Give Thanks

I need to focus on giving thanks more often. All the time. Today in Relief Society a sister was talking about giving thanks with every breath we breathe and with every fiber of our being.

I love that.

I have moments of giving thanks. Every night at dinner we have been discussing things we are thankful for. Ulysses has been reminding me on nights that I forget (like tonight).

We have been discussing being thankful for things like our teeth, feet, each other, Jesus Christ, cars, Daddy, forks, thumbs and fingers, robots, imagination, school, warm houses, windows.

It is so fun to discuss why we are thankful for these things. It seems to bring an awareness of everyday objects in our world to my children. To me too.

I need to give thanks more often. I need to breathe thankfulness. Especially right now. Some days it is really hard to have Ben working so hard and away from home so frequently. It's not something I can really vocalize. I support him and want to encourage him to pursue the career that brings him so much joy and love that he has been able to support us. But sometimes I feel very alone living here in Utah. I am tired of struggling and miss the days of living in San Diego where we had health insurance, a beach within 10 minutes and friends and family so near. I have no beef against Utah. I just don't like that alone feeling.

I am thankful for the beautiful seasons in Utah. I enjoy that immensely. San Diego doesn't have that.

Today is one of those days. There is no particular reason. I just am having a hard time being patient, loving or even caring about things that need to be cared about. I'm sure its hormones. It'll pass. Whatever.

I want to print this image and put on a notebook. I am going to try to do that tomorrow. I was thinking that it would be a fun visiting teaching gift. Which is actually laughable since I am the world's least diligent visiting teacher. I could go off on a rant about visiting teaching but I will exercise restraint right now. Let's just say that I need to think really hard about it to find something to be thankful for.

Oh! I got it. I'm thankful for visiting teaching because it gave me a chance to make this notebook cover.

Ok. I have to stop typing because I keep deleting the things I am writing. I try not to complain to other people. Maybe by writing a blog post it will send my thoughts both written and unwritten off into the ethers of the Internet and I'll feel better. I better hit the publish button quickly!

Visiting Teaching

I found a cute new blog today and wanted to share it with anyone who cared. It's chock full of Visiting Teaching ideas, projects, thoughts, etc. I found it and was able to whip up these cute little paper purses to go with our February message about Provident Living. They were super easy and I thought they turned out really great. I don't pretend to be a paper crafter by any means, but I am really happy with the results.

I just used heavy scrapbook paper for the body and a pink ribbon for the handle. The pattern has a paper handle but I like ribbons better so I used that instead.

These photos were taken with my phone because I was in a hurry and didn't want to run downstairs and get my camera so please ignore their poor quality and enjoy their intended cuteness instead.



I couldn't find any chocolate coins in the few minutes I had to run into the grocery store but I got little golden eggs and I think that works just as well.

Just thought I'd share incase anyone needed a last minute idea for their February VTing or needed ideas for the future. I added her blog to my RSS feed and am excited to read more of it and see what great things she comes up with in the future. I'm a procrastinator with it, are you too?