Fave 5

My kids and I got a new cell phones and a new cell plan. This is my first experience with texting. I find I am pretty slow at it. But my kids really like it. It's really cute they will text me throughout the day and just say hi and stuff. They like to have full conversations by text, which so far drives me crazy. I take way too long to type my message. They will send me 3 or 4 messages in the time it takes me to type up my first reply.
The first day I tried texting I kept texting my husband too. I had him on my "Fave 5" so it was easy to pull him up to send him a message. I texted him a few times and he didn't reply back. I just figured he was busy since he was at work. I texted him asking him where my heartburn medication was. He didn't get back to me, but I found my medicine so I was alright. The next day I came to work and heard about a bunch of layoffs. I was upset that friends had lost jobs, but at the same time relieved that I still had one. So I texted my husband to tell him about it. A few minutes later he texted me back consoling me about the layoffs. A little later I texted him and asked him what my phone number was. He texted me back with it. I was starting to think I was getting good at this texting thing and thinking it was very convenient. Later that day I called him on the phone. I didn't get him; I got a very nice young lady named Heather instead. I was pretty confused for a little bit, until I realized I had entered her number into my phone instead of my husband's. So she was in my "Fave 5" and not my husband. A few minutes later I realized that I had been texting that lady for days! I was pretty embarrassed but did have a good laugh about it.
I can only make changes to my "Fave 5 once a month. So for now "Heather" is one of my "faves", although I won't harass the poor lady anymore or she might think I am a stocker. I'm just very glad I didn't text my husband a secret little sexy note meant only for my husband.

Boy Scout Hero

Here is a very good story about a 12 year old boy that was able to save 2 people's lives because he listened to the Spirit. Click Here

Not Just Surviving Christmas

This is pretty darn long. So most of you should probably skip reading this post. But while you are here, notice the cute picture in the heading. It is a birdhouse that my son Lane made for me. I love it! I was asked why I have a hard time with Christmas and this is my answer. I know sometimes family and friends don't really want to hear about someone disliking Christmas. I can understand how it can put a damper on their Christmas. So I really do try to pretend that I feel otherwise. But I am a horrible actor so those who are closest to me aren't fooled a bit. It's not like Christmas is just a day. I could handle just a day. It is a whole long season!

I don't want to feel that way about the time of year we celebrate Christ’s birth. I have been working on trying to change how I feel about the Christmas season for the last few years. It's not easy but every year it gets better. Maybe one day I will actually look forward to it. Right now I am just happy enough to learn to survive it enough to get through it. And then finally January comes around and I can breathe a big sigh of relief.

I know it is quite common for some people to feel blue during the holiday season. I’m not normally a blue person. I am almost always happy, even when I am under stress. But I have had problems with how Christmas makes me feel. I don’t really know when I went from enjoying Christmas to getting sick about it. I didn’t notice it happening. A part of it may be because I have had a hard Christmas or two over my lifetime. Maybe I have some leftover feelings from then. But that is only a tiny part of it, because now my life is fabulous and has been for a while. And it keeps getting better and better. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Except to maybe add even more grandkids!

It’s taken me a couple of years to finally figure out why I dislike Christmas. And that has helped me to make changes so that every year gets better and better. I used to think it was only from lack of time and the fact that it costs too much. These are problems. I am a busy person during normal times of the year. Then you add Christmas to it with trying to juggle your job and family obligations too. There are work parties that we should go to (for political reasons) for both me and my husband. There is shopping to do, decorating the tree, decorating the house, putting up lights, wrapping presents and visiting loves who I want to see, but don’t know when I can fit in the time. It is easy to become overwhelmed. And Christmas does cost way too much.

Then there are the traditions. Who doesn’t love Christmas Traditions? Some are traditions that my mom did when I was a kid and she was a stay at home mom, Some traditions I had when I was a stay at home mom, and some are from my husband’s family that I have tried to keep up with too. I love these traditions. I enjoy them. I didn’t want to stop doing them. I remember how enjoyable they made Christmas in past years. Some of the traditions that I have tried to keep up with are making handmade cards, or even just sending out store bought cards, baking cookies or other goodies, seeing the lights around town or at Temple Square, stringing popcorn and cranberries for the tree, making gingerbread houses, making homemade decorations and having parties for extended family. Oh my gosh! No wonder I am sick about Christmas. Where is the Christ? Isn’t that what Christmas is really about?

So to improve my outlook on Christmas, I am in the process of making big changes. I have been in this process for a few years now. These changes are not so easy to make, and every year I get a little bit better at it. It's not like I can just stop doing all things related to Christmas. That would be sad too. I just have to be more picky about what I do. I decided a couple of years ago I really needed to simplify my Christmas. At least for the time being, I have given up on most of the traditions that I don’t really have time for. I may start them up again when I can, maybe when I retire. I still do some things. Like this year I am making a handmade thing for some friends and family for Christmas. Other years I may not do this and I will do something else.

But the biggest change for me is to get closer to my Savior. For the last few years I have also been trying to put more Christ in my Christmas. I have found that it is easier said than done. It’s hard to put Christ in your life if you don’t know Him very well. I knew the story of Christmas. I knew, or at least thought I knew about Christ. But that really isn’t enough. I needed to get closer to Him. To start doing what I know He wants me to do to get back to him and my Father in Heaven. I was inactive for many years. And for years I felt that I was missing something. I was missing the biggest reason why I was here on Earth. I felt like I needed to get back to doing what I knew was right.

I have made changes to how I live. It can be hard to be LDS. But I know the church is true. I know the reason I am here. And I know I am happier when I do. I have more peace, even during the unavoidable stress of life. I have been starting to get closer to my Savior, and to understand more of what he did for me. I have a long way to go still, I am sure it is a lifelong journey. But I am working on it still and will happily be able to do it for the rest eternity.

I am happy to say that this year is the first in a long time that I can actually say I am starting to feel Merry during the Christmas Season. And this year I am not just pretending to be. It is starting to feel good. I still can't say I look forward to the Christmas season. That may never happen. My stomach only slightly aches when I think of the holiday season. I am not nearly as stressed, I don't miss traditions that I don't need, and thanks to the scary economy, we are spending so much less!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you can feel the peace and love of our Savior in your Christmas season too.

Look what I found!

This year I had a goal to read all of my Relief Society Lessons before our class on Sunday. I want to be able to participate in the lesson. And I know there is not enough time to cover everything in the lesson, so I didn't want to miss out on some of it. But good intentions don't really give me enough time to do everything I want to do. I only was able to get a few of the lessons read before class. But then I discovered the solution! So I thought I'd share it with you. I found on the LDS.org website that they have our lesson manual available in all kinds of formats for us to use. Lessons I used the MP3 format and listened to the lesson while I did my work at home! So now I plan on keeping up with my "reading" while I am doing dishes or laundry. An I a genius or what!

I think I can probably do that with my scripture "reading" at times too. All the scriptures are available in audio form too. Scriptures and other Publications I suppose if I owned an Ipod I could put them on that too.

I know for me, reading the actual book is way better than just hearing it while I am working. So I still will do my best to make time for actual scripture study. But in the meantime, I can listen to the scriptures, and my lessons on my way too busy times at home.

A Weekend Badly Needed

Happy Independence Day everyone. It's one of my favorite holidays. And who doesn't like fireworks? I just love them. Sometimes we can just sit on our roof and watch them from one end of the valley to the other. Travis and I are going to go and see fireworks tomorrow night.

I don't really have a lot to say right now. I am excited to make some goat's milk soap this weekend! Bryan's friend has goats. They gave me a whole gallon of fresh goat milk! It's home in the freezer getting all ready for me to make a beautiful batch of creamy bubbly fun when I finally get a minute. I'm thinking of Oatmeal and Honey soap. Mmmmm. Or maybe a nice Sandalwood soap.

A "Magic Pill"

I saw a sign on my doctor's office wall. It said something like this:

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What if you could reduce your chances of all these just by taking a pill every day?

Premature death by 30-50%

Heart disease by 40-50%

Stroke by 30-40%

Diabetes by 30-40%

Breast cancer by 20-30%

Colon cancer by 30-50%

Osteoporosis by 40-50%

Also reduces kidney stones, and depression!

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Of course the "Magic Pill" is 30 minutes of exercise every day.

My Beautiful Day.

I haven't posted much lately. You guys know how it is. There is just not enough time in a day. This morning I woke to the such a beautiful sound. It was the sound of a Mourning Dove cooing it's song. I love listening to that. I could have listened to it all morning long. But my husband wasn't so excited by it waking him up. So he got up and shut the window, and turned on the fan so we couldn't hear it. I guess the poor guy really needed his sleep. He ended up sleeping in fairly late, and that is just not like him. I thought it was kind of funny that something so beautiful and relaxing to me was bothering him enough to keep him awake.

I hear that mourning doves are native to our area, but I had never seen one in my neighborhood before. I have heard many meadowlarks, and I do love those too! They are one of the benefits of living right by a big field. I hope the mourning dove comes around more often. Then I can hear both of their beautiful songs. If you don't know what they sound like, here are a couple of links so you can hear them.
Western Meadowlark
Mourning Dove Song


There is a very sweet lady that lives in my neighborhood. I think she is just beautiful inside and out. She is a very talented artist. The picture above is one she did. This afternoon she had an open house at her studio. I went in for a little while before I had to go to work. It was very cool. Her paintings are so pretty. I love the style she paints with. I don't know a lot about art. But I do know I love Vincent VanGogh's paintings. And I love Renoir's and Monet's paintings. There are others too, but I don't know their names. I do think my favorite so far is VanGough. I don't know what style they are, weather they are Impressionist or Expressionist or what. But I like the colors and the visible brush strokes, all put together to give the feeling or idea of what they are rather than a realistic picture that is more like a photograph.

Marla has so many pretty paintings. I have seen some of Marla's paintings in her home, but it was so impressive to see her beautiful collection all on display in her clean, bright and cozy little shop in an art studio. Here is her website, although it doesn't do her paintings real justice compared to seeing them in person. And some of my favorite ones are not on her website.

Marla Duggins Fine Art