You've reached the home of me, *LyndiLou*. I'm an avid fan of friends and scrapbooking... which means I LOVE CropChocolate.com I'm away at LDS Young Women's camp, but feel free to say hi and I'll get back to you as soon as I'm home again!
If you're just joining the blog hop be sure to go back to the beginning and visit each participating blog. From here you'll want to be sure and visit dear, sweet Scrappy Canuck's blog and let the fun keep on coming!
Meet one of the creepiest babies in animation history. Lately, Baby Chomp has been watching the Pixar Shorts every now and then. Of all the cute little animated short stories in the collection, this one is the most unnerving (or tied with the Unicycle one). I'm really glad that Pixar has only improved since the "Melting Baby Face of Doom" stage. *shutters*
Now, DreamWorks did something right with little baby Megamind here. I'm not always a DreamWorks fan. Their work is usually only so-so, in my opinion. But, when it comes to the cuteness level of this little guy, I give him two big fat thumbs up. Super cute!
I've been thinking about being gracious since Friday morning. EARLY Friday morning. We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter late Thursday night, and I've been thinking about it since the movie even started. I went to sleep with it on my mind. Here I am on a whole other day, and I'm still thinking about it.
I helped my Mom put on an AMAZING party. A lot of people helped actually. I'm glad they did too, because it's a lot of hard work putting together a event for almost 100 people. The party was fun, the giveaways were great, the movie was AWESOME! The people... well... the people were MOSTLY fun, great, and awesome. There were MOSTLY people there who are my best friends, lovely neighbors and such... but there were some that I doubt will ever be getting an invitation to anything from Gracious Rain again. (Ironic isn't it... that my Mom's blog is called GRACIOUS Rain.)
Much of the planet has forgotten how to be gracious. Maybe they never learned. It's probably not even "much" of the planet... it's just a small, outspoken, intense group of people that represent human beings poorly.
I haven't written a Senior thesis on the subject, I haven't done extensive research. I didn't put out any official surveys, but I have been talking to my family and even a few friends. Mostly though, I've just been thinking about it.
Gracious, by definition, is "pleasantlykind,benevolent,and courteous."
I will now tell you, in my opinion, how to be gracious.
When you are gracious, you are polite. When you go somewhere you are concerned about the other people around you. You pay attention to your surroundings, how you can make them better, or leave them the best way that you can. You listen. You follow instructions. When you are gracious you say simple words like 'please', 'thank you' and 'you're welcome' because you realize how much they can mean. Being gracious let's you radiate sincerity. When you are gracious people enjoy being around you because they feel important, appreciated and loved. When you are gracious you wait your turn and you share.
When you are gracious and you are given/win something you don't like/already have/couldn't imagine using/wish was something else... you accept it with a smile and say thank you. You can always re-gift it/sell it on Ebay/throw it away/FreeCycle it.
When you are gracious and you've been invited somewhere with friends and you meet/interact with/run into other friends or associates of the people you're originally with... you treat them like they're already friends and be polite/respectful/kind to them even though you don't actually know them yet.
When you are gracious and you don't like something that's happening but you aren't in control of it stopping it... you wait patiently for it to stop instead of complaining/getting grouchy/being rude/being mean/starting a fight and remind yourself that all things end eventually.
When you are gracious and you are in another person's home go ahead and try the food/treat they offer you/accept the chair they pull out for you/try or do something new.
Sometimes being gracious means just dealing with it. Sometimes being gracious means biting your tongue. Sometimes being gracious means standing up for someone else. Sometimes being gracious means gently explaining something to someone else so they calm down or don't put their foot in their mouth. Sometimes being gracious means doing or saying nothing.
Will you please, please join me in being more gracious.
The next time you go out somewhere, look around and see if you could clean up after yourself, even if there are people who are paid to do it for you. When you receive a gift, no matter what it is, or how much you love/hate it, will you please think of me and that person who is awesome enough to GIVE you something and smile and genuinely thank them. The next time something takes longer than you thought it would, the next time things don't go as planned, the next time someone you don't know is annoying you, the next time you just want to be rude...
Stop.
Think. Decide right now how you can be classy, pleasantly kind, benevolent, or courteous. Think about how YOU can be gracious.
One of my favorite websites on the planet, CropChocolate.com, is holding an online crop this weekend! For 48 hours (Saturday and Sunday) you can participate in some great challenges and contests!
Some of the sweet ladies over at CropChocolate.com explained things so nicely, I asked if I could copy the post. Thanks Deb and Megan Ann! :) Here's what Deb said on her blog:
"All you need to participate in the Online Crop and to be eligible for the prizes is to have an active CC account with a valid e-mail address. It will be part shopping, part crafting, part challenges, and completely fun! Come play to win some prizes, complete some projects (layouts, cards, altered items--you know finally use up some of you stash), and have some fun! There will also be some fun mini-games and activities going on under the Sweet Talk section of the website throughout the weekend, so make sure to stop by Sweet Talk and check them out too."
You can come and go as you please, just be sure to turn in your entries by Monday night! The prizes include credit to CropChocolate and even 2 tickets to the CropChocolate CRUISE! Count me in for sure... I'll see you there!
For the past few years, Winter (here in Utah at least) has taken over Autumn. It seems like as soon as Summer decided to give up, there was frost and even snow.
I'm happy to report that Winter is playing nice this year and letting Fall have a go at things. It gradually got cooler through September and once October hit it got soggy with rain. I really like having four distinct seasons. I think it balances out the planet nicely. Not that Heavenly Father or Mother Nature needs my stamp of approval, but they got it anyway! ;)
The leaves are changing beautifully, there are crabby-apples being harvested in the front yard, there's talk of Halloween costumes and parties.
I think the best way to know, for sure, that Autumn is really and truly here...
Welcome!!!
So, that should mean that there should be less of this...
