The Best Things about Last Week

Some of the best things about this past week were:

• This amazing sunrise.  I love sunrises and sunsets and this was a truly beautiful sunrise.  I couldn't stop with just one picture.  I posted these pictures on  Face Book, and a friend commented that the red sky meant there was moisture in the air and that rain would be coming. Sure enough, we did get a little rain the day after I took these pictures.

• Rainy days. It started raining about dinner time yesterday and went a full 24 hours without really letting up.  It only got up to about 60 degrees today and this cool wet weather is the closest we get to winter here in "The Valley of the Sun." This was my drive home from school this afternoon.  I do love rainy days - they make me feel cozy inside!

• 100 day mark.  Josh has been a missionary for over 100 days now.  I'm not really counting, but another missionary mom, whose son left the same day as Joshua posted that her son had been out 100 days, so I know that Josh has also been gone that long.  In fact, he has been in Mexico over two months now.  He is meeting some interesting people and having some good/funny/challenging/scary/ spiritual experiences. His missionary plaque finally came in and is now hanging in the "missionary case" in our church building. I took a picture of Chary pointing out Josh's plaque to attach to the email I sent him last week.

• A good book.  a friend from church gave me this book a few weeks ago. She said she heard about it on a documentary she had watched about Fred Rogers of the PBS children's show "Mister Roger's Neighborhood."  She said this was Fred Roger's favorite book, and she had read it and really liked it too. I am also enjoying it and learning from it. There is some great ideas to ponder in this book, and you can see that I have marked a lot of pages to refer back to.   

• Treasure hunting at Goodwill.  Charly and I enjoy half-price days at Goodwill and go about twice a month to hunt for books and other treasures. We discovered some great finds there last week, and are looking forward to going again in February.

• My word for 2015.  Since it is almost the end of January, I though I really should share the word I am focusing on this year. My word for this year is CHOOSE.  This year, I want to carefully choose the things I do and say, instead of just reacting to what others do and say. There are so many things we do not have control over in life, but we can always choose our attitude and how we respond to the situations and people God places in our lives.  During this week that has marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I have been thinking of Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl and his excellent book Mans Search for Meaning, which I read years ago.  I love what this man, who survived one of the worst atrocities of all time, said about choice:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 

So this year, I will choose to act and say and live according to my conscience, instead of waiting for the actions and words of others to determine my words, actions and destiny.   I hope to do some posts about some of the opportunities I will have this year to choose how I act and respond to challenges.  I want to keep myself accountable for making good choices.

This rainy Friday evening, I am choosing to join with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five.

Friday Fave Five

The past two weeks have been busy and exhausting, but I am happy to have a few minutes this afternoon to join Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for a great end of the week tradition that reminds us how much we have to be thankful for!

These are some of the the things I am thankful for as this week winds down...

It has been a busy, yet productive week at school.  I can actually see the surface of my desk!  I got one big project finished and have managed to stay on top of grading and lesson plans, so the semester is going well so far.  I also have some great classes filled with some really nice students and I am grateful for that.  

I have had the time and opportunity to do a little baking.  I had been craving some oatmeal cookies and decided to bake some since were were having company for dinner.

Our dinner guests were these two gentlemen - the Mormon missionaries serving in our area.  Since my own son is now serving a mission,  I feel a little closer to him when I get to feed the elders!

We have had some lovely sunsets this past week.  I love sunsets. They are among my favorite things in the world  - a beautiful to end the day.

I was able to spend some peaceful prayer and worship time at the Gilbert Temple tonight.  My time there gave me  calm assurance and helped me put everything that has been going on into perspective.

Calm assurance and perspective were just what I needed tonight, because the past couple of weeks have not only been busy, they have been down right stressful at times. Ultimately, however, I am choosing to focus on the many, many blessings I have. Gratitude is a favorite of every week.

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." Jeremiah 17:7

Friday Favorites

I have taken the time tonight to join one again with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for

Here are my favorite parts of this last week:

Back to school.  The first week back to school after Christmas break went well.  I have three new classes and two continuing classes and everything is off to a great start. Now, only about four and a half more months until summer break!

Out with the old.  Last week, we took some books we didn't want any more to one of our favorite used book store to turn in for cash and credit.  The bookstore didn't take all of what we had, but we returned home with significantly fewer books than we left with.

Cooler weather.  I love winters in Arizona because it actually gets cold sometimes - which I don't mind at all.  We had some freezing temperatures and had to cover several of our plants, like the big cactus in the front yard, with old sheets to avoid frost bite. Cactus and other succulents are filled with water and they do not like freezing weather. 

Warmer weather.  After a few days with temps in the low 60s and freezing nights, the temperatures rose last week and we were up to 80 degrees (or close to it) a couple of days.  As nice as the weather was this last week, I do prefer just a bit of winter weather - even if that just means wearing a heavy jacket, during January and February. The heat always come soon enough here to the Valley of the Sun.

Candles.  I got some lovely smelling candles on after Christmas clearance and have been enjoying burning them each evening in several rooms of the house.  The Christmasey scents of the candles are wonderful even though Christmas is officially over.

Books.  I finished my first book of the year - Stitches, a book by my favorite author, Anne Lamott, which was a Christmas gift from my daughter.  I enjoyed it a lot.  My Goodreads review is here.  I have started three new books.  The first is a Christmas book, Christmas Hope, which I got on half-price Christmas clearance at my favorite book store. It looked so good, I couldn't wait until next Christmas to read it.  Besides I felt a little cheated since I didn't really like the Christmas book I read when it was actually Christmas time. The second book I started, Choosing Glory is a deep scriptural study and  a bit of a "therapy book" or so I have heard.  The author comes highly recommended and I guess we can all use a bit of "therapy" at times, so I am looking forward to getting farther into this book too.  It may go fairly slow, but I know I'll learn a lot from it. The third book, Deep and Simple, is a gift from a friend at church.  It is also non-fiction and has also caught my interest, so my dilemma this week is which of three books I have started, will I finish first?

Gratitude.  One of my New Year's resolutions was to be thankful for specific things each day, so I got out the 'old gratitude jar from a few years ago, gave it a bit of a face lift and so far I have done pretty well at writing down specific things I am thankful for at the end of each day.  This is one habit that makes me happy and gives me a positive focus each night as I go to bed. 

Hope you have many favorite things 

come your way in the coming week!

A New Year - Looking Back, Looking Ahead

I have been on self-imposed "blog break" since December 21, so I could concentrate on family, friends and finishing up some commitments before the end of the 2014.   I am back now, to wish all of my blogging friends a Happy New Year, and take a look back at our Christmas holiday.

This Christmas, we were blessed to have our youngest daughter, Tiffany and her sweet family come to Arizona from Utah and join us for the holiday.

We got to know our new grand daughter, little Paige, shown here with her sister Hailey.

While we were together, we drew Christmas pictures and wrote sweet notes...

We made sock snowmen...

...and pine cone Christmas trees, and anything else we could think of with the craft supplies we had.

Hailey made sock snowmen to give to all of her friends and teachers back home. She is such a kind and caring young lady.

The boys, Clay and Miles, watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with grandpa and polished off a huge tub of pop corn.

 We also had some great Christmas music, courtesy of Miles and Hailey...

 ...and some fierce video game competition.

We opened presents on Christmas Eve...

 ..and opened more presents on Christmas morning.

Of course, in our family, there was lot of time for Christmas stories and books.

Clay loved having grandpa read to him.

We went to the Gilbert Temple grounds on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

We were the only family there and walked around the beautiful grounds all by ourselves.

The kids liked the water features and reflecting pools...

The temple is always a happy place for our family...

...and helped the children remember the real reason for Christmas - the birth of Jesus Christ - the Son of God and Savior of the World.

The Gilbert Temple, has certainly been a very special place for our family in 2014!

Of course, there must be delicious food when a family gathers for Christmas.  I made cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast and while they may not have been beautiful they were yummy to the max and didn't last long at all.

Later on Christmas morning we got a SKYPE call from Josh (Elder Jones) in Mexico! It was fun to talk to him for just over 45 minutes.

Full-time missionaries get to call home via SKYPE (when and where that technology is available) only twice a year - Christmas and Mother's Day, so hearing and talking to Josh was a very special Christmas treat for us!

 The day after Christmas we did more crafts...

 ...and went for a walk to the playground.

The temperature was in the low 60s and it was a gorgeous day.

 We all had lots of fun just being together.

It was a Christmas filled with lots of love and great memories!

Now the Christmas decorations are down and packed away for next year. The house seems empty without the Christmas tree and the grand children.

I bought a new table cloth for the round table in the living and really like how the colors go well with everything else in the room.  Its always nice to change things up just a bit after the holidays.

Charly and I were here alone for New Year's Eve and day but not to worry - we had a delightful movie marathon that was fun. We watched these comedies and also "Super 8" - a good Sci-Fi/Mystery/Thriller from 2011.  It was so fun to just take some time out and watch movies with my husband.

I read 37 books in 2014 (see my Good Reads list for the year here), which is a record for me, and now I have started two new books by two of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott and Joyce Meyer. Both books were Christmas gifts and I am excited to read them.

Earlier tonight, I went to another book store, that I had received a gift card to, and had an enjoyable time selecting these two books for reading later this year. Books (and gift cards to book stores) are always a popular and appreciated gift in our family.

I will end with this quote from C.S. Lewis as a thought for the brand new year, 2015:

Happy New Year to All!