Delightful

Since I frequently pin inspiring quotes on Pinterest, I decided to print a stack of them as 4x6 photos to hang on our fridge. But then I got this idea to put super strong magnets on the back of a cheap picture frame so it would stick to the fridge over the quote. This was a super easy project (I used Gorilla glue to stick the magnets to the frame) and makes me happy every time I see it.

**Do you pin lots of quotes?

Do you have stuff on your fridge?

Ever tried these super strong magnets?**

Inspiration

These are some inspirational quotes from my Pinterest quote board. I was saving them to my desktop today so I could use them for my screensaver (along with many others) and thought they would be a nice addition to my blog which desperately needs a new post. Do you love these too?

Sunday Thoughts

I've really been struggling this year with my personal scripture study. My habit in years past has been to start the Book of Mormon in January and finish it by my birthday in July, but I got kind of tired of doing that so I didn't do it this year or last year. I actually had big plans (always the kiss of death for me) to be like the Red Headed Hostess and get going on some amazing scripture journals to really help me put more depth into my scripture reading...but I didn't know where to start. I was having a debate of topic study and how to go about it, or character study or book study and just floundered so that I never got started. Instead I have listened to Conference talks and Conversations on the Mormon Channel, but that's not the same thing as reading my scriptures.

So here I am on summer vacation from work feeling like I have so much time to conquer this goal and dive in, but again where to start? Day after day I have said to myself, "I will get to that tomorrow and things are going to be great." But nothing has happened.

Then on Tuesday, I woke up with my heart racing from a dream. In this dream I was at some church-related site (there was a statue of Joseph Smith that's how I knew) and all these people were climbing a stone street that was covered with a light snow. I made it to the top of the hill but kept slipping and felt so panicked as I did so then ended up sliding all the way to the bottom as people kept passing me. It was truly horrible and I woke up feeling very flustered about it. But as I did some self-analysis I decided it had to do with my lack of focus on scripture study and feeling like I can't get my footing.

So later that same day after finishing up 4 Boards of Review for scouts at the church, Brother Johnston said he needed to talk to me. He asked me to speak on July 29th on the topic "Have No Other Gods Before Me". I immediately started putting on the calendar on my phone (I don't even think I said "yes") and recognized the connection this topic has for me (I'm always trying to get balanced and eliminate distractions) and the tender mercy of giving me a topic to research and refine with 7 weeks notice!! The Lord handed me my focus, let me know He is mindful of me, and gave me accountability and an outlet to share my thoughts. I don't usually understand the way the Lord works, but I really, really love it when I do.

Sunday Thoughts

I'm a day late on my Sunday Thoughts' post because my Sunday ended up being too dang busy! (That is NOT how I like my Sundays to be!) Even though I'm loving the extra 2.5 hours we have in the morning because of our new 11:30 schedule, I'm finding that my day feels way shorter because of this huge chunk of time taken out of the middle. Mathematically it should all work out the same, but somehow it doesn't.

I mentioned last week that I am really feeling motivated to change the way I read the scriptures and that I want to spend more time doing that this year. Last Sunday after church I was asked to teach Relief Society on the 22nd on one of the General Conference talks, but she didn't know which one it would be. I thought about this for the next day or so until she got back to me and said I was to teach Elder Scott's talk The Power of Scripture! (Chills!)

I've listened to this talk several times throughout the week and then was reading it yesterday morning. I started to write down all the things Elder Scott said about the scriptures and came up with this great list.

• They are packets of light
• They are pure truth
• Key to open the channel to communion with our Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
• Provide Strength
• Stalwart friends
• Always available
• Foundation for truth that can be awakened by the Holy Ghost
• There is great power through memorizing scriptures.
• We forge a new friendship when we memorize them.
• They give help, inspiration and comfort.
• They are a source of motivation.
• Give great direction.
• Foundation of support.
• They are a large resource of willing friends.
• They are an enduring friend.
• Key to unlocking revelation
• Calm the soul
• Give peace, hope and restore confidence
• They have the power to heal emotional challenges
• Accelerate physical healing (!)
• Communicate different meanings at different times in our lives.

Isn't this a great list? I think it's interesting that he referred to them as our friends so many times. It made me think about how I can teach my kids to feel that way about them so that they will always think to turn to their scriptures in times of need. I'm excited for more insights to come as I continue to study this talk this week.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: Oh how I love a 3-day weekend!

Sunday Thoughts

On Christmas Sunday our Bishop spoke and then the ward choir and the congregation sang Christmas hymns together as part of a planned program. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas (I love it when it falls on a Sunday)! I was rather surprised when our Bishop started giving his talk because he wasn't talking about the Christmas story or anything I expected him to talk about. Instead he talked about forgiveness. I loved what he said and felt like it was exactly what I needed to hear!

• Christ asks us to follow Him on the path of discipleship.
• We offer a broken heart and contrite spirit.
• No contention!
• Don't allow anger and frustration into your heart!
• Desire to always have love and harmony in your relationships.
• Give away your hard feelings and resentments.
• Resolve today to forgive others and move forward.
• Daily worship Jesus and follow His path.

I realized that these apply to me in a lot of different ways and that I have a tendency to think that forgiveness involves really big situations, but that in my life the things I need to forgive and forget are lots of little things that I tend to pile up into a large list of grievances. These weigh me down and make life unpleasant much of the time, but this is something I really want to change.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: Today was my first Sunday in over 10 years that I went to Gospel Doctrine class because I no longer have a Sunday calling! It was a strange feeling, but I'm very excited to study the Book of Mormon this year.

Sunday Thoughts

I recently started reading No One Can Take Your Place by Sheri Dew and think it's wonderful. I mark so many passages on every page that I'm ending up with only small bits actually unmarked! I love it when that happens.

"Now, the Lord doesn't ask us to be more than who we are. The reality of mortality is that our work never stops--not if we're serious about immortality. So I ask you, Will you join me in identifying one thing you can do to increase your faith and knowledge? If you will, your obedience and purity, integrity and sense of identity will also increase--with unflinching moral courage being the result. Latter-day men and women of God must have this courage if we are to be a light and a standard, if we are to open our mouths, if we are to be disturbers and annoyers of the adversary's kingdom, and if we are to build up the kingdom of God. We can do it. I know we can!" page 26

I've been thinking lately that I need to make a more conscious effort to be more spiritual. I have gotten into a routine of personal prayer and scripture reading, but am not feeling the results I'd like to be feeling. These changes take effort and need to infiltrate my life more completely. So what will I do to change this???

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I'm actually ready to go back to work tomorrow!

Sunday Thoughts

During one of my recent morning cool down sessions I read a great talk called Pastry, Chalk Circles, and Other Words to Live By: A Guide to Keeping Commitments by Sarah Westerberg. It was a talk given at BYU in December 2008, but I found out about it from one of our Relief Society leaders.

 

The talk is about not being flaky (hence the pastry reference) and deciding we're going to keep all our commitments. (Just imagine if everyone did this?! )


"We have committed to take upon us Christ's name. This should completely change every thought we have and every action we take. We recommit every Sunday, through the ordinance of the sacrament, to always remember Him. This commitment should translate into powerful righteous behaviors in our life. As we attend the temple, we make additional covenants to do the Lord's will and to increase our ability to make and keep sacred commitments."

 

"We often hear of people who have "commitment issues." Generally, these commitment issues are in the context of a relationship, but it is an idea with broader application. Do we have spiritual commitment issues? With the Lord, all things are spiritual, thus there are no commitments that can be deemed "simply temporal." When we keep our commitments, we draw closer to the Lord and come closer to becoming the person we need to be to endure through eternity. What may initially appear temporal is, in actuality, a training ground for things eternal. The companion of commitment keeping is enduring to the end. Because we are children of God, our commitments are lifelong commitments that stretch throughout eternity."

This talk really resonated with me because I am highly motivated by the desire NOT to be flaky. It's not something I really have a problem with, but I do find that I often experience temptations in that area (i.e., thoughts cross my mind that if followed would lead to flakiness). So I appreciated this subject and the insights about not being flaky and the importance of actively striving to keep our commitments.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: Tomorrow is the first day of school for the new 7th graders so that means it's my first day in the front office with kids in the school!

Sunday Thoughts

Virginia H. Pearce was the opening speaker at Women's Conference this year; she spoke about this year's theme "By Small and Simple Things, Are Great Things Brought to Pass".

• Prayers are heard and answered.
• Prayer is the earliest ritual we teach our children.
• Prayer rests on the principle of faith.
• Prayer becomes natural and instinctive when we recognize the relationship of Father and child.
• Prayer is an act of agency or choice.
• Prayer grows from humility.
• We are all dependent on God.
• We can take joy in adversity because we know it brings us closer to Christ. (I loved this thought.)
• Act on promptings.
• Increased temple attendance and prayers change our hearts. We can get rid of guilt, dread, worry and fear.
• Repeated acts of prayer and obedience are small and simple things that make big changes over time.
• Our prayers can bring about miracles for others. The Lord often answers our prayers through someone else, thus we are often the answer to other people's prayers.
• Through prayer our will can change to that of the Lord.
• Our pleading becomes part of the experience.
• We inform ourselves as we reverently speak to the Lord (He already knows what we're going to say).
• Often the changes in us are so gradual they are almost imperceptible. 
• The miracle of prayer is the relationship we develop with the Lord.
• Prayer works!

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: Sister Beck visited our ward today for her nephew's mission farewell. I went up to speak to her after the meeting and totally embarrassed myself. I sounded like a star-struck groupie, but I managed to choke out my thanks for her wonderful talk at Women's Conference last year.

Sunday Thoughts

As I mentioned in my hilariously embarrassing post from yesterday, it was our annual Stake Women's Conference. I have gone to this for the last few years and posted about it all those times.

There were several good speakers, but the main speaker was Emily Freeman (an author and "famous" church speaker--Michelle recently posted notes from her) and she was fabulous. One of the great benefits of having a seasoned speaker is that they have confidence and are able to speak without apology and without bringing attention to themselves the way many insecure speakers do with self-deprecation and apologies for their weaknesses. I understand why people feel this way, but I feel like if you've been asked to speak somewhere it is for a reason and you should own that and take on the confidence the Lord has entrusted you with so that rather than drawing attention to yourself you can deliver your message. Enough said.


Anyway, she was clearly inspired and delivered a beautiful message about remembering the Savior through Commitment, Sanctification and Consecration. I took so many notes that I'm not sure how to post them, so I'm going to try to relate a story she told that had me doing the ugly cry.

She told us how 6 years ago for Christmas, she and her husband decided they were going to take their children to the store so each of them could choose a picture of the Savior to have framed in their bedroom. She said their kids took this very seriously and that it took a couple weeks for them all to find the picture that meant the most to them. She said her son, who was 13 at the time, really wanted a picture of Peter trying to walk on water toward the Savior, but that they couldn't find it. Eventually she found that picture in a book and cut it out and framed it for her son. Then each of the children wrote "I am a disciple of Christ" under the picture in the frame (I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea).



Fast forward 6 years later and her son is the only missionary in the MTC preparing to serve in Croatia. The time came for him to fly there all by himself and as he did she was worried that he would get lost or have trouble along the way. He had to change planes in Paris and somehow got stuck in the wrong section of the airport for 45 minutes and almost missed his flight. (This had me in tears thinking of Landon in 6 years, what is in store for him?) Fortunately, he got on the right plane and flew to Croatia where his Mission President met him at the airport...phew!

Later in a Zone Conference the Mission President was relating the story of going to pick her son up at the airport and likened him to Peter walking on water toward the Savior because of his great faith! Isn't that a beautiful story?

She also talked about how many of our stories/trials are in process so we don't know how they're going to end but that it's all part of our journey here on Earth and that by remembering the Savior always and exercising faith we will eventually see what we are supposed to learn from those experiences.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I got ANOTHER calling today! Now I'm on the Relief Society Activity Committee too.

Sunday Thoughts

So yesterday was our Stake's annual Relief Society Women's Conference from 9-11am with a lunch following. I always enjoy this and make the effort to go, though I've had snooze malfunctions two years in a row and got there late as a result!

The theme for the conference was "Go Forth in the Strength of the Lord", so all the talks came back around to that topic, and were oh so inspiring.

Here are some highlights...


--Our journey through life is full of obstacles and no one makes it through without cuts and bruises, but we've been given a team to help us through.

--Direction is more important than speed, unity more important than praise.

--Don't waste your strength on fear or criticism, be positive and help others along the way.

--It is not enough to simply stand for the right, we must go forth in the strength of the Lord.

--Now is our time!

--"Learn to pray. Pray often. Pray in your mind, in your heart. Pray on your knees. Prayer is your personal key to heaven. The lock is on your side of the veil. And, I have learned to conclude all my prayers with 'Thy will be done.' " --Boyd K. Packer

--If we are obedient we will be blessed.

--“It is not enough to want to make the effort and to say we’ll make the effort. … It’s in the doing, not just the thinking, that we accomplish our goals. If we constantly put our goals off, we will never see them fulfilled.” --President Monson

--An important component of going forth in the strength of the Lord is developing a strong trust in Him.

--"When challenges and testing do come, your faith will lead you to solutions. Your peace of mind, your assurance of answers to vexing problems, your ultimate joy depend upon your trust in Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ." --Richard G. Scott

--Increased spiritual strength is a gift from God that comes as we push ourselves to our limits.

--We're more alike than we're different, and we have the same ultimate goal.

--God knows us in every detail.

--When our children are suffering, we need to remember that they are the Lord's children too.

--We can and must make the decision to have faith.

--Going forth in the strength of the Lord takes action.



-- "In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." Albert Camus

--Without life's storms we'd have no idea what we're capable of.

--The Savior sees us every day and knows exactly what we're going through.

**Which thoughts stand out to you??

Comment Window Tidbit: I wore a turtle neck sweater to church today, despite my constant state of being overheated, I did surprisingly well. I was overly warm, but I wasn't dripping with sweat or anything. Aren't you thrilled to know this?

Best Creative Friday Ever--Part I

After Thursday's day of Smotherhood, Michelle and I were very excited to have Friday Flanarizing to look forward to kid-free! We didn't want to waste any of our day so we made sure we were up and ready and out the door by 10:15am. As we walked down the stairs of the apartment building we did a little victory cheer.


We got our morning almond croissant and then took the Metro to the Musée d'Orsay. We were only able to squeeze in a really fast couple hours there on my last trip, so I really wanted to spend more time there this go around.


We passed a realtor's office with postings in the window and were surprised to see you can get a little place along The Seine for almost 3 million euros, oh is that all?!


I was amused to learn that the Musée d'Orsay actually costs a bit more than entrance to The Louvre, though it's still a bargain.


Michelle and I loved the first couple of rooms we visited and were particularly taken with this woman there painting. Painting is so beyond my skill set that the whole vision and process baffle me. I am definitely one who appreciates this art, but doesn't really understand how it's possible at all.


After walking through a disappointing and at times disturbing Art Nouveau exhibit (surely there were drugs involved with that movement) we wandered around enjoying some sculptures by Rodin and took this self-portrait with the museum's awesomeness behind us. I love that building!!


We wandered around oohing, ahhing and discussing various paintings and came across these. The woman in the painting on the right appeared to be looking into my soul while tapping her fingers together and asking me what I planned to do with this experience. She's diabolical and didn't look like a painting, but like a real person (a thin, pasty one, but still). I decided she's more Mona Lisa-esque than the Mona Lisa.


The rooms full of Impressionist paintings are the big draw for everyone, and really who can blame us hordes for wanting to see them?


It was a bit mind bending to be surrounded by so many amazing and famous works of art. I couldn't help feeling a little guilty for spending so little time admiring each one. I thought it was cool that this Degas was painted at Opéra, especially since we'd just seen that building the day before.


Oh how I love the detail of this painting with the writing supplies and books.


We took one short break to rest our feet, admire some paintings and take a scary self-portrait. It turns out that the lighting that works best for paintings, does NOT work well for pasty, white people!


This was one of the gorgeous views out one of the windows in the gallery, not too shabby eh?


We saw this adorable mother and daughter (and later grandmother as well) walking around and they literally brought tears to my eyes. Can you imagine being able to take your child out for an afternoon at such a place? (Admission to museums is free from kids under 18.)


We were struck by similar thoughts upon seeing multiple school field trips going on. There were all these little kids hopping around with no idea that they were in such a marvelous place seeing so many miracles--it must be nice not to feel any pressure to soak it all up while wandering there.


I commented to Michelle that this painting looks like a man in a dress, I'm sure of it, then we saw these two women bent over with laughter while looking at it and decided they must have come to the same conclusion.


We were so starving by this point and decided to try one of the restaurants in the museum. We were seated right next to one of the huge clocks that can be seen from the outside of the building.


I ordered the lasagna and Michelle ordered the Tartine and we both ended up not really liking the food. I was having some serious texture issues with the lasagna because the 5 layers of noodles and the cheese were so soft and plentiful. I could only make myself eat half of it for body fueling and headache prevention purposes.


We decided to get dessert to help fill us up and give us something tasty to eat, and were happy with that choice, thought the waffle could have been softer.

Our bill was a bit steep though! The servers in Paris get 15% plus whatever else you give them and they basically only take your order, bring your food and then bring your check (there's no, "How is everything tasting? or Can I get you anything else?" going on in Paris) and make a ton of money. It's no wonder you see mature men as professional waiters there, they must be living in an apartment on The Seine with all the money they're making!

We returned to our art appreciation wanderings and found lots more goodness to see. I loved the vignette in this painting.


It was fun to see this Toulouse-Lautrec in real life because we have a print of it on our bedroom wall. The real painting is much smaller than I thought it would be and appears to be done in chalk on a brown grocery bag type paper. A lot of his sketches appear to have been done on whatever paper was lying around.

We finally decided we'd had enough after 4.5 hours.

Upon heading outside there were groups of people everywhere smoking; being in the museum for a long time must have given them quite a hankering.

Here's the clock we ate lunch inside of!

We started walking over to Jardin des Tuileries, which was conveniently located right across the river, and provided a gorgeous walk along the way.


Isn't this sign kind of funny? How can so many amazing places be located so close together?


We stopped to rest on a bench on the bridge and took another self-portrait.


We took a self-portrait of our weary feet (which really should have some sort of pain radiation coming from them) on the bridge as well. Notice Michelle's very soft, cute polka-dotted socks which Jenn sent with me to give her.

**Can you believe this is only half our day?
Do you have any painting skills?
Do you like Impressionist art?
Can you imagine being able to take your kids
to a place like this for an afternoon?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Where is everyone? It's not even the weekend, yet hardly anyone is commenting. I'm going to get a complex about it.

Sunday Thoughts

I was originally planning on reporting back on the many mothers in my life, but I'm not ready yet because I keep thinking of more, so maybe that will be next week's post.


Today was another great Sunday at church, so I'm feeling totally uplifted and super charged by the Spirit. We had two graduating seniors who talked about what they've learned by attending seminary (it's part of their high school curriculum in Utah, so it's not early morning...lucky!). They've both learned so much over their 4 years of attending and feel better prepared to move on in life and share the gospel.

Then our primary chorister (who is also the Bishop's wife and former Stake Primary President) gave a fantastic talk about teaching children. I love this woman and am always touched by what a wonderful she does teaching the primary kids music each week. She is constantly sharing her testimony with them and pointing out the doctrine they're learning in the songs. She said...

--Little children are alive in Christ.
--When teaching children to be reverent we need to be loving, patient and consistent.
--Children hunger for and respond to true doctrine.
--We have the greatest opportunity with the young.
--We are able to learn spiritual things through music that may be harder to learn otherwise.
--We sing about many things, but we mostly sing about Jesus.


One of the songs we're learning for our primary program this year is How Firm A Foundation. (I love it that the kids learn one of the hymns for the program each year.) We sang this as a rest hymn in Sacrament today and I teared up, like I always do, as we sang the third verse.

"Fear not, I am with thee.
Oh, be not afraid.
For I am thy God
And will still give thee aid.

I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand.
Upheld, by my righteous,
Upheld, by my righteous,
Upheld, by my righteous
omnipotent hand."

These are powerfully comforting words to me, and their truthfulness hits me again every time we sing them. I know we have no need to fear the things we face in life because Christ will lift us over and over again.

**Are you working on your list of mothers?
Did you have a good day at church?
Are you touched by the goodness of little kids?
Do you love this hymn?**

Books 2009--#1

FYI--I finished this book in early January, but loaned my copy out before I could type up these quotes.

This book is the 3rd installment of the Sarah Prine series. My favorite is still These Is My Words, but I have enjoyed all the books. I love the character of Sarah. I admire her strength, integrity, work ethic and love for her family. I wonder how her character would translate into today's society (as opposed to early 1900's)?


28--"I wish I knew a word for that kind of righteous ache that weighs down my insides when I do what I know is the right thing to do, though it goes against all my normal leanings. I suppose I could quit aching if I quit trying to do right."

29--"No one has ever been my strength and shield. Nor even wanted to. I've stood on my own feet and fought my own fight. Even Jack, who I loved with those same iron bones, was never content to stay put and let me lean on him."

73--"I've been thinking long and hard about my life, and what I'd do over. It's no good to go away from things. It's better to go toward things."

100-"Then I got right down to my sore spot, and pressed it. If I were a man, I might just leave. Strange what a man can do that a woman would break apart doing. Maybe there's more to being a woman--other lives were intertwined with mine like the bougainvillea that had long ago become part of Albert and Savannah's front porch."

184--"He's just a boy trying to figure what boots to fill."

255--What I want. I dream of land, cut only where streams glistened with birdsong wander through quiet hills burnt hard by the scrape of wind, and of a porch from which a single road leads only homeward."

255--"It started with a whole list of things. Then pretty soon it was about folks, health, and money, and good marriages and friendship, and all, and then it changed. The harder things got at home, the shorter the list went. Reckon you can take anything away, even happiness. In the end, this is all I want from the world. The rest, a person's got to make for themselves."

255--"I'd passed a class. I'd gone to college and done it. Not everything, not like a girl might do with the world at her feet, but I'd done one. I held my shoulders and squeezed. A Powerful joy filled me. A single class was something. A little piece of a dream was still a dream. No one could ever say I hadn't learned a trainload of things, most of it not from the books. I'd gone to school at last. And I'd made it."

262--"I--I couldn't hurt Rachel. It is her beautiful day. I couldn't spoil it by being a fool in front of her. I tried to be happy for them, but I just couldn't.

Don't, then. No one requires you to feel happy about someone else's life. Just brave about your own."

**Did you like this book?
Do you like the character of Sarah?

SPT--Entertaining/Parties

This week's SPT topic is harder for me than last week's because I haven't really put any of the influences into practice yet, but have definitely been inspired. Several bloggers' parties came to mind like Kristi's Cookie Exchange, Anna's Favorite Things Parties, and The Sista's Weekends at Janae's house. But the picture that popped into my mind was this one from Emily (her blog is private).


She hosted a dessert exchange/Christmas party with her friends and made this gorgeous cupcakes for her contribution to the party. Aren't the beautiful?! (I don't even love cupcakes, but these call out to me like crazy.)


These are the other desserts that were exchanged that night at her house. I love the idea of a nice get together with girlfriends, great dinner and conversation together, followed by an exchange of mouth-wateringly lovely desserts. Wow!

I tend to mainly host family parties and the occasional blog visitor gathering, but never actually organize parties like this one. Suddenly my house seems too small, my dishes not nice enough, my confidence lacking and so on. What's up with that? I need to channel my inspiration from these bloggers and turn it into something real. So the Self part of this Self-Portrait Tuesday is confessional rather than pictorial.

Happy Birthday Robin!!!

**Do you like to host parties?
Have you hosted anything like this before?
Have you ever seen such beautiful cupcakes?**