Spring is here, oo-oo-oo- Sky is Blue - oo-oo-oo

SPRING IS HERE!!!! I love the changing of the seasons. I grew up in Las Vegas, and - well - we had Hot, Hotter and Rain as our seasons. Living in Idaho has given me true winter, spring, summer and fall. I hear people complain about the winter all the time - wishing it wouldn't last so long. But these are the same people that complain if there is not enough water during the summer to water their lawns. Go figure.

Anyway - today is the official first day of Spring. Last year we still have mounds of snow and it was not sunshine and warmth at all. Today it will be in the high 5o's and sunshine. Time to clean out the yard and garden from all the dead plants/weeds the snow covered. Time to clean off the porch and set out the chairs. Time to dust off the motorcycle and ride - ride - ride!

Next week is my DH's birthday. He turns 39. I don't think he is ready to be almost 40. I don't think either of us feel like we should be inching our way to 40 --- well more like a dead run. I turn 36 this year - so I have a few years till I face it. But in the spirit of youth I am planning a cake and decorations that are very youthful. The theme is the Slinky. (I hope he is not reading this. tee-hee Actually he never reads this.) I will try and post pictures of everything.

Then the weekend after that is General Conference weekend. My kids also have Spring Break that weekend. So we will be heading up to West Yellowstone for 4 days. The kids are excited - and I am too. We like doing stuff together. We do not have to do big activities to entertain us. We take board games, DVD's and swimsuits (they have an indoor pool). We do not have to go on big hikes or spend money on activities. Don't get me wrong - we do those things too sometimes - but we don't HAVE to do those type of things to enjoy our time together. And for that I am very grateful.

So again - Spring is Here, (oo-oo-oo), Skies are Blue, (oo-oo-oo), Birds will sing (yeah) Like they do! Today's the Day(yeah) I'll say WOO HOO!!!! and we'll never be cold anymore! ;)

Another thought from Sheri

Ok so I have another thought to share from my reading.

"...when we really believe in Jesus Christ --- meaning we believe that He will overrule for our good and that He knows who we are and where we are and what we need --- that kind of faith naturally creates a feeling of hope and optimism." - Sheri Dew 'No One Can Take Your Place'

Christ is not in charge everything that happens in this world.(Hold on read the rest of the thought.) Bad things happen to good people. Sometimes to help us grow - but other times it is the result of other's free agency and He cannot take that away. The point is that we are NEVER ALONE. When we have these moments of struggles and hard times or bad things - He is with us. He knows how to comfort us or what we need to get through it all.

Having the knowledge that He will help us in ways we cannot even understand that will bless us - we should truly feel that hope and optimism in our lives.

The next thought I came across was -
"...the last days are not for the faint of heart or the spiritually out-of-shape. There will be days when we feel defeated, exhausted, and plain old beat up by life's whiplash. People we love will disappoint us --- and we will disappoint them.
.......(but)everything about our lives is an indicator of our Father's remarkable respect, that He recommended us for now, when the stakes are so high, when His kingdom is being established once and for all, never again to be taken fro the earth. He chose us for the last leg of the relay when He needs His strongest runners."

I don't know about you, but this made me sit up a little taller and stop and really think about this. She goes on talking about how He didn't send Moses, Nephi, or Eve or countless other amazing strong Spirits - that He saved US for these last days.

I have always thought of these individuals, and even the pioneers that were tarred and feathered - houses burnt - women raped and children buried as the really strong Spirits. And they were and are! But reading this quote made me realize that we too are some of the strongest Spirits and the Lord is expecting A LOT from us. Am I spiritually fit enough to handle whatever is asked of me? Or am I a little flabby in some areas? I think you can never be TOO fit spiritually - there is always room to improve and grow. That is why they say "endure to the end" --- "line upon line" we are always learning and growing. But we truly have to recognize that we were sent right now for a reason and even if we do not see it in ourselves now - we have the inner strength to get through anything we have to face in this mortal life.


So today - let's have hope, be optimistic, and let that inner strength shine!

Hope

So at Church yesterday we talked about having Hope. An example of a scientific experiment using big barrels of water and rats was used. The scientist wanted to see if having a sense of hope made a difference. They took a large barrell of water and placed it in a dark room - no light, no air - just stuffy and dark. They placed a rat in the barrell of water to see how long it would swim. The rat swam for 3 minutes then drowned. They then took the same barrell and filled it with water outside in an area were there was sunshine, a slight breeze and you could actually hear birds chirping. This rat swam for 36 hours. (Now if it had been milk the rat would have made butter. tee-hee) The point was that the rat was able to last a lot longer because of the hope of making it out to the dry grass and beautiful day.

So I tried to think about how that can apply to us. Do we allow our dark depressing thoughts take over when we seem to be in an impossible situation? Or do we try and have hope that this too shall pass and there are better things to come?

My Dad use to call it putting blinders on. Are we so focused on the problem that seem impossible to change that we are like a horse with blinders on the side of our head? These blinders keep us from seeing the possiblities that we have around us.

I am a BIG - HUGE - believer that attitude is everything. No mistake - bad things, hard things, stressful, unfair things happen to us all. But I thing those challenges and times in our life can be less intense and last a shorter time if we change our attitude. I am all in favor of allowing ourselves to feel the anger, frustration and hurt if needed - but after a couple of days (at the most) you have to let it go. Because those negative feelings do not allow you to move forward and make changes. If we sit in those feelings that is when we start holding grudges, feeling sorry for ourselves - or blame others for our situation. None of these things will make positive changes - or help us take steps to the solutions that are a head of us.

I think sometimes we all go through stages that we find we are still upset over things that happened years ago. What good does this do any of us? If we have been offened by someone - do we really think that person even remembers the moment we are holding on to? In most cases offense was never even meant from them.

So as St. Patrick's Day is this week - and the luck o' the irish is wished for you all - I hope we can all look at whatever challenges we face and we can hold onto the Hope and not the despair we might want to feel! And be proactive in making things go from a challenge to a blessing.

No One Can Take Your Place

Once a year I re-read three books by Sheri Dew. One is called "No One Can Take Your Place". I just picked it back up last week. I love this book. It is so simple but so deep in the idea of that you CANNOT be replaced in this world/life.

Within just a few pages she makes this statement -
"None of us come to this earth to GAIN our worth; we brought it with us."

How often have we thought of all the things we must do to worthy for the blessings from our Father in Heaven? Or what must we do now to be worthy of this or that? The reality is we had our worth when we left our Heavenly Parents and came to this earth. But how many of us have to be reminded of that. I know there are days that I don't feel my full worth. But those are the days that Satan must be working on me a little harder. Because negative thoughts are NOT EVER from our Father in Heaven.

I will give you a personal example of how easy this can happen:
I am trying to apply and get registered for school. It has not been an easy process even with my husband working at the school. Anyway, as I was going through this process I started questioning why I was even trying to do this right now in my life. It is not like I have a plan for a specific degree. I started talking down to myself about my lack of education and abilities. How can I possibly do this when I can't even keep my house picked up with the 5 kids running around here. Maybe I should perfect what I already have going on instead of attempting something else that I will probably not be that great at anyway. It was getting pretty bad.

Then this thought came to mind - what about your business? What about the kids you have? What about the marriage you have? So Looked at each of those things and these positive things came to mind. (I do not share these as boastful or prideful in anyway).
Business - No one taught me how to run a swimsuit business. No one showed me how to go from point A to point B and so on to see a drawing come to life into a real swimsuit. I did not go to school for this knowledge - I have taught myself and researched and learned along the way. I have taken sketches of an idea into a company entering its 6th year and now have styles for the whole family. Are we where we need to be make a financial difference yet in our lives - no. But we are still growing - while doing it all myself. You cannot accomplish something like this if you are not smart and motivated.
Kids - I have GREAT kids. Now most of that is just their sweet Spirits they have. But I had the thought that as their mother I have a little to do with that and I should be very pleased to have kids as good as they are.
Marriage - I have a WONDERFUL Marriage. Just like my kids are not perfect - my marriage is not either ---- but I think it is as perfect as can be this side of heaven. We are best friends. We both have common sense - are good about keeping each other in check when need be when we get upset about some issue or injustice. We truly enjoy being together. We do not hang out with other couples for enjoyment. We do not go out with the "girls" or "guys". Any free time is with each other with our kids. And that suits us both really well. There have been many activities we both would have liked to be a part of but they would have taken us away form our family time or together time - and that is not worth it to us. I love the fact that we can go from motorcycle riding to having a deep discussion about a gospel principle.

So the point is this - after all the negative that is so easy for us to repeat to ourselves, sometimes it is good to allow ourselves to have a moment to focus on the positive and be a little prideful (in a good way) - to remind ourselves we are truly sons and daughters of a Father in Heaven that loves us. That our worth was instilled in us before we ever stepped foot on this earth - and that Satan is the one that wants to keep us from living up to our potential.

Hope you can stop for just a moment today and allow those positive things about yourself come to mind. Allow it to make you feel warm inside and hold your chin up a little higher today.

Life is Beautiful.....

So as I have gone from the muscle aching flu all last week, to bronchitis this week, some may think I have every right to be upset about another health issue in my life.

But I am not frustrated at all. I realized that as I caught the flu from my husband and then a slight cough from him ( and our 2 yr old caught the cough at the same time) that I am blessed. Blessed to have a loving husband lying asleep in bed next to me - even when he is sick. I acknowledged that there are those that are alone - not by choice - asleep and no child laying next to them. As I had to run to the store to buy diapers for the little one, notebooks and pens for the oldest, cough drops for the middle child and stop at the library for books needed for a school project - that even though I broke out in a full sweat fever in the middle of it all - I am blessed.

I admit at times I have a moment of wishing for an empty house to truly rest in. To have a fighting chance to get well....but the truth is I would never change a thing. Having the flu, or cold run through your house for a month only means that you have a house full of loved ones. That your cup truly runneth over with the love of children.

Life is Beautiful - it really is! With the frailty of the human body, the economy worries, the decline in our society's moral standards, and the list can go on and on of what can bring us down.....the list of blessings and joys are much longer. From the little things - flowers peeking through the snow - to the large blessings of shelter/food and the knowledge of the Atonement of Christ. Life is Beautiful! Isn't? It really is!

So today as you are rushing from one thing to the next - try and take notice of all the things in your life that makes your life TRULY BEAUTIFUL!

Countdown

So I was telling some family members how I get excited about General Conference coming up. About a month before each time - I get as excited as a kid counting down to Christmas. I really do! So in the spirit of that my kids and I made a paper chain last night to count down the days. (There is 33 if you were wondering.) It is hanging up in the family room - and counts down to a picture of the 1st presidency and twelve apostles.

This got me thinking. What if we did this for all kinds of different things in our lives. Would it be a positive on a negative? Or would it make negatives even more negative? Count down to the dentist; school starting, summer vacation, pay checks, family time, ball games, grocery shopping, laundry days.....ok so you get my thought process now. You could make all kinds of chains for all kinds of things. I think the dentist countdown would be black paper. No offense to any dentist out there. =) Summer vacation a sunshine yellow paper. 1st day of school after a very looooong Summer, maybe a festive red.

So - think of something you can count down to and get excited about. Make a paper chain and drape it somewhere (like the kitchen) where you will see it everyday and watch it get closer and closer to the picture of that special thing! And let that little kid inside of you get excited again!