Proverbs 3:6

In all thy ways acknowledge him,

and he shall direct thy paths.

I'm enjoying how my efforts in grocery budgeting are blessing us to have a positive trajectory in food storage.  By buying 6 jars of peanut butter from Walmart, and other bulk purchases of best price staples, we have an abundance of what we need.  We are not very adventurous with condiments.  We only need ranch, ketchup, mustard, mayo and bbq.  Whenever I buy other condiments, they just sit in the door unused.  

M and I are doing personal progress and the positive effect of this is that we have a very positive activity to do together.  I'm working on noticing positive traits in others and making our home more peaceful.  I can't really handle thinking about more than one behavior goal at a time.  But I do love how just having a goal to forgive for 2 weeks can be on my thoughts and change my actions.

I'm encouraging M to take credit for good things she is already doing, like singing in the choir, participating in a book club and playing the piano.  Yes, those were things we were already going to do, but we can invite the lord into our endeavors, and receive blessings of inspiration.  

There are some goals like "Make something to display in your home" and I have no patience for those goals.  My sister N did actually make a beautiful banner with the temple, and other YW symbols done in fabric, that was worthy of being displayed in a home.  I'll have to show M some of those examples.  

best day ever

My children love to say "Best day ever!" a couple times a week.  I'm grateful for their joy.  Today was the best homeschooling day ever for me.  I gave each child a schedule with their tasks.  They have 4 hours to get them done on this day.  Nobody was scheduled to use the piano at the same time.  I was able to help each one in turn.  They saw the correlation between doing their work and getting computer time.  It was great.

dissonance

Apparently I really like dissonance.  I've been working on a new tune for hymn"We are Sowing".  I asked several friends to look it over and they always want to take out my favorite garish dissonant chords.  It's like a flavor I enjoy but lack the skill to resolve.  I'm making progress on it though and I hope it will be lovely.

I do love resolution but like I said, I lack the skill to get there. 

I love to see the temple

M was able to participate in a youth temple trip today.  She's only 11!  She took a family history class and found 5 family names to take to the temple.  This was her Value project for Faith.  It's pretty awesome how she's chugging through the personal progress book.

On the way home we brought 2 other young women with us.  I had an awesome talk with C and preached the gospel of "give your self credit for the good you do."  I encouraged them to call just about everything a value experience.  If they read a book and found a good message in it, call it divine nature.  If they obeyed their family's rules, call it integrity. 

I didn't get my YW medallion because I thought I had to come up with extra projects to do on top of the 7 activities I was involved in during High School.    I'm not making that mistake this year.  I'm actually going to do a value project of reading to my boys.

Proverbs 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.

This is on my heart lately because I recognize that if I invite the Lord into my life in every aspect, I can actually have his blessings and spirit with me in things that I might otherwise miss out on a blessing.  So with reading to my boys, if I make that act an offering to the Lord, he can bless me to have that be a treasured experience. 

I'm grateful for the gospel.

Delegation!

I'm in a co-op and serving on the board.  Today we met and I was able to work out some solutions with these amazing women I serve with.  I'm so grateful to know them and thrilled that they are going to take up many things I've struggled with.  Yay!

I was hoping to serve at a leadership camp but the enrollment wasn't enough to hold the camp. 

I was helping with my dad's stuff but now I'm not.

I was invited to go to girls camp but it's the end of the calendar year for P's job so he can't take it off.

It's an interesting time.  Many very time consuming things are being lifted from me.

I read Little Bear to the boys tonight.  They were so delighted by it.  I'm glad B is still young enough to sweetly demand stories read to him.  I'm glad L is getting old enough to sweetly sit by me while we read.  This is the best possible use of my time.

Time is a gift

Time is a gift
fleeting and swift,
ticking and tocking itself away
itself a way of saying better beware.

Time is a gift
precious and rare,
take it and make of it all you can.
Use all you can there's not a moment to spare.

So take a second to look around
see a sight, hear a sound.
Take a minute to concentrate,
analyze, contemplate.
Take and hour and change the
fate of the world.

Time is a gift
given to you;
given to give you the time you need
the time you need to have the time of your life.

I've recently had some things drop out of my life that free up time.  I've been able to be with the children more as they work on their studies.  I've read more to them.  I'm grateful to have so much control over what I do with my time.