Starting New Means Finishing Well.....

I don't believe in New Years Resolutions. I despise them actually. It sets you up for failure, defeat and disappointment. A Year is such a long time to make any promises....

Ask me how I know this.


I still carry the weight I resolved to lose, My house gets messier as life gets more complicated and my organization skills are still lacking. Those are just some of the disappointments I have on my list.

I cringe at the empty promises people make this time of year. And the words.... I don't like them either.

Life has a way of beating you down the moment you bring your head above water for a gulp of air. The weight of the New Year often is felt by mid-January...

And there we are sinking again.... with the new pressures of our fresh promises made just the week before. We sink further and further down and by February our resolutions are drowned.

Laying at the bottom of the ocean. Defeated, forgotten and washed away...

Don't get me wrong. I adore a fresh start. The idea of shedding the old and embracing the NEW gives me more hope than I ever had all year. Excitement cannot be denied but I view the changing of the calendar so differently.

Although I name each and every week of the year on Sunday, I don't name my year until the very end. It doesn't make sense.... But nothing I do ever does. I've always worked against the grain.

It's how I roll I guess....

But this past year I named GRACE. I named it last week after a time of reflection....I learned to Give it and receive it. I am learning to judge less and give Grace more....And I am still learning.

I am softening to the reality that God's grace is abundant and deserving.....

God has shown me that our souls crave Grace...

In a world that is hard, cold and unforgiving, our spirits cry out for someone to pour Grace into them....

Looking back, THIS is what I have learned and THIS is what I will hold onto a I enter 2016.

Instead of carrying the weight of empty ambitions and unknowns, I am going to stand on the solid foundation of what I learned in 2015.

Under my feet lies a solid rock of truth that has gotten me through the past 12 months. Hard lessons learned and stories of faith to share.

The truth is, I have no clue what 2016 holds. To me, it's an empty canvas..... white blank space that can throw anything my way.

And I refused to sink under the weight of what lies ahead....

Instead I will stand firmly on the truths I already know....

And by placing my feet firmly on the rock of His grace, I can hold my head above the water and never be pushed under. I can raise my hands and take in the sweet air knowing that whatever is placed on my shoulders, I will stand firm.

I'm going to enter 2016 using the lessons I have learned,  Helmet of protection on and God's Promises by my side.

I don't know what God has in store for me or my family but I want to be prepared. I want to be qualified and equipped at the endless possibilities....


I want to keep my hope and my vision. I want to use what I learned to make the next year better than the last.

I want to pray my dreams into reality using the tools He has given me....

THIS is how I view my New Year....

How do you view yours?

My Thanksgiving Table

My love of holidays is no secret. I ooze traditions and memories for my family... and nothing breeds more memories than FOOD!! One of my favorite holidays. ( Although honestly, Any Holiday that has to do with food are my favorite...)

I host Thanksgiving every year. I have to. No questions asked. Just the thought of not hosting makes me twitch...One reason is that my hubby loves my cooking and wants the leftovers and also, I like to cook it. If I don't get to host it, I will re cook the entire meal the next day. That is too much work and Turkey tastes different on Black Friday...

Can anyone relate?? Anyone?

Ok, Then I guess it's just me. I've embraced the fact that I am a control freak and I am ok with that!

For me, Memories are moment and moments are often associated with smells and tastes... combine tradition and you create something legendary.... Something profound . Forever embedded in your childrens mind....The kind of moments you want to bottle up in mason jars and save for a rainy day.... Those moments.

Those are the moments I call tradition and those are the moments I work hard in creating for my family of 9!

Those are the moments I want turned into memories... and in time will turn into my legacy. My gift to generations to come....

My menu is consistent but delicious... ( and I will explain more about the origins of my menu on my Periscope today!!)..

They are a mix of recipes past down and new ones we have come across in our 19+ years of marriage. Together, they make the perfect combination for this day of remembrance...

They are simple. Some painstakingly homemade and others are commonly store bought.

And they are abundant!! Nothing less than a 22 pound Turkey graces our table. Every pie choice available and always an extra seat...

Thanksgiving is a day to give Thanks. Thanks for the blessings we have, the Blessings we don't have and the Blessings to come.

As a Mom, Thanksgiving is a day to add on to my legacy. To leave another piece of me in my children.

A time another mason jar gets added to the shelf....

How do you leave your legacy??

Need help planning Thanksgiving this year??Use the coupon code THANKS and get 50% off of this Ultimate Guide to Planning Thanksgiving Dinner

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* My travelers Notebook is a ZOODORI and I LOVE it!!

Behind The Scenes With Periscope

I've been on Periscope for over 5 months. My husband has been trying to get me on it since it launched on March 27th, 2015 but as usual, I was reluctant to try something new.

But once I did... I was hooked. I started on Periscope to try and scope on Disney and vacations but I quickly realized, that was not the platform I wanted... Fast-forward 20 weeks and I scope daily to hundreds of women under a group I started called Mommyscopes. A place of encouragement for Moms in the trenches..

I have the sweetest viewers. Most afraid to scope themselves... and they endlessly compliment me on how nice I look or about my "superwoman" powers.


Superwoman I an NOT!

Anyway Mommyscopes has grown to over 800 women and only about 10% of them scope.. the other 90% of them are too busy warding off a panic attack to even try... and others, well, they are berating themselves. Their self esteem is deflated by the time they end their broadcast... all brought on by having to look at themselves talk for more than 1 minute.

Well Ladies, I'm no different. Although I don't blink an eyelash at going live anymore... don't be fooled by my L'oreal face and Wet and Wild lipstick...You have NO idea what goes on behind the scenes during half of my scopes...

Want to know??

Here are 10 things you never would have guessed that goes on behind the scenes of one of my Broadcasts.....

1- I have often gotten dressed JUST to scope.... With make-up being from the night before. A couple of swoops of a make-up wipe under the lid, fresh lipstick applied and voila.... nothing a fuzzy connection can't hide...

2- I get distracted by how I think my neck is aging....often....Lots of times I am talking away and the whole time I am staring at it cringing...As I say certain words, the neck moves... It's HORRIBLE...

3- To distract myself from my random self criticism sometimes I just glaze over and "look through" myself scoping...

4- Just before this mornings scope ( you know, the one where everyone was oohing and ahhing at how cute I looked and what a wonder-woman I am??) I was screaming out the backdoor at my 100 pound dog. He refused to come in. He was skidding in the mud. IGNORING ME. I might have started screaming how much I hated him and then realized my neighbor (who also attends my church) was right outside on the other side of my fence

5- I am often screaming at my dog right before I start a scope

6- Captain Jack has been the real star in Mommyscopes. One time I was so busy chatting in the backyard, I didn't notice him jumping around like a firecracker eating bees out of mid-air until I watched the replay.

7- Wonder why I will suddenly change the topic quick and move on?? My husband might have shot me a text that says " you're babbling.." " Too much, get off the soapbox" or "Don't mention such and such... too controversial..." I can read the text during my live scope and boom... I'm off the topic

8- I have scoped in my Jammies before ( with day old makeup) but because I angled the camera oh so perfectly, you never knew....

9- I sometimes bribe my kids with lollipops so I can scope without them killing each other in the other room...

10-Many times, when I scope at night, I have a "bouncer" in the scope. My husband signs in under my account on another device and goes through the live viewers and blocks creepy men and all trolls. I will hardly ever have issues in my night scopes because of this =)

BONUS: We have a Mommyscopes Admin team...A small one but we all have become super close. We have met and hung out and are real friends in real life. I love them and they help so much with ideas, graphics and more. Plus, I talk to Wendy , Dawn and Tina ALL DAY EVERY DAY on Voxer. LOL. Their friendship blesses me!!

SO there you have it my friends. The real truth behind the screen. Most experienced scopers may look like it's all together, but I can guarantee it's not. Not to mention the work, planning, note taking and all of that stuff that goes on just to make a "fun" scope. Nothing about scopes are random....But  I hope this post encourages you and makes you realize, you don't have to be perfect to scope. No one is. Pinterest perfect doesn't exist....because more than likely, real life is right outside the part that the lens can see... It's all an illusion....

But one thing is for sure... I care about all of you so much!!! XOXO

What funny things have happened to you while periscoping??

The Xerox Generation

I was supposed to spend Sunday at home. It was my day to faultlessly spend time in my office working on Disney quotes and catching up on emails.

I wasn't supposed to be at the mall Christmas shopping and looking for those perfect pair of black boots....At least not until my 18 year old reminded me of my promise to her earlier in the week.

Regardless of the plans, I enjoyed the time with my daughter. Life is spinning way too fast and Sundays are one of the only days she is home. It was fun. It was full of Mother/Daughter moments and good conversation.

Until we reached Pac-Sun. I followed her around and touched all the overpriced clothes and found myself by the back table with some graphic T-shirts. My eyes rested on one ( Small enough to fit an American Girl Doll..)

But it was what it said that saddened me the most.

Raise Boys and Girls The Same Way

I unfolded the shirt to see if what I thought I read was indeed what I thought I read...

I'm not about to get on my soap box and scream about some religious Violation because quite honestly, you can't expect a secular company to display religious beliefs... and to assume that is ludicrous.

But I was sad. It saddened me.

It made me pity the generation rising up. The generation being raised with confusion as it's source. A generation that cannot be who they want to be for fear of being judged. A whole generation that must conform to the masses... and whatever the masses decide

We have confused equality with neutrality.

We have taken the beautiful differences that are deep-seated into every cell of our soul and shoved them in a genderless box.

Somewhere on the road to equality, we have by-passed our success and have found ourselves worse off than we were 100 years ago....

We are so busy celebrating equality that we are suffocating our individuality.

We are teetering on the edge of a very dangerous position....where women ( and men but since I am a woman and not a man, I can't speak as one..)

and the very phenomenon that makes up a woman will not be allowed to be glorified.

We have become so busy screaming how liberated we are that we are going to liberate ourselves right back into a oppressive category.

A category that cannot celebrate the differences because they won't know what they are...

Or who they are.

We are staggering towards a mass generational identity crisis where the problem won't be fighting because they are different...

It will be battling against who they were constitutionally meant to be.

Because they were never allowed to discover that...

Because everyone is the same.

We all know how the book by Aldous Huxley turned out ...

Brave New World...

We need to raise a generation that can honor and glorify the magnificent creatures they are. And one of those sizable differences is gender....

It's ok if boys play with dolls and girls play with trucks...

And it's ok if they don't.

We are in fact born different and nothing we can try and do can change that....

We were knit together in our mother's womb with a plan and a purpose.

With physical and spiritual differences. God doesn't make mistakes...

People do.

God isn't the God of confusion..

People are.

And God isn't the God of neutrality...

Man is....

Let's be the parents that help our children fully become who God intended... not who we think society says we have to be.

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Who Am I?

Over the summer, I was interviewed on Periscope. For those of you that don't know... I founded a group on Periscope called Mommyscopes. The group grew from daily scopes to a Facebook group... which turned into over 750 women and many new friendships.

As the founder, she wanted to find out a little more about me. I gladly obliged. Answered questions about the group, about my business and about my family...

And then she asked me something that left me speechless....

" But Who Are you?"

and I answered.. " Excuse me?"

I mean I thought we had already covered this.

"Take away the kids, the business and the wife.. WHO is Amy Wyler..."

I recapped what I already said and she rephrased the question... Then our interview ended. I don't think it went the way she wanted.

But that question bothered me. As I lay in bed that night, I kept re-playing my earlier conversation....

and I kept mentally berating myself for not answering how I should have. I was handed a beautiful moment and I blew it.

A moment that would leave most women questioning themselves and a moment that would leave many deflated.

Instead I got mad. I sat up in bed and vented to my husband.

You see ladies, this is where the world went wrong. The day we stripped womanhood away from motherhood. The day that we couldn't proudly stand up and say that Mothering IS who we are. 18 years of sleepless nights and rocking babies has intricately knit the deepest treasures of my heart.

It's the late nights of working hard at my business so I could bring those small extras to my family...

Sharing the joys of my teenagers first job and first kiss....

And falling asleep to the sounds of the same man I have shared my bed with for almost 20 years....

THIS is who I am. Without each and every moment in my life, I would not be who I am today. Removing one thread in the quilt will unravel the very beautiful pattern that took years to crochet.

I am nothing without each and every part of my life.

THAT is who Amy Wyler is....

And that is who YOU are...

We are women, beautifully defined by each delicate occasion in our life. Created with a purpose of companionship and friendship....with spirits of nurturing. There is no separating that....

Periods in our life do not define us but they change us. If only women would stop trying to change that... oh what a beautiful world that would be....

So in answer to who Amy Wyler is....

It can't be answered in one descriptive sentence, It cannot be separated from motherhood or wifehood. Who I am cannot stand alone....  but if you take the time to look at my life and all who is in my life, you will find me....

Find me on Facebook and say Hi!

Sweet Humble Pie with whipped cream please...

I swore I would never blog again. I did. After YEARS of blogging, Seo-ing, Wordpressing, Widgeting and tracking numbers I laid my blogger hat down and was completely happy.

I was burned out and discouraged. My voice was lost in the static that was once the world I loved.  I lost the joy in writing so I walked away. I buried my hat...I buried it deep....

My husband and I focused on our business.. We own Polka Dots N Wishes Travel and love it. The business was booming, I was hiring agents and I had found my new place among the chaos...

But here I am. After much prayer and arguing with God... ( and a very strange dream..) I found myself rising from the ashes of what was left behind....Over a year since my old blog had vanished....I guess it's because at the end of the day, I am a writer... and encourager and no matter how much I run away, my roots will always become exposed. No matter how far I try and bury my hat, it will forever try and seek the sunlight. 

I can't hide from who I am. At the center of my soul, I am a writer... hiding behind my screen as I pour my thoughts on paper....

So here I am. For whoever might read this... and if no one does, I am ok with that too. My place on the internet is secure. My place to pour out my thoughts and opinions. My place to purge my brain when it gets so full of theories and convictions. When I feel like the world is unjust, I can spill and hope my words encourage.

At 39 I finally found my gift. The gift of Hospitality. The gift of encouragement. The gift of wanting to speak into anothers life and help make it a better experience. I think that's why I adore selling travel so much. Who doesn't want to help make magical memories??

I swore I would never blog again. I publicly announced it several times but life has a way of serving humble pie. At least my life does. I've gotten accustomed to eating it and today mine has a beautiful pile of whipped cream on top. I welcome that plate and it tastes delicious... Today I openly welcomed my slice of pie. I am savoring how bittersweet it can be and I hope, that each time you come and visit me, we can have coffee and find hope in Enjoying the Everyday!