New Tradition

I bought this book and have so been enjoying it!  Im looking forward to sharing it with my family this Christmas season.  She has seven traditions that you can share with your family to help them think about the true meaning of this time of year.  The first tradition begins with Mary and it so neat because one of the things she does is she just puts out the different nativity characters one at a time to help build the suspense and help bring the focus to Jesus.  So Mary comes first and her Tradition is Pondering.  To ponder what she was thinking that amazing night when the little baby Jesus was born.  She suggests making hearts for the Christmas tree or heart cookies to eat that night when you share Marys experience with your family.  One thing I was thinking I would like to do is create Mary's star path from the book All Year Round by Ann Druitt and Christine Fynes-Clinton and Marije Rowling . Isnt this time of year just so fun!!!   Yea I love it!!!   Have a Happy Day!!!

Cherishing

                                                           sunserf.tumbir.com  pinterest
It could be argued that creativity is a form of prayer,a form of thankfulness and recognition of all we have to be thankful for, walking in this world.   ~ Julia Cameron

Im so excited to start this day!  First it is my youngest daughters birthday! Then I have a bunch of creative ideas roaming around in my head just begging to get out.  So Im looking forward to start working on them!  Yea happy day!

Happy Thanksgiving

Don't be unduly concerned about anything: but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.   ~ Philippians 4:6

Learn the craft of knowing how to open your heart and to turn on your creativity.  There's a light inside of you.              ~Judith Jamison

This quote make me want to try and paint again.  I can see the picture inside of my head. Right now its more of a feeling but oh to bring it to life.

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              Its not Joy that makes us Grateful,
             It is Gratitude that makes us Joyful!
                                                                  ~ Pinterest

   " Gratitude is the food of love-and it is the fruit of love as well."
                                                               ~ Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards
                 Rich brought these home to me and it was such a suprise.  I do so love flowers it was fun to   spend time arranging them!!!  One of those moments to cherish. : )
                                                          

"I think these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes around worrying about are of no importance whatsoever."  ~Isak Dinesen

Another idea for way to cherish everyday this season is a gratitude tree.  We did one a few years back and it has been fun looking over the leaves and seeing what the children were thankful for back then.   Here are a few pictures of the one we are working on this year.  I recieved a new camera so exciting, but Im still learning how to take pictures with it so they arent that great, but it will give an idea of what our tree looks like this year.  We have also started adding to our visual center of thanksgiving.  : )

"Attitude of Gratitude"

I found this really neat idea from the book LightPost for Living The art of choosing a Joyful Life byThomas Kinkade.  He suggests creating  a visual center for all the things you are grateful for.
"Simply hang a big bulletin board in your family room and fill it with reminders of everything you have to thankful for.  Add pictures of your family and pets.  Tack on mementos from trips or cards from people who care about you.  If the brilliance of autumn leaves make you joyful, add a few leaves to your board.  If you love the funny papers pin up some cartoons that make you laugh.  The point is to fill a visual center with reminders of the blessings in your life."
"If you prefer, you can set up a small table or bench and fill it with favorite things-a jar of sand from your favorite beach ,a sweet-scented candle,some framed photographs etc."
I thought this was such a fun idea I have a bulletin board  in our dinning room, Im thinking maybe I will put a shelf under it and then we can also put little treasures we find that represent the blessings in our lives.

Now all we need to do is start adding things to our board and shelf.  : )

                                                                                             Thomas Kinkade

"Thankfulness can reduce stress in your life by making you more content with who you are and what you have.  If you make a habit of accepting every circumstance gratefully and assuming there is a purpose in it, you'll be relieved from the worry and anxiety that go with being resentful and dissatisfied."  ~Thomas Kinkade

What an amazing thought,who would have known that having a grateful heart could relieve stress.  I like the idea of accepting the circumstances that you might fine your self in.  Sometimes that can be so hard but it seems that if I could do that it would open my heart up and I would be able to relax and simply enjoy this journey of life.  It seems alot of times that I cant change my circumstances but I can change my perspective about them.  Today I am going to try and be grateful for the crazy in my life and create moments to cherish.

Oh Happy Day!

Thomas Kinkade

"Gratitude is not precisely the same thing as optimism.  It's more the attitude that makes optimism possible.  It is essentially a habit of thinking, away of understanding who we are and what happens in our lives."~Thomas Kinkade

I am finding the more I strive to look at life with a grateful heart the happier I am and the more content I feel with the circumstances I have in my life.  Instead of hating having to get up early to take my boys to early morning seminary finding that I love seeing the sunrise and having time to write in my morning pages.  I am finding that gratitude is helping me cherish the moments of my life.

                             
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"Gratitude requires awareness and effort, not only to feel it but  to express it."  ~Bonnie D Parkin

                         

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A Grateful Heart

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"A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness.  It is an expression of humility.  It is a foundation of the development of such virtures as prayer,faith,courage,contentment,happiness,love,and well-being."

                                                                                                                          ~Elder James E Faust

I really like the idea of finding inner contentment being at peace in what ever situation I may be in.  Having a sense of happiness, being able to express love, and having a feeling of well being.  Wow to think that just having a grateful heart and an attitude of gratitude could create all of that. So what could I do today to cherish these thought and apply them into my life?  I think I will make time to write in my Evening Pages.  My evening pages is a journal I started to write in.  Its all the lovely thought and events that happened during the day.  I find it so easy  to focus on the negitive things or the things I didnt get done so a lot of the time I go to bed feeling discouraged.  So I decided to focus on the good and the positive because every day has it ups and downs in it.   I have been feeling that to truly cherish my days I need to focus on the positive.  I havnt been doing it as consistently as I would like so tonight Ill get back to writing and cherishing the beautiful events of the day. 

Blessings

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"Hold fast to the blessings which God has provided for you.  Yours in not the task to gain them, they are here, yours is the part of cherishing them."  ~Pres.J Reuben Clark



Counting my blessings:  Warm home, Sunshine, Beautiful autumn leaves, Sweaters, Children who can make breakfast, : ), Laughter, Hope, Running water, Electricity, Washing machine, Wonderful uplifting books, Music,Time...

Cherishing the Day

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"Gratitude,and recognizing gratitude,can have a powerful effect on our whole lives.  When we feel grateful, we feel full-full of love, full of inspiration, full of ideas, and full of creative spirit."  ~Amanda Blake Soule

Today to cherish my day I did some cleaning.  It feels so good to have tidy up from the weekend.  Im always amazed at how fast the house can become dirty.  I also was able to get some pants fixed for my sweetheart and a shirt ironed.   I am so grateful for a home, a vacumn to clean with, and sweet children that pitched in and helped. : )  It is looking better.

Cherishing the Day

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                    "Gratitude, is the heart's memory."
                                               ~French proverb

Cherishing the Day

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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past,brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~ Melody Beattie


I am so grateful for Autumn it always helps me to start slowing down and rethinking what is really important.  What kind of life do I want to be living, how can I reach my dreams, and be the kind of person I want to be.  Time is flying by so fast, I want to savor the moments I have with my family and friends to cherish each day.  Our lives are so very precious, how I want to let go of all the negative and stressful and simply relax and enjoy this journey called life.

Cherishig the Day

Jane Rowley pastels

... "to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."  Thomas S. Monson


One way I have found to try and have gratitude ever with me is to write in a gratitude journal.  It has been such a blessing in my life.  The amazing thing is how it helps in changing my perspective and when things seem so hard and nothing is going the way I had hoped and planned taking the time to write in that little gratitude journal helps me realize what is really important, and how many blessing I have been recieveing.  My perspective is changed and my attitude becomes one of hope and joy.  Instead of lack I find my life is filled with abundance.  Perhaps we can make a heaven on earth. : ) 

Cherishing the Day

 Shenandoah Valley picture from http://www.bestweekends.com/overview.php?dest=CHARLOTTESVILLE

"Very few people realize that the power of metamorphasing the ordinary lies within each of us.  One way to bring about this magic is through the art of appreciation."  Frugal Luuries~Tracy McBride