Guest Post: An Expert Learner

Happy Hump Day, y'all! Can you believe Christmas is one week away? Craziness. As you know, I've been participating in the Elf 4 Health challenge for the past few weeks, which has been a really fun experience. Today's challenge is Share Your Expertise, and an elf had the idea to organize a blog swap so we can share our tips with a new audience. So without further ado, I'm going to turn things over to Danielle from Running Mom to 3 so she can drop some knowledge.

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Hey guys!

A big thanks to Laura and our Elf for Health challenge for giving me this opportunity.

I'm Danielle, I'm a wife and stay at home mama to 3- Madison, 9, Noah, 5, and Lydia, 15 months.

I blog over at Running Mom to 3. I'm fairly new to the blog scene, and I am loving it! I started writing back in April when I started running, and have continued to document my running journey as well as sprinkle in some proud mama moments.

Our Elf for Health challenge for today is to share our expertise. Since honesty is my policy, I had a hard time deciding what to share. Before I quit my public accounting job 2 years ago, I would have definitely given you a laundry list of year end tax saving ideas. But now, I'm so far out of that game, I couldn't even give you one good tax savings idea.

The only thing I know for sure that I am an expert at is learning.

I like to cook. Every time I step into my kitchen to make my family a meal, I am learning how to become a better cook. I'm learning when to keep my stovetop heat down, and when it's okay to turn it up. I'm learning what will cook better in my nonstick skillets and what will cook better in my stainless skillets (can we say nonstick for the win?!). Sure, I have made my fair share of rubbery chicken or burnt potatoes, but I've also made a few great dishes.

I dabble in photography. I'm nowhere near a good photographer. But every time I pick up my camera to capture a moment or a smile, I am learning how to capture the moments better tomorrow. I have to smile to myself when my picture comes out with little to no editing needed, knowing all that reading has paid off.

I like to run. I may even be considered a runner to some. Each day that I run, I learn how far I can push my body. I also learn to push myself more tomorrow. I continue to be amazed at how strong I have gotten since April. I love adding new workouts into my workout schedule so that I can run longer, faster, further. I will consider myself a runner when I stop getting faster, hopefully that will be a title I always work towards.

Most importantly, I strive daily to be the best wife and mom. I used to I wake up everyday with great intentions of being the best wife and mom. Every night, I would go to bed discouraged about how horribly I failed at being "the best." Now, I wake up striving to be what my husband and my kids need, and I go to bed thinking about how I can be better tomorrow. I am learning from yesterday.

You can learn a lot from Google, and I have. But sometimes, the most important lessons to learn can't be Googled. I am an expert in learning, and I will get up ready to learn tomorrow.

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ador and attended to with diligence." - Abigail Adams