2020 is finally gone and at first I was excited to put this crazy year behind us, but right towards the end things took a turn for the worst for my family. We've all contracted Covid.  This has been such a crazy situation because I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how this all happened.  I was feeling guilty because I felt like I did not protect my mom who has underlining issues and now she is fighting for her life.  After talking to my family, I finally decided to give myself some grace and accept that God's plan is not our plan and that he knows best and can heal us all if it's his will.

So moving forward in 2021 my theme for this year is Gratitude.  I've always practiced being grateful, but I plan on leveling up my gratitude meter.  If I've learned nothing else from this Covid monester is that you have to be grateful for the small things.  I plan on living my life to the fullest because you never know when your time will be up.  

I've been living in Gwinnett county for almost 8 years and I've never really discovered all that the county has to offer, but that is about to change.  As I produce the show daily I will also share what I've learned about Gwinnett and all of the places that I intend to visit.  This is me being grateful for the small things.  I will spend quality protected time with my family and friends and just enjoy the simplicity of life and all that it has to offer.

As my family recover and work on getting back to a new normal, we will never take life for granted again and gratitude will be a core value of how we live our life moving forward.

Stay Safe!
Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day
Audrey

Before Covid-19 took over the world, I thought I knew what I wanted.  I had just opened my new podcast studio where I would be hosting the the show from and also producing podcasts for others.  I was on my way to speak at Podfest in Orlando Florida and that was exciting.  I did get a chance to go and speak and had an amazing time only to return home and in few days the whole world just shut down.

I thought to myself, what the heck is going on.  For a minute I felt like this would soon be over, but in just a few short weeks I lost my uncle to the virus and about two weeks after that I lost the best man in my wedding to this same virus.  I closed my studio down, because the whole world was on lockdown and on top of that I was deathly afraid to leave my house.  

During the time that I was sheltered in place I took the time to look at my life and my business.  I realized that for over 20 years I had been chasing success, but had not reached the level of success that I wanted to achieve.  Although being on locked down gave me time to think, it also sent me into a mild depression, because I started to focus on all that I had done wrong up until that point.  What's crazy is that I didn't know that I was slightly depressed.  It was not until my husband suggested that I might be going through a mid life crisis.  I stopped to think about what he had said and thought to myself that maybe I was going through a mid life crisis.  As time went on and I became less afraid I started to venture out again.  I was sheltered in place from March 9th - June 6th.  I would not leave the house at all except to go on the deck to get fresh air.  

My 17th wedding anniversary was coming up on June 7th, so my husband and I decided to take a short trip.  We left on June 6th to go to a beautiful quaint town called Helen which is about an hour and a half drive from my home.  It felt so good to get out of the house and just be around people.  We kept our masks on for safety and avoided really large crowds.  We had a great time.  I had forgot how nice it was to just relax and not worry about business or anything else for that matter.  While there I had even more time to think.  I started to reflect on my life and again I beat myself up, because here I was at 53 years old not really sure about what the heck I was doing with my life.  Even though my trip was great I was still confused about what I wanted to do with my life at this point.  

God has given me the ability to come up with some of the most amazing ideas that I've turned into businesses.  Now I had 3 amazing businesses, but I was my happiest when I was hosting my podcast.  The problem with hosting Good Morning Gwinnett, was that I didn't believe it could earn me the kind of money I wanted, so instead of focusing on what brought me joy, I was chasing money and to be honest I was so unhappy.  

In July my husband and I went on our second short trip to a ranch in Madison Georgia, which is about an hour and a half away from where we live.  This was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had in my life.  I love horses and this was the first time I was up close and personal with one.  We went horseback ridding and that was so much fun.  We met an elderly couple who had drove in from Florida and they were so nice.  I was so relaxed and had more time to think.

On my second adventure I declared that I would only do my podcast and everything else would take a back seat to that.  My mind was made up and I was ready to make it happen, that was until I got home and that belief that it wasn't going to make me the money that I needed kicked in.  So for the next 3 months I agonized over what I would do.  Finally at the beginning of October I decided that I was going for it and nothing was going to stop me not even myself.  So, I paused everything else I was doing and just focused on growing Good Morning Gwinnett.  Once I made that decision and stuck with it I felt like I was reborn.

It was a little scary thinking about starting over at 53 years old, but I loved what I was doing and I had to believe in it enough to know that because I loved it, it would take care of me.  I sleep so much better because I believe that I have finally accepted that Good Morning Gwinnett is my purpose and my passion.  Now I am excited about the road ahead and to see just how it all plays out.  As I take this journey of living my best life and being true to myself I will share it here with you.

I hope you feel inspired to be true to yourself. Stay safe and stay strong.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
​Audrey

I love having conversations with my daughter.  She is 29 years old and single.  She is a sweet and beautiful young lady, but for some reason she can't find a Boo.  So the other day we were chatting when the people came to pick up some stuff that we were giving away.  She went down to give the stuff to the guy, but she took a long time coming out of the garage.  I figured that it was someone trying to shoot their shot as they say.  Sure enough I was right.  The young man was handsome and he was trying to get to her number.  

When she finally came upstairs she started to tell us the story about how he was trying to get her number and she asked him where he lived he said in Atlanta.  She asked him where in Atlanta and he said behind the county jail.  Well he was on probation for robbery.  That's when she said to me "The Dating Pool Has Pee In It." 

I fell out laughing.  I thought this statement was so funny.  Anyway I shared this story with one of my best friends who is my daughter's God mother and she said that the dating pool definitely has pee in it.  Now I thought that this was just for millennials, apparently this pool of pee has no age limit.  I shared the story again because it was funny to me, but I keep getting the same response and that is the dating pool really does have pee in it.

So it seems that man are not interesting in settling down anymore.  Everyone of my single friends that I talk to say the same thing.  Men are not serious they just want to hit and run.  They are not interested in being in relationships with just one woman and I wonder why?  Is there too many women out there?  Is there a man shortage?  What the heck is going on?  There are these amazing women who want to be in a serious relationship and there aren't any men who want to join them.  This is crazy.  So what is a girl to do?  Do they swim in the pool that has the pee in it or do they wait until they put some chlorine it to get rid of the germs?

I would love to hear your take on this issue especially if you are a man.  Why don't men want to be in serious relationships anymore?

Still trying to get our life back on track, my husband and I decided to join a local bowling league.  Stars & Strikes is the closest alley to us, so we went there.  We weren't sure what to expect when we got there since this was our first time back since the end of last year before the whole corona virus pandemic.  So the first night we went our plans were to bowl in the doubles league on Tuesday evening, but we and one other team were the only ones to show up.  Of course you can't have a league with just two teams, so we decided to move to the Thursday league.

The Thursday league has 10 four person teams, so that was about 40 people congregating together.  Now I wasn't nervous, because I've learned to social distance and to wear a mask.  Also the employees at the bowling alley were all wearing masks, so that made us feel safe.  We have to face it that wearing a mask is a new normal for a lot of us.  Now I must admit that on Tuesday when we first went we had our masks on, but we forgot them on Thursday.  I still felt okay, because we were spread apart from the other teams.  This week though I will make sure that I have my mask on so that I can continue to practice safety and get used to this new normal that we are now living.

Stay Safe 
Until Next Time 
Make It  A Great Day!
Audrey

I was so excited about the baby  and planning of the events leading up to her birth like the baby reveal and the baby shower.   Every time I would feel a flutter in my stomach I would talk to my "Butterfly". Pretty soon everyone was calling her Butterfly and she wasn't even here yet. 

As the months went on, I knew she was going to be something special.  She was so active;  Butterfly did all kinds of turns in my belly.  I thought it came from all of the spicy food that I was eating and boy, did I eat my share of spicy foods.  

I didn't gain a lot of weight with the pregnancy at first, only about 20 pounds.  So, I felt good, but then I gained another 20 pounds and everything started to change!

​Carrying that extra 20 pounds was tough, but things got even worse after the baby was born.  My relationship collapsed.  I didn't feel sexy anymore and my freedom was gone.  I thought that I lost myself.  I was a first time mom and I felt like I didn't know what the heck I was doing. 

Every time I looked at my daughter I knew that I had to pull myself together, so I started meditating and journaling.  I had to find my strength again.  That's when I realized my strength was dressing up, but I did it on a budget.  

Dressing up always made me feel good, so I decided to launch my blog The Budget Boutique  to help other mothers who wanted to bounce back on a budget and feel good about who they were again.  The more I planned out my outfits I knew I was on to something.   Blogging brings me so much joy.  It's still very new, but I feel like I've found myself again and the road ahead looks pretty damn amazing.​

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day
Audrey

I'm always looking at ways to create content that will bring value to peoples lives.  I was talking to my friend Georgette a couple of weeks ago and I was telling her that all I really wanted to do was do my podcast and work on the Good Morning Gwinnett site.  What I realized was that I am my own worst enemy when it comes to living a life that I say that I want.  

I know that you are probably thinking am I saying that and I will share my reason for saying that.  Part of me long for simplicity and I know what that looks like, but I suffer from not being enough, so I constantly make whatever I do bigger and bigger until it is completely out of control and then I become overwhelmed, but here's the thing.  I'm not going to do that anymore.  I will not create all of this stress for myself by making everything so big that I am stressed out just trying to control it.

I believe that this here blog is going to help me with that.  You see I discovered that journaling helps me so much in other areas of my life.  When I decided to start this blog on GMG I knew I wanted it to be about lifestyle.  I wanted to share the good, bad and the ugly about the things that affect me in my health, my business, my relationships and just my every day living.  So don't be surprised if you stop by one day and I have an article on hot flashes, because Lord knows that come out of no where and attack me.  Hey listen you stop by one day and I'm talking about relationships or something that I read in a magazine.  

What I'm saying is that I have decided that this blog is going to rescue me from myself and I'm going to enjoy sharing my life with you as it unfolds.  So make sure to check back to see what I got going on with me.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
​Audrey