My neighborhood is beautiful

One thing I love about where I live is how beautiful it is. I feel peaceful and close to God when I stop and pay attention to nature.

We like to take walks on Sunday on this trail near our neighborhood. I think it helps my kids get rid of some of their energy after sitting through church for 3 hours.

I'm not a great photographer, but I love this tree in my neighbor's yard. The homes are older, but that means the trees are bigger and incredibly beautiful.

This oak tree is in our front yard. When we lived in New Jersey growing up, we lived in a very similar neighborhood. My Dad LOVED it and would often hang out on our back porch to enjoy the view of woods and trees in our backyard. So my beautiful neighborhood makes me think of my Dad.

My favorite people in my beautiful neighborhood.

General Conference is beautiful

Soccer success!

Christian had a soccer success this week and it was beautiful. His team was losing 0-3 this morning to a team that is one of the best in their league. Ron said he could tell they were getting discouraged when all of a sudden, Christian scored 2 goals one after the other. Another player scored one and at halftime, they were tied with this team. After halftime, Christian scored another 2 goals. He played the whole game but the last 5 minutes and they ended up winning, 7-3. Ron said it was so exciting to see how excited the players were when their attitudes changed and they realized they COULD do it. And the coaches are great and so positive and were so excited too. Soccer success isn't mandatory for one's happiness, but it was beautiful to me today to see my son happy and proud about his exciting win.

"Heidi"

I read this book this week and noticed something interesting when I finished. I was in a REALLY good mood (and I hadn't taken Excedrin for a headache nor was my entire house clean all at once). I felt happy and I felt like being kind and loving to my family when I finished this book. I don't know how many books I've read in my life that I could say had that kind of effect on me. Not many. So I think this book is beautiful.

I never really read "Heidi" when I was young--I started it and thought it was boring. In trying recently to build a library with the "best books" I bought it and I think its beautiful because its an uplifting and sweet story filled with vivid descriptions of the Swiss Alps (which I've been to) and themes I could relate to (the loss of one's parents, repentance/redemption, health/sicknes, the simple life, etc.) I'd like to find more books like this for me...and for my kids who read constantly but read a lot of stuff that isn't as great.