Beyoutifulhomemaker

Are there any Pollyanna fans out there?  If there are, you are not alone! I watched that movie several times growing up and it's an oldie but a goodie. It is about a young girl named Pollyanna... of course. Pollyanna is a very optimistic orphan girl who is taken in by her grumpy aunt in a grumpy town. Pollyanna is so happy and kind to everyone, that she changes the whole town that she lives in. What is her secret?? The glad game. All throughout the movie, Pollyanna talks about a game her father taught her.... the glad game.  The way to play the game is to find something to be glad about in any situation.  There are many examples in the movie of how Pollyanna uses the game to find the good in situations and people. I want to share a real life example of the glad game I heard from a woman named Meg Johnson. I was at a seminar once where she was invited to speak and I learned so much from her amazing story! Meg was paralyzed in 2004 when she accidentally jumped off a cli...

I am a total nerd when it comes to the Holiday Season. One of my favorite days of the year is the day after Halloween, November 1st! Even as a kid I remember being so excited that Halloween ended because it meant that Thanksgiving and Christmas were just around the corner. There is seriously an awesome feeling that fills the air on November 1st. I also start listening to Christmas music right away because it puts me into that special holiday mood. The end of Halloween also has a new exciting feeling because my baby's birthday is during the first week of November and we just celebrated her first birthday!! My heart is so full of love for that girl. I love celebrating gratitude during November. It is such a great reminder to have a grateful heart. I believe that if I could always have gratitude in my heart then I  would always be a happy person. An attitude of gratitude can change the way you look at everything in life. I feel like it's such a simple thing that it can be hard t...

Getting ready to perform in WSU's concerto night 2015 I love to sing! It is something I have always loved and a talent I have developed throughout my life thanks to my amazing parents and teachers. I have learned many life lessons along the way as I've learned how to sing. One of the greatest lessons I've learned is to be confident in myself and my abilities. I think we all struggle with confidence at times. I know I do. The main thing I struggle with is confusing confidence with pride. I thought growing up that I was being prideful if I believed I was good at something. Actually, I'm still growing up and still get confused over the matter! In fact last Thursday night is when the whole pride vs. confidence thing really became clear to me, thanks to an amazing choral conductor I get to work with. I am currently singing in a community choir in Provo called Millennial Choirs and Orchestras. It is an amazing choir. I am super impressed with the quality of the direct...

The LDS general conference was so amazing and inspiring. One talk that really stood out to me was No Greater Joy Than to Know That They Know by Elder Nattress. In his talk he tells a story about when he once told his mother that he wasn't listening to her read the scriptures during breakfast one morning. His mom continued being patient and never gave up on reading the scriptures to her children. I bet that mom is so proud to see her son grown up and serving as a faithful church leader.  Sometimes it is easy to feel like the things I am doing aren't really making a difference. Oaklee is 11 months old and I like to try to include her in my scripture study as part of our morning routine. She definitely isn't listening :) and sometimes I'll be honest, I don't always get much out of what I am reading either. She loves to touch (rather roughly I might add) my scriptures or reaches for my hands so we have to take a break to walk around the room.  It would be much easier ...

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God"                                                     D&C 88:119 When I was growing up I remember my dad always saying..."a place for everything and everything in it's place." It used to bug me as a kid but now I understand how awesome it is to have my place in order.  It only took me almost four years after being married and living on my own to have my home completely set up. In each place I have I usually have a dumping room. In the place I'm in now we have 3 bedrooms and I used on of the bedrooms (aka our home office) as a dumping ground for everything I didn't know what to do with. It did not make me happy and we couldn't use our office as ...

I want to share something simple I've been doing that has made a huge difference in my life! I learned a technique a while back to help me stay in charge of my thoughts, emotions and actions. I feel more able to change and become a better mom, wife and all around person. I feel less reactive to challenges that happen around me and more able to overcome them. Almost every morning and evening...I'm practicing and sometimes forget...I say declarations.  A declaration is a positive "I am'" power statement. I know it sound a little weird to say positive I am statements about yourself, but what i have realized is that growing up there were declarations all around me. I was taught from a young age that I am a child of God. Knowing all my life that I have a loving Heavenly Father has given me great power all throughout my life and a knowledge of my identity. It has directed me in the way I think and act. That is the power that a declarations...

There is something about homemade canned peaches that makes me happy. I love the cute mason jars and the color of the peaches. They just look like little bottles of sunshine and they taste amazing! My grandma and grandpa Fowers came to visit us this week and they brought yummy peaches from their tree. My grandma also gave me a jar lifter. She asked me if I had a tall pot to process the peaches in because the water has to cover the jar and I said no, but that I could go look at the DI some time and get one. She asked how close the DI was and when I told her it was just down the street she said "let's go!" We found a tall pot for $5.00 and she bought it for me. She told me the peaches needed to get done the next day, so I got to work! I am so grateful she brought me the peaches because canning is a skill I want to learn, but I needed some help to get started. Thanks grandma! I have canned peaches with my mom before but this was my first time doing it by myself....wel...

A few days ago, I pulled my baby in my bed after she woke up from her nap and laid down with her. We had a rare moment where we were both still together. Usually when Oaklee lays down with me, she digs her fingers into my mouth or nose and pulls my hair. This time she put her hand softly on my face and for a little moment we looked into each others eyes. I could feel her sweet, pure spirit and this quote came into my mind.  "When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it in the baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies."                  ...

Hello! I'm Cheryl... a passionate wife, mom, homemaker, singer, mormon, and seeker of good things. My purpose in creating this blog is to share "small and simple things" that make a big impact in my life as a wife and mom who is striving to create a strong, happy home by first creating a strong, happy me.  My dream as a little girl was always to grow up, get married, and become a mommy. Now I am living my dream and loving it! I'm learning though that loving my "job" as a homemaker takes a little work. Often times outside influences try to say that creating a home is not important, exciting, or "big." A quote that I love by Bonnie L. Oscarson says it perfectly... "We need to take a term which is sometimes spoken of with derision and elevate it. It is the term homemaker. All of us—women, men, youth, and children, single or married—can work at being homemakers. We should “make our homes' places of order, refuge, holiness, and s...