HAPPY

If you're happy and you know it then your life will surely show it if you're happy and you know it clap your hands. I read a quote this morning by Viktor Frankl. He was a psychiatrist who survived the holocaust. He wrote, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." I love his perspective. I wish I had his resolve. I will say that my glass is usually half full. I often wonder who drank the other half and once in awhile I wonder who's gonna pay for my next Diet Coke. There's an old Chinese saying that says,"Half and orange tastes just as sweet as a whole one."



Perspective is such a crazy thing to me. It's incredibly how the adversary can control so much of our lives simply through his influence on our perspective of things. I came across a quote this morning during my studies by Elder Vern Stanfill, "No matter how intense the darkness of doubt, we choose how long and to what extent we allow it to influence us. We must remember how much our Heavenly Father and His Son love us."



Today I am choosing sun. I've been in the darkness, I've lived through the partly cloudy. Those days may come again, I may lose perspective. That's what makes me human. Today I am choosing to enjoy the happiness that Heavenly Father intended for me. I will control my thoughts and my actions and I will bask in the warmth and goodness that this life has to offer. Today, I will press forward! Press forward through the doubts and sadness, press forward through the temptations and whatever obstacles are in my path. I am choosing my own way. I am choosing to believe that I am a daughter of Heavenly Father. Cherished, loved and adored!



It's my hope and prayer for those of you reading this that you will feel strengthened and empowered to do the same. We can choose happy!

Who You Are: A Message To All Women

Keep on keeping on!

The last couple of weeks....well, they have been challenging. My baby girl is growing up and headed to swim in the sea of sharks without a life vest or a spear. Ok, not really. But she did leave me to work away from home all summer. It's like she thinks she's an adult now or something. Add to that the fact that my FAVORITE fish died. I'm an emotional wreck. Well, more a hot mess than wreck but you get my drift. It's been a crappy week. Part of the problem with a craptastic week is that in my case it can leave the windows wide open for the adversary to start crawling in. I hope I'm not alone in that sometimes I lose sight of the things I should be doing to defend myself from that dementor. I'm grateful for the atonement and the opportunity to start again, to do better than before and to focus my thoughts and actions on the Savior. I consider it my way of slamming that window down on the adversary's fingers! I keep a 4x6 card on my wall over my computer. It's something I typed up based on a YouTube video I love. Tonight was a night I pulled that video up. I needed it. I needed to hear it and see it. I NEED to remember it. Check it out in the next post! As for tonight, when I looked at that 4x6 card, trying to turn my focus, reprogramming my thinking I took in the words at the bottom. I've used them here before and I will use them here again. Note to self: I AM ENOUGH. Friends, I couldn't say it any better than Elder Jeffery R. Holland when he said, "Keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever," "Only the adversary, the enemy of us all, would try to convince us that the ideals outlined in general conference are depressing and unrealistic, that people don’t really improve, that no one really progresses. And why does Lucifer give that speech? Because he knows he can’t improve, he can’t progress, that worlds without end he will never have a bright tomorrow. He is a miserable man bound by eternal limitations, and he wants you to be miserable too. Well, don’t fall for that. With the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can improve, and the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed." As I pick up and dust off I do so with renewed resolve. I am awesome. My worth surpasses all earthly things.....and so does YOURS!

Matthew 11:28-30 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I've been considering what it means to be successful. I have people ask me all the time if I am having success. What does that even mean? Are we successful if we make lots of money? Have lot's of friends? Have a house or camper or other toys? Or are we successful if we find ourselves living each day trying to love as the Savior loved? Serve as the Savior served? I hope that success is measured in terms of the latter.

Face each day with a new coat of paint!

I think nothing of changing my nail polish. In fact, if I had to take it off daily and reapply....I probably would. New color, smooth finish. There are lots of choices when it comes to colors and even finishes now days. Each application gives you a new and unique attribute. It's easy to show off your personality based on your nails via shape, color, decoration. Who knew nail polish or even lack there of could say so much? I've decided as of late that my nail polish speaks volumes about me. There are days like today where I don't have any on. It's back to basics. It's about functionality and getting things done. Then there are the days where a new coat goes on. Those days it's about preparing my best self to go out and face the world. The days in the middle where the color looks good and isn't chipped or coming off...those are the days where I am in the trenches. Out working hard and running around, those days I am often barely keeping my head above water and that is WITH my water wings on. Those days are also the days that perhaps I am taking the time to live. To live in the moment and to feel the sun on my face or watch my son play baseball. Those are the days that preparing the family meals is more important than the blog post or the jewelry order waiting to be put together. Then, when the going gets tough and the tough have been going non-stop and the polish begins to chip and crack, well, much like the atonement works in our lives, the polish remover comes out and the nails are wiped clean. Back to basics to begin again. Depending on where you are at in and what circumstances you are currently living through, it's o.k. not to repaint for a bit. Call upon the Angels of the Lord to surround you and protect you, ask Heavenly Father for direction and purpose, pray for your friends and neighbors that they will be watched over and protected. Then, when you are ready, put on your armor and grab your weapons and get back in there! DC 90:24 "Search diligently, pray always, and be believing and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly."

Have I Done Any Good? featuring Alex Boye and Carmen Rasmusen Herbert - ...

Ordinary Inspiration

What inspires you? I have definitely been inspired by a beautiful, warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie. The bigger the cookie the more inspiring it is. You feel me? I have more than once had to shut up the skinny girl within with a cookie or two. Thin mints. THOSE are inspiring! So inspiring in fact that I can force myself to eat an entire sleeve in one sitting. Delicious. Aside from inspiring my inner food critic I find inspiration in so many places. Where does it come from for you? Do you believe that it is the Spirit speaking to your heart? Is it a moment of clarity and genius? Is it the result of just being an incredibly hard working? The thing about inspiration is that it is freely given to all. It isn't something only those with prestige receive. Ordinary people are often inspired to do extraordinary things. I think that one of the things that brings inspiration is ones ability to see within themselves something divine. Too many of us assume that a person is only great if they are publicly recognized for their efforts, creativity. In fact, sometimes the most inspiring people in the world will go completely unnoticed. What inspires are the people who do something to better humanity in their own small corner of the world. I find lots of inspiration through music, my faith, those I surround myself with. I am proud to associate with some of the most ordinary people who are capable of inspiring some of the most extraordinary things!