Staying Inspired

I love these words. And the last name. LOL.
I'm gonna ask Dave if we can change our last name.

I have missed blogging daily, but still haven't figured out a good way to fit it in lately.

The good thing is that I'm not throwing in the blogging towel; I'm just writing when I have time, knowing that there will be a time when I write more.

But my point!

This week I've been thinking about how to be more positive. (Sidenote: I'm not saying I've been practicing, I'm jussayin' I've been thinking about it. Ha!)

And here's what I realize:

I can easily change my mood from "BOOOO!" to "YAY" by doing one or all of these things:
--Listening to a TedTalk (This week: Three A's of Awesome, The Strangeness of Scale at Twitter, Dancing Dung Beetles, The Happy Secret to Better Work, and Your Body Is My Canvas)

Alexa Meade paints directly on people--and turns them into a portrait that looks 2D. It's awesome!

--Listening to good music--LOUDLY.

--Praying.

--Singing at the top of my lungs to a song I know most of the words to. (PS: Doing that this week, Dave walked in and it scared the garbanzo beans outta me.)

--Spending time with our kids and really BEING with them. Present.

--Baking bread.

--Looking at family photos (reviewing the blog).

--Talking to a friend when I am not distracted.

--Writing.

--Meditating.

--Doing 20 minutes on the elliptical.

--Avoiding crappy food and drinking a lot of water.

--Looking at fun pins on Pinterest (for a set amount of time--I could easily lose myself there).

--Avoiding complaining. (I know there are times to complain, but I also feel like my brain just makes things HUGE when I allow it to run wile down a negative steam of thinking.)


So now what? How do I remember to do this daily?

I think it's by keeping the list in a place I can see ... until this becomes a habit (until I become more aware IN THE MOMENT when I am being negative or BOO-HOOing.)
So that's what I'm gonna do!

Hope you have a great weekend.

PS: One more reminder to myself, in the same way that I know what helps me change my attitude to the positive, I am also aware of what keeps in negative. I could make a list of those things too, but I think that would be a downer. Ha!

******
And here are some of this week's photos. 

PPS: Bam and mom, I know your bdays are coming up. Bring on April. I'm ready for SPRING!

Elder Meehan with Brother R, a church member he has been super blessed to know.
Brother R had a quadruple bipass about 10 weeks ago. |
It was a really serious surgery and recovery process. This photo was taken at his
WELCOME HOME party when shortly after leaving the hospital.

Elder Meehan's scriptures. He's studying a lot. 8)

Brother R's Welcome Home party. That's a lot of missionaries! (Blurry, sorry.)

The area where Elder Meehan serves.

Indianapolis suburb.

Elder Meehan took this photo on the way to a service project they were completing: Freewayt Cleanup.

Zu got some new shirts. She is nearly as tall as me.

I bought some processed food for the kids and it was HEAVY ...

... when the BAG broke and it dropped on my foot!

For the LOVE of all that is holy: 2.5lbs is HEAVY when it falls on your foot. YEOWCH. I'd like you to know
I didn't even swear when this landed on my foot. I feel like that deserves a parenting award for that alone.
(And no, I don't like my feet--even before the bruise.)

Zu and Lu cracked open a really good coconut and drank the juice. 

Jr. finished working as part of stage crew on a school production (which was a lot of fun).

We made applesauce and I used real vanilla beans.
(Which I'd never used in my life until then. I blame Chopped for the fancy applesauce.)

Bread makes me happy. Not just eating it, the whole process of making it.