Old, Positively

On certain nights I wonder if people who drive past our house, but don't know Taylor and me, wonder if our little house on the hill is home to a 90 year-old couple.
After trying it for the first time last year, Taylor and I decided to give up TV for Lent again this year. However without TV taking up a portion of our evening, there are times when after supper is done and the kitchen cleaned, we go take a shower and crawl into bed. Taylor will usually stay up for a while reading before he goes to sleep. I love to read, too, but (since I inherited my mom's ability to fall asleep) it takes me a maximum of 30 seconds to enter a REM cycle once I'm laying down, so I don't finish books very quickly in bed.

Once this past week Taylor and I were both tired, so by 9:45 p.m. all the lights in the house were off, and we were asleep in bed. Yeah, we might have some habits of 90 year-olds, but I'm ok with that - I felt very rested the next day. :)

Rather than just giving physical things up for Lent, I wanted to do something that could have a more meaningful impact on my life. So I am working to give myself a more positive attitude. I decided that when a circumstance has a severely negative effect on my mood, I have to stop and list several positives about the situation. The other morning I had to tryout my attitude-adjustment approach.
I went out to do chores one morning before going to workout, but as I stepped into the garage, I was concerned to find the floor of the garage was rather wet as well as some of the ground outside the garage door. Water/plumbing issues can put me in a pretty sour mood. Later we figured out that there is a leak in our radiant floor heating system, and it was coming up out of the floor in the seam in the concrete between the garage floor and the concrete pad outside. Not exactly the best news to have, but I was able to find several positives points.

1. If there had to be a water issue, at least it wasn't in my house
2. The water didn't quite make it to the bag of milk replacer I had in the garage, so it didn't get ruined.
3. At least it happened when it wasn't extremely cold, so the water didn't freeze and mess up our concrete.
4. Some of the water that leaked outside went into my flower bed and will be good for my plants.

I, truthfully, was rather surprised at how much better I felt after finding some good things to focus on. For the rest of the day, whenever I thought about the leak in our radiant floor heating, I was able to counter it with a positive thought. It was nice to keep my entire day from becoming tainted by one bad event.

Last weekend, I went home for my little sister's bridal shower that us bridesmaids were hosting. We had  Mom's kitchen and living room packed full of ladies, and Annie got some great gifts! What made it really fun was that several of Annie's roommates (past and present) came up the night before and stayed at Mom and Dad's so it was like a big-girl slumber party only with a little less giggling and a little more sleeping throughout the night. :)

Annie & her roomies!

Annie & Grandma Patterson at the shower

The weather Monday was absolutely AMAZING. It was mid 70s with hardly even a breeze, and it's too early for any bugs to be out. I spent most of the afternoon outside cleaning calf pens, going for a run, and that evening Taylor and I worked in the garden doing a little prep-work to get it ready for planting. The next day was not nearly as nice because the wind was blowing like crazy - but I didn't let it ruin my attitude -  windy days make me really enjoy the nice days, and I was able to accomplish a fair amount of book work because I wasn't tempted to go outside instead.

A Scripture I really like recently was Matthew 25:40.
Anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me.
I really liked the lesson that went with this Scripture. It reminded every person on earth is important to God, but often as I go through life, I frequently overlook people. I prayed that God would help me to see people the way He sees them and to show them God's love through my actions and attention.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Lyndee