Dig It Up

I've been listening to books from the online library, and I really enjoyed one by Dr. Henry Cloud called 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life.  The first of those nine things was "Dig it Up". 

He talks about taking a close look inside ourselves to look for "treasures".  These might be dreams, imaginings, wishes, talents, and things we would enjoy.  Dr. Cloud says that some of these things have become hidden from us because of past experiences.  Perhaps we tried something once, and got a negative response, so we determined to never try again!  It is possible that we also hide our heart's desire because we want to please the people we know and we don't think they will approve, or we are afraid of being laughed at.

The author quoted King Solomon as saying "Above all else, guard your heart" (which Dr. Cloud defined as our dreams).  Those good treasures were likely planted there by God.  Do we really want to give them up?

If we dig up hurt while digging for treasure then it is time to forgive and move on.  Being unwilling to forgive hurts us more than anyone else, and may keep us from becoming all that we could be.

What have I dug up?  Well, admittedly, I'm still digging :-).  I do puppets because years ago I dug up the memory of how much I enjoyed making my stuffed animals talk.  I write poetry despite a discouraging experience with a teacher in grade school.  I think it is worth digging through our memories to get rid of hurt, and to potentially find a dream that, with attention, can become reality.

Paying Attention to the Right Things

Today I was reading my library book, "Mindfulness for Beginners" by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, who teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.  There were a couple of things that I read that I thought it would be good to think about.

The author was talking about some of the patients he works with, and how he tries to get them to see that, "...as long as you are breathing there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter what is wrong."

How is that possible?  Well, to illustrate he teaches that instead of focusing on all that is wrong and needs to be fixed, we should "systematically pour energy in the form of attention into what is right with us."

Here are the examples he gave of some of the things we can focus on.  He said we should focus on the fact that, "we have a body in the first place, that we are breathing, that we can sense the world in various ways, that the mind generates thoughts and emotions seemingly endlessly, that we have the capacity for kindness toward ourselves and others, that we can be patient and trusting."

This reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from a previous general conference. 

“The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”                  Russell M. Nelson

This quote has been helpful to me.  What I focus on has a big affect on how I feel, and how happy I am. 

*Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash

Odds and Ends

Tia and Chewy while some of us watched a movie.

The girls made a cheese bunny that we ate.

Jake, Derek, Me, Kayli, Trisa and Dan on Sunday after "church".

Since I overdid it last week and made my hamstring and hip hurt, I hadn't done physical therapy much.  I knew I needed to start back up today but I didn't want to.  Then I remembered we own a yoga mat that had never been used.  I took it to my garden and did physical therapy there.  It was great except for two things.   It was around 10 a.m. and the garden was hot!  And, the bark got all over the yoga mat and I had to pick slivers off of it.  I chose the garden because I could close the gate and stay fairly hidden.  I guess I'll just find a good spot of grass in the back yard next time!

This is the exercise bike I bought the other day.  I didn't like the spinner bike, so now Tia and Mike have it.  This one is a desk bike.  I tend to do a lot of things sitting down and don't move as much as I should.  This is me doing the bills at the desk.  Let's just say that it's a little hard to pedal and write at the same time -- but I got a little biking in!  I used the computer for a while too.  It straps on the desk to make sure it won't fall.

Maple Canyon on a Stormy Saturday

Dan kept climbing up.  The rocks were wet and slippery so I was working hard at not worrying.
Thankfully he was fine.

I assure you that the ice looked awesome in person.  It's not so impressive in the picture.

I wish I had taken more of these two because this one is blurry!  It's cute blurry, but would have been better if it wasn't!  Connor's hair is fun, and he forgot a jacket.  It was really quite chilly!

I tried to get Jake and Kayli to turn around.  Jake said, "I'll pass".
Teddy and Chewy came too.

This is Dan.  Up again.  It was farther up than this picture looks.

Me and Derek.  I set a timer and walked 10 minutes in and 10 back out.  I was trying not to hurt my leg more since I keep overdoing it and making it hurt.  I got back to the van just as the hail started.

I read my story in the van while the rest of the family hiked in a little farther and then ended up coming back in the hail and rain.  Still, it was good to have an adventure on a Saturday!

 

On the way there and back there were sheep, sheep everywhere!  We would roll down the windows and smell the stink, and smile at the chorus of baas ,and ooooo and ah at the little lambs.

The Laundry Room Project

I'm not sure what overcame me, but I looked at the laundry room on Thursday and, even though I didn't really feel great, decided I didn't like the color anymore and I should paint it.  It's a little room.  It shouldn't take long -- right?

I didn't remember to take a before picture until the shelves were off the wall and almost all of the stuff was removed.  

I don't remember how many hours I worked on the room on Thursday.  Almost immediately upon getting ready to paint, I hurt myself by pinching my hand in the roller.  Ouch!  I'm still wearing a bandaid to keep it from hurting.  I made lots of noises dropping things or groaning over some mistake I made.  The girls yelled to see if I was alright a few times.  I stopped working at dinner time.  The back wall was mostly done, I had used the remaining light blue paint, which covered the 3 walls once, and then I mixed another blue with white and painted again.

Friday I was sure it wouldn't take long to finish, but I kept fixing little things and switching colors of paint and cleaning paint brushes.  I think it took from 8 a.m. until about 1 p.m. or so to declared myself finished.

Sorry.  This one's blurry.  Oops!

Derek helped me put shelves back up today.  We added one that is easier for me to reach, and so I just put silly pictures on the top.  I've never decorated a laundry room before!

Our laundry room is a bit crowded, but it works well!  We sort clothes into the baskets on the left on laundry day and use the other baskets to switch things from washer to dryer to wherever they are going to get folded.

I love that I don't have to climb up on the dryer to fetch a new bottle of detergent anymore!
YAY!

Staying Safe From Covid19: Can Princess Choose the Right?

Princess!  Naturally I think she is hilarious!

(You just need to click on the links below to watch the videos)
Video #1

Video #2

Productive Social Distancing

I haven't spent a lot of time reading lately, and almost no time playing instruments.  What I have done is projects.  These have given me something to do while the boys work on school so that I don't stress out over their school as much.  My projects have given me a chance to use some of my rustier skills, and to develop new ones.  Here are some of the things that I've been spending time on.

This is the jean quilt I started over 20 years ago.  I am still not done, but I have a plan.  I plan to wait until a week when no rain is expected, and set it up outside on the quilt frames.  Of course, that only works if I'm really fast at getting it done, or if it is before the time of year when the sprinklers come on every other day or so.

This was the beginning of me putting my table back together.

This is me seeing what it would look like together, but the top isn't attached here because I hadn't painted the checker board.

This is the table all taped for painting.  I used gaffer tape because it was exactly the right width.  Derek helped me a lot, and it took longer than it was supposed to because I measured wrong and it was off center.  I should remember to measure twice!  Or maybe 3 times!

It turned out awesome!  I still want to spray a polyurethane coat or two on the top to protect it, but it seems hard to ask someone to help me move it to a better painting location!

These are the yellow folding chairs my parents gave us years ago.  We have used them quite a bit.  When I couldn't go to D.I. anymore to look for the two chairs I had in mind to go with my checkerboard table, I realized that I could repaint these, and they would do just fine for now.

Jake did a lot of the work for this.  He dug out almost all of the dirt for the fire pit.  I carried the paver things to go around it, which wasn't very smart of me since Connor and Amanda were in the back yard and Connor would have been glad to help if I had asked.  He would have been happy to help if I didn't ask too, but he didn't notice what I was doing until I was on the last one!  We cooked in the fire pit on Tuesday evening for dinner.  We have tried to do that on the Tuesday of Easter week as much as we could.  Jesus stayed on the Mount of Olives during his last week before his crucifixion and I figure He would have had a fire to sit by, or maybe to cook on.

This is my bean trellis -- made out of our old tree's branches.  I want to try to grow pole beans this year, more because I think I'll like the plants than for the beans, but maybe the grown up me will like home grown beans?

I worked on this today.  It's my fairy garden.  I'm not done with it, but I decided to try to transplant some plants that were mostly dead somewhere else to see if they would revive, and to transplant some that had spread all over, because it's cheaper to do that than to buy more!

This wasn't really a project, except surrounding it with rocks and putting nice dirt on top.  This is my pretty bush that is getting ready to bloom.

What you probably can't see in this picture is that, in the dirt at the bottom of the picture pea plants and radishes are growing.  They are just barely poking through!

Here are the yellow chairs turned blue.  I'm actually not done with them, but I got really, really tired of spray painting!

I started on the dark blue ones, which also aren't done.  I might need to sand those a bit and try again.  Did I mention that I got really tired of spray painting?  (And no, Derek's car was not parked there when I was painting.  That would have been a bad idea).

I cleaned that garage too, rearranging things a bit (with Derek's permission since most of it was his stuff).  I have absolutely loved the warm sunshiny days when I could go outside and do things -- even if it was just pulling weeds, or restaining my garden boxes.  Mostly, I am enjoying looking around at things and seeing if I can make them better.  Derek and my kids have been helpful and encouraging.  It turns out that social distancing can be very productive!

Tia Turns 27!

On April 5th we had a birthday celebration for Tia.  On the 6th she actually had her birthday.  I did not end up with all of the pictures since I didn't take them all -- but I have some!

Tia with her first present.

I've never seen anyone so happy to get exercise bands before!

Tia is opening a picture of her present.  It arrived on her birthday and Jake and I took it to her on the day after her birthday.

Kayli really wanted Tia to have a way to play the piano and so we got her a full length keyboard.  She can turn it down if other people will be bothered, or she can put on headphones.  I love that my girls play the piano and enjoy it!

Tia is beautiful and fun and kind.  We are very thankful for her in our family.  She is creative, and smart, and has a contagious laugh which she uses often.  Happy Birthday to Tia!

To Stop -- Or Not To Stop

This morning I left the boys getting ready to work on schoolwork, and Derek having a meeting via some sort of technology, and I went to physical therapy.  I've had a good week, and so the physical therapist added one more exercise, and had me do some of the ones I already have, and then I was done -- 20 minutes earlier than usual.  I hurried and changed and headed south, towards home. 

I wanted to go to the North antique store in Springville that I hadn't seen with Shannon, but I also don't want to make the risk to my family members or anyone else any higher.  I debated, but decided that  there probably wouldn't be many people there, and I could run through kind of fast.  So, that's what I did.  There was exactly one other shopper and so I tried to not be in the same aisle as him.  I took exactly two pictures which I will add and explain.

I took a picture of this chair because of the year on it.  That is the year of my birth.  So this antique is my age.

I took a picture of this because of the cloth covering the seat.  When I was twelve my Mom was going to teach me how to sew and so she let me pick some cloth.  I'm pretty sure it was just like that cloth above.  It was NOT fun to try to add a ruffle to that skirt!

Being Close and Far At The Same Time

The picture on the mantle was one of the last things I got at D.I. before they closed
it to protect us all from germs.  It might be necessary -- but it was a sad day for me!

I have a friend who posted on Facebook the idea that we should really be trying to be socially close to people right now -- while keeping our physical distance.  I think that is true.  This is a stressful time for many.  We have people in our family who are in the at risk group, and it's hard not to get stuck in the "what ifs".  There seems to always be the thought in the back of our minds of "what will happen next?"

I think it helps everyone to have supportive, reassuring people in their lives.  It helps to take advantage of any time we can outside.  It is fun to see more people out walking around.  We smile and wave and even chat from a "socially appropriate" distance.  Inside we can text and call and write people -- and spend time with those in our houses.

On television today I watched something that made me want to try harder to be close to the people I love, and to work harder to notice those who may be quite alone.  I have been dreading the week ahead because the weather is supposed to be wet and cloudy, and that can add to the trapped feeling I sometimes get.  But I like the idea of trying to be creative for my family, and with my family, to try to find ways to make this week better for as many people as we can!

For years we had a subwoofer sitting right where this tree is.  I was trying to figure out
how to disguise the subwoofer, but then I realized that I just didn't like it on the fireplace.  In fact, I enjoyed having nothing sitting there -- but I put the tree there yesterday anyway.  

On the left of the entertainment center you can see the subwoofer being used as a table for the flowers.  I like that much better!  Yay for a moment of inspiration and for Jake who figured out how to do it for me while Derek was gone.

A Week Of Social Distancing

My selfies almost always include a part of my hand.
Kayli still has to actually go to work and sometimes she wants a picture of her dog.
I assume she wants one of me too :-)

Hi all.  How has your week been?  My "social distancing" is a lot more full of people than during "normal" days since I usually have the house to myself a lot of the time.  Now I share it with family members all day every day!  It's good that I love my family!  I get stir crazy though.  I mean -- if I turn on the television I am interrupting home school and if I play an instrument I might be serenading people from Derek's work!  If I use my Chromebook I might keep Jake from finishing up homework.  And -- I really just don't want to cook and I apparently should have waited and cleaned all of the closets after we were all stuck at home.

I just got to wondering if I should feel guilty for going to Walmart?  I can't bring myself to stand outside in line at Costco so that's not a temptation.  I'll pick up those pictures I have waiting for me another time.  We eat a lot of cereal, which I usually order online from Walmart anyway, but cereal requires milk of some variety, and I get that at Walmart.  It's possible that I am hoping to run into a friend by accident, or maybe just have something different to look at.

I'll catch you up on the pictures of some of the things we've done.

When Derek was in Orlando last week I got him a "new" tie hanger.  It has duck heads on both sides.  For some reason it struck my funny bone.  It does do a good job of holding the ties too.  No more falling off when we open the closet door!

On a warm day I started painting my table.  It's not done yet.
I'm sure more warm days are coming, and I like the color.

Connor has been here for spring break.  He has to go back to take care of some responsibilities for church this weekend even though his school is online.  People were in our room visiting at night.

Naturally Jake refused to look at me and I assume he didn't smile either, but there was no way for me to see. 

We had to cut down our once beautiful tree because it was diseased and we couldn't get it better.  Connor and Jake, and Derek (after frustrating meetings) could be found out chopping at the trunk's roots trying to get it out.

Here they are again.  They both have impressive blisters from using a hatchet on this.

Jake and Connor got the trunk out on Friday!
Teddy stood by waiting for someone to play ball with him.

This morning we loaded the truck and trailer with the tree, the branches from pruning other trees, a bag of leaves I collected another day, and a mattress.  You don't have to tiptoe through the branches in the back yard anymore!  Our yard might look better than ever after a while of social distancing!

I hope that you aren't going crazy at your house and are finding good things to do.  We've got Scooby Doo on television, Tia is braiding Kayli's hair, and Derek and Jake are getting ready to haul off the piles of sticks that have been hanging out in our yard for weeks.  Happy Saturday!