It's a happy day!

Today's word on hsms is Hand...so this is mine...doing what it's spent most the day doing...writing!!

Today is a happy day here, not too sure why exactly there hasn't been any life changing events but everyone was up full of life this morning...even the neighbours cat came in to say hi!
Kirsten is avidly enjoying her new role as a mummy and constantly has the flour baby with her! Yesterday she went swimming, so I was put in a situation where I HAD to babysit!! Doh So there I was sat at the side of pool reading my book and now and again glancing over to see if this darned bag of flour was ok! It was a while till I realised I was getting the raised eyebrow glances! How glad was I when I stopped myself from straightening out its top and tapping it!!! Lmao Ditzy me!!

Kirsten has signed up for a week of football (soccer to my US friends) training, this hacked her off when she realised it coicided with the week she is supposed to be going to stay with my oldest son down in Brighton! Now she's torn what to do so i'm trying to juggle the dates around to see if I can fit in all the plans we've made still! At this point she may have to sacrifice one or two of her activities, she already has a week away with the Guides booked, a week with her Nan and two weeks with Jay. That leaves two weeks for me which is looking like i'll get one of the weeks where i'm booked to teach scrapping for 4 days! Then we have to go get all her uniform and various sports kits for the new school...so my plan to go camping in the Forest of Dean might not happen! More thoughts are probably needed, I dont want to give that up if I can help it!!

So, today i've had a fantastic visit from my Visiting Teachers from church, both are my closest friends so they knew exactly how to 'enter with caution' with all the packing, sorting and cleaning going on! Plus i'm trying to get ahead with two of my courses and finish off the lesson i'm teaching on Sunday! They are good though, it's very relaxed and easy when they come round! The only thing is after i've had a visit like that I find i'm full of questions so have to go find the answers...so I then spent a while doing some scripture study...and yes, I did manage to find the answers, and amazingly enough I found I am 'allowed' to relax a bit...I dont have to achieve everything today or this week!!
The message they chose was from April's General Conference was about 'Gratitude', this seems straightforward enough? I thought so, but I doubt I'd have given much gratitude for my challenges!! So after listening to Bonnie D Parkin this is the bit that made me think:

Blessing Basket

Let me share a sweet story with you. A family was going through a difficult time. It was hard for them not to focus on their challenges. The mother wrote: "Our world had completely crumpled, so we turned to Heavenly Father for guidance. Almost immediately we realized that we were surrounded by goodness and were being cheered on from every side. We began as a family to express our gratitude to each other as well as to the Lord daily. A close friend pointed out to me that our family's 'blessing basket' was overflowing. From that conversation came a sort of game, which my children and I grew to love. Before family prayer each night we would talk about how our day had gone and then share with each other all of the many blessings that had been added to our 'blessing basket.' The more we expressed gratitude, the more there was to be grateful for. We felt the love of the Lord in a significant way as opportunities for growth presented themselves."

What would a "blessing basket" add to your family?

This I could relate to completely but i'm always inspired to realise that there's always a way through, even by the seemingly small things we can make almost any challenge somewhat more bearable! One of the things I already do is when I find I am angry or annoyed at someone in particular I will sing one of the childrens hymns to change my mental attitude! Sounds daft but it changes the negative to a positive and I dont feel like i'm any less of a nice person for it! The Lord can and will help any of us if only we ask Him and listen for His quiet spirit to guide us!

Thats my spiritual thing happening for the day and something i've set myself to work on...amongst the thousand other things!! LOL It's all good stuff though and an effort that i'm happy to make for the best of my family and myself if nothing else.

Now its bucketing it down with rain here, been red hot this morning so I figured i'd take Charley down the river to feed the ducks, but its not worth it now! That'll please him when he wakes up! Not!

Ok got more course work to do so i'm off for now.
Debsxx