Do you need rules?

Integrity needs no rules. (A sign posted around town).

Guess who

Can you tell who these belong to?

Thanks to those who kindle my light

Albert Schweitzer:

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

Phun with Photoshop

For Mother's Day, daughter #1 offered to tutor me in how to use the photoshop elements program I got for my Mac. Here are a couple of pics we worked on:




The bottom picture had someone else on the left side of the picture. I learned how to take that person out and fill the space with other stuff. Is that phun or what!

More about gratitude

People I'm thankful for:






I learned this at work:

Emmons and colleagues, in their gratitude research, have uncovered some startling (in a good way) findings about the power of giving thanks. Consider these amazing benefits:
* Greater Optimism and Physical Fitness: People who kept weekly gratitude journals exercised on a more regular basis, felt better physically and about their lives in general, and had a more optimistic attitude about the upcoming week than people who recorded negative or neutral things in a journal.
* Achieve your goals: Those who kept gratitude lists were closer to attaining their personal goals after a two-month period than those who did not.
* Stress Relief: Being grateful is also an effective way to release stress, according to Emmons. "Gratitude research is beginning to suggest that feelings of thankfulness have tremendous positive value in helping people cope with daily problems, especially stress," he said in a WebMD article.
*Greater Sense of Wellbeing and Positive Emotions: People who are grateful report higher levels of positive emotions, vitality and life satisfaction, and lower levels of depression and stress.
* Helps You Cope With Illness: Among people with a neuromuscular disease, Emmons found that a "21-day gratitude intervention" produced more "high-energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one's life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group."

Something new on the blog

Daughter number 2 thinks my life has to be more exciting than only having new things on the blog every few months. My life is so exciting that I don't really have time to blog much. (Do you believe that one?) OK, the exciting thing for this day is that I got my 8x8 scrapbook that I made in Shutterfly in the mail today. It is 2007 in pictures. It actually turned out pretty good, although some of the pictures are kind of small.
Last year was so fun because we got to be with family a LOT.

I read something lately about gratitude and how much happier people are who are grateful. I have decided to get some quotes about gratitude and to concentrate on the things I am grateful for, because I definitely am blessed. Today I am thankful to have a very good family. I love being with them and doing things with them.

Brother David Steindl-Rast :
Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.

This is SO TRUE.
So, now, what are YOU thankful for?