{some much needed inpiration}...

while reading my friend kristan's blog todaY i was inspiRed!! through her friend heather's blog kristan was inspired. this is what heather's mom e-mailed to her. what great words of inspiration that we could all apply to our lives...

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, 'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.'He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. ''As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.''So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.'So, my friend, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be to kind to others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well, just get up and dance.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. the more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

thank you heather and kristan for sharing this. great words of wisdom to live by. i know now i have another way at looking at all the stress i create in mY life. i know that i will choose to manage it better and allow myself to rest a little more. one thing i don't do for myself is take enough time for mE! i am working on it though, really i am.

another great inspiration was from kirsten the owner of about memories and more in flagstaff. i teach how important it is to scrapbook and i believe hole heartily in it as well. though lately i don't feel like i am walking the talk. by reading her blog and her inspiration on how we need to preserve the memories has gotten me motivated, again! i made my children pick out their favorite colors from the we r memory keepers album and i am gonna get a movin' on it!

I have lifted the following from Kirsten's blog to share with you all :

I'd like to share a few things I've learned during this project:
It's ok to only have one set of photos printed. Duplicates are not necessary! You can reprint the ones you want to scrapbook, and save yourself some serious cash! I cannot tell you how many photos I threw, yes, threw away! What a waste of money!

Put your photos in a photo album for your family to enjoy. Don't rely on your computer to be your album. I cannot tell you how many people who have come in that had a hard drive crash & they lost them all.

If they're in a photo album, your family can enjoy them anytime they want! AMEN

You don't have to use separate albums for your photos and your scrapbooks. I chose the We R albums because they were 12x12, they held photo pages AND scrapbook pages. And you can even use odd size protectors, like an 8 1/2 x11 protector to hold art work, report cards or other miscellaneous memorabilia that go with the photos.

You don't have to scrapbook everything. That mentality will just hold you back from scrapbooking the moments that you really want to scrapbook.

Don't forget to journal. You can slide a 4x6 piece of cardstock in the photo sleeve to leave your thoughts of those particular moments. It's really important. If you wait until you have time to scrapbook a whole layout you may forget the very essence you were trying to convey.

thank you kirsten for motivating me to get going on this. i have plentY of boxes {well organized mind you} with all mY photos in them. can we eNjoY them, no. should we YES! i am making it a goal this year to get all mY photos out of the boxes {and from the computer, dang digital} and into albums. scrapbooked or not they WILL be in albums.

i also feel so inspired to catch up on mY *deck of mE* card challange. this is where i can find some mE time. so if i do not start todaY...i will start tomorrow. thanks dianna for doing this. i can not thank you enough. thank you for the aWesomE logo too. it's a true woRK of aRT. thanks rhonna for allowing us to share your creativity for us. both of you totally ROCK!!

wow!! i am totally exciTed right now. i have accomplished a lot at home and now i am ready for some scrappin'. have a great saturday all. *hugs*