5 movies I love

I had to include the poem by E. E. Cummings that is used so effectivly in this movie.

I carry your heart with me

I carry your heart with me

(I carry it in My heart)

I am never without it

(anywhereI go you go, my dear; and whatever is done

By only me is your doing, my darling)

I fearNo fate

(for you are my fate, my sweet)

I wantNo world

(for beautiful you are my world, my true)

And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

And whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

And the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

Higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

5 things I LOVE to do

1. travel

"One of the flash epiphanies of travel, the realization that worlds you'd love vibrantly exist outside your ignorance of them. The vitality of many lives you know nothing about. the breeze lifting a blue curtain in a doorway billows just the same whether you are lucky enough to observe it or not. travel gives such jolts. I could live in this town, so how is it that I've never been here before today?" Francis Mayes

2. read

" one of life's pleasures: a writers words can intersect with your life and lead you to the next largest space you can occupy.." Francis Mayes

3. work in my yard

" Bloom where you are planted"

4. try new recipies

5. have people over

" Happiness...is more like a decision than a condition. It is a decision anyone can make, anywhere anytime. For it is not the enjoyableness of objects or activities or opportunities that make us happy or unhappy; rather our happiness, ROOTED IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS, make objects and activities enjoyable. Things events and opportunities have no value in and of themselves; they get their value from the significant part they play in our key RELATIONSHIPS with others" C. Terry Warren

February Five

In honor of Valentines Day, I will try to post five things I love every day.



The first is:

Places that I Love

1. Jacksonville Florida

You never forget your first love. I fell in love with Jacksonville when I was 13 and spent the summer with my Grandmother.



and at the beach with my cousin Jennifer and my little sister.

2. Victoria British Columbia Canada

I had so much fun here as a missionary. The city is beautiful, the ocean is close and there are flowers everywhere.

3. Scipio Utah

Although I don't often admit it, I do love the little town I came from. We had so much fun playing in this old barn.

4. Home

I love my house. It is my most favorite place on earth, my sanctuary and my nest, my garden, my shelter and my canvass.

Out of the dreariness,

into the cheeriness,

come we in weariness,

HOME

-Stephen Chalmers

5.Any warm place with a white sandy beach.

>

Give me a snorkle, some sand between my toes, and a good book and I am in Heaven.

flash of insight

I had one of those awakening "ideas" last week. It came right a long with making New Years Resolutions. I realized that I will never have more time than I do now. I will never be more organized than I am now. I will never have it all together if I don't get it together NOW. This is big for me because I live in a tomorrow trap. " I'll do it tomorrow", "I'll start tomorrow". When I have more time I'll....., When all the kids are in school I'll..... So you see, coming to this awareness changes a lot of things for me. I either need to do it now or let it go. Even if I do have more time in the "future", I will have other things to fill it with, other interests, other obligations.

So I start this year with the commitment to do it now or don't do it- let it go.

A couple of years ago I asked myself the question "What three things could you change that would make you happier and more fulfilled?"

The list now includes five things and these have been my resolution ever since. So to recommit myself, here are my five things.

1. Go through and organize everything in my house. One drawer or shelf a day if that is what it takes. (I am amazed at everything I have that I have forgotten about)
2. Spend more time with God everyday and make that time meaningful.
3. Eat better - less sugar (you know the drill)
4. Be more "present" with my children. Really listen when they speak, make what matters to them matter to me.
5. Speak my truth. This is my hard one because I am a quiet person who does not like conflict, contention, rocking the boat, or putting anyone out. So I get lost in my own silence and people assume I agree with them because I don't contradict.

So wish me luck as I continue to work on these- slow and steady wins right?

For Kayla's baptism

Dressed in white once more

Making promises to follow in God's way

So much lies in store

For the little girl who enters at the gate

Pure and Holy in a little white dress

you were led into the water and you were blessed

And the Father looked down

and the angels surrounded that place

They knew the truth, all that you could do and you will too

If you have eyes to see what heaven sees in you

Do you understand who you are

part of the Father lives in you

If you continue on this path

Every promise he has given will come true

- Doug and Sherry Walker

lists and gifts

The kids have made their Christmas wish lists, but what they don't know is that I have a mathematical formula that determines the probability of them receiving the asked for gift.
it goes like this

$= cost of desired object
t= time they will spend enjoying/using the object
s= storage space the thing will take up
n= number of parts involved

the formula looks like this:

$ x t/s x n

so for example Legos would be cost: moderate (depending on the set) times the time they will play with it (high), divided by the storage space (low) times the number of pieces (high)

Legos area possibility.

To not give anything away, I will just call this next thing an American Whirl Ball

cost= high
time playing with it = low
Storage space = high
Number of pieces = low

I don't think it's going to happen.

One thing I have noticed is that Christmas is a month long classroom with so much to teach us about ourselves, our relationships, our wants and our needs. As I read the kids lists I understood , just a little better about God and his relationship to us as our parent. We can ask for whatever we want, but like our children, we might not understand which things have the most value. As a parent, I can read the list and know how much they are going to enjoy each thing they ask for. Is it worth the cost? Is it something they really want or did they just put it on the list because the commercial looked so cool.

Matthew 6:11
If ye then being Evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

A few thoughts on Thanksgiving

Every year, when Thanksgiving rolls around, I remind myself just how much I used to hate this holiday. It just didn't make one bit of sense to me. Especially as a body (self) conscious teenager and those first few years when I was on my own. Stupid Stupid stupid I thought. A whole day devoted to over eating and gluttony! Are you kidding?

Then I grew up and I had kids of my own and that is when I started to understand. I learned what every parent knows. That behind every magic moment, every smile we share, every precious thing the little ones say, and even under the monotony of daily life, there is a dark cloud that hangs over us. That dark could is the knowledge of how fragile all of this is and that it only takes a second to loose it all. We don't acknowledge the dark cloud very often, but we know it is there.

That is why, once a year, we formally and officially celebrate how grateful we are. Feasting is an ancient tradition and when we continue that tradition we join generations of people, going back to the dawn of time, who gathered together to celebrate the harvest, that rejoiced because they ( and we) have food and some to spare. The dark clouds get blown back just a little bit. We have food for the winter. Our children will eat! We remember what is important and we cherish the fragile moments.

That is why Thanksgiving is now one of my favorite holidays.

Jason's 6th grade class had an assignment to take something they were not thankful for and turn it into a positive. I thought I would try a few out myself....

I am thankful for raw meat that I buy at the grocery store because even though it is gross to cut the fat off the boneless skineless chicken breasts, at least I didn't have to kill the poor chicken and gut it and pluck it. Things are not so bad for me really.

I am grateful for snow because it looks so much like white sand that if I pretend really hard, maybe, just maybe, I'm really living on a white sandy beach.


I am gratreful for the piles of wet snow clothes that the kids leave on the mud room floor because (a.) I have a mud room and (b.) I have a drier and (c.) I have kids who think snow is the best thing ever and what kind of grinch would I be if I said they couldn't go out in it? Which makes me a cool mom because I let them so when I am 90 they will want to come visit their cool mom in my rest home.