Brain Fart? Mindless? or Completely Lost It?

Maybe all three!!!! At Walmart today, after loading all of my groceries in the Jeep while it was pouring down rain/snow, I shut the door only to realize that I had locked Livvy inside! I am still cringing at the thought of seeing Livvy inside, shaking my keys like crazy and realizing that all of the doors were locked. Duh! Why did I give her the keys to play with again? And why does she like buttons so much!? I sat there crying, trying to get her to start pushing the buttons again, but it was to no avail! I can only imagine how stupid I looked trying to convince a 10 month old to do something from the OUTSIDE of a tinted car window. :)

Luckily some great girl with two little boys let me use her cell phone. (Where was my cell phone? Yep, you guessed it: in the car, with my purse, and Livvy!) But with Kirk at work (with my extra key) and Grandpa not home, my only option was to call the police. Don't worry, they showed up to Walmart with a cop car and a FIRE ENGINE! Talk about embarrassing!! The police officer was really nice, and extra helpful, even though I'm sure inside he was chuckling to himself. He had the door unlocked in about 30 seconds and I was able to rescue Livvy who was almost hysterical at this point.

Note to self: keep keys on body at all times. Keys are not for kids. :)

I'm also thankful today for serviceable people, especially for the helpful cop and the great girl who let me use her phone and stayed with me until the end to make sure Livvy was alright.

Breathing!

I can breath....its true when they say that you take things for granted until you don't have it. After being sick all last week (I avoided it ALL winter and get sick in April, what!!???), I can finally breath! I can smell the fresh cut grass (my favorite), I can taste what I am eating and I can even smell when Olivia needs a diaper change ASAP :)

So today, I am grateful for my health! I am grateful I can breath out both nostrils, smell, and taste. I need to remember to be grateful for these things more often and not just immediately after a cold.

Running Revelations

Last week I recieved answers to my prayers twice while running on my treadmill. Wow! If you can only imagine me trying to keep my balance and stay on the treadmill while clearing my tear-filled eyes enough to see.....hahaha, I'm sure it was a sight! Sobbing and running are not two things I would suggest doing together!

I was reading the November 2007 Ensign with talks from the October General Conference (trying to multi-task :)) while running on my treadmill on two different days last week, when answers to my prayers popped right off the pages. Tears were immediate and were not easily dried as I feasted upon the words of our current apostles. Not only did I recieve answers, but this experience also reminded me how mindful my Heavenly Father is of me and how much he loves me! Its amazing the different ways he uses to send us answers; who would have thought that they would come to me while running!? I knew something good would come out of my goal to run everyday! :)

As of late, I have been trying to figure out how to balance, organize and prioritize my life so that everything important gets taken care of on a daily basis. I have always felt like I could improve in this area of my life, but I have felt more of a sense of urgency to master this challenge ever since I became a mother ten months ago. I only have ONE shot at this, I don't get to go back and re-do or start over and with such a huge responsibility on my shoulders, its one thing I don't want to mess up! (I gather from Elder Ballard's talk this past General Conference that I might not be the only young mother struggling with this very thing).

Ever since I began to ask for some "divine help" in my struggle, the story of Mary and Martha in the New Testament and those things that each of them thought were important to do while in the presence of Christ has been on my mind quite a bit. This story is indicative of my struggle with prioritizing and balancing. For me, I can sympathize with both women. I can see where both of them might have thought what they were doing was the most important thing to do at the time and yet, Christ taught that one was not necessarily more important than the other but one was definitely more "needful".

I bought me the book "Mary, Martha, and Me; Seeking the One Thing That is Needful" by Camille Fronk Olson, so that I could understand this Bible story and Christ's teachings a little better. I hope that by understanding this story more fully, I will be better prepared to make decisions in my life when trying to prioritize and balance between "good, better and best". There is so much required of us, so many "good" things that need to be done, that sometimes I am overwhelmed while thinking about choosing between them all. I'm finally conceding to the reality that I can't do them all, its taken me a long time to admit it, but I realize now that in order to do so I would need two of me (at least), and unfortunately since that's not possible, I need to figure out how to get the "best" things done before the "good" things and then feel satisfied with what I have accomplished.

I'm sure I will write more on this subject once I finish the book; so far, its fabulous and one I would definitely recommend! Also, the two talks that contained answers to my prayers were from the October 2007 General Conference. They are titled "Good, Better and Best" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks and "Mothers Who Know" by Sister Julie B. Beck. (One of the first things that Elder Oaks does in his talk is make reference to the story of Mary and Martha; this is when the tears began to flow:))

If I could strive to be perfect in one area, I think that being able to pick the "best" out of all the good things in life and having an organized, prioritized life would be at the top of my list!