Babies--The Wonder of it All !!!

     My beautiful grandson at about 6 months.  He is now almost 19 months old, and will soon be welcoming home a baby sister in a few weeks. What joy! Here he is wearing an outfit that his dad wore when he was a baby 22 years ago. I carefully saved and stored some of my boys baby clothes hoping that their children could wear them. So I love this picture. I'll have to find and scan in a picture of my son when he wore this outfit. 

The Warming Glow of Candlelight

Sometimes after a long hectic day it is so comforting to light a candle and sit quietly watching the shadows dance upon the walls, and contemplate my blessings and the gratitude I feel in my heart for my Savior, who loves me, and died for me that I might live. I'm grateful for this Christmas Season to remember to be kinder, more compassionate more grateful....

PONDERING....

Reading The Scriptures
(I have added the word scriptures on his book)

Scriptures.....when I think of this word I have a million images and thoughts race through my mind and body. I have soooo many hours and hours under my belt from the time I was very small all the way to now of consistent scripture reading. I have read them after climbing up in to a very tall tree and settling myself happily on a branch, and in a field with my collie dog Prince who would lie down and I would prop my head up on his side and he wouldn't move the whole time I read out loud to him, and other places, my bedroom, sitting on the stairs, in a car, in a Doctors waiting room, on the front porch steps, in the back yard while trains were noisily going by, in Church classrooms, at the kitchen table and many other places.

When I read, the people and circumstances come alive for me. I am always happy when they are wise and choose good things, and always very sad when they are unwise and choose things that bring them to ultimate destruction. Is it any different in our day... if we were written about and we stumbled upon our names in the printed word what would we find out about our lives, to what end would it play out. To me the Scriptures are the ultimate classic--to be read over, and over, and over again. There are so many life experiences to learn from--real people whose story is in print, who lived a a long time ago and yet can have, if we let them, a great impact on our lives today.

I love this quote from "The World According to Narnia" by Jonathan Rogers

"You can hardly help but feel that a life of virtue is an adventure you wouldn't want to miss"

Do you read the Scriptures?

The Blessings of Industry...

Industry defined:

Habitual diligence in any employment, either bodily or mental;
Steady attention to business;
Assiduity;
Opposed to sloth and idleness.
We are directed to take lessons of industry from the bee.
Industry pays debts, while idleness or despair will increase them.

There is a story that goes like this: Charles Schwab, one of the first presidents of Bethlehem Steel Company, once inquired of efficiency expert Ivy Lee: "If you can give us something to pep us up to do the things we know we ought to do, I'll gladly pay you anything within reason you ask."

"Fine." answered Lee. "I can give you something in two minutes that will step up your 'doing' by at least fifty percent." "All right," said Mr. Schwab. "Let's have it." Mr. Lee handed Mr. Schwab a blank sheet of note paper and said: "Write down the six most important tasks you have to do tomorrow and number them in the order of their importance. Now, put this paper in your pocket and the first thing tomorrow morning look at item one and start working on it until it is finished. Then tackle item two in the same way; then item three and so on. Do this until quitting time."

"Don't be concerned if you have only finished one or two. You'll be working on the most important ones. The others can wait. If you can't finish them all by this method, you couldn't have with any other method either; and without some system, you'd probably not even have decided which was the most important." "Do this every working day."

"After you've convinced yourself of the value of this system, have your men try it. Try it as long as you wish and then send me a check for what you think it is worth." A few weeks later Mr. Schwab sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 with a letter saying the lesson was the most profitable he had ever learned. In five years, this plan was largely responsible for turning the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the biggest independent steel producer in the world. And it helped to make Charles Schwab one hundred million dollars.

I like this plan--I think its simple and to the point--obviously in the home it will look a little different, but the principle is the same. What ever your working on stick with it until its done. Even if it overlaps into the next few days (or weeks-or months) depending on the project.

I have numerous projects that I am working on in all different categories. Some of these categories are; collecting and felting my own wool-quilting-embroidery-sewing-cooking-knitting-crocheting-scrap booking-geneology-writing books about my children-A wall of history with time line-decorating-gardening etc. I am finding if I apply this principle to my projects list, first choosing 6 projects that I would like to have completed and then begin working on the first one for a set amount of time each day while in between I do all the other things that are needful for that day--meals, laundry-phones for the business etc. I am seeing success with accomplished projects. The next day I pick up where I left off the day before on my project. Almost all my projects are rather lengthy and will take considerable time to complete (even years). That just seems to be the way I like doing things. A little twist on this is that I also rotate my 1-6 priority list and may work on say, knitting for one day and maybe the next day I need to step away from it and then I may pick up project 2 embroidering an embrodiery envelope holder made from felted wool. And depending on the length of the project I may have 1 or more wonderful things completed by the end of the week or by the end of the month.

But either way the power is in the "finishing". Finishing what we start can never be praised enough. Because its then that we feel and see the "fruits of our labors". Very rewarding!!!

Some one once asked a famous designer to finish this question;
-The only thing I know for sure about the creative process is ......
(his answer)-"People spend a lot of time talking too much about it rather
then getting on and doing it".

Industry, in praise of our hands for the ability to create, to work, to serve.......:)