HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! 

To these beautiful mother's in my life ~

Everyday they are examples to me of what it means to be a daughter of God - loving their husbands, taking care of their homes and their children, watching out for their friends and neighbors, and sharing the Gospel through their Christ-like examples.  I love them so much and love being in their homes and feeling the wonderful spirit that they have created there.  

 

Thank you for blessing my life with the most beautiful, fun, and loving grandchildren in the world!  They make me smile, laugh, and have taught me what is most important in life.  

    So thankful that Families are Forever ~

Happy Birthday Paul!  May 12th

Paul celebrated his 15th birthday this past Thursday.  What a great young man!  He is thoughtful, always willing to help, and has the best hugs.  

Looking through a scrapbook I had made for my Mom and Dad years ago, I found some fun things that Cory had written about Paul when he was little  -

*He is crawling, pulling himself up to standing, and trying to stand on his own, but I think it will still be awhile before he's walking (especially since he's only been doing all that for less than a month)

* He has 7 teeth and is getting 2 more

*He is still always very happy and pretty easygoing

*He will growl (that's not the exact word, but it's the closest I can get) when we are eating and I can't keep food on his plate fast enough

*When Sammi takes something from him he will try to grab it back and since he's remarkably strong, there are times he is able to get it back

* He follows Samantha wherever she goes now that he is able to get around

* He can eat marshmallows like no other.  Adam gave him some today during conference and he inhaled them.  

He was my Home Depot partner

And my seat mate on a trip to Chicago

                                                        And, fun on all levels

A New Great Book

This week, Angella introduced me to a book, Our Savior from Self-Doubt, by Gaylamarie Rosenberg.  Dad ordered the audio version and we listened to it on the way to the Temple last week.  There were so many great lessons to be learned that I decided I needed a hard copy so I could re-read and highlight parts I thought were important.  I hope you won't mind if I share a little of the book - and this week there was a concept I know I need to work on and that was Changing our Focus.  

The author tells the story of attending a Parent-Teacher conference for her daughter who was in fourth grade.  The teacher explained to her how her daughter was doing and then remarked, "If I want my students to improve their writing skills, I point out the good things they are doing.  This approach motivates them to improve."  Then he looked at her and said, "just remember, whatever you focus on will increase. If you focus on the negative, the negative will increase.  If you focus on the positive, the positive will increase."  The teacher reiterated this this same thought to her a couple of more times during their meeting and she finally told him, "I think I got it."  She goes on to say, "In my research about self-doubt, I've discovered many good ideas and skills for changing unproductive thinking.  But none ring truer to me than the advice I received from my daughter's teacher:  whatever we focus on will increase.  When we focus on our weaknesses and inadequacies, those weaknesses and inadequacies will continue to occupy our thoughts.  So if we feel that we are stuck in a rut of negative self-talk, we need a change of focus!"

We have a busy week coming up, but I am going to try my best to focus on the positive, on the good things in our lives, and on having patience for those things that are still a work in progress. I'll let you know how I did 😀.