Thankful for...

This beautiful world in which we live.
May you find the beauty wherever you are today.

Grab and Go

72 hour kits for the family-done!
For this I am grateful.

Small Change

As I would go through my house picking up, cleaning, vacuuming...I would always find coins on the floor...dimes, nickels, quarters...I would pick them up and pocket them and put them in my penny bank. I would periodically tell the kids that change is not trash; that small change does add up.

Then one day while shopping at CVS I saw a bank that counted the change as one put the money in. I bit the bullet and spent the $9.99, hoping that I could teach a valuable lesson to my children.

The kids were fascinated as I opened the box containing the bank. More fascinated as I emptied my penny bank into the new one.  The dollar amount climbed. $30...$40...$50....The kids got excited. I left the bank on the book shelf. Throughout the next few weeks, the kids would report a new total as they put their change in the bank. Soon we topped $100.

After one month, the bank is full and can take no more money. There is over $150.00 in there. AND I am not finding any more money on the floor. I hope the lesson has been learned.

Like penny banks, life is filled with lots of small change. Small things we can do to make life a better place. A smile. A kind word. A gentle answer. A morning prayer. A few minutes each day reading the scriptures. A small, secret act of kindness everyday.  A thank you note.

As we fill our lives with these small changes, we will find that these small changes do add up to a much richer life.

I am thankful for small change.

God Bless the USA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTb6qdPu8JE




Note to the Unknown Soldier:


I don't know you. I never met you.You were so far from home.I know you're the best man I know.
I am glad you are on my side. Did you have a son...a daughter...I might go and thank?
It's a better world because you came.-John Ondrasik

Five for Fighting

So Saturday night I found myself at the Canyon Club in Agoura with friends from Fresno to hear John Ondrasik (Five for Fighting) perform.  Great seats...great show...good times.

One song he performed, "Augie Nieto" has the phrase, "It's not the breaths you take, it's how you breathe."  Those words hit me hard.

I thought about our Savior. He took only 33 years worth of breaths...but oh! the breaths he took.

Couldn't stop thinking about that phrase.  I hope to make my breaths better.

In what world...

is it okay to send a kid home from a birthday party with not one, not two, but three goldfish?!?

Doug told Abby that we should just watch them swim around in the toilet for awhile and save ourselves a step. By nightfall, one fish was gone. 

Next came a visit to the store to buy fish food and now we are $4 into the pets. Later Doug takes Abby to the store to buy a tank. They come home with a tank, filter, lights, plants, rocks...they tell me it was only $10.

That night fish #2 bites the dust.

Hope fish number #3 likes to live alone.

Well, at least Hayley says the tank makes our house look sophisticated now.

It almost goes without saying...

...but I am so grateful for indoor plumbing. I don't even need a reason to be grateful for it. I just am.

today's gift

I am grateful for my husband. Almost every morning for the last 4+ years he has gotten up before 6 AM to wake the kids and take them to seminary. Without complaining.