A challenge

So Amy Maher has been participating in Rhonna Farrer's hugely successful 21-day art challenge. I've been checking in on Amy's awesome creations and felt completely inspired by this new challenge. I usually do scrapbook layouts, composition books or cards, but have been wanting to do more random art stuff using all my supplies. I bought a huge blank book 2 years ago, then decorated the outside of it last year, but hadn't put anything inside it until today. I took the book with me to Michelle's house today and we both ended up creating pages that went along with the Day 1 quote of Rhonna's challenge. We're not posting on her site, but figured we'd post them on our own blogs just to share them with you all. Check out Michelle's blog for her page too.

I fear my page didn't scan really well. It's an odd sized paper, but I suppose it's good enough for you to be able to see what I did. It was a real stretch for me to use my own handwriting, and definitely a stretch to just start sticking things down without planning everything. It was fun, and only took about an hour and a half (very fast for me).

**What do you think?**

Here is the original quote that my page was based on.

"I am thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life & learn how to master the technique of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When you learn to
master the principle of setting a goal, you will then be able to make a great difference in the results you attain in this life."
M. Russell Ballard

{Click here to see the outside cover of my art notebook.}

Choices

Randy and I were watching LOST the other night and saw the episode in Season 1 where Charlie is starting to detox from the drugs he is on. The older man, Locke, has the rest of his stash and is holding it for him, and tells him he'll let him ask for them 3 times and then he'll give them to him. He tells Charlie that life is just a series of choices, and that the only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to chose for ourselves.


Now call me crazy, but this really struck me. It seems silly considering that we believe one of our main purposes for coming to Earth is to use our free agency and to chose righteousness for ourselves, but something about the way Locke explained it to Charlie really resonated with me. It was like a moment of clarity or something. I immediately thought of all the choices we make in a day, and how they're all up to us.

Choices like, when we get up, what we eat, how we treat our kids, how we view our jobs, whether we exercise or not, who we reach out to, what we read, what we watch, what we say...I could go on and on. I guess I haven't been viewing my behavior in my daily life as a series of choices. I tend to do what I want to do or have to do, but then just live on "auto pilot" the rest of the time (apparently hoping something else will happen to make me thinner, more organized, more spiritual, or happier).


Perhaps all of this will sound obvious because we've been taught that our choices matter, and that we get to chose things for ourselves; but I've been coasting along in my comfort zone of mediocre choices and have been missing part of the big picture. I don't know why it took an episode of that show to make me understand this concept. All I can say is "woohoo" and "it's about freakin time."

**Thoughts???**

Success

Woohoo, woohoo. Landon and I went to DI today to look for Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, and found not only that (which is hardback and enormous $4) but all these other books too. You know this makes me giddy, especially since I hadn't been planning to go there in the first place, but since Landon suggested it we went and had much success. All the books I found for me look practically new, and I love reading books about birth order so I was happy to find this one by Kevin Leman (I've read others by him).

**Any reading updates from any of you?? I'm still plugging away at "The Known World" and have to start "These Is My Words" right away too because I have to have them both done for book club and my ward book club next week--sheesh.**

Grateful

I woke with a migraine this morning! Can you believe it? I went to bed feeling fine last night (after watching the 2nd disc of 4 episodes of LOST) and woke up with a killer headache on the entire right side of my head and neck. I took one of my Relpax (ultimate migraine medication) right away, but had to shower and get the kids to the dentist by 8:30am. I didn't get totally ready (make-up) because I felt too dizzy and nauseous to even stay in the bathroom a little bit longer. At the dentist's office I sat in a chair with my head against the wall and my eyes closed and just waited for the kids to be done. Fortunately it only took 45 minutes, and the kids didn't need me to go back with them at all. I came home and got back in bed and slept for another hour and a half. And now I'm better! I love how after I recover from one my wicked migraines I feel like I have a new lease on life. The contrast in how I feel is so extreme that I actually knelt down and said of prayer of thanks before even leaving the bedroom.

**When have you said a prayer of thanks after recovering from being sick?**

Stamping

This is one of the things I worked on at Michelle's house last Friday. I had to decide what categories I wanted for the dividers on the cute book Jessie made for me. The picture on the top is the front of the dividers, and the picture on the bottom is the back side. I couldn't stop stamping. It was so fun to label those, and I thought the looked so cute I just chose words I thought went along with the words on the other side of the tab. I'm a nerd.

**What other categories do you think would be good for a notebook like this with 3 dividers?**

FYI--The stamps are the new Karen Foster snap together kind. I got them at Forget Me Not.

Netflix

I haven't mentioned that I love Netflix! Marc and Michelle have been getting Netflix shows for a long time, and I decided to do the free 2 week trial membership after seeing all the good stuff they were getting.

Well, we love it. It's funny that we rarely go to the video store at all, but that we have tons of things we want to see now that we are signed up with Netflix. We pay $18 a month and can have unlimited movies or tv shows with 3 out at a time. So we're in control of whether we only watch 3 in a month or if we watch 30. It just depends on how soon we send them back.

Randy and I especially love getting TV shows through Netflix and are psyched because we can finally see "Lost". We haven't seen any of the show since it's been on, but have heard great things from everyone else who watches it. So now we'll be treated to commercial-free viewing, plus 3 or 4 episodes at a time--woohoo. I love it. So that's my good mail for today. It hadn't occured to me before to put Netflix on here as good mail, but I'm especially excited about this disc that came today, plus I got this other cute card from Amie so that's two good things today too (thanks Amie).

**Do you have any movie or tv show recommendations for us to add to our list?**

{P.S. You guys should go check out Amy Maher's blog. She's got beautiful pictures of their new house, plus the entry underneath that one has a creative layout designed for an online class she's taking from scrapbooking celebrity Rhonna Farrer. It's awesome.}

Decisions, decisions

I love people. I love my family, my children . . . but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up.
--Pearl S. Buck

Roger and Lorna Dee (and Kyle) are coming to take the kids to Thanksgiving Point for some fun, and I am faced with the decision of whether to stay home by myself (which I consider a great luxury) or run errands by myself (also a great luxury). I'm leaning towards running errands, but am feeling remiss about not being at home. Why is this such a quandry for me? I guess either way is great because I get to be alone. I'm finding that I really need time to be alone. I don't know if it's because it's time with no demands, with quiet, with my own agenda or what...but I crave it.

**Do you crave time alone or do you need to have people around so you don't feel lonely?**

{Update: I left the house at 10:45, ran into Robert's to return something and grab a Cropper paper holder, went to Macey's to drop off a roll of film, grabbed some Wendy's lunch and went to Michelle's so we could eat together, went to the Orem Robert's to get another Cropper paper holder, then to the Orem Target for several things, drove down to Geneva Road to the recycling place and dumped all the cardboard boxes I'd flattened last Saturday while cleaning out the garage, then drove back to Macey's to pick of my pictures, and then came home. All of that in 2 and a half hours. I'm hoping they'll stay out with the kids awhile longer so that I can have the best of both worlds. I'm also loving the grey, rainy weather today as a peaceful and less bright change. It's so quiet at home, I love it.}

Cute cards

Landon brought in the mail today while I was eating lunch. It appeared to be a stack of junk mail, store mailers, and bills until that pretty pink envelope poked out. I was happy to see that I had a nice card from Michelle, and then upon sorting through the envelopes I found I had a nice card from Amie too! Not too shabby, especially on a day like today when I'm in the middle of the swirling vortex of doom and can't seem to focus enough to get any one thing done. I've done a load of laundry, emptied the dishwasher, finished school with Landon, and showered--but it has taken me 6 hours and 49 minutes to do that.

That means I've been on the phone multiple times with Kristi, Michelle, and a couple people from church, and have spent time bouncing around the blogs. I don't know why I'm able to do that on all the other days and still feel like I can accomplish something, but then today I feel scattered and weird. Oh well.

Thanks for the good mail you guys, I appreciate the nice things you had to say.

**Has the time vortex sucked you in or are having a productive today?**

I Love Notebooks

Just in case you hadn't figured it out yet, I love, love, love notebooks. I have always loved paper, stationery, cards, and notebooks. I attribute this to moving a lot while in my childhood because I was always leaving a best friend behind and took comfort in the idea of writing them letters (and getting them in return of course). But there must be more to it than that, because I tend to embrace the whole world of paper and the written word.

Late last night after reading Michelle and Collette's Sunday posts, I was thinking about what they'd written and had the thought that maybe I should copy some of the thoughts down in my Sunday notebook. But then as I tried to go to sleep, I decided I probably need a Blog Notebook to record all the miscellaneous thoughts and quotes I really want to remember (specifically from your blogs). Have I gone too far? Is my love of notebooks a serious addiction? Or is this the natural progression of one who doesn't like to see things fade into the past without a way to hold onto them? I chose option 3. I have copied and pasted other thoughts from people's blogs (mostly Georgia's) into word documents because I wanted to reread them later, but I think I'll read them more often if I take the time to write them down and then have the notebook handy whenever I want to read them. I mean that post Kristi did yesterday with the thought written on a napkin from a guest at their wedding reception--how can I just let that go by without writing that down? That's not even counting the comments that get made. I feel like we're all spewing produndities on the fly and don't even realize it, I could go on and on really. Do you ever feel surprised by the things you comment? Like you didn't even know that's what you thought about something? I don't know what we ever did without blogs, but now that we have them I'm so grateful for the daily outlet for my thoughts, feedback from friends, and connection to other people.

**What do you think about my blog notebook idea, and these thoughts in general?**

Be Prepared

Last Sunday our Young Men's Presidency spoke in Sacrament Meeting. They did a great job and had a combined Young Men's Choir (basically all the young men, their leaders, and the bishopric) sing "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" as a rest hymn, it was so beautiful. It was kind of cool having the Sacrament Meeting with just the men, it was different. Here are my notes from last week.

• The scouting motto is "Be Prepared" and one of the reasons the church supports the scouting program so much is because of the values it teaches, and being prepared is applicable to all areas of our lives.
• When the scouts are planning an all-day hike they make a check-list of things they may need "just in case." They go over the check-list the night before and the morning of the hike.
• There are many situations they may encounter so they try to be prepared with the proper equipment, food, matches, rope, a compass--even when it doesn't look like they'll need those items--storms move in quickly.
• It's the same way for us in life. We need to be prepared for situations we "might" encounter. (I couldn't help but think of mothers with their diaper bags full of preparation, extra clothes, diapers, binkies, food, wipies, toys, etc.)
• Emotional preparedness--decide before hand how we will react if someone says or does something that doesn't agree with our beliefs.
• Educational preparedness--finish school so we can provide for our families (both men and women).
• Spiritually preparedness--so that we can be strong when tough challenges come to us.
• Read Henry B. Eyrings talk from October 2005 Conference on Being Prepared.
• Family Home evening is a very important way to spiritually prepare our children.
• Fasting with a purpose helps strengthen us.
• Accepting callings is important. They are rarely convenient, but help us grow in so many ways.
• Listen to a prophet's voice for guidance.
• We often don't receive much warning before a crisis, so being prepared is crucial. (This applies to natural disasters as well as other challenges in our lives.)
• Noah preached repentance and warning to the people for 120 years! No one listened.
  
• We should be vigilant like Noah, never give up.
• Do we have a relationship with God that is always improving?
• Do we follow the pattern of heavenly things to teach our children?
• We can follow the Lord's pattern and receive revelation in our lives.
• Noah built the ark on dry ground, there was no sign of rain as he worked.
• We need to build our metaphorical ark before it starts raining. We need to prepare so that our arks will float on a sea of faith.
• Noah offered a sacrifice of thanks when the flood was over. We must offer a sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit as our thanks to the Lord.
• We should teach our children the story of Noah, and focus on more than just the animals.
• Heavenly Father doesn't give us all our wants, but if we righteously seek Him He will give us all our needs.

Interesting eh? I hope you were able to sift through these thoughts. I can't believe how awesome it is for me to reread them and translate my notes onto my blog. I am able to remember them so much better and internalize them more. I love it. I hope you'll comment and share your thoughts too.

Tackling the Garage

This is a photo I found online of a garage organizing system. We don't have the funds for anything that extreme, but I'm interested in the storage ideas and solutions to garage clutter. Every time I think I have a system figured out, we end up putting more stuff out there or not putting other things away (against my better judgment) then things pile up until it gets so crazy that I have to spend hours reorganizing it. I also really don't like the fact that shifty, spiders and other creatures like to hide out in there and make every nook and cranny their own. Fortunately the bugs die in the winter so we're not overrun yet, but I'm also very skiddish when I'm moving things around out there because I fear some scary creature will scurry across my path. I suppose I should quit blogging about it and just go clean the garage, but then I'd have to walk away from the computer, and I really don't like doing that, ha.

**Please tell me your best garage organizing tips and affordable storage solutions.**

Guests

Randy's dad, his wife of almost one year, and her 15 year old son are driving cross-country from Illinois to visit. We got a call from Roger (Randy's dad) last Sunday telling us they were coming to visit this week! Our place is rather small, so they'll be staying in a hotel until Tuesday. I have no idea what's on their agenda or how much we'll even be seeing them. I have no idea what to expect, and can only focus on the things I need to get done in order to be ready.

The good weather yesterday and today has made me really want to clean the garage (crazy but true), perhaps it's because it ends up being like the outdoor room of our house, and in the winter it can get cluttered with the kids' toys (we don't park in there) and all our food storage stuff but it doesn't bother me; but when the weather is nice and we're all coming in and out of that door all day then I can't stand the mess out there. Most likely this is a misplaced/ill-timed mission on my part, but that seems to be my way. I also started seriously cleaning my mess of a scrapbook room last Monday and still haven't finished! I took lots of the stuff out of the room to give me enough space to work with, but haven't been able to put it all back in (it's like fitting clowns in a Volkswagon) and I was hoping to do this methodically so that I didn't end up with stuff stashed all over the place, but now it's looking like I may be frantically stashing things tomorrow as I try to prepare for our guests' arrival. Crazy.

**Any advice for me as I prepare for a few days of unpredictable guests?**

Happy Birthday Bella

It's my niece Bella's 6th birthday today (left in the picture) so we're getting ready this morning for her fun birthday party at Backyard Adventures. Whitney and Bella are best friends and best cousins so Whitney has been counting down all week for the party. She has been gathering some of her favorite things to give Bella (along with the present I bought) and has decorated the box with ribbon and tape (I'll have to take a photo and post it later--oh the lack of digital technology.) This is one of my favorite photos of Bella and Whitney together. It was from a game night some time last year, and they both had the same shirt on (Amy and I had both bought them unknowingly at Target) and were so giddy about it. I can't believe Bella is already 6 years old. It seems like not too long ago that Robyn, Lori, my mom and I were waiting for Amy's labor to progress so that we could run to the hospital for the birth. We ended up waiting a tad too long (my fault I think for thinking she wouldn't progress so quickly with her first delivery) and got there just moments after she was born. It was amazing.

**What sorts of things do you do for your nieces' and nephews' birthdays?**

Productive Day

We spent the day at Michelle's today since we can't go tomorrow and missing our fun day just wasn't an option for us (the kids feel equally adamant about this). We actually made it over there by 10:08 this morning and didn't leave until 5:45--not too shabby. I worked on various cards and good mail projects (for who you ask, I'll never tell??), and stamped the dividers on the cool list book Jessie made me. It went from being painfully cute, to so painfully cute I wanted to run around the neighborhood and show people (but I didn't). Michelle made the world's cutest thank you cards, so we ended up feeling pleased with the results of our day. Of course, no one should be doing the math and figuring out how many hours it took us to do all of that because everyone knows that when you do something creative one hour is equal to fifteen minutes of real life time, meaning that 8 hours is really like 2 hours in the real world. It's frustrating, but fun too. I feel like I got a jump on the weekend too since we usually get together on Fridays.

The above photo is a close up I took of my bulletin board the other day. I figured it applies because it's all stuff I love and products I use when creating so it's the same as taking a photo today, but different. My lack of digital camera technology is really starting to chafe.

**If you could be any animal what would you be? (Totally unrelated, but I didn't have a question to ask. I'd be a dolphin or an eagle.)

Wide Awake

{Landon fell asleep using a balloon for a pillow last Friday night for our late game night. He was so out of it, he didn't even hear me vacuuming right next to him.
Oh to have the sweet abandon of childhood sleep!}

It's 1:30am and I sure am awake. I went to bed an hour ago, but had no luck sleeping. Randy was snoring like crazy, and that doesn't usually bother me much because I'm used to it, but tonight it seemed like he had a nasal microphone and I was wearing headphones. Perhaps my mind is just busy tonight and I can't relax. I tried to set up camp on the couch (which usually works when I can't sleep) but my foot was bouncing a mile a minute and all I could think about was everything I have on my to-do list for the next couple of days. I'm not stressed about anything, it's more like my mental planning routine. I find that I go over everything in my mind as a way to prepare myself for what lies ahead. Usually I think this works out well for me, but sometimes it makes me feel like a senior citizen (not that there's anything wrong with that). For example, my sister Lori called this afternoon around 4 to say that she was out of work early and was available to go out tonight if I'd like to do so. I had spent much of my day on the computer rearranging my smugmug galleries, blogging, and looking at Michelle's photo galleries with Whitney. (My whole day was a swirling vortex of time.) Anyway, my first thought when Lori suggested going out was "but I was going to finishing cleaning my scrapbook room." How ridiculous is that? I think this is just an example of my neurosis and delayed sense of spontaneity (new term I made up), because once I thought about it then I realized how silly I was being. I quickly looked up movie times and called Randy to make sure he would leave work at 5:00pm. So we ended up going to Target, to dinner at Thanksgiving Point, and to the movies to see the teen romance "She's the Man." It was an enjoyable night and I'm glad I didn't let my foolish "plan" keep me from having fun with Lori.

**What do you do when you can't sleep?**
**Do you review everything you're going to do before you do it?**
**What is your opinion of Mariah Carey? (She was just on the radio.)**

"Little" things

This is a photo of the very cute little pot of flowers Book Club Amy gave us at Michelle's birthday dinner last week. It was a nice touch, very springy, and fun for the rest of us to have something cute to take home with us. I love little things like that and am still loving it as I look at it each day in my kitchen window. Michelle posed a great question (relating to the "little" things) in her Sunday post and only a few of us have commented (passionately) and I'm wishing more people would weigh in on the discussion. Click here to read her post and join in.

Spring!

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” --Anne Bradstreet

I took all of these photos yesterday on the first day of spring. I've been checking on the progress of the flowers each day, but tend to forget about the trees and bushes in the backyard. I like to see the beginnings of the buds and to check their progress because the change happens so quickly. I don't want to miss these first moments.

Whitney and I often wander the yard looking for changes in the plants and flowers. She loves it as much as I do and will come running in the house and grab me to come out to see some tiny change that has taken place in the flower bed. I love that about her, and I love that about spring as well.

**What do you notice at the start of spring?**

For more spring photos click here.

Book Bonanza

I ran into DI on Saturday and found all these books in about 10 minutes! I love it when I even remember to go in there and look. I saw all kinds of other good books, but I already had copies of them. I've come to the conclusion that if you're in the market for any parenting, pregnancy, self-help or health-related books that DI is the place to go to find them. They had so many copies of all the popular parenting books, that I feel obligated to share that info. They also had like 3 copies of The Divine Secrets of The Ya Ya Sisterhood--so those of you with a bookclub going that's a good place to check for multiple copies popular books (last month there were multiple copies of The Jane Austen Book Club). I just had to share my delight in my DI finds--I hope you'll share yours too.

**What's everybody reading these days? I haven't had an update in awhile. I started "The Known World" last night and like it so far.**

Good Mail!!

Look what I got in the mail today from Jessie--the world's cutest book for making lists! I'm so excited. I pulled the padded envelope out of the mailbox and glanced at the address label and thought "ooh how delightful" then had a moment where I thought maybe she was just mailing back the headache book I loaned her. Of course, I didn't know why she'd go to the trouble of mailing it back to me, but I didn't want to get excited about the contents of the envelope of it was just the headache book. Alas, I was NOT disappointed! I pulled out this book and gasped out loud. I can't believe it's for me. Thank you so much Jessie! Your creative genius is always at work, and I'm so honored to be the recipient of one of your thoughtful creations. I love the spirit of reciprocity and especially love it in the form of good mail. I will be labeling the tabs of the book and putting it to use immediately. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

**Have you guys checked out Jessie's awesome creations? She posted a bunch on her blog last Friday. Click here to see them.**

Domestic Help

I already posted today, but just remembered something I've been meaning to ask everybody (so please comment and help me out). We are having some towel troubles around here. Our bathroom towels are only good for one use and then they are less than fresh. I used to put them in the dryer and hang them back up, but even that's not doing the trick. I can't figure it out. I wash them several times a week (Downey and everything) but once they get wet they stink! This is embarrassing seeing as how I'm such the clean freak, but Randy and I have decided it must be the towels themselves. None of the other towels in our house have this problem. Today we used beach towels so as to avoid the stinky ones. I'm at a loss and ready to throw them away (not even retire them to back-up towels or car washing towels).

**So I need recommendations on where to buy good towels that aren't super expensive. We'd like soft, aethetically pleasing towels that are affordable. Please help!**

Television Woes

When we moved into this house just over 2 years ago we called to sign up for DISH Network Satellite service. They were running a special that included a free DVR system (basically TIVO). We were so excited about this, and quickly become hooked on it's mighty power to record shows so that we didn't have to watch them live--which means no more commercials. We soon became very savvy with this system (and by "we" I mean me and Landon, Randy is still a bit of a spazz with the remote). After a month or so we were completely hooked and kept asking each other how we every survived without it.

Well, last Wednesday night our Satellite receiver with the DVR (digital video recorder) wigged out. It was making a bizarre clicking noise and then stopped working. That means we have to replace the entire receiver (currently on its way via UPS). So we are living without the blissful technology we've come to depend on, and are stuck with only live tv. No program guide, no rewinding of shows, no recording, no searching, none of the things we've come to love. So guess what...I've pretty much stopped watching tv. The only show I've watched since last Wednesday night was Grey's Anatomy last night (which meant sitting through the commercials ugh). So this poses an interesting question for me which is how much do I care about tv? When I have recording technology I love to record all kinds of shows because I can watch them commercial free or fast-forward through them if they're lame (i.e., design shows, cooking shows, etc). I ended up reading yesterday off and on for about 5 hours and finished "Eventide" by Kent Haruf (so good). I love to read (as you all know) and do so regularly, but mostly give in to the pull of the tv and end up watching shows for hours instead of reading. It's nice that Randy and I can watch shows and talk about them together, but after giving it up so easily the past few days I'm wondering how much I really need it.

**Is tv a big pull for you or do you do other things at night when you feel like it?**

Sunday Notes

I have a confession to make...I don't look forward to church as much now that I don't get to go to Relief Society. Today will be my first day in my new class (since I've been substituting a different primary class the past 2 weeks) and I'm not really excited about it. I'm sure I'll come to love them, and to enjoy primary because I DO like being in there with the kids, it's just I'm fearing the lack of the boost that Relief Society gives me each week. Perhaps this will teach me to rely on my church notebook even more because I'll have to revisit past meetings to find the thoughts I'm needing for the week (hmmm).

My thoughts today are from an August 2005 Sacrament Meeting when our new RS Presidency spoke.

--Service takes time and effort.
--D&C 64:32-33 Be not weary in well doing...
--We are preparing Zion for the return of the Savior
--We need to fill our spiritual reservoirs daily, to study scriptures, to contemplate, FEEL and wait for answers.
--We must prepare if we wish to serve, and we must serve if we are to be prepared.
--If we magnify our callings, the Lord will helps us recognize what is really important.
--As we serve under the direction of the Lord we come to know Him.
--We must study the Savior's life and come to know Him, understand why He wept.

One sister had only been home from her mission for 3 weeks when she was called into the presidency. She had been in a tiny country called Yap in Micronesia (where?) with her husband. She said the families there had to walk 3 miles to get to church each week, and that they did so even in the pouring rain. (I'm such a chump, our church is around the corner. It's snowing a lot today and I was hoping they'd cancel it because I don't want to go out.)

--When you serve in the church you grow no matter what you do.
--The Lord doesn't really need our time or money, He needs our hearts; our might, mind, and strength will follow.
--Charity is the pure love of Christ. Charity NEVER faileth.
--Be not afraid, only believe.
--This Earth is not our home, we're here to learn and to prove ourselves.
--You are called to represent the Savior no matter what your calling.
--Your call has eternal consequences for you and those you serve. (No pressure, ha)
--The Lord will magnify you in your calling and guide what you say and do.
--Give your best effort and whole heart as you serve.

Remember all that stuff I said at the beginning of this post about not wanting to go to primary or to church today--I'm not deleting it because it's true, though now I feel like a fool. I love to teach in primary, but that doesn't always mean I want to go. I am ALWAYS glad I went though and this is what keeps me going a lot of the times.
**What keeps you going when your mortal self tries to keep you home?**

Cute Invitation

I just had to show everybody this cute invitation my sister-in-law Amy made for her daughter Bella's 6th birthday party. I love her style and always call it Simply Genius because it's a clean, simple-looking style that is always so cute. She has a way, and I love her scrapbook pages, cards, tags, and creative calendars too (Amy you should post the cute calendars you keep on your magnet boards).

**Have you checked out Amy's blogs and seen her coolest scrapbook room and cute projects?**

Inspiring Spaces

I was trying to decide what to blog about this morning, and decided to pull out my Discovery Journal to look at some pictures in it for inspiration. I came across this one and thought "that's it!" You see, my scrapbook room is a disaster because I haven't been home much this week and have been running in and out of it to get things to wrap presents with, work on the pages for Michelle's birthday book, and so on so I have piles of stuff and very little floor space to walk in. This makes me crazy, though there's something about the idea of sorting through it all and reorganizing it that appeals to me too. That's why this picture jumped out at me. My room looks nothing like this of course, but I'm inspired by this picture because of it's clean, organized look. I love the big bulletin board, I love the big file drawers, and I will be keeping this in mind today as I try to clean and organize my own little, closet-sized room.

Also, I decided to start a new gallery on my smugmug site for rooms I find inspiring. I scanned several pictures from my Discovery Journal and am already happy about being able to see those more regularly.

I started my Discovery Journal back in 1998 after Claudia gave me a copy of Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. The book has daily thoughts for becoming your authentic self, for discovering what you love, and giving yourself permission to pursue the life you want. It's a wonderful book.

In the January 28th passage she talks about starting a Discovery Journal to help us figure out what really appeals to us. She says,

"At night before you go to bed, when you're in a drowsy, relaxed, and receptive state, flip through magazines. When you see an image you love, cut it out and paste it in your book. Don't try to arrange the pictures in any specific sort of way. Let the collages you are creating simply evolve. Soon they will give you directions about where your heart wants you to go. I have also added quotes, sketches, greeting cards, and art postcards to my discovery journal, crafting with paper what the poet W.H. Auden calls "a map of my planet."

**What inspires you and helps you turn your home into a refuge from the world?**

Whitney's lucky day

Whitney scored the goodmail today with this darling package from Kristi. Inside this cute box (with the polka-dotted ribbon pull) was a set of 14 personalized cards and envelopes. Whitney was actually speechless! (That's really something.) When I took the items into the scrapbook room so I could scan them she said, "For the sake's of heaven, why do you have to scan them?" She was so excited. Thank you Kristi for being so thoughtful and talented!

P.S. This gift was a "sorry you had to have eye surgery" gift.

In the cozy

A couple of months ago Whitney came into to my bedroom one morning while I was under the covers reading. I love to lie in bed and read on the rare mornings I don't have to get up right away. So this one morning the kids came in and were talking to me and jumping on the bed and just sharing their high-energy selves with me. They wanted me to get up and get them some breakfast, and I was teasing them and saying how I just couldn't get out of bed, so then Whitney said, "oh no she's in the cozy." I thought it was the perfect thing to say, and we hadn't ever had a name for it before, but now we do.

I'm just thinking about this because last night was a very late night for me because we had Michelle's birthday dinner with the book club ladies and didn't leave Amy's house until almost 1:00am, so this morning I was having a hard time waking up and was under the covers when Whitney came in and joined me "in the cozy." I love this term, I love being in it, and I love it that Whitney made it up.

**Do you hop right out of bed in the morning or do you like to linger in the cozy?**

Dixie Chicks

I love the Dixie Chicks. I love their music, and thoroughly enjoy them. Lori took me to their concert on my birthday 3 years ago and it was fantastic. I just saw on MSN.com that they have released a new song (finally!) and you can go to this link to hear it. It sounded good to me.

**What are your favorite Dixie Chicks songs? Or if you don't like them, tell me why not?**

Belated Sunday Post

{This is a photo I took of the flowers Jenn gave Whitney.}
To see all the flower photos click here

This is a belated Sunday-type post. I should have written after church on Sunday, but was weary and had stupidly decided that since not very many of you comment on my Sunday posts that you must not be interested in them. But I think this is foolish of me, because this is my blog and a record of my thoughts so whether you comment or not (though I love it and prefer that you do) I want to accurately document my life and thoughts.

So here goes... Our Sacrament Meeting on Sunday March 12, 2006 was so fantastic. The Young Women's Presidency spoke and reduced me to a blubbering mess. I had packed a mini package of tissues in my bag that day (only to find I had 3 others in there), and it was a good thing because I used a ton of tissues during that meeting. Here are the highlights from my 5 pages of notes.

• We have the responsibility to raise our children in righteousness, and will be held accountable for what we've taught them.
• Dedicated, selfless parents teach their children so well that when temptation comes it rolls right off their children because they know the truth. (A daunting statement for sure.)
  
• It's easier to invest in our children while they're young so that they have a firm foundation when they're teenagers.
• Teach your children accountability and respect. The Lord does not jump in and solve our problems, He lets us struggle and learn for ourselves. We should follow His example of parenting with our own children.
• If you don't know where you want to go it doesn't matter which path you take.
  
• Friends can an amazing force for good in each others' lives. Teach your children to choose friends wisely. (I think this is true for us as grown-ups well. Do our friends lift us up or drag us down?)
  
• Indulge in goodness. Take advantage of all the good opportunities that will help keep you on the right path. (I love the use of the word indulge in this context.)
• Teach your kids to "Be that good kid" to be the one that stands up for what they believe, to be a good influence on their friends, to not just be one of the crowd.
• Teach your kids that it is up to them to put themselves in good places--they will be held accountable for their choices (after the age of 8).
• Once you realize your infinite worth as a child of God, then nothing will hold you back from fulfilling your goals and your purpose in life.
• Heavenly Father's love for us is intense and powerful. We can experience a taste of His love for us as we feel love for our own children and families. (So just try imagine how much greater His love really is.)
• The power of example is an awesome tool, be mindful of what your example is saying.
• You are the only person who can limit what you become.

Celebrate good times, come on...

It's finally here, March 14th, the date of birth for the one and only Michelle. She's 35 today. Drop her a line and wish her well.

{I hope festivities and gourmet cake help you ring in this new year of your life. Have a great day!}{For a few more birthday photos click here.}

Field Trip

We're off this morning for another field trip with Amie and her kids. We're heading to Salt Lake (in the snow, ugh) to see the orchestra at Abravanel Hall. I'm not dreading this excursion because I never get embarrassed for people playing instruments (okay maybe the Tuba player), so hopefully this won't be anxiety producing for me.

After our field trip we're going back to her house (all the way out in Eagle Mountain) to work on projects (i.e., cards, scrapbooks, gifts). Landon and Whitney are very excited to play at their house because we rarely go out there.

**What are you doing today?**

{Update: We had an excellent experience at the symphony. There were tons of school kids on field trips, but were lucky not to have to deal with a large group, just me and Amie and our 4 kids. We got great seats right in the middle of the auditorium. It's beautiful in there and it has perfect acoustics. It was an educational performance that highlighted each of the instrument families. It was only 45 minutes long, which was perfect for all those antsy
kids (and moms).}


[For more symphony pictures, click this link.]

Kristi's Blog

Hey Everybody,
I just wanted to let you know that Kristi's brother was able to fix her blog so she should be back up and running again. Go check it out and make some comments. She has been suffering for weeks with only comments from me.

A grateful heart

I've been looking through my church notebook for a good Sunday type thought, and must say how much I enjoy having these notes to look back on. I just realized another benefit to taking notes in church--looking back on them later can be very helpful if we weren't ready for the message the first time around. It's kind of the same concept as rereading our scriptures often since different passages mean different things to us as we accumulate life experience. I just realized this is true of my notes from church too. (An epiphany so early on this snowy Sunday morning, hooray.)

This is a quote I had written down from a Relief Society lesson back in August 2005.

"A grateful heart is the beginning of greatness.
It is an expression of humility.
It is the foundation for the development of such virtues
as prayer, faith, courage, contentment,
happiness, love, and well-being."
--James E. Faust

I'm always working on being more grateful, and it is my dream to be content in all areas of my life. Amy, Elizabeth, and Michelle have been listing things their grateful for lately, and this has been inspiring to me. So to follow their lead, this is what I'm grateful for this morning.

**Roast cooking in the crockpot making the house smell so good.
**Anticipating the tastiness of the roast dinner we will have this afternoon.
**Landon and Whitney playing so well together on Sunday mornings.
**The beautiful winter wonderland outside, with us cozy inside.
**Being able to blog spiritual thoughts and have sweet friends comment on them.
**Feeling like I get to rest from the hustle and bustle of a busy week.
**Having a new book to read after finally finishing my other one.
**Thinking about our fun game night with Adam, Amy & Lori and the kids last night and how hard Adam makes me laugh (and that I won one of our games of Catan).
**Being able to think of many things to be grateful for with almost no effort.

**What are you grateful for today?**

Shopping

Happy Saturday everyone. I had to get up at 8:00 so I could get ready for a skit rehearsal at 9:00. Next Tuesday is our "Treasures of Relief Society" dinner (the one I made 100 invitations for) and I "get" to participate in the skit since I am presenting the Treasure of Knowledge (as the book club person for our ward). I also have to sing (yikes) with the other Enrichment committee members to the tune of Matchmaker, Matchmaker from Fiddler on The Roof. We have to say, homemaker, homemaker make me a home... It's pretty embarrassing, but I'm sure it will be entertaining for those who don't have to make fools of themselves.

We went to Costco as a family last night which was interesting. I was trying so hard to keep everybody out of the way so that we weren't like the obnoxious families that block to whole aisle, and these two incidents occured.

1. Landon had just put a box of Ego Waffles in our cart and we were moving out of the way for an older woman who had just turned down the aisle. She mumbled "unbelieveable" as she passed us. I immediately felt like she was mad at us for something or criticizing our food choices so I turned around to her and said, "what's unbelieveable?" (This was incredibly spontanteous and brave of me because normally I would have kept going and just brooded about it, but this time I felt like I was ready to fight if I had to.) Anyway, she laughed and whispered to me that she had just gone to the bathroom 5 minutes ago and that she felt like she had to go again so that's why she said, "unbelieveable." I'm so glad I clarified, how stupid would that have been if I'd been bugged and defensive about that incident when it had nothing to do with me (I think there's a little life lesson in there eh?).

2. The other interesting thing that happened was when we were turning to go down the book aisle (always my favorite) and there were several other people with carts on that aisle, and a woman who had 3 large dog beds in her cart was trying to make her way down the aisle towards us. We backed up so she could maneuver her way through and when she got to us she said, "thank you for even thinking about it." It was the FIRST time I've ever been thanked for my courteous shopping cart driving. You may think this is silly, but it's amazing considering how often I've moved over or tried not to block the aisle when everybody else just takes up the whole thing and never says "excuse me" or "thanks." I felt so vindicated and she seemed very flustered that all those other people had completely ignored her as she tried to make her way down the aisle. I've had times like that and wanted to scream "Am I invisible?"

So that's my post for today. Kind of random, but accurate. Also, I'm having one of those days when it feels like my face didn't wake up. I don't know why that is, but it seems like it's been happening a lot lately. I sleep well enough, shower and get ready, then feel like my eyelids are drooping or like I need to wake up more. What's up with that?

**Are you in your own world when you're driving a shopping cart or are you considerate?**

Grocery Shopping

It's payday once again and that means a grocery shopping stock up extravaganza for us. I went to Costco and to Macey's (the grocery store) 2 weeks ago on payday and got the mother lode of groceries, which resulted in a late-night pantry rearranging session and a fridge clean out as well, but was so successful that we've only had to suppliment our stash with one trip for bread! That's unheard of for us, so it makes me feel like doing a little grocery victory dance (shake your groove thang, shake your groove thang, yah, yah).

So today we're ready to reload again so I've got groceries on the brain. Ideally, I would have a menu of meals in mind so that I could shop accordingly. I'm not good at that, and don't like to make dinner (though I like to eat dinner) so this is something that's hard for me to do. I'm hoping to be motivated by our last stock-up success so I want to plan well and repeat this remarkable event. (One of our neighbors ended up giving us 2 gallons of milk because her family was leaving town for 10 days, so that ended up supplying our milk needs and kept us from going to the store.)

**I'm wondering how everybody else does it? Do you go to the store often or do a big stock up with tiny follow-ups, or do you limit yourself to a certain budget and then not go back until your budget is refilled? Any tips would be appreciated.**

Passion and Solitude

Claudia gave me a subscription to a new magazine (I'd never heard of before) for Christmas called La Vie Claire. She said she thought it was beautiful and that she hoped I would too. Well, I certainly do. The picture above is one from the magazine and I love that they have quotes and pages like that all through it. It's like each page is another visually pleasing display. (Thanks Claudia.) Anyway, I love the quote from this page, and I love that they titled it Passion. This reminds me of another favorite passage from Gift From The Sea. The author talks about spending time alone to replenish yourself so that you're able to give to others (because as women we do this constantly and feel picked apart--a.k.a. Smotherhood).

"Quiet time alone, contemplation, prayer, music, a centering line of thought or reading, of study or work. It can be physical or intellectual or artistic, any creative life proceeding from oneself. It need not be an enormous project or a great work. But it should be something of one's own. Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day--like writing a poem, or saying a prayer. What matters is that one be for a time inwardly attentive." page 56

Isn't that great? It validates my need for creativity, reading, and solitude. I have realized that I begin to feel anxious and out of touch if I don't spend time in my scrapbook room making something, whether it's a simple card with a note to a friend or labeling envelopes of pictures, or just reorganizing the stacks of supplies in here. I also replenish by being cozy on my bed and reading for an extended period of time. It's not just the escape of the story I'm reading, but the physical act of sinking into the pillows and being under my favorite blanket (given to me by Amie).

**What do you do for yourself to replenish so that you can continue to give to others?**

P.S. This is unrelated but scrapbooking celebrity Jamie Waters had a baby on March 1st and has the sweetest little video of her on her blog. It's worth a look, and a cry.

Jumping for joy

I have just returned from our Enrichment Book Club discussion of Gift From The Sea, and it was fantastic! I'm so thrilled. We had 12 women come, which seemed like an excellent turnout and manageable group. I surprised myself by being able to take the lead, articulate my thoughts understandably, and answer their questions about Anne Morrow Lindbergh's background. It was so fun. Everyone loved the book and got so much out of it. We had one sister who doesn't have kids yet, a couple women who have little kids and are pregnant, a couple more with elementary school-aged kids, and then several empty-nesters and one really old sister (she came with her daughter who is an empty-nester). It was a great blend of perspectives and everyone seemed comfortable sharing their thoughts. I'm so psyched about it because everyone said how much they loved it, and several mentioned that they needed something like this. (Of course, I understand the need for a book club and night out with other women, that's why I've been so motivated about this assignment of leading it.) It was nice also to have a couple copies of next month's book These Is My Words available to loan (thanks for loaning your copies you guys), everyone seems excited about that book too (it will not disappoint).

**What's everybody reading these days? I'm almost finished with Best Friends and defintely can't recommend it.**

Big Day

This morning we're meeting up with Amie and her kids to drive to Salt Lake to see a Children's Theater Production of James and the Giant Peach. I'm not excited. I'm so retarded about things like this because they always end up to be fun and something different to do, but before going I dread them and think of all the other things I need to do at home.

Tonight is our Enrichment Book Club discussion so that's what's on my mind. I printed various background information (Book Club Amy would be so proud), so I'm familiar with the background of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's life, the time frame she wrote the book, themes in the book etc. At our regular book club I'm not the one of who takes the lead, so this is a bit daunting for me tonight. I'm really hoping that we get a good, motivated turnout of chatty people so that I don't have to direct the comments. I also wish I had my copy of my book so I could look over it. I loaned it out a week ago, and then it got loaned again so I won't get to have it back until tonight. I marked a ton of pages so hopefully I'll be able to find what I'm looking for and articulate my thoughts well. I'm calm and anxious at the same time (is that allowed?) I'm also wondering about food to bring. I didn't assign anyone anything because I don't know if that's something I should do, but I want it to be fun and social like how a regular book club is so I want to bring a few things. Any easy suggestions?

So that's about it for this morning. I have to go get ready to leave for the play.

**Do you like going to plays? Do you ever get embarrassed for the actors or is it just me?**

{Update--The play was very cute and the kids enjoyed it (though at the end of every scene Whitney would lean over and say "is it over?" I think she just wasn't sure because she'd never been to a play before. I went through various stages of excitement about doing something different and fun for the kids, to being embarrassed by the exaggerated motions of the little boy who played James, to feeling sleepy and just resting my eyes for a bit, then thinking about where we would go for lunch, then back to thinking it was fun and that we should go there again. I think the reason I don't like plays is partially due to feeling too aware of myself. I don't get wrapped up in them the way I do a movie. A movie is an escape and pure entertainment, while a play is something I'm trying to get through so that I will have done it. (Still working on these thoughts, hard to articulate them but overall I don't like plays or musicals.) So Amie, don't blame yourself for expanding our horizons, my kids will thank you some day. It's too easy for me to stay home and do the same old thing, because it's comfortable and I like it that way (see yesterday's post about being a doer.)}