tender mercies/favorite things

Some of my favorite things:
Looking out my bedroom window when the moon is bright. Feeling the brightness in the darkness. Seeing our beautiful palm trees that I like picking through. Loving that we have a pool and use it. Seeing green grass although it's neglected and gets played on not so gently. I like looking out of my 2 story window and loving it lit up.

When the Les Mis medly comes on at work, or a hymn plays at work.

Eating a frosty thin pepperoni off of a frozen pizza while the convection oven pre-heats.

Finding more connections when I'm thinking about something.
My latest was when I was asked to give a spiritual thought for ward council and was thinking that I could keep it short like the verse, "O be wise. What can I say more?" But since we were asked to do many weekends of Hurricaine Michael clean up, I figured I could use the Mosia 2:17 verse which was about service. And it talked about being wise in the beginning too! And that reminded me that the email about going to serve said we should use common sense. So yea. Be wise. Serve and don't be dumb. Full circle.

Those are a few of my secret happy things for which I'm thankful that I've probably not before shared. Happy November!

Last Sunday, Sister Maribet Martin mentioned a Bednar talk on tender mercies not being coincidences and I have already believed that so listened to that talk and it made me happy like I figured it would.

(And I know I could go back and make sure I didn't end on a proposition or be redundant but I'm writing this quickly.)

a good weekend and one reason I'm inherently thankful

In October, I feel super thankful. I'm in the mood to write thank you notes and send thank you amazon gift cards. I want to buy little things for people and fill cute cup measurers with candy to take to neighbors with some sort of note about borrowing a cup of sugar and how I appreciate them. I know November is the designated thankful month, but I feel it early. I don't always do the things since I don't have money to blow, but I want to!

I asked a question once about if anybody else ever feels like doign something nice for somebody because you appreciate them letting you do something nice for them? It doesn't make sense if you logically think that through, but I feel it often! And you know what? Maybe it's because of my parents. They are amazing. I have 3 and they have each taught me things with their various teaching methods. Yesterday, my local parents watched Julia and Tyler for 2 nights and a day while the rest of us Fegers went to help pick up sticks in Tallahassee from the Hurricaine Michael mess. When I was walking out their door with the last asleep kid, Don handed me a loaf of home made bread! They had already had some of it, but he gave me the rest as a thank you for him already serving me! See?! That doesn't make sense - I should have been the one to have made him dinner or something for watching my kids and feeding them and bathing them and combing through their tangled curly heads, but he didn't let me leave empty-handed. It's just in him to be selfless and if he has something he can give, he does so.

Last weekend was like my utopia. On Friday I helped Steven with the lawn and it looks so good. He edged and I weeded and it really looks like we could have people over for pook party it's so good! Julia had her last soccer practice (there're no games at her level) and she invited my parents who went. Her cousin Clara was there and the two are so cute! I love that they're cousins and they're in sports together. They did ballet together a year ago too like Kat and I did with our cousins. We did family photos with Alicia Johnson at the University of Tampa then went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. We took the little 2 kids to my parents then drove to sleep in a high school parking lot so we could get to work with Don's chain saws at 7:30. (I wish we had set up the tent or not left until the morning but I found a way to lay flat in the back.) Working with my family and seeing how good of workers they were and even that they knew when to take a break and get water and how they played with friends was so satisfying. My kids were running, lifting heavyl logs, and were so wonderful. We made an impromptu stop at Manatee Springs to jump in the cool clear water and I went in up to my head which I usually wouldn't do since I'm not fond of cold water. We listened to Rich Dad Poor Dad together in the car so the drive didn't seem long either way. I wasn't worried about my little kids since they feel right athome with my parents.

The Crews are over now so my kids are all in the tree out front or under it playing capture the flag and I'm happy.

1st day of no school. Yay for summer!

I stayed up super late last night getting little things done. I'm slow so it wasn't a lot of progress or anything, but I blogged for fishy face photography and posted to some social outlets. I probably should think about what time of day my target audience would be on those platforms, but I honestly just want content there.

My plan for Fishy Face Photography is to keep it steady, not diminishing in quantity or quality, but not growing for now either. I have a good handful of regulars and some who go to other photographers too which is great! I'm more expensive than I would probably pay too, but that's because I need to work smarter, not harder. I bought a blogging program last night that sharpens and does collages and watermarks and is connected to my blog so it will help streamline my business. Lightroom has helped a ton too. I'm behind-the-scenes learning and building to stay up to par in the industry. Photography is not a top priority though so I can not spend too much time with it. My clients appreciate quality over speed which is against everything else in this world right now. I want to keep it for the people who appreciate me. I want to keep it for my fall-back if I can not do dental hygiene for some reason. I want to do more of it when Julia is in school. I thought that I would do more this fall, but she will only be in school half days, so maybe I should spend that time going into my other kids' classes or cleaning the house or working out. I'm aging and need to work out.

Today was so fulfilling. Once the sun was up, I was sleeping and got to sleep in. That's starting the day off on the right foot for me! My triceps are sore from a swingset work out and that's motivational in itself to do it again. Ron Crew had invited us to go jump with his grandkids so we went to Altitude until about 1pm. I gave the kids the option of fast food and those sweet kids wanted to get home instead. Julia napped in the car then sadly there was too much movement/stimulation/talking once she got inside to bed. She was up. Happily, she went downstairs and, to me since the door was sorta closed, was quiet. The boys were quite content playing their new Fortnite game on the Playstation4 that Steven got them for the last-day-of-school prize yesterday. What?! Yes. He's the favorite parent for sure. It want from me saying absolutely not to the tooth fairy saying yes when she was offered two Isaac baby teeth for it. It didn't work on the old iPad and now it's a whole gaming system! Anyway, they were happy while I napped the afternoon away. I went for a run in a swimsuit pushing Julia and it rained on us some. The daily rain isn't cold and we've been in it a lot. It isn't getting me down because I appreciate it so much. I had been watering the dry stip of grass where our sprinklers don't reach daily so the rain gave me time back. The rain went away and it was perfectly sunny for Julia's pre-preschool beach graduation last Wednesday. And it stormed when I napped next to Julia in her room the other day and it made me so happy that I could be sleeping in the downpour sounds-- perfect napping weather.

After the jog, I saw our neighbors and gave him the violin to fix I've had for over a week that I was supposed to give him. The other Dylan was out and we haven't seen him for over a week either so he came over and we swam in our pool after I skimmed it. I put chicken cordon blu in the auto-shut-off little oven before runing so Steven had a hot dinner while the rest of us were able to play in the pool. I invited Jayda and Jocelyn over but they came and invited the boys over there! That was so perfect since I had just asked the boys to stop jumping in (making waves) so I could give Julia a swim lesson. So they exited and Julia lerned how to swim! I'm not kidding, she seriously pushed off of me with her face in, did arm circles, kicked, and got to the side happily! We had Steven come watch and she did it without a fuss and although she didn't push off that well that time, she swam! She made forward progress all on her own and was proud. So we went to the neighbor's pool to show them and she did it again for them as well! She's stubborn and will do what she wants when she wants and she is excited to swim and I'm so happy. We came in and I heated sweet potatoes, assembled the bag of salad, and we had a real meal (outside standing by a table). We had had those things for at least 2 weeks each. I'm feeling like I'm catching up and am going to re-gain control of some things.

I considered cleaning up inside a little but Steven was going to play catch with Tyler so I was going to trim palm trees and scrub a screen but he said he'd take the kids to the park to hit baseballs! How fun! I had to call my mom to tell her about Dylan's first scout camp dates and told her we were headded there and that Don could go although it's possibly going to rain and it was already 7pm but Don went and it was beautiful out! The kids showered and played Fortnite and we said a prayer and they played more and I opened up the Russia 2018 World Cup sticker book we got from Ron and Julia and I put some players' stickers in it. I did headstands rubbed Tyler's back then played my first (and quite possibly my last) game of Fortnite to share Steven's enthusiasm for it. He's so good for taking the kids' interests on as his own. He loves watching them in their sports. He is such a good daddy. His Instagram posts are pretty much exclusively daddy brags about our silly active kids.

I just ordered business cards for a friend because I had the idea, there was a sale, I need address labels anyway, and I want to be that kind of person: One who sees a need and fills a need. I go through spurts where I think that I should snuff out my excitement to fill a void for someone. I see how it can see as passive agressive. If I get somebody a kleenex when he is sniffing, he may feel that it was my way of letting him know I don't like the sniffing. But if that wasn't my intention, then I should communicate my intentions and not stuff my good idea! The other day my friend Roseann asked me to go help her move. I have helped her move a couple times before (at least thrice. Don't ask.) and was expecting a fast paced up-and-down the stairs sort of move. But she just needed help clearing her interim furnature before her POD comes with her real stuff. She was ready to toss it all into a dumpster. I could've helped her with that. But I asked her if she wanted to try to sell it. She did not want to do Craig's List or Let Go or anything and said she had heard that thrift stores were picky so wanted to just trash it because her things were coming in 2 days. I could have either not offered those options or could have stopped there. But I asked about if she had thought about our ward free-stuff Facebook group where our mutual friend holds stuff then finds a place to donate it after the monthly Seminole Swap. She said that she had tried but couldn't figure out how to post to there. I could've said okay. But, possibly annoyingly, I asked her if she wanted me to help and she agreed. In a couple of minutes, all of her things were spoken for! People wanted it and I helped and she was actually really thankful that we not only didn't have to take things apart to fit them into a dumpster, but she felt good about helping people! So that's one long winded example of how I think it's okay to do things for people when I get the idea to do so. So I made the hashtag ShalynnasCookies business cards. I'm going to call it an early birthday present so that way she won't feel like she needs to reciprocate or something. (She's a person who feels that even = fair.) She doesn't want to swap kids unless it's even then she feels she owes me when I do nothing. She's too kind and crazy :)

So now I still have energy and will clean the kitchen and clean the bathrooms because my kids don't need business cards, they need a mom who doesn't wake up stressed that the house is a mess! I'll nap tomorrow with Julia - hopefully in the rain again. And so today ends on a good note and today set the standard for the rest of the summer: Productive, intentional, and fun.