This consistent blogging thing is not working in my favor and I feel terrible! There are so many topics I want to cover and never seem to find the time. I love each of you who have reached out to me and told me how much you enjoy my little creative space on the world wide web š Thank you for being patient. Today I am going to focus on some summer wedges you must get and a quick life update.
Thanks to my former neighbor and friend,Ā @boymom_style_file, I have these amazingly comfortable, super cute wedges for summer! She found them atĀ DSW and thank goodness she shared them on her Instagram! You should really get a pair! They come in white, blush (which I am wanting), rose gold, grey, and black. You canĀ find them here or onĀ the āShop My Looksā page. Also, go give this gorgeous gal a Follow! There are a few other wedges I have my eye on, so I have included those below.
Goodness, where to begin…I accepted a new job in December, started in January, and suddenly it’s mid-May!? What happened?! I have been absolutely loving my new job, responsibilities, and my team. I don’t get as much one-on-one interaction with student assistants like I did in my last position, but the positives certainly outweigh the negatives. The first day I stepped foot in my office I knew I was meant to be with this group.
I have been to two professional conferences and have another one coming up at the beginning of June. I love departments that believe in developing their staff. It goes a long way with retention of employees. Our department’s director also started what I refer to as “book club” with myself, the other assistant director, and the associate director. We are reading John Maxwell’s The 5 Levels of Leadership and the time with each other is really uplifting and eyeopening. The opportunity to discuss our takeaways from the book and learn from each other makes each of us stronger leaders. Plus spending uninterrupted time with our director is a bonus. We are all so busy and rarely have time to talk. One of last week’s discussion questions asked what would you do with an extra 8 hours. The takeaway was there are only 24 hours in a day and we are not given more time so how can we spend time reflecting and planning for the future with the same amount of limited time. It was a great reminder to use any “free” minute to do so. Whether that be on a commute, in the shower, or while waiting for your Starbucks order!
The hubs has switched to day shift and adjusting fairly well. Always an adjustment for us when we take on new habits and routines. Last week was National Police Week. As a thank you to the officers I got together with the other wives, girlfriends, family members to put together goodie bags for each of the officers. We kept is simple and added some snacks, hand sanitizer (a must), car air fresheners, etc. It was certainly a group effort and I couldn’t have done it without help. Next year I would like to make it bigger, but we were crunched for time (remember how I started this section…”suddenly it’s mid-May!?”).
The most exciting thing to share is that the hubs and I are finally returning to Grand Cayman! It has been 4 years since we went. He and I will head there a few days earlier than the rest of the family. We wanted to make sure we got some travel time to ourselves since this last year has been busy and we have rarely had time to be together.
There are so many things we are looking forward to on this trip. Particularly being lazy š After all our travels the last two years we are ready for some peaceful beach time with zero expectations and plans. If we want to take a nap and sleep in, we can!
I think that is all I wanted to include in my life update. Follow our travels through Snapchat (@r8d6g) and IG Stories (@lexiandlady).
Until next post…xoxo Becca
Gallup’s Clifton StrengthsFinder is an assessment that identifies your natural talents. The assessment results provide your top 5 out of 34 talent themes. Results aim to help individuals better understand and describe their natural strengths. In addition to the results, there are resources online and books geared towards leaders, students, and even how to use your strengths in your faith community.
The idea is to use your time effectively to make your top strengths even stronger rather than focusing on getting better at something that doesn’t happen naturally. One of the actives in the workshop was to sign our name with our dominant hand and then try to recreate our signature exactly the same using our non-dominate hand. The point being that with dedicated practice over time you could successfully sign with your non-dominate hand, but would that be a good use of your time?
The workshops are great for groups and organizations to help members understand each others strengths and to also form a well rounded team. Great for hiring managers! You can learn more about the history of StrengthsFinder here.
Please don’t take this as bragging. I am a pretty confident person when it comes to the workplace. I know I can get any task done and done right. There are certain areas I feel I strive in and colleagues have recognized these both to me and to others. Based on my strengths, I have been sought out time and time again for assistance and to serve on committees. It’s even gotten me every job I have had since graduating college. However, on two separate occasions in the past year I have had those strengths verbally challenged in front of groups of my peers.
Needless to say, these brash statements caused me great self-doubt. It is my belief everyone has areas they lack confidence in and that’s ok, we are all a work in progress. To have the strengths I believed I possessed so firmly discounted and diminished with outbursts and humor was degrading.
Prior to taking the StrengthsFinder assessment, I took Myers Briggs Type Indicator and e-colors. Both described me, but StrengthsFinder is freakishly accurate and put my natural talents into relatable terms.
As I mentioned above, after my strengths were called into question I felt lost. My thoughts quickly evolved to, “maybe my abilities aren’t so great after all.” It wasn’t until I took the StrengthsFinder assessment and attended a workshop that I fell in love with my talents again. My top 5 talent themes so accurately describe who I am it became undeniable I was good at those things others had made me doubt.
Participants were told to display their strengths where they could be see, on your resume, and use the strengths terms. Receiving my talent themes solidified my self-confidence and any time I feel doubt creeping in I read my strengths. It reaffirms how valuable I am and reminds me I cannot perform all 34 talent themes well, but others have strengths to compliment mine. I believe StrengthsFinder is a great resource and even had a workshop done in my growing office to better understand each other.
My Strengths: Harmony, Achiever, Intellection, Deliberative, and Focus
You can take the assessment here.
To those who read regularly, I want to say sorry for the silence here. If you follow me on Twitter I was still pretty active over there. My personal life has been slightly crazy and my head and heart just weren’t in the blogging mode.
Speaking of Twitter, when I first started Lexi & Lady I shared a lot of my favorite new recipe finds. Out of respect for other’s work if I come across a new recipe the hubs and I enjoy I will share it on Twitter. I may link something here, but I doubt there will be many posts dedicated to a recipe find. So hop on over to Twitter and follow me!
This weekend I am visiting Magnolia Market in Waco with a friend so I’m super excited! Until next post…xoxo Becca
Becca
born and raised Texan
Hi all and welcome to my cozy little place in the blogosphere. My name is Becca and I'm a born and raised Texan. After college I got married. Got a puppy. Got a house. And then I decided I wanted to share daily life, struggles, ambitions, and everything in between.
