We think now is a good time for a giveaway.

The deadline to enter is December 15. Best of luck!

As Thanksgiving nears, I can’t help but think of all the many blessings I enjoy. There are good things happening in life at all times, no matter how hard things may be. Here are a few things I needed to tell myself the past while:

• When your car breaks down, remember that you have someone to call and talk to it about.
• When you burn dinner, be thankful for a freezer that can hold a pizza.
• When you don’t feel well, remember you can lay down and dream.
• When you wish your to-do list was shorter, be grateful for your ability to be here and accomplish something.

Because I have been Given Much, I too must give. Not only can I look on the brighter side for myself, but I am striving to look to help someone. What about you?

My ultimate favorite band, The Killers, has a wonderful lead-singer named Brandon Flowers that is also a Mormon. We don’t sell his music here on LDSMusicNow.com or anything, but I think each of us can appreciate the difference someone can make in the world as he is conscious of his wife, family, and life and incorporates that into his music career. We all have a piece of the flame that we can share in one way or another. Enjoy this glimpse into his “rock star” life:

A Fire Still Burning

In my new ward a lot of the Relief Society women have a set of goals they call “Project 52″ — essentially, at the beginning of the year, each of them set 52 goals, one one for each week of the new year.

Some are easier than others, some span over every month, some are major projects. Some involve others, some are personal goals. But they periodically update their Project 52 lists on their blogs and it is a very interesting way to keep track of your goals and not be overwhelmed.

I thought I would share this with you now and you can begin to think about what goals you may include. Don’t overwhelm yourself, just write down things that you can accomplish each week that you have been putting off.

Here are some examples:

1. Read the Book of Mormon cover to cover.
2. Go rock climbing
3.  write in journal 1x month
4.  replace pictures in frames
5. go to a museum
6. make a new skirt
7. run a 5K
8. read 1 book/month
9. clean out closet
10. finish a scrapbook

What do you think? It is a good way to tackle some goals. Go, fight, win!

You know when you DVR Conference and you go back to watch it again? You are looking for one specific thing someone said or fell asleep during one talk or had to work during a session? Well, when I go back to watch it, I sometimes think, “Yeah, it’ll go faster because I can fast forward through the songs.” But EVERY time I think that, I end up loving every second of the songs they sing. It is just such a relaxing, spirit-bringing, beautiful part of Conference (and I was just watching on TV!)

What is your reaction to Conference this time? What was your favorite song?

So, ladies, what do you do when the men are at Priesthood Session? This was always the worst night to be a server in Provo. The ladies would come with the children at 5:30, eat healthy and cheap, then stay and chat until 8:00. Then the men would come with their teenage sons and eat not healthy and cheap. Either of those combinations would never tip! Haha.

But sometimes we go to dinner. Sometimes we get crafty. Sometimes we prepare for something for Sunday. Sometimes we stay home.

What do you do? What other fun Conference Traditions do you have?

One unique thing (among the many) of the LDS Church is our amount of stories. From Joseph Smith’s beautiful First Vision story to the Pioneer children walking across the plains, to the fascinating battles of the Book of Mormon and the building of temples across the globe, our religion is full of things that we all can just imagine in our minds.

I think that is why we have so much art! The classic paintings of Book of Mormon scenes are so prevalent, as are the depictions of Jesus performing miracles. These pictures are available in the Gospel Art Kit (from Distribution Services).

On our website, you can get a beautiful frame that makes it easy to display various pieces by easily interchanging them. Here is the description:

“Display the Gospel Art Book images in your home with this beautiful hardwood interchangeable frame. Updating the images is easy and can serve as a daily reminder from your family home evening lesson. One Gospel Art Book is included with the frame.”

So you’d be all set! You can purchase the frame by clicking here.

We went to our Stake Conference this past Sunday and enjoyed listening to the children’s choir. I had totally forgotten about my experience in a Stake Conference children’s choir back in the day! When I participated I totally misbehaved during the conference without realizing that my mother was watching me the entire time. Yes, poor judgement on my part. I also remember we went to choir practice several times (perhaps I am mixing up Primary Sacrament Meeting practice) and we sang “Teach Me to Walk in the Light” so many times that I was bored. I remember thinking to myself, “How could anyone not know this song by now?”

But looking back it makes me appreciate all of the hours that the chorister, pianist, parents and teachers put in to make the performance go as well as it possibly could. And then there were the 8-year-olds that were oblivious and misbehaved during the program. How sorry I am now! I am sure I have handfuls of mutual leaders, primary teachers and presidency members that deserve a long list of apologies.

What about you? Do you owe anyone an apology for behavior choices you made long ago?

I recently moved. Because of that, I have done a lot of thinking about how much stuff I have (and how to fit it into a box). Then how interesting it is that once you decide to move stuff from one home to another, all of it becomes so unorganized. I mean, it was all organized just a few short weeks ago in closets, cupboards and drawers. Now it is strewn about in rooms that it doesn’t even belong in. I could go on and on… but I think y’all get the idea. I’m sure you have all moved at least once in your life (even if it was from one bedroom to another!)

But as I was looking at stuff in yet another box, I realized that there was another thing to think about: how God has organized matter so that we can come here, learn about agency, then return home to him. Every talent we have is essentially organizing things in different ways, right? Playing the piano? Organizing your fingers in a certain order so that it sounds good. Playing a sport? Organizing people to do certain things a certain way. Building Legos? Organizing plastic to create something better. Cooking. Making a website. Folding Laundry. Laying out a magazine. Writing music. You name it: it takes some organization. You have to get a seed, water, sun and dirt all in the same place to make it grow!

So my religious perspective goes one step farther: we’re just practicing for what is about to come. We’re organizing matter into different ways so that we can better learn how to someday become Gods ourselves and organize things for our own prosperity.

What do you think? I am appreciative for those “ah-ha” moments in life that make life more enjoyable. Now I wish you all luck in organizing what you have going on today.

Have you heard about this new request from the Church? They are asking that members share their talents in media for their use. There are several sections, including photography, design, audio, writing and video, but the one I thought y’all may be most interested in was (believe it or not) music.

The site says:

“The Church needs music that is of or near professional quality to use in Church-created videos and on Mormon Channel Radio. This music may also be used in other Church productions and shared through the LDS Media Library for members to use in their efforts to share the gospel online.”

You can read more about the request here and get a submission form here. What a cool way to not only share your talents with others, but help the Church at the same time. What submission do you think you want to share?