Okay God, I’m gettin’ it!

Recently I heard about Dr. Brown on my friend Lisa’s blog and something she said really struck a chord with me:


She has done over a decade of research and has found that the common thread between every truly JOYFUL person she interviewed was their habit of PRACTICING GRATITUDE.

She elaborated that this wasn’t just an “attitude of gratitude” but something these people actually had to PRACTICE. Work at. Make a point of.

The fact that this message spoke so loudly to me is yet another in what seem to be a series of messages that God keeps trying to get across to me.

First it was through Jenny. She’s a comedian/mom blogger who brightens my day with her joyful, carefree spirit. I was envious of her optimistic way of looking at life until one day she mentioned that she’s actually a PESSIMIST by nature and has to WORK at being light and joyous.

What?! Blew my socks off!

Told myself “Well, maybe ‘I’, too, can find a way to train myself into positivity!”

I tried for awhile - updated my blog with blue skies and bubbly fonts - but my naturally pessimistic ways crept back in after a little time passed.

Then along came God, slappin’ me upside the head by way of Ann Voskamp.

Once again I was back in the ‘thankfulness-begets-joy’ saddle with renewed enthusiasm. Even caught myself writing in my thankfulness journal with her uniquely fragmented dramatic flair: "chirping of birds in oak tree… sing soft” -“sun upon windowpane… warmth of skin and soul.”

Don’t laugh! It’s contagious! ;)

Wrote down my blessings faithfully…got all the way to 262! Then along came The Dark Side and I was, once again, off the thankfulness wagon.

Now to a few days ago when I saw Dr. Brown’s video.

**WHAM** “The key to JOY is GRATITUDE.”

It’s not joy that makes us grateful… it’s gratitude that makes us joyful.”

So… here I am, once again. Trying to really HEAR God.

PRACTICE GRATITUDE.

Don’t expect it to happen by itself.
Practice it.

graffiti

We keep waking up to find GRAFFITI on our mailbox.

We wash it off but it just keeps coming back.

(persistant little hoodlums)

So today the kids and I decided that if you can't beat 'em... JOIN 'EM!




Honestly (being the realist that I am)  I'm half expecting to see the little rug rats write OVER our artwork...
but hoping they don't.

They've been using what looks like a black Sharpie.

Any ideas if this doesn't work?

Dr. Oz and Garcinia Cambogia

Have you heard about this Garcinia Cambogia stuff? For weight loss?

Normally I'm a huge skeptic. If it's "all the rage" than I immediately assume it's BUNK.

But my mom said she saw it on Dr. Oz...

OPRAH'S Dr. Oz...

and, well, I knew HE wouldn't lead me astray.



So... I ordered some.

I'm only telling you guys because the next time you see me
you might not recognize me.

:)

But seriously... have you heard of it? Do you know anyone who's had success with it? Please share!

yelling goats

This video serves no purpose.

I have no idea if it's even real.

But it made me laugh...

So I'm sharing.

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I seriously think that God made goats just to give humans a giggle.

Good work God.

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movies without smut! (ClearPlay review)

I Love Movies... so this is big news for me! I apologize if this sounds like an advertisement... but, I assure you, I'm not getting a penny to say any of this. (wouldn't mind if I was, but I'm not!) I just have to share cause I wish I'd heard about it before myself!

Okay, so have you heard of ClearPlay?clearplay

It's a DVD player you can buy for 150 bucks that can be set to EDIT questionable content (or down right disgusting content!) out of your movies!

It's been featured on the Today Show, Fox News and several other media outlets. I don't know why I hadn't heard of it! It's SO COOL!


There are 12 different categories that you can edit to your liking:
  1. Violence
  2. Sex
  3. Nudity
  4. Vulgarity
  5. Bloodshed
  6. Substance Abuse
  7. Blasphemy
  8. Disturbing
  9. Bigotry
  10. Dishonor Parent
  11. Dishonor Flag
  12. Mushiness
Each category has 4 setting options: 'No Filtering' (which will leave the movie AS IS), Least, Medium and Most Filtering.

Swearing - we've found that if we set 'Vulgarity' on Medium Filtering it takes out all of the swearing. It does so by inserting a second of silence when the swear is spoken. You can also leave the swearing and take out only God's name being used in vain - which is the Blasphemy category. (not sure why anyone would want to do that, but anyway!)

Sex/Nudity/Sexual situations - for scenes involving sex or nudity it edits by removing some or all of the scene depending on your filter selection. We tested a scene in "The Devil Wears Prada". In the UNedited, original scene you see a women getting dressed (no overt nudity). She does her hair, puts on makeup, a lacey bra and undies, then clothes, shoes, etc. With the filters set to 'Least Filtering' in these categories the ClearPlay left this scene in tact. When I switched to ''Medium Filtering' it took out the bra/undies part of the scene but left the hair/makeup/shoes part. We watched it both ways, but without having done so we would never have known it was edited because it's done seamlessly!!

Violence/Bloodshed - in this clip (below) from the Today Show they demonstrate how ClearPlay edits the 'graphic' violence out of a fight scene from The Matrix while still leaving most of the scene intact. More or less of these type of scenes can be altered depending on your setting of choice.



When you buy the ClearPlay you pay $150 and essentially get a DVD player that is pre-programed with the edits of thousands of movies that have already been made. If you want to be able to watch NEW movies you need to also buy the $7.00 a month service which allows you unlimited access to new movie edits as they are released.

The Clearplay comes with a little flash drive that they call the "Filter Stick". All you do is insert the stick into your computer, download the edit for whatever new movie you want to see, and then insert the stick into your ClearPlay DVD player. Easy!

The ClearPlay does not work on television or DVDs of TV shows. It's for movies and it DOES work on rentals such as Netflix DVDs or local rentals, etc. You do have to insert an actual DVD, however. For example, it will not work with the Netflix 'Instant Watching' option.

Needless to say, we are very impressed! There are so many movies we've never watched because even PG13 has so much language and sex. Now we can!!  Pass it on!! (And please leave a comment if you BUY one, or blog about it or love it or hate it or just to say hi!)
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