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List your top five hobbies and why you love them.

#1 playing the piano and singing - I love it!  I wish so much I could spend many more hours a week playing the piano and singing, who am I kidding, I wish I could play for at least one hour a week.  I really wish my boys were willing to let me play, instead what usually happens is I begin playing, get one, maybe two pages into the song and one of my boys is fussing next to me, pulling on my arms and hands, crawling under me, pulling the chord for the piano from the wall, playing with the volume control, changing the settings on the piano, or turning the piano off.  It is really challenging to play while all this is going on, but I persist and continue playing until I finish the song, yes that means I have even played through an entire song with no sound.  (I really don't like stopping in the middle of a song for anything.)

#2 reading novels  I love the escape reading offers.  I love the way authors use words and so cleverly describe the scene in a book.  I love the way books make you think and question things.  There are so many wonderful books to read.  I have a pile of books which have been recommended to me by my mom, friends, or book club.  There is just never enough time to sit down and read.  It doesn't help that when I start a book I don't want to stop, so I neglect my family, home, and everything else until I have finished it.  As a result I don't start a new book very often.  I miss the good old days of sitting on the bank of the Provo river and reading while Jared was fly fishing.  Those were good times.

#3 scrapbooking and crafting.  I think a finished scrapbook page is a beautiful work of art.  The cute scrapbooking paper, the die cuts, the stickers, the fun fonts on the computer, the embellishments.  I could spend a fortune at craft stores on all the fun things they have to offer for crafts.  I like the sense of accomplishment that comes when I finish a craft project or a scrapbook.  I love the way my boys enjoy looking through their scrapbooks.  I enjoy looking through all the scrapbooks as well.

#4 blogging.  I enjoy reading everyone's blog.  It is so fun to see what everyone is up, particularly those who I don't get to see often (if ever).  I find it interesting what each blogger chooses to post about, how they go about sharing, and I really like the pictures.  I appreciate the window a blog is into others lives.  I like that blogging helps me feel like I am not the only mother with young children, that my children are not the only ones that make messes and do crazy things.  I really enjoy working on my own blog - obviously. :)  Journaling never came easily for me, I would go for months or even years without writing in my journal.  Knowing that other people are out there hoping for a new post motivates me to keep up with it.  It isn't the perfect journal, there are some things that I just don't feel belong on a blog for all to read about.  But the blog does provide a great time line so that when I do go to write in my journal I have something to fall back on and remind me of what was going on.

#5 the great outdoors.  I don't spend nearly enough time outside, certainly not as much as I would like.  I do enjoy working in my yard - though it doesn't show.  I like the smells, feels, and sounds of the outdoors.  I like getting my hands dirty.  I think Heavenly Father's creations are amazing, truly remarkable.  I like to observe nature, photograph nature, work in the yard, go on gentle hikes through nature, throw rocks in bodies of water, watch for animals, and camp.