A Simple Woman's New Year's Daybook

Our lives pass swiftly by! I want to do something to remember

the everyday moments and my thoughts about them.  

That is what this daybook is all about.

Focusing on the little things that become my life.

One week at a time.

Just for today~Tuesday, January 1, 2013

 

Outside my window...It is bright and beautiful out today.  Cold enough for a fury, warm scarf and sweater but not cold enough for a coat when just running in and out to the car and then into a building.  Standing in the sun feels good but you kind of have to keep moving.  The temperature is 39 degrees.  Invigorating.  It is one of those days when it actually can feel colder in the house then outside.  I have been out and about this morning and with friends and now am just settling in to work.  It is 1:00 pm.   13 hours exactly into 2013.  So far, so good.

I am thankful for...my handy, dandy husband who has already fixed up a "Room With A Past" gently used treasure for above our bed and it is now hanging on the wall~looking like it has always been there.  And I am thankful for his desire to make gourmet food all the time, like the marinated red bell peppers I am having for lunch as I write.  They are roasted and then thinly sliced and drenched in sauteed garlic and onions, a little olive oil, salt and a teaspoon of pesto.  Add a couple of thin slices of a crusty baguette and you'd think you've died and gone to heaven.  It is so fresh and healthy.  That is just the tip of the iceberg regarding his goodness.  Yep, today I am thankful for James.

From the learning room...that life is in a state of constant flux.  The things you thought would be a part of your life forever, often aren't.  Recently we were in San Francisco and drove past the large 22 story Standard Oil Building where I use to work.

I remember thinking back in my early 20s how that was so permanent so "forever".  Several years later the Standard Oil Company is now Chevron and they do not employ one single person in San Francisco.  The 8 or 9 high rise buildings they once occupied have all been sold and vacated and now all of those thousands of employees are elsewhere.

No one would have predicted that when I worked there.  Things change, times change and people change.  Being kind of a sentimentalist I don't really like my world rocked like that but it is a fact of life.  Life is change.

I am reading...a lot of old email trying to clean-up and get rid of what no longer seems relevant, interesting or necessary.  I have realized I have to just try to manage and delete every day once I am finished with something and file only the very most useful.  Hummm, annoying.  Everything ultimately boils down to daily maintenance. :-/

From the kitchen...simplifying after a month of over indulgences.  Sound familiar?  Soups, salads, cottage cheese, simple stuff and getting all the junk out of the house.  Cleaning up the environment for more success in getting and staying healthy.

I am missing...boring.  We have been running far too much over the holidays, it was all tremendously fun, but I am now needing respite from all of it.  I wish I could magically make all our Christmas decor jump into its little hiding places until the next go around, but...I guess I'll start working on it slowly over the next several days. 

Some spiritual thoughts I have been having...Most of my spiritual thoughts this week were centered around the talk I was asked to give in church this past Sunday on goals.  Thoughts of how the Lord has given us the prefect prescription for making changes in our lives and how we should use it more.  If you want to read it, go back just one post to the post before this one. Or you can click here!

I am hearing...some faint classical music coming from the docking station in the kitchen which Jim nearly always has on.  I think I need to put something a little more lively on my computer right now.  This is a very weird confession but I only love classical music in the morning but when I need added energy...not so much.  The only other time I love it is when I am feeling sad...it seems to settle my thoughts and bring a bit of calm and sometimes...even cheer.  "What a Wonderful World by Ole Satchmo just came on when I turned on my playlist.  Oh, wow that reminds me of so many things.  One of my friends from the past in particular.  He is gone now but never to be forgotten.  The memory of him is bigger than life.  And this also reminds me of New Orleans...The French Market and the music in the streets and mint juleps (virgin of course.)

One of my guilty pleasures...living in my memories of special days gone by and daydreaming of the future.  Both of those things make the present more pleasant and gives me balance and a sense of the richness of our lives.

Pet Peeves...constant interruptions when I am working.  I get lost in my thoughts and then someone or something jars me into the moment and it is so distracting.  But c'est la vie, n'est pas?

I am going...I am going to grab my fury leopard blanket and get under it for a little riposo.  Be right back!  Ahh, that was nice!

I am quoting...Pinterest:

If I could change one thing it would be...That people would never misunderstand what we feel, our motives, our intentions. 

An enjoyable movie we have watched lately...Les Miserables.  Simply stunning...the very best there is to offer out there.

I am curious about...why a story like Les Miserables that is so founded on Christ's truths, teachings and the principles of the Gospel can be so universally loved in a world that for the most part denies him?  My only answer is that the light of Christ dwells within all of us whether we like it or not.  Denying him cannot negate the veracity of what is.

Plans for the rest of the week...Starting an arduous task of redoing, revising and creating some old and new presentations on Family History and Genealogy.  I have 14 classes to teach in various places scheduled this year so far.  No time to dilly dally now.  I have four of them in January...the first on the 8th.  Yikes!  This week other than a dental appointment tomorrow at 8:00 am (ugh!) that is my priority.  Everything else has to take the back seat for now including putting Christmas away.  The party is o. v. e. r...nose to the grindstone starting tomorrow around 10:00 am.
 

One of my favorite things...pushing myself over the edge with commitments apparently.  I do love a passion for something though...what else gets your blood pumping with a desire to work your tail off?  I have decided my definition of a passion is when you are so engrossed in the doing of something you don't want to stop until you drop.  It just fills you up until you have no room to think of anything else in your life for that little while.  Do you have a passion for something?  I hope so.  It is essential, exhausting, elevating, exhilarating, enabling, efficacious and enlightening.  Whoa, I do like E words evidently. Smiles...

Some photos I am sharing this week...the Christmas season has held some really fun activities for us.  One of them was setting up and decorating for a wedding that was held at our church on the 28th.  We Latter-day Saints are a peculiar lot.  We love to help each other get ready for big events like weddings and we literally save families thousands of dollars by lending a hand.  We decorate whatever venue is selected and in our church one can use our cultural hall and kitchen and all of the tables and chairs, etc free of charge.  Cha Ching...money in the bank for the bride and groom.

Then if friends help with all the other things it is just such a nice thing.  We had tremendous help with our three wedding in four months back in 1997 and Jim and I have been working on weddings for other people ever since.  Pay it forward...that is what we all do.  So we got together with several other friends and set up this gorgeous winter wonderland for this older couple.  The woman had been in our ward and lost her husband to Parkinson's several years ago.  She found a wonderful new man and they married the other day.  She wanted a regular reception like a new bride and that is what she had.

This is my good friend, Lanette, and she is the one who got to go up in the cherry picker and hang the snow flakes on the strings of tiny white lights that had been strung across the cultural hall...aka full size basketball court.  She is fit and strong and the bomb!  She is my Weight Watcher Leader and the most popular one in the whole region, I might add.  I had her do a little commercial for Weight Watchers just for fun!  She is my inspiration!  65 pounds off for six plus years now!  You go, girl! 2013 is the year to succeed!

The 12 rounds were set with pink table clothes and white Poinsettias as you can see.  We decorated the 12 foot tree with lots of gorgeous pink, white and silver ornaments and icicles. Jim and Dave did a large part of that  along with Doug of course.   We did lights and fancy, wired, silver and white ribbon, accented with white snow flakes on 70 feet of live juniper and pine garlands.  They were made by our friend, Darlene.  Lee decorated the large white gazebo with the same type of garlands and lights for the cake table.

When the lights were dimmed it was simply gorgeous.
And the pine garlands smelled heavenly.
It helped create a wedding day for this couple
in their 70s that they will never forget.

My sweet friend, Maureen, was in charge and she is amazing!
She is a professional floral arranger and has done many weddings.
She also worked with me when I had my decorating business.
Her husband Doug and son Jeff helped a lot too.

The workers bees included Michelle and her sons,
 Joseph and Jacob and his friend Brittany, Lee, Dave,
Bob and Shirley,
Jim and me and a few others.

We had a fun time with our friends and got the job done.
We find that that is the fun of doing service for others.
A Win/Win all the way round.
Service= a gift of accomplishment with fun attached.

❤♡♥♡❤♡♥♡❤♡♥s, Bon