I'm putting this one to the test...starting NOW!...

****Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected
without trials.

-- Chinese proverb

Today's Simple Truth....

President David O. McKay put it beautifully when he said, speaking of mothers, “This ability and willingness properly to rear children, the gift to love, and eagerness, yes, longing to express it in soul development, make motherhood the noblest office or calling in the world. She who can paint a masterpiece or write a book that will influence millions deserves the admiration and the plaudits of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters, whose influence will be felt through generations to come, whose immortal souls will exert an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have decayed or shall have been destroyed, deserves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God. In her high duty and service to humanity, endowing with immortality eternal spirits, she is co-partner with the Creator himself.”

It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expectedof him.
-- John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American Novelist

Let's all have a Peaceful 2007!

Things I Need to Do Better in 2007:

1. Be nicer..
2. Eat better...
3. Stop worrying so much...
4. Stop sighing all the time...
5. Relax more....
6. Read more...
7. Practice the Principle of Faith more...
8. Exercise...
9. Clean a little each day instead of alot occasionally...
10. Look for lonely people to befriend rather than feel lonely...
11. Go to the dentist and have my broken back tooth fixed...
12. Instead of counting down minutes and hours...ENJOY every minute and consequently every hour.
13. Stop getting on Ebay...

Santa came by our house tonight...

The Magic of Childhood

"Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of today. it is to have a spirit yet streaming....It is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul...."

- Francis Thompson

Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point.

-- Harold B. Melchart

Mickey says, "Merry Christmas!"

We don't get snow at Christmastime....We just get piles of leaves...

Filled with cute, sneaky boys...Sean's my little Leaf Elf

"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? From Nazareth came example. From Nazareth came sight. From Nazareth came strength. From Nazareth came life. From Nazareth came faith. From Nazareth came peace. From Nazareth came courage. From Nazareth came Christ."

--Thomas S. Monson, "Can Any Good Come from Nazareth?", Tambuli, Apr. 1989,

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer.

-Albert Camus