Celebrating the Little Things

We were at practice last week and as always with this time of year we've been struggling with our basics. We spend a majority of practice working on our passing and catching - which to be honest is frustrating. And boring. So while lacrosse is always one of my favorite times of the day it's been something I've had to gear up for. Then Juj came up with a great idea for us as we were trying to hide our frustrations...

She told us to celebrate every catch. That simple. To celebrate the little thing that we've done right in that moment. These were no small celebrations... we had roaring (since we are the cougars), loud yelling, over the top compliments, cartwheels, and lots of laughs. You would be surprised what a difference this made in the tone of practice. Instead of getting frustrated by not reaching our goal as quickly as we wanted to we shifted our focus to highlighting the happy things. Which in turn helped us relax, smile and do better.

As I got thinking about it I decided I wanted to implement this into my everyday life. So this is my way to hold myself accountable... to myself and to anyone who reads this.

Even if I have a frustrating day I am going to focus on the little things that went right and celebrate those. Things like bonding with one of the girls at work, catching up with someone I didn't expect to, getting all of my homework done, not hitting pipe at practice, keeping my room clean (ok... not such a little thing), getting to bed at a decent hour, doing well on a quiz in class, getting to the temple, understanding a new concept, pretty colors on the mountains, getting awesome packages from my parents (who have spoiled me like crazy recently - love you both!), finding a new scripture I love, etc. These are the things worth celebrating. And they add up fast.

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On a similar note I listened to one of the best devotionals ever on the way to the work this week. They don't have it available for reading right now but I promise that it's worth watching or listening to! Here it is. Thanks Si :)

4 for Kay

Now that I'm more settled in Provo, I make it back to VA usually three times a year. Once for Christmas, once over the summer, and once for the Women's Four Miler. There are more and more participants every year and I'm always so impressed with their dedication to such a great cause. My mom, sister and I all run the race in honor of my grandmother who was a breast cancer survivor. As always the best part of the day is hearing the inspiration stories that come from survivors, family members, friends, and all the people there that day.

Here are some pictures from the day!

Even the sky was pink!

Right before the race...

After the race, with Grandma's name from the Motivational Mile

Weekend well spent? I think so...

Italia

So my sister Julia is an awesome soccer player. So awesome that she made a team this year that travels to Italy to play European teams. I was lucky enough to go with. We went to so many beautiful cities and saw so many incredible things, and I got to cheer for her while she played... and yes, it was as incredible as it sounds. Here are my favorite parts from the trip...

Milan was gorgeous, even though we were exhausted. The inside of the Duomo was just as intricate and gorgeous as the outside.

We loved the tower of Pisa. We counted the steps all the way up and laughed as we almost fell climbing back down. The views were incredible.

There were gorgeous sunflower fields that we passed on one of our long drives... all of the places we drove past were beautiful.

We got to stay in San Marino and this was the view from the top of the mountain. The girls kicked butt at the tournament, won their division and came back with a huge trophy! So proud of them!

No big deal, just a statue of the world's fattest man courtesy of the curiosity museum in San Marino.

Love these girls.

This gorgeous cathedral was in Florence. I love this city and would go back any day!

We love gelato and ate it every single chance we got. Even if people thought we were crazy Americans... It's probably true anyway, right?

We ended the trip with a very long, but incredible day in Rome. We got to see the Vatican and St. Peter's Cathedral. We ate incredible food and walked until our feet hurt.

And we plan on going back...