Hello, friends new and old! I am Lari Jean (almost everyone calls me L.J.),-- one of four contributors to Perfecting the Balance. We'll just start with the name. My parents named me after my grandpa Larry, so that is exactly how to pronounce my name! You should see some of the strange looks I get when I tell people my name ;). He is the most wonderful man, and I couldn't be any more proud to have his name.
I live for anything outdoors (we do a lot of fishing, kayaking, hunting, floating, and just sunshin-ing in general), summer is my favorite season, I am one of the happiest people you'll ever meet, I live in my great-grandma's old house that my parents helped me to remodel on our family's land, I have a tendancy to stress myself out, I drive a black 2-door JEEP Wrangler <3, and I am working on not being so dang hard on myself,
When deciding upon a name for our blog, we knew that we wanted to focus our blog around the idea of balance in our everyday lives. We are all SO busy, each in different ways. Personally, I am currently juggling being a family gal, a girlfriend of 1.3 years ;) to the most amazing guy (Hunter-- you'll hear me talk about him A LOT, but he's my person, so just get used to it!), a teacher in my hometown to a group of SWEET sweet SWEET first graders, an assistant volleyball coach to my Junior Varsity and Varsity teams, an assistant Junior High softball coach later next spring, a fitness leader at the gym in my hometown, a college student (I'm getting my Master's degree in Elementary Reading), a homeowner, a gardener, and most importantly a Christian. I'm sure I left out some roles, but those are my main roles at this point in my life. To summarize: girlfriend, teacher, coach, part-time fitness instructor, all-time-gym-goer/runner, college student, homeowner, gardener, CHRISTIAN.
I mainly hope to bring you advice and inspiration from the standpoints of: a teacher, a Christian who is working on being more for Christ, a girlfriend, and an aspiring personal trainer.
How do we find balance? I am (we are) still learning. No one knows the exact answer, and the "answer" is different for everyone. We are on this journey with you, and want to give you tips, recommendations, advice, inspiration, and motivation for finding and perfecting YOUR balance. When you feel like a juggler dropping all of the balls, we want to help. I feel this all too often, but at the end of the day I have to rest in the fact that I'm doing the best I can. I have to give myself some grace, as long as I keep putting one foot in front of the other. I look forward to becoming friends and growing with you all, and I hope you enjoy the blog! If you ever have any questions, please feel free to shoot us an e-mail or comment on our posts. Here's to Perfecting the Balance! <3
xoxo,
LJS
I'm excited to hear a teachers point of view. I struggle to find the balance of working too long and leaving "on time" and feeling like I am prepared. But I have made a point to at least leave in time to make it to the gym as often as possible