Friday thoughts. . .

So wanted to share the picture that made my week.  We have a family room in the basement where the kids hang out, and I exercise down there in the mornings.  We have a white board on the wall down there, and on Monday morning after the kids left for school I went down to exercise and this was what I found written on the board.

Made my week!  Sure love my kiddos!  

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Friday thoughts. . .

Taxes are done!  Yeah!  FAFSA is done!  Needed to get them all done early because of the FAFSA and college deadlines.  I was disappointed this year, though.  I have used TAX Act for free for years and years--yes I do our taxes myself and always have, but this year I couldn't.  There are lots of places to do it free if you just have a 1040EZ/A but we use the 1040 and itemize, and I could not find anywhere to do it for free.  Bummer.  I still used TAX Act because they were the cheapest to do what I needed to do.  $25 did my state and federal e-filed.  Still not as good as free, but the cheapest I could find.  Then I had to do Miss A's, but hers were very simple and free all the way around both state and federal e-file.  Taxes.  What a fun thing to talk about on a Friday :)  but the fun thing is they are done and a refund is coming.  That is the fun thing :)

Have a great weekend!!

Friday thoughts

This week my son has his DARE graduation.  I was my 4th and last DARE graduation over these many years.  I think DARE is a great program, and it has been a good thing for all of my kids.  The interesting thing about this week's program was the guest speaker.  This man told of his journey as he nearly lost his life about 2 years ago in a horrible accident.  He shared 3 great lessons he took from the accident and the amazing journey of recovery he has gone through--and continues to go through.   I wanted to share them with you.

Lesson 1:  Live every day with Purpose, Character, and Passion.  You are only given this one day once, and what you choose to do with this day better be important because you are trading one whole day of your life for it.

Lesson 2:  Stuff doesn't matter.  As he was laying on his hospital bed in immense pain and barely alive he didn't care about his car, iphone, TV, clothes, computer etc.  Stuff didn't matter.  What did and still does truly matter???  Faith--his faith in and his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, Family--his wife and kids, parents, extended family, and Friends--good, supportive friends that called, brought dinner by, visited, cared enough to be there in the tough times.  Those are the things that really matter in this life, so arrange your priorities to match those things that matter--faith, family, friends.

Lesson 3:  Each day when you get up you have the choice to "Rise and SHINE" or "Rise and WHINE."  No matter what your circumstances, you have that choice.  You can choose to be grateful or choose to be bitter and negative.  He said he could have been bitter he had seven broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a shattered tail bone, but he chose to be grateful he had 17 other ribs that weren't broken, one lung that was still whole and working, and he could still walk even with a shattered tailbone.  He was not paralyzed.  He chose to Rise and Shine and not Rise and Whine.  Love that.

Wow.  What great lessons we all need to remember.  I was grateful for this man who shared his story and his continued journey and was willing to let these kids (and adults) hear it and learn from it.

Have a great weekend.

Friday thoughts

Got the Thanksgiving menu planned out today, now I just need to assign everything. . . sounds so yummy!   I can't wait!

And wanted to start sharing my "ponderize" scripture each week.  "Ponderize" is a made up word combining the words "ponder" and "memorize."  The idea is to pick a scripture, print it out and put it where you will see it often during the week (I put mine on the fridge), read it, think about it and try to memorize it or at least memorize what it means to you.

This week my scripture is 

"Look unto me in every thought; 

doubt not, fear not."

Doctrine and Covenants 6:36

Friday thoughts

Sometimes I have a hard time getting motivated.  Anyone else have this problem?  I make "to-do" lists.  I should get those things done that day, but man my morning list making enthusiasm does not equal my afternoon "I need a nap" attitude, so many things just get moved to the next day's "to-do" list and many things stay on that list for a long, long time until they either become irrelevant--like I missed the deadline/holiday/party/birthday/event or they just disappear from the list and are replaced with many other things that may or may not get done.  Oh well.  I try.  I guess that is the point, right?  We are down here to learn and grow and keep trying.  I try not to be too hard on myself which is another thing I fluctuate on how well I do.  At times I can be very forgiving, but others very harsh.  I am sure most can relate to this too.  But we just keep trying, right?  So as we head into this beautiful fall weekend in this month when we are to be remembering how many, many things we have to be grateful for, remember to just keep trying.  Don't give up and don't be too hard on yourself.   Enjoy the blessings God has given you because you are His child, and He loves you.  Have a great weekend.

Friday thoughts. . . senior pictures

Ok just letting you know this post is super heavy on the picture side because they are Miss A's senior pictures.  They are amazing!  We had them taken in August.  Two years ago we had a sweet sister missionary serving in our area who had her own photography business.  She took our family pictures that year.  As she was taking them she said, "Oh, I would love to come back and take Miss A's senior pictures."  Well, she got off her mission and moved back to Utah.  Fast forward 2 years, and this summer I commented to her on facebook that she needed to come back and take Miss A's senior pictures.  I was just joking but was totally surprised and super excited when she said, "Yes! I am coming in August to do them!" So that sweet girl flew from Utah with her amazing mom to visit us and take these amazing senior pictures for Miss A.  We all loved them!  

Miss A has been taking piano lessons since kindergarten and will be having her senior piano recital in May right before she graduates.  She is an amazing pianist!  We are going to put this picture on her invite to her senior piano recital.

And you can just enjoy the rest without any commentary from me.  They all just turned out beautiful!

Love them all!  So fun!  So crazy though, her final cross country race was this week.  Man.  That was hard.  She has run that since her freshman year with the same coach.  Good memories!  Senior year is flying by!  Here we go. . .

Friday Thoughts---family pictures

We had family pictures taken in August along with Miss A's senior pictures which I will try to share next week.  We LOVED them!  A sweet sister missionary that served in our area about 2 years ago came back to visit us and took them for us.  She is amazing!  Love you Jenna!  Loved how they turned out.  Take a look. . .

Lots of fun!  Sure love my family!  Have a great weekend!

Friday thoughts. . .

If you don't know this about me already, I love Christmas.  love, Love, LOVE it!  I start getting ready way too early and love the countdowns and things like that.  I LOVE Organized Christmas which has a 6 week countdown I have done since 2002 I think?  Anyway, love it.

This year they are doing 101 Days until Christmas, and it just started 3 days ago.  Today is 98 Days until Christmas.  The website is here.  They just give one little thing to do or think about that day to be ready for Christmas.

Time flies by and this is my oldest daughter's senior year.  Over the years I feel like if I can get Christmas done before December I am a happier person and can enjoy it more.  Ben agrees, and he helps me quite a bit too which is nice.  I really want to try to enjoy things more this year since it is her last year home.  Sob, cry, groan, gulp. . .  ok, I am better now.

So if you want to be ahead of the game, check these out.

I also like their House and Holiday plan which is only on week 3, so if you want to catch up on that you can join me.  I don't do everything, but I like to do a lot of the things.  Go through rooms and get organized and clean things out.  It is nice to do that.  Working on my master bedroom this week.  Getting rid of lots of stuff.  Love it!

Anyway, just some early get ready for Christmas tips if anyone is interested because that is really my thing :)

Have a great weekend!

Friday thoughts

Short thought today, or more just like a memory I want to remember. . .

We were playing Taboo the other night.  It is a game where you have to get your team to say a certain word, but you can't say certain words when you describe it.  Miss O was trying to get us to guess her word, and she said, "vertically enhanced mammal."  Can you guess what she was describing??

A giraffe. 

We laughed so hard.  She couldn't say "tall" or "neck" or "spots" or "long" or "animal."

I thought that was a pretty creative way to describe one :)

Happy Friday!  Enjoy your weekend and play a game with your family this weekend.  Make some memories and have some fun and laugh lots!  We recommend Taboo, and if you get giraffe, you now know exactly how to describe it :)

Friday thoughts

My random Friday thoughts. . .

My house is no longer quiet during the days now--it is crazy loud, but that is ok.  School is out for the summer!  I can deal with loud since I don't have to get my kids up at 5:30 a.m. for seminary anymore--big loud cheer--so life is good.  Getting more sleep is good--for everyone. 

So wanted to share some color I have in my yard right now. . .

My peonies are big and just gorgeous!  I have two of this hot pink color--one in the front and one on the side.

Some more iris are out--this pretty lighter purple

And this really pretty multi--colored one.

And then we had the LAST day of school so we had to do our traditional "Toyota" jump shot.  This was our first attempt. . .

And this was our next one.  So much fun :)

Yeah!  Summer is here!  Enjoy your long weekend!

Friday thoughts

 Some more flower pictures this Friday.  .  .

My side yard is full of my tulips. Also my purple alliums are blooming and my iris have started to bloom.  Love spring.

Just a close up of a beautiful peach and pink tulip.  These mixed on their own.  I didn't plant this mix.  They are next to the white and magenta ones that also mixed on their own.  Gorgeous!

And I love my alliums!!!  Some more of the 100 plus bulbs I planted 2 years ago in the fall.  These are about 3 inches in diameter.  I have bigger ones that get about 6-8 inches but they aren't all the way out yet.  Love them!

White tulips.  So pretty against the green.

And the first of my iris just bloomed this week.  A beautiful white one

I wish you could smell through the computer screen.  These are "root beer" iris and have the most delicious smell of any flower!  Amazing!  

And what have I done since I got home Tuesday night from Omaha?  Run to keep up with my kids but also bake more cookies than I could believe possible.  I think I baked 15 dozen chocolate chip cookies this week.  I even ran out of chocolate chips, and for a girl who buys them in bulk, that is saying something.  We needed cookies this week for 2 track teams--middle school and high school, one National Honor Society meeting and one forensics team going to state.  Feeding lots of kids here :)  But I love it.  Cookie making runs in my blood.  It get it from my amazing grandma DeeDee who can whip out a batch of cookies faster than you can blink.  She is my cooking inspiration, and if she had just a quarter for every cookie she has made,  individually wrapped and given away, she would be a billionaire, and I am not exaggerating.  Her cookies have been sent all over the globe.  Her generosity knows no bounds.  She inspires me.  Love you DeeDee!  I am carrying on your cookie making tradition :)

Have a great weekend!  See you Monday--if I am not still behind and late which I just might still be so bear with me :)

Friday thoughts

 My random Friday thoughts. . .

Love this quote, and it is so true.  Everyone is fighting a hard battle even if you can't see it, and if you could see it you would be glad that the battle isn't yours.  Compassion is so important.  It cannot be overstated.  Kindness is so very important and so very necessary and needed in our world.  So just a thought to be kind to others this weekend, as they are fighting a hard battle even if you can't see it.

More crazy is the status here because we were already at crazy.  I thought last week was my total crazy week, but this week is running a very, very close 2nd.  School gets out in 3 WEEKS!  3 WEEKS from TODAY and school is out for the summer.  I cannot tell you how excited I am about that!!!  Yeah!

Among the crazy I have so enjoyed seeing my tulips bloom.  2 years ago I planted over 100 bulbs, and I so enjoy seeing the fruits or I should say flowers of my labor.  Here is just a look at a few of them.

Love these pink and orange mix.

This beautiful mix of magenta and white just happened this year.  I planted white, and I planted magenta, and they mixed on their own.  Soooo pretty!

And here is a look at the side/back flower bed where most of my tulips are.  Love them!

And onto other flowers. . . Miss A was assigned to make table center pieces for a spelling bee dinner.  Well, that girl has been to Seattle and back and is running a million miles per hour, so guess who got to make them?  Ben and I.  Super Mom and Dad right here :)  Just finished them up and are heading with them to the school in a minute.  Crazy, crazy.  Looking forward to a quieter weekend and lots of sleep (hopefully :)

Have a great weekend!!!

Friday thoughts--Because He lives

This Friday I wanted to share with you this beautiful video my church made to celebrate Easter.  It is about 2 minutes long and so worth your time.  It celebrates the true meaning of Easter.  Because He Lives is about our Savior Jesus Christ who is always there for us and has give us so much. #becausehelives

Jesus Christ lived.  He walked the Holy Land, working miracles and teaching truth.  Then He was cruficied.   But His death was not the end.  Because of His Resurrection, we will live again.  Because of His sacrifice, we can rise above sin to experience true joy.  Because He lives, we can find His help and healing every day of our lives.

Because He Lives!

Have a blessed and happy Easter!

Friday thoughts. . .

My random Friday thoughts. . .

So often we base our decisions on things that don't last--appearances, wealth, positions, etc.  It is so important that when we make decisions we base them on things that will last.  That we see the bigger picture and not just get caught up in the here and now.  Admittedly this is very hard to do.  It takes the strength to stop and re-evaluate what you are doing and take stock and really look at what matters.  It is what we do that makes us who we are, not what we look like.  It is our heart and kindness that matter, not our dress or shoe size.  It is the concern in our heart, not the color of our hair.  The height of our character, not the height of our jump.  Take time to remember what matters and what really lasts.

Have a great weekend!

My Friday thoughts. . .

My random Friday thoughts. . .

So important to remember.  This reminds me of his talk The Other Prodigal which is a classic, and if you haven't read it, please do.  It is well worth your time.  

Had spring break this week.  Always nice to have a break.  Had friends come that we haven't seen in 17 years.  Crazy!  So fun to catch up and have our kids meet each other.  Our oldest were just newborns when we last saw them.  So grateful for friendships that last no matter how often you see each other or how long it has been.  Those are friendships to be treasured! 

Have a great weekend!  

Friday thoughts

My random Friday thoughts

My quote for the week.  Simple and basic, but so true.  I tell my kids this basically every day.  This is what matters, not your shoe size or your pant size, or your hair style, but working hard and being nice to people.  That is what matters,.

Along those same lines, I am reading a great book now about an amazing person who worked/works very hard.  Who had an amazing mother who helped him to work hard and turn his life around.

It is Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson.  He was one of the worst students in his 5th grade class. He really struggled in school.  His mom was a single mother, that didn't now how to read and cleaned houses.  She was raising her boys in the ghettos of Detroit.  She barely made ends meet, but she wanted more for her two boys.  One day she noticed that the successful people who she cleaned houses for had lots of books and read them.  She came home from work, turned off the TV that her two boys were watching and told them from then on they needed to go to the library and read 2 books a week. She wanted a report on each at the end of the week.  They were only allowed to watch 2 TV shows a week.  Of course they whined and complained, but she had laid down the law.  That was it, so they went to the library, and read.  By 7th grade Ben was at the top of his class.  He attended Yale on a scholarship and went to John Hopkins medical school.  At the age of 33 he became John Hopkins chief of pediatric neurosurgery and a world-renowned surgeon--separating Siamese twins successfully.  It is an amazing story--a true story.

Our library also had a movie of this story that our whole family watched this past weekend.  It was very good and a testament to the power of a mother and prayer and hard work.  I would highly recommend it.

Have a great week!

Friday thoughts. . .

 My random Friday thoughts. . . 

My quote for the week.  So true.  So much to be learned from the past, but you can't live in the past.  Just learn from it, apply it, appreciate it, and move forward.

Speaking of learning from the past.  I remember watching this movie as a kid and loving it.  Something made me think of it a few weeks ago, and I requested it from our library for my kids to watch.  They were pretty impressed.  It is a WWII movie about a German prison camp and how the British and Americans do everything they can to escape.  They ultimately build a 300+ foot long tunnel and over 70 escape.

 It is a true story.  I had only just watched the movie.  I didn't know there were books about it.  

So 2 weeks ago I read this one.  About how they tried to capture and put on trial the Gestapo gunmen who killed 50 of the 70 plus men that escaped.  It was really interesting. There are so many different facets of WWII.  So many sad and horrible things happened, but so many good people.  Makes me think of Unbroken (which I read the book and loved, but I will not see the movie) and The Monuments Men which I thought was a great movie and let my kids watch also.  

Currently I am reading the true story account of the event by one of the men in the prison who helped plan the escape and build the tunnel.  So interesting!  A great piece of history to learn about and share!

Trying to read more non-fiction books this year, and these were great reads!

Have a great weekend!!!