Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own. :)
I am sure mom would agree with that! And my fun friend Beth H. & Roxann come to mind.
Another cool thing I found is www.ldsjournal.com
It's free, and you can add pictures, and have it made into a book at the end of each year. You can also text to your journal as well. VERY COOL!! I also saw an ad for a great store that I had forgotten about www.downeastbasics.com
I just HAD to show a few pics of the cool things I found on there this morning and they are pretty reasonable prices. :) FREE SHIPPING code : SUO8LDS (order over $75)
Another thought I found, and you know me I love my inspirational thoughts!
The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove
than the hunger for bread.
By: Mother Teresa
I thought that was so powerful. It really made me think about my priorities first of all...and do I show the people I love ....enough love? We all mean to take the time to call, or visit, or just plain smile or say something nice, but are you SURE they KNOW that you love them? Just something I was pondering at 4am this morning. Two books that look really good that I ordered are:
It's okay to take a nap By: Debra Sansing Woods
The Holy Secret By: James L. Ferrell
(I have to share the description of the book. It sounds awesome! and if you have not read his other book called THE PEACEGIVER, it is mind blowing, eye opening, wow!)
Many today carry a secret: We do not love what we have been commanded to love. We do not love what is holy. Although we might reverence things that are deemed holy -- the temple, for example, and the scriptures, and the Sabbath -- we do not love them. Not really. Not with our whole souls. The Holy Secret is the story of a man who learns how to love what matters. As he does, he learns another secret: Love for holiness transforms life itself. His realization of what he had been missing may lead you to some discoveries of your own!
I can't wait to read it! I think this is the book Renee emailed me about a while ago.
There was also a cool article called, Muddling Along by Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard. It was a definite feel good. It is short so I will share...
Muddling Along
Have you ever had one of those days where you wish you'd stayed in bed? I remember a day like that. The dishwasher had malfunctioned, flooding our house all night as we slept. We didn't know until one of our sleepy-eyed children came into our bedroom early in the morning and said, "Mom and Dad! It's raining in the basement!"
The room that was the hardest hit was the storage room where we had just recently carefully stacked and dated our pride and joy, a two year supply of food storage. In a mad dash to save anything we could, every member of our family hauled each bucket and box out into the backyard to dry out. It took hours.
Just when we finished, we heard a clap of thunder, looked up, and felt several drops splash in our eyes. Then the heavens were opened and the few drops immediately became a downpour. We regrouped and quickly hauled our soggy mess into the garage.
When we finally got every box and bucket into the garage my son came running to me in tears, informing me his pet rabbit was dead. After finally getting the children off to school, my daughter called from campus saying she couldn't remember where she had parked the car at BYU. Then my other first grader had an accident that required a change of clothing. You get the picture.
"I can't handle it anymore," I said to my husband.
"You don't have to handle it," my husband replied. "There's no rule book somewhere that says you have to go through life handling EVERYTHING. Just muddle, Jan. I have been muddling for years and no one can tell the difference."
Muddle, I thought. I think I can muddle.
Now everytime I am feeling overwhelmed, I remember my husband's timely advice. Frankly, I have been muddling ever since and so far no one can tell the difference, just like he promised. I remember a day when I walked into the kitchen to find my young son surrounded by the large white buckets where I stored white flour, sugar and pasta. He was busy scooping sugar into the flour, and rice into the sugar, and pasta into the rice. The whole kitchen looked like a white billowing cloud except for my son's innocent grin and two large blue eyes staring up at me.
"Look mom. I'm the bread maker!" my young son said as he looked up at me.
Suddenly it dawned on me that whenever I made bread I pulled out all the white buckets and started scooping. He was trying to be like me. My feelings of frustration melted into love. I was so proud of him for trying. As we got busy cleaning the kitchen, I realized God loves us like that. No matter how big a mess or mistake we have made, God provides us with a Savior to help us clean it up. That is the essense of muddling.
Muddling is not mediocrity. Muddling allows us to stop keeping us appearances or worrying that we'll never measure up. Muddling is accepting our humanness and inadequacies. Muddling is realizing there are some messes only Christ can clean up. And muddling is seeing our worth through God's eyes and never giving up hope that things will work out.
I really liked that. I found two Family Home Evening lessons printed up in the magazine, ready for you to tear out and teach! VERY simple for little kids, but additional parts to adapt for older children. Can that get any easier! Wow! Well I guess I better get moving....before my early rising catches up to me. I am still hanging stuff on walls, and painting. Funny story. I had painted a few things out in the backyard...so yes the spray paint covered the grass. BIG DEAL, it will disappear when we cut the grass. The neighbor boys were watching me and finally asked, why are you painting everything black? The other boy answered and said she isn't painting everything black, she painted one thing red! very cute. Then I moved into the garage to do my painting for some reason. I don't remember. Well I put a box down to paint on, only after realizing I was making a huge mess....WHOOPS...too late...well the next day on the way to church pres says did you open the garage door while you were painting? I said no. He said was the car in the garage while you were painting? I said YES! I looked at the hood of the car and it was red! Which doesn't look too great on WHITE!!! Thank goodness I went and got it detailed, and waxed and it came off. I was so nervous it wouldn't. A couple more random thoughts and I will be on my way..yeah right you are saying...a few funny things that are crazy expensive in Alaska....potatoes! We go through potatoes like there is no tomorrow. I probably go through a 10 pound bag once a week. Once Rhonda was over chatting with me while I fixed dinner. I was peeling potatoes and she finally asked are you having the missionaries over for dinner? I said no. She said who in the heck are you peeling all those potatoes for? I have to peel an entire bag for stew, or roast. That is how much the boys are eating now a days! ( I miss U Rhonda!) Well in Kansas I think I could get a 10 pound bag of red potatoes for about $3 or $4. Here it is $5 for a five pound bag. Kind of funny. Alot of the groceries at the commissary are cheaper. Fish is amazingly cheap, and yummy. Another yucky expensive thing I have run into is on potterybarn.com Say I order a desk. They charge me the regular $50 for shipping, but anything "oversized" I order, they automatically tack on a delivery surcharge of $350. Even when the little bench I was ordering was only $120. SERIOUSLY!!! I also tried to order one twin size flat sheet from The Company store. The flat sheet cost only $14. The shipping was $50. I kid you not! I called them thinking it was a mistake, and it wasn't! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? Target doesn't like to ship here either, and only allows half their stuff from online to be shipped here. I have been trying to find bar stools for two weeks now, and no one will ship them to me...even on ebay! Anywho, just thought I would share my random crazy thoughts. I will catch up on my emails eventually, don't give up on me. Love yall, Katy
2 comments:
Love your new family picture. your post is too long for me to comment. but i thoroughly enjoyed it! i need to order those two books. i have been muddling for years - especially the past two years since dad is gone. you're right. no one really notices.
I've commented in my head like 10 times but always forget to do it for real! Anyway...roaming bears? Wow! And all that daylight is crazy! For some reason I thought it was always cold in Alaska. Do you love it? Thanks for the inspirational thoughts!
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