The Clutter in Your House

The clutter in the home
 (Mies en place)

Clutter in the homes is a direct reflection on the clutter in our. Minds. I know that might not seem right but I promise you It is true more so than you think.
 I come from a family that is pretty organized, I don't think  anyone can say that they are completely organized.I my self think I'm pretty organized but i am not perfect. the one thing that is a blessing and a curse is OCD  but OCD runs in my family weather we want to admit it or not. I know I have my ocd tendencies  which i don't think is necessary a bad thing ,it all comes down to prospective, there are some things that are bad about it but I have learned to keep them in check.But if a person knows how to keep this in check not only will they have an organized mind but there home will be clean and beautiful.
 after reading this hopefully you will see that the clutter in our minds co insides with the clutter in our homes
        If there is one thing when it  comes to having a clutter free house you have to figure out what is something that you really need or something that you want. Most of us have stuff and when i mean stuff i mean we feel we need to keep everything that we find or everything that a relative has ever gotten us. When my aunt died i remember going to clean out here house and when we got there we walked in to a bigger job than we could ever imagined now I'm not talking about like the people that are on that TV show Hoarders but pretty darn close,. My aunt had issues with so called good deals. she would buy crap from the store just because it was on sale and it at the time it seemed to be a good deal so she had about 300...yes,  300 pairs of scissors, now tell me why the heck does someone need that many pairs of scissors. On top of that she had enough socks to keep everyone on this planets feet warm for life No kidding she had so much stuff it just became overwhelming and we didn't know what to do or where to start. Now this situation was better than what i grew up with when i would help my dad on his rental property. I remember this one time that my dad had just purchased this house down on maple st. now one thing with my dad he didn't just buy a house he bought what most people thought should be just torn down and start over. but this is why my dad is such a great business man he knew the potential of things he understood that almost anything is of worth.( I think he could do that with people sometimes also) its funny not everyone can do that or even pretend to do that we just live our lives to how we think it should go and we think everyone should just fall in place to our little plans or they can just get out. shame on us. like i was saying this house was one of my dads great projects well one of the ones that i remember at least this is one of the houses that my dad bought that he got an award from the city because he knew what he was doing.  well the day we were to get started on the house it was a hot, rainy day right before i went to work that morning i went to the  Gravy Boat to get one of their awesome Egg and Cheese biscuits, these biscuits are awesome you haven't lived until you have one of these things. So, I show up at the house eating my biscuit and drinking my chocolate milk a couple of the guys that worked for my dad looked at me like i was a jerk for not getting them one but what did i care i was the one that had that awesome Cheddar cheese sliding down my throat and then followed it with ice cold chocolate milk,life was awesome. my dad gets there and says we need to get everything out of the house before we can hit the hard stuff he looks at me and says Devin I need you to tackle all the crap in the house well i took that as there was lots of stuff int he house that needed to be put on the street so of course i said no problem then he tossed me some gloves now normally i don't use gloves i like to feel what I'm touching when i work so i said nah i don't need them then said trust me you will. then he tossed me the keys to open the house. he said it shouldn't take you but an hour to get it done i will be back in just a little bit and we will start on the roof( just for note my dad when it came to work has no concept of time when he says it should only take an hour you might as well plan on it taking half a day) so he leaves and i open the door that is when it hit me like a ton of bricks covered. not not a tone of bricks but a ton of dog crap bricks. the smell was so bad my awesome biscuit i was still eating even tasted like it i wanted to vomit ( but I didn't) that is when i realized when my dad said Devin you take care of the crap he meant CRAP. when i got my composer i looked int he house it was covered with dog crap about 3 inches deep and it was my job to remove it. Why and how people live like this id besides me i honestly don't get it. so here i with a big problem do i do what my dad asked me to do or do i quit the family business and go get a lower paying job for someone else.... Of course i did my job. I had to get this crap out of the house. so i had to make a plan well it was on carpet that had to go so i started rolling the carpet up but so you know the houses roof wasn't the best so when it would rain it would rain into the house so yes not only was the job smelly but it was runny and sticky also. so i start to roll this poop filled carpet knowing that i was going to have to get it out the door somehow and the only way was to bear hug it out. so you can see how thrilled i was about doing that that is when i saw a pick in the other room. That is when a light went off no seriously the lights went off the other guys were working on the power in the house. yea you thought i was going to give some kind of analogy about a light bulb that went of in my head and i had a great idea well I'm not going to do that. dang i just did. so i grabbed the pick took a hard swing into the carpet when i did poop splattered all over my shoes. You know thinking of splattered poop I know a guy that once went into a walmart and had to go to the restroom so bad that when he pulled down his paints he splattered all over the bathroom stall no joke it was every where and that is what we now call pulling a walmart. yea that is gross but its true. so just like pulling a walmart this crap splattered all over my shoes it was nasty and my dad was defiantly going to buy me some new ones. so i start pulling the carpet out with this pick i am about half way out the door when the guy that lived in the house comes running up and says you are ruining the carpet get out of the way and pushes me out of the way he bends down and grabs the carpet in that bear hug that i was telling you about that i wasn't willing to do and as he did yep you guessed it it went everywhere the poo started oozing out all over his hands his neck where the carper was touching his shirt it was everywhere. he looked at me and do you mind if i keep this and use it at my new house across the street. so obliged. at least i didn't have to haul It out anymore.
So yes that was nasty and yes it is true I don't think i could ever make this up .

you ask what does this have to do with the clutter in the homes well if you are that branded then you need more help than i do.
  We as consumers buy more stuff than we could ever imagine we just keep on getting it we fill our lives with meaningless garbage and we think it is ok and normal . now I'm not saying that we don't need things in our homes but we need to be very causes on what we get what we buy and what we get other people. yes other people I have always said it the choices that we make effect those around us and has an impact on everyone lives agency is a huge responsibility that is why we need to be careful with the clutter in our homes. do we need to keep magazines that are several months old do we need to keep that birthday card that was given to us when we were 5 for me the answer is no. for you it could be yes. could that yes hurt us most likely no but could it hurt someone that we love well it could we need to free our lives of all the crap. we don't need to take it from house to house like that guy did literally we need to loose it and when we do we will feel a huge relief off our shoulders. now its fine to keep some things but you have to figure out is this really important or can i keep it in a different way. a few years back my wife and kids were moving and we were packing things up when i found an old card that my brother Patrick gave me it was a snoopy card that said What do People in Greece do on their birthdays. when you open it up it read they slide around a lot. yea its pretty funny. at the time i was wow i  haven't seen this in for ever and i remembered what it said from when i first read it. that is when realized Why am i keeping this stuff i know what it said i know the feeling that it gave me and i know with what love it was given to me i don't need to keep it. that was i think the changing point in my clutter free life. I use what God gave me this great computer in my head. so now that is what i try to do. this sounds like i don't like things well that is where you have me wrong i like stuff like everyone else but i for my self have figured out what i need to make important,  that is the key if it is important than keep it but only if it is really that important.

 
             Its like when i was a kid and we had this tree in or back yard and my dad wanted to put in a garden but i didn't want him  to cut the tree down because i liked the tree. I cant say that the tree was a huge part of my life up to that point but for some weird reason i didn't want him to cut it down and thinking about it i never once paid much attention to that tree up until that point. I asked him not to cut it down. My dad being the man that he is was going to humor my request even if it meant that we would have a poor garden because of it. so after thinking about it i said dad cut it down its fine. he said nope if its that important to you then we need to keep it. But the facts are it wasn't that important to me it was just a tree that was in the middle of a small Field in the way of food for my family. So i told him its fine just cut it down. I don't know if my dad thought i was crazy for putting up such a fight like i did before hand just to turn the other way on a whim but. its fine it was one of those growing moments for me i learned that day that my dad loved me and would do anything for me no matter how stupid he thought it was and i also learned that the betterment of the family was more important than an old half rotten tree.

Just like that tree the guy that loved the poo carpet we need to organize or lives in such a way that we are free of all of that our homes literally need to become a safe haven for our families clutter free from the world and all its influences we don't need to drag any of that carpet we don't need to keep a tree especially if it is in the way of our progression.

Education

Education 

     Well now your probably thinking his guy has  just said that I'm lazy and don't want to work... well he doesn't know me. I have worked my butt off been in school to get the education that I need. Well that isn't what I'm talking about . Get an education get as much as you can that was a quote by Gordon B Hinkley . And that is as true now as it was  when he said it . Getting an education isn't just going to school even though it is the most know way to do it. but read, study things, study life and our  surroundings  that is what education is . But there is one little thing that is missing these days and that's common sense which it seams  isn't that common. there are very few that actually practice it these days. We proclaim to be educated but what happens is that we have become educated idiots we spend thousands and thousands of dollars on our education's but we aren't willing to use common sense to govern our lives.  I as for my self don't have an formal education I didn't go to college, even though I most likely will be enrolling when my kids enroll because the more education we have the better off we are. I didn't even graduate from a normal high school. My situation is a little different.  As I say that it isn't that different, when I was in the fifth grade my parents pulled me out of public school and started to home school me and my little brother . Now it wasn't for the reasons that my parents didn't like public schools but the school system was failing when  it came me. I had teachers calling me stupid, and unteachable. And a you know I'm not a stupid guy I am quite teachable but the problem wasn't either of those it was the fact that i have dyslexia. And the teachers just didn't know how to deal with this kind of problem ( well its not really a problem ) what makes it a problem is that the teachers either don't want to help the kids with this kind  of issue or can't, because they are overwhelmed with the work that currently have.
 Now being dyslexic hasn't been a burden, It hasn't been a crutch at all in my life. In many cases,  it has been a blessing , by blessing I mean that I have learned to actually study the one thing that most people out there don't know how to do .
Did you know that  before the Civil War or as I like to call it the war of northern aggression (your welcome dad) That the South had more Private Schools and Colleges than anywhere else in the country. People came from all over the world to learn at the great places of learning. But then came reconstruction, which is a an institutionalized way of teaching. This way of teaching can be forced to where proactive thinkers don't have a chance to stretch their minds and grow both physically and mentally.  During Reconstruction all these schools were disbanded and the public school system of the north was instituted. Now here in the modern days public schools are just as bad. the reasons they are bad is several reasons, teachers are underpaid, overworked I say over worked because the student teach ration is way off balance, and we have just plain bad teachers that have forgotten why they became teacher in the first place. the last one unfortunately seems to becoming a larger group than it use to be.  we need a private rating system for teachers that can be used for the public side to rate teachers this will hold teachers more accountable than what they are currently being held to. this way the good ones can get paid more and the bad ones will be pushed out and forced to find new employment. I know that sounds harsh but if i wad a construction worker and my job was to finish Sheetrock and i was really bad at it then i would be fired from that kind of work and i would have to find a new type of work. it needs to be the same for teachers.
 Now it seems that i am being hard on teachers and putting more responsibility on their shoulders for teaching out children well i am but in turn i have more responsibility on my shoulders as a parent . I in turn as a parent will need to support the teacher on what they do and how they teach out children. which means that i have to actually take an active roll in my child's life. Wow what a novel idea you mean that i cant just use the school as a baby sitter service for 6 to 8 hours.
And so you know, no money isn't the solution to fixing the schools it all starts with us as parents. i will say it again We Need To Take An Active Role in our Children's Lives. I had one Scout leader that did this No I'm not talking about the sick Pervert scout leaders that end up serving time in jail but I'm talking about an awesome Scout leader that i had as a youth that would challenge us to not only do our best but he made us feel like we were going to be great.  You know who you are if you are reading this so stand up and be proud. You were and are the best.
   Well back to education what ever you love go do it learn about it. My grandfather told me  that if you love something then be the best at it and people will pay you to do it.  that is essentially why we go to school and get an education is to make a living. Look at the recently descended Steve Jobs do you think he hated computers and creating new tech. I am pretty sure that it was one of his passions and that he learned as much about it as he could. and continued to learn up till his death .

Work Work Work

Work Work Work

        Your probably looking at this title and think what does work have to do with anything. Well actually more than you think. Work is essential to life. It makes us who we are and who we will become. Being that I grew up in a family business I had many opportunities to work. More than the average person. It would be an understatement to say that my dad is very creative when it came to having us do things. As a matter fact that reminds me of this time that. My dad had this idea to add on to the house, your thinking well that isn't that bad . Well that's because you are think of the normal way of doing it.  Like let's build a new wing to the house but not this time , his idea was to build down , yes I said down. My dad wanted to add a bedroom for my brother in the basement .nope this wasn't the kind of place that had a basement already. Well it did but it was a crawl space, about  a three foot  crawl space. And thinking about that little job reminds me of when my brother and i were digging in that pit of despair and we didn't want to be down there so we kept on arguing and climbing out the little door in the foundation and do like most kids do and go tattle to mom. I don't know how many times we did that, first me then my brother over and over until i know we must have been driving my mom completely nuts we both climbed out and went running as fast as we could  like kids do we got to my mom just seconds from each other and that was the last draw we had finally taken our mom over the edge and we had just pushed her. ( now before I finish the story let me tell you about my mom,my mom is probably the most wonderful person in the world, now im not trying to suck up, it's the truth she is so innocent it's actually refreshing. Especially with  a world  like we have right now. to show the amount of innocence my wife and my mom were driving to bring my dad and i some lunch we were working on one of my dads rental houses. Now this house wasn't in the most desireable part of town but while they were driving to us they passed a bunch of guys at a house on the corner that were grilling out and smoking  pot . Because you know you can't have bar b que without a little mary jane,  no i have never done any type of drug but you might think so with all the thoughts inside of thoughts.so my wife says "now that is a pot luck" so my mom replys "yea it looks like they have a lot of food there". Now if that doesn't speak volumes about the innocence of my mom then I don't know what will. My mom is one of the most  knowledgeable persons out there except when it comes to things of the world. Now back to my story about the pit of despair  we got to my mom just seconds from each other both speaking at the same time and that is when it happened . One of the most shocking moments in my life. My mom looked at us and said "GET in THAT DAMN BASEMENT AND DIG". It was a huge shock to the system the world completely stopped. Birds stopped singing, hell actually froze over, I even think that was the day that all fairies died that is why we never see them, I don't even remember going back down to the pit, time seamed to stop.  Yea that was the only time in my life that i have heard my mom say a swear word. I know your thinking that isn't bad people say stuff like that all every day well that is where you would be wrong . And if you actually think that then don't you think that is incredibly sad. When we don't get upset or are even shocked when  people use foul language .Bear in mind i was around 12 when that happened and now im in my thirties  Now if that wasn't shocking enough. It wasn't until about a year or two ago that I found out that after my mom said that to us that she went into the bathroom after saying that word and washed her mouth out with soap.   I asked her when i found  that out why did she do that . My mom humbly responded would I have washed your mouth out. .so now your think what did all of that have to do with working . Well guess what I'm about to tell you , but you knew that already . Well we need to work  we have a generations that are not working by choice and by force. But mostly by choice. and when i say by choice its because we seem to look for the loopholes to get money. Money doesn't solve anything it is a means to live. so all of you out there that say that there arent any jobs out there and i cant get one its time to grow up. and get over yourself. I have been there i have made lots of money and i have made no money. let me tell you not having a job is hard but the best thing for me was to loose my pride and just go to work.we have become lazy, I always say that my generation and younger are totally worthless . That's may sound pretty harsh but it's true look at us we don't want to work we just want hand outs my grandfather would be ashamed . I was talking to my brother the other day about many different things and work and living better came up  he lived in hawaii for a couple of years  while finishing  his  college education  he was told by a good close friend of his that described the differences in americans and most of the world, he said that  Americans live to work but a lot of the world work to live , if you think about it that speaks volumes on how we are. I myself am tired of the great run around we need to use our minds better and become more efficient on how we work . Im not saying don't get rich, what i am saying don't for get what is important in life we can have the nicest car the nicest house but if we don't have a good family life or pay attention to what matters most we dont deserve it. This  is why i say Work work work . Get outside and work, work with your family do something creative but just get to work 

Wednesday

New post on Wednesday , you have been warned

Greening the Family

Greening the family

         When it comes to being green and greening the family, the one thing to remember is that change can be hard for some . Being green means that we have to change the way we think and how we do things. And as I said before go back to the way it use to be .
          I know for children it is easy for change, they adapt very easy but for grown ups it is hard . Just like during the end of the Civil War, the north did what was called Reconstruction. They would basically force the older people to do what was not common for them and have the younger groups trained to follow, This kind of thinking isn’t a new concept it is a Idea that has been used through out all history. That is why it is easier for us in this day to recycle and get into other energy types, because they have been preaching it for years as far back as the early eighties is how far back as I can remember the green agenda being taught.
      Back then it was only excepted by just a few people but now it is easily excepted now. We have become an excepting society but that there is the problem.  That is why I say change can be hard I have been taught that I should believe that global warming is real I have been taught that we need to give up our rights to be protected by our big brother but I my self choose to learn to weed out the truth from the lies. This is why change can be hard because we are taught to not believe people like me because I am crazy, but Ill let you be the judge on that and what ever you decide i will be fine with. ( for one I don’t know You and You might think that you know me but Im just writing this book and it might or might not portray who I am, and 2 its just a book . So who cares)
   Change can be hard and it is hard that is why when it comes to being green we need to believe in what we are doing. If you believe in global warming that's fine with me but if you believe that you need to save money and then the environmental side effects will come as you better your life then that is fine also.
     Growing up, my dad would have us do this thing called the light patrol. It was a sort of a game that he would have us run through the house  as fast as we could to turn the lights off. Now his motives weren't to help the environment bit it was for the effects on his wallet. See that sounded a little selfish but the hard fact is that is the truth . The basic truth is if it saves you money then why not do it .  So you ask yourself how does this help me green the family, well we did the lite patrol as a family. And that is the point doing  things as a family. Like a stated before I am number six of seven kids. So that means that we have tons of stories about each other and with each other. One of the things we did as a kid was have water battles ( yea i know your thinking water battles... how can that be considered green and what the crap how many people were involved well being green as far as the aspects of saving water well that I can say it wasn't but being outside  and doing things as a family was. So I would have to say its time to unplug get your family outside and do something yea i know i saying unplug while I type on my iPad and have the tv on watching the mentalist. It would  seem that im not following my own advise well get over it I have to type this so you can  read it to realize that you didn't really need this but a little common sense. but hey by now we have some sort of relationship and now we have become involved. So keep reading!
       The one thing that I find pretty cool is when I see a family cook together. Which can be fun and entertaining. I have an old missionary companion that has taken is to a whole new level he and his wife have their own blog and Facebook page about their cooking adventures if that is the proper way to say it . But they do it together . They have and make some of the most incredible meals i have ever seen and many their recipes are awesome. But that is the point of this being green as a family and do something together it isn't that hard it all comes down to our attitudes . What? You want me to to tell you what the name of the Blog of course  i will tell you the name of this wonderful food guru it's two peas in their pod . http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com

    
      The key thing is getting outside. My sister is a great example of this her and her family seem to always be doing something outdoors. I was privileged to join them on one of these such events. I was out in Las Vegas working a few years back and i stayed at my sisters house for the weekend. one morning my sister asked if i wanted to join them on a hiking trip to Zion National park.  I'm not sure if you ever have had a chance to go to this awesome place but it is beautiful i wish it was possible to build a house in the park because it would like living in heaven. so of coarse i said yes so we drive a couple of hours to the park my brother inlaw suggested that we go up to angels landing which i think is one of the tallest points of the park. it was about a 13 mile hike if i remember right but who knows i could be wrong or it seemed that long.. anyway the hike was awesome the company was great and they way everyone worked together couldn't have been better.
     As far as doing things outside, one thing that i did a lot as a kid was Rollerblade all over town. i would say my friends and i did this all the time, in fact there was this one time we decided to go down this one hill in town that wad about the tallest and longest hill in town it was named Clock Tower Hill, on 5th Ave. the thing about this hill was that it had two traffic lights and it crossed those lights were usually busy intersections. So us brain dead teenagers figured that the best time would be at 2:am so as the night went on and it came closer to 2 we started getting ready my dad wanted me to get him up because he figured that we better have an adult there to at least call 911 for us since he and my mom couldn't talk us out of this. so its time to be stupid we my friends and i figured to be safe we would start at the middle just to see how we would maneuver the little dip at the bottom of the hill. so my friend heads down then i go but in the middle of my first run a cop drives up I'm thinking crap I'm committed now and I'm going to jail. so i get to the bottom the cop looks over at me and says son what do you thin you are doing... i looked at him  knowing that it is illegal to Rollerblade on the road and said well sir I'm just trying to see how big of an idiot i really am he said well you know the law don't you i s yes sir i reply he then said well lets see if i can clock you coming down. The fact that there gathered about 20 or 30 people were out watching a bunch of young idiots go down a hill might have been what saved me or he might have just wanted to us do it. well i turned around and got to the top of that hill faster than i ever had due to the excitement. he flashed his lights to let me know it was clear of crossing traffic so a went off from the top. i pushed it as hard as i could because this was an experience that most likely wouldn't happen again so why not. i hit the bottom in just seconds my wheels were humming i pass him and quickly turn to get back to him he says well now i can get you for speeding and blading on the street my heart sank and he could tell from the look on my face that i was a little scared and says wow that was worth now go home and don't be stupid like that again. by the way you were going 35 then he drove off. 
      The only thing that story was good for was the fact that i was outside having fun so weather it's doing something you enjoy,food, water battles, doing the light patrol it doesn't matter just un plug, turn your tv off get outside and do something with your family.



You will thank me later.

Greening Our Bodies.

   

                                                     

    Greening our bodies

           Greening our bodies is not some weird fungus or bad Rash I am referring to what makes us Healthy. Not that you didn't know that .
Now this becomes a personal thing for each of us and out families. We all knew we need proper exercise, Need to eat right but it all gets More Personal than that. I know for myself I am Hypoglycemic which in many cases is Self Induced from eating the wrong things till now and if I’m not careful It will turn into full Diabetes.
              The day that I found out that I had Hypoglycemia was a very good but frustrating day. My wife and I got up at 3 A.M. to get to Atlanta so we could get sealed as a family, So we go to Atlanta to the temple. We go through a temple session and while in that session I started not to feel very good but I wasn’t sure what was wrong. So we finish the session and then go into the sealing room we get started and right about the middle I start to feel worse and then Elder Scott leans over to me and says are you ok then the last thing that I  remember was I said that I don’t feel very well then I go out (yes I passed out I) I passed out in the middle of one of the most important moments in my life. ( You know it seems like when something is important there is always a distraction or something that gets in the way) so I come to and I see Shannon looking over me and she is crying and she says you are trying to get out of it well of course that wasn’t true but in moment like that when you are scared or dis trot you never know what will happen.  So we end up finish up the sealing and leave the temple and go get something to eat we go eat  at the olive garden which is Shannon’s favorite place to eat and then we go straight to the Doctor office. And that is when I found out that I was hypoglycemic (well not right then but a few days later I did) But as far as being green and saving money the doctor gave me a prescription for ibuprofen it was for 800 milligrams so I go to Wal-Mart to get the prescription and ask the pharmacist what the difference between the prescription and like Advil he says well you will need to take more of the Advil at one time and About $25 dollars so guess what I did. ( Go On guess oh common I sure you will be right ) see that wasn’t that hard  and you were right. As from that day I can’t say that I have been exercising every day and eating right but I try but as I said before Greening our bodies is a personal thing and we all know what we all need to do.
   As far as doctors go I think there is a good number out there that really want to help people but I also think that there is just as many out there that want to just get kick backs from pharmaceutical companies and are out just get money from insurance companies. But on the other side the good doctors that really want to help people. Like my dads pediatrician which in fact was mine and until she retired was my first daughters. Her name is Dr Denmark she has been alive for over one hundred years and has practiced medicine for most of that time she is what I call a real doctor. When you would go to her you would show up there and it was first come first serve and it only cost sixteen dollars (yea I know that is awesome) but she doesn’t practice anymore but that is the way it is. So there lies the hard part finding a good doctor and also using a little common since and in many cases just figure out how to get well by ourselves. For instance when we were living down in Florida Logan my youngest son ended up with thrush well that is what I thought it was so Shannon (My Wife)   decide that she would take him to the doctor to see what is was so she goes and sits in the doctor office for 2 and a half hours then she gets to see the doctor and he just looks at him and say that there isn’t anything that is wrong with Logan. So after sitting for a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes counting the time waiting and talking with the doctor we knew nothing. So I take Logan to the local pharmacist to see if they knew anything when I start talking to the pharmacist she says that it looks and sounds like it is thrush but she said legally she can’t say that but if he was my son she would give him... and she went on to tell me what I could buy that would fix this problem. Just like I thought and after talking to several people like my mom the pharmacist and my sister within a couple of days Logan was all better. That shows that a lot of doctors just don’t give a crap of they just are doing their time till they get there kick backs. And more often than not a good old home remedy is the right  prescription.
 
           Another way that makes us happy and makes us healthy is when we laugh. Laughter is one of the best things that we can do that will make us feel good Just like in Mary Poppins when they have that seen where they are singing I love to laugh . They describe different laughs. In my family we have a large assortment of laughs but the one that stands out the most to me is my sisters she has this HEHEHEHEHE kind of laugh it is very funny well funny to us at least. I know that we have teased me sister enough that she has taken extra effort to try to change her laugh when she is around us just so she won’t do the HEHEHE thing. But there is one time that really sticks out to me when I think of laughing. It was when My wife’s Aunt wedding reception we were helping to get things started and my wife’s grandmother was talking to one of the family members that was there and they said something funny( well I assume it was funny but who am I to say what is funny. I'm writing a book in hopes that it will be funny but probably Failing miserably ) and she let out one of the biggest SNORTS that a person could ever give it was almost as if 100 pigs Snorted all in unison. Now that isn’t the funny part ( well it was funny But not until I open my big mouth)  after I herd this I was talking to my soon to be wife ( I call Shannon My soon to be wife because at that time we were about to elope ) so I say what the heck was that so I started laughing… I guess I was the only one that herd the Ginormigantuium snort (I always wanted to use that word)  So then I had to explain why I was laughing so then I proceeded to demonstrate what I herd but the only problem was it seemed that I was standing in the part of the cultural hall that makes noises echo all over the room so I did my impression of the snort. But the difference is either everyone is so use to hearing her snorts and they ignore them but when I did it the room all stopped and everyone stared at me . But the looks from everyone were nothing compared to the searing stair that was burning a hole in the back of my head .  Needless to say  My imitation snort  was even louder that the 100 Swine chorus that I heard . So I turned around and saw the look that I was getting and said Oh well.  I thought it was funny and kept setting up chairs ..
      I guess the most Importing thing that we need to remember is We need to do what our bodies are telling us This morning i wasn't feeling that well it was just basic lack of energy so what did i do i went and ran a couple of miles. And you ask yourself that doesn't seem like what i would do. In fact i feel better now because my body needed me to go stretch out and exercise. I am glad i listened to what i was being told.  That is what we really need to do is listen to what our bodies are saying.And sometimes that means go to the Doctor for help.

Greening Our Mind

Greening Our Minds

            Before we can green our homes we need to green our minds. To do this we have notice the connection between how we think and how we keep our homes, and how good we will do at keeping up a Green routine.
         The first thing that we need to do is to learn to Organize or thoughts, the first and one of the Hardest thing to do but with Practice it Can be done.
            My mom once said “I’m to tired To think” (My mom is going to kill me for using that) but it brings out a good point, unlike most people my mom is one of the few people that know how to think. When she said that she had just finished digging a hole for the new septic tank for there new house to go in. And when I say dig I don’t mean get the back hoe out and dig I mean get the pick and shovel and dig. But my point is that many people in this world don’t know how to think or even want to try that is why we have too many laws that tell people how to live there lives.
             

Henry Ford said “thinking is a difficult task that is why so few people engage in it”

        When I think of my mind and how it is organized I think of that episode of Spongebob square Pants episode when he  was told to empty his mind So he Can focus on the Job to be done. So it showed a bunch of sponge bobs running around emptying files Shredding and burning the info that didn’t matter... So You are think what does that have to do with anything? Well,  I Organize my thoughts in that way ( No not a bunch of sponge bob people running around shredding and burning everything bit like the files he was shredding) even though I may be thinking of Several things at onetime. I know how to focus on one thing at a time Kind of Like when I was writing this first time I was on a flight from palm beach to Atlanta and the guy that was Sitting beside me Seemed to  be confused on what I was doing I was typing on this book, watching an  Indiana Jones movie and talking to him all at one time that is when he asked if I knew what was going on in the movie so I told him what was just said in the movie then he asked if I knew what I was typing so of course I said I sure do then he said how is it possible to do that you are taking to me ,watching a movie and paying attention to that and writing a book on being green.That is when I explained that over the years. I know you are thinking... Over the years how old are you? Well I am 33 years old but I have learned a lot in these few years that I have been alive. I have learned to focus on many things and be able to organize them in the way that should be. This is why it is hard for me to understand why people have panic attacks or anxiety attacks. Well I take that back I do understand how they get them but not really why because people shouldn’t have to worry about them if they organize their thoughts it wouldn’t  happen. When I think of how that happens, it is like when you have a computer and you have a lot of programs up and running at one time,your computer seems to run slower. Now if you are downloading info from the internet and you have too many programs running your computer sometimes shuts down. So when we have a panic attack that in a since is what is happening. That reminds me of a funny story about one of my brothers had one of these attacks ( it might not be that funny to him but to me it is so ill let you be the judge for yourself you might think I’m  heartless or you could even see the humor in it) He at this time, I believe he was trying to get his house finished had a baby on the way and was working as a cop so as you can see he had a lot of stuff going on in his life. That being said I was working and I got a phone call from my parents saying that my brother was in the hospital suffering from some chest pains and shortness of breath so as we are as a family we always ask each other to keep each other in our prayers so we do but it wasn’t till the next day that I found out the rest of the story I was told by once of my other brothers that he was in the hospital room and the doctor came in to see him as he was sitting there his legs were bouncing up and down he looks at the doctor with the look of terror in is eyes  and says  “What the hell is wrong with me”  (what you know that was funny you would have laughed too if you heard it) I think at this moment there is some one in the world asking them self What the hell is  wrong with me for making fun of my brother o well he can beat me up so i guess i will have to take my lumps. But it is kind of easy to see how the lack of organizing our thoughts can affect us. Not that he cant organize his thoughts well but there is a breaking point for everyone.
 If you haven’t noticed I have interject many of my thoughts while I am typing this book so you can see how my mind really works you are able to get a thought inside of a thought  so i'm either crazy or a genius I'll let you be the judge.
     So you ask how and where do I start ( you know I might be giving you too much credit you are probably sitting there reading this and thinking why am I reading this, This guy is crazy that may be true but you have to give me a little credit I was sane enough to post it on the internet so Ha on you or is it really Ha on me) Well  the best  place to start is figure out what we take in to out minds its like one of the scriptures that I remember it talks about what we think  is what we say and that’s leads to what we do So lets call it Thoughts, Words, Deeds. Now that being said how do we Fix our thoughts well that all comes down what we read, who we hang out with, what we watch. Now I’m not saying that you need to stop doing all of that but I am saying be very careful what we involve ourselves in. There wasn’t a person that cheated on there spouse that wasn’t involved in some kind of pornography and the same is said that a person that robs a store or some one that didn’t watch it on TV and thought about it or even was around the people that do that kind of thing.
      When I was a kid I didn’t do a lot wrong. But there was a few times that when I was a kid and Did like Kids do.  There was this time that a few of my friends wanted to go through water balloons at the gay guys that would hang out at the clock tower,  But as much as I disagree with the lifestyle and the choices that homosexual people make I don’t think they deserve to be smashed with water balloons even though it seemed that it might be funny but who knows how far it would go after that so I chose not to go. I know where they got that idea from because we watched it on TV the night before. It is that kind of stuff that shows that we all influenced by the things that are around us. So it comes down to you, you need to decide what you take into your mind and also what those around you take in. Like my oldest daughter, she likes music so we were driving to the store one day and this song came on the radio that at first didn’t notice what the words were until she started singing them. I know that she didn’t know what they meant. But one day she will so it becomes the responsibility for us to not only be careful what we take into our minds but be a filter for our children.

               So after we start doing things that will help us organize our thoughts and filter out the bad crap that we involve ourselves in how do we clean up what is already there well that is the hard part what is in there is there but here is the good part the more good stuff you allow in the less you will think about the bad stuff and the less influence it can and will have on you.  One thing that my sister does is she keeps a journal but not just one journal but two of them one that she keeps the everyday life kind of stuff but then the other one is her gratitude journal in which she keeps all the good things in life.  It is always there to give her a boost on the days when she gets down and it also shows how much good stuff actually happens in life. The problem with people is that we always dwell on the bad stuff we think I had a bad childhood, I was always picked last; I never have anything good in life happen to me. That is the problem. Because we watch, listen to and involve ourselves with things that are negative so we think that way. But we can change this just by doing things different in out life.

If you were wondering what am I supposed to learn from this well use the check list to help.
                                                   Check List

• Associate with good people
• Clean up our thoughts by reading, listening, and watching good things
• Organize our thoughts on what matter most
• Don’t dwell on the crap of life
• Keep a  journal
• Start a gratitude journal
• Don’t be negative
• Don’t be sarcastic
• Don’t over think

Living Green

Living green Seems to be the subject on everyone's minds these days. Not that they are doing it wrong but for the most part they are.

As you can see being green is one of the main subjects i am being forced to talk about right now, because it seem we seem to focus on that more these days than anything else.

What makes green living  or living green so good versus what is thought to be the norm. Even that Sounds funny Green Living is Kind of what was practiced back in the old days but we have forgotten that. My Sister is a big quilter and She was telling me that they used to use the bags that flour Came into make Quilts out of them  But that wasn’t the only thing that they would use them for. But when it caught on the flour Companies Would Put Patterns on the bags that would be for Clothes and More.
That is why I say it sounds weird because Recycling Cutting back doing things different isn’t that different at all we are just going back to the beginning.  Living green is about Consumption and follow your feelings  don’t forget that. I once had a Person tell me that or feelings will lie to us but that Person is crazy He has no concept of reality, but what do you expect from a Person that doesn’t believe what they preach. I say this because he is a preacher and he claims to believe the bible but I know he reads it but he doesn’t believe it, or live it.
        One thing to keep in mind when it comes to a green life style or anything that we do in life we will always make mistakes and have failures so when you try you fail, you try, you fail but the only failure is not to keep trying.
    Being green is a personal thing , we can go from one extreme to the other, we might want to just cut back on our power bill or we might be the ones that want to live totally off the grid it all is up to us. When I say green I’m not just talking about the environmental effects that in my mind is a by product of living right. For the most part being green is a way to save money and go back to our roots and the way of living that our parents and grandparents use to live but with more conveniences.  I myself like my power my internet, my iPad and such these things are here to help us but it is our responsibility to use them wisely .

Why

Well since this the second time I am writing this. It is possible that will better that the first time that I wrote it. I know you are probably wondering why are you writing this again well it was just a couple of years when my car was broken into and some lovely person decided that they needed my laptop and many of the other things that was in my car more than I do. Not only did they get my laptop but they also got my wife’s purse and all her identity so we had to start from scratch on her (well as far as getting her documents back) So now I need to try to remember everything that I wrote on my last computer because like an idiot I didn’t back up this wonderful book.
I guess the reason that I am writing this book (Well Blog Now) is to make money (just kidding) I’m writing it because I see the need for a guide for people to use in there life so they can live better and function better in society. (Well I guess its is for the money too) But that being said if we all haven’t noticed we are in need to change our life styles we are a throw away society and we need to fix that problem if that means that we need to go green then we need to do it. But being green just doesn’t just mean recycling or such but it is the way we think do things and function.

I think i will break a lot of rules when it comes to this writing this ( But that means that there has to be rules to break ) because i’m going to talk about Religion, Politics, Family and what ever else I find the need to ramble on about. Many things will probably not be politically correct but when we realize that no matter what we do someone is going to be offended. In this blog you will see that all we need to do is go back to basics. Like when it comes to being green that is just a color that we now associate with saving the planet, but what it should mean is we need to be more frugal and living closer to the way that we use to be. When I think of colors it reminds me of when I was working on one of my dads rental properties and the constable came by to tell us when she would be there to evict the people that were living there while she was there she brought up the fact that she couldn’t stand that her people just don’t pay there bills while talking to her she brought up that colored people just need to grow up a little so I asked her why do you call your people colored so she replies well that is what we are you are white that is when I had to interrupt her and say I have to disagree as you would say black or colored people aren’t colored or even black That is when I could see that she was a little confused so I explained that I am the colored one I have kind of cream colored skin blue eyes red hair and when I am out in the sun my skin turns red or pink so a person could come to the conclusion that the Caucasian race would actually be colored and that the black people are in fact a brown people so there shouldn’t be a type of grouping of people. She started to laugh and said that that made more since than anything else that she has ever heard of. So she also said that I guess I should have said we are African American which I had to disagree with also because if she is African American then I must be European American or German, English, Irish, Cherokee American. Which is just too long to say I think we should say we are just American because we all are born in this great country? She said that if many people thought that way they would be better off.
To me it doesn’t matter what the person looks like but what does matter is that is what that person stands for and what that person acts like. There is just one type of person that I would say that I am predigest against and that is stupid people and they come in all shapes and sizes and colors. but that is why it is so important that we not only get educated but learn to use common sense, it seems that Common Sense isn’t that common these days but I will talk about that later in this wonderful rants of my crazy little mind.

I guess the best Way to start is to tell a little about myself. If you haven't noticed I am a little conservative when it comes to the way that I think. I am number 6 of 7 Kids (no not Goats) Children. In my Family we were raised to do many things, many of which Ill talk about in the posts to come .But I will say that we grew up in family owned business at least as far back that I can remember. My dad did work for the phone company for a long time too but as far as I can remember we always owned a family owned business. Don't you just love memories. If you don’t then rethink your life a little because with out our memories we have nothing, they are what make us what are or what we will become or will help us on what we will become, (hey that was Pretty Good).If you haven’t noticed I talk to myself so this also means that I am talking to myself and to you also Cool Huh( as you can see I am a little crazy but the thing is I must typing the way that we all think but I’m not afraid to admit it.
There is 6 boys and, 1 girl in my family so there was many things that we did that were funny And some not so funny things but that is what makes up life. I cant say that this blog will make you laugh or even make you cry but I can say that it is going to be full of a lot of words that will be put together in a way that some kind of emotion will come out hopefully disappointment wont be one of them,But what do I care you subscribed to this blog and see the advertisements so now I have your money and so at least one of us will be happy.