Learn to Wait

Let us, then, be up and doing
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I was reading many passages in my Simple Abudance book the other day trying to catch up to where I know I should be and this poem struck me and has stayed with me for many days. Oh, how grateful I am to be someone who is blessed with a desire to be up and doing and how grateful I am for a husband who is also blessed with a desire to be up and doing. At this time if I could only remember each day that striving and struggle precede success, even in the dictionary. I love our food storage, I love our financial reserves, I love being out of debt, (except for the house), I love tithing and fast offerings, Gordon B. Hinckley said it doesn't take money to pay tithing, it takes faith, I love having a Prophet who is the watchman on the tower for me, I love that I still have some babysitting jobs and I love my new job of cleaning. I love the effort my husband has taken in finding and even being grateful for small part-time jobs that come available. If only I could love the wait.

Dumpster Discoveries

I have done a little dumpster diving in my time, but mostly it is walking into the big ones and not diving into the small ones that are usually behind stores, these dumpsters have been on my block for neighborhood cleanup, so it is fun to see what people throw out. Here are just a few of my fun finds.
Some old windows.


A ladder for the pumpkins to grow on next year. I have been looking a long time for an old wooden ladder and there it was in the dumpster, what a blessing.

This really neat door, the window opens from the top and is stopped by this chain. The picture is crooked, not the door.


This was a bathroom cupboard, I just took off the doors and gave it a nice coat of paint, then some whacks with a chain and some rubbings with sand paper. The box next to it was also in the same dumpster. I don't know what to use it for yet, but I love it.

Love-Hate Relationships

I love when the kids go back to school... I hate that I am more busy in the evening with schoolwork and all the little tidbits of information to pay for this, donate that, buy this to help our school out stuff and when is this money due?

I love using the county library... I hate getting the notice that I have a library bill due because of damaged books. I know that we did damage one book with water, but the other book I couldn't tell anything was wrong with it, even the lady that brought the books out for me to see had a very questionable tone in her voice to the so-called "water damage" on the title page of the book. Oh, well, I actually like the books I had to buy and it was actually cheaper than buying them from the bookstore.

I love Yoga...I hate rolling out of bed early in the morning to do it. I just started doing it this week. It's really only a 30 minute workout, but I am so tired, it feels like forever. Though, I love the way it is making my body feel. I've been told that I can always work on my flexibility.

I love reading the scriptures...just not the Old Testament. I can't use the word hate in that sentence, I might go to H E double hockey sticks if I do. So I have added Gordon B. Hinckley's "Standing a Little Taller" to my daily reading. I have lots of favorites, but for now, since it is harvesting time and I am having a hard time getting excited about preserving what I have harvested, this one is for me..."Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin." James 4:17, and then Gordon B. Hinckley says; "You can't plow a field simply by turning it over in your mind."

Jack

What a wonderful concert he puts on, this Mr. Jack Johnson. It was amazing. I hadn't been to a concert for a long time and Mr. Jewels had NEVER been to a concert, so it was a special treat for me to be the one to bring him to his first concert. We met up with some friends of ours, who have a huge blanket to sit on. While we waited for the bands to come out the men played with their phones and the women talked about life. The funnest thing was watching all the other concert goers getting more relaxed with their alcohol and the wonderful dancing they did, plus all the picture taking they did, I bet they have twenty pictures of the same friends doing the same thing. Plus, we haven't stopped listening to Jack Johnson since the concert.