Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Simple Woman's Daybook -

FOR TODAY

Be sure and drop by other Simple Day Book Entries here.
Enjoy reading and perhaps join the fun!
Outside my window...it's a very cold Sabbath day. There is an inversion which is not good for my allergies.  The valley is thick with bad air.
I am thinking...that I am so grateful to have been able to attend church today. The meetings were lovely. Our meeting time started at 9 am instead of 11 am; so we had to speed up a bit.
I like the 9 am time because then you have more time in the afternoon to do Sabbath appropriate activities and Inner City Missionary work. Today I enjoyed playing the piano for a while and doing some reading. 
I am thankful...for good health today. On the Sunday before Christmas I started in with not feeling well. At that time I asked my sweet husband for a priesthood blessing. I felt that I would be OK.  By Christmas Eve I tried so hard to eat a wonderful dinner that my dear husband had fixed for us. We have a yearly tradition of having a dinner together on Christmas Eve. When we were raising our children we would do it later in the evening when they were in bed. I took just a couple of bites and I just couldn't eat. I prayed that I could feel well during the Christmas Holiday. I knew beyond doubt I could be healed if it was the Lord's will. The next day on Christmas I felt really good all day. My husband gave me two very thoughtful gifts. One was tickets to "Les Miserable" on Christmas Day and the other one was tickets to the Donna and Marie Osmond Christmas show on Thursday evening. I felt good enough to go to the movie and I didn't cough at all. When I got home from the movie I started to cough and it continued through Wednesday. Then on Thursday I had another good day and was able to go to the Donna and Marie show. I felt so blessed. Since then I have had a irritating cough but have felt well otherwise. I feel deeply blessed because I have had pneumonia twice in the last 4 years and I was blessed not to have this complication. Today was awesome I have not been coughing at all.  
In the kitchen...my dear husband is cooking again. He loves to cook; so I am letting him.. We are having  Salmon tonight, one of my favorite dishes. 
I am wearing...a flowered skirt, with a light green blouse, a black sweater and black slippers. I sometimes enjoy wearing a dress or skirt while at home on the Sabbath day. 
I am creating...my day timer. I don't know if this is creating; since I have all the materials for it. I am of course getting it organized. 
I am going...to enjoy this Sabbath day by getting this day book entry completed and then read from the books I am enjoying right now. 
I am wondering...if I can get organized enough to accomplish more in my day. I continue to struggle with priorities. I want to start doing more family history research weekly.
I am reading..."Look Up My Soul -The Divine Promise of Hope" by Gerald N. Lund.

This book is a must read. While reading a blog post that challenged me to pick a word for the year; I decided on the word "Hope". I am really learning a lot about this word. I desire to have an understanding of hope and thus strengthen my hope in Christ.
  I also started to read the Biography of Thomas S. Monson entitled; "To The Rescue" by Heidi S. Swinton. 

President Monson is our prophet and I started to cry just reading the Preface to the book.  I can tell I am in trouble on this one. He is such a marvelous man. His mission has always been to serve and left others. This should be on a must read list too. 
Over the Christmas Holiday, I love to read Christmas books. This year I read "Angels At The Table by Debbie Macomber and then "The 13th Day of Christmas" by Jason F. Wright. Both of these books were such a treat to read. 
Of course, I am still reading out of the Book Of Mormon everyday. This is a commitment that I have made and it is my favorite book of all. 

I am hoping...to enjoy more moments with my children and grandchildren this year. I wish that they lived closer. We did enjoy having some Christmas moments with three of our families. I treasure all of the time I can have with them. I have some awesome grandchildren and great grandchildren. Right now my Granddaughter Gillian who is 21 years old moved in with us the first part of December. She has been a joy to have and has been so thoughtful of us both. It is fun having her and her friends around more. I think it keeps us young. 
I am looking forward to...more time with my dear husband. He had planned on taking off half of a day each day through the holidays but instead he ended up working more. I just keep hoping that he will retire sometime this year. I am ready for retirement; so we can serve a full time mission. I am so glad he works at home or it would seem very hard when he works so much.
I am learning...how to do Family History research. For Christmas I wanted to give my husband some names from his ancestry lines to do temple work. I knew I wasn't going to have time to do a lot of research. I have found some names on my lines; but none on his. I prayed hard for guidance to find some names on his line. I knew he would be thrilled if I did that. 
As Christmas drew near I didn't think I would get the time. However, I prayed in faith and when I did have a couple of hours to sit down and work on it I was able to find three children that needed their temple work completed and be sealed to their parents. There were two boys names and one girl. I was so excited and I felt so blessed. When I gave him the names in a card for Christmas he was deeply touched. It brought us both great joy. 
Around the house...I have been looking for my journal entries for 2012. I couldn't find them where I normally keep them; which was strange. I wanted to add December's entries so the journal would be complete. I started a search around the house and couldn't find them in the obvious places that I would keep items like this. I started to pray. Yesterday, I looked everywhere I could think of. I continued to plead with Heavenly Father to help me find the entries. Last night as I was lying in bed; I thought of looking in an old purse that I had and I also though I should go through my cedar chest again. When I got home from church I started in searching again. I went through the cedar chest. I felt discouraged because the journal writings were not there.Then again the thought came to me to look in this one purse I had in the closet. At the same time my husband came into the room and started to look on that same shelf. As reached for the bag and moved it; there was my precious journal. I know beyond a doubt that I was led there by the Spirit. I do believe in the tender mercies of the Lord and answers to prayers. He does care about the little things in our lives. I have faith in Him. 
I am pondering...about my relationship with my Savior. 

This year I want to develop an even stronger hope in Christ. I want to challenge myself with goals that can help me draw closer to Him. I want a Christ centered home and life. 
A favorite quote for today..." Hope is a gift of the Spirit-one that strengthens the heart and lifts the spirit -and is therefore a form of light and truth". - Gerald Lund ~
One of my favorite things...is to have lunch with close friends. I have some very dear friends that bring great joy into my life.
Something New About Me...I would love to act in a play again. I had a one time when I was in my middle thirties. I was  Dora the Heroine in a melodrama.  I had so much fun. The Hero was much younger than I and was always teasing me. He threatened to give me the wrong lines to goof me up. I had bruises all over my body  from being chased and thrown over a couch on the set. This was just a one time moment and truly a wonderful experience.
Pet Peeves...I hate being late to anything. However, I am usually the cause. I think it might be hereditary  I had a grandmother that would take 3 days to pack for a five hour drive and she was never on a timed schedule. 
One of my guilty pleasures... is to go shopping. I love to window shop and I also enjoy watching people. I find people in general very interesting. 
A few plans for the rest of the week: How about take all of my Christmas decorations down. I am very slow in doing this. I have a hard time letting Christmas go. I plan to start working on some of the goals I have for myself; such as practice the piano daily, continue to work on Family History, and finish a project for my dear husband's birthday at the end of the month.
A peek into Our Christmas Nativity Program ~
 Our Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren - 
Jonathan, Levi, Faith, Lilly, Jadyn with Baby Sagan, Joshua and Jeffery.
The escaping baby angel, Lilly -

8 comments:

Denise said...

Very nice daybook..

Marie Rayner said...

LeAnn, I love your daybook entries. I think they are my favourite writings of yours, because it is just like sitting down and talking with a good friend. I was ill all through Christmas and am still not 100%. Todd has not been well either. Terrible colds and coughs. I have had pneumonia several times myself and I always worry that I am getting pneumonia. I Need to be well so I can go help my mom when she has her surgery. I dare not risk bringing her a cold. I am not looking forward to traveling alone. I will need a blessing for sure. It is a long time since I have traveled on my own and in the Winter too. I hope I can bear the cold temperatures! I love reading about your family traditions and your sabbath day activities and your nativity. You are such a special lady and I am so blessed to count you as a friend. Much love coming your way today and always. xxoo

Susan Anderson said...

Wonderful post! And I'm so glad you found your journal!!

=)

Just Ramblin' said...

I love you Daybook entry. I think I'm going to start doing it again. Kind of let it fizzle this past year. I just got Debbie McCombers book from the library. I have been on the waiting list forever. For Christmas I received the book "Becoming His" and like you am hoping to strengthen my hope in Christ. It is one of my goals for the year to draw closer to Him and be a better and more thoughtful person as I follow in his footsteps. I am continuing to read the Book of Mormon also and am also trying to read a conference talk a week, study and ponder it. I hope you are feeling better. You truly were blessed to feel well enough to attend your two special events. You are a wonderful example to all of us as you share your faith and testimony with us through the written word. Thank you for always leaving me feeling uplifted after reading one of your blog entries. Nola

Cheryl @ TFD said...

I'm so glad you found your journal. The Lord has helped me find many misplaced things, too! I seem to misplace things all too often and my goal is to get more organized this year.
Have a wonderful week!

Debbie said...

a beautiful "opening up/peak inside" your life that i really enjoy!!

i love a man who cooks ;)))

Darlene said...

I loved reading this, LeAnn. Honestly though, when I read these personal ones that tell all the things you do and like, it makes me feel pretty insignificant. You are a real wonder to me. I can't imagine how you find time to do all you do, and to know how really good you are about reading your scriptures every single day!! I think that will have to be one of my resolutions this year. I made my first one, to get rid of all excess "stuff" in all our closets, cupboards, drawers, and garage. Honestly, we have so much of it and I just don't want to leave it for my kids to have to go through and get rid of after I am gone. I realized though that I really do need to read my Bood of Mormon every day. I have read it through only about three times in my life and I am almost 86! We just get so busy with our lives, and I love it when we can read it together, so I often wait for Dick and a few days can go by. We have started at the beginning so often, so this time, instead of doing that we are going to start further into the book. We have read the first part so often and for some reason can't get to the end.

Another thing that inspires me is that you don't just want to retire to have more time together, you want to do it on a mission!!! I wish we could have gone on one when I was younger, but I have always seemed to have some medical reason to keep me from going. Of course I am way too old now, as I need medical help way too often.

Anyway, I just have to tell you how much I admire you my dear friend LeAnn. I read some of your back blogs and realized just how long it has been since my last one. I'm back now though, but still won't blog on a regular basis, I just don't like being on this darned computer, even if it is a new one. I am going to read your blog though, even if I don't always comment.

I hope you and your family all have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

jennifer anderson said...

you are a busy lady!