Taking inventory - It's a busy life

I think that is Pennsylvania down there.

 

What a busy couple of weeks I’ve had! Just look at this list:

Lake Erie.  It's like an ocean!

Six plane rides

One visit to the beach at Lake Erie

One road trip to New York State

Lots of hot dogs

One ice cream cone at Alli’s Cones & Dogs (Very nice people!)

Gotta have ice cream!

Two running workouts with a toddler and a stroller

One walk with a five year-old, a toddler, and a stroller

One visit to the Erie Zoo

 

One camel that didn't live in a zoo

About twenty walls scrubbed (It’s just an estimate)

One oven cleaned

One refrigerator cleaned

Hilly run in Erie!

Four windows and tracks scrubbed

One Krispy Kreme Donut

Two copies of Gold Pans and Iron Skillets given away on airplanes

One batch of princess sugar cookies baked with two princesses

One difficult eight mile run

One day of yard work

For making cookies.

Lots of Grandma Time

One outing with a standard transmission (I can still drive a stick)

One reminder to the Tooth Fairy

One dozen (roughly) bedtime stories

One rake and one shovel stuck in a tree

New grass sprouting

One goat head stuck in my foot

A rake and a shovel

Three or four broken hearts

Countless hugs

 

It’s a busy life!  It’s also a wonderful life.  If you don’t think so, stop and take inventory like I just did.  You are sure to find something to smile about. 

 

Remember, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.” 2 Nephi 2:11

In other words, you would not know happy if you had never known sad.

 

Ringing in the year!

Ring in the New Year!

 

 

Here is to another year behind us and one of promises ahead!  I’m going to ring in the New Year at home, grateful for all the things with which I have been blessed. I plan to make some changes in the coming year.  They will be subtle, I am sure! I plan to continue to strive to take care of my health, so long as that effort is enjoyable.  After all, I do believe in moderation! I want to better tend to family relationships – just because. I am still defining my spiritual goals, but I am pretty sure they will have something to do with diligence and scripture study. I hope to publish more and sell more, mostly because I want to share what I write and because the best part about being an author is the positive feedback from readers!

Today, I celebrate New Year’s Eve because it marks a special anniversary for me.  I met my husband on New Year’s Eve.  Driven to traverse the Southern Idaho winter wilderness on this day 29 years ago, I met him at a social event – one I swore was never the place I went to meet someone special, rather to commune with friends I already knew.  One of those friends happened to introduce us that evening and it has been an adventure ever since!

Happy New Year to you all!



Sandwich Wisdom

It's a sandwich!
 

As I was assembling a homemade Reuben sandwich today, it occurred to me that the sandwich is greater than the sum of its parts.

Consider:  Corned beef or pastrami is not that good.  I got a little sentimental this year and fixed corned beef and coleslaw for St. Patty’s Day.  (I couldn’t bring myself to ingest boiled cabbage!) My husband turned up his nose when I told him what we were eating.  It was okay, but I probably won’t do it again next year.

Rye bread is only good for sandwiches and Swiss cheese is best when melted.  Sliced off the brick and eaten cold it tends to bite ones tongue.

Sauerkraut.  (I actually really like the stuff.)

I would never put Thousand Island dressing on a salad.  Thousand Island dressing implies, “I didn’t have anything better so I just dumped this stuff together.  Here ya go!” (I know this from my experience working at the Silver Grill Café in Lava Hot Springs many moons ago.  Mayo, catsup, mustard, and pickle relish. Stir.)

None of the ingredients that combine to make a Reuben are great on their own, but together they make a deli delite!

I wonder … did the Lord give us each other that we might be better together than standing alone?  Families, friends, teammates, even co-workers are often so much more powerful together than apart. 

Could WE be greater than the sum of our parts?