Everything you need

This has been a hard thing for me to learn.  I did without for so many years, that I tend to collect things now.  I really don't need anymore of pretty much anything.  I am out of space to put everything and the dust bunnies are ready to run away with my house!!  I think they are on the attack!
Why is it so easy to want the next big thing?  To look forward to tomorrow, or next week, or even next year?  Why do we waste so much of our lives looking for the next moment? 
I can remember saying,
I will be happy when they are all out of diapers.
I will be happy when they can feed themselves.
I will be happy when they don't mess up the house.
I will be happy when I am retired
I will be happy when.............

I am thinking that Heavenly Father doesn't want us to wait to be happy.  He wants us to find things that bring us joy every single day.  They can be simple things, or more complex.  I love the way my Grand children smile and laugh and giggle.  I love the way my teenage girls are learning to help each other and be kinder to each other. 

I love living in the now.

This Christmas, I received one of the greatest gifts I could have imagined.  Christmas is hard for me.  It is the busiest season at work, I usually have a lot to worry about, (money, hours, people, packages, ect....)  It is also busy at the fire department where I volunteer.  People get sick any time and the holidays don't make it any better.  Sometimes, it is even a little bit worse. 
To top it off, my husband loves to be Santa.  He goes to the valley every weekend and does his "Santa Gigs".  He loves it.  However, 7 days a week work, me having to teach his church class as well as the Primary music every week, makes Mom and little bit cranky. 
He has 3 Santa appointments on Christmas Eve and to top that off, a blizzard blew in that evening.  We were not sure that he was going to make it home that night.  We have a tradition for Christmas Eve.  We all open one gift, and that gift is always Pajamas.  The girls decided (on their own with no prompting from me) that they would wait to open their Pajama's until Dad got home safely.  Midnight came around and He was taking it slow up the rim when I got a call for the Fire Department to go out in the storm and drive someone to the hospital. 
Imagine my surprise when I came home at 3:00AM to find my family snuggled up on the couch, sleeping, and waiting for me.  So, we all opened our Christmas eve Pajamas and slept in.  It was amazing. 
Then the next morning the girls (again on their own) decided that we weren't going to open any Christmas presents until their brother got home later that day.  Not once did anyone complain.  We had Miracle and Quinn over, made a nice dinner and enjoyed it as a family and then opened gifts at about 7:00PM. 
All I could think of what that this was Heavenly Father's way of showing me that I have made a difference in my own small corner of the world. 
I love that corner!
I love everything and everyone that are in it.
I love living in the now
All that I have really is everything that I need.