Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  I wonder what happened to all the people I used to drink and party with.  Some are probably sitting on the same bar stools every night, drinking their same drinks.  I know some are dead.  I know a few sobered up and are in recovery too.  :)  But I really wonder what people thought when I stopped going to the bars and partying.  The truth is probably nothing.  A lot of the people there were more of drinking buddies, or companions.  I don't know if they were real friends.  They knew what I drank, and what time I would be there, but probably didn't know my middle name.  They probably knew nothing important or real about me.  Nobody missed me when I quit going to the bars.  In the end of my drinking, I was isolating and drinking by myself, and nobody was calling asking where I was.  Today I know the meaning of true friendship.  I have friends that really care for me and that I can depend on and vice versa.  That's all I have for today.  Have a great one!

Good morning! My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  No matter what I TEACH my children, if they were do SEE me doing the thing I told them NOT to do, they would think it was ok to do.  I am so glad I quit drinking and stuff when I did because it could and would have got so much worse.  My kids were young, and my little guy doesn't remember much of my drinking behavior, but my daughter does, she was in Kindergarden. I isolated more, but I guess that was better than being violent.  I have to set a good example for them.  Yes, I want to teach them please, and thank you, and how to respect others and to be kind.  But if I don't do it, and them SEE ME do it, then how are they going to see it set in motion.  I can't be hypocritical.  I can't day one thing and do another.  I can't tell them to be nice to each other and then fight with their dad. How does that make sense?  What about yelling at them to stop yelling?  (Not that I ever do that...ha ha)  But seriously.  I need to stop and think, my children are going to grow up and be big people someday.  What kind of people do I want them do become?  I guess I have a lot do to with that.  That's all I have for today!  Have a great one!

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  If this could be my to-do-list everyday, and actually follow through wth it, life would be so much easier.   But so many things are easier said than done.  But if I could just do this and do one thing and maybe the next day one more thing, and just keep practicing it. It would get easier.   This past Sunday at church, the sermon talked about love and kindness, and I guess I never realized that kindness isn't just being nice.  It is being self-less, and going out of your way to help someone out. Giving up my time or energy to help someone when it doesn't benefit me.  I need to practice that more.  Letting go of things I can't control is a big one.  When most of the things in my life, I have no control over anyway.  But slowing down and just breathing is a big one for me too.  I am impatient and rammy-jammy (as my hubby says) and do everything fast. Sometimes (most of the time) I need to slow down, and quit rushing.  That's all I have for today. Have a great one!  

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  When I was drinking and using, there was such chaos in my life, I was never going to find peace....with anyone else or myself.  I was at the point wherer I was pushing everyone away and was isolating and avoiding everything so I was trying to get away from everything I possibily could.  I was trying to get away from paying bills, talking to people, family functions, etc.  But you can only do so much.  I had to go to work, or I would lose my job, and then I couldn't drink anymore, so I had to continue to do that.  There was no balance in my life.  It was one extreme or the other.  That is one thing I have learned in my sobriety that I have to have some sort of balance or I will completely lose it.  Extremes are bad for me, but that's naturally how I am, all or nothing.  I have learned to tone it down and learned some balance.  Without that, I will never have peace in my life, I will be stuck in the chaotic, vicious cirlce I always put myself in.  That's all I have for today.  Have a great one!  

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  I can make the choice every day to let everything get to me and make me miserable or I can brush it off and know that God has a reason for it, and be happy.  I have that choice.  I just need to get in the habit of making that same, right choice daily. I'm not talking depression or anything.  I, myself have struggled with depression/suicidal thoughts.  Good habits can be just as addictive as bad ones, but can have a lot better rewards.  Bad habits don't have very many rewards.  Some of them have some pretty bad consequences, life-long consequences.  I need to get in the habit of making good choices and being happy instead of miserable.  We are what we do repeatedly.  Should I be doing what I am doing?  Would I be ashamed if certain people saw what I was doing?  These are both questions I ask myself before I do things that before I didn't really care about.  That's all I have for today.  Have a great one!

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  There are some days I can find a quote I want to talk about right away, and some days I think about it and search for hours before I find the right one.  Today I have been struggling.  And the longer I do this the harder it gets, the less I have to go from.  Yes, there are still a million quotes out there, but a lot of them relate, or are almost like ones I have done before and a lot are along the same lines anyway.  But yesterday our neighbor died, and a couple days before that a couple girls that were in the class before me in high school me died and all these people younger than me are dying.  Some people that were recovering alcoholic/addicts that I know have passed recently, some not.  But today and last nite I have been doing a lot of thinking, just about life.  And how short it really is.  And why we are really here. And why I can't go out and drink when something goes wrong.  So I can't let my emotions get the best of me and I can't let my emotions control my reactions to situations in my life.  Life has it's ups and downs and it always will, but alcohol is not a solution.  IT WILL ALWAYS BE THE PROBLEM.  At least for me. Well, that is all I have for today.  Have a great one!  

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict. Some people have relapse as part of their story, some don't, and some just don't yet.  There is always yet.  We only have today. But not to get off track already :) No matter how many times you fall down, as long as you get back up and keep going, you are heading in the right direction.  You are NOT giving up.  Getting back up is living!  You gotta get back up, no matter how bad it hurts.  Put one foot in front of the other and keep moving.  If you drank, get to a meeting.  If you used, get to a meeting.  If you fell off your bike, get back on it and try it again. (I'm sure no 5 year olds are reading this, but you catch my drift :) ) Whatever you think you 'failed' at, keep trying.  On a lighter note, there is another quote I like, about friendship. "Friends pick us up when we fall down, and if they can't pick us up, they lie down and listen to us for a while."  That's how our true friends should be, always there for us.  So next time, before you pick up that drink or drug, call that friend or friends.  They will be there for you.  :)  That's all I have for today.  Havea  great one!

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  Remember when you were little and your mom or dad would always ask you, "What's the magic word?" and you would have to say, "Please" or "Thank you?"   I still have to use these today,  especially when I am praying.  Each morning I thank God for waking me up, then please ask him to keep me clean and sober one more day, before I go on my way.  At the end of the day I thank him for all that he has done and keeping me sober one more day.  Throughout the day I say please and thank you to him many more times as well, hopefully more thank yous than pleases.  But also throughout my day I need to be saying this to everyone else, people at work, at restaurants, at school, at church, everywhere.  My parents taught me to have respect and to have manners.  I was taught to be kind and helpful.  So hopefully you still use your magic words today!  That's all I have for today!  Have a great one!

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  Sometimes I like to go the cheap route and buy something that costs less instead of spending a little bit more money upfront, but usually in the long run I am out buying it again, not too soon after.  Same thing can go for a lot of things in life, cars, clothes, any improvements we do to our houses.  We could take the 5 minute shortcut or take a little longer and do it right the first time and not have to go back and fix it again later.  This also goes with how we work our program or just life in general.  If I want to stay sober, I have to work my program, and go to meetings, and do my readings.  There are certain things that I consider "good" work.  I have to give it my all, everyday.  If I don't, it's not worth it, or not worth as much. So give it your all, every day.  Make every day count!  That's all I have for today!  Have a great one!

Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren, and I'm a grateful, recovering alcoholic/addict.  It takes a lot of work to grow a garden.  You have to water it, and weed it, and sometimes fertilize it.  You can't just plant seeds and expect them to grow flowers or bear fruit.  It doesn't quite work like that.  Well, they might start to grow and look nice for a while or start or grow a few fruit or vegetables on them but soon enough the weeds will take over and will strangle the life out of the plants that you want to live and they will take over your garden. That is how it is with life too.  We have to weed our the bad in our lives as well, the  bad people and things sucking the life out of us.  We need to have our focus on the right things and our priorities in the right order.  That's all I have for today.  Have a great one!