brr to the ridge batman!

brr!!! winter has reached arizona! i heard that today is the coldest it has been in arizona since the 1800's! i am thankful today for hot cocoa.
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stay toasty,
kir

to reconnect

i have mixed feelings about new years resolutions. what usually happens (okay, what always happens) is this: i get really excited about setting new years resolutions so i set two or three or seven or eight goals. one year i even set twelve goals, one for every month. i do really really well on these goals for about a week, probably less. then i get burnt out. then i get mad at myself for not accomplishing all of my goals. then i quit them altogether. this year i did not want that to happen so instead of making specific goals i just made this one: to reconnect.
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on new years eve my phone stopped working. apparently cell phone providers do occasional updates and the only way for your phone to receive those updates is to turn it off and back on. i never turn my phone off. because i never do this my phone misses out on updates and got to the point where it stopped working. because it was a holiday weekend every time i tried to get a hold of my cell phone provider to figure out what was going on i was unable to because they were closed. finally on monday they opened back up and i spoke to them only to find out i could have simply turned my phone off and back on in order for it to work again.
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i likened this to life. sometimes in order for us to work properly we need to turn things off temporarily. when we run ourselves too thin our bodies and minds don't function to full capacity. this year i want to focus on finding time to reconnect. this can be done in several ways by taking time to unplug and do something productive that brings me joy. remember president uchtdorf's talk about this? for me there are many things i want to reconnect with in order to completely reconnect. i want to reconnect with my kitchen, reconnect with my scriptures, reconnect with the gym, reconnect with friends and family, reconnect with my camera, reconnect with my blog. i didn't set any specific goals about number of days i have to work out or number new recipes i must learn. instead i just want to take time to reconnect and do something each day that makes life more meaningful.
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it's amazing what taking the time to put together a fresh salad can do for your body, mind and spirit.

today

today i am inspired by: this talk
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i am craving: mango salsa. dave and i snacked on some yesterday and it was oh so delish.

i am wanting: some of these pretties from anthropologie. i love love love their fall line, but it is definitely not in my budget, these fun accessories are affordable though. when i ooh and ahh over their clothes i always think about a line from this song: it may be years until the day, my dreams will match up with my pay.

i am grateful for: my new {used} car! i have been needing a new car for a while now and finally got one this week! it is a 2008 Hyundai Sonata.

men are that they might have joy

greetings! i have had a busy week to say the least, but i have still made time for laughter; i hope you have too. for a great talk about laughter go here.

until next time,
k

starting the day off right

this week, besides my normal regimen, i have been starting my mornings with:

+

which =

the perfect start to a beautiful and meaningful day

lunch line lessons

fruit snacks were my breakfast yesterday as i drove to work. fruit snacks and a piece of toast. i am not a morning person so that is the best i can do as i am frantically trying to get out the door and beat all the other commuters on my morning drive. i was very surprised as i bit into my first red smiley face fruit snack. i always buy the walmart brand fruit snacks, a) they are a lot less expensive and b) i think they taste just as good and even better than a lot of the other fruit snacks. until yesterday i was not aware that walmart offered more than one variety of fruit snack, but apparently they do because when i bit into my red fruit snack it was not cherry flavored. it was tropical punch. delicious! the fruit punch flavoring tasted exactly like the flavor of a juice i bought every day for lunch in 7th grade, and all it took was that one bite of fruit snack to take me back.
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back in the day i thought i was so cool for buying that fruit punch. in elementary school we were never given options for lunch. we just got in line in the cafeteria and ate whatever they put on our plastic trays. our only option was white milk or chocolate milk. but in middle school we had a variety of options. hot lunch line. salad bar. pizza. ala cart. and what did i do with this new found culinary freedom? i bought fruit punch. it's funny how making decisions forces you to grow up, even if the decisions are as insignificant as what you are going to eat for lunch. but you see, after a few months of splurging on fruit punch every day i began to realize that if i just drank water or milk for lunch by the end of the week i would have an extra $2.50, and with that $2.50 i could splurge on something else. something better. ice cream.
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this is what i thought about as i ate my fruit snacks and drove to work yesterday. and this whole fruit punch vs. ice cream analogy made me better understand the purpose of life. heavenly father sent us to earth to learn and grow and he gave us a whole lifetime of decisions. as we make decisions we encounter consequences. and these consequences are what help us learn and grow. our ability to choose is really why we are here. heavenly father knows that fruit punch isn't our best option, or maybe ice cream isn't even our best option, but we have to know that for ourselves. and the only way we come to know that is by making a few unwise lunch decisions.
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it's amazing what biting into a fruit snack can teach you.

the sound of silence

this weekend i found myself paying attention to and embracing the sound of silence. i have noticed that every where i go there is some sort of sound being shoved in my ears: music, tv, mindless chatter. even when the radio and tv are off i find that i am still humming a song i just heard or thinking about what i just saw on the tube. the past few days i have tried to just turn everything off. no music on the morning commute. no tv during breakfast. no movie before bed. how refreshing silence can be. it is amazing what we hear when we can sit and listen in silence.

scatter sunshine

last night as i was listening to the relief society broadcast i caught myself looking around to see if others noticed that the talks were directed to me. because they were. everything that was said was exactly what i needed to hear.

in fact, when i arrived at the broadcast i was not in the best of moods. i rushed there from getting a three hour haircut (don't ask), missed the dinner and was operating off of only sam's club samples, and could just not get comfortable on those hard-backed pews. i kept saying a silent prayer that i could change my attitude so i would be able to hear and accept the message i was about to receive.

how ironic that every talk mentioned forgetting yourself and serving others. exactly what i needed to hear. i especially loved the quote by James Perry as quoted by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf,

"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves."

how grateful i am for others who share their sunshine with me. i am so grateful for a living prophet who receives revelation so that i am not walking in darkness. and i am grateful for personal revelation so that i can know for myself that the prophets words are in fact what the lord wants us to hear.

men and food

today it was slow enough at work that i decided to dive into a book i was given for christmas. one thing the author pointed out is that there are two things women always seem to talk about: men and food. how true is this? women are always talking about food they are craving, recipes they have tried, the current diet they are on, or what they are going to make for dinner. the married women talk about their husbands. the single women talk about their search for a husband. in fact, besides work related issues, i can't really think of any other in depth conversations i have held with my female co-workers.

on the topic of men....

today a guy i work with was telling me how a girl just told him that all men are retards. he asked me if women really thought telling a guy he was retarded would help him become (unretarded?) he said that the best thing a woman can do is to find the "diamond in the rough"...a good quality he posesses and help him to bring that out. this is true of all people, and it reminds me of a quote, "if you treat a man as he is, he will remain as he is, but if you treat him as though he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become as he ought to be and could be." this is something i am going to try to be better at.

on the topic of food...

for the past three years i had been working soo hard to get rid of my freshman 15. (let's face it, it was more like a freshman 25.) i had tried dozens of diets and nothing seemed to be working, which was not too good on my self esteem. i thought about food so much. everytime i ate something unhealthy i would kick myself for eating it, and everytime i ate something healthy i would be wishing i was eating something unhealthy. food was my enemy. then i read this book and it totally changed my life. this book stressed that we need to learn to love ourselves, no matter what we look like, how successful we are, or who we are dating (or not dating). this book helped me to change my attitude and to enjoy food, and instead of hating it to be thankful for it. before i knew it i had lost all of my freshman weight, and now i can fit into clothes i wore in high school. it is amazing!

SO,

i guess what i'm trying to say is that both men and food can be our best friends or our enemies...it all depends on how we view them. i don't know about you, but i prefer to have more friends than enemies.