OOPS!!

Tiffany just brought to my attention a minor correction:

I am NOW (not not) part of three seperate speaking teams!!
:0 Thanks Tiff

p.s I would have corrected the post but I couldn't figure out how... yet another frontier for me to forge in my young age!!

Almost 55 and going strong!!

Margaret Millon- A Speaking Partner

Nov. 15th 2009

Almost 55 and going strong!!


Yesterday I stopped to get a taco at Arctic Circle. There sat a sign about getting 15% when a person is 55+ years. “Yipee!” I thought “only a few more days to go and I get 15% off!!

It is easy to rejoice at my new life-mark when I am feeling healthy, wealthy and… well not always to wise but I try to be.

I am reflecting on where I’ve been and where I am headed and I feel so thankful. So many of my wishes have “come true.” I had hoped to be a wife, mother, writer, speaker and singer… and here I am with:


* Strength and mostly pain free
* We just paid off our 2nd mortgage (Glory hallelujah!!!!) One more to go…
* A wonderful, handsome, supportive, romantic husband (yes ladies, he can be romantic!),
* 6 (Josie included) loving children, 12 grandchildren and one on the way
* Two books written and a number of articles
* I am now part of 3 seperate teams of speakers. They all have amazing, supportive, inspirational, motivated members
* I now have 18 guitar students that I love and learn from each week and I am able to sing at various places (including my ward choir)…

In addition to all of this I have a testimony of my brother Jesus Christ. I have the wealthy and wisdom of friends and family. What more could I ask for?

55 years?? Bring it on!!!

Just checking in...

Hey gals!

So I know everyone is pretty busy, especially considering the holidays coming up. However, I would encourage y'all to post at least one last time before the end of the year. We can go back to our original goals and either feel pretty crappy we didn't accomplish much, or feel great about what we did! Ha, ha... I think I fall into the prior category but I'll see if I can put some kind of positive spin on it. :)

Well, I feel overwhelmed with how disorganized my life and home are right now. I know that sounds silly since I have no children to take care of and have flexibility with my job. It's just my house is pretty freakin messy and I'm not sure where to begin. Even if I begin, there's the small issue with my hubby (bless his heart) acting like Hansel and Gretel and leaving a trail wherever he goes. Then there's the thing with not knowing where we'll be in 6 months when he graduates. Also, we're trying to short sale our home. Those are the major stresses in my life. I'm sitting here trying to find a place to begin. I suppose the thing I have most control over is my home but where to start...? Well, I'll hop off my soap box. Here are my goals through the end of November.

1. Spirituality: Pray nightly on knees.
2. Home Cleanliness/ Organization: Focus this week on laundry, kitchen counters, and bedroom organization.
3. Prospect Improvement: By November 30th, send out letters to all former Centex buyers.

Going back to my first goal, I was thinking of a song I listened to recently. Check it out if you get a chance. It's by Lee Brice and called Love Like Crazy. http://musicremedy.com/audio/index.cfm?fuseaction=showaudioplayer&audioId=37693&quality=6.

I love you all!

Tiff

Post- Baby!

Kezia is finally here! Hooray!
For the most part, it has been great. I still think I'm getting more sleep now than I did in the last couple months of my pregnancy. It has been hard with the girls lately, though. See my 4am post for details.
So - this week, I have a few, simple goals that hopefully will keep my girls (and therefore myself) more sane and happy:

1. I'm going to try to wake up by 8am every day. It's going to be hard considering she's still waking up 3 times a night, but I will take comfort that I am planning on getting a nap in the afternoon. We need to get back into that routine.
2. I want to try and have scripture study, character quality, and prayers every morning and eat breakfast as a family.
3. I want to get my morning things done at least 4 days this week. This includes emptying the dishwasher, doing 1 full load of laundry (washing, folding, putting away), kitchen & living room straightened, and helping McKinley & Ireland get their morning things done (bowl in dw, clean room, dressed, teeth & hair brushed, dogs fed & learning time).
4. I want to have personal study at least 4 times this week.
5. more fruits & veggies.
6. Get out for at least a 5 minute walk with the girls.
7. Get to bed by 10pm.

Heidi's updates

Hi everyone! How are you?
I am hanging in there. A month left (please pray for me that it's not longer than a month!)...
I am looking forward to cooler weather.
I am looking forward to General Conference.
I am looking forward to my bow shower!
I am looking forward to THIS BABY!!

Here are some updates from me:

Good stuff:
-I still feel pretty good about my media choices. I hardly ever watch TV. I'm more into reading inspirational stuff. I try to listen to uplifting music and watch good movies.
-I still feel good about exercising. I worked out 4 times last week, and at least 3 times the past couple weeks before that. The only real bummer is that it seems like my carpal tunnel stuff gets WORSE, not better when I exercise. It does help me so much emotionally, though. I DO think if I was better at doing yoga, that would help, so I'm going to try harder to do more yoga next week.
-Birthday Books. All I really need to do is put in the last month & finish McKinley's slideshow DVD, but both of them are pretty much done.
-Appreciate my loved ones more. Specifically Jason. I started the "Love Dare" a couple weeks ago. It HAS NOT been easy - and I have a long way to go - but I have learned a lot about true, Christlike, unconditional love, and I've been able to show that to Jason in various ways these past couple weeks & it has definitely strengthened our marriage.
-I did go to the temple a couple weeks ago w/ the sisters, which was great! Jason & I need to really go at least one more time before the baby comes, though.
-I've been pretty good about getting to bed on time lately. It's hard hard when I'm so exhausted all the time.

FOCUS ON:
-Making a list of things I should be doing every day and projects to keep me healthy and happy until this baby comes.
-Making sure I wake up when the Spirit first tuggs at me to get up and seek the Lord.
-Meal Planning. Need to do better.
-Transferring VHS to DVD. I need to make this one of my "to-do" projects before the baby comes.
-Date night & temple w/ my sweetie.
-Taking better care of my skin and nails.
-Being a better listener to my girls and my hubby.

First Graders share their hopes and dreams

Cindy will soon be in this arena!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW1y0VHuGcQ

Hey Everybody!

I changed the background. Let me know what you think!
Yes, September is here. Kind of crazy. Kind of cool. At least I hope it cools down soon!
Just want to let you all know that I love reading your entries. And those of you who feel it's just been too long, IT'S NEVER TOO LATE! you can just get on here & say hi if you want. We love you.

Here's my updates from the past couple weeks:

GOOD STUFF!
1. I've been so excited to post that I exercised 5 times last week! Hooray! I think I was just setting the bar too low, so this week I'm shooting for 5 times again. And that can range from just 20 minutes to an hour, but EVERY day.
2. Been better at waking up by 7am & getting at least a 1/2 hour of personal study in. I am SO BLESSED when I do this. The main thing that I struggle with is even though my glass "overfloweth" by the time I'm done & I feel ready to start the day, all it takes is one tantrum or mess or attitude from one of my girls & my cup feels empty again. I need to take the time to keep refilling it through prayer & repentance.
3. Been good about media! I read a fantastic book - Yearning for the Living God. so good! Inspires me to not take this gospel for granted, sacrifice more, and be closer ot the spirit so I can recognize & obey promptings so that I can see more miracles in my life! I also put 6 Christian books/DVDs on hold at the library & am excited to read them!
4. Serving - was able to serve a lady in our ward who's on bedrest - pregnant w/ twins. Was thankful for that opportunity!
5. Memory Stuff. I am basically caught up with backing up the memory stuff from this year (besides the camcorder). I still have back-log to do, but I'm really starting to feel more organized with memory stuff. I also pretty much have McKinley's birthday book done & that will be a HUGE relief to get that done & be able to do better maintenance for the next year with their books.
6. Scriptures/character qualities in the morning before breakfast. It's been nice to gather as a family, read scriptures from our special Book of Mormon, and talk about a character quality for that week.
7. We've been on time to church the past couple weeks!

STUFF I NEED TO FOCUS ON:
1. Serving more CHEERFULLY - especially my family. My husband & children deserve a happy, upbeat mom! What kind of message am I sending if I am constantly exhausted and frustrated? I want to have a servant's heart & LOVE to serve!
2. Temple. We had plans for last month, but they fell through. We did go as girls, though, so that was nice, but we NEED to go as a couple this month.
3. Journal. Would like to get back in the habit of every day or every other day.
4. Love Notes! I've been really bad with writing them down on a daily basis, even though I did document a few really neat blessings we've seen recently.
5. Eating. Though my exercising has been SO MUCH better, my eating seems like it's been worse. For myself & my baby, I need to focus on getting more nutrients in me.
6. Meal plan. The past week or 2 has not been good. I need to get back on track.
7. FlyLady. I've been better with keeping my house straightened (especially since the gunny bag fairy started coming around), but the CLEANING (dusting, washing walls, etc) has really slacked. I'm planning on doing some catch-up tomorrow, but I need to do it EVERY week! Then it can really just be an hour, instead of feeling like it's an all-morning task.