My Thoughts

Since this is my blog and I can put whatever I want on it, here are my thoughts for today:

Thought #1:
Storms will rage, in nature and in our lives, but the sun will ALWAYS shine again. The question is; will you open the curtains and let it in?

Thought #2:
Accepting the consequences of our actions can be extremely difficult; both for children and adults, but for some, obedience is the hardest lesson to learn.

Have a great day!

Finding joy in the journey

Yesterday in Relief Society we had a most excellent lesson taken from a Conference talk given by President Thomas S. Monson. It's called "Finding Joy in the Journey".
I just had to blog about it because the idea of living in the moment and being grateful for what you have is my greatest ally in my battle with Borderline Personality Disorder.
President Monson said (quoting someone else):

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”

Each day when I get out of bed, that insidious little voice in my head begins to whisper, pointing out all of the deficiencies in my life. So each day when I get out of bed, I have to make a conscious choice to count my blessings and actively seek out all of my abundance. President Monson also said:

"This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now. Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family."

I have come to realize, in the last year or so, how true this sentiment is! I cannot always choose what circumstances I will find myself in, and I cannot always direct the change that occurs in my life, but I can ALWAYS choose how I deal with my circumstances and how I react to the change. I was talking to Chloe on Saturday about this next year. I told her that she's only got one year to be ten, one chance, and then it will be gone.
That conversation got me thinking about how truly precious this life is. Just like Chloe, I've only got one chance to be 36. One year and then I move on to 37. What will I choose to do with that time? I also only have one chance at this life. At some point it will end; will I look back to discover that I wished my life away? Or, will I look back on a life filled with gratitude and joy? Only I can make that choice and ensure that my journey is a good one.

Today I am most grateful for:
A living prophet
Self-realization
and My life!

This snack is scrumptious

Last Sunday we were sitting in church and Kai learned over to Brian and said: "Daddy, this snack is scrumptious!"


What can I say? Even in the midst of this "terrible threes" (he was NICE at two), potty-training nightmare that currently is life with Kai, I can't help but be grateful that he's mine.

Today I am most grateful for:
Pull-ups
Kai
and Scrumptious snacks.

The kindness of strangers

Yesterday I took the kids to Wendys for lunch (which I have never done before because I'm a good mom who doesn't feed her kids fast food) anyway, there we were, all the food and kids on the table, and Graeme and Kai start howling because Chloe got the toy that they both wanted. Well, I very heroically resisted strangling them both and tried patiently to explain that after we were done eating we could go trade the unwanted toys for the much, much better and less cheaply made toys (heavy sarcasm).

Just at that moment, an employee of Wendys came over and asked if they wanted different toys. It was like a scene out of "Touched By An Angel". I swear she had a halo and I could hear a very faint angelic choir when she spoke.

Anyway, I said: "yes, please!" and she told the boys that they could have different toys as long as they ate all their lunch and then she smiled at them! I think my kids were in shock because their mother never smiles at them.

It was just such a small thing, it didn't cost her anything other than a few minutes of her time, but that small act of kindness made a big difference to me and my kids in that moment of crises. Thank you kind lady, whoever you are.

Today I'm most grateful for:
Food
Toys
and The kindness of strangers.

The Used Ta Bes

This Used Ta Be a swingset:

This Used Ta Be a playhouse:

This Used Ta Be a trampoline:

This Used Ta Be a bouncy horse:


and this Used Ta Be our back porch:

Today I'm most grateful that:
It's not snowing.
It's not snowing.
It's not snowing.

P.S. Our 24 hour storm total was 20 inches. Seriously. Like MommyNolan said, if I die the slow cold death of endless winter, at least I won't have to plant the garden!

This is the winter that never ends

Yesterday, the sun was shining, it was 50 degrees outside, I could see the grass, the strawberries and daylilies were starting to come up and the birds were singing.

Today, we woke up to this:

Eight inches of freshly fallen snow. Brian was snowblowing and shoveling for an hour so that we could get out of our driveway. I had to laugh at my van's "mohawk" made of snow:

It's a good thing today's not trash day!

This is a cooler (standing on end) that I put on the back porch to give you an idea of just how deep eight inches of snow is:

The kicker is, it's still snowing! Ugh! I'm going to die the cold, silent death of endless winter.

I guess today I'd better be most grateful for:

snow blowers

snow shovels

and

snow plows.

Sigh.

Glasses? What glasses?

Well, I hadn't been to the optometrist for almost four years so I went. Not surprisingly, my eyesight has gotten worse and I needed a new prescription. Also, I've been wearing the same pair of contacts that whole time so I decided to wear only glasses for a few weeks to give my eyes a break.

Here's the funny part; when I picked up my new glasses, the very nice girl at Standard Optical said: "Those glasses are very flattering."

Really? Flattering?

I guess I'm just not sure what she meant. After all, technically, when you say something is flattering, it means that the something makes you look good, right? But culturally, when you say something is flattering, you mean that the something makes you look thin(ner), right?

So, do my glasses make me look good? Do they make me look thin(ner)?

Or maybe, when I wasn't looking, they complimented her gratuitously and she was just trying to warn me. Hmmmmm.........

What do you think? Here are the old, icky glasses:

Here are the new, flattering glasses:

Here I am wearing the old, then the new:

I know, I'm just being silly. But, who knows? Maybe the next time I'm trying to get someone else to do what I want I could just slip on the new glasses and see what happens.......

Chloe's ten!

It's hard to believe that ten years ago I was starting out on this wild and crazy ride that is motherhood. The birth of a child is always a miracle, but when Chloe was born the world changed. She's really something special. That spark that makes us each different and unique is a raging inferno in her. Chloe seems to have been born with all the knowledge in the world stuffed into her brain. You don't teach her things, you teach her to connect what she already knows. I'd like to say that it's just my maternal pride that makes me say these things, but anyone who knows Chloe knows exactly what I mean. I'm constantly humbled that she was entrusted to me; most of the time I don't know what the heck to do with her!

Seeing her growing up and maturing makes me a little sad. It's kind of like putting on sunglasses; I know the fire is still there, it's just not quite as bright. Oh well.

Happy Birthday, Chloe! You're one of a kind!