New Year's Resolve

 I've returned from my trip to sunny Arizona where I attended a cousins wedding in the Mesa Temple.  The skies were blue, the weather was spectacular, and the time with family was priceless.  Rarely do we all have the opportunity to gather together in one place with our busy lives, and to be able to gather together in this special place made it all that more precious.  The temple grounds were dotted with fragrant lemon trees, various species of flowering cactus plants, and towering palms.  It truly was  a beautiful little piece of heaven on earth.

 

  Sadly, these were the only two pictures I managed to take of this beautiful day before the battery on my phone died.

 We did some shopping....

......lots and lots of it.  

I enjoyed the time I had to spend with just my mom and my sister away from our hectic schedules and family obligations.  We stayed up late, talked about our favorite memories, and laughed A LOT.  It was good practice for our upcoming trip to New York this June.  Can't wait!

And as much as I enjoyed all of the shopping and traveling around, I was also reminded of the things in this life that matter most.  There will always be something new and fun to buy, a new design magazine to read, and exciting new products on the market to oogle over, but just how important is it really?  At the wedding dinner, there was a video montage of both of the lives of the bride and groom from birth up to the present day, carefully documenting all of the important events and milestones they had experienced throughout their lives.  I couldn't help but think to myself, "Where does the time go?  Soon that will be my own children".  And as I sat on the plane on the way home, I read this article that really put things into perspective for me.  It was a little message just for me I think.  A gentle reminder to slow down, and enjoy the moments of life that pass by so quickly.  So often we as women especially, believe that our worth depends upon the length of our to-do list.  We over-schedule our days, increase those to-do lists, and at the end of the day often find ourselves exhausted, stressed out, and unhappy.   We forget that our worth is so much greater than that to-do list and daily schedule.  It would serve us best to slow down a little, take on a little less, decrease our daily to-do's, and spend more time doing the things that are most important.  That is my resolve in the new year.  Take the time.  Slow down, and enjoy life at optimal speed.

Hope you all have a wonderful and happy new year in 2012!  Thanks for all of your support!