Motherhood is a Gift

(for some reason this plays funny on the blog. You may want to go to You Tube to watch it)

She is one of my very favorite people in all the world, and I don't even know her. She inspires me, makes me laugh, appreciate my life, and makes me want to be a better mother and wife. An all around better person. If you haven't seen this yet, you need to.

Thanks Stephanie for sharing your story and your life with us. You continue to inspire and lift others with your faith and your love of life.

Have a lovely Mother's Day weekend! You deserve it!

5 more Daily Reads

This is really an attempt to get all the blogs I visit in one place. I know I need to get the buttons on the sidebar, but that's a lot of buttons. Anyone have any ideas on that?? I'm contemplating just a list, similiar to what we have. No buttons, as cute as they are!! What do you think?

Also, I made a much cuter button!!! Grab one off the sidebar if your intersted.

5 Daily Reads (Day 5)

This is the last day of Daily Reads. Hope all of you found some new blogs to follow! Thanks for following us! Have a great weekend!

5 Daily Reads (Day 4)

I hope your enjoying browsing through some of my favorite blogs. These ladies are crafty, inspiring, funny and a joy to read. All of them bring something different to the table. One more day to go. Check back tomorrow for 5 more great blogs!

It's funny how things work. I posted all these buttons over the weekend, and then I just check to make sure they are posting. But head over the Craftaholics Anonymous! She's having a great giveaway today! Oh, darling little girl hats!

These last two ladies are pretty famous and very well loved. Read daily for inpiration and messages of hope and a lot of laughs!

5 Daily Reads (Day 3)

5 Daily Reads (Day 2)

5 Daily Reads

We've had a rough week.

My hubby was playing church ball last Tuesday,

he jumped, landed wrong and broke his L3 in his back!

I've been kinda busy. No crafts at our house right now!

But here are some good reads to keep you busy.

I'll share 5 more each day this week.

These are listed in no particular order.All of these came out of my favorites page on my computer. I use alot of memory for these!Read daily for good laughs and great ideas! These are only 5 of about 30 that are bookmarked!I need to start putting all of them on the blog, but that's alot of buttons. I'm working on it. Until then, go check out just a few of my favorite ladiesWho do you visit everyday?

Tender Mercies

My blessings and providers of tender mercies

My day today is, not so good. Not terrible, horrible, or bad, but just no good. A yucky day. We all have those don't we? If you don't, please share your recipe for success. I think we could all use that recipe and would use it often.

It started out with a bad night. I have eczema on my hands in a horrible way. Six months and nothing I have tried has helped it. Well, something I did or ate yesterday broke them out in a whole new, horribly, itchy oozing rash. Sorry for the gorey details. So, needless to say, I didn't sleep last night. I was up in tears, trying not to scratch them and tossing on the couch.

And then this morning, my kids started fighting and it just escalated from there. I sent my poor 2nd grader off to school with a not so happy feeling in his heart, I'm sure. I might run down to the school, just to give him a hug, I feel so bad.

BIG SIGH! Life happens. I'm sure it won't be the last time I yell at my kids. But I am also trying to remember that they are just kids.

It's a good thing Heavenly Father loves me. I am so grateful for his tender mercies. He know what I need and what can help me. I am so grateful for that. I read this article this morning, and was in tears. We are indeed blessed and loved.

(I promise that at some point, we will get back to posting fun, happy stuff! Crafts and mommy things! I promise!! Don't give up on us!)

What is your Word??

I read an inspiring post, that hit home for me. It was written last year, in regards to New Years Resolutions. We all have resolutions don't we? I have atleast one that is the same, every year. LOSE WEIGHT! I lost 50 lbs. last year and it was AWESOME, but there is still work to be done there. But the idea of this post was to pick a word, that you wanted to define your year.

A word to define your year. There are so many to chose from. Some of the words I am tossing around are Believe, Faith, Hope, Love, Simplify, and Peace. Any one of those words would leave us inspired in our daily life, if we were to keep it in our thoughts constantly.

I have really had a hard time picking a word or phrase that fits me. I had an experience the other day, that helped me to decide what my phrae would be. I had the opportunity to attend the temple with the youth in our ward and one of the things they talked to the youth about was being still. How that we go to the temple and leave our phones and worldly cares behind, we can just be still and feel the spirit. I was quite emotional, as what was said, seemed to be directed right at me.

I thought about that all week and my phrase for this new year is "Be Still." Not just be still by attending the temple more often, but to allow myself time each day to Be Still. I go a millions miles a minute and so this will be hard for me, but I feel like I need that time to revive spiritualy and emotionally each day. Twenty minutes each day when I just sit and meditate, maybe read. My own time to be still.

We'll see how it goes. I hope I can implement that into my life. I think it will make me a better wife and a mother. I hope it does. There is alway's room for improvement. What is your word, that you would choose? Take some time to think about it and get back to me.....

A Bit of Inspiration

I love this poem...

It makes you think.

About life, about being a mother....

a daughter, a sister, a friend, a wife.....

Builders

I saw them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a yo heave ho and a lusty yell,
They swung a beam, and the sidewall fell.
I asked the foreman if these men were as skilled
As those he would hire if he were to build.
He laughed and said, “Oh no indeed,
Common labor is all I need,
For they can wreck in a day or two,
What builders have taken years to do.”
So I asked myself as I went my way,
Which of these roles am I to play?
Am I the builder who works with care,
Measuring life by the rule and square;
Or am I the wrecker who walks the town
Content in the role of tearing down?

You've got to read this post
to fully appreciate this poem.

Have a box of tissue handy. You'll need it.

Laura Beth has roots on my hometown. She has a lot of family there. I've known her most of my life. Mostly in passing, but what a beautiful person. She has to be because she comes from a wonderful family.

I stumbled across her blog and I was hooked. Her writing is beautiful and so is she. And her little boy, Kort, oh he's a doll!!! You'll love her blog. She is always up to the most amazing things. She also has a great blog called Serve Utah. She does amazing things here on this blog. She shares way's in which you can make a difference in others lives, locally and abroad. She is inspiring.

ENJOY

Boys

I thoroughly enjoyed this little essay. It speaks the truth. Boys are strange creatures indeed. Their messy, loud, crazy and wild, but I sure do love mine. Enjoy..........



What is a Boy?

Take time to listen to laugh, and to play together.

"We live in a world that is filled with options. If we are not careful, we will find every minute jammed with social events, classes, exercise time, book clubs, scrapbooking, Church callings, music, sports, the Internet, and our favorite TV shows. One mother told me of a time that her children had 29 scheduled commitments every week: music lessons, scouts, dance, Little League, day camps, soccer, art, and so forth. She felt like a taxi driver. Finally, she called a family meeting and announced, 'Something has to go; we have no time to ourselves and no time for each other.' Families need unstructured time when relationships can deepen and real parenting can take place. Take time to listen, to laugh, and to play together."

-M. Russell Ballard,

Mandee and I have discussed this article several different times. I think that families need down time for several different reasons. I think we need it, just because need it, first of all. I also think that in this time of economy, one of the first things to go, will be the extras. Let kids, just be kids. Let them play outdoors and fill your home with laughter.

I also think it's good for kids to be well-rounded and to be involved in a variety of activities, but I think that sometimes we as parents go overboard. I just thought this was a great quote and I wanted to share it. As I sit at my computer and blog. Makes me feel a tab bit guilty.

Click here for the full article: Daughters of God.

Wonderful Thought on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not a time of the year but rather an attitude of the heart.

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

-Abraham Lincoln -

October 3, 1863

Your Best Is Good Enough

"There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family. Many are able to be “full-time moms,” at least during the most formative years of their children’s lives, and many others would like to be. Some may have to work part- or full-time; some may work at home; some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else."

M. Russell Ballard

Food For Thought

Some days I revel in being mommy. Other day's I'm frustrated and seem to be to the end of my rope. I've often said that raising kids is a lot like being pecked to death by chickens. Anyone else ever felt this way? Sometimes I feel like I am missing a lot of moments that I should be sharing with my kids. There is always clothes to wash, bathrooms to be cleaned, dinner to be cooked, and the list goes on and on. And then there are times when I realize that I am missing moments that can never be replaced. I have read this quote many times, but today it had new meaning to me. I wanted to share it with you and I pray that it uplifts those who may need it and that it sticks with all of us. It's good advice.


"...but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."

Anna Quindlen

Let's remember to spend more time in the moment and less worrying about this dishes and all the things of life. Enjoy the moments that will never come again.