Category Archives: Life

My Favorite Planner!!

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I have used many planners throughout my life.

I would be lost without a planner.

I have used a planner for as long as I can remember. I like to be able to look at at least a week at a time, so my cell phone doesn’t work for me. I did have a “Palm” at one time, but there again, I couldn’t see the details of the whole week or month at the same time. I did play a lot of “Bejeweled” though. The other problem I had with some of my planner‘s was the size. I like seeing the whole month or week, which makes them sometimes a little big.

This was fine, unless I wanted to go somewhere.

I would need a large bag or purse. Well, I don’t really care for large purses, and had a tendency to leave my planner home, which defeats the purpose of having one. I would run into someone I know and try to make a plan, and nope, I’d say, “Let me call you when I get home!” So after much time and many planners, I discovered the best planner for me! Here it is: My Moleskine Planner!

My planner is 3 1/2″ X 5 1/2″, and not quite 1/2″ thick. It fit’s nicely in my purse and I have a small purse. It is always with me! Did you see the little colored dots on the left of the weekly schedule? I have all of my daycare kids color coded. On the day each child is coming, I put a dot. That way, I’m not using a ton of space to keep track of what I’m doing that day. I love it! The planner also has a ribbon bookmark, and an elastic to hold it closed when not in use. I am so glad I found my Moleskine planner!

An Amazing Lady!

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My darlin’s Aunt Della Mae passed away this past week.

Her funeral was yesterday. It was a great funeral.

It was a great funeral, because she was an amazing lady who had a great life. It was a celebration of her life. She was 85 years old and very accomplished. She was very educated. She was successful with her job. She and her husband spent years serving others and volunteering. She raised 6 children, has many grandchildren and great grandchildren. She traveled around the world. She had a beautiful yard and home and was a wonderful hostess. She played the piano beautifully.

Sometimes when I hear about the amazing things others have done with their time on earth I feel a little like I haven’t done enough. Like I haven’t used my time wisely. I know Della Mae wouldn’t want me to feel that way. Especially if those feelings came from hearing about her life.

She was the kind of person who cared so much about other people. And how they felt and how their life was going. My children all have felt loved and valued by her. I love her and she will be missed.

If she were here with me right now, she would tell me to be the best “me” that I can.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Della Mae’s children: Kerry, Klaine, Kim, Kevin, Kirk, Kip. Great people!

International Day of Awesomeness?

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Really?

There is an International Day of Awesomeness?

I know some days are awesome, and some days aren’t. It’s usually a matter of choice, but I love the idea that someone thought of making an official day. If you want to check it out, the Official Site is here! Yes, there is an Official Site!

So this is what I did with my “Awesome” day…

I showered and did a deep conditioner on my hair, then I cried because I had a fight with my son, then I went and gave him a hug. Me and Emily went to a baby shower. We came home for a minute, because my little 9 year old friend Parker wanted me to pull his tooth. Then we met my niece at the beauty supply store, then went to my sister-in-laws to give her a lesson on doing a blog. We picked up food on the way home and after that my darlin and I went to the thrift store, the grocery store, and came home and now we’re watching a movie while I write this post.

It really was an awesome day.

Family History Friday: Collectables #7 Navajo Treasures!

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This is a rug my darlin bought in Arizona when he was a missionary there. It hangs in our bedroom. Along with these beautiful Wedding Baskets. We have kind of an eclectic decor in our room, Navajo treasures, a quilt on the bed, grandma’s hopechest, etc. But I love it! I am surrounded in my room with things that are precious to me.

The Navajo’s have a tradition with their rugs. They purposely put a mistake or flaw in each of the rugs. They say it is because only God is perfect, and if they make a perfect rug, they will offend God. I have personally used that same reasoning when I make stuff. 😉

The Wedding Baskets are given to the the couple to hang in their home. The opening points downward on purpose, it is to let the evil spirits out of their home. I think it’s a great tradition. I haven’t felt any evil spirits in our home.

The main thing to me is that my sweetie brought them home from his mission and he loves the Navajo people. They are beautiful and remind me of wonderful stories and traditions. All people have stories and traditions. I love hearing them all.

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

 

Sissy Poo!

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As I’ve said in another post, I grew up in a family with 5 brothers and no sisters. There were six kids and our parents. When I was in junior high,

I came home with a little furry friend.

It was not uncommon for me to do this. I was always rescuing an animal.

I couldn’t help it.

But on this day the desire to bring home this animal was worse than ever. This little puppy was so tiny and cute. She was a mutt. They are actually my favorite kind of dog. They always have fun characteristics that don’t really match any other dog. This little pooper was part Chihuahua and part Terrier.

So. Cute.

When I got home, I honestly don’t remember my mom saying whether I could keep her or not. But when dad got home, he took that little ball of fur in his arms and said, “If we’re gonna keep her, we better name her Sissy Poo, cause she’s the only little sister you’re ever gonna have!”

And so is was, my little Sissy Poo became my little sister.

I was so attached. She slept with me every night.

She followed me around all day. She was the first to greet me when I arrived home.

I remember when I left on my mission, I was so afraid she would die, and there were a few times while I was gone that my family thought she was going to die too. I just couldn’t stand the thought of her not being there when I got home. Remember, I got her in 7th grade. I was now 21-22 years old.

She was almost ten years old when I got home. I was so excited to see her! And after a minute or two, she was so excited to see me, I had been gone for a year and a half. A year after I got home from my mission, she was still hanging in there. And another year later I had my first child, Riley. She was still there.

Then when Riley was six months old she fell asleep at the top of the stairs

and never woke up.

Personally, I believe she waited until I had other people to love, my darlin, and my son, so that I wouldn’t be so lonesome when she was gone.

We buried her in the back yard and had a nice little funeral. We all cried and cried. She is still so important to me and that was 25 years ago. She was such a big part of my life. She was my sweet little Sissy. I am so glad I brought her home. I love you Sissy Poo.

Life is a Wonderful Journey.

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Life is a wonderful journey.

It starts on the day your were born. 

The years stretch out like stepping

stones, untraveled and unworn.

Some days our stride may falter, 

or we wonder where we are.

Some days we look back with

surprise that we have come so far.

We find our way, or it finds us,

and journey hopefully toward something

deeper, something truer than

our eyes can see.

Life is  a wonderful journey, made

with steps both great and small,

winding it’s way toward the beautiful

truth that waits at the heart of it all. 

Written by someone amazing @ Hallmark.

I love reading cards! Don’t you?

Sweetness and Light.

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I am a whimp, I’ll admit it.

I cry at the drop of a hat, or at least at the end of sad movies!

My darlin can tell you that I mostly watch movies with a happy ending. I just can’t take the sad endings. I have been known to cry, of and on, for days after seeing a sad movie. Every time I think about the movie, I cry.

One time years ago, my darlin went to get us a movie, I said, “Be sure to get a comedy.” I thought it was a pretty safe bet. He got to the video store, and looked, and looked. He came home with a movie he said was a comedy. In the first five minutes of the movie, the lady in the movie’s husband dies and the rest of the show she is trying to figure out what to do with herself. I cried and cried. I said, “This is not a comedy!” All he could say was, “I looked at so many movies, I must have picked the wrong one!”

I’d say!

So I have come up with a great idea. I think the movie industry should put a code on the movie. Let’s call it the “Sweetness and Light” code. They could put a cute little picture of a “sun” on the back cover next to the rating. Then all of the poor husbands who are trying to pick a happy or funny movie will never make a mistake.  And all of the pansy people who can’t take any sadness will be able to watch the movies that are full of “Sweetness and Light.”

“Zip-a-dee-do-dah, Zip-a-dee-ay!!”

Collecting Pins!

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Years ago our family had an awesome opportunity.

We were able to go to, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D. C.

We had so much fun! It really was a once in a lifetime trip.

My in-laws were serving an LDS mission in Boston, so we were able to stay with them and we were able to stay with other relatives along the way. We packed as light as we could, and we were on a budget. So when we talked to the children about souvenirs, we told them we would have to be very careful in buying souvenirs.

#1 We had limited space to bring them home, and

#2 We had limited money to buy them.

One thing we did for the kids before the trip was, we bought each of them a baseball cap to wear while we traveled to protect them from the sun and to help us spot them easily.

I had a great idea come to me. We could buy pins at all of the places we visit and the kids could put them on their hats. Pins were never more then $4 at any of the places we went and that meant we could get all of our kids something at each of the places we visited. They came home with a hat full of souvenirs! I think this worked out well. It was fun to see the children’s hats have more and more pins as we traveled. The kids seemed to be really happy with their pins. We were able to travel to some amazing places, and historical places. The kids learned a lot about the is history of our great country. They had fun seeing things that they had only heard about before. Now, when they look at their pins, all of these memories will come back to them.

T.V. Anyone?

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No, Thank you!

I don’t know how long ago, but our Stake President (an area leader in the LDS church) started to give us challenges that always took place in April. One challenge was to take a break from watching T.V. for a week. Literally turn it off for a week. This challenge of not watching T.V. for a week, happened every April for years. The first time we did this, it was so hard. We all had withdrawals within the first day or so. We thought a week was going to kill us. Then one time he even challenged us to go a month without T. V. That was even harder.

We learned so much doing it though. We spent time reading, playing board games as a family, doing projects around the house. We spent time outside and doing activities with our family, like going for walks and playing at the park.

Well, all of this turned out to be good practice for our family. Last May, I was unexpectedly let go from my job. It was very bad timing. I was so worried about how we would pay for our bills. We also have our two darling missionaries serving, and that costs money, too. My first instinct was to cut whatever bills we really didn’t need to have. One of the first things we cut was our cable. We had enjoyed having a limited service from our cable company. We only had a few channels. Our T.V.’s are old and not compatible with digital service, so in order to have any T.V., we needed cable. We decided even though this meant we wouldn’t even have local weather and news, to cancel the service. That was eight months ago. We still don’t have T.V.

We do watch movies. But we only have the T.V. on for a few hours a day, if even that. Most of the time, the T.V. is off. I never watched it that much in the first place, but I did have a few favorite shows, like Masterpiece Theater on PBS and nature shows. I occationally miss those, if I think about it. But if we want to hear news or weather we can check the internet. What I am most pleased with, is that we don’t have a never ending stream of “who know’s what” coming into our home. We read more. We play more.

 Our home is quiet and peaceful. (Unless I have a half a dozen daycare kids here.) Even the daycare kids only watch one movie when they are here. Instead they play.

I don’t really ever want to have T.V. again. I am so glad our Stake President had us practice for all those years.

Our First Home

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Brian, Brad, Joy, and Keith

When I was born, my parents lived in a cute little starter home. We lived in a cul de sac with 5 other families. We had the best yard in the neighborhood. You know, the one that all the neighborhood kids like to hang out at. On any given day all of the kids in the neighborhood were at our house. The reason why our yard was so amazing, is that our dad was so creative. Our yard had:

1-A teeter totter made by putting two wagon wheels together, on an axel. And on the axel, was the teeter totter. It could be rolled anywhere in the yard.

2-We had an old nozzle from a bomb, that my dad turned into a dog house. He just cut out a door way for the dog and turned it over. It kind of looked like an igloo. The funnest thing was to turn it over and sit inside it. We would take turns spinning each other around.

3-My dad built a castle out of cinder blocks. I don’t know for sure how big it was, I was only five. But I could walk in it. It even had turrets.

4-We had a sand box. I remember my big brother Keith eating sand, and my mom trying to get it our of his mouth. He’s only a year and a half older than me.

5-An amazing rock garden, that you could climb on, like a little mountain.

6-In the very back of the yard there was a fire pit. I remember roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

7-A wishing well. So cute.

8-My dad made a little play house for me. It was very simple and creative. He took plywood and made four walls with a door and windows, and painted it real cute. Hinges were on the corners so it could stand up and I vaguely remember a doorbell of some type.

9-We had an awesome garden. I remember eating pear tomatoes straight from the vine. Yummy!

We didn’t live there very long. My dad wanted to build a bigger home, and I think my mom was OK with moving from the house where all the neighbor kids played. She must have felt like a tender.

It was such a great yard.

When we lived in this home, I had my own room upstairs, across the hall from mom and dad’s. I remember feeling like the room was huge. Years later when I had the opportunity to visit my first home, a class mate had moved into my old home. It was amazing to me how small the house was, and especially my old room. Either that, or I got bigger. Hmm. I think I know which one happened.

We had a great first home. Thanks to mom and dad for making it such a wonderful place!