thank goodness for rob

yep, tonight it's tax night. i don't know what i'd do without rob...i can never even remember how to get started let alone do it by myself. i have never been a person who cared to keep track of money. i never really looked at my paycheck and when asked how much i make i honestly don't know. i know that sounds pathetic, but it's just not that important to me. after a fire and several floods i have come to learn that stuff is just that...stuff.

but with rob's help i'm getting enough to pay for my 2 trips soooo wa-hoo! 

now memory making....that's important to me. and i'm going to make some incredible memories this year!

poem

i love this....good thought for the day.

being green

 

today's st. patrick's day and so i did my annual 'drinking of the magic punch' and therefore turned my feet green. the kids loved it and i get such a kick out of seeing their faces  look absolutely stunned as i take my socks off to see if the magic worked. 

childhood lasts for such a short time... we should fill it with all the discovery and wonder we can

we'll all be better for it. 

my sacred time

yesterday at the rs stake meeting we had a fabulous talk by brother carver on 'what it takes to be saved.' it came to these 5 things: 
1. faith in Jesus Christ
2. repentance
3. baptism
4. having the Gift of the Holy Ghost
5. endure to the end
sometimes we like to think the list is much longer, but in actuality it isn't. 

we often feel we have to do it all ourselves. that Christ is there, but we sometimes see him as our coach to help us, direct us, motivate us. but he's not... he's our savior. he will make up the difference in what we can't do. he's already paid the price. 

satan, who's name means 'liar' is there to persuade us differently. he wants to discourage us, make us feel that it's hopeless, so why even try.

and then there's the sacrament. sacrament means covenant. today i thought of it, not as going to sacrament meeting but as covenant meeting. a meeting to be edified by the talks, lifted by the music, but sanctified by the sacrament. it was a sacred time to review, remember and renew the covenants i have already made. it filled me and i felt close to the spirit. 

i am so eternally grateful for my savior Jesus Christ. for his willingness to sacrifice for me, providing me with an atonement that heals my wounds, cleanses me from my thoughtless and many sins, lifts me from selfish worldly thoughts and purifies me. i know this to be true, and the tears i shed today were purily out of gratitude and love.

the sacrament was truly sacred time for me today.                             

fertilizer

ok, fertilizer? a lesson? a thought of any kind? i know this seems like i'm stretching, but actually today while i was fertilizing my lawn i was thinking of the word pre-emergent (which is what i was applying.) it's for taking care of the 'bad stuff' before it comes up...before it really starts to form. i also bought the 5 step program to apply at different times of the summer to help my lawn look and stay nice.

so to get my lawn nice takes more than 'just planting the seeds.' alma talks about faith and planting the seed and then nourishing it. there's a little more to it. nourishing faith may also be a 5 step program. i need to read my scriptures to prevent the bad stuff from growing or taking root in my mind. prayer daily helps strengthens my resolve to keep the commandments and the Son gives light. church attendance gives me weekly ingredients to make me strong and the sacrament is that cleansing dose that makes it possible to renew. they all take effort, they all are needed but the results are well worth it. 

what you sow you reap.  

my garage

i finally got home early enough to do somethings at home. i put up this saying in the garage...i know...odd place to put it, but that way i'll get to see it everyday. shelley and i saw this saying in a little gazebo at BYU-idaho while we were education week. each time we saw it we would pause a moment and smile. just a reminder that life is good and i should relish each daily gift.

but i kind of think i do. 

which makes me happy even more.

making a difference

last night i was reading in the book of Jude and this touched me:

"and of some have compassion making a difference."

earlier in the passage it was talking about the ungodly who "are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words"

whoa...i have to admit that passage sounded more like me than the first. yep...wake up call right there. i have done my share of murmuring and complaining and it's not something i would feel comfortable standing before the Lord and confessing. i feel a great need to repent and once again pray earnestly to change my course of behavior...change my heart. 

because i love the idea that compassion...the compassion i could give could make a difference. that it could lift, and build someone. just the opposite of what the murmuring and complaining words do.

then the end of the chapter says this wonderful thought:

"now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever." 

his compassion makes a difference. because of him I can be kept from falling, i can come before my Heavenly Father faultless...and for this i will endlessly thank him, and praise him.