with no fingers on her right hand.  And she can play it better than I can!  

If this was you, would you let this stop you?  

If this was me, would I let this stop me?  

Maybe you are still letting something stop you from being what you can be.  Don't let the excuses in your head stop you from doing what you can today for you.  For someone else.  

Be encouraged!

Day 9 Writing Goals

Day 9: Blog writing = 1106 words. Book writing = 0 words.
#my500words challenge with @JeffGoins #2014Goals

adrenal fatigue exhaustion

I am facing another all time low with adrenal fatigue exhaustion.  

I feel myself going under again emotionally.  It's truly hard to keep a positive outlook when you feel like this.  When every day all you want to do is cry, the minute you wake up.  You are not rested, you want to make it black and sleep the day away...if sleep was even an option.   

I keep asking myself what I could have done differently.  Why didn't I see the signs coming.  But in my heart of hearts, I know the answer.  

I wasn't listening.  I thought it would "all be okay."

It all started the weekend trip I made to Colorado, September 2013.  I pushed myself to go walk Saturday morning after my arrival.  I wanted the calm that comes from doing my brisk morning walk and the feeling that comes from exercising.  I wanted the clutter in my head to go away.  I wanted the noise coming from my fears of being with friends and family to dissipate. I wanted my God time, to pray, to talk, to listen.  I wanted peace.  

I hit the trails.  Not 10 minutes down the walk, I remembered I had not used my inhaler.  A true must for the month of September and a double important must for the elevation.  I thought, I should go back and use it.  I quickly talked myself out of that saying, no, that will delay me and cut into my precious time needed to walk, it will be okay.  I have been doing well lately, just got back from a vacation and not been sick in some time, I am good.  Halfway through my walk breathing became difficult.  Difficult became even more difficult.  I thought I was going to pass out.  I needed water.  I had none with me.  I turned my Pandora on my phone louder to avoid the thoughts in my head.  I talked myself into breathing deeper.  To walking slower.  To staying focused on each breath.  I thought I had myself under control because I managed things and I was able to make it the full time.

I got back to the house initially thinking I was doing okay, but I soon realized that I didn't feel well.  I was shaky.  I felt dizzy.  But the feelings coming from walking overrode the anxiety I was starting to feel and I pushed off any more ill feelings.  

I honestly can't remember if I used my inhaler when I got back to the house or not.  I may have, I may not have.  Either way, the feelings didn't subside.  

I ate, hurried to get ready and leave for Estes Park to go to the wedding.  The wedding was in an open field.  Another not good thing for people like me.  But I refuse to stop.  I refuse to listen to the voices in my head from my mom about allergies and that I have no business being "in the weed", about how sickly of a child/girl I am, about how if I don't take care of myself I will get sicker, about how my doctor in California always used to say "rest now for a little bit or later for longer", I didn't want to hear those things, I was here to support my girlfriend and I was determined to do so.  I made the most of the time...but flying home on the airplane 3 days later, sickness was settling in my chest.  I couldn't keep it away, no matter how much I tried.  

The weeks since that time, have turned into four months and I have continued to struggle with my asthma.  I quit doing my daily morning walks.  I was too tired.  I had no stamina.  Breathing hurt.  I needed to keep up my allergy shots so everything else was stopped.  I figured eventually I would feel better.

December came.  The  busiest month of the year in work for me.  Its Year End Financial Planning time.  It's Accounts Receivable Clean Up time.  It's Year End Project time.  It's crazy busy and everyone wants everything now.  I worked an insane amount of hours the first half of the month, nearly what I do in a full month by the 20th of the month.  Then, when I was supposed to have two weeks during the Holiday breaks to be able to work from home and get all the paperwork done and necessary tasks completed, I got sick.  Really sick.  I was hardly able to work.  I slept a bunch.  I couldn't even absorb thinking to try to work. I was beyond exhausted.  I was frustrated.  I was upset.  

I tried to do it on my own, treat my sickness with all the alternative methods I could think of.  After 6 days, I realized I wasn't getting better and I had to go to the doctor.  Now for the round of antibiotic shot, steroid shot and oral antibiotics.  Darn.  The initial 24 hours I seemed to do the trick and I was much better, then after 48 hours, I seemed to lapse again.  My energy seemed to be worse than it was.  I didn't understand.  I was so tired.  What was wrong with me?

I slept all I could.  Would work maybe two hours and sleep more.  I tried to take a few days and not work at all.  I didn't do anything.  I wasn't enjoying doing nothing either because I felt like crud.  I was crabby.  All I had planned to achieve I couldn't get done.  My patience with myself was nil to none.

It's been almost 3 weeks since that time and I am in bed at 6.30pm or 7.30pm at night.  I am dragging just to make it to then.  I can't seem to make it through the day without nearly being in tears.  Forget that I wake up utterly exhausted, wishing I could sleep, just sleep and feel rested.  

My doctor is concerned and now I am concerned.  I obviously pushed myself too hard.  It's hard to look at the bitter facts of how you have treated yourself.  Nobody to blame but yourself.  Nobody to care about the results but you.  Nobody can do anything but you.

How do I get myself back on track?  Where do I start?  How long is it going to take?  

I don't know...but I can tell you this much, I am beyond tired.  I am clearly facing another spell of my severe adrenal fatigue disease. I only pray that God gives me the wisdom to know what to do and to do it because I am at a very low point.  

Day 8 Writing Goals

Day 8: Blog writing = 892 words. Book writing = 0 words.
#my500words challenge with @JeffGoins #2014Goals

someone on your side

Do you ever feel alone, like nobody see's your perspective?  Nobody cares about whether things are easy or hard for you?  

Do you ever feel you just wish you had someone on your side?  Someone who saw your perspective?  Someone who was an advocate on your behalf?  Someone who made things easier for you?  Someone who had your back?

I work with a lot of medical professionals.  In Texas, we have a program through the Texas Medical Association in which the physicians that want to enroll are able to pay dues for their membership to be apart of this organization.  If you get stuck in a battle with Medicare, Medicaid or a Commercial Insurance Carrier claims payments, denials, authorizations, coding rules and regulations, recoupments, etc and you have exhausted all your efforts through the chain of command and reporting system directly with the payor or agency auditing you, or simply are tired of fighting the issues, or whatever the situation may be, they will fight on your behalf.  They are an advocate for physicians.  They support the physician.  They do not support the government or its carriers.  They support the medical professionals.

Sure, they have criteria that must be met first before you can submit a "hassle factor log".  But they will help you.

Wouldn't it be nice if you had such a person for you in your life?  Someone who you could call on when you had exhausted your efforts or simply were tired of fighting?  I mean if you had such a person, wouldn't life be so much better?  Wouldn't you be ecstatic that you had someone on your side?  Wouldn't it give you a perspective as you approached circumstances and situations in a different way than if you didn't have that support?

You do.

You have someone who see's your perspective.

You have someone who is an advocate on your behalf.

You have someone who makes things easier for you.

You have someone who has your back.

You have God!!!

What would happen if you lived life, daily, with this perspective?  Wouldn't it fuel you with a love for living?  A love for the person who has your back?  The person who is supporting you 100% along the way?  The person who is making your life easier?

I want to make this more of my daily focus.  

Before I get to the point of feeling I have exhausted my efforts. Before I am tired of fighting.  Before I have had to go through the "chain of command".  Before all of that, because this advocate, doesn't make you use those resources first.  This advocate doesn't make you fill out a form for approval to submit your case.  This advocate doesn't care what you did first or last, this advocate will listen, will consider, will support, will love you no matter what has transpired.  You have a straight connection, you don't have to go through nobody for permission to access your advocate.  You don't have to wait in line. You don't have to make anyone else happy, just one    

Ever think about that?  

How would my life have been different if I had been educated in this way about the advocate I have always had on my side?

Day 7 Writing Goals

Day 7: Blog writing = 545 words. Book writing = 0 words. 
#my500words challenge with @JeffGoins #2014Goals

the speed of life

Do you ever stop and reflect about how life seems to travel fast??? 

Like really FAST?

Do you ever feel like you can't keep up?  

Do you ever stop and think, have I always felt life was this fast???  Or is it faster than ever?

And then you remember.  The days in your childhood when it seemed you were in school ForEVER.  When the weekend would never come.  When summer break or year around break (one month off three months on) was taking so long to show its face.  When you really thought the days on the calendar and weeks drug by so slowly.  When it seemed your birthday, being a whole nother year away was like eternity.  I mean.  Those days, the days dragged.  Life just dragged.  Everything seemed to take too much time.

Wait for this.  Wait for that.  Too long until you could drive. Until you got your own bank account.  Until you were an adult.  Until you got to go to so and so's house.  Too long until you could visit someone who lived in another state or call them on the phone.  Too long until your allowance was paid to you in two weeks.  Too long until you turned 13.  And forever until you turned 18.  

You never seemed to get to do anything fun, now, all you had to do was wait and that meant it was forever away.  I mean when you were an adult, then you could really live life.  Right?

Oh, to be a child again and change your thinking.  

To relish the days of nobody screaming for you to come or do or be or go or see or feel or think.  You know what I mean?  Do you ever just wanna be that person, I mean, just for a day?

I was thinking about life and how fast it travels and then how slow it seemed to travel in my childhood.  

I then thought of a train.  You know those trains that seem to take forever to cross the railroad tracks. The ones that are long and inching by so slowly?  That's how life seems when you are in your childhood.

Then you become an adult, and somehow the picture changes.  Life just seems to roar by, like an Amtrac train that has the railroad guards go down so it can fly by and before you can blink, they are coming back up because the train is gone.

I am not sure why our perspective totally changes, but it does.  I thought that some of it had to do with the amount of things we were involved in as we get older vs what we have to manage when we are younger, but I am not sure that is all of it.  I think as we get older we have a different perspective on time because we have experienced more of it.

I feel my life is speeding up.  Some days, I want to stop it.  I want it to crawl by so I can enjoy it.  Other days I enjoy the speed it is on and the way things are happening.

I just want to remind you, in case you didn't know:

Life truly does go so fffffaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssssssssst!  Make the most of it...