This was too good not to share.

Seven Simple Ways to Be Happier

Would you like to be happier? I’ve gathered 7 tips you can put into practice immediately for more happiness in your life. The trick is to take what you believe will work for you right now, put it into practice, and build on your successes. You needn’t always be grins but I’m hopeful that you’ll get a few more with the following insights. Enjoy!

1. Listen to your inner child

I wonder sometimes what would happen if we all pursued the art of being a goofball. If both sides of a debate dropped their pickets and traded knock-knock jokes instead, what would change? Would we see each other differently? As opportunities, rather than problems? 

2. Be grateful for something every day

One benefit of being grateful and expressing your appreciation to others is the reciprocal nature of such things. The natural response to somebody saying, “thank you” or “wow, I really appreciate you” is the discovery of reasons to respond in-kind. If you’re constantly finding things to be grateful for and sharing your discoveries with others, be assured that they’ll begin to notice things you do and express their gratefulness to you before long!

3. Let some plans go

Giving up goals works in any area of your life. Take health and fitness: I used to have specific fitness goals, from losing weight or body fat to running a marathon to increasing my squat. Not anymore: now I just do it because I love it, and I have no idea where that will take me. It works brilliantly, because I always enjoy myself.

4. Reduce your exposure to negative media

If information isn’t helping you make decisions and only makes you feel miserable, why are you consuming it? Surrounding yourself with celebrity magazines and television shows featuring spoiled rich kids can fuel that urge to compare.

5. Learn to say “NO!”

At the end of the day, it’s about how you say “no”, rather than the fact you’re saying no, that affects the outcome. After all, you have your own priorities and needs, just like everyone has his/her own needs. Saying no is about respecting and valuing your time and space. Say no is your prerogative.

6. Nurture happiness where you find it

Be grateful for your joy, every day. Be in the moment with that activity, instead of having your mind drift elsewhere. Refresh your joy often, by starting over or approaching things from a new angle or doing something a bit differently. Find new people to share this joy with, people who love it as much as you.

7. Get and stay organized

The National Association of Professional Organizers estimates that a huge percentage of work days are lost to people looking for things they have misplaced.  Disorganization is the enemy of productivity, and it may even fuel procrastination.  A few minutes spent every night organizing papers, assignments, long-term deadlines and goals can pay off handsomely in higher well-being and accomplishments.

Best Book!

The picture is not that great of this book but my mom gave it to me the other day, she had found it moving and it is the BEST Book I've read in awhile...It is by Linda Eyre and I love her.

You can find the book on Amazon used for a dollar!

It is short and easy read but FILLED with wonderful ideas and insights into our jobs as Mothers.

Dream Dinners

Hey ladies,

So a friend told me about this place called Dream Dinners and how much she loved it and so I signed up to give it a try. Can I just say how much I'm a fan! You go in once a month( for a 2 hour session) and prepare meals with fresh ingredients and leave with them all in freezer bags or containers to put right into your freezer at home. Tonight we just ate cider Braised pork chops and they were delicious. Now that I know my family will eat the food we are buying 12 -six serving size meals for next month. That means I have 3 freezer meals a week I can count on! The options include steak, shrimp, chicken, pork, and yummy pasta dishes! Just wanted to spread the word because these ladies are genius. No grocery shopping, no meal planning, no cleaning up after yourself ...... IT"S HARD to plan a yummy & healthy meal every night and this helps so much. WE just did the trial so I'm not sure how expensive it is to do 12 large freezer meals a month. I think it's around $250. So check into it. Scott was a little hesitant to try it but after eating the food he's so on board....... he doesn't help do dishes ever so this makes him happy it's easier on me! Let me know what you think girls.

General Conference Ideas or Sacrament mtg

This is an idea posted on our ward blog if you all are interested! Ü


General Conference Idea and others...
I thought I would post this to give some ideas for reverent Conference, Sacrament meeting, and Sunday activities at home. Some of you might want to scrounge up a pile of your old Friend magazines and pull this together for General Conference.

I have found that The Friend usually has two activity pages in each issue. (This does not include the coloring page in each one.) I have been tearing them out and laminating them for my children when we are done reading them. Put the backs together so that you only need one laminating sheet per two activity pages. (There are inexpensive laminators at Wal - Mart that do the job just great!) Use thin, washable dry erase markers for them so they can be used over and over again. However, sometimes the dry erase markers stain if left on too long. So just have your kids wipe them as they go. Then you shouldn't have any problems. Hole punch it and throw in into a "Reverent Activities" notebook.

After you start collecting them, they'll add up quickly and you'll fill your notebook.

... I also like to cut the last page out of the Friend (and Ensign and New Era...) when we are done reading it, back it with pretty card stock, and laminate it. I love all of the children's gospel artwork. Then have a designated spot where it can be displayed until you replace it with the next month's picture. I sit mine on a side table held up by a pretty "plate" stand. Then store the old one and use it for lessons and activities for later.

Early Risers

So, I have a couple early risers and, well, I am not an early riser. My husband leaves for work at 6:30am and my son is usually up around then, or a before, followed by my two daughters.

So, this summer I have tried something new and it has been great. Each night before I go to bed, I leave out homework that they can work on at the kitchen table. Handwriting practice, preschool worksheets, math worksheets, and books from the library for the summer reading program.

The rule is, no television before I wake up or before the school work is done. (They really like to watch a couple morning cartoons so they are really motivated in the morning.)

This system has worked great. It is the first thing, they have calm and quiet, we get it done so we can focus on other things the rest of the day, and it gives me the opportunity to sleep until 7:00. :) We still have homework time during my two-year-old's nap, a.k.a. quiet time, but this gives them a jump start on what I want them thinking about and working on.

My son needs extra handwriting practice so he is doing one journal page a day for me. I got a book with the handwriting lines and he writes a couple sentences and draws a picture. Today he wrote: "I want to go to the gym. I like going down the slide." And drew a picture of him sliding down the slide at the gym we exercise at. I am excited to soon have a whole book of his little journal entries and pictures and it gives him practice with his handwriting and coloring.

Anyway....just a couple fun thoughts.

Joy School

Any of you girlies not planning on using your Joy School stuff that you did during school? I would love to buy it from someone! I need to keep Connor entertained while Macey goes to kindergarten in the fall!

Made me laugh

As I spend far too much time browsing through home decorating magazines and blogs I found this blog called Catalog Living. The writer basically take an overly-styled room in a catalog and imagines what strange conversations must surround each beautiful but not-so-logical scene. It made me laugh!

Here is my favorite...anyone know what catalog this came from?

All the Comforts of Home

We’re so happy you could visit! The room’s all made up for you, and I ripped out some pages of my favorite book and taped them to your wall in case you’re like me and enjoy reading before bed.

Journals

So I just started doing this and maybe you awesome moms already do this, but I really love it and I think it will be a great gift to my kids some day....

I decided I would buy three journals--one for each kid--and I put them by my bed. At night before I go to bed I write in them--well, not every night yet--but I write in them about my kids that day. Things they did, we did, things they said and what I am concerned about or working on improving at the time.

I don't always write long entries, but even a paragraph is something especially if you keep it up over time.

Anyway, I thought I would share this idea because of how much I enjoy doing it. I used to Blog quite a bit of the details about my kids, but I don't really do that as much anymore--I don't want that information on the Internet, for one, and two, I don't want to bore everyone, and three, some of my information just seems too private to share sometimes, but anyway just an idea for you all!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to some of my favorite Mommies! Hope you all have a wonderful day!
Thanks for being such great examples to me!
love
sheri

Mom's Wheat Bread

Okay I just thought I'd share this yummy and easy as pie recipe with you all. It is my new favorite. Well.....it's been a favorite since my mom made it all the time. I have made it the last two Fridays and my boys love it! Hope you do too!

Whole Wheat Bread
12 C. flour
5 C. hot water
2/3 C. oil
2/3 C. honey
2 T. salt
2 T. yeast (heaping) or 2 pkg

Put water in Bosch and add 7 cups flour. Mix for 1 to 2 min. Add oil, honey, and salt. Mix 1 to 2 min. Mix yeast with remaining flour. Add to mixture in Bosch. Knead for 10 min. Add more flour if not coming away from walls. Too thick add warm water. Turn out on oiled counter. Put in cold oven at 350 for 30 min.. Makes 4 loaves. If bread sounds hollow when tapping the tops—done. Grease the tops.

Yummy!

Rock on P90X

I'm sure I wasn't the only one inspired by Sarah's (AKA: Buff Girl) rock hard abs from P90X. So I got the program and am almost finished my 1st 30 days. I feel totally great. This is a kick your butt after baby workout if anyone else is looking for one. Now Marsh, my sis, Dad and our good friend are all doing it. I have so much more energy, even though I am constantly in work out clothes with dirty hair, but who cares because that's worth a nice bum later on!!

OK I'm sure not posting my wretched before photos but maybe I'll slide in an after when I treat myself to a new bathing suit after my second 30 days.

Krista, did you start yet?

Homemakers

Just an awesome quote I came across on my friend's blog that reminded me of some wonderful ladies:

"The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only-and that is to support this ultimate career."
-C.S. Lewis

The 30 meal plan

nannygoat: What the heck it the 30 meal plan?

Here is the link to the recipe plan I was telling you all about. I am still in the gathering recipes stage but I can see supreme meal organization in my near future! Check it out and see what you think. If enough of you want to try it we could each submit five of our favorite, make all the time, recipes to swap and them we should all have enough to make our cards.

Cookies, Recipes and Prophets

(click on image to enlarge)

Looking for a way to teach kids about the importance of following prophets? Today in sharing time I used this cookie object lesson. (I brought in three plates with the bad, better and best cookies on them for the kids to see and taste test).

Yesterday, Braden and I decided to make some sugar cookies together—they sounded good. We found a recipe book, found the ingredients we needed and put them all on the table. Then we closed the recipe book and started cooking. We didn't know how much of each ingredient we needed because we had closed the recipe book, so we just started guessing how much salt, eggs, baking soda, flour, sugar, vanilla, oil and cream of tartar we would need. We weren't sure what temperature we should cook the cookies at or for how long, but we made our best guess and put the cookies in.

After the cookies were done, we decided we would try our cookies. They tasted very hard and salty. Braden started to make funny faces. I asked Afton if she liked them and she sweetly said, “yes mom, I did.” I asked her where her cookie was and she said, oh, I put it back there on the plate—it had one little bite out of it.”

What went wrong? We didn't read the instructions that were given by the AUTHOR on how to prepare the cookies and they resulted in something undesirable.

So, we decided we would try again. This time we read the instructions and started mixing the cookies. The recipe called for egg yolks, but we decided it probably wouldn't hurt if we just put in the egg and the whites. It called for shortening, but we were pretty sure that we could just use oil. We mixed the dough, rolled them into circles, and we put them in the oven and waited for the cookies to cook. After several minutes, Afton started pointing at them in the oven—mom the cookies are bubbling!! Sure enough, I went to look at the cookies and they were as thin as a sheet of paper and bubbling on top. What happened!?! I took them out and stared at them. We had followed the instructions. Hadn't we? Then we started to think back. We didn't follow the instructions precisely; we had decided to put the egg whites in and to use oil instead of shortening. Wow, not following the recipe exactly had really made a difference in how our cookies turned out.

Finally, we decided to try a third time, and follow the instructions exactly. The result. A delicious, soft, sugar cookie.

A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something. Prophets give us instructions to describe how to prepare us to meet Jesus Christ and to lead happier, Christ-like lives. Prophets strengthen our families by showing us how to follow Jesus Christ and walk in His light. If we don't read the instructions we are given from our prophets, we won't become like Heavenly Father intended us to become. If we read some of the instructions but decide to only follow the instructions we think are important and ignore the others, we will be better, but not our best. It is important to heed all of the words and instructions from our prophets to enjoy the ultimate sweet reward of reaching our full potential and returning to live with our Heavenly Father again forever.

Post by Krista