Getting to Know You part 15

Q: What do you use on your hair?

A: Head & Shoulders, Suave conditioner (wild cherry blossom), and a brush.

Please leave a comment with your own answer to this question.

Top 3 in Marriage

Cocoa's question for this week's Wordfull Wednesday is "What are the three most important things to you in marriage?"

I thought of my three real quick. Forgiveness, Kindness, and Friendship.

1) Forgiveness - It has to be sincere and quick. And it needs to happen often. I call my husband Mr. Wonderful, but he is not perfect and neither am I. We both make mistakes, forget things, make messes, or do things that frustrate the other. Sometimes it is harder to forgive than at other times. When it is harder, I get on my knees and pray for help. And I get it. My anger goes away, I remember how dearly I love Mr. Wonderful, and I am able to forgive and forget. Quite often I end up loving him even more.

2) Kindness - This shows up in so many different ways. One way for us to show kindness is to have a good attitude about taking care of our family and fulfilling our responsibilities as a husband and wife. Another way is in the way we speak, the words we choose, our tone of voice, and even the thoughts we have. There are also many, many extra little ways to show kindness. I love it when Mr. Wonderful chooses to watch a movie that he doesn't particularly enjoy, but he knows that I really like. Or when he puts his warm feet on my freezing cold feet. Or when he tells the kids that he loves me and thinks I'm the most beautiful woman on earth. I know what he appreciates too. Chocolate chip cookies (made with real butter), extra long kisses, and quick phone calls or emails while he is at work, just to tell him I love him. None of these things take huge effort, but they add so much to our marriage.

3) Friendship - Again, this is something that takes effort sometimes, and has lots of different aspects to it. Mr. Wonderful and I don't really have a lot in common in terms of hobbies and activities that we enjoy. He loves the outdoors and engineering electronic devices. I love sewing and shopping at thrift stores. We do enjoy reading together, although it is hard to choose a book sometimes. And we love walking together. Every date we go on includes a walk, and has since long before we were married. The important thing is that we spend time together. Communication is a big part of our friendship as well. As we have worked at spending time together and really talking/listening to each other we enjoy each other more and more all the time.

I asked Mr. Wonderful what he thought are the three most important things in marriage. He said, "Forgiveness, service, and rosy cheeks and beautiful eyes." He sure is Wonderful!

Inspiration of Late

This post might seem a little random. It's just a few of the things I've enjoyed and found helpful lately.

I loved THIS POST and THIS POST from Simple Mom. Such super ideas!

I also really enjoyed THIS POST from Chocolate On My Cranium.

You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd! This is such a great song by Roger Miller. We all love it. Thanks Jane and Jocie! I tried adding a youtube video of this song, but it kept popping up little ads and I don't want ads, so here are the words. I highly recommend listening to the song if you can find it.

Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't take a shower in a parakeet cage
Ya can't take a shower in a parakeet cage
Ya can't take a shower in a parakeet cage
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

All ya gotta do is put your mind to it
Knuckle down, buckle down, do it, do it, do it

Well, ya can't go a-swimmin' in a baseball pool
Ya can't go swimmin' in a baseball pool
Ya can't go swimmin' in a baseball pool
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't change film with a kid on your back
Ya can't change film with a kid on your back
Ya can't change film with a kid on your back
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't drive around with a tiger in your car
Ya can't drive around with a tiger in your car
Ya can't drive around with a tiger in your car
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

All ya gotta do is put your mind to it
Knuckle down, buckle down do it, do it, do it

Well, ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch
Ya can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch
Ya can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch
But you can be happy if you've a mind to

Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd
SPOKEN: "Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd"

I recently read "Yearning for the Living God" by F. Enzio Busche. It is wonderful! I get to go to Book Club tonight to discuss it. It is a compilation of experiences from Elder Bushe's life, beginning when he was born in Germany just 3 years before Hitler came into power. He grew up in Nazi Germany and was even drafted into the German Army just before the end of WWII. He has had quite a life and experienced amazing miracles and blessings. I really enjoyed reading this book!

Getting to Know You part 14

Q: How do you like your toast?

A: With a little homemade applesauce spread on top.

Please leave a comment with your own answer to this question.

Stretch

My friend Jen issued a challenge the other day to stretch ourselves and see what our minds are capable of. I thought it was a great idea, but then wondered what I should do to work my brain muscles. I really want to strengthen my memory and my ability to think logically.

I don't know how accurate this is, but I've heard that recalling and recording memories you do have will strengthen your memory and help you remember even more. I figure it's worth a try. So I've started writing about some of my childhood memories in my journal. I might even write about some of them here. Even if it doesn't help me remember anything else, I'll have recorded what I do remember and I'll always be glad to have that.

I've been remembering what the house looked like that I first lived in. My parents live in it now, but it has been expanded and remodeled quite a bit and doesn't look much like it did when I was little. I also wrote everything I remember about my youngest sister being born. She is almost 11 years younger than I am, so I remember quite a bit. It was a lot of fun to remember all of that, especially since she is now expecting her first baby.

Since I'm not sure that writing down my memories is much of a stretch for me, I decided to take a class through BYU Independent Studies. They offer quite a few classes for free. I don't have to finish by a certain date, and I'm not graded or worrying about credit. All I have to worry about is learning the content. I'm excited about that. I'm taking the Basic Arithmetic course. I know I have learned all of this and more, but it has been a long time since I had to do much math and I'd like to freshen up a bit before getting in too deep.

Besides BYU there are lots and LOTS of free online courses available from some great colleges and universities.

The Master List of Free Online College Courses
The Master List of Free Language Learning Resources
University of Texas at Austin
Yale
Utah State University
MIT

That's only a few. My brain is tired just thinking of all you could learn. I'm remembering, though, that I'm a tortoise...not a hare. I'll get there!

Fresh Air

Cough. Cough, cough, cough, ............. cough. That's what's been going on at our house. Since before Christmas, in fact. Everyone was coughing and no one was getting better and no one was sleeping, either.

(Isn't cough a funny looking word?)

This last weekend was especially rough. Monday came and the sun peaked out and the temperature got up to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It was beautiful! So I opened the windows. Every one. And the fresh air came pouring into our germ infested house. It was glorious! We all went around wearing sweaters and jackets and smiles. The clean air helped our bodies and our minds.

That night we slept. We slept well. I even had a couple of dreams.

We still have the occasional cough, but the worst is far behind us. I am so grateful for fresh air.

Getting to Know You part 13

Q: What is something you have and use regularly that you did without either as a child or an adult?

A: A shower. Until I was almost 16 I lived in houses that only had bathtubs. I didn't mind at all at the time, but I sure do love showers now. It would be hard for me to give that up.

Please leave a comment with your own answer to this question.

My Family

Wordfull Wednesday is back! Check out Chocolate on My Cranium for more Wordfull Wednesday entries. All of the topics for this year will focus on families. For today we are asked to tell about our families and what makes us unique. I like using nicknames for my family members to maintain a little privacy. I know my blog isn't read by very many people, but I like to stay on the safe side.

This is my family.


Miss Banana, Miss Bear, Mr. Wonderful, Little Man, me, Miss Monkey, and Kiddo.

Our family started, of course, when Mr. Wonderful and I were married in the Denver LDS Temple just over 10 years ago. We really are best friends and it is so very nice.

Our first child was born one month before we celebrated our 1st anniversary. All of our kids are approximately 2 years apart. Definite stair-steps.

We live in Northern Idaho, far from any of our extended family and we miss them all terribly. We go to church every Sunday. We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We enjoy homemade pizza, ice fishing (I have never been, it's always just Mr. Wonderful and the kids.), amateur radio (Mr. W and I are both licensed and Kiddo is working on it.), camping, having friends over, going for walks, chocolate chip cookies, the Andy Griffith Show, reading, and monopoly. Nothing too extraordinary, but still a pretty special family, I think.

January Fabric

The Quilting Bee has started! Hooray! January is Donna's month. I got her fabric and pattern in the mail last week. I haven't had any sewing time since it came, but I'm anxious to get started on it. I'm definitely going to practice a few times before making the actual block to send to Donna. Check out the 1 Year 12 Quilts blog or Flickr group to see what her block will look like and how it's all coming together. It is a very pretty block. I can't wait to see how all the blocks look together!

2010

Somehow the number 2010 always seemed very far away to me. It's rather strange that it is actually here. Maybe that's a good thing. I'm so surprised by it that I can't get it out of my mind and I haven't accidentally written 2009 on anything yet! I think that's a first for me.

I am excited for this new year. I want to write more. Hopefully that won't bore anyone to tears. I would also like to take more pictures. They won't necessarily go with what I write though. I think I just need to get into the habit of keeping my camera with me and making sure I have fresh batteries when I need them. Oh! I'm going to make a really awesome battery pouch like my friend Cathie did. One side holds fresh batteries and the other side holds dead batteries. Check it out HERE. It's so cool!

I'm not really making any resolutions for the new year. I'd just like to keep going in the right direction.

Going. That's pretty important. But at what speed?

If I go too slow, I'm never going to get anywhere. If I go too fast, I'm going to burn out and still won't get anywhere. I've been thinking a lot about a scripture in Mosiah (found in the Book of Mormon).

Mosiah 4:27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

This scripture reminds me of the Tortoise and the Hare fable. That's what I want for this year. To be a tortoise. Not the most remarkable or accomplished, but one that keeps going and getting a little farther all the time.