This Is The Year

Presiden Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of the sequence of events set forth in the scriptures pertaining to the creation of the earth, and all the living things and animals. He said: "Having looked over all of this, he declared it to be good. He then created man in His own likeness and image. Then as His final creation, the crowning of His glorious work, He created woman. I like to regard Eve as His masterpiece after all that had gone before, the final work before He rested from His labors." President Hinckley also said to us: "I feel to invite women everywhere to rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass." I love this. I have met so many wonderful women these past few months and see such devotion to being good women. As my final bucket filler I wanted to let you all know what you have come to m...

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell Tomorrow will be my final bucket filler . I have so enjoyed the opportunity to share encouraging and uplifting words with all who are kind enough to visit me. I truly believe everything I have shared. It is time for me to toss the bucket on to another fellow blogger. I wanted to let you know about her today, because tomorrow is Mod Podge Mania , as well as my living room redo reveal (I hope!) for Short Mama's Home Redo Challenge . I am tossing the bucket to a wonderful, sweet blogger named Carissa . If you haven't read her blog Sugar, Boogers, & Tantrums , now is your chance to get to know her! I thought she was the perfect one to toss the bucket to, because everytime I visit her blog, I leave feeling uplifted. She is warm, and caring, and has such a wonderful attitude. I can't wait to see all she has to share with us! And now, I will continue to cr...

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ~Thomas Jefferson Thank You.

This past couple of weeks has been eventful on the school front. I'm fortunate to be able to have my children attend a charter school which I was a part of creating, and starting. It has been a trial and a blessing! But that's a story for another day. Our school is affiliated with Expeditionary Learning (EL). EL takes the approach of going beyond the walls of the classroom as much as possible. The year is divided into learning expeditions, where every aspect and subject of the learning is related to the topic of study. Fieldwork is a big part of EL. Ideally fieldwork will NOT be just a field trip related to the topic of study, but actually real world application of the concepts taught in class, as they relate to the topic of study. We're still working on this! We're only in our third year, and there is so much to do when starting a school from scratch! Some other, more established EL schools have actually done things like environmental analysis of water samples from a l...

When I first moved into our house, I was overwhelmed with the possibilities/responsibilities of owning our own home. There was so much I wanted to do, and I was so excited to have our own place! We bought an older home, nothing fancy, but it was ours. I haven't accomplished a great deal of what I had in mind, because there was just so much else going on in life...that's getting ready to change though! Anyway, there is one experience I'd like to share about one of my little flower beds. There is a small, semi-circular flower bed that sits right to the side of where my front walk leads up to my front steps. Our first spring here a lovely bright red and yellow tulip bloomed. It was really big. I loved seeing it bloom each spring. This one, single giant flower. One day a few years ago, my mom mentioned to me that the bulb had probably multiplied quite a bit under ground (since it was so big), and that I should dig it up and divide it in the fall, and have a few more tulips the...

I posted this once before, but I love it so, and thought it would be appropriate to share it again. How to Be a Mean Mother A mean mother never allows candy or sweets to take the place of a well balanced meal. A mean mother insists on knowing where her children are at all times, who their friends are and what they do. A mean mother breaks the child labor law by making her children work - washing dishes, making beds, learning to cook and doing other cruel and unpleasant chores. A mean mother makes life miserable for offspring by insisting that they always tell the truth. A mean mother has teenagers who are wiser and more sensible. A mean mother can smile with secret delight and pride when she hears her grandchildren call their parents "mean". What the world needs now are more Mean Mothers! Author Unknown

Welcome! If you've never heard of EM:ME, go to the lovely Amber's to check it out! It's a totally amazing group of women encouraging and uplifting each other in our quest to make ourselves over! I'm a litte frustrated this week. I did attempt to work out 6 times. But on Wednesday I was only on the treadmill for 10 minutes when Monkey woke up crying her eyes out. She had been puking for the past 2 days, so I felt I should probably get off the treadmill and comfort her! This turned into 2 hours of her throwing a fit about every suggestion I made to try and calm her down. On Thursday I barely got my workout clothes on when she woke up crying. She's finally feeling better, but I only managed to exercise 4 and 1/6 times last week. Now you'd think that would still be pretty effective...but NOPE! I'm barely down 1 measley lb. What's up with that? The problem with getting on the treadmill late at night is that if something interferes with your workout, you don...

"You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. " ~ Shira Tehrani

I Know Something Good About You Wouldn't this old world be better, If the folks we meet would say, 'I know something good about you', And then treat us just that way. Wouldn't it be fine and dandy, If each handclasp warm and true, Carried with it this assurance, 'I know something good about you'. Wouldn't things here be more pleasant, If the good that's in all, Were the only things about us, That folks bothered to recall. Wouldn't life be lots more happy, If we'd praise the good we see, For there's such a lot of goodness, In the worst of you and me. Wouldn't it be nice to practice, This fine way of thinking too-- 'You know something good about me, I know something good about you!' ~Author unknown~

I had to stay home from church today. I have a sick little girl, going on a week now! I hate when I have to miss church. I so look forward to being spiritually renewed for the week ahead. I was pretty sure last night that I would be keeping Monkey home today, and I started thinking about my childhood, and my life and all the wonderful things I have learned in church that have directed my life. I want to share with you one of the things I learned as a teenager that has always stayed with me. The Young Women's program is a wonderful program in the church that helps girls ages 12-18 learn to grow into strong, faithful, good women. It is such a crucial time in our lives when we are trying to decide who we are, what we believe, and where we want to go with our lives. I think that uncertainty even follows us into adulthood at times. I wasn't the best teenager by any means,and there were definitely decisions I made that I still regret as an adult. But there were many girls around me m...

Tuesday evening was Bookworm's violin recital. He has been working really hard on this piece. The technique and dynamics required for this particular song are pretty complicated for someone so young, but I think he nailed it! Bookworm started taking violin lessons when he was 5. He had been begging for a violin since he was 2! We saw a toy one in a store once and he asked me what it was. I told him it was a violin, and from then on he would always ask me "when can I have a violin , mama?" I was so reluctant, because you see I had this plan for my kids. For me, learning music is as important as learning reading and math. Since it is easier to switch from the piano to another instrument than it is to switch from another instrument to the piano, and since I wanted all of my children to learn the piano...my plan was that they would all take piano lessons when they were old enough (general recommendation from teachers I know is about 8 years old) then if thy wanted to learn an...

Have any of you seen the phrase "the bucket filler" floating around blog land? I have seen it here and there and wasn't quite sure what it was. It's funny because I read Our Life in Perfect Cadence regularly, and was always uplifted by the warm and inspiring posts Cadance made each day. What I didn't realize was that she was filling my bucket! The bucket filler was started by a blogger named Jan whose blog I just recently discovered and love! It revolves around the idea that we each have invisible buckets. Our buckets are filled when we have positive, uplifting interactions with people. By the things they say, or by their actions. When our buckets are full, we are happy. We also all have invisible dippers. They can be used to fill the buckets of others, or to dip into and lessen the buckets of others. Unkindness and negetivity empty our buckets and diminish our happiness. Perhaps many of us don't try to empty each others buckets, but at the same time maybe...