6 things that make life more beautiful

Hello my darling people!

Could somebody please tell me when October happened? This has seriously been one of the quickest months I have ever experienced. It's like I blinked and now it is almost over. What happened?

Life is joyous right now. No, I'm not saying that there aren't rotten things in the fridge, or that difficult things aren't happening, I am saying that there is joy in the world right now and that you can reach it. Here are six things that have made my life more beautiful lately. I'm not promising they will do the same for you, but I hey, give it a try and let me know!

#1 Scripture Study

I know, I know. You've heard this before. But when was the last time you sat down and studied instead of simply read? I promise it will make life taste sweater no matter how bitter life tastes right now.

#2 Mindy Gledhill music

Seriously. I have been obsessing over her stuff all week. It's all 100% clean and 100% beautiful. I mean, how can you not love this?

Also, I tweeted about my current obsession with her music the other day and she favorited it. I was a happy camper.

#3 Other Happy People

In the words of Kate Bratskeir, who was quoted by Hank Smith at BYU education week: 

"Happy people surround themselves with other happy people. Joy is contagious. People are four times more likely to be happy in the future with happy people around them."

My "happy people" right now would have to be the seminary council that I serve on. I have hundreds of other people who would be included in this category, but the other students on seminary council are the very best at this. When I'm with the council there is an abundance of laughter and smiles even though we are doing work. I can honestly say that I never hear complaining when I'm with this group, which is something I don't think I can say about any other group of people I've ever associated with. As humans we like to complain. And these people make me see the joy in the world.

#4 Gifts from Children

Two of my cute tumbling students gave me this elastic bracelet today. There is nothing like a handmade gift from a child to make you feel loved. I have the best job ever. 

 

#5 Old Journal Entries

I was going through the notes on my phone the other day and I found this gem that I wrote back in 2012:

"Television characters have everything. A perfect life, minimal problems, a good romance, and sometimes even fantastic events that are unlikely to happen. 

I've always watched TV in awe at how perfect the lives of the characters are, and in turn sat in awe at how perfect my life is not. 

But what I've never seen on a TV show is a character laugh so hard they end up on all fours so they don't wet themselves. And I've done that twice today. So I'll take my imperfect laughter over any perfect tv show life any day."

I am a journal junkie. I love writing and my very favorite thing is to go back and read old journals, notes, and blog posts. It's my favorite thing.

 #6 Family Time!

I went with my family last week to go see the witches at Gardner Village. Hanging out with my family is my very favorite thing. I don't know how I'm going to be able to leave them to serve a mission in a year. They are truly the greatest. 

I carried around my fancy pants camera like the good photographer I dream of being. The results were the epitome of a blogger's paradise. I love fall!

What makes your life beautiful?



 feel my sunlight

I'm gonna run right up this hill.

I just thought I'd bust out a quick post while I wait for the washer to finish so I can switch my laundry. No I did not procrastinate my laundry until the last minute, I simply planned not to do it until it was absolutely necessary. So here I am at the end of a near perfect Sunday night waiting for the suds machine to finish so that I don't have to wear dirty socks tomorrow. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT LAUNDRY! Let's talk about Church. (my favorite topic!)

Tonight was our ward's Young Women in Excellence. This is a night held once a year in which the girls are recognized for their accomplishments in Personal Progress. I need to make a HUGE shout out to Rylee, Raegan, and Meagan for getting their young women medallions today! Wear them with joy ladies! Seriously, I'm typing congrats so hard!

For those of you don't know, earning a young women's medallion is a big deal. You start this project when you are twelve, and it often takes until the end of your young women years (around age 16-18) to finish. That's 4-6 years of incredibly hard work. It takes over 80 hours to finish the 8 projects alone, and that doesn't include the 60 other smaller projects you have to complete. And when you are done with that big feat, you have the chance to earn an Honor Bee, which requires you to re-read the Book of Mormon, as well as complete 40 hours of service.

So as you can imagine, this is a big night for these three awesome girls. But what about for me?

I didn't receive any awards tonight. I didn't get any special recognition because I've already been awarded these great awards. I received my medallion back in February of 2013, and I received my Honor Bee not long after that. But what I didn't realize until tonight is that I've already begun my next big project. And when I receive this next award it won't be a charm to hang around my neck, but a badge I will wear on my chest. My next big project will look something like this...

So the project begins now. I am in the race to prepare to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. I have roughly 160 days (ABOUT 5 MONTHS!) until I can begin my papers, 220 days until I can submit them, and 340 days until I can leave, and everyday in between will hopefully be filled with striving to become the kind of person that the Lord would want to have wear his name over their heart 24/7. It will take a lot of hard work, but I am so excited for this next big project. I'm gonna run right up this hill.







feel my sunlight



p.s. This song by Mindy Gledhill is my theme song right now. It was in the movie Meet the Mormons which I went to go see last night. It was serously so incredible! Go see it!
p.s.s. My laundry is done! Peace out world.

glorious

 Oh my! Life is beautiful; busy, but beautiful. Life is glorious.

Remember when my mom was a rather popular DIY blogger before she dropped off the face of blog land? (Seriously... Check out this post from back in 2008 when I wore super cute scrunchies and my mom taught me how to install door frames. This is quality stuff.) Anyways, since my mom doesn't post her fancy projects anymore I thought I would. Her latest included a re-painted kitchen table, as well as several re-painted kitchen chairs in various colors. I'm kinda obsessed with the whole miss-matched color thing so I dragged them all outside and stacked them on top of each other. The pictures above are the result.

Life as been a serious balancing act reticently (see what I did there?!), and by "balancing act" I mean there are SO MANY awesome things happening that they are hard to handle. But somehow I've managed to keep them all stacked in such a way that they have created quite the entertaining spectacle.

This past week has been so crazy. When you can say you went to a homecoming football game, went zip lining, watched conference (which deserves it's very own blog post, so stay tuned), went to school, coached 9 tumbling classes, had three meetings, learned about velocity-time graphs, the primary colors of physics, and jig lines, began filming a campaign video for mock elections in Government, started applications for college, and created a video game all in the same week you know you have a busy life. And oh how I'm glad it's the weekend and that my only tasks for the rest of the day is to finish this blog post and buy myself a new journal.

Me, my cute friends, and our awesome guides after zip lining on Saturday!

So life is busy. But it is so so beautiful.

One of the most beautiful moments of the week was yesterday when my 9 year old sister asked me what the word "apostasy" meant. So I taught her the first discussion from Preach My Gospel. #BOOMBOOMPOW

This was seriously so cool for me. I have practiced teaching this discussion so many times in my mission prep class, but I have never actually taught it to someone that wasn't just pretending not to know the answers. It was such a real missionary discussion, yet it was extra special because she is my baby sister. I am defiantly going to love the missionary life when it calls.

My second beautiful moment came when I asked one of my tumbling classes what they thought I should be for haloween when one of my 3 year old students shouted "PINK PRINCESS UNICORN KITTY!" I think I might just have to do that.

So I'd say it was a successful week! Long and brutal yes, but also glorious.





feel my sunlight


p.s. Isn't David Archuleta just the coolest? That song is from the movie Meet the Mormons that premiered in theaters TODAY! I can't wait to go see it!
p.s.s. For those of you who don't know. I am a Mormon. Nice to meet you!