that's what girl's nights are for

so last weekend we had a girl's retreat here. it was the best. i've decided that when women get together there is just never enough time to talk. we were going to get up and exercise and do a bunch of things in the morning and what did we end up doing? yeah...more talking. we finally had breakfast at 1:00 - but we made banana stuffed french toast...(YUM) so no one minded waiting...not that we were even waiting...remember, we were talking! we came up with four sentences that we want to guide our year with. mary was in charge of designing something so i'll share that later. but most of all i came away with even more love for these amazing women than before....which i didn't think was possible. each has their own trials and hard things and yet each is going forward in their life with strength and ambition and courage and compassion. they truly inspire me. so the facials were fun, tying the baby quilt was productive,

but the talking.....well...

that was priceless.

oh....and i love posting pictures when i'm not in it! love you girls!

finding my own spring

i received a bouquet of flowers and decided to divide it all up so i could enjoy little bits of sunshine all around my house. i've kind of forgotten how much i enjoy having fresh flowers around. it's felt like a bit of springtime has crept into my house even though it's cold and wintry outside. and i've loved it.



so i may not have gotten around to painting yet....my creative goal for the month...but i have beautiful things around to inspire me.

holy-moly!

i ordered a desk and got it yesterday. i knew i would have to assemble it so i spread all the pieces out on the floor and all i could think was, "holy-moly what have i got myself into!" then i started to think about who i could hire to do this task. but my 'fearless' attitude kicked in and i realized i could do this. so i said a prayer for help....definitely necessary here, and got to work. i labeled everything, divided all the screws, nails, etc. and slowly tackled the 25 pages of instructions.



it took 5 hours but ta-da!! and can i just say how empowering it was to stand back and see the finished product! i said a prayer of gratitude for His help and for realizing i can do more than i think.

it was a good lesson. i often see things and immediately think i can't do that. or that the time it will take is just not worth it. what i don't realize is what a great feeling it is to tackle something hard or unknown and the energy that will come if i just TRY.

SO....can you feel a challenge coming on here?! i would love to hear what anyone has fearlessly attempted, tackled, accomplished and how you felt. new recipe? new goal? new language? new job?

we are all in this together just trying to learn. hope i hear from someone.

a great birthday

yes, i'm wearing a tiara!

today was my birthday and it was a great one too! first of all i had so many family and friends who thought of me...and life doesn't get better than that. thank you all for making my life richly abundant.

and second it was the last day of my year of taking pictures. i have taken a picture everyday for the past year to document all the wonderful blessings that the Lord pours my way... and there have been buckets. i am literally drenched with His goodness. so this picture journal of blessings and things i am grateful for is full of breathtaking sunsets, family gatherings, yummy food, leaves, flowers, friends, books, haircuts, school kids, my kids, more friends, even my favorite medicine (Nyquil in case you're curious). it has been a hard year, but also a glorious year. and i anticipate another wonderful one coming up. i know the Lord doesn't just give up giving.

so in this year of 'becoming' i may not be taking pictures daily but i think being grateful is always a focus. it's part of embracing life. i've always been so grateful to have the gospel in my life for the main reason that i know who to thank.

and Heavenly Father, thank you for it all.

when the cold is good

I went up to Midway last week to see these amazing ice sculptures and was in awe once again at the creativity of people. There really is no limit to what people can imagine. I thought they must have put some kind of blueing in the water so that when it froze it would have the pure crisp blue color but when I talked to the man who created these structures (known as an icicle connoisseur) he said nothing was added. The blue color naturally appeared because of the molecular structure of the ice and snow. That was even more impressive....but then the Lord is always the master artist.

Creativity can come in so many forms. Each day at school I have a little girl who brings me some sort of picture she has created for me and one day she had folded up construction paper and used yards of tape to make me 'plates'. She was so proud of her masterpieces and offered to show me how to make them.

Years ago I learned the formula C=K+I-E ....which stands for:
Creativity = Knowledge + imagination - evaluation.

I embraced that thought immediately. Kids are so creative because they don't get caught up in the evaluation, the judgment part and let their imaginations go unbridled. "Of course it's wonderful....I made it!!"

Ahhh...should we not all be like children and see the fairies in the garden and hear their songs sing us to sleep.

another bold step

It’s the end of the month and have I been more fearless?

Yes! Yes, and yes! But the thing I’m most proud of is that I think in a different way. I focus on being fearless when I have to make a decision. I think about it all the time. I’ve tried to say yes to some new things and am trying to be open when new situations arise.

So for this new month that is at my doorstep…….. well I want to focus on fearlessly being creative.

One of the obstacles of being creative is finding the time to do something creative or put the ideas together. I know best time for me to really think seems to be in the shower or the car. More likely the car.

But the other thing that hinders creativity is fear! Ah-ha…...back to being fearless! I think it goes back to being afraid of failing or looking dumb or not being able to do something well. Duh! Of course I’m not going to do it well if I’m too afraid to try.

So today I fearlessly bought some watercolors!

It’s been so long since I’ve painted that the majority of my paints are dried and hard. Kind of makes me feel like my creative juices have done the same.

But the good news is that that’s fixable. I will be fearless! And creative this month.

Who will sign up too? Please share what creative things you want to do this month!

at the end of the day

Since I take a picture everyday I always have my camera with me. (It's been a great habit to develop.) Anyway the other evening I caught this breathtaking sunset. All I could do was sit in my car and just revel in the beauty and feel so grateful to be a small part of it.....I think being an appreciating spectator is an important part to play too. Anyway, it had been a hard day and so to see this at the end was a treasured gift. Later that evening as I was viewing the picture on my computer I reflected that it kind of summed up life. Sometimes things don't go the way you want, they're hard, messy, complicated or just 'not fun'. And yet you learn from those experiences, you come away appreciating the lessons and become better, wiser, stronger, and hopefully more beautiful because of them. You don't get spectacular sunsets when it's a clear sky.

I had a friend who once wisely told me, "I hope you have enough clouds and difficulties in your life to make a beautiful sunset." He was quadriplegic. I'll never forget his lesson.

So in becoming fearless I need to realize it's good to do hard things. I should welcome the hard things and realize they are a gift to help bring out the brilliance.