"Anybody can observe the Sabbath

but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week."

-Alice Walker 

"It was all right for the Great Creator to rest on the seventh day,

but many contemporary women I know assume they just can't take the time.

After all, they're not creating the world six days a week,

just carrying its weight on their shoulders.

The Greeks had a wonderful word for this attitude:

Hubris.

Hubris is an 'exaggerated sense of self-confidence'

and it usually comes before a humbling.

...

Here is a short guide to what you

SHOULD NOT BE DOING

on your Sabbath:

-strenuous household chores

-catching up on work that you didn't complete last week

or getting a head start on work you're supposed to start on Monday

-shopping

THIS IS WHAT THE SABBATH IS FOR:

-reverence

-rest

-renewal

-rejuvenation

-reassuring rituals

-rejoicing

-revelation

Your activities on the Sabbath should uplift you and provide enough inspiration to sustain you during the week to come."

Sarah also leaves room for those who are not religious. If you don't believe in God, or anything like that, give this a try anyways. It doesn't have to be Sunday, pick a day for your own personal Sabbath.

There are plenty of talks on the Sabbath Day on lds.org, but I liked this one. 

I remember one Sunday as a child that my parents chose to break the Sabbath and go shopping for some piece of furniture because it was on sale that day. I remember throwing a fit because it didn't feel right.

Now me throwing a fit was also not right, but the feeling was what stuck, that breaking the Sabbath wasn't right.

I also remember one summer Pismo trip. We always have a meal plan, and we had scheduled a restaurant on Saturday and a home cooked meal on Sunday. It's often hard to keep the Sabbath while camping, but we tried. Someone didn't want to go to the restaurant on Saturday, so we switched days and broke the Sabbath. I didn't like the way it made me feel.

I remember that my family used to go to Sweet Tomatoes every stake conference because we were all together. I remember thinking something was wrong with this, but after years of doing it, it became common. We rationalized it. I remember when we stopped, and I asked my dad why we didn't go anymore. He said "because we're trying to keep the Sabbath day a little better".

I had the thought a couple Sundays ago as we were driving past the park to go to church. I was watching all the kids having fun, the families playing and walking together, and I thought if I didn't go to church and believe what I believe, I wondered what I would do...

I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather be doing.

Whenever I break the Sabbath it feels wrong.

I do not feel peace, or rejuvenated, or rested.

Now taking the three little kids to church is hard, and often times I do feel extremely tired after an entire day of getting them ready for church and getting them to church and getting them through church and then getting them fed and to bed...right now church is an all day event.

But my spirit feels peace, and rejuvenated, and fed...and I usually get a nap and go to bed early to help my body.

I have a great testimony of how keeping the Sabbath day holy is good for you, and how if you don't it's not good. Dedicating the Sabbath to the Lord is my personal Sabbath.

If you don't have a personal Sabbath, try and set aside a day for you and your family.

Like everything else Sarah suggests, what do you have to lose?

***

Gratitude Journal

***

1) Understanding. I've never liked flakes. I've always thought them kind of terrible people that had no thought or feeling for others...well, now from experience I know that that isn't necessarily true, and if it is it is not my place to judge. I can remember at least 1 time that I've flaked in the past couple months, and now I have 2. I tried to go to my playdate this morning, but I just couldn't make myself get out of bed. I tried so hard, but I just couldn't stop crying. And my friends totally understood. No judgement, no hard feelings, no worries. They are better people than I, and I am blessed to call them friends. I'm grateful for the understanding that I now have about why sometimes people just don't show up.

2) I realized that Shelby's 20th birthday would have been in 16 days. That, and a week of the kids whining and screaming and crying and hitting and kicking constantly...and overscheduling myself...I'm grateful that I had the time this morning and early afternoon to be sad and work through it, and that the kids mostly took care of themselves. How did they grow up so fast?

3) My parents. Even though I'm grown, they are still looking after me and taking care of me. They treated us to dinner tonight.

4) The sunset. So beautiful.

5) It's Friday. This week is finally over! I know why people have one party and call it good, because having something every night and every day this week just about killed me. I about died from celebrating my birthday. Lesson learned.

March 2nd - Meditation

'Meditation is intentional concentration on one thing, 

which can be either secular or spiritual.' 

"In this state [secular meditation] creativity flowers, intuition leads to a deeper wisdom, the natural healing system of the body is engaged, our best physical and mental potential manifests itself and we feel psychologically satisfied. 

[Spiritual meditation] will help you become aware of the presence of the divine in nature, in yourself and in other people. The love and joy that are inherent in Spirit-that are the very essence of Spirit- will begin to permeate your life...

Any time we are fully present in the moment we are meditating."

-Dr Joan Borysenko 

Sarah says that 

meditation "is the mortar that holds mind, body, and Spirit together."

President David O. McKay spoke on the spiritual side of meditation. 

"We pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion. 

Meditation is the language of the soul. 

It is defined as 'a form of private devotion, or spiritual exercise, 

consisting in deep, continued reflection on some religious theme.'

Meditation is a form of prayer..."

I learned some cool stuff on Christ centered meditation here. 

Meditation is a new thing for me. 

Definitely something I want to try a little more of. 

Something that will help is some silence.  

***

Gratitude Journal

***

1) Nana. She knows the way to my heart, she bought me a plant so I could have lots of flowers....and they're purple. And she brought me food, and my kids food...How blessed am I to have such a wonderful Nana? 

2) Traditions. The lullabies I sing to my kids are the lullabies that Nana sang to her kids, and to us when we spent the night. There's something kind of magical about singing to your children with your Nana, and remembering her singing to you. 

3) Workout. I love exercise. I didn't push myself as hard today because I was so sore, but I love the things that my body can do! And also, watching my kids try and copy the exercises we do, is the cutest thing.

4) Laundry. I love having a washing machine and dryer. I kind of sort of ran out of clothes for the kids, so I have a lot of laundry to do today. And it's starting to warm up, I can't wait to get the clothes line out again! 

5) It's Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday. Thank goodness.

March 1st - Serenity

I wanted to say a quick thank you to those of you who are reading my thoughts and Sarah's, I really appreciate it. I hope you're enjoying, and please feel free to comment!

Sarah started today off with the serenity prayer, but with a slight twist. 

"I believe...that the time has come for us to stop associating serenity with things that can not be changed. 

For we can dramatically change the quality of our lives when we consciously seek to restore serenity to our daily endeavors.

How exactly can this be accomplished in our lifetime?

When women stop behaving as if they were whirling dervishes. 

If you frequently feel as if you're about to spin off this planet, 

it's probably because you are."

She then goes on to describe a day...like this.   

I saw this a week or so ago and when I read the day she described, I immediately thought of this woman who shows us what a typical day in the life of a lot of women. We try to start something, then get sidetracked, until the day is over and nothing got done.

She then talked about Grace Kelly. 

And how she was known for being cool and regal, and well, graceful and serene. "While I'm sure Princess Grace had somebody else making her bed, 

the point is still valid. 

Serene women do not become sidetracked.

Sidetracked women, 

who scatter their energies to the four winds, 

never achieve serenity. 

(Nervous breakdowns, to be sure, but not serenity.)

It's as simple as that."

How do we stop getting sidetracked?

By being courageous enough to change what we can. To "concentrate slowly on completing one task at a time, each hour of the day, until the day is over. 

...We will act 'as if' we are serene (think Grace Kelly), 

by bringing all our attention and conscious awareness 

to whatever we are doing...

What we will gain from this exercise is the inner peace that comes from living fully in the present moment."

Sarah knows that for those of us who are used to multitasking this may seem ridiculous. 

"But I assure you

that you will accomplish 

all you set out to do and need to do 

with much more 

ease, efficiency, pleasure, and satisfaction 

when you merge mind, body, and spirit with the task at hand.

And you will experience serenity."

Isn't that seriously cool? I first remember Sarah talking about concentrating on one thing at a time back on January 15th when she introduced simplicity. 

I can definitely add my testimony to this, that being focused on one thing at a time has brought me peace. 

***

Gratitude Journal

***

1) Indy. She is so cute. And so loud. When you're trying to sleep and not only is Robbie snoring, but the dog is too...it's adorable. Everyone needs a dog in their life to add some extra love.

2) Spring. It wasn't even 60 degrees outside and we were getting hot on our walk to the park for a picnic and some time on the playground. We thought, what in the world are we going to do when it gets to 100 degrees? Thank you spring.

3) I spent so much time in the sun today I got a little sun kissed. I don't burn easily, thanks to my beautiful mother and her gorgeous brown skin, I just get a little kissed. While sometimes it may hurt, today it just added a little color back into my skin that I had been missing. I'm glad winter is over, I missed this.

4) Me time. Robbie had a tough day at work, so he didn't get home to take the kids away so I could have some quiet time, but I wasn't aware of his change in plans. After my piano lessons I sat on the couch and cuddled with the kids and finished watching a movie, because I thought that I wouldn't see them the rest of the night. It's 5:30, I give Robbie a call, change of plans. I was pretty proud of my self that I could roll with it, okay, now I have to feed the kids...thank goodness for leftovers. Finally it's 6:30, 30 minutes before bed time...and I kiss the kids goodnight and go take a bath and groom myself (I don't think I've shaved my legs in 2 weeks). I'm kind of grateful for a lot of things I guess.

5) Kids falling down and getting back up. And juice pouches that help make hurts feel better, and that nothing was broken and we didn't have to go to the ER. And then said child running back to the same thing they just fell off of and doing it again. It made me think of Bat Man. "Why do we fall Bruce, so we can learn to pick ourselves up."...or something like that. Kids are incredible, we would be good to try and keep some of those childlike tendencies into our adult lives.