Zac decided to surprise me with a christmas trip to downtown Lexington’s Triangle Park to go ice-skating

Merry Christmas to all friends and readers of modeledbymaria.com!!! I hope you’ve been able to experience the warmth of the season and Christ’s unselfish salvation for us all!

Things around here have been crazy hectic with finishing the semester, my internship for grad school, and completing last minute shopping. I am THRILLED to finally have my internship completed. I learned SOOO MUCH from my supervisor – the gracious Cassie Davidson ( who worked so wonderfully around my modeling/acting schedule). I worked in a rehab/skilled nursing center as a speech-language pathologist with stroke victims, patients with dementia, and other communication disorders to help them regain their ability to communicate daily. It was a miracle to have this internship set-up accepeted by my university, since it required me to only complete me hours as I could when I wasn’t traveling. Thank you WKU for being so considerate! I previously thought I only wanted to one day work as an SLP with children (part time with modeling) in a school system. But now I see the benefits working with adults, too. When my supervisor and I were able to help stroke patient change her lack of receptive and expressive language, and self-created jibberish, into real words I realized just how rewarding of a field SLP truly is. I also learned about being positive in life. These patients who have been through so much, yet remain with a smile on their faces, are true role-models for how to look at the bright side.

Besides that, I started shopping early this year and did our annual family Black Friday adventures – which is truly one of my favorite days of the year. I had a total of 6 Christmas get-togethers over 2 days and really enjoyed them all. I loved shopping for the Salvation Army’s “Angel Tree” children with Zac – it was adorable how he just couldn’t stop unselfishly buying for them . I visited family and family visited us which was great as well. My family sure isn’t a boring one – and I lover every minute with them. At one point it suddenly hit me how my family has been blessed with health and a lack of tragic events compared to so many hurting with the recent events in Connecticut and others hurting in our country. Sometimes life just isn’t fair… all I know to do is lower my head in a thankful prayer, and thoughtful prayer for those in pain.

Although traveling has been fairly busy up until the holidays, it is so nice that it has slowed down for a bit now. I forgot what it was like to have all my clothes and items in one place! My focus today is on playing with my new “toys” – such as a camera and recipe book from my sister and mom – and simply being lazy. To be exact…. I’m still in my PJs even though it is almost 1:00! The day after Christmas has always been the best day for laziness and pj wearing

If you’re like me – you may have ate more than ideal over the Christmas holiday. Don’t beat yourself up! A few tricks to get back on track is to not starve yourself, because this only sets you up for future failures. I make the worst eating decisions when I’m starving and in a hurry to eat! Also, remember you can burn calories from things like shoveling snow, playing with the kids, or any other activity you find more fun than the gym. Below are some common activities that send that extra piece of cake into calorie burning fuel!
*Playing dodgeball with kids
*Boggie Down for a real sweat session and laughter!
*Wrap yourself warm and go on a hike
*Shovel snow
*Cleaning house for your relatives – lifting heavy furniture or loads of laundry only adds weight lifting!
*My favotire…Shop until you drop!!! – use an app like “map my fitness” to see how many miles you walked and calculate the calorie burn.

Remember to check my recipe tab above for ways to turn your favorite recipes into healthy treats as well as recipes that sound crazy – but are surprisingly good!

Blessings to you all – stay in touch!

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