Six Things

1. Music. I guess that's a bit obvious from the picture, but oh well. I need music in my day. Actually need it. I'm actually a pretty good pianist, but for a long while, playing wasn't something that interested me. There was no particular reason; I simply wanted to spend my time other ways. But I started playing again a few days ago, and I've noticed a major difference in how I act and feel.

2. Reading. I have to have a book to read during the day! I don't know why, exactly, but for some reason I physically need it. Maybe for the relaxation that comes with reading, as opposed to writing, when you're racking your brain for ideas.

3. Writing. Actually, believe it or not, I don't need this one nearly as much as the others. But sometimes there's a joy in simply writing, creating your own world, your own characters and creatures.

4. Family & Friends. Because I've been so caught up in school and writing, I regret to say I haven't been spending as much time with my family as I should. However, two days ago, I dropped school and went on a walk, hoping to give Mom a chance to get some work done without a crying baby. I did little less than beg Mimi to come along with me. She did, and we walked around the block five times for forty minutes, just talking. It makes me realize how amazing she is, and how much I love her. Yesterday, I also spent time with my brother Josh, researching elements and their names, trying to find the answers to the questions we both want to know. I was constantly amazed by his knowledge, and overwhelmed with love for him. As far as friends go, I have the spectacular privilege to talk with them nearly every day, thanks to gmail. :)

5. Scriptures. This, and other more spiritual things, are necessities in my day. I am pleased to say that I have an actual habit of reading scriptures before bed. I don't feel like I can sleep without them. For me, scriptures--and prayer--offer the most amazing forms of comfort and guidance. There are not words for me to explain what I wish to say. 

6. Work. Yes, work is very important in my day--school, chores, service . . . Now I guess I'd better make sure it gets finished during my day, since it's there . . . if only barely.

These are the six things that make my day. For me, it truly is amazing, how I feel when I've lived these six things. Thank you for taking the time to read this! :)

♫♪ AbbyRose 

I haven't blogged for a while . . . obviously. But I'm planning to start up again, and I might as well start up with something that's been on my mind lately.

I love to write. I have four amazing friends who I write with. At first, that was fine. Then it became a problem. I spent so much time staring at a computer screen, when I could be doing other things! I've begun to get headaches from the glare of the screen. Now, I've finally figured out how to balance myself and my day. I need six things (not necessarily in the following order). 

Personal Progress

I never expected to be so thankful for my Personal Progress. I guess I always thought of it as a task to complete; I never considered that it could really change me.

I'm not as far as I'd like to be in my P.P. I try and do two value experiences a week.....it sometimes seems like too much, but most of the values are easy to do; I guess the two that have made the most difference were in Good Works and Divine Nature.

 I started the first value experience in Good Works on January 3rd. It was a challenge to, for two weeks, notice the small, unnoticed, taken for granted, and even secret things that my family members do. So that Tuesday night, I brought up the idea of "Secret Kindnesses". On Wednesday morning, everyone (besides Dad, who was already at work) drew names. It was pretty amazing to see how excited the kids were to try and be sneaky about doing something kind for their lucky person. I remember Josh when he came upstairs after I helped Mimi make Mom and Dad's bed (she got Dad). He was giggling. I asked him what he was so excited about. "I did Willsie's silverware!" he said with a grin. It made me smile to see Josh so happy that he had helped William. 

Unfortunately, as the days wore on, "Secret Kindnesses" lost their secrecy and devotion. So I came up with a solution a few days ago. What we have now is a chart with 77 boxes. I took some time to write everyone's names (besides Little Miss Elza) 11 times.....that took awhile. Then I folded up all the names, put them in a jar, and explained the rules of this "game". You're allowed to draw up to two names at once, although you don't have to. If you do something nice for someone in secret, whether for the drawn person or not, you get to mark off a box. If all the boxes have been filled in by the end of the month, then we get a treat. Mom suggested a pizza party (yay!). So far, we have 59 boxes filled in.....only 58 more to go :)

 I started the third value experience for Divine Nature on the 5th of January. It was a challenge in which I was supposed to pick one person in my family and try to strengthen our relationship for two weeks. So who did I pick? Well, of course I decided I would try and work on everyone's relationship at the same time! By day two, I realized that this brilliant idea wasn't about to go as planned. So here's my journal entry for that day:

Friday, 6 January 2012 
Okay, it IS supposed to be a two week thing. Today I'll work on Mimi. That DOES mean that I'll have to finish my schools and chores early, though.

Naturally, I didn't finish my school and chores early. But I did work on our friendship during the following days. It was almost strange how it all worked. I did my best to focus on Mimi, and it worked. It was a lot easier to control my normally UN-controllable temper (and no comments on that, please ;). When I felt too lazy to help her with something as simple as getting something out of the fridge, I would reflect for a moment on all the fights I've had with her about similar things, such as opening a box (yeah, I know, pretty ridiculous, huh?), doing her hair.....and then for one more moment, I'd ask myself, "Do I really want to get in a fight about an oversize bottle of mayo?" When you think about it, is there even a point in an argument like that?

This is another journal entry:

Monday, 9 January 2012 
What I've been starting to do is hold back my temper (and my laziness) and just help Mimi for less than 30 seconds. Of course, it's not always Mimi who I'm helping. A lot of the time, Willsie gets hurt, so he screams his head off for Arnica. It's great that he wants Arnica, but his screaming drives me crazy. You'd think that someone was attacking him, or something.


At times like that, it's very difficult to swallow my anger and frustration. But when I take a minute to think about it, is it worth it to yell at him to calm down? He's not going to calm down if you yell at him or ignore him, so what's the point? It's just easier to get the Arnica (and sometimes a band-aid) and be done with it.


Here's one last journal entry:

Monday, 16 January 2012 
Two weeks is nearing its end, but I'll try and keep up the love. It's really helped. Last night I goofed off with Willsie. I was bouncing him, giving him high-fives...It made me feel really good. I was also goofing off with Mr. J. He was attacking me, so I started tickling him. When he was on the floor, I helped him get up. Then he dropped back down. I called him a dead slug, just to be silly and make him laugh. It worked really well. 

It makes me feel light and weightless when I make my family happy...I just want to float away.

I've explained how I've done the experiences; I haven't explained the outcomes yet.

 Good Works: This has really helped me to want to do small things for others, even if I get no reward for it. It's very different from how I used to be, and I, for one, am amazed at how helpful I've been. I used to be this helpful, but when I turned 12, things started to go downhill. I'm so thankful that now I can feel good about what I'm doing.


 Divine Nature: This has changed EVERYTHING! I doubt you can hardly imagine (okay, maybe you can) how much this value has changed me. I'm really not sure if my determination has anything to do with this, but I've been thoroughly finishing my school and chores, consistently getting up early, constantly reading my scriptures every night.....I've even been saying morning prayers, which is becoming a glorious new habit. (I already say bedtime prayers.) Every morning, I try to think of three things that I want to accomplish during that day, and every night, I think of three things that I'm thankful for. I try to think of new things every time, but that tends to get tricky since I've been doing that for months now.

I find that I'm a lot more kind and fun to be around, not to mention happy, when I strive to complete my Personal Progress. Like I said before, I never knew that Personal Progress could overwhelm me with so many blessings--I wouldn't give it up for the world.

Utah!

This is another late post. Our family went to Utah in September... That was a fun birthday present. We visited our grandparents who live on Cedar mountain in a cabin. In front of their cabin is a road, and across the road is a meadow. The meadow isn't too terribly wide; you could see the opposite road from my Grandma's and Grandpa's cabin. Anyway, one day I got permission to take the kids on a little hike through the meadow. I took Mimi and Josh the first time, I think. Then we discovered a stream. It was pretty small and shallow, although a bit long; at its deepest point, it came up to around my waist. Luckily, we had brought along some good, long hiking sticks or branches (there's a small forest of Quaking Aspens next to the cabin), so we were able to measure how deep the water would be. Josh, Mimi and I returned to the cabin where Willsie and Caleb were helping Grandpa start the s'mores. I persuaded the two of them to come hiking with us.

So, after the s'mores, the five of us grabbed our sticks, some water, walked across the road, and headed down the small, steep hill. I led everyone to one of my favorite areas of the meadow; it was my favorite because the grass was slightly taller than me. It towered above my siblings. We didn't get very far, though, because Willsie was too wet. Four-year-olds who have their feet soaked, trudging through grass (both short and tall), and attempting to jump over tiny streams aren't typically happy. So we headed back to the cabin. Caleb decided to stay back at the cabin. So then it was just Josh, Mimi and me.

This is a little collage that I put together. And by the way, Grandma's and Grandpa's cabin isn't in any of these pictures. There are other cabins, though.

We followed the stream for awhile and came to a bigger pool where the water crossed under the road. That was where the deepest water was. I waded to the middle of the pool and the water was a little above my waist. In some of the pictures, Mimi is soaked. That's because she dunked in the pool, after slipping by accident two or three times.

The water was pretty cold, but before long, we became used to it. Besides, once you're soaked, it doesn't really matter if you splash through even more water. All the same, we ended up avoiding the stream most of the way back to the cabin. That had to have been one of my favorite things about that vacation.

Kalispell!

It was in July that we went on a trip to Kallispell, Montana. We stayed at a cabin for a couple days. The cabin was situated in the middle of a gorgeous forest, and since I had my Christmas present (a camera) with me, I had LOTS of fun taking the following pics.

This is the cabin. This picture was taken from a hill next to the cabin. The gray rocks in the distance led to the stream. Hidden from view, and to the right, is the road where our suburban was parked.

And here is the hill, which will become steadily famous throughout this post.

Here is Mister C. And that is also the hill.

I met Mom on top of the Hill the first morning that we were there. There was dew everywhere. By the time Mom and I got back to the cabin, our socks, shoes, and pants were soaked. This is a picture of a...ponderosa? I'm guessing that's what kind of tree it was.

This is a random pretty purple flower.

This is another random pretty purple flower.

And this is the third random pretty purple flower.

 And this is the gorgeous, ice-cold stream that ran behind the cabin. Ice-cold as it was, if you played in it long enough, you got used to it.

This is an old, forgotten cabin that we found when we followed the road for a minute or two... 

Let me introduce you to our friend the toad. Dad caught it and stuck it in a big blue tub that we had brought along. The first thing that he said when he walked into the cabin with our little visitor was; "Josh, we're NOT keeping it, so don't ask."

Of course, there are many more things that I took pictures of, but these are some of the few that pics were actually FOCUSED. Sometimes my camera can be frustrating....