A Mason Jar, Tennis Balls, and Beans

I wish I had some fun stories to tell y'all as we sit here and wait for a new post on my blog. I guess I can announce some pretty big news - We bought our plane tickets!

I am very excited for our trip out to Virginia this August. Scott's best friend is getting married in DC and that's where he served his mission, so it will be lots of fun to spend time out there this summer together. It's not going to be a super long trip, but it is a solid week away from work and that's just what we need.

Other thoughts, sometimes I wish I had more free time, or maybe just more motivation. You know when life gets easy, it's actually quite harder to do what you know is good for you? What I mean is, I really need to exercise better. When I was a student up at Utah State, I was young, I was free, I was not married, and I was bu-sy! The best part about being up at school was that I got to go running a lot! And the reason that I went running when I did was because I knew I was going to be too busy to do it if I ever put it off. Well now that I have a set schedule every day and absolutely free evenings and weekends, I don't have that mindset anymore. I just let it slip and think, Oh, I'll have time to do it later.

The same goes for temple attendance. And for scripture reading. And for any other good habit that takes time and work to develop. Always have the mindset to do it now and get it done, and then you don't have to worry about it later when you have other stuff you want to do.

My eighth grade history teacher showed it to us like this, and I have never forgotten it. You have a mason jar, two tennis balls, and a bunch of beans. The jar represents your day, the tennis balls represent what you need to do and the beans represent what you want to do. When you put the beans in the jar first, the tennis balls don't fit. But when you put the tennis balls in first, miracously the beans ALL fit and fall neatly into place. It's amazing, and so very true. I think he was just trying to tell us to get our homework done but I took it on a much more personal level and remembered it the rest of my life. And am very grateful for it.

So instead of listening to me ramble anymore, just remember to be good and focus on the important things until they are done, and then play.

The end!