Hello Blog

It's Monday., March 14, 2022 and the Spring Forward Day for this year. was yesterday. I thought today would be a good time to revive this blog (for the nth time - ha! ha!). A quick reminder, Hawaii do not do Daylight Savings Time, so the time difference will increase (or decrease) as what my friend Katy explained I her blog. 

Writing is such cathartic activity, as well as an empowering activity. I wish I have more time to write.  But then again, wishing for more time won't do it. I need to make time for it. And that is what I am doing today. Making time for it.

Lots to write about. Free flow writing. No stressing out. I hope you'd all join me in this writing adventure.

When after listening comes doing ...

I had been doing  a lot of listening this past couple of weeks, because that's I what feel I should do. As I mentioned on my previous post, LISTEN is my word for 2017.

And in doing so, I have realized that while listening is good, and that's what I should focus on ... there comes a time when I also have to "do" what I have been told to do ... because afterall, I don't listen just to listen ... I listen to understand ... to learn ... to grow ... to mend ... to restore ... and to develop.

And one of those "I listened, I heard, and I am going to be doing" is to lessen my postings about my family on social media ... to the point of maybe not post at all at least not on Instagram and even less and less on Facebook.  

Last year I started another Instagram account in addition to my @amauiblog. My intention was to post a lot of family photos there, because I wanted to capture the memories like what @jyscott was doing.  I even opted to make the account private so that my family will be more comfortable with me posting our photos there ....

But now I am realizing we are not on the same wavelength on this.  Not that it's bad to post family photos on Instagram.  Personally, I love it. But what I like is different from what they like. It's a matter of preference and this time I want to listen.  I remembered that a few months ago when I took a photo of Gardner and Noelle together from afar, both of them told me that that was "creepy" of me to take photos of them without them knowing and then posting them.  They also told me that it's ok to take photos, but don't post them.  I should have listened back then, but didn't. I still tried to have this "family Instagram" and yet I recently noticed that I really don't have much current photos to share because my family don't like family photos that much. Well, we had lots during Christmas, but not much on regular days ... Thinking more about it I just knew that its time to change direction on lizamaui's Instagram.

Tonight I looked back at some of my posts here on the blog and I'm thankful that when they were young they didn't mind much that I am blogging about them. In fact they liked it back then. Like when Noelle danced ballet and Gardner danced hip hop. But the season of our lives have changed ... and that is ok ... we grow, we adjust, we move forward ...

And so starting tomorrow, my lizamaui instagram account will have a different direction. I don't know exactly what ... but leaning towards motivation and encouragement; or maybe back to food photos and funny stuff, or dogs and cats :) ... who knows ... I'd play it by ear and listen I guess :)

More about LISTEN on my next post ...because, really, I had been learning a lot just by listening ...

The Power of Words ...

Word.

Lately I had been pondering about the power of WORDS in our lives.

Lately I have been drawn to the many tender words expressed with love and wisdom, like these:

Ronald Reagan's Love Letter to Nancy

Joey+Rory's blog - Rory's tender words sharing their lives with us.

Lou's Prophetic words as he expresses his dreams and vision and passion.

Kristin's Blog. Words of a mother, that oh, I can so much relate to.

And this letter of a Dad to his daughter

And the Open Letter to Strangers  who helped her get through one of the most difficult time of her life

Words.

This phrase Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me - this is a lie. It is wrong. It was a tool to avoid retaliation when verbally bullied or abused. It served its purpose then, but in reality ... words used the wrong way, harm.

Hateful words.  Condescending Words.  Accusation and Lies.  These words harm and can eventually indirectly kill a person. But words use to encourage? Ah, those words can bring a dead person back to life.

So much to write about WORDS, what we say and how we say it.

In closing, this is the verse I got for my Quite Time today:

"Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" - Psalm 119:105

What If?

There were about 10,000 things I wanted to blog about. But now that I have this time to write, all those thoughts went away. OK, maybe they didn't go away ... my mind is just all overwhelmed trying to decide which ones to write about first.

The truth is I have another blog that I need to write on.  I started a personal blog on Alzheimer's. It's a private blog. If you'd want to read it, you will have to email me and let me know so I can add you to the list of people who can read the blog.

That said, I think I am going there first.  There are some pressing thoughts I want to write there.  Will be back here again. When" I have no idea.  The nice thing about this blog is that I don't think anybody is reading this - lol! It's the blog and I ... that's about it :)  Will be back ...

Introspection, Sort of

It's the eve of Independence Day on America.

I have a few minutes on my plate to whip up a quickie post.

One of these days I will sit down and blog away,

write freely

introspect

but for now it's just a quickie

making sure I don't once again neglect

this blog which is sort of become

my best friend.

Aloha.

Hello Again

Glad to be getting back my blogging mojo ... slowly but surely.

Enjoyed visiting the blogs on my blogroll

and oh my goodness, many of my "old tiime bloggy friends" are still blogging away.

Our kids have grown

Our lives have changed

But our love of blogging is still the same :)

http://www.onpoptheology.com/2013/05/10-lessons-from-my-first-year-of.html

A New Begnning

Good bye Lizas-Eyeview.com

Hello LizaPierce.com

It was not intentional.

But then it happened.

So maybe it's meant to be.

I was negligent and let the domain of Lizas Eyeview expired

I was very frustrated at first.

I tried to get it back, but I was unsuccessful.

Out of the blue I typed / searched lizapierce.com

And I was told that domain was available.

Grabbed it, bought it.

And now here I am.

 Love this blog.

Ultimate Blog Party 2012

Aloha! If you arrived at this blog because you clicked my name on the comment I left, can I please ask you to head over to my other blog, A Maui Blog, because that's where my Ultimate Blog Party is happening! Thank see and hope to see you there!

This Mama Blogger Is On A Roll!

It’s 5:23 in the morning. I have already been up for an hour and been tweeting, e-mailing and FB’ing. Now I am writing a post for this blog. Yeah baby, this Mama Blogger is on a roll!

Truth is I should be writing a post for A Maui Blog right now. But I thought it would be fun to visit here first. Afterall, this is my first love, my first “blog love”.

There are a lot of things in my mind right now. The upcoming Thanksgiving, my kids’ schooling, the business blog I will be resurrecting, plans for my work as a Social Media Director at Premiere Mortgage and Aloha Luxury Properties, and not to forget our daily dinners, etc.

My life is busy. Crazy busy. But I have learned to take it day by day so I don’t get stressed out by it. But there's one thing I am a bit concern. I am noticing that our “life with friends” is being affected by our busyness . Recently we had been neglecting spending time with our “old friends”. We just don’t hang out with them as much as we used to. That is not good. Yesterday we were supposed to go to a “first birthday party” of our good friends’ son. We planned on attending but bailed out the last minute due to some complications in “the home front”. This year’s Halloween, instead of spending it with our best friends up in Waikapu which we’ve done in the previous years, we decided to stay in Kihei. Hmm...

Speaking of “this Mama Blogger Is On A Roll” I better get rolling writing my posts at A Maui Blog. Need to. Exciting things are hapenning at A Maui Blog - I need to keep up with the momentum.  It was nice stopping by here for a quick visit. And if you are still reading this post up to this point, I salute you, and love you. Yep, this post is so quick and random. Thanks for reading!

A hui hou!

When #FAIL comes your way, #ENCOURAGEMENT is an anti-dote

blog

I am amused whenever I see a failwhale photo flash on my screen.  Not that I would like a failwhale to happen.  I am a Twitterholic, and I really don't like it when Twitter is down.  However, the failwhale logo represents something more, something worth talking about. But before I get distracted talking about a Twitter  failwhale, what I really want to talk about is our life's failwhales and how to overcome it. Let me use my recent life's failwhales as examples:


1. FailWhale No 1:  Fundrasing for Blogworld2011 - since I started blogging in 2006, one of my dreams is to be able to attend the blogworld conference.  I thought that this year I will be able to do it though a fundraising campaign.  But just as I launced the campaign on my blog, I got the news that my mom passed away. I flew back to the Philippines and stayed there for 10 days. The campaign was put on a back burner.  When I came back to Maui, life got so busy that I didn't have the time to work on the campaign.  BlogWorld2011's date is so close now that I don't think I'd make it.  #Failwhale! Am I bummed? Of course I am.  I had been wanting to attend this for a long time.  And  aside from the fact that I wanted to go to LA to attend Blogworld, another desire is to go to LA to visit my brother there while I am attending Blogworld.  It's a long story, but it's  a #fail for now.

2. FailWhale No.2: Applying to be a speaker at TEDxMaui 2011 - I don't know what possessed me to think that I am even worthy of applying to be a speaker at TEDxMaui.  But the thought never left my mind when I first heard of TEDxMaui,  so I did it.  I knew that if I didn't submit my "half-baked" application on the deadline, I would forever be wondering "what if".  I submitted my application the day before they announced the names of some of the speakers.  The next day, when I saw the list of speakers, I was so embarrassed that I had the "delusions of grandeur" to apply to be a speaker at TEDxMaui.  What medication I was on, I didn't know! Right now, it's a  #Fail. But then again, maybe not.  You want to know what the "big idea" I had for TEDxMaui? I wanted to speak about "ENcouragement" (the  TEDxMAui theme is "Courage To Dream"), which lead me to the conclusion of this post.

#ENCOURAGEMENT. - "When life thows you a #failwhale, #encouragement is your anti-dote.

Since I illustrated what a #failwhale is through my life's example, let me also illustrate what #Encoragement (or #EncourageWIN as I'd call it) is through my life's example.

1. #Encouragement -When I woke up this morning, I got a notification from KLOUT saying that Liz Strauss added me to her KLOUT list under GREAT MOMS.  Now if you know me well, you know that's one of the greatest compliment you can ever give me.  I love being a mom. That really is a my passion. And for someone like Liz Strauss to include me in a list of great moms is a huge encouragement to me. This made my day today which made those #failwhales easy to take.

Going back to the FAILWHALE - what I love about it is that it's the "little birds" that carrying the whale.  There's an insight to that. Think about it.  Those little birds are the encouragers in my life.  When the feeling of  "I am a huge failure (huge as in a whale)" comes to mind, the encouragements of  little birds can carry us along until we arrive at a #WIN.  Gotta love those birds!

So one more time: When life thows you a #failwhale, #encouragement is your anti-dote.



* Bonus: FUN WEBSITE FAILWHALE:  What  Is A FailWhale?

Finding My Center in the Blogsphere

It's been a while since I blogged here at Liza's Eyeview. A lot have happened since then. One of those that "have happened" is that I now work as social media coordinator - full time, with pay. What was once a hobby is now my job. Most people would say I am lucky. In other words, I am blessed.

One danger of turning a hobby into a job is the possibility of burn-out. Generally, passionate people who are pasionate about what they do are susceptible to burn out because they give so much of themselves doing the things that they do, that sometimes their minds or bodies cannot keep up. That's the way with me sometimes. But I don't want to get burned out right now. I am enjoying my job and I intend to keep it that way.

Tonight I decided to came back to Lizas Eyeview to visit my blogging roots, to get grounded and be refreshed. When I say "finding my center in the blogosphere" I meant "finding balance". At my current job right now I am developing two new blogs, on a tight budget (understandable in this current economy). That means I cannot outsource it, I have to do it all. I like blogging so that's a good thing, but there are so much to do. Aside from the 2 work blogs, I also have to re-construct my A Maui Blog because it was recently hacked. A lot of the fixing and rebuilding is already done, but  there are still so many details I need to organize and update on.  This should a good timing to do it, but it can't be a priority over my 2 other projects. And aside from my full-time job, I'm still doing a part time job helping a friend develop and mainatin his social media involvement. So you see, I am pretty busy.  This is not even counting doing my wifey and mommy duties - lets not go there for now.

Going back to Lizas Eyeview, it's amazing how even with the irregular postings, my page rank is still considerably high in Google Page ranking. OK, let's not go there either.

I had a great time visiting the blogs of my "old" bloggy friends.  I think I'd do this more often.

My eyes are heavy now and I am dozing off.  I think I'm going to back and will continue this musing tomorrow....

Just Because ...

It's 12 midnight. I should be in  bed, asleep. But I thought I should break the silence of this blog by posting something ... just because.  Just because I miss blogging here ar Liza's Eyeview.  I miss visiting my Mommy Blogger Friends.. I miss talking story about life, about my struggles and accomplishments, my disappointments and triumphs ... I miss talking about my family, my friends ... oh I miss the good old Mama Blogger Days.  One of these days, when I get a chance, I'd post here more regularly - but for now, it'll be intermittent. Aloha Oi!

Oh I think These Guys Are Singing About Me

I know ... I need to hire a Password Guy ... I posted this previously but I feel the need to re-post. This social networking is taking over my life - LOL! Just kidding. Not taking over my life yet. And I still am enjoying it. :)

Today Is The Day I Removed My Blogher Ad and more ...

Many changes are coming to this blog.  Today I removed my Blogher Ads.  It was bittersweet. Blogher has been very very good to me. I decided to remove my ads because I would not be able to fulfill some of their requirements any longer (like posting regularly at least 3x a week).  I may or may not post at least 3x a week but I just didn't want the "pressure" of knowing I have to.  

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am starting back to working part time with my former employer. That plus my two other blogs (A Maui Blog and Maui Real Estate and Development Blog) would for sure keep my hands full - not to mention fulfilling my duties as a wife, a mom. Sometimes (many times) the other part of me like being a daughter, a sister and a friend, takes a side burner as I don't have much time to nurture those relationships as much as I want to.  Thank God for Blogs and Facebook to keep me connected to my family and friends...

Today is Monday.  This is the last Monday I would be a "stay at home/work at home" mom.  Next Monday I am off to work. I need really be wise in using my time this week.  I pray that I would get my priorities straight - that I would be organized and not get sidetracked by things that are not important.

It's 5:20 AM. I will log off in  10 minutes and will start reading my Bible.  It's a good way to start the day.

Good Morning Monday

Working on a new post. Getting organized. I thought it would be nice to put this pink hibiscus flower here for you to enjoy while I am doing work behind the blog.  Aloha!

Just Look How Far You've Come ...

Out of the blue, last night I browsed through some of my old posts.  I felt a warm sensation deep inside.  Reading my first post brought back a variety of emotions I was feeling at the time I started my blog. Then randomly I clicked March 2007 and April 2007.  Browsed through the list of posts I made then and found some songs that encouraged me at that time, like So Close and I Simply Live For You.

Yeah baby, I've come a looong way.  Who would have thought I would still be blogging til now. I initially blogged to vent, to reflect - it was all for me. It was a self preservation tool. But now it has become more than that. It's to reach out, to encourage...

Oh I remember the days when I had 5 regular readers - my sister in law Gem, my brother Joseph, my counselor and friend Karen, my friend Todd, and an online friend hockeymum. Four of these people knew not much about blogs until I introduced them to it. Now four of them are bloggers and one is very active with Flickr.

And then I met the "mommy bloggers".  A group of women whose posts constantly encouraged me though many difficult times and situations - be it parenting, marriage, stress, etc. Then I discovered Kamsin's blog, and many others whose posts became my treats for the day.  And how can I forget Ernestine ... Jaime's (Blondemomblog) mom, who now became a passionate blogger through Jaime and I's encouragement. She's 70 something grandma who e-mails and blogs - how cool is that? Pretty cool I'd say.

How about the time when I deleted close to a hundred posts when my husband and I had a huge argument about my blog.  I wished I hadn't deleted those but I was trying to prove a point (yeah, that darn submission - you know).  And it worked.  At that time my husband didn't want me to blog about our family so I deleted every post there was that referenced to my family. Problem was my blog became impersonal and boring. I almost gave it all up. But then friends and family stepped in to encourage me to go on. Hubby had a turn around later in my blog life...

Then crisis and tragedy came upon us. Blogs became an immediate source of comfort and tool for communication. Like with Kit and Joey ...

Back to looking at my first post and the vast emotions that came along with it ... some of "difficult ones" are still there.  After 2+ years, I still am in the process of healing (I know it seems so long) ... learning to face disappointment with grace and trust, knowing that God has a bigger plan.  When the time comes when I don't experience any "discomfort" at the mention of such, then I will let you know. In the meantime, I am enjoying the ride. I am rejoicing in the fact that what satan meant for evil (he wanted me to succumb to feelings of abandonment and harbor resentment) God turned out for good (this blogging thing is unbelievable!)

After I typed in the title of this post, I got reminded of one of my favorite song by Steve Green back when I first became a Christian. And the chorus goes like this:

Don't give up

Don't give in

Give it all to Him

Cause He cares so much more than you know

When it seems 

who you really want to be

is something you'd never become

Just look how far you've come.

Great reminiscing with you folks. I am thankful. Blog on. Let's continue to blog life together.

***

Note: I'd be linking some more words to the blogs etc. later ... for now I need to go back to bed and get some sleep :)

25 Things About Me

I was tagged in Facebook by some dear friends to do the 25 Things About Me Meme. I thought I'd post it here on the blog too. I am working on my "Tackle It Tuesday" post but I thought this one is a good post for today, Monday ....

1. I love Jesus. I thought I'd mention that first. I grew up as a Catholic. I gave my life to Jesus when I was in college. I believe in "lifestyle evangelism". I do not like it when people "force" their belief to others. I think if we live a life that Jesus would want us to live, others will want to know more about HIM.

2. I am a daughter, a wife, a mother, a friend, a sister, an aunt and a blogger. I also have many other roles aside from that.

3. I am married to Bradley. I am barely 5 feet tall, He's 6 and 3/4 feet tall. As my friend would say, I believe in the improvement of species ;)

4. Bradley and I dated through letters. We first met in the Philippines during one of Hope Chapel's mission trips, but he loves to say he ordered me from a catalog. He thinks it's kinda funny. Yep, he's got a warped sense of humor. Oddly, his sense of humor is one of the qualities that attracted me to him when we first met ;)

5. We have been married for 15 years (going 16 this year). Yes, we are committed to each other. And yes, I love that guy.

6. I love being a mom. This is one of my greatest passion in life.

7. I am a mom to a Hapa Girl N and a Hapa Boy G. Both are in their Tween years. They are my pride and joy. They are the best!

8. I love my family in the Philippines (and LA) even though I do not write and very seldom call them on the phone. My two brothers should win the award for "best brothers".

9. I am introvert by nature although I love having a lot of friends. I am a loyal friend. I have some close friends who I adore and love so much. They help me get through the rough times and they rejoice with me in the good times.

10. By being an introvert, I need a lot of quite time and reflection time. I get cranky when I don't get enough of those.

11. Being an introvert, I am not good at conversations. I tend to be a "wall flower" on social gatherings. I do not like talking on the phone. If you call my cell phone and I don't answer, you'd get a message recorded by Bradley. It says " You've reached Liza's phone. DO NOT LEAVE A MESSAGE -she does not check her messages. That's true. E-mail me if you need to reach me.

12. I love to sing but singing doesn't like me.

13. I also love to dance but dancing doesn't like me either.  Although in elementary and high school I danced a lot, even on school programs. But now I hardly dance except swaying during worship ;)

14. I love books and I think books like me :). Reading informative books, self-help books and biographies are my favorites.  I don't read fiction and novels that much. I love reading poetry though. Yes, I can be boring.

15. "Acts of Service" is my primary love language.  Anything I can do for you?

16. Someday when I retire and we can afford it, I'd love to "travel around the world".  Also want to do a lot of gardening and flower arranging;

17. I am a B.S. Psychology graduate. I took Psychology because it has the fewest Math requirements I could find in college that also has a lot of science.

18. Yes, I hate Math and love Science. Later on I realized I really really like Psychology and so glad I took that as my major.

19. I love living on Maui. Love the ocean, the people, the weather, and everything Maui. Maybe that's why I started another blog called A MAUI BLOG

20. I like eating ethnic Filipino food, And yes I do eat balut (much to my hubby's and some friends' disgust). DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK if you have low tolerance for weirdness and yuckiness)

21. I own more than 25 cookbooks but only use less than 10 of the recipes written those those 25+ cookbooks. I am a messy cook. I am insecure with my cooking ability.

22. Blogging and Twittering are among my favorite things to do.

23. I don't exercise very much. But I need to. I also don't drink water as much as I need too.  And did I mention I love eating fried foods? I can't claim to be a health buff. I'd fail the healthy list test.

24. Twenty four already? I still have a lot to share.

25. Now I am stuck and don't know what to put as the 25th things about me.  If you know me, feel free to add something about me on the comment section :)

My Rainbow Color Is White

I saw this test in Julie's blog and I decided to take it too. Julie is a white and since we are so alike (known her a bit through her blogging), I guessed I would be white too. And yes, I am:

Your rainbow is shaded white.

What is says about you: You are a contemplative person. You appreciate quiet moments. People depend on you to make them feel secure.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Show Me The Money

My postings on blogs are a bit scarce and my participation on bloggy carnivals are not as active as it used to be. In fact I can't believe I missed participating at the Bloggy Giveaways. The reason? I was busy Twittering! Not that I will give up my blogging for twittering. Blogging is my first love (on internet social networking that is) but recently Twittering is bringing me a lot of excitement and inspiring me to pursue Internet Marketing as my "work at home" career.

Last weekend I organized a "Maui-Tweet-up" and met with some Twitters from Maui, and well as Jeremiah Owyang who is a web strategist and web analyst with Forrester. Joey Johnson, my marketing genius friend, would have been so proud of me! The tweet-up went well and I am now organizing another one. This whole social networking thing at Twitter amazes me. I would never have thought in my wildest dream that I will venture into a marketing career but my passion for blogging is leading me there. The neat thing is that the Lord is opening windows of opportunities! I really believe He is leading the way. I started blogging for personal selfish reasons, then starting blogging as a ministry, and now it has come full circle, I am blogging and twittering for me to be able to have income while I stay at home and it's ok (not selfish at all).

I can ramble on and on about my excitement on this new endeavor. But I won't. I do not want to scare you dear readers and friends away. My Liza's Eyeview blog will remain my personal blog where I talk about me, my family, and my personal walk with God. My other blog, A MAUI BLOG will be more of my "business blog". A new design just got uploaded! We're still doing some tweaks to make it nice but it is nice already!

Now you are probably wondering why my title says "Show Me The Money". Well, it's a joke (but not really a joke) from my husband. Last Sunday when I was rambling on and on about how excited I am about the Maui Tweet-up and my A MAUI BLOG blog, he patiently listened with a grin in his face. Then he said, well... remember that movie Jerry McGuire? Remember what Cuba Gooding keep on saying? "SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!" Apparently he is very much aware that my A MAUI BLOG has not bring in any income at all. Well, not yet anyways. But it will. I know it will. But I am not focused on that right now. I am just so passionate about using this A MAUI BLOG to promote Maui that I know I do not have to worry about the income it should bring. As Zig Ziglar said, find a need, help fulfill the need, and you will become successful. I think that's the secret of my success - I like fulfilling a need. It comes natural to me.

I got to get ready for work. Aloha!

An Avid Reader of Liza's Eyeview

The other day while checking my emails (tons of them), one subject caught my eyes. It says "Your Avid Reader". I looked at who it was from. It was from my sister in law Gem. She really is an avid reader of Liza's Eyeview (right from the start) so I was curious why she was sending me an e-mail. When I clicked to open the e-mail, the photo above popped out. OH MY GOSH! THAT'S THE CUTEST PHOTO EVER! Have I ever told you how much I love my sisters in law? Both Gem and Baby are "true sisters" - they are the sisters I never had growing up. They take care of my brothers more than anyone can take care of them. And both of them are awesome moms! Thank you Gem for sending this photo of your dear son :). It totally made my day!