I’m a quote kind of girl.
I could fill pages and pages with quotes that I love.
Quotes that have inspired me, lifted me, pushed me.

My first memory of quotes were the Mormonads in the New Era magazine. Every month I tore them out and put them in a scrapbook. I loved them and tried to implement their message every month.

Maybe my mom knew about my obsession with quotes or perhaps she didn’t but nevertheless I found this hanging in my mirror on a 4×6 index card and written in my Mom’s very precise handwriting.
“That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”
I’m sure she placed it specifically where she knew I would see it often enough to never be able to forget it. I left it there always, and per her plan, it has been etched in my memory.

It used to apply to back 2 1/2′s off 3 meter. Then it applied to conquering and ridding my life of the unwanted. Now it speaks to me as a mother. I remember when I used to wonder how I would handle two kids. Then I wondered the same thing when I had three. And now occasionally I pat myself on the back with my four. Persistence!
Yes, there is a special place in my heart for a well written snippet of inspiration that has the power to take you to another level.

I am inspired by many things, many people, but most recently by a particular book that’s been around since the 1960′s.
“The Greatest Salesman in the World.” By Og Mandino.  You should read it. Everyone should. It might not be your favorite book but I’ll back my recommendation and say that it will be well worth the hour or two it will take you to finish. Eventually I’ll quote my favorite parts for you, but first I’ll wait till you have the chance to read it for yourself.

OK, I can’t help myself. Here’s just one of the gems in this book (although not my favorite):
“The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning; and it is not given to me to know how many steps are necessary in order to reach my goal.  Failure I may still encounter at the thousandth step, yet success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it lies unless I turn the corner. Always will I take another step.”

And in case you want to thank me for this introduction-

You’re welcome.

Categories: Family
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I’ve let my workouts take a back seat since the Spudman. Things got busy and priorities had to be shifted but now that school has started and schedules are normalizing themselves it’s time to busy myself with good habits before the bad ones solidify. So Monday morning before the sun was up I went spinning. (Guess I’m still not ready to throw the towel in with the bike yet.) It was kind of fun, kind of not. A 10 x 10 room packed with bikes and sweaty bodies with barely enough elbow room is a little gross. Maybe that’s why they turn the lights down? But the music play list was hot and kept my legs pushing and the video of athletes racing in the Ironman was enough to keep my competitive spirit burning. And eventually when that got old there were enough quotes on the wall to keep my mind off my burning thighs just long enough to finish the class.
Have I mentioned before how I love a good quote? Because I really do. The walls were full of good ones but this is the only one that was short enough for me to remember.

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only option”.

Not a bad way to start my day. All this and I still made it home with time to shower before the little’s alarm clock chimed that it was time to really start my day.

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Dear life,
Just thinking today about hard things. And no matter how carefully you plan and fashion your life it doesn’t always fall into place as you expect it should. And how hard it must be to watch the rest of the world continue on without missing a beat while your world has become a knot of struggles and misfortunes. Today I resented writing how sad it is to watch my baby grow before my eyes. I’m learning that some of the things I think are hard are not hard at all. They are instead wonderful and happy. Watching a baby grow right before your eyes is hard until you think of not being able to watch her grow. Sending your kids off to school and into the world is hard until you think about not being able to help and guide them through life’s tangle of mazes. No, my life is not hard. It’s easy. I am blessed and I wonder if I have not realized the magnitude of my blessings. I am being taught something I didn’t want to learn by someone I didn’t want to learn it from. There are hard things. Much harder things than I have ever known.
Although my neighbor and I share the same views of the majestic mountains from our windows, I know that what we see is very different. And while I know that was the plan, to see and experience differently, I can’t help but feel that “this” is unfair.  Sadness, anger, guilt, despair and frustration run through some hearts like a parade of pain, while others seem to skip along under the radar. Thus far I have skipped, occasionally run into a few snags and snarls, and then without much further ado resumed my pace of life.
But now I am watching another’s pace slow. A friend is fighting for time without knowing when time will cease to be an option. The cancer will eventually rob her of life. Rob her daughter of a mother. Rob her husband of a wife. Rob me of a friend and neighbor.
These are hard things.

Jenny

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These are worth sinking your teeth into. Tis the season. Peaches for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

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I promised myself that we’d spend the last few days of summer going to bed at a decent time and waking up with the birds but it just didn’t happen. There were too many fun things to fit in before regimented early mornings laid claim on us once again. Without missing a beat the alarm clock played it’s tune at 7am and it felt as though we picked up right where we left off.  “Up and at em ladies” is all the prodding they needed for their first day of school.

Of course there were nerves but there were also smiles and funny faces. I felt the same.

This morning these two little beauties left my care looking more grown up and mature than I last remember. They left my safe haven to go where they will learn how to pave their own road and make their own way. They left my side but not my worrying heart. I have not a thing to get done today but sit here and look at these faces and remind myself that summer vacation will come again!

Missing them and feeling especially glad to still have a couple more shadows underfoot.

Categories: Family
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