PJ'S

PJ'S stands for prayer, journal and scripture study.  Make a goal to have 15-20 minutes everyday set aside for PJ'S time.  It can be morning, evening, and even afternoon- you don't have to be in your PJ's.

The Girl in a Whirl

                                 The Girl in a Whirl by "Dr. Sue" (a.k.a. Vickie Gunther)

Look at me, look at me, look at me now! You could do what I do if you only knew how.  I study the scriptures one hour each day.  I bake and I garden.  I scrub and I pray.

I always keep all the commandments completely.  I speak to my little ones gently and sweetly.  I help in their classrooms! I sew all they wear!  I drive them to practice! I cut all their hair!

I memorize talks by the General Authorities.  I focus on things to be done by priorities.  I keep our home organized, clean and attractive.  I drop by with goodies and see the less-active. 

I play the piano!  I bless with my talents!  My toilets all sparkle!  My checkbooks all balance!  Each week every child gets a one-on-one date.  I attend all my meetings (On time!  Never late!)

I'm taking a class on the teachings of Paul, But that is not all!  Oh, no.  That is not all...
I track my bad habits 'til each is abolished.  I floss everyday!  And my toenails are polished!

Our family home evenings are always delightful.  The lessons I give are both fun and insightful. 
I do genealogy faithfully, too. It's easy to do all the things that I do!  I rise each day early, refreshed and awake.   I know all the name of each youth in my stake!

I read to my children!  I help all my neighbors!  I bless the community, too, with my labors.  I write in my journal!  I sing in the choir!  Each day, I write, "thank you's" to those I admire.

I exercise and I cook menus gourmet.  My visiting teaching is done the first day!  (I also go do it for someone who missed hers.  I love filling in for my cherished ward sisters.)

I chart resolutions and check off each goal.  I seek each "lost lamb" on my Primary roll.  I bottle our produce each summer and fall.  But that is not all!  Oh, no.  That is not all....

I went back to school to update my degree.  My studying earned me a new PhD.  I split with the Sisters who cover our ward to spread the glad truth that the Gospel's restored.

I go to the temple at least once a week.  I make my girls' prom dresses-modest, yet chic.  My sons were all Eagles when they were fourteen!  My kids get straight A's! And their bedrooms are clean!
I have my own business to help earn some money.  I always look beautifully groomed for my honey.  I grind my own wheat and I bake all our bread.  I plan our nutritious meals six months ahead. 

I make sure I rotate our two-year's supply.  My shopping for Christmas is done by July!  (It's out of the way early on for a reason.  I then can prepare for the real Christmas season.)

These things are not hard.  It's good if you do them.  You can if you try!  Just set goals and pursue them!  It's easy to do all the things that I do!  If you plan and work smart, you can do them all too! 

"It's easy!" she said...
...... and then, she dropped dead! 

quote

The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. And the first to forget is the happiest....

World's Most Amazing Dad

 

Strongest Dad in the World by Rick Reilly
(The last line touches me so...Had to re-post when I saw this photo ♥)

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mu...lligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars – all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much – except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway. Then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 – only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. "The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

There comes a time in life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. So, love the people who treat you right. Think good thoughts for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is part of LIFE...Getting back up is LIVING...Have a great life. And if you liked this post , PLEASE SHARE AND LIKE THIS PAGE and continue to be inspired with sayings that lift us and jokes to laugh at. Much love to you all, J.J. Cohen