Erin Barbee, April, Pamper Myself

My April goal was to pamper myself. My husband was supposed to be out of town all month. My oldest is 13 and a boy so it's not all that easy to leave my kids alone so that I can pamper myself. 

My husband was able to take time off so that I could go on a girls' trip with my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law. I had a fun trip to St. George. We went to Vegas one day and the weather was windy but great. When I left, my son said, "What will you do? Just sit around and talk? You'll be so bored without us." :) That's right, it was the best boring weekend I've ever had. This is me getting a Veyo Pie while drinking my Dirty Dr. Pepper from Straws.  Happy 40th to me.

Back to my real goal. I digress way too often. I decided to pamper myself by having a morning devotional with myself. I get up to go to the gym really early and I started studying the scriptures and listening to hymns while I ate breakfast instead of spending time studying social media.

I really enjoyed those minutes to myself in the morning. I studied conference talks on my phone and made sure to look up the references. I also played a hymn every morning. I really enjoyed starting at the front of the hymn book and listening to the hymns while reading the words. I've already found hymns that I am not familiar with.

This morning devotional really helped me with my days. My family benefited from my study of the conference talks. But, I've been happier, healthier and I do feel the spirit more often when I take the time in the morning to study. It also helped me to remember to study at night. I studied my primary lesson  and the Book of Mormon at night, too. It's pretty hard to express the difference but I'm still glad that I did it. And, I've still done it all of May. I think it's a habit that I need to keep while the momentum is good.

A quote from my favorite talk so far, "It is difficult to develop a spirit of gratitude if our thankfulness is only proportional to the number of blessings we can count. True, it is important to frequently 'count our blessings' ...but I don't believe the Lord expects us to be less thankful in times of trial than in times of abundance and ease." --President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. I think about this quote all of the time. How do I develop a spirit of gratitude? It's hard to be thankful in all things. I will keep working on it.  I think Pres. Uchtdorf gives amazing talks and so I always want to hear what he says.

Just kidding.

I also love Elder Bednar's talk, and the "Four Minute" Talk and the "Christ-Focused Home" talk.

May goal = Help and serve my parents. This didn't happen for various reasons that I'll tell you about next month. I have been spring cleaning my kitchen. It's not going to be done. But, I cleaned my recipe cabinet today. I'm  motivated by others on here to organize my recipes. I still have two days and I might just make it.

June goal = Make do. I go to the store almost every day. I need to cut back. It will be difficult with my husband out of town. My other goal is going to be less social media and more hobbies/sewing. I still need to decide how to make these concrete, measurable goals. Once again, I have a lot to do before the 1st. :)