I really do love summer. There’s something about this upcoming season that seems a little more fun and relaxing. Probably in part because my girls are done with school, tests, homework and so many of the accompanying activities that make the school year so insane (a good insane, but, hey, we all need a break!). It’s a couple months of freedom, and I think that feeling washes over most of us because we still remember the playful, easy days we had during summers as kids. It’s when you visited grandparents, or aunts and uncles, had family reunions, took vacations, went swimming, got sunburned, watched fireworks, ate ice cream, stayed up late and slept late, chased fireflies and later, chased boys.

 And of all the things I love about this fiery season, summer mornings are my favorite! I so enjoy when the sun’s just peeking over the horizon, when the air is warming slightly, yet there’s still a coolness created by a soft breeze blowing across dew-covered grass, trees and flowers.

I love the freshness of the day, the feeling that anything could happen. It’s a new day and I can make this day however I want to make it—and the day could turn out to be a great day, it could turn out to be a bad day, but with the dawning of the day, it’s sweet, new and perfect. With my first steps out the door, I’m awed by the tranquility, usually brought on by those first bright rays of sunshine breaking over the horizon and the clean scent of the dew-soaked grass. Damp grass is just one of those soothing smells, isn’t it? Everything is just beginning to wake up, even the birds are still and silent.

But the quiet doesn’t last long for me. Y’all may know I grew up in California, I just didn’t grow up on the water or near a beach. That being said, I’ve made up for that! For the last 14 years I’ve spent loads of time out on a boat because, to my outdoor-loving husband Joel, summer equals the river. Summer also equals the sun and the smell of the water, sunscreen and the boat—the exhaust, the seats, the boat carpet—all pleasant smells to me. It’s invigorating to get out on that water, in the late afternoons, and your problems and stress just melt away, left behind in the wake of the boat. It’s amazing how cleansing water can be, physically and spiritually.

Another bit of summer excitement for me is, and I know I say it over and over, but it’s my barn! As a kid, my family showed in the summertime, so we spent lots of hours at the barn. Now my kids are showing in June, so my barn is home to noisy, stinky, funny show pigs—and pigs really are smart and cute, each with its own silly personality. That smell—the barn, the dirt, the hay, the animals—it just takes me back to that fun, peaceful, energetic time in my life. I have so many goose-bump-raising memories of that time in my life. I loved it! And what an awesome gift that now I’m getting to share this special time with my daughters.

So, yeah summer’s hot, yeah it’s hectic, but it’s a different kind of hectic than what we live with during the school months. This is all for us, it’s our time, our memories. And, yeah, some of the memories will be hot, and crazy, and, where the pigs are concerned, a little stinky, but every memory will be precious. These are our summer days that won’t soon be forgotten.

XOXO- Lorinda

What’s it mean to be a Soule Sister Boss? To me, it means keeping your power, or, if it’s something you’ve lost, taking your power back. It’s more than just being the boss at work; it’s about being the boss of your destiny and your dreams while doing it in a graceful and polite way. Being a Soule Sister Boss means being true to you and those around you.

Sometimes, being a boss means taking the drama out of your life, maybe more appropriately, the people who create drama. I think it’s important to learn my five red flags of negative people. People who exhibit any of these red flags are capable of bringing you down and preventing you from being a Soule Sister Boss.

No. 1: People who make fun of other people. It’s ridiculous. Everybody’s different, everybody’s weird, everybody’s strange. Embrace differences and let’s learn to love them, regardless of their flaws. After all, we’re all made in God’s image, right?

No. 2: People who constantly criticize you and others around them. You know what? Look at yourself in the mirror. Criticize yourself, change your problems, fix your problems. Then, embrace what you can’t change, because God made you who you are!

No. 3: People who say, “Well, you really can’t do that.” Really? I can’t? Well, watch my smoke! (That’s me being sassy and responding to someone telling me I can’t do something…ha ha haaaa). These people just don’t get who you are, and if they don’t get you, then they won’t be capable of helping you achieve your dreams, and they damn sure won’t celebrate when you do achieve your dreams.

No. 4: Negative, negative, negative. These are the people who have nothing nice to say…ever. Stay away from those people! It’s so easy to get caught up in that. The people who can only say, “I can’t,” or, “They shouldn’t,” or, “The world sucks, we’re all going to die.” Forget it! Let’s make the best life we can. We’re only here for a short time, and who knows what we get to do after this? I’m going to have fun while I’m here, please join me!

No. 5: Just plain old nasty-ass people. There, I said it. Stay away from meanness and bad girl power. Stay away! Spend your time around people who make you feel good inside, who get you, who love you for truly who you are, but yet still love you enough to tell you something that you need to hear—like that you have broccoli in your teeth. LOL! Just kidding…sort of! But seriously, someone who will be honest because they love you and value you. Someone who’s like a…well…like a sister!

Did I just give you a lecture like mama does sometimes? Or like a sister does sometimes? Good! You need it, I need it! Sometimes we need to be reminded to focus on happiness, blessings and the good life, things that matter. Sometimes we need to scrub our brains of the dirt that accumulates, and scrub our lives of people we’ve let build up there that just don’t belong.

It’s  sort of spring cleaning of your Soule, and in order to be a Soule Sister Boss, every now and then, you’ve gotta clean house.

XOXO- Lorinda

The 2015 MTV Movie Awards were held in Los Angeles, Calif., Sunday, April 12, and guess who was there? Gypsy Soule®! Well, our product was there! We were super psyched to be able to donate earrings and a necklace as part of the celebrity goody bags.

I’m a rocker at heart and I’ve always loved MTV! The channel started in the early ’80s and is the reason we have all the unbelievable music videos we have today—talk about cutting edge—they invented music videos. I’m like most kids who grew up in the ’80s and early ‘90s; MTV was a big part of my life. Back in the mid-’80s, MTV was all music videos and they had “VJs,” or video jockeys, who introduced all their videos—those people were rock stars in their own right. I’m pretty sure everybody’s parents hated the channel, but for us, it was our music brought to life—in loud, crazy living color. You could jam to your favorite hair band and see them acting out their insane antics pretty much any time of day, instead of just staring at the band’s picture on the cover of a CD case—or worse, the cover of a cassette tape! MTV became known for the sing-songy, falsetto line: “I Want My MTV,” which was the opening line of the Dire Straits song, “Money for Nothing,” that came out in 1985. Sting actually sang that opening line…that’s your trivia for the day!

Anyway, back to the goodies! These goody bags given away at awards shows are unreal. I mean, when most of us think about goody bags, we probably think of the little bags our kids get at birthday parties, or what we used to get at birthday parties, just a little plastic bag with some candy, maybe a few small toys.

Well, nope, that’s not how these are! Y’all! These goody bags have thousands of dollars of stuff—it’s like a posh Santa rolled into town. They have too many items to mention here, but it’s stuff like luggage, teeth whitening systems, electronic devices, designer clothing, handbags, gourmet snacks and some pretty badass jewelry—because, you know, Gypsy Soule® (wink wink). But, calling it a “bag” is sort of misleading because there’s so much swag in these babies; they probably need a cart to get it home!

But this awards show had tons of celebrities there who received these bags: Reese Witherspoon, Rebel Wilson, Scarlett Johansson, Sofia Vergara and Amanda Seyfried. They even caught Tyler Posey from MTV’s hit series Teen Wolf with the gift table!

It was a huge red carpet event; typically filled with Hollywood glamour, amazing dresses, wickedly fantastic makeup and hair-dos, and we were there!

XOXO-Lorinda

Until you’ve experienced it, you can’t fathom how much patience is required for traveling—like, a lot of traveling. For example, when you’ve been traveling for 14 days, halfway around the world and back. (Big, deep intake of breath, eyes closed, slowly release breath…ahhhh…that’s my yoga stuff right there.).

At this point, I’ve been gone for 14 days. I’m on a flight back from San Jose, California. I’m in line for the revolting airplane restroom, and, no I’m not in first class—I’m in coach! We’re about an hour-and-a-half into the flight, the flight attendants had already dashed though twice, so by now I’ve read a few chapters in my latest leadership book and decide to take a nap. I’m zonked out; until my sweet daughter Jaylee wakes me up with her soft tap, tap with her little girl finger on my arm. I stretched a big stretch, then, of course, I realize I need to use the restroom. Of course, the line is five people deep and taking forever! I mean, really, we’re on a plane here people, what are you doing in there? (That was a rhetorical question because I really didn’t, don’t and would never really want to know the answer to that question.)

I start to look around and notice all the trash on the floor and how messy people are being, and how they’re just, you know, doing a lot of not caring. Then I notice the combined stench of too many people crammed into a confined space and a tiny airplane bathroom with too many people using it (I hope nobody is eating right now, I’m truly sorry if you are.). I feel my temperament begin to dive into the red zone, then a man tries to cut in front of me and I say, “Hey, I am in line!” I did this with my sharp, sassy voice, y’all, because, what the…?

Finally, two people come out and four more people get in line behind “the cutter.” Oh, how I’m missing being in first class at this point! My attitude is purely negative now, like a physical thing, I can feel it all over me! Then, I feel a small tap, tap and turn around, and the man who was trying to take cuts, “the cutter,” asks me if I’d like a piece of gum out of his brand new pack. I said, “No thank you, but thank you for thinking to offer me one!”

As I faced back toward the bathroom and away from the man, I had to giggle at myself—I actually had a huge smile after that. Come on, Lo! Really? Let’s get mad over the line for the bathroom—really, what else do you have to do for the next three hours on this plane? I really told myself get a life!

It’s so easy to let our emotions get the best of us. In those emotional moments, it’s so important to ask, “Really, do I have it that bad?” I just spent 10 days in a country where some people don’t even have a bathroom with running water, or one that even works as well as a repulsive airplane bathroom. At the end of the day, we all need to offer more grace and try for more patience. Find the smile and the kindness in our hearts for others, especially on a plane (or a bus or a subway, you know, any closed-in space where you might want to just snap!).

There will come a time that those little tap, taps that were waking me from my amazing nap will no longer happen, because my sweet baby girls will be all grown up and gone. There will come a time in my life when I won’t be able to travel, I’ll be too old and feeble. All of these things, they’re transient—they’re here, then they’re gone—whether good or bad, nothing lasts forever. Really think about that: nothing lasts forever.

So, embrace life to the fullest, even if it’s messy, chaotic, grubby, not pretty—there will be always someone there to offer you a fresh piece of gum, from a brand new pack.

–Lorinda Van Newkirk

There are places we go that become so treasured that we return to them again and again. They warm our souls, light our fires and elicit pure peace. And even when we’re not there, in quiet moments we find our minds drifting back to “that place,” because, however briefly, those reflections bring back the feelings we experience when we’re there.

Lo blogged the other day about her “nirvana,” which is the barn. Well, that got me thinking about my happy place, which is Key West, Florida. I love that place so much, it’s where I plan to retire. Seriously.

There’s nothing I don’t love about the Keys. It’s bright, sunny and quite funky, and those are all things I adore! There’s also the beach, the expanse of sky blue water, that expanse of sky blue…well, sky—its vastness is uninterrupted by people or buildings or traffic, just water and sky. The grit of the sand under my bare feet, the contrast of my brightly painted toenails against the neutral beach, the constant mild, warm, salty winds—it is perfection.

I’ve always considered myself a free spirit, and the first time I ever visited Key West,  I saw and felt why it’s often described as a haven for free spirits. It’s laid back, a little lazy and a lot crazy! There are chickens everywhere, just running amok—absolutely hilarious. You can be sitting at any outdoor restaurant, with chickens zipping around under that tables and roosters cock-a-doodle-doing right behind you. And what’s not to love about restaurants that serve breakfast until 2 p.m., like one of my all-time faves, Blue Heaven? The seafood is plucked from the surrounding waters, so fresh and so sweet and you can eat it at breakfast, lunch and dinner—it’s so good washed down with ice-cold beer.

And did I mention the clothes? It’s shorts weather almost all the time. Swimsuits, flowing cover-ups, flip-flops (who doesn’t love those?), live music, food fresh from the ocean, staying up late, getting up late, no time clock, just a total escape. Y’all, I’m already mentally packing my bags!

So, this is where I go to restore my spirit! And when I’m not actually there, the Keys are still with me, and I visit there frequently in my head. Does that make me sound a little crazy?

~Amy Moorhouse