this i have learned

this week we have been without internet...that is both terrible and fabulous. it was terrible because we have some work that needed to be turned in via email and i couldn't blog. however, i found more time to be with my thoughts. as i was pondering the lessons that i might have taught to my boys and what i have yet to teach them it occurred to me...they have taught me.





::i have learned to appreciate the perfect folded paper airplane


::i have learned that quiet is a relative term


::i have learned that waking before 5am for seminary makes the day

::i have learned that even if a close friend misunderstands your religion and hurts you to the core, that you forgive them and love them anyway

::i have learned that even a 5 year old loves to hear the scriptures read aloud

::i have learned that yes your heart can grow and grow and grow to make enough room for the immeasurable love for 3 sweet, valiant, kind, compassionate boys.

.....and i am the better for having known them.

an assignment

that soule mama sure is an inspiration. over at her blog today she posted 10 pictures and words that described her life right now. she asked us what our 10 right now were. so (minus the pics...all cameras are down) here are mine.....

:balance
:peace
:baking
:creating
:laughing
:prayerful
:loving
:reading
:remembering
:mothering

now what are yours??

i....

i have been away from this space for far too long.

i went to a lovely wedding this weekend.

i have had the best conversations with my peeps lately....such great boys i have

i miss my daddy and am ready for a trip to eureka

i want this for my birthday and this, this, and this i cannot live without........looks like i want too much!

i have the greatest pal ever..........poor thing has spent almost every date night with us lately (good for me!)

i want to be one of these and one of these

i am in love with this song and this one

i cannot wait until valentine's day

i have several posts rolling around in my mind...need to get those out

i am super excited for tomorrow night's book club...loved Guernsey

i am in love with baking bread

i am so grateful to be a child of God


see you later in the week

what to do????

kevin starts his nights weekend tonight so.........what to do?? maybe the boys & i will

::eat some chinese food...sawyer has been begging for dumplings
::paint sawyer's room a beautiful blue
::go see Goodnight Moon @ the lutcher
::bake graham crackers
::chili cook off
::b&w movies with my guys complete with some orville redenbacher
::marathon games of silly sliders aka sorry sliders
::sleep

what does your weekend hold for you??

legacy

lately (when do i not) i have been thinking of my mother, her mother, and her mother before her. remembering the stories of what they did with their day. what did they cook for dinner? how did they sort their laundry? did they like a cold coke on a hot day? what kind of disciplinarians where they? what was their relationship with our Heavenly Father? where they proud of me? did they know just how desperately i loved them?



those 3 very different woman taught me how to be my own woman. i watched as they raised their children, cooked their meals, prayed, sang, and laughed. i learned to say please and thank you, to put my napkin in my lap, to cook a roast, to smile....to love. my mother told me at least one thing she remembered from times gone by every day of her life. i can see my grandmother have mother take down the wash she hung on the line and do it properly....her way. never do i hang laundry, that i don't think of that....and hang it as Ola Mae Fortenberry did. if i think long enough about my great grandmother's, Nadine Fithugh Fortenberry, creamed corn i can smell it. almost everything they ate came from her garden. she is always with me in my own garden. as is my sweet mother who taught me how to raise an organic garden. she taught me that it was important to breast feed and even more important to enjoy being a mother. she was a southern belle always with her red nail enamel, alligator handbag, and ready to chat with whomever wanted one. her example was the greatest teacher i ever had. reading....every Sunday was a marathon little golden book day. cooking....everything from scratch and full of love never being afraid to try something new. gardening....the value of organic fertilizers and the taste of an heirloom tomato. spirituality....faith above all else. compassion....a pot of soup or a cake to show someone you are there while you silently pray for them.

this long line of strong yet gentile southern woman i come from is a sense of pride for me. may i carry on the legacy.

weekend update

this was a slow and easy kind of weekend. i love it when it turns out that way. my time was spent playing and recharging, visiting and laughing, cooking and a little cleaning. pjs were the uniform of choice. hot cocoa was our breakfast. spending time with my most favorite peeps fed my soul. i loved hearing about what happened in biology class or who was at the party and how it was soo fun afterwards. little eyes dancing with delight while the chipmunks squeaked and sharing fries with my best bud. this is what matters......this is the life.

::date night with the Fosters complete with a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings and then some bowling
::hand holding and talking about just anything with my beau
::a trip to see Chipmunks the Squeakquel
::yummy vegetable soup @ the inlaws
::lots of reading under covers
::fun surprises of a new cell phone to one super guy
::my car finally got fixed!!
::book shelf cleaned out
::much conversing with my peeps

hope your weekend was as fab as the bonins!

narrow it down to 15?

on facebook (which i am on a little too much), a friend sent along a request of the 15 books that have stayed with you. silly minor game for most people, but for me it was hard. books are personal. the stories, the characters become woven into the tapestries that are our lives. the townspeople of Mitford are friends of mine. i wept with March family when sweet angelic Beth died. i learned magic at Hogwarts. will never forget the lessons i learned from The Good Earth.
so how do i narrow it down to only 15? it wasn't just me. apparently there are many other book nerds out there in facebook land as well. those lists of our favorite 15 were the buzz all day. how wonderful to find out that you are not alone in craze!

15 books that have stayed with me

1.The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
2.Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
3.The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4.My Life in France by Julia Child
5.The Color of Water by James McBride
6.An Hour Before Daylight by Jimmy Carter
7.Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
8.To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
9.Robert Frost Poetry
10.Good Families Don't Just Happen by Catherine Musco Garcia-Prats, Joseph A., M.D. Garcia-Prats
11.Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
12.Camilla: A Biography of Camilla Eyring Kimball by Caroline Eyring
13.The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
14.Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
15.Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freedman and Nancy Freedman

**Bonus**
The Yearling by Margorie Rawlings
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
These is my Words by Nancy Turner

what books would find their way on your list?

10 right now

::spending the morning running errands with a sweet obedient 16 year old and the conversations that are included

::chocolate dipped strawberries....dipped by a 5 year old chef i know

::crisp, cool (frigid actually) mornings with my girls....feeding & watering and the eggs they give me in return

::reading under one of the blankets that Nadine Fortenberry, my great grandmother, made by her own hands

::date nights with the Fosters

::french rolling pins

::vintage canning jars

::putting in to practice the commandment "to love one another"

::beautiful book plates

::writing in my journal

cloudy with a chance

who knew? probably everyone on the planet but the bonins...Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs comes out on dvd tomorrow. the fine folks @BlueYonderRanch.com are giving a copy away. just run over and enter to win. i know i did!

ringing it in

the last hours of 2009 could not have gone out more perfectly. 3 out of 4 of my most favorite boys in this world were home with me, enjoying each other, eating burgers & fries, discussing what we have read, play WII, and watching

a true new year's eve movie

i cannot recall a more special end of the year. everything so slow, so comfortable, so very peaceful. jimmy stewart gave us our excitement! "mom, i can't watch! my stomach hurts" says sawyer through opened fingers wrapped around his sweet little blue eyes. he thoroughly enjoyed it. and i him.

the eve of this new decade is a perfect example of how i intend on living this next one. simple, slow,comfortable, surrounded by the ones i hold dear to me. it occurred to me that i do not need to go looking for happiness and a good time anywhere but here. do other's know this secret? countless people last night may have just been looking for that. do they see through their bloodshot eyes this morning that they could have had a different experience? my prayer is that the lonely and lost find just that.....peace and comfort. and for those that have those eyes and have that peace. may you continue to feel its warmth.

may comfort, peace, health&happiness be yours in 2010!

how did you end 2009 and what are your plans for this new decade?

****having technical difficulties with blogger......the movie was Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly