The Seven Minue Difference and The Seven Minute Daily Planner by Allyson Lewis

After her life changing seven minute experience, Allyson Lewis wrote The Seven Minute Difference. She has laid out a practical plan for success full of easy-to-accomplish small steps. Allyson Lewis has a great writing style which makes this book one of the few nonfiction books that I can really say that I’ve enjoyed reading. She points out and explains everything that you need to know to succeed including the importance of knowing your purpose, having written goals and using small steps. The Seven Minute Life Daily Planner is the perfect companion to the book. It is easy to use and practical. All of the pages are laid out well and it provides plenty of instructions so that you can be confident that you know what you are doing. It provides a place where you can define your purpose, prioritize, and set goals (big or small) and achieve them one small step at a time. I’ve already recommended this book and planner combination to friends and family and will continue to do so because I believe that everyone can benefit from reading this book and using the planner.

(I received this product for free from the BuzzBlogger program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255)

My Trip to Mississippi

I recently returned from a fun, family trip to Mississippi. My family (my mom, dad and I plus my sister, her husband and their 6 children [Zhenya, Katya, Anya, Kristina, Faith, and Caleb]) went to see my brother, Clay, sister-in-law, Paige, nephew, Cade, niece, Clair, and my newest niece, Baby Caris (insert "awwww" here). We made the journey so that we could celebrate Cade's birthday and see everybody. It was awesome! They had the party at Mitchell Farms which is a fun farm and working farm owned and operated by Paige's grandparents, The Mitchells. We had a great time doing everything there was to do at the farm including the corn maze, the pool of corn (yes, you can play in a giant pool full of corn), playing on the playground, taking the tour of the farm in the tractor-pulled wagon, seeing all of the animals in the animal barn (they have ducks, quail, a rabbit, a fox, sheep, a miniature donkey, chickens, and even a pair of peacocks!), and seeing all of the historic buildings. We also got some behind the scenes stuff like getting to ride in the vintage Jeep (it's over 50 years old and still runs) all over the 4-wheeler trails with my brother (that was one of my favorite parts). I had an awesome time! I got to travel to a state that I've never been to before, hold Baby Caris (feel free to "awwww" again), hang out with my brother and his family, have a great time at Mitchell Farms, stay at a hotel (which was really nice, had cable and an incredible free breakfast spread! Did I mention we got to stay for free thanks to Marriott points?), and letterbox in another state (found a 'box and planted one too!) So, to sum it up: Mississippi was awesome! :)

10/10/10

The Cake!

Today was my birthday! It has been an absolutely awesome day! I had five of my friends come over yesterday and we went to see the movie Secretariat (Which was great!) then almost everybody spent the night at my house. Today we went to church and then came back to my house for cake and ice-cream. My sister made the coolest cake ever! It looked exactly like what our barn is going to look like! I couldn't believe how good it looked! For my birthday I got gift certificates, money, a book, personalized horseshoes, and a wall hanger for the barn for holding jackets, halters and the like. I am also in the process of getting barn! :) One of my favorite things was when my brother called and gave me some great advice. He said, "Don't waste your life. Work hard or do what you love, but don't just sit around." Clay, I plan on doing both of those things in the years to come (The working hard and doing what I love part not the sitting around part)! Thanks to everyone who made today so special!

Love,
Beth, who thinks that this was the best birthday yet!

Letterboxing

I love letterboxing! If you're wondering what letterboxing is maybe this will help:

"Letterboxing is an intriguing pastime combining artistic ability with "treasure-hunts" in parks, forests, and cities around the world. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by cracking codes and following clues. The prize: an image from a miniature piece of art known as a rubber stamp—usually a unique, hand-carved creation. Letterboxers stamp their discoveries in a personal journal, then use their own rubber stamp, called a signature stamp, by stamping it into the logbook found with the letterbox, perhaps writing a note about the weather or their adventures in finding the letterbox." Source: http://www.atlasquest.com/

So far I have 21 finds and 5 traditional plants under my belt. I love figuring out clues and finding the boxes. Plus, the clues usually take you to beautiful and unique places that you may never have found otherwise. My mom calls me a "prolific carver." It is so much fun to draw a design and then carve it out! I don't even know how many stamps I've made. Besides the traditional letterboxes there are also postals, LTC's, and hitchhikers all of which I hope to expand on later. For more information about letterboxing you can go here or here.

A Barn Raising. Part Five.

I'm not even going to say anything about missing a several days of posting. Let's all just accept that things like that are going to happen and move on. Uncle Steve and Carter left several days ago to go back home. But don't panic! They are coming back sometime after October 15th. The barn has all of its posts, lower rafters, etc. but before we can move on (put the upper rafters and the roof on) we need scaffolding. If you happen to have some scaffolding that isn't being used or know someone who does please let me know. So, besides that there isn't much else to be said about the barn for now, but be prepared for a barrage of barn related posts in the near future. Did I happen to mention that I am SO EXCITED ABOUT HAVING A BARN THAT I JUST MIGHT EXPLODE!?! No? Well, I am and now you know.

A Barn Raising. Part Four.

So, yeah, I missed another day of posting, but yesterday was busy. Even though I didn't have too much hands-on work with the barn because I babysat my nieces and nephew. I did, however, get to go down there and be amazed. It really is starting to look like a barn, especially since they started putting rafters up! It may sound like this whole thing has just been smooth sailing, but yesterday and today haven't been without excitement. We realized a couple of mistakes and are doing our best to either fix them or cope with them. The most popular phrases have been, "It's just a barn," meaning that whatever happens will be okay because it's just a barn and "Put a nail in it!" meaning hurry up and do something because it'll never be perfect. So far, I think it's a rather fine piece of construction despite it's flaws and I'm ready to have it finished! I can picture it all already! Although that doesn't really mean much because I've been able to picture it since we poured the concrete. Now it just seems so close and real! I can't wait! I think we're planning to paint it "Barn Red" with white trim in the classic barn style. I have already started designing the interior and planning how to keep it clean and as close to bug-free as possible.

A Barn Raising. Part Three.

After lots of hard work and humor the posts are up. Both of the building inspectors came out yesterday and they admitted that they didn't know anything about building a barn. One inspector said they were using S.W.A.G. (Scientific Wild Burro Guesses). They had come mainly to inspect the post holes. We had painstakingly dug all 16 holes to a 3 foot depth to match the requirements. The inspectors walked over and looked at a couple of the holes and said something to the effect of, "Looks about right," without even measuring! So, with that ordeal thankfully behind us, we continued.  Little did dad know that all of the posts would be in the holes before he got home from work. He called us in a little bit of a panic about it all and mom let him think that we hadn't gotten anything done. Boy, was surprised when he pulled up the driveway! Uncle Steve and my cousin, Carter, had put all of the posts in the holes. After dad got home and got over his shock, we squared up the posts and cemented about half of them in. Today, we've been working on getting the rest of them done. Apart from the roof, walls and doors we've got ourselves a barn already. That's the glass-one-quarter-full view for you.

A Barn Raising. Part Two.

I forgot to post yesterday because we were pretty busy. Early in the day I cleaned house so that it would be ready for our company. While I was doing that mom, dad and Jack measured and marked where the holes should be. Later, my uncle and cousin arrived and that's when we really started working. Dad and Jack dug holes with the two-man auger and my cousin and I cleaned the holes out with post hole diggers. So, needless to say, my shoulders are sore. Today the building inspector is coming to inspect the holes and after that we're going to put the posts up. I think that today the barn might really start looking like a barn.

A Barn Raising. Part One.

I'm not quite sure how many parts this will have because this is a huge undertaking. We really started building the barn three years ago when we had the concrete pad poured, but we haven't done much since then. Yesterday is when we really made progress. We had lumber and dirt delivered and we had a bobcat come and make the surrounding ground level with the concrete. Today, while dad and Jack cut out places in the concrete to put the posts in, the rest of our family watched. While we weren't watching we were doing odd jobs like turning the hose on and off, bringing lemon ade to the workers, opening and closing gates, and fetching tools. Tomorrow my uncle and cousin are coming. Hopefully the work will go faster. On the scedule for tommorrow we have: digging post holes and having fun!   

An Old Story

Yesterday I found some of my old writings while cleaning my room. This is the first part of a short story that I had started but never finished. I've done a little editing and I've made it a little more like my current style (because my style has changed a bit in the last year or so). It's just a fantasy story full of frivolity. Enjoy!

In another village nestled in the middle of another country many years ago, a memorable thing happened. Philington Sprousenhimer came upon an unsuspicious can as he was snipe hunting on the town's main highway (which was more like a dirt path) as he did on every other snipe hunting day. Philington snatched up the can because he was a recycling kind of person. His interest grew when he realized that the can was unopened. Unfortunately, he could not read the label for all the dirt, but our dear Philington was undaunted. He whipped out his handkerchief and rubbed the can vigorously. Eventually the words became visible. "Fresh Genie in a Can," Philington read aloud. Turning the can, he read the directions. "Step one: read label. Step two: Llama had a Little Goat (a very popular children's song at the time). Step three: read step four. Step four: remove and eat label. Step five: open can and enjoy.” Philington deliberated for a while. He weighed the dangers of eating a dirty label and, even worse, having Llama had a Little Goat stuck in his mind forever. Philington was so lost in thought that he passed his own house and walked right into his neighbor's. After noticing his mistake, he scurried out of the door unnoticed. "Well, here goes nothing," he mumbled before singing Llama had a Little Goat and then choking down the nasty label. Once he arrived at his own house Philington began searching for a can opener. After a little while he grabbed the can opener triumphantly. Philington opened the can. You won't believe what popped out!

... ... ...

You'll have to wait until next week to find out what happens!