All About the Argyles

I was at the nail salon getting a pedicure -ironically, something that makes me happy- when I stumbled on an article in a magazine. The article was written by a woman who wrote the book on happiness. No, REALLY . Here it is. So the premise behind this "project" was that she felt she was missing out on happiness that was available to her because she was bogged down by duty, commitments, etc. Can you relate? So she decided to identify things that would bring her happiness AND researched things that statistically are supposed to bring people happiness according to studies and she assigned one thing to focus on each month of the year. As an experiment. Not only did she find more happiness in her life through the experiment. She found more happiness in her life because her book became a NYT #1 bestseller. :O) Just Kidding.... One of the things that she discovered through her research is that there is little correlation between cash and contentment. According to a recent study in ...

The Worth of a Soul by Liz Lemon Swindle Several years ago I had an "aha moment" in a presidency meeting. My friend, and counselor, Christi was in charge of the spiritual thought to start us off. She told a story about her son. Jake had just started middle school - HUGE adjustment. He was having a particularly hard time in math. His father had been working with him for several nights in a row on a new concept that had just been introduced but he just wasn't getting it very well. Christi could see after several days of this that he was growing more and more discouraged. Being the wise mom that she is, she saw this as a teaching opportunity. She sat down with him and said, "Jake, whether or not you can solve this particular kind of math problem doesn't really matter in the scheme of things. You came here to this earth with your worth, you don't have to earn it." Immediately, she could see that he felt better and Jake knew that everything was going to ...

What each Argyle wrote to the other Argyles: (from Tanner) to Jensen: "You are an awesome townsperson. (referring to her stint in the school play, Beauty and the Beast). "I love to watch you swim." (I think he is saying it is entertaining to watch her swim which doesn't sound like much of a compliment to me!) to Brady: "you are so cool. I love your fun personality. You are a good little reader." to McKinley: "Your an awesome point gaurd!" to Reagan: "You are the coolest third grader I know. I love your swag." To Dad: "Your an awesome Young Men's leader. I love your lessons ALOT!" to Mom: "I love your warm personality. You always accomodate other people before yourself. and I like your pinky toes" (inside joke) From Jensen: to Mom: "I love to watch Law and Order with you." to Brady: "I love when you read to me!" to Reagan; "I love your confidence" to McKinley: " I love that you ar...

On Friday, the last day of the freeze, we were all feeling a little cabin fever. We were so glad to get a call from some good friends that invited us to go bowling. 8 adults, 16 children between us. We had a blast. I love these families and love their children to boot. It was a welcome reprieve from being shut ins. Saturday the same group went tubing on a neighborhood hill but I didn't get pictures. :O( Tanner, getting his bowling face on. Don't the boys look excited? sweet, cute girls

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday school was cancelled due to frozen, icy roads. EVERYTHING was cancelled. Honestly, I loved every minute of it. First of all, I was diagnosed Monday afternoon with "walking Pneumonia". The Dr. gave me a shot of antibiotic and a "Z pack" and told me to go home and rest. I laughed at him. It is pretty much impossible for a mother of 5 to rest. As I left his office, I thought of how I needed to order the desserts for "treat the teacher" for the elementary school, finish planning and purchasing items for the 3rd grade valentine party that I am in charge of the following week, prep for the presidency meeting I had on Thursday, catch up on no less than 7 loads of laundry, etc. You get the picture. So the freeze was a gift for me. All of a sudden EVERYTHING was wiped off of my list temporarily. I spent the first day sleeping which felt WONDERFUL. The rest of the time we did this: 1. We cleaned the media room and play room from top ...

Way to go Prosper Eagles! They won the men's and women's division at the district meet. Tanner was one of several who qualified for regionals next weekend. He swam the 200 m butterfly and the 200m Individual Medley (two of each stroke for those of you who are non-swimmers).

Recently I was saddened to hear an unfair and uninformed public comment made about someone that I love. I was not offended. I was, however, grateful. Grateful because the person that was being judged was not present to hear the comment. I think it would have broken her heart. It reminded me of this talk that I LOVE. I have listened to it so many times that I feel like I almost have it memorized. It is from Sister Sheri Dew. She gave it at a Women's conference at BYU when she was serving in the Relief Society General Presidency several years ago. I feel like it was written for me. I used to REALLY struggle with being judgemental. This talk changed alot of that for me. Now when I am tempted to make a judgement about someone, it almost immediately comes into my mind. Because this is an area that I know we all struggle, I thought it was well worth posting. It is simply not for us to judge each other. The Lord has reserved that right for Himself, because only He knows our hearts and u...