Happy birthday buddy 
So today I gave the lesson in Elder’s Quorum. I know random right? Well, the lesson was on “A Time To Prepare” by Ian Arden. A great talk. My lesson went ok, yeah just OK. I am not the best at formally presenting ideas or a lesson that comes out methodically. It is mainly just a bunch of random jibrish to the tune of where did that come from, at least that is the how my self evaluation comes across. Anyways, here is a few of the ideas that I really liked even though they may not have been presented like I wanted them to.
1) Goals
President Ballard gave a profound statement about goal setting. “I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.” – Elder M. Russell Ballard.
“Mastering the techniques needed to reach our goals includes becoming the master manager of our time” – Ian S. Arden
2) Choices
Being a master of our time leads to the choices that we make. “Time is never for sale; time is a commodity that cannot, try as we may, be bought at any store for any price. Yet when time is wisely used, its value is immeasurable. On any given day we are all allocated, without cost, the same number of minutes and hours to use…” – Ian S. Arden, and President Brigham Young reminds us that we are all indebted to God for our time “and He will require of us a strict account of [its] disposition.” Brother Arden continues our choices must match goals or we run the risk of being exposed to procrastination and being strewn from one time wasting activity to another.
So we must be sure that being busy, our choices we make and our time we spend equate to being productive.
3) Productivity
Recent advancements with communication, information, cyber acquaintances, games, websites etc.. have made life interesting and have allowed for much good and productivity. “As good as these things are, we cannot allow them to push to one side those things of greatest importance.” “Let us be as quick to to kneel as we are to text.”
4) Distractions
Distractions are everywhere. Here is a post I wrote a few years back that talks about getting rid of distractions. It all comes down to what we place infront of our eyes and ears.
I am tired and going to bed I may finish more later.
Easton
Breckon
I think we missed last week, so I guess we will have to post two this week.
It seems that we always start off by saying that it has been a crazy week and I think that creates and/or harbors more of the same. Because all our weeks are crazy. This week really was crazy and not just by default. It started last Sunday, Bagiera headed down to Las Vegas to the WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) convention. Leaving me with the kids. We had a blast and got absolutely nothing accomplished during the day at least. It was also Spring Break so the kids did not have school. The weather was horrible so we were stuck inside all day long until we challenged the cold weather and elements for about 20min. We got creative and built huts, made friggle juice, and played wii.
I will let Bagiera tell about her trip. The two little boys, who knows where they got it from, both from just a few weeks old started sucking on their “minkees” and have not stopped since. Check it out
Tagged: shnooky-hoo, stinker-Hoo
This past weekend in San Jose I heard a great analogy that deals with fear and faith. Both very closely similar with one single difference. Think about it…
What is fear? Is it not believing in something that has not yet come to pass? You have fear, become afraid, or experience anxiety because you believe something will happen that has not yet happened. (ie. I am afraid of public speaking because I may mess up or I am terrified to walk down a dark alley because someone may attack me.)
And what is faith? Faith is believing in something that cannot be seen or has not yet happened. You look forward with anticipation, hope for, or trust that because you believe something will happen that has not yet happened. (ie. I believe that if I teach my children to do what is right they will become great people or I look forward to warm spring weather.)
Both have a degree of knowledge and experience that comes attached for instance, common knowledge or past experience. Common knowledge declares that burglars or predators attack in dark solitude spaces and wisdom and experience states that for the last bagillion years spring has brought warm pleasant weather.
So now what is the difference? Here it is folks. Faith is believing in something that is positive or attracting positive uplifting experiences into your life. Fear is believing in something that is negative or attracting negative degrading experiences into your life.
Now I know that in some cases this analogy does not work like in cases that we have no control over, but for instances that we do have control over I love how this analogy applies.
So in instances where you can, drop the fear people. Trade that fear for faith and move on. Instead of having fear for public speaking, have faith that you will reach or motivate 1 person or many people. Instead of being afraid of anything look for something good have faith in that and hold on to that when the fear or anxiety rears its ugly head. And for goodness sake never walk down a dark alley, just saying folks!
Ok this is a little late- this week has 30 more minutes left but I was serious about trying to post weekly so here is this weeks scramble of a post. Bagiera and I went with my parents on a road trip to San Jose for an ACN International convention. This business is phenomenal. 20+ thousand people in attendance.
Thanks to the Wilkinsons, Williams, and Wilsons for watching our kids! We love you guys.
Tagged: ACN
Quick Update: This last week has been really busy, with funerals and all. Two to be exact. Bagiera’s brother’s ex-wife died at age 38. And a great family friend had a 24 year old son pass as well. Sad stuff, and our thoughts and prayers go out to those closest to these individuals. One thing we have learned from direct experience with death is that it is an important part of life. Even when death is accompanied by tragedy and great loss, it offers great time for reflection and evaluation. The mourning, feelings of loss and the process of moving on, as hard as they are, are an essential part of life and its process. It is our duty and obligation, as those left behind so to speak, to either continue on with their legacy or create your own legacy based on a remembrance of the person who passed. No matter what is happening in your life, the death of a loved one stops you dead in your tracks. Sadly it quickly affords time for evaluating your own life, allowing you to determine if your life’s course will get you where you ultimately want or need to be.
Remember, death (physical or spiritual) is not an end. It is only a separation. A separation that lasts only minutes in the grand scheme of things if we align our will with God’s.
So we (actually Mr.E) made it one of our goals this year to update our family blog/journal once a week! Well, he’s a bit (ok, a lot) busy this week, so I guess it’s up to me! I must say I haven’t been a total slacker, I’ve kept up on my photo blog, so that should count for something right!
Ok, well since I’m not the awesome write that my super talented hubby is, I’ll just post a little re-cap of the last couple weeks!
B’s party! So fun. Awesome cake (thanks Annie & Amber)
his list of people to invite consisted of…
monsters
lions
tigers
& Tryston… love him!
(gotta love my wrinkles! I probably shouldn’t post this, but I love it!)
Next we had Pampa’s 50th Birthday party, I think Mr.E already blogged about this.. so here’s a pic!
This last weekend we headed up to Salt Lake to see Uncle Shaner! We had a blast at the zoo and got to see Miss K & her family!!
We miss ya! xoxo
B couldn’t wait to see the Tiger’s!!
Mr. D really did have fun despite his crying picture! (time to go night night! he was asleep within 5 minutes!)
Tagged: zoo
Ok, good morning world wide web. Amazingly this little blog does attract readers from all over the globe… According to Google and its amazing analytics software, we have yes that’s right spanned the globe, that’s kind of exciting. This week I am taking a step down off the soap box and just giving an update and maybe a few favorites from the past month.
So to start check out this little image of our little Lou-Hoo. Sad story, we were visiting Grandma Marti in Springdale and we were playing at the elementary school on the playground. Bagiera was running around taking pictures of the kids and it came to little Lou-hoo’s turn, she was climbing up the monkey bars and right before Bagiera took the shot she wanted to pose and slipped off the bar and fell down quickly placing her bottom lip onto the bar followed by her front teeth right thru her bottom lip.
We have had a few birthdays this last week as well. Little Stinker-hoo turned 3, and my Dad turned 50. Stinker-hoo is in love with Monsters and Super Heroes. My Mom threw a surprise party for my Dad in the form of a wake at Spilsbury Mortuary with a mock funeral service and all, sounds twisted I know but, It was actually a lot of fun and everyone had a great time.
To wrap up for this week, we had a Sunday School lesson that talked about how the right path and the wrong path are getting so far apart that you can no longer walk one foot in each path (trying to avoid confrontation.) You know which path you choose and it is time to show others what path you are on even if it requires you to rock the boat a bit. I received an email that I really liked that was along these lines. Here is a summary:
At a time when our president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country’s prior actions, here’s a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French
Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large
group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?”Without hesitating,
the American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the
Brit’s, Canadians, Aussie’s and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t
have to speak German.”
P.S. If you haven’t checked this out yet you need to. It’s hilarious! Mike and Wes good move we love it!
Tagged: Birthdays, Lou-hoo, stinker-Hoo
The RSS post! (one of the ways where our thinking veers from traditional thinking.) Warning! I think this is the longest post I have ever written.
You have heard the old saying “You become what you think about.” right? Let me explain why I think is very true. First of all, what are most people thinking about? Let me give you a clue. Turn on the TV or radio, turn up the music on your iPod, surf the web, browse through a newspaper or magazine, look at a billboard. You are constantly being bombarded with the latest sensational headlines of war, crime, recession, and uncertainty. You are constantly being shown what you lack, what you don’t have, or how you don’t look. Sadly, what you see and hear daily, becomes what you think and ponder about and what your sub-conscious processes all day (and night).
Your brain is a magnificent creative engine that is constantly solving problems, building paths, analyzing ideas, and overcoming obstacles. Even while sleeping your brain is hard at work figuring out how to deal with information, recruiting different aspects of the brain to join the problem solving process. One of these is the reticular activator which is responsible for regulating arousal and sleep-wake transitions. As your brain constantly sorts the information it takes in everyday the reticular activator alerts you of things that you have absorbed through the course of your life, your month, your week, or your day, depending on the emphasis you placed on it when absorbing it.
Let me show you how this works. (I am getting to my point) Think about the car you drive or the car you want. Did you notice how many of the same car were driving around town before you bought yours or decided that you wanted to drive that car? More than likely not and in a sense (in your mind) it didn’t even exist. What about when you drove that car home from the car lot, all of a sudden there are several of the same car even the exact same color. Did they just appear out of nowhere? NO, they were always there you just never noticed them before. Once that car became yours your reticular activator jumped on board and now alerts you to every of your same car that your eyes see. Can you see how this process works with every aspect of information your eyes or ears take in.
Say you decide you want to loose weight. Immediately your brain goes to work trying to determine how to do this. You see an add on TV or hear from a friend a weight loss solution that worked for them. Your reticular activator throws up a red flag because your brain is trying to build a path for you to accomplish what you decided to do. One of two things happen, your brain reasons with information it has all ready been given and very quickly remembers another friend tried the same program reporting to you that it didn’t work, or, your logic says that this seems easy enough you can do this. And so your brain chooses which case holds the most weight (no pun intended) and decides how to further proceed. These processes happen spontaneously and millions of times per day.
The only thing that you have control over is what your eyes see and your ears hear, and sometimes that is hard to control. For this purpose I have chosen not to listen to or watch the news, I haven’t for years. I don’t care to read the newspapers. Not that I suggest this but I have taken an active roll in determining what my ears hear and my eyes see. Let me also say that I am not ignorant to local and global news. I merely evaluate and decide where or how best to hear or see the news, in ways that I see as positive.
One way that I do this is with RSS (Really Simple Syndication.) Basically, most every company, charity, group or organization has a website that provides RSS feeds with their newest articles or news items that you can subscribe to via RSS. In a nut shell RSS allows you to build your own online “newspaper.” To use these “feeds” you need a feed reader I use Google reader. I then seek out sources of info that I am interested in, websites that teach me, inspire me, update me or make me laugh. Every week I login to my Google reader account and automatically all the newest articles from the websites I have subscribed to are right there for me to view or read. It keeps track of articles I have previously viewed and even suggests RSS feeds I may be interested in based on the info in articles I am all ready subscribed to. This becomes a rich resource of positive, uplifting, motivational content that I have all ready pre-screened so to speak. Here is my two examples:
1) I have actually, via this method and other direct and specific web search methods, over the course of the last year taught myself how to build, from scratch, websites which has offered another stream of income to our household.
2) Yes I have heard and learned of the terrible earthquake in Haiti, however I learned of this not by pictures of loss, and destruction, and stories of disaster and death, but via the LDS newsroom feed that speaks of prayers offered, humanitarian aid sent, team of doctors to assist, personal hygiene kits, and organizational efforts. All positive things that are being done to help the situation. So at the end of the day my brain can focus on the good things of the world while helping me chart a course to my higher goals and interests.
So to wrap up, your brain is a terrific problem solver. I want my brain to guide me to where I want to go and who I want to be. You and I are capable of so much more, if we can just more specifically guide our brain to where we want to be. Think of it this way your brain is a College Student thirsting for knowledge while (because of what we choose to think about, talk about, read, and view) is stuck in a Kindergarten class bored to death, maybe even scared to go outside for recess because of all the junk the media puts in front it.
Start today choose a RSS feed reader, find items and articles that talk of success, happiness, innovation, prosperity, good times, fun activities, or that teach you about things you are interested in. And then ditch the junk.
Enjoy! If you have found any that you would pass on please share in the comments so we and other readers can check them out.
Tagged: RSS
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