Happy One Year!! This month marks the one year anniversary of Butterflylives -whoop whoop. A sincere "thank you" to all of those who have been following us along on this crazy, wonderful adventure - and for all the incredible love, support, comments and uplifting stories. It's been amazing and we are so looking forward to another year.

Finishing out January, we wanted to recap our wins and losses of 2017 and how our year & 'word of the year' worked out for us (or not).

Chasity: Prioritize

Out with the old …. in with the new

Wow! Happy ONE YEAR to butterflylives. I am so grateful for 2017 and all that came with it. The good and the bad, because I grew. Twenty seventeen started off with a bang! My amazing family and bestie brought in the new year with our blog and we have watched it grow. Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout this year. We are very grateful.

February presented a trying time for me mentally, physically and emotionally. Things didn’t go as well as I expected and my recovery was brutal. I am one of those people who doesn’t do well with anesthesia and things spiraled…..but my support system was right there to lift my spirits and continue my journey. Shoulder surgery sucks and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you needed it….Like me (ha!)

Family life was a bit chaotic, but let’s be honest, that’s majority of our population and most days I actually enjoy it. We discovered that our oldest has reading difficulties and those obstacles threw a loop in our daily routine, but happy to announce that she is a resilient little lady and has adapted well to a new way of learning. Our biggest fear of this diagnosis for her was the “label” she would have. I think back to that day that we were told “your daughter has dyslexia” and wonder why in the hell I was so upset about that, but the thought of others possibly making fun of her felt like a puncture to my gut. I would lay in bed at nights after everyone was asleep crying until I fell asleep.

After a couple of weeks of educating myself with this new diagnosis, I realized that this is a first world problem with MANY options of help for her. She is healthy, thriving, and active…...dyslexia is an obstacle she will overcome. Thank you God for clearing my vision and mind and giving me the peace and hope I needed to get through those weeks.

I have a lot of gratitude for my professional life in 2017. I have a published story, our blog has taken off, my makeup career has been super busy, I was honored to share my story at a well known comedy club during “story tellers” night (because we all know I love to get a good laugh out of people). It was a very memorable night and I hope to get the opportunity to do it again. Adulting and parenting has probably been my biggest challenge but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

I’ve met some incredible people along the way. I thank God for new friendships and opportunities. We have a lot lined up for 2018 and I can’t wait to share all of it with each of you. I have chosen to keep my 2018 goals to myself this year. I can assure you that you will pick it up by midsummer if all goes according to plan. I need to be flexible and leave expectations at the door. Reinventing and always climbing makes my heart happy! My goals and dreams are big and at the end of the day…… it’s God's will for my life. Not mine.

As far as my word for 2017; Prioritize! Well, let's just say that God had a different priority in mind than me. I thought I was going to clean up my house - God's plan was to go back to the basics and prioritize my own self-wellness and the self-wellness of my family. 

I would like to send a heartfelt THANK YOU for making butterflylives so successful and being incredibly supportive. 2•0•1•8….. we are excited about you!

Kristin: Intention

As I sit and write this 2017 recap post, I LITERALLY can't believe that we are already into the end of January!?! I swear that God has put life on the 1x or 2x fast-forward option; every year it seems he pushes it up one notch (can I push pause for just a bit?!). 

2017 played out to be a really interesting year; for a lot of people I know, it revealed itself to be an extremely challenging and difficult year. It seemed like most the people in my life were struggling with some pretty heavy stuff. Gosh, even the energy of Earth really seemed to be struggling this year. . 

Like many people, 2017 was probably one of the more challenging years I've had in a really long time. It felt like all the things in my life that were rumbling under the surface, just came roaring up, to be released from all of the pressure; A lot of which I brought on myself with "living intentionally". Every area of my life; personal, professional, spiritual, mental, physical seemed to be under siege this year.

This time last year, Chasity and I released the blog (yay, happy one year, Chas!!) and it all started with our first post when we put up on changing up the resolution game a bit and picking a word that we wanted to live 2017 by; I chose INTENTION. It was a word that came to me easily (kind of like a God thing, easy) and knew at the time what I thought it meant to live my life intentionally - but now that I lived 365 days of it, boy was I SOO wrong. 

Be Careful What You Ask For

When I set my word "intention", the filter I wanted to live my life by, I kind of envisioned it turning out more like rainbows and butterflies. My goal was to take control of my life, steer it in the direction I wanted it to go, and by doing so I was going to capture that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, at the end of the year. HA! What living intentionally this year really looked like was dealing with some deeply rooted fears and how that was impacting my parenting & relationship with my son, ending a 6+ year relationship and really doing some deep dive exploration into the 'self-truths' that I believe(d) about myself. While it wasn't rainbows and butterflies on the journey; looking back I can see how ALL of it played a part in preparing me for 2018. I thought I was going to be intentional about the things & people in my life, but what it really taught me was, being intentional meant facing/addressing/resolving/loving all the things within me. There is no way to change the behaviors and actions of those in your life, as all of those pieces are just the outward manifestations of what is going on, on the inside.

I learned this year that: I complain a lot, that I DO a lot of 'prep-work' but suck at executing, that somewhere along the way I forgot how to be silly and have fun, that some of the holes left by those I lost in my life will always remain (and that's okay), that I have an incredible gift (and curse) of forgiving people easily, that it's okay to let go of things that aren't serving me, that I don't always believe in myself, that my story matters, and that the only way to receive love is to first start by loving yourself. By being intentional about myself, and it bringing to light some areas that needed to rise to the surface, I'm able to acknowledge, accept, love, change and appreciate how they impact my conscious and subconscious decisions. The intentional work I went through this past year has really set the stage for transformation and what I believe will be a transformational 2018 (stay tuned to find out more on this).

2018 is going to be a year of ACTION for me! I did the hard work - I got under the rug and now it's finally time to get in the driver's seat and put the pedal to the metal; I have a clear vision of my destination & a solid understanding of the road blocks that used to keep me from getting to where I wanted to go. 

We hope all the best for each of you in 2018! We look forward to more growth, transformation and failures - and look forward doing it alongside each and every one of you.

Happy 2018!! This is the year!

<3,

Kris & Chas