seeing changes...

This year I am working on being mindful. For the month of January, I am specifically working on saying my morning prayers. I have been HORRIBLE at this the past few years, but I have decided that one main goal for me this year is to get to know my Heavenly Father better. The best way I could think of was to talk to him. So, I am using Sister Beck's advice, and literally rolling out of bed each morning and saying my prayers before my feet even hit the floor.
I am so happy to report that I have seen a noticeable difference since I started doing this. First, I am actually remembering, and then actually taking the time to say my prayers. I have also noticed a change in my days. I feel more relaxed and kind. I am so grateful.

Also, I started using MyFitnessPal.com It is a wonderful calorie counting website. I understand it is similar to the Weight Watchers online program, only this site is free. I have a whole new understanding and appreciation for calories. It tracks my food/water intake and also tracks my exercise. I am seeing numbers change on the scale!! :)

i joined...

I am declaring my commitment to losing 10 pounds in the next 12 weeks. I am excited to see how much I can lose and what changes I can make to make myself healthier. Plus, there is a chance I can win $$$! Who doesn't love an incentive like that? :)

ONE LITTLE WORD

So I have a few things to post about, but I will try to get to those in the next few days. But, for today, I want to tell you my 'One Little Word' for 2012.

I have chosen MINDFUL as my word for this year. When I was doing research on a couple different words, I found the following:

What is mindfulness?

I like Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness.

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way;

On purpose,
in the present moment, and
nonjudgmentally.”

Kabat-Zinn, if you haven’t heard of him, is a famous teacher of mindfulness meditation and the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

First of all, mindfulness involves paying attention “on purpose”. Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes (me included) talk about “mindfulness” and “awareness” as if they were interchangeable terms, but that’s not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I’m irritable, but that wouldn’t mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully.

Let’s take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We’re deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We’re noticing the mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back.

When we’re eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we’re doing, but we’re probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading — or even all three! So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions.

Because we’re only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There’s no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There’s no purposefulness.

This purposefulness is a very important part of mindfulness. Having the purpose of staying with our experience, whether that’s the breath, or a particular emotion, or something as simple as eating, means that we are actively shaping the mind.

Left to itself the mind wanders through all kinds of thoughts — including thoughts expressing anger, craving, depression, revenge, self-pity, etc. As we indulge in these kinds of thoughts we reinforce those emotions in our hearts and cause ourselves to suffer.

By purposefully directing our awareness away from such thoughts and towards some “anchor” we decrease their effect on our lives and we create instead a space of freedom where calmness and contentment can grow.

This article gave me complete pause. I want/need to be more in tune with my thoughts, actions, and words. I desire to be more mindful of my food intake, my movement(calories out), my marriage and all that that entails, my children and their needs and my spiritual growth. This will be a great year for me! I am committed to running atleast one 5k this year. I will improve in my marriage. I will become a better/more involved mother. I am going to get to know my Heavenly Father this year. All of these goals are big for me. They will require thought, and effort and committment. However, they are also necessary. Necessary in many ways. I am still working on BECOMING--a word I chose a few years ago. I am still working on WHISPER, and COMPLETE. With all of these words as mine to use, I am being more mindful of all I do and say.

So, with that, I give you MINDFUL.

mind·ful (mndfl)adj. Attentive; heedful: always mindful of family responsibilities.

My 'One Little Word' for 2012.

quick update

I can't believe it's been since July that I have posted. Here is a quick update of life around here since then. School started. {A} is in 3rd grade and is loving it! He finally lost his first tooth early in the summer. And not long after school started he lost his 2 front top teeth. He is working to earn an allowance. His goals for allowance are to make kinder choices and to not have attitude toward Mom or Dad. He has tried for about 3 months and has made wonderful progress. He will earn his first payday tomorrow. {K} is in 1st grade and is doing very well! He is quite the reader. He works so hard every day. I am amazed at his reading skills. {a} is in a music and movement class right now and after about 6 weeks of class, she is finally warming up to being there. Thank goodness there are 2 classes left for her to show the class her fun personality. She has recently learned to write her name. She is quite the corker. {k} is 16 months. I can hardly wait for nursery so I can actually join even 1 hour of class at church. He is SO busy, and SO noisy. But, he is also fun and funny and loves being the center of attention.

budding photographers, and burned hand

Recently, I let 3 of my kiddos have a chance to take pictures around our yard. It was fun to see what they found important enough to take pictures of. Here are my 1 fav from each child.

The Tree by {A}
Corn by {K}
Baby by {a}









Also, I wanted to mention for journaling reasons, that {k} had his hand burned recently. We had a hot small bbq grill out, and he touched it with his right hand. It blistered right away, and popped that evening. He has had it wrapped in a bandage for a week now, but seems to be healing nicely. Poor little guy. We feel so horrible, but are grateful there shouldn't be any scars.

I DID IT!

As a bonus item for my COMPLETE word this year, I COMPLETED a 5k run this weekend. It was hard, exhausting, and exhilerating! My Sister-in-law came in from out of town to run with me, and I am so grateful! She is such a positive, fun running partner, and I am so grateful she was there to talk me up when I was ready to quit! We ran our race in 36 minutes, which I am VERY proud of, considering we walked about 2 minutes during the course of the run. Thank you {J} for joining me! Let's plan our next race!
I am especially proud of the fact that I actually followed through on something I started. This seems to be a difficult thing in my life, so I am excited that I finished this goal! I began training this spring, maybe around 16 weeks ago, and worked really hard to be ready for this day. Running has been something I have wanted to try for a while now, and finally decided I would give it a try. A friend suggested I try 'Couch-to-5k' and it worked like a charm! I am still in awe that I can run that far in such a short training period! To make things even crazier in my brain, I have decided that I enjoy this running business. WEIRD! :) I doubt I will ever find the desire to run longer distances, but I suppose crazier things have happened. :)
I appologize to all those I didn't tell, sorry gma, but I really was ok with not telling too many people. That way, I didn't have to be accountable to them, I guess. However, I will make it known, that I plan to sign up for a Women's Race coming up in Sept. I had better hit the pavement hard, because this race has a killer hill in it! :)

{K} turns 6!

Happy Birthday to my adorable {K}. He turns 6 this week, and we had a party for him over the weekend. It was fun to have extra family in town to celebrate with us!

{K} is a fun loving, happy boy. He is also, however, a bit sensitive and cries easily. He is super excited to be a first grader, and LOVES his little brother. He enjoys playing pokemon and bakugon with his big brother and tormenting his little sister. {K} will start piano lessons soon and we are hoping that will help him become more confident in front of others. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOBES!!

happy 13 love!

DH and I have been married for 13 years today. Wow, it's been an amazing ride and I can't wait for the next 13 years! I love him more than I thought I ever could! Thanks for being an amazing husband and father. I love you DH!! Here are a few pictures of our family.

13 years.
4 kids
2 homes
1 motorcycle accident
many mini accidents by me. :)
a couple of vacations
too much fun to count!!

has it been a year already?

Our little bo-bo turns one year old today. It's amazing how much they change their first year of life. He has 3 teeth, is choosing to crawl rather than army crawl most of the time now, he can get himself to a standing position by himself, he sucks his thumb, and is generally a happy baby. He has an ear-piercing scream that definitely gets your attention, and has wonderful hazel eyes. We love you little one! Happy Birthday {k}!!

update

So I know it has been way too long since I updated, so this post will be lengthy! scroll down to the bottom for commentary on the pictures. :)


































































































































































































































































































































I have caught {A} reading to his brothers more lately, and I think it is just wonderful! His class performed Fairy Tales recently, and also, I have put in a pic of {A} and his wonderful 2nd grade teacher! She has been fantastic for {A}!!


{K} graduated from kindergarten today, and I also have a pic of him with his teacher. She is also a wonderful teacher. I am pleasantly surprised at how well he is reading! {K} was chosen as Citizen of the Month for May. His teacher said he was such a good boy and definitely earned this honor! They performed a kindergarten "informance". It is where the kindergarten students show what they have learned this year. He was quite shy and embarrassed by all the attention. But, that is {K} all the way! They made enchanted eggs with his 3rd grade buddy. He was so proud to place it in the place of honor next to my enchanted egg that I made in kindergarten! {K}'s teacher taught with my kindergarten teacher at the same school for a few years while I was still in elementary school. I remember her being there... :)


I signed {a} up for a little "Dance Class". It was 4 classes long, and super cute! I tried to download a couple of videos, but it didn't work. I will try again later. She loves to climb in {k}'s bed and torment the poor guy! I put in her first picture of a person. She was drawing on the details, and said "finger, finger". I am amazed at how much more she wants to color and draw than either of the boys wanted to at that age. We bought an atv recently, and the kids are loving it!

she is FINALLY pottytrained!

Yup, about a month ago, she came running upstairs and announced that she had to go potty. We ran, put her on the toilet and sure enough, she went. Ever since then, she has done a wonderful job! A few accidents here and there, but for the most part a very seamless training. It just took her a bit longer to get started, but she is even night trained. HOORAY!

Recently, she climbed on the wood box that I keep by the fireplace, and announced in her sweetest girl voice, "I'm here for a dance, if somebody will pick me."

update on {A}

{A} has had a busy couple of months. First, he turned eight in Feb! He had his first friend birthday party. We had 3 friends over, and those 4 boys were crazy and noisy! But, boy did they have fun!



















Because he turned 8, that means he gets to join Cub Scouts.














He quickly earned his bobcat award at the first pack mtg.













Next, he chose to be baptized. He had lots of family join us for this special day! Congratulations {A}! We are so proud of your choice to be baptized!















The next pack meeting was the annual Pinewood Derby! {A} and his Dad built a really neat Hummer car to race! He raced very well. While he didn't win first, he did get the "Best Big Rig" Award. Way to go!































Finally, {A} and his 2nd grade class had a program entitled "Think Spring".





















I just had to add these cute pictures of {a} and {K}. I am sure there is more I need to write about, but this will do for today. Enjoy!