A Photo Book by Shutterfly of our Trip to Europe

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For all you who have been patiently waiting to see our pictures from Europe...this is the first installment.  I took LOADS of pictures and decided since this blog is primarily for me and my memories, I would do a photo book of our trip instead of blogging it all. :)

Feel free to tour the French Riviera through my camera lens.  The next installment will be Paris and England. I had to break it up into 2 volumes because of how many pictures I took and because my groupon for the book was about to expire. :)

Enjoy!

Gratitude Finale

Well, it is 9 p.m., last day of November.  I have spent the last month discussing gratitude with the kids and trying to feverishly point out all our blessings.  So I wanted to give one last Ode to Gratitude...

My list of Blessings.

This is very lengthy but I wanted to just point out a few that have been poignant to me lately.

1.  My faith.

   
   This guides my life.  I try to align my actions to how I feel the Savior would have me act.  I fall short.  Because of my Savior's Atonement I can be forgiven and overcome my weaknesses.  This gospel truly gives me purpose and perspective.  I don't know where I would be today without it.

2.  My family.  

  These guys love me.  I love them.  We are a team.  We have fun.  We learn together.  We have goals.  We grow together.  They are my everything.

3.  My extended family.  Both sides.

4.  My calling - even when it's tricky.

5.  My blog.  Aka - my mom journal.

6.  My renewed LOVE of the piano - my piano teacher who is also my dear friend.

7.  Healthy, delicious food to eat.

8.  The opportunity to get to know my nieces MUCH better.  Having wonderful nieces currently residing in my home.

9.  Seasons of the year, and seasons of life.

10.  My new mini-van that will be arriving soon. :)  

I am so blessed.  I could write about my blessings for hours.  God has been so good to me.  I just hope I can become the person He envisioned when He created me.  

I hope you all had a great November filled with happy memories.  We sure did.  :)

Enjoying the Journey

Rushing out to a meeting, but just wanted to record what I have been thinking about this morning.  I got up and went to Yoga which always gets my brain flowing.

"You don't listen to music to hear the last note."  (paraphrased quote by Pres. Uchtdorf, quoted by my honey)

Life is long.  I have a lot of time to teach my kids.  I have a lot of time to learn from them.  Try to focus on the now, not the future so much.  Listen to and  enjoy the song...not just looking forward to the next note.  

Happiness is a choice.  Find the joy today.

Just a 2 minute splatter of of trying to keep what is in my brain from being overshadowed. :)

A Thankful Thanksgiving

Every year I get bugged that the world seems to take every chance they have to overlook Thanksgiving.  It has become increasingly forgotten other than a day to eat A LOT, watch/play football, and get ready to Black Friday shop.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE all those things. :)

However, I wish more emphasis was placed on the reason we celebrate this holiday...to give THANKSGIVING.

This year I stopped belly-aching about it...well sort of. :)  I decided to do something about it.  Trev and I decided this year we would focus on Gratitude leading up to Thanksgiving.  With the hope that the kids would be more grateful.  Boy did it work!

 Here is what we did.

Each night at dinner we would write down things we were grateful for on slips of paper.  Then we would link them to create a chain.  The chain was hung in the hallway.  I also wrote quotes about gratitude and how to show it on our white board in the kitchen.

We also did Family Nights on what gratitude means, how to show it, and why it is important.

If these kids didn't experience feelings of gratitude this month, it sure wasn't for lack of trying on our end. ;)

I must say however, I think it worked.  There were many times throughout the month I noticed a particular peace in our home.  It seemed like there was less arguing, more expressions of appreciation, and less stress - something unusual around the holidays.  

We have so many things to be thankful for.  The restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, our family, our healthy bodies, our friends, neighbors, homes...the list goes on and on.

At times it seems so easy to think of all the things you don't have.  So I am grateful we took the time to focus on this principle.  I hope those things we discussed and felt will sink deep into our kids souls.

Here is us with our thankful chain.

We even had my cute cousin Jordan with us!  She is up at BYU-I and man alive were we glad to have her around. :)

(Only downside was that she caught the stomach bug we all had...suffice it to say that my washing machine was running overtime this last week.)

Hope you all had a Thankful Thanksgiving.

A Personal "Five Facet Review"

As I write this morning, I am sitting at a desk in a hotel room.  I am in a hotel room because my sweet husband booked it for me as a little get-away.  It has been so nice to just have a little time to myself.  Time to think. Time to edit the hundreds of pictures I have from our trip to Europe.  Time to reflect.  Time to evaluate.  Me time.

Have I mentioned how much I love my man?  He is one of my greatest blessings.  Bar none.

This morning I am giving myself a "five-facet" review.  How am I doing in the following areas:
1. Spiritually
2. Emotionally
3. Physically
4. Mentally
5. Socially

I will evaluate myself in all of these areas and pray for guidance as to what I should focus or work on.  

I believe our time on earth is for bettering ourselves.  Trying to become more like our Savior and Father in Heaven.  If we don't evaluate how we are doing once in a while, how will we know what we need to work on?  So with that, I am going to get started.  

Not before however, a few thoughts from the scriptures to be the backdrop of my evaluations.  Here's to putting of the natural man!

"Nevertheless they did ^afast and ^bpray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their ^chumility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the ^dpurifying and the ^esanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their ^fyielding their hearts unto God."   (Helaman 3:35)
                       
"Therefore, ^asanctify yourselves that your ^bminds become^csingle to God, and the days will come that you shall ^dsee him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will."   (Doctrine and Covenants 88:68)

Here we go again.

Well, it's over.  This guy won.  

I am sad.  I truly do not understand why people voted for him.  However, I am grateful to live in a country where we can all have our voices heard.  This is not a universal privilege.  

God bless America.

Here we go again.

Go MITT!!

This is where my vote is going today.  

Go Mitt!!

Feeling "Put Off" and Trying to "Put Off" the Natural Man

Yesterday was rough for me.  

It was the perfect storm for lots of reasons.

There were many, many moments that I just wanted to go hide in a closet and cry.  But I couldn't.  So I didn't.  

I could feel the fire of my emotions kindling constantly and igniting at will.  I hate that.

I tried to keep them at bay, but am afraid I was largely unsuccessful.  Especially with those I love the most.  I am just grateful they couldn't hear the thoughts going through my mind.  However, somehow I managed to put on a smile and be kind those outside of my family...what is the deal with that??!!  Why can't I manage that with my loved ones?

Luckily, after I got home things were much better.

I didn't go to bed crying, but I did go to bed thinking...okay, what is my deal?  

I realized I need this morning to figure out what went wrong.

As always, prayer and scripture reading gave me the answer.  I needed to work on self-mastery.

I needed to stop letting myself be "put off" and instead "put off the natural man."

Mosiah 3: 19
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yeilds to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

I also found my positive thoughts clicker to try and focus on the positive things happening instead of the negative.  The negative pulls down, the positive lifts up.  

I needed this lift today.  Thank you Heavenly Father.  I needed you today.  You never disappoint.