Just a little note for those that are interested in seeing more family pictures...
I'm posting most of the family pictures and family journaling over at the Family Blog- The Newton's
I've put up quite a few in the last few weeks- trying to catch up on what's going on at our house. :)
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
A problem
I'm becoming increasingly aware that I have a problem.
It's becoming increasingly bigger and I feel that I have to come clean and confess to it.
I'm not very good at returning items to others.
In cleaning up the house and trying to tidy it up before Rich comes home at midnight from his latest trip, I've found the following list of items that are on my counters, and in bags in the car and stashed in places where I'd "remember" them... and I keep forgetting about.
Currently the list of items I currently am holding for others is as follows:
Platter
Plastic bowl
Wooden Serving Spoon
Plastic Serving Spoon
Quart size canning jar
Little birthday gift that was left here on accident
Book from one friend
Book from another friend
Wrench
Two little magnets that belong in a book I sold to the neighbor at our yard sale last saturday... I found them 5 minutes after she bought it, and still haven't taken it over.
I'm resolving to return all the items within the next week...
I made a good start this morning by returning the kindergarten graduation pictures that have been on the desk for a month that I never intended to keep... and I received a letter through the school yesterday that I needed to pay up, or return it... whoops!
I can only hope that I can continue that trend tomorrow and return an item to keep the momentum going!
It's becoming increasingly bigger and I feel that I have to come clean and confess to it.
I'm not very good at returning items to others.
In cleaning up the house and trying to tidy it up before Rich comes home at midnight from his latest trip, I've found the following list of items that are on my counters, and in bags in the car and stashed in places where I'd "remember" them... and I keep forgetting about.
Currently the list of items I currently am holding for others is as follows:
Platter
Plastic bowl
Wooden Serving Spoon
Plastic Serving Spoon
Quart size canning jar
Little birthday gift that was left here on accident
Book from one friend
Book from another friend
Wrench
Two little magnets that belong in a book I sold to the neighbor at our yard sale last saturday... I found them 5 minutes after she bought it, and still haven't taken it over.
I'm resolving to return all the items within the next week...
I made a good start this morning by returning the kindergarten graduation pictures that have been on the desk for a month that I never intended to keep... and I received a letter through the school yesterday that I needed to pay up, or return it... whoops!
I can only hope that I can continue that trend tomorrow and return an item to keep the momentum going!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Video's
I just figured out how to post video's on my blogs...
this could be a good thing, or a bad thing... what do you think?
this could be a good thing, or a bad thing... what do you think?
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
New way of thinking
So I said I would explain a little further.
1- Stop worrying about your weaknesses: We don't get happier trying to fix what is wrong with us. We get happier pursuing our strengths- Doing the things we LOVE. She mentioned her discovery when she looked at her patriartical blessing and counted how many things the Lord told her she would have weaknesses in, and how many things she would have as strengths. He focused on the strengths- not the weaknesses. We need to do the same and focus on our strengths and we will be happier. (http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx)
2- Don't try to get motivated to exercise: Motivation follows action. How many times do we say to ourselves that we need to find the right thing to motivate us to exercise more, or clean better, or anything? We need to just start doing it, and the motivation will come. Just trick yourself for 2 minutes to start and see how far you can get in those two minutes. Two becomes five, and five becomes ten and ten becomes twenty and on... Change into workout clothes for the comfort... then put your gym shoes on to walk outside and get the mail. Then instead of stopping at the mailbox, walk to the neighbors mailbox, and the corner is just a little further, and then you might as well go around the block because it's so nice outside... and while your at it you may as well jog just a little bit... before you know it you will have that motivation!
3- Stop trying to find friends: Develop the skills of friendship. Studies have shown that the happiest people have had at least six hours of social contact daily. Make and respond to bids for friendship. Pay attention and smile at someone, start a conversation, and reply to conversations. A study was doing that employee's were 7 times more likely to be satisfied with their job if they had a good friend at work. Make an effort to have one truly meaningful conversation each day.
4- Don't try to feel happy: Instead of trying to feel happy, try to feel greatful. Do gratitude exercises.(http://heartmath.com/) Generate the feeling of gratitude. It changes our physiology when we are feeling grateful. Our heartrate goes down, we feel calmer. She gave an example in her life that she started to make the effort to use her evening prayers as gratitude prayers, and use her morning prayers to ask for help, guidance and blessings. She would pray and share all she was thankful for in those prayers and she would sleep easier and have more restful sleep.
5- Celebrate Failure: We have all grown up hearing the saying "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing it ___________" Don't fall into the trap that if you fail at something you shouldn't have even tried it. When we fail we have taken the steps to grow, to stretch out and reach out to learn something new. We should not dismiss the things we have learned when we have still failed in something. The Atonement is the ultimate example in this. We can try our hardest and do everything in this life to live it righteously- but we cannot be perfect and the atonement allows us to make mistakes and it covers for those mistakes. Rejoice in failure. We work hard for the failure and be proud of the work we've done- the result doesn't matter as much.
6- Don't get help with your problems: Instead- help someone else with their problems. Science is telling us now that the single most reliable way to better our mood- is in service. Ask yourself- what did I do today to help someone?
7- Don't endure to the end: Life is not to be endured. Life is to be enjoyed. Savor everyday delights. Find ways to add little pleasures into your life. The little pleasures make life more enjoyable.
1- Stop worrying about your weaknesses: We don't get happier trying to fix what is wrong with us. We get happier pursuing our strengths- Doing the things we LOVE. She mentioned her discovery when she looked at her patriartical blessing and counted how many things the Lord told her she would have weaknesses in, and how many things she would have as strengths. He focused on the strengths- not the weaknesses. We need to do the same and focus on our strengths and we will be happier. (http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx)
2- Don't try to get motivated to exercise: Motivation follows action. How many times do we say to ourselves that we need to find the right thing to motivate us to exercise more, or clean better, or anything? We need to just start doing it, and the motivation will come. Just trick yourself for 2 minutes to start and see how far you can get in those two minutes. Two becomes five, and five becomes ten and ten becomes twenty and on... Change into workout clothes for the comfort... then put your gym shoes on to walk outside and get the mail. Then instead of stopping at the mailbox, walk to the neighbors mailbox, and the corner is just a little further, and then you might as well go around the block because it's so nice outside... and while your at it you may as well jog just a little bit... before you know it you will have that motivation!
3- Stop trying to find friends: Develop the skills of friendship. Studies have shown that the happiest people have had at least six hours of social contact daily. Make and respond to bids for friendship. Pay attention and smile at someone, start a conversation, and reply to conversations. A study was doing that employee's were 7 times more likely to be satisfied with their job if they had a good friend at work. Make an effort to have one truly meaningful conversation each day.
4- Don't try to feel happy: Instead of trying to feel happy, try to feel greatful. Do gratitude exercises.(http://heartmath.com/) Generate the feeling of gratitude. It changes our physiology when we are feeling grateful. Our heartrate goes down, we feel calmer. She gave an example in her life that she started to make the effort to use her evening prayers as gratitude prayers, and use her morning prayers to ask for help, guidance and blessings. She would pray and share all she was thankful for in those prayers and she would sleep easier and have more restful sleep.
5- Celebrate Failure: We have all grown up hearing the saying "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing it ___________" Don't fall into the trap that if you fail at something you shouldn't have even tried it. When we fail we have taken the steps to grow, to stretch out and reach out to learn something new. We should not dismiss the things we have learned when we have still failed in something. The Atonement is the ultimate example in this. We can try our hardest and do everything in this life to live it righteously- but we cannot be perfect and the atonement allows us to make mistakes and it covers for those mistakes. Rejoice in failure. We work hard for the failure and be proud of the work we've done- the result doesn't matter as much.
6- Don't get help with your problems: Instead- help someone else with their problems. Science is telling us now that the single most reliable way to better our mood- is in service. Ask yourself- what did I do today to help someone?
7- Don't endure to the end: Life is not to be endured. Life is to be enjoyed. Savor everyday delights. Find ways to add little pleasures into your life. The little pleasures make life more enjoyable.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Some new goals to strive for...
1- Stop worrying about your weaknesses.
2- Don't try to get motivated to exercise.
3- Stop trying to find friends.
4- Don't try to feel happy
5- Celebrate Failure
6- Don't get help with your problems
7- Don't endure to the end.
Here's the website for her center- Sixteen Stones
I'll expand on these seven points later. Right now I have a date with a room full of 5th graders in my first ever venture of being in charge in a classroom for a couple of hours. A good friend gave me the tip that a bag of candy goes a long way towards good behavior when a sub is in the classroom... wish me luck!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Time Out for Women
I Love Hilary Weeks. I love her music, but it's not just that. I love her humor, her ability to share about every day life challenges and both her positive and negative thoughts about life.
Here a few friends and I grabbed lunch at Subway- a block away from the convention center.
While we were walking we noticed this beautiful building. Amid the regular architecture of downtown office towers and such, it was a very unique building and I love the character of it.
Michael Wilcox has long been a person I would love to travel with a group led by him. He just lost his wife in December to a brain tumor and he had a wonderful presentation.
Marima Kallon- such an inspiring person and wonderful presenter. She grew up knowing nothing but war and hardship and has witnessed many horrible events. She is such an inspiration of hope, of prayer and faith.
Here's a picture of all the presenters- I missed individual shots of a lot of them because I was just too busy writing and absorbing what they were talking about.
I loved that as they shared they were real. They shared their struggles and their triumphs and their day to day stuff that they deal with.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Time out for Women
I had the opportunity to go to Time out for Women in Oklahoma City yesterday and today. I debated over going. I wasn't sure I wanted to go. I had gone in the past with a great group of friends and we stayed at a hotel overnight and went out to dinner and had a great time. For several different reasons, most of my friends were not going to be going today, and I wasn't sure I wanted to go by myself. I went ahead and bought tickets, but really wasn't very enthusiastic about it.
Rich left to go on a buisness trip today and I even contemplated backing out and giving my tickets to someone else and not going.
I'm so glad I didn't. I'm so glad that I went. I needed to be there. I needed to feel that spirit, and I needed to hear what they shared in both songs and talks.
I took along my little journal and took notes. Anything that I thought of while the presenters were talking. At the end of today I counted the pages in my journal and I filled 16 pages with notes. 16 pages of thoughts of what I need to focus on in my life. Of thoughts of how I may be out of focus in some area's and other area's that I can allow myself to go out of focus on and not worry about as much. I don't think I realized how much I needed to be there, until I counted those pages of notes.
I drove down alone (I wanted to make sure if I had to go home early I wasn't making someone else leave early) and I sat with some friends that came as well. Unlike the last time I went- when it was truly a bonding friendship time- this time it was a wonderful personal time for me to really focus on and reflect on things that I needed to gain from the presenters and things that I needed to hear.
I was fed spiritually much more than I thought I would be, and more than I thought I needed... and physically more than I needed as well- the chocolate and toffee covered peanuts I grabbed for a snack were too good!
Many times I've thought of life as a roller coaster. Going up and down the hills and screaming throughout. I think I'd like to retire that thought in my mind and think of it more as waves in the ocean. Something drops into our lives and it causes a ripple. Sometimes the ripple gradually spreads out and stops and is absorbed into the water with little change. Other things drop into the water and cause a much bigger splash. Waves start up- first small and gentle, and can build at times into ferocious waves that threated to drown things. But after the waves crash down on the beaches, the undertow takes the water back out to sea and it calms down again until the next disturbance happens. Life keeps going. I just have to be like the water in the sea and ride through the waves, pull myself together after they come crashing down on the beach and continue on and try and absorb the impacts that I can absorb.
Rich left to go on a buisness trip today and I even contemplated backing out and giving my tickets to someone else and not going.
I'm so glad I didn't. I'm so glad that I went. I needed to be there. I needed to feel that spirit, and I needed to hear what they shared in both songs and talks.
I took along my little journal and took notes. Anything that I thought of while the presenters were talking. At the end of today I counted the pages in my journal and I filled 16 pages with notes. 16 pages of thoughts of what I need to focus on in my life. Of thoughts of how I may be out of focus in some area's and other area's that I can allow myself to go out of focus on and not worry about as much. I don't think I realized how much I needed to be there, until I counted those pages of notes.
I drove down alone (I wanted to make sure if I had to go home early I wasn't making someone else leave early) and I sat with some friends that came as well. Unlike the last time I went- when it was truly a bonding friendship time- this time it was a wonderful personal time for me to really focus on and reflect on things that I needed to gain from the presenters and things that I needed to hear.
I was fed spiritually much more than I thought I would be, and more than I thought I needed... and physically more than I needed as well- the chocolate and toffee covered peanuts I grabbed for a snack were too good!
Many times I've thought of life as a roller coaster. Going up and down the hills and screaming throughout. I think I'd like to retire that thought in my mind and think of it more as waves in the ocean. Something drops into our lives and it causes a ripple. Sometimes the ripple gradually spreads out and stops and is absorbed into the water with little change. Other things drop into the water and cause a much bigger splash. Waves start up- first small and gentle, and can build at times into ferocious waves that threated to drown things. But after the waves crash down on the beaches, the undertow takes the water back out to sea and it calms down again until the next disturbance happens. Life keeps going. I just have to be like the water in the sea and ride through the waves, pull myself together after they come crashing down on the beach and continue on and try and absorb the impacts that I can absorb.
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