Yes, I realize that it's been about four months since my last post. Pretty sad. I have no excuses.
My reason, however (much different from an excuse, in my mind), is that my family and I have been experiencing some challenges the past six months or so and I simply decided to cut non-essential things out and blogging was one of them.
Unfortunately, I also have become more lax in my habit of looking for things to be grateful for, which, I'm being reminded, definitely affects my state of mind and level of happiness.
So this past week, I made a new committment to try to be more grateful. It's funny: one night I said to my husband, "I've realized that I'm not focusing on being grateful as much as I used to and I think I'm suffering for it. I want to get back to looking for and being grateful for my blessings." Then the next day I listened to a message from a man who I have infinite love and respect for, who is a prophet of God and the president of my church, and his message to everyone was this: Be Grateful and everything will look better and be better.
What interesting (but I believe not coincidental) timing. Time to refocus.
So here is my first post back:
NATURE
I love and am so grateful for the beauties of nature. I know, that phrase sounds so trite, but how else do you say it? Nature is absolutely beautiful! This weekend we went on a short hike to Bloomington Lake, which is a tiny lake up in the mountains of southeastern Idaho, with a 20-30 minute car ride up to the trail, along the picturesque Bloomington creek (above), and where many of the quaking aspens were bright yellow against the dark pine trees--wow.
But then the trail is only 1.2 miles to the lake and back, so it was easy for our kids (the youngest being 2) to walk there and back. And what a view! I realized that some people go their whole lives without seeing sights like this. The air was so clean, the sun was shining and the views were amazing.
What boys do not love throwing rocks into a body of water? Mine sure do .
And look at all the huge awesome rocks for climbing on!
I couldn't believe the clarity and color of the water. It was really a wonderful and beautiful hike and we had some great family time. Also, as a sidenote: who would have guessed that we could go hiking in the middle of October in the Idaho mountains at over 8000 feet and not even need jackets? Amazing!
12 comments:
Hi Andrea,
I love the pictures you took. Where is Bloomington lake?
You know what I'm grateful for...after a fun week with kids home from school and Harvest Break activities that they can go back to school.
Anne
GORGEOUS! My goodness. I recently wrote about how I wish I were a poet so I could somehow capture the overflow of emotion I feel when I see or experience beautiful things. :)
And I remember maybe 12 years ago I used to have two phrases (I'm pretty sure they both came from talks by Elder Monson) hanging by my bed, "Think to Thank" and "Have and Attitude of Gratitude." Seriously good message.
hey..how was it up there? no jackets?! we were in gatlinburg, tn (where the smoky mts are) this weekend and didn't need jackets either! we miss you..tell everyone hello.
I think it has been about that long since I blogged too! Life just gets out of hand. Welcome back!
Andrea! I was just thinking about you today! I am grateful for you! I was thinking about when our kids were younger and we had more time to visit with each other and build good friendships. And you were always so great and initiating those memorable times. Since life has continued and my life is busier, I think my closest friendships are the ones I made back then! Thanks for your sweet friendship, Andrea!
Hi Andrea,
As I was glancing at the pictures on this post I was very impressed--I thought they were professional pics you got from online. That last picture could be the default desktop image on a computer it's so good!
Also, I loved Elder Holland's talk: I loved how he wasn't telling us to be thankful or that we should be more thank--he was demonstrating his own positive, thankful attitude.
Thanks for the simple post that made me think about what I am thankful for today!
Amy
Gorgeous Photos!! Wonderful Sentiment!! And well written!
Glad you've started blogging again!! :)
Great post. Thanks for influencing the rest of us with your thoughts and attitude. Love you guys. (P.S. We need to throw rocks in water WAY more often than we do!)
I'm grateful that you're back to being grateful on your blog again! I miss mountains.
Aaahhhh man, that makes me want to move to Idaho. Maybe I'll buy a 20 acre farm like my mom. Really, these pictures are gorgeous, Andrea. Really breathtaking. They could be screensavers. Nice job.
I've reallly enjoyed your blog... and the pictures are fantastic! The one of Bloomington Lake brought back great memories for us, although Doug broke his tooth jumping off that cliff! We love that place. I hope the ropes were still there that swung out over the water, that was so fun! Thanks for sharing! Lecia
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