It's Been Way Too Long!

Wow. Where does the time go? It's been almost a month since my last Blog post. I feel like such a slacker. I could use the excuse that it is the Holiday season - but I have barely even started my Christmas shopping, so that really does not work. We did get our Christmas tree up (the day after Thanksgiving) and have enjoyed how festive it makes the house feel. So what's been occupying my time? Let's see...

1. Work. It is slower than usual, but there is still work to be done. The real estate market has taken a hit here (although no where near as bad as places like Vegas and California) so things are a little slow. I have had extra projects to work on though, as we have a new developer in town who has developed Eastern Idaho's first New Urban Community. I have been helping him with marketing and other things so that has taken some of my time. I am excited for the comminuty to get up and going. We are even considering moving there instead of building our home. You can check out the community at www.myhawkslanding.com

2. Family. My sister Beckie has been taking care of our nephew Malachi (my brother Seth's son - Seth passed away in January of this year). Malachi is just 14 months old and quite a handful. Well Beckie had to have surgery on her foot so Malachi is up here with Julie and I. We have him on the weekends and Julie has him during the week. Seeing as my baby is 12, having a 1 year old around has been quite a bit of work. How soon you forget the gross dirty diapers, crying in the night, drooling, and getting into everything. He is darling, but quite exhausting!


3. Church. My new calling requires that I teach a lesson about once a month. We have 1 other advisor besides myself, plus the YW president, then the monthly combined lessons, so I end up having to only teach about once a month with the current rotation. THANK GOODNESS! Wow - teaching to 5-year-olds was so easy. They do not care if you leave something out of the lesson or forget to show a picture. They were impressed with silly little games or even just coloring. I started preparing my lesson for Young Women's 3 weeks ago. My kids think I am crazy. I am not really nervous, I just want to make sure I am overly prepared. The lesson is on Avoiding Crisis Living. I really liked the topic and took quite a bit of my lesson from the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens", by Sean Covey. It has a wonderful time management matrix that really illustrates how we spend our time and how to avoid being a procrastinator. I have read the original book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey and have often applied the principals found there to my personal life. Hopefully the girls will find it useful. I was able to get 2009 Planners donated from a local title company - enough so that I could give one to each girl. I covered them in scrapbook paper and made them really cute. I included some scripture references that applied to the lesson to the inside cover - along with the time matrix. I hope they will use them to schedule their lives! I would be lost without some sort of planner!



So that is why I have not blogged in a month. I will try and be better about it and will add it to my list of New Years Resolutions!