FINISHED!

So i finished the Book of Mormon! just a few hours before the 4 day limit too! it was awesome! i am so glad i challenged myself to do this! if you are seeking for some peace, answers, direction, counsel...i definitely encourage you to read this powerful book as you would a novel, in a short amount of time. i can not doubt the truthfulness which lies within its pages. i know that those who kept record were real, actual people, fulfilling a commandment so that we, in these latter days, would have their words to draw strength from. how thankful i am , and blessed we are to have their words and teachings. how thankful am i that this young boy, joseph smith, was living in accordance to the gospel, so that he indeed recognized the spirit which influence him to go ask the Lord, on his knees, for His direction. i know that it was His testimony and the strength of the spirit that allowed the restoration of this great gospel to come about.
i love this gospel! i know that the Book of Mormon is true and inspired of God! may we all strive more dilligently strive to make this good book a part of our lives!

4 Day Challenge...

so i'm 32+ hours into my quest to read the Book of Mormon in 4 days. so far, so good! my head is full, but i'm surprised at what a smooth read it has been. i just finished alma 5. not too shabby, 'eh? i am learning things i've not thought of before now. it's changed how i deal with the kids. i'm really enjoying this experience! thanks for the inspiration ang!!

Good Health Is More Than Just a Physical Thing!

so i've been thinking. i really want to focus on my health during this new year. then, i was thinking some more... good health is SO much more than just a physical thing, it is a SPIRITUAL thing too. so, as i focus on good, healthy habbits, i will include my spiritual well being. my sister, angela, taught a mini class in her ward about the Book of Mormon, and as a part of her 'preparation', i guess, she read the Book of Mormon in 4 days, start to finish. she didn't mark everything that stood out to her, but read it more like a novel. so, my dear friends, i am going to take the 4 day B of M challenge, as i know i will need all the extra strength to start my new health journey! happy reading!

welcome, welcome 2011!

so i've just realized, more then ever, as i walk past mirrors, or look at pics of myself from recent shin-digs, whoa! i've really let meself go! yes, i have had 4 beautiful children, but i've not been holding myself accountable for my fitness level. i've been pretending to be athletic in this overweight body. i don't want to pretend anymore, i want to BE! i want to look like a runner...so, i need to run. i want, and will, take my health more seriously, as our bodies are GIFTS...it is MY responsibility to take care of myself.
i can sit and complain that i'm the heaviest i've ever been. that i'm sick of being the sweet chubby girl down the road. that i hate walking past mirrors, or sit next to all these fit little barbies wherever i go...so, you know what, i tell myself? GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND DO SOMETHING! faith w/o works is dead. you can't gain a testimony of the scriptures just by holding them. you have to ACT- you have have to pick them up and actually read them. well, same goes with my body. i can't look at runners magazines or watch others run to get a runners body.... I HAVE TO RUN! so, my friends, i am holding myself accountable and responsible this new year of 2011. i am what i make of myself!

WHAT IF?

what if we never felt the need to compare ourselves-
what if we never felt like we need to 'keep up with the jones''-
what if we could forgive and forget, all the time, every time-
what if we could always have the un-tainted thinking of an infant-
what if we could have the assurance that no-one would ever wrong us-
what if we didn't ever need to eat to live-
what if we didn't have to worry about our kids as they wave good-bye and toddle off to school-
what if it was okay to just say whatever it is that invades our minds-
what if we just never had to worry about going to sleep, so we wouldn't have to 'wake up' and start our day over-
what if any anger, any anxious feeling, any worry could be cured by a bleeding wound, a bruised bone, or an over abundance of mt. dew-
what if we all just quit worrying about everyone else's lives and focused on our own, untamed, imperfect lives-
what if we had remotes that would control the volume of the hollers and screams of little children-
what if we all just took a break once in a while-
what if all our relationships in life were equally reciprocated-
I DON'T KNOW.... WHAT IF?

'BUGS'....

I am tired. My body, laying tense and limp on my nice, king size bed. I should be sleeping as my matress envelopes around all my curves and angles. I let out a 'grrrrr' as the alarm clock tells me it is only 1:33 a.m. Racing, racing, racing- that is what my mind is doing, and it won't stop. Too many things are bugging me- answering machines; people who don't return phone calls; being woken up to talk on the phone right as i enter rest; people who are two-faced; not being able to go to the bathroom without hearing the little 'tap, taps' of impatient children; not having an opinion; being 'shushed'; clinton soil; unsensitive humans; teeth grinding; loud, squishy chewing; people who do not accept compliments; being tired all of the time; feeling like everything I do is being questioned; Annie and Clint Black from the celbrity apprentice; untactful people; the number the scale displays as I akwardly stand on it; waking up in the moring to dishes, plagued with grime and grease, from last nights dinner; snoring; laundry that NEVER goes away; mean people; 'super models'; beauty pageants; selfishness; not being able to wrap my bed sheets around me at night when i am friggen cold, because my dear sweetheart wants to cuddle instead, and warm me up that way.....; Kobe Bryant; stupid commercials...
MAN!! I think I need an exterminator.


SO, just so ya'll know why this random little piece of rambling- i am in a little writing group, headed by my sister, and this was the first meager 'post' of mine.... anyone who would like to join this invigorating writing group let me know! as you can see, by my little above doodle, you need not have any prior writing experience!

EASTER

it's been a while..... again!

i need to be better at keeping up with things- not for everyone else (as a wise man said), but for myself! don't have alot to say, but here are some fun pics to look at!

Saturday, 24 2009

Well, my friends, it's been a while... not that i need to apologize for not keeping up to date, as i am sure you all just can't wait for that time that i am sure you all have set aside to read my blog....haha! I really have no good excuses, other than i just haven't felt up to posting lately. These past couple of weeks have been full of ups and downs; laughs and cries; hope and disappointment; sweetness and bitterness; peace and confusion; numbness and full of emotion; togetherness yet loneliness; lost and found; sad but happy. It's funny how you can feel so many emotions over one incident. I guess we are allowed to so that we can learn from how we feel. My heart has been very full and aching. My sweet grandma, Marian Hofheins passed away to reunite with family and friends and to be in the presence of our Father in Heaven and elder brother, Jesus Christ last Friday, the 17th. I don't believe I have ever been so close to death, as I wondered each time I left grandma's room if it would be the last I would see her. It was one of the hardest things I have ever been around, and yet I wouldn't trade those precious last conversations and sweet moments with grandma for anything. I still feel like I need to be woken up from a sad dream.... someone want to pinch me?

So, I have been doing alot of thinking lately- specifically about life. It is interesting to note that many people are in the same state of living when life begins as we are when it is ending- the state of being vulnerable.
Vulnerable because you can't control the chaos happening all around you-
Vulnerable in the fact that we often don't have control of our actions or movements-
Vulnerable because the possibility to do most things on our own does not exist....
Controlling our bodily functions; the inability to run away from circumstances we'd rather not be in; even more constricting, the gift of speaking- not being able to tell the people who are taking care of you that they are not being nice, or that they may just be idiots; that you'd rather not be bounced this way or talked to that way; that the dry, crusted cereal from two meals ago feels really weird sticking to your face and you'd like it wiped; that rather being 'gooed' at in silly, loud, or slow paced voices, you just want to be held and be close to them instead; not being able to convey that having a body is a tuff thing to be in charge of, maybe not all that is was 'cracked up to be'; or, simply, not knowing how to say "I'm tired. I just want to go to sleep", in some situations, forever.
Another interesting thing about life is that fairness does not matter so much when coming into the world and leaving this world because of the vulnerable state we are in, in both states. But, what about the middle part of life then? Being past coming into the world, but not quite to the whole death part? One thing for sure is that life is not always fair. Why is that? Well, the constant element of change- death, jobs, parents, children, living situations, friendships-
It is in this middle part we get to choose how we deal and respond to fairness, or the lack thereof. Whether we create a constant rain cloud over our heads and wonder around aimlessly, searching for just one thing that might create an umbrella to protect us from the harshness of the storms that never seem to stop. Or do we decide to wake up each morning, knowing the sun will indeed rise, and find hope in something as simple as that? Finding hope that because the sun does rise (rain, clouds, or even the simple peace of a blue sky) is evidence that there is a God that provides light for all of His children. That, because the sun rises each day, it means new life; it means we have another chance to do something incredible, productive, or useless. It is this middle part of life that gives us the opportunity to mold who we are and what we stand for. We learn how to protect ourselves; how to hide our insecurities; how to magnify our talents. We learn that it is okay to have rainy days here and there, but we'd much rather have the sunny ones. We learn that life is precious- that it's not just something to be wasted because we never know when it will be taken from us.
So, no, we may not always have control of how and why we enter and leave this world, but we do have control of how we live.
So, tomorrow, I will wake up whether rain, sadness, joy, relief or confusion is present, and I will roll out of bed knowing the sun is rising and i have yet another chance to make someone proud; kiss a skinned knee; to learn something new; to exercise my patience, love, understanding, agency, and compassion; or, to just simply sit back and be grateful that I am still in the 'middle part' of this thing we call life.

LIAR LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!!

my kids love taking baths. especially lincoln. he would probably stay in the bath all day if i let him! so, i think it is so gross, even though all kids do it, that the childrens suck on the wash rags, drink the bath water, etc. well, this morning i caught lincoln sucking water from the bath faucet...... i told him to stop or ear-wigs would come out and crawl in his mouth if he continued doing that! now, to some this may seem not so gross, but i have a phobia of bugs coming out of faucets. when i was little, i remember holding a cup up under the bath faucet while the water was running, and an ear-wig fell out into my cup. it freaked me out then, and still gives me the 'heebie-jeebies'!! thus, i am justified in my actions!