a year of happy

there's nothing like a good line from a movie

Don't you love
a memorable line from a favorite movie?

You know the kind I mean...
the lines that are repeated
over and over again
because they are so good.

Today we need some good movie lines.

Lines to make us smile.
LInes to make us laugh out loud.

And lines that we'll enjoy
because we all saw the movie
and we all know exactly
what we mean!

Here are just a few...
can you name the movies
they belong to?

• "No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how."
  .
  
• "The King's stinking son fired me, and thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?"
  .
• "Honey, time marches on and eventually you realize it is marchin' across your face."
  .
• Well, yes mate. See, I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you need to watch out for, because you never know when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.

What is your
favorite movie line?

be strong and of a good courage

Last night,
we had the wonderful opportunity
of attending the
General Young Women's Meeting
at the Conference Center
in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The theme for the meeting was:
"Be strong and of a good courage,"
a scripture found in Joshua 1:9.

I've mentioned before
that I serve as a leader
for the 12-13 year old girls
in our Church group.

Every March, our Church
holds a worldwide meeting
for the young women ages 12-18.

Many local young women gather
in the Conference Center
with their mothers and leaders.
But most watch the meeting
from their local churches
as the meeting is broadcast
to church buildings all across the world.

Usually we watch from our church,
but this time a friend got tickets
and we were able to take
a couple of our young women and attend.

What an awesome experience.
It's an amazing feeling
to gather with 21,000 women
who believe the same way you do,
and listen to speakers
who motivate and encourage
the young women to be strong and
to stay close to the Savior
in these troubled times.

One of my favorite quotes
from the meeting
was by Elaine S. Dalton:

"The world places so much emphasis on our physical attractiveness and would have you believe that you are to look like the elusive model on the cover of a magazine," she said. "The Lord would tell you that you are each uniquely beautiful. When you are virtuous, chaste and morally clean, your inner beauty glows in your eyes and in your face."

I love how our Church
focuses on these young women.
With a great goal setting program
called Personal Progress
and activities that center around
spirituality and
self-improvement
and service,
these girls are given
great tools to help them
negotiate their way
through their teenage years
and into adulthood.

Every Sunday,
Young Women groups
all across the world
meet together and we say
the Young Women theme,
which goes like this:

We are daughters
of our Heavenly Father,
who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God
at all times and in all things,
and in all places" as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue.
We believe as we come to
accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to
strengthen home and family,
make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple,
and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Every time they say this theme,
they remember who they are,
why they are here,
and where they are going.

I think it's beautiful.

________________________

a saying for every occasion

"D's" Grandma Brown
is legendary for her
traditional sayings
that have been passed down
through the generations.

Her daughters remember them all
and they use them too.
It seems like for every occasion,
there's an old adage to go with it!





For instance, if a couple got married
who didn't seem well-matched,
Grandma Brown might say,
"She probably
married him
to get rid of him!"
Or:
"There's a Jack for every Jill."
Or even:
"She jumped over
all of the daisies
and landed in a cow pie!"

She had sayings
to go with housework too.
When her children were playing
when there was work to be done,
she'd say,
"This and better might do,
but this and worse will never do."

And if one of her children
tried to take a short-cut on chores,
and had to come back to do it again?
"Lazy people always
have to work the hardest."

For today's list,
I'm going to give you
a whole slew of
Grandma Brown's sayings.

We'll call it:

List 7: Grandma Brown's
Sayings for Every Occasion

• A stitch in time saves nine.
  .
  
• That's the pot calling the kettle black.
  .
  
• Pretty is as pretty does.
  .
  
• What doesn't fatten helps to fill.
  .
  
• There is no disgrace in honest labor.
  .
  
• Birds of a feather flock together.
  .
  
• There is no use crying over spilled milk.
  .
• No use closing the barn door after the horse is out.
  .
  
• Kids and fools should never see anything until it is finished.
  .
  
• It's not what you want that makes you fat, its what you get.
  .
  
• Waste not; want not.
  .
  

I'm sure you've heard
some old sayings
that aren't on my list.
Please share--
I'm sure Grandma Brown
probably said it
at one time or another!

apache blessing

"May the sun
bring you new energy by day

May the moon
softly restore you by night

May the rain
wash away your worries

May the breeze
blow new strength into your being

May you walk
gently through the world and know
its beauty all the days of your life."

— Apache Blessing

life is beautiful

these words are an excerpt from
Richard G. Scott's "Finding Joy in Life"

Do you take time
to discover each day
how beautiful
your life can be?

How long has it been
since you watched the sun set?

The departing rays
kissing the clouds,
trees, hills, and lowlands
good night,
sometimes tranquilly,
sometimes with exuberant bursts
of color and form.

.

What of the wonder of a
cloudless night
when the Lord
unveils the marvels
of His heavens—
the twinkling stars,
the moonlight rays—
to ignite our imagination
with His greatness and glory?

 

You are one of the noblest
of God’s creations.

His intent is that
your life
be gloriously beautiful
regardless
of your circumstances.

.

.Sun

Sunflower photo courtesy of
Perception Photography.

we are all connected

 

"From the standpoint
of daily life....
there is one thing we do know:

that we are here
for the sake of each other -
above all for those
upon whose smile and well-being
our own happiness depends,

and also for the countless
unknown souls
with whose fate
we are connected
by a bond of sympathy.

Many times a day
I realize how much
my own outer and inner life
is built upon the labors
of my fellow men,
both living and dead,
and how earnestly
I must exert myself
in order to give in return
as much as I have received."

Albert Einstein

some mighty deep thoughts on procrastination

 

One of my many lists
is titled something like this:

The things I've been
procrastinating
and need to get done NOW!

Since procrastination
has been on my mind,
I decided to share
a few deep thoughts
on the topic
by people who really know
what they're talking about.

"Never put off
until tomorrow
what you can do
the day after tomorrow."
Mark Twain


"A man who procrastinates
in his choosing
will inevitably
have his choice
made for him by circumstance."
Hunter S. Thompson

"If it weren't for the last minute,
nothing would get done."
Rita Mae Brown

"Time is an
equal opportunity employer.
Each human being
has exactly the same
number of hours and
minutes every day.
Rich people
can't buy more hours.
Scientists can't invent new minutes.
And you can't save time
to spend it on another day.
Even so, time is amazingly
fair and forgiving.
No matter how much time
you've wasted in the past,
you still have an entire tomorrow."
Denis Waitley


"The era of procrastination,
of half-measures,
of soothing and baffling expedients,
of delays
is coming to its close.
In its place
we are entering
a period of consequences."
Winston Churchill


"If you choose
to not deal with an issue,
then you give up
your right of control
over the issue
and it will select
the path of least resistance."
Susan Del Gatto


"If you want to make
an easy job seem mighty hard,
just keep putting off doing it."
Olin Miller


"PROCRASTINATION
means you know
what you need to do
and you don't do it.
If you don't know what to do,
you aren't procrastinating.
You're thinking. "
Lynn Lively

"Time you enjoy wasting,
was not wasted."
John Lennon


"Why wait,
procrastinate now...."
Ellen DeGeneres


"Procrastination.
I'll find a quote for it later."
Jarrod Blundy


_____________________________


What are your thoughts
about procrastination?

Is it something
you battle too?

How do you conquer?

facebook: a teenager's virtual playground

I sat down with
my seventeen-year-old son
the other night
to make this week's
Wednesday list.

He has been telling me
about all the groups
on Facebook
that teenagers love.

These groups have
hundreds and thousands of fans.
And the biggest reason is
that they are so hilarious!

"A" helped me
make a list of these groups
so that I could share them with you.


List 2: Facebook Groups that Crack Me Up

1. I redo high fives if they weren't good enough the first time.
   2,597,383 fans
   .
2. Walking the wrong way on escalators.
   939,925 fans
   .
3. Flipping the pillow over to get the cold side.
   3,415,345 fans
   .
4. I hate that Sunday night "school the next day" feeling.
   1,474,034 fans
   .
5. My room is not messy, it's just an obstacle course designed to keep me fit.
   41,951 fans
   .
6. I wish music played during epic moments of my life and not just in movies.
   2,195,231 fans
   .
7. Don't complain about grading 150 essays over the weekend, you assigned it.
   16,535 fans
   .
8. Trying not to answer your parents with sarcasm when they ask dumb questions.
   5,190 fans
   .
9. It's funny how sitting boy girl boy girl used to be a punishment.
   697 fans
   .
10. I eat too many chips at Mexican restaurants and get full before my food comes.
    13,292 fans
    
    
    
    Are you making a list today?
    
    Leave a link
    in the comments
    so we can check it out!
    
    
    
    
    

and i say, it's all right

.

 

.

hand me downs

When I was a kid,
it seemed like I was always
hunting for something
I couldn't find.

Like my shoes,
or my homework,
or my purple spiro pen.

And my mother would tell me, 
"My mother always said,
'Start cleaning up
and you'll find it.'"

Now when my kids
can't find something
they are hunting for,
I tell them,
"My mother always said
that her mother always said,
'Start cleaning up
and you'll find it!'"

I realized recently
I had never told my mother
that I always say that.

So I did.
And do you know what she told me?

She said,
"Oh it gets better than that!
When my mother used to say it,
she said it the exact same way!
'My mother always said....'"

That's four generations of women,
all saying the same thing.

I love the thought
that I'm saying
what she said.....
.

and what she said....

and what she said.

It gives a whole new meaning
to the word
hand-me-downs!

___________________________

What are the
little bits of wisdom
that have been passed
down through the generations
in your family?

_______________________


Don't miss the latest
in the 100 photos project...
signs of spring!