This Is The Life!

Yesterday my 6 year-old son said something that has gotten me thinking...  It was the end of a day that started with church and ended with pizza for dinner.  Between those two things was tree climbing, caterpillar catching, hide and seek, riding in the truck with daddy.  My little man turned to me and said "Mom, this is the life."  He had such a look of contentment when he said it.  It warmed my heart to hear it.  We weren't at Disneyland or anything I would consider exciting.  He was just happy with where he was at the moment.  The more I thought about his statement the more convicted I was.  When I say the same thing is it with a sarcastic or complaining voice?  My son has no idea what the "plan" is for next month or next year.  He doesn't care he knows that his father will take care or him.  Why do I spend so much time worrying or planning for the future instead of trusting my Heavenly Father and simply saying "this is the life!"

Photo Editing Website

I found this website a few weeks ago and have been hooked ever since.  Picnik.com is a site that all of us who are not professional photographers can use to fix & crop pictures.  It has a auto-fix button and you can play with contrast, color saturation or rotating & fixing red-eye.  I love being able to fix my pictures!
Here is a sample I played with:

Original

fun changes



Fatherly Words of Wisdom

This common sight can be so irritating at times.  Empty toilet paper rolls make me hear my dad saying "How long does it take?"  My dad had several moments of creative parenting.  I can remember him calling me to the bathroom and then asking me how long I thought it takes to change out the empty TP roll.  (It takes less than 3 seconds.)  So many tasks  in life can be annoying so we put them off for later.  Once you realize how quickly a simple task can be accomplished don't put it off.  Changing out an empty roll takes a couple of seconds, being irritated about the empty roll can last much longer...

Frugal Gardening

Spring is in full swing in Big Sky country.  Plants are flying out of the home improvement stores and Walmart.  It is really hard to to not  envy people that have carts full of plants and yard stuff.  I never really thought of myself as cheap until I started dragging my feet at the thought of spending $5 on a plant.  We are currently renting and it seems pointless to fix up someone else's yard.  I have started paying attention to the plants in my yard.  When we first moved here we mowed plants that looked like these:

They look like weeds right?  Well after paying a little better attention I discovered that they are day lilies and a peonies bush.   Something that I love about gardening is that plants are very portable.  Sounds a little funny?  If you plant something and it isn't happy in the current location you can always move it... if you don't kill it first.  I am trying to do gardening with minimal cost this year.  I have transplanted some of the day lilies and plan on doing more in the new few weeks with the lilies and some flower seeds. 

Sometimes there are wonderful things right under your nose if you pay attention :)

Mommy

I know this is a little late but better than never right?  Last weekend was mother's day.  I was able to spend it with my mom.  This is kinda a big deal considering she lives 1200 miles away.  At church on Sunday the pastor asked us to share a story about our mom.  It got me thinking.  This week I have come up with all sorts of memories that give me an even greater appreciation for my mom now that I am a mom.  There are so many things you see differently 25 years later...

My mom is one of the most giving and creative people I know.  I would like to think that my willingness to try new things comes from her "can-do" attitude.  I have to laugh when I think about some things that she did for me when I was growing up.  I hated all those home-made clothes when I was growing up.  There was nothing more embarrassing than wearing clothes that had been "added onto" to make them long enough to be modest.  Now I wish I had the ability to sew things for my kids.  My mom made my brother & me a play house that we could even walk around inside.  It had a window and a door and everything.  It was made out of scrap lumber from my dad's sawmill.  It cost her nothing to make it but time.  We spent countless hours playing in it. Need a tepee to play in?  No problem mom made one of those too!  I can remember eating home-made fruit roll-ups, canned  fruit, bread and pizza.  I'm now thinking about learning to can food and trying to make fruit leather...
Mother's day may be over but think about what your mom has done for you and let her know year-round.
Thank you mom for all the things you have done for me.  The memories will fade and grow fuzzy over the years but the love behind all those actions is eternal.  I love you!