A Simple Woman's Daybook~April 26, 2013

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 entry at a time.

Just for today~Friday, April 26, 2013

 

Outside my window...It is 9:00 am and still chilly but bright and sunny with a nice breeze.  In fact as I sit here gazing out the big window by my desk there is a tree "snowing" little white blossoms all over the place.  Pretty.  We are solidly in spring with summer jumping in every once in awhile over here.  Sunday was in the 90s and today will probably be in the 70s.  I am trying to figure out east coast weather right now.  Watching the temps and it is clear that it is still cold up north while the south is climbing into the high 70s and low 80s the last little while.  It should be very pleasant!  Layering is the only way to go on this trip.  In fact that is how I always dress so it shouldn't be too bad packing.

I am thankful for...family, friends, good neighbors, house sitters, gardening volunteers, etc. and neighborhood watch.  It makes leaving for awhile work out just fine.  Love all you guys!

From the learning room...affirmations all the time about how sweet life is even when there are problems all around us.  One day at a time and with the help of God we live, we grow, we learn, and we manage.  One way I cope with the craziness is I just avoid learning every sordid detail of the news.  Honestly!  You don't want to be uninformed  but I can get by very nicely without looking a gory pictures from bomb sites as an example.

I am reading...New materials online and the updated User Guide for FamilySearch/Family Tree.  A recent update to the website of major proportions again, has sent us on another tour of the monopoly board.  You know what I mean...pass go and do not collect $200.00!  In other words, just when you think you have it, you feel like there is yet another do-over.  But that is the nature of a living, vibrant discipline.  You have to keep learning and that's one of things that most appeals to me.  And what you have previously learned serves you well as a foundation for the new and improved.  

I like to think of it as the difference between the static encyclopedia and the vibrant Wikipedia.  The ability to make these changes useful and up to date is what keeps the boredom at bay.  It also almost always improves the accuracy of your work and the functionality of the website. 

I just read one hundred comments by people regarding the changes and wanting it to be all perfect...yesterday.   That somehow seems incongruous to a bunch of people that think nothing of spending years looking for one person on the old dusty microfilms.  We are all more impatience than we use to be.    We have become a society of instant gratification seekers.  We often apply that characteristic to the youth, but alas, it is all of us.  We seem to have a cultural lag here somewhere.  The resistance to change is real and painful but it is good for us.  I actually think I love it.  Sorry for the lengthy response to this one.  You are a true friend if you are still here!  
 

From the kitchen...not much going on there but we are surviving nicely.  Jim made us a great lunch today while I was out getting errands done.  What a nice thing to come home to when you are tired and hungry.
 

I am missing...Downton Abbey, and Lark Rise to Candleford.  Just some good and wholesome down time to just relax is the translation for that I think.  And another thing...time to write.  Hopefully  there will be time for that on our vacation.

Some spiritual thoughts I have been having...my thoughts have been on how being reliant on the Lord all the time is so much a part of how we do day to day living and how grateful I am for that.  It is that one constant that never changes, the one place we can go for peace and rest and unconditional love that is so strengthening.  Whether it is a great day, a hard day or something in between, knowing He is with us makes all the difference.

I am hearing...the sounds of the end of the day.  People are driving past our house on the way home from work, kids playing next door, the frogs are starting their backyard concert and there are some wild turkeys outside gobbling away.  There is classical music playing in the kitchen and I am just absorbing all that into my thoughts as I type away.  There is an excitement in the air that it is the weekend which I find kind of interesting since it is not much different than other days now that we are not out in the workforce.  Still it remains magical.

One of my guilty pleasures...taking time out to get away with Jim and just be together uninterrupted.  A rare pleasure that I am looking forward to on our vacation.  

Pet Peeves...graphic displays of other people pain and suffering as was the case after the bombing in Boston.  I refused to look at the pictures as I shared above.  What a huge invasion of people's privacy to witness them in such pain.  I wonder about the media and those that are so blood thirsty.  I do not want to become desensitized to that through the media's indiscretion and crassness.

I am going...to have a Harry Potter movie night with Jim which means I will be working/playing on my iPad while eating popcorn.  His night to choose.  I am good with that, he lets me choose most of the time.  So Pinterest here I come.  Woohoo!

I am quoting...Thomas S. Monson

"As we face the temptations of time, the confusion of choice, the embarrassment of error, the pursuit of perfection, our Heavenly Father is there to listen, to love, to inspire. Our Father, to whom we earnestly pray, is not an ethereal substance or a mysterious and incomprehensible being. Rather, He has eyes with which to view our actions, lips with which to speak to us, ears to hear our pleas, and a heart to understand our love.  ("A Quest for Eternal Life," BYU-Hawaii Jubilee Celebration, October 21, 2005)

If I could change one thing it would be...it is so hard to pick just one, but I'll say that there was more trust in the world between people.  Honesty, trust, goodwill.  Less suspicion, less being out for personal gain at all costs, etc.  I will paraphrase the words of Gordon B. Hinckley...Be kind, it would cure so much of what ails this world. 

  

An enjoyable movie/ TV show we have watched lately...The Love Letter with Jennifer Jason Leigh.  It is an old Hallmark movie directed by Dan Curtis who is one of our favorite directors. There have been other movies out with this title so if you decide to watch it be sure it is this one.  It has romance, intrigue, sweetness and a little fantasy thrown in.  I think you would love it too.

I am curious about...what tomorrow will bring.  Are you?  Life is truly an adventure.

Plans for the rest of the week...Well let's just say there may be some tangible, southern charm surrounding us in the near future.

One of my favorite things...hope.

Some things that made me so happy this week...We hosted a wedding reception here for our dear friend's son and his new wife, enjoyed a quiet lunch with two beautiful ladies when it seemed like time stood still for an hour or so, finishing the last of my 10 presentations that have been ongoing for four months during which time I changed the PowerPoint four times, and got a thoughtful note from a  treasured friend.  And my sweet friend, Carol, became a grandma again after what seemed like a long wait for labor to begin.  She is such a gem, I do love you, Carol!  It was a great week.


The most surprising thing this week...discovering we are leaving one day later than I thought we were.  I am actually a little ahead of schedule, thus I had time to do this Daybook.

Some photos I am sharing this week... 

Alex and Shauna Leal had their wedding 

reception in our backyard a week ago tonight. 



We cranked up the waterfall for the first time this year.  
It is always fun and exciting like lighting the Christmas
 tree for the first time each year.

The youngest guest, Alex's nephew, John

This is towards the end of the reception. 

 At the high point we had over 100 people here

It was so neat to be able to be a part of  this for our good friends.  We have known and loved Alex since he was born.  Many hands worked hard to get this all together for them.  It is a thing we do in our church and is so much fun!  I didn't have lots of time for picture taking but the yard was so pretty with the dozens of beautiful flower pots designed and planted by Michelle Simpson's Creations.  This is my friend that beautifies the world one flower at a time.  Here are a few of the pots all gathered together on the table while she was working on them a couple of days before.  

Our yard is pretty much a sea of green

 so the color has been so beautiful!

They had two heaters out but 

It truly was like a summer's night.

There could not have been better weather for April 19th!

Everything was in your favor, Alex and Shauna!

May it ever be so!

          Until we all return...happy day to you!

❤♡♥♡❤♡♥♡❤♡♥s, Bon