Humanitarian- Now this is what it's all about!

Sundays

I love Sundays. For me it's a break from what I do from the rest of the week. I have an attitude of worship with what I believe. I believe in prayer and it seems on Sundays as I go to Church and ponder on the things I have been praying, answers come and they come in a more clear way while I am at Church. I love it when my Sundays are simple. I get to read, ponder, pray, serve and spend an extra amount of time with family. I can nap, make cookies or my famous caramel, write in my journal and visit friends. I believe this day was intended for that. Yes Sundays are special. I don't consider it another day in the weekend, yet I like to refer Sundays to the Sabbath. They are holy and set a part from the world. What a blessing!

IOS

Families

So I'm staring at a picture of my family right now and I started to think about how much I love them. I am passionate about families. I am fortunate to be blessed with amazing parents who have been married now for 40 years and 8 incredibly good-looking, talented, loving, positive and FUN brothers and sisters. Yes, my parents took the phrase of "multiplying and replenishing the earth" pretty seriously and honestly, I'm so grateful they did. Oh sure a big family has it's challenges but it's through those that we've become strong. It's my personal belief that through challenges life becomes meaningful and beautiful. We are a very close knit family. We love getting together, just to be around each other.Of course most of our activities are planned around food. I owe this unity to great parents who never gave up, but mainly to the faith-based values they taught us and found in Jesus Christ's teachings. I remember the familiar routine we went through every morning before school which gave a young person like me a feeling of structure, safety and order in our household. Although there were times that we were better at it than others, this routine followed me through my high school and college years. It varied a little through the years but basically it went a little something like this. We would get up and start getting ready for school. Mom would usually be out doing her morning run and would give us kisses when she got back. I think I can still smell the mixture of outdoor air and her sweat as we embraced. Oddly enough I have come to even appreciate that smell as I think back at these moments. As we finished getting ready mom would cook us some breakfast which usually consisted of oatmeal, cracked wheat, cheese on toast with warm chocolate milk or some eggs. We usually were running a little late so she would bring it up to the top of the stairs landing and let us eat while we read from the scriptures, the Bible, Book of Mormon and other scripture. we then had our family prayer and were out the door. On occasion, especially if we were arguing she would make us do "positive affirmations" where we had to turn to someone, have some type of physical contact and tell them why we loved them. Oh this was the worst when we were angry with one another. It was so hard sometimes to think of something positive when all you wanted to say was that they were lame. But as we found something positive we felt a little better and a lot of times we would end up laughing. Just like the outdoor air sweat smell from my mom, these too have become a cherished memory with my family. I am so blessed. My family means everything to me. Now that more than half of us are married our family has more than doubled. We have six in-laws and 18 nieces and nephews. I hope that the Christ centered values that my parents taught us continues to spread down to the next generation. As we live those principles our family is safe from a lot of the gunk that is out there tearing families apart. Hurray for families!

Calling You

Dance

I've been thinking about dance lately. I love to dance. I minored in it at Brigham Young University- Idaho and danced on the team up there. We had opportunities to tour different places and perform. In the spring of 2004 we toured Central America and stayed with host families there. It was a fabulous experience and one that I will never forget. It was amazing that even though I didn't speak the language of these good people we could still communicate through our dancing. I find that amazing; a universal language in which no words are used. Simply beautiful. Here is a video from the show So You Think You Can Dance. There are a few that I just love.

Hometown Glory

Inspiring

I love life. There are so many beautiful things that surround us and when I have one of those moments where my surroundings come alive, I feel grateful. I am humbled because I know that I'm not alone, that I'm loved, and that there is a whole lot more to life than the everyday blah that we all get bombarded with. I have posted this video called Create by one of the leaders of the church I belong to called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I love this video because it reminds me that there are talents I have that I can use to help others. We all do. It's positive, uplifting and even though it comes from my church and caters towards women it's worth the watch! Enjoy!

Create