No Creative Family Christmas Letter this Year, just a blog entry

2007 offered our family our own share of challenges, and through it all we can attest that it is still true that adversity is opportunity.

In spite of the challenges, as we continued to study and abide the principles of prosperity, the hardships ultimately bore good fruits, and at Christmastime especially, brought me to a place of deep reflection, and leading me to simplify, simplify, simplify. (Hence, no creative family Christmas letter this time.)

The reward for being ultra selective about the commitments I chose has been astounding, mostly manifesting itself through a dramatic increase of quality time spent with my children, especially through the holidays.



The year began with our two month-old baby taking up most of my attention and energy. Knowing she would be our last, I soaked up the joy of every moment that I could. All unnecessary commitments would be avoided.

Trevan was busy working on Real Estate deals, business deals, and was also developing a keen interest in the financial services industry. By springtime, I was finally ready (and physically able) to move forward on projects that had been put on the back burner during my pregnancy in ’06. I even braved the commitment to be taxi-mom for tennis, karate, soccer, and swim lessons (thanks to the help of a few "assistants" Caitlin L, Erica B, and later Sarah A... who really became more like "adopted big sisters").

By March, I became motivated to spend every spare minute creating a self-directed home study course to make the life-changing material available round-the-clock to all people, even when I am not conducting seminars, which also gives me more time for our busy household of seven children under the age of 15. We, ourselves, are committed to claiming more time with our children before they all start leaving the nest in just a few more years.

One focus in 2007 was to be more financially portable. One primary task was to establish health insurance independent of employment since our eighteen-month COBRA plan was scheduled to expire in May. This was a task that I thought might take 30 days or so, which turned into 150 days so we could settle certain uninsurability issues, but WAS finally accomplished, just in time. We began the process in January, but didn't find out until May why it was GOOD that the transition was such an unexpectedly and painfully long process. (Law of Polarity in action! Keep reading and I'll tell you why it was good...)

Trevan and I finished creating the audio version of our books, accepted a deal for the Turkish translation of Jackrabbit Factor, and begun the process for a Spanish translation which we hope to make available soon.

Along the way there were setbacks which were humbling, and through them all we testify that God continues to be aware of us, and we feel his hand in our affairs.

We know that He is keenly aware of ALL his children and supports them in their trials, even when it is not readily apparent. We have been teaching for years that every adversity contains the seed of equal or greater benefit (Napoleon Hill), so we're very fortunate indeed.

One "opportunity" that I can recall in good humor was the opportunity to stay optimistic through the summer months when our A/C unit quit. I finally had to jump in the pool with my clothes so I could go back inside dripping wet to comfortably continue my work on the home study course. Never mind water damage to anything, as the water readily evaporated before any damage could be done. (Even with our home warranty plan, we had to wait a week for each appointment. Sometimes it would get repaired only to break again later that day, and then we’d have to wait another week for another appointment. We calculate that we were without proper A/C for a combined total of about 6-8 weeks out of the scorching Arizona summer.)

We certainly recognize the tender mercies of the Lord in our near-tragic incident with 3 year-old Bethany which occurred in May during the brief three-week period of time when our COBRA plan overlapped with our new major medical plan. She had been found (by 7 year-old Jared) floating face-down in the deep end of our pool. She was revived after I performed my unskilled version of CPR, took an ambulance ride to the hospital, and spent the night in intensive care.

Gratefully she completely recovered, the co-pay was minimal, and there was no threat of uninsurability because the new plan was barely, but already in place. Had we obtained the new plan four months earlier as I had originally hoped, our out-of-pocket responsibility would have been likely ten times as much.

We're grateful for our good health, and that Nathan’s cardiologist recently announced at his doctor's visit that he would not have to return for three more years because he’s doing so well. In all his life they’ve never let him go three years without a checkup. We’re grateful for a policy which accepted him in spite of his open heart surgery and subsequent follow-ups beginning 12 years ago.

To help offset a few Real Estate setbacks, Trevan took a 3-month contract doing the kind of work he quit two years ago. It reminded us of the Jackrabbit Factor when Richard returns to the path for another sack with a mindset that it is only to help him catch the next rabbit. We of course declined the health insurance option because we were still in the application process for an independent policy and bent on keeping him free to leave anytime. After the contract ended, and one day before shipping our very first run of home study program orders, we determined that our best course of action going forward was to join forces (synergy!) and focus 100% on helping others overcome financial challenges, too. Trevan has moved into the chief leadership role of ThoughtsAlive LLC, affording me time to homeschool the youngest five, and finally learn some new things, like what you can do with a whole chicken.

He and his brother have taken the business to the next level by creating the prosperity forums, and making plans for ThoughtsAlive Memberships so our readers can to store their downloadable purchases in their own online digital product bank. He also set the books up for Amazon's new Kindle reader... something I think I'm just going to have to own one day because it looks so cool and because I love to read.

I'm grateful for his interest, talent, aptitude, and AVAILABILITY to do things that were always beyond my scope of interest and patience to learn. Together (a dream come true), we're moving forward on our goals for helping families across the globe achieve more time and money freedom, faster and more effectively than ever before.

I stay connected with my readers and course participants through the new prosperity forums and this prosperity blog, and collaborate with Trevan daily, dreaming, planning, and growing the business, helping others, one idea at a time.

Other notes on 2007:

Jacob (15) continues with the trumpet, choir, played a season of soccer as keeper, enjoys telling his stories to the girls at school of stitches, singed eyebrows (and other various random mishaps), and had his first EFY experience at BYU this summer.

Nathan (12) continues with the clarinet, has become amazingly independent with his homework, and enjoyed a local “Best of EFY” with his older brother.

Kayli (9) is home schooled and still gets to play violin with the school orchestra. She is a wizard in the kitchen. She handles most of the family sit-down meals and loves to do it up. Often you’ll see a paper name place holder at your seat and given a handmade menu to make your selection from her list of options.

Jared (8) was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in August. He is also homeschooled but spends his Wednesdays in the ELP program at school for gifted students.

Nicholas (6 today) is homeschooled and was much too bored with the kindergarten curriculum. He passed the district’s kindergarten post test and has moved into first grade work.

Bethany (4) is having her last day with the “thumb”. She agreed to enjoy it up until Nicholas’ birthday and if you ask her about it in 2008, she’ll tell you, “I don’t do that anymore.” We’ll keep our thumbs crossed. ;)

Sarah – (1) surpised us all by starting to walk at 8 months. Yesterday I caught her walking down the stairs without using the railing. She has everyone in the family wrapped around her teeny little finger… we just can’t get enough of her adorable one-year-oldness.

Our Stake (local group of church congregations) was reorganized in November, but Trevan still gets to enjoy a voluntary assignment the Scouts, which he loves. I have a new assignment (to be made official in a week) and have MUCH to learn but look forward to serving.

Our summer vacation was spent in Utah and Idaho, squeezing in (presenting) 4 free seminars along the way (here's a video of one of them) and meeting a lot of our readers. We played with cousins, stopped at Lagoon, played at 7 Peaks Water Park, and Bryce National Park. Another major highlight of 2007 not to be forgotten: MY side of the family (who are spread across the country) enjoyed our first family reunion in ten years at our house over Thanksgiving.

Oh yeah... Tuesday mornings in the spring were spent teaching an Abundance class hosted at the home of my friend Jacqueline, who asked me to present my seven week series on the Laws of Success (which has been made available as an 8 CD set called "Working with the 7 Laws of Success". It was an honor, helped me get back into the material after my extended maternity leave, helped us keep our heads in an optimistic place through our challenges (opportunities), and gave us the chance to meet other guest presenters she had invited including John Gray (Mars/Venus) and Loral Langemeier (both featured on “The Secret” movie.)

Since then, I’ve had the honor of speaking for a number of different audiences, including Loral’s Alumni Organization and soon Bob Proctor’s Wealth Lab participants. I accepted an invitation to be on the Executive Idea Council at IdeaOrbit.com, and we were astonished but grateful to discover that our Hidden Treasures book became an Amazon best seller in the Money and Values category, appearing on the list consistently since September. We're gaining more exposure as IdeaMarketers.com's Official Proseprity Experts and SelfGrowth.com's Official Guides to Prosperity. (Selfgrowth is the #1 self-improvement site on the web.) The labor pains we experienced while creating the home study course have been followed by the joy of fulfillment in seeing what it is doing for others.

We send our love and express gratitude for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the wonder of his birth, that through him all things may be overcome which separate us from the Love of God. We’re grateful for the challenges, for his tender mercies, and continual outpouring of blessings whether they show up in the form of relief and abundance, or opportunity for growth and increased humility. May we all feel the peace our family enjoyed at Christmastime, throughout the upcoming year.

Sincerely, Leslie Householder and family

Prosperity Lesson from Another Broken Broom

You might have heard the story from our life before we discovered the principles of prosperity and began to consciously abide them. I was in a relentless depression that held my thoughts in a discouraged, negative place of despair for a very long time. On edge over money problems, I snapped when I stepped outside of our two-bedroom apartment to find my broom had been broken in half by a teenager who lived nearby.

With my mindset where it was, the only way I could think to solve the problem was to call the police. I didn't have money to replace the broom, and I was too angry to see any alternative solutions.

In my prosperity seminars, I tell this story to illustrate "thought frequencies." We think at a certain level, and experience results which will always be in harmony with the way we think. If we want different results, we must learn how to think on a higher plane. Most of the time, it requires learning from someone else who already does.

If you continue to face similar problems year in and year out, you must consider that you cannot think your way out of a problem that you (consciously or subconsciously) thought your way into... unless you think differently than you ever have before. When you face a challenge, know this: a solution does exist. If you come up with a solution on the same thought frequency that you’ve had all along, it will not get you the results you hope for. If you cannot think of a solution at all, it is simply because you are not yet tuned in to the frequency on which the solution is broadcast through the room, even right now, as you read.

To help you understand this, think of a radio. When you turn on a radio, and adjust the dial, eventually you'll tune in to a broadcast and the sound becomes audible and clear. If you want a different broadcast, you adjust the dial. The radio did NOT "attract" the music... the music was already there.

Solutions to your dilemmas are also "already there". If you cannot think of them, it is because your "receiver" is not yet "tuned" properly. Once it is, the solution comes directly to your mind with clarity as an "aha" moment, or you are led to the person or resource which will reveal the solution to you. Your body, the tool of your mind, is a literal receiver, tuned according to its vibratory state, which is controlled by your thoughts and emotions. It’s that simple.

The first step to "tuning in" is to see yourself experiencing the relief you seek. See it in your mind's eye, as though it were really happening to you, right now. As you build the picture in your mind and allow yourself to FEEL the success, you are literally altering the vibratory state of your body, the physical tool your were given at birth.

Constantly entertaining the awful "what if's" keeps your body in a vibratory state which only tunes you in to PERCEIVED solutions and ideas that will actually keep you moving toward the disaster you're trying so desperately to avoid.

Alternatively, you're free to dream. It's the first step toward freedom! As you dream, you literally alter your energy-connection to things in the world around you, to begin moving all things prosperous into your life. Everything you need already exists. Prepare yourself to receive by thinking truth in spite of appearances, that life IS abundant. Prosperity abounds, and it is only an altered vibratory state away.

Back to the broom, now. Just last week my 12 year-old son came to me and sheepishly said, "Mom, I broke your broom."

My first thought was a flashback to the day I called the police (exactly ten years ago) because of my broken broom.

Then I smiled, because I realized that, even though I didn't really WANT to buy another one, I wasn't worried about it. So the floor might be messy for a while. Not a big deal. So I have to get another one. I'll get around to it. I have bigger fish to fry than to worry about something so trivial. I could think of a hundred ways to solve the problem now. Same problem, different experience, because I'm finally tuned in to a growing wealth of ideas.

Stress shuts the idea channels off. Calmness, or serenity, opens them up. Trusting God and melting into peace is flipping the ON-switch for your inspiration receiver.

"Peace... be still" is good advice at any level. Trust God. The degree of success you enjoy will be in direct correlation to your ability to remain calm and rely on Him through increasingly complicated challenges.

Your prosperity will grow as you demonstrate serenity at each level. In time, you'll look back and see that what was so hard for you before is child's play now. Whether it is the threat of foreclosure or concern that the application for something important is denied, in 10 years you'll laugh that you once worried the way you did about your "broken broom," figuratively speaking . . . But only if you improve your thinking and change your vibratory state now.

How?

Be inspired by feeding your mind with higher-level ideas. It doesn't have to be formal, just get around people who think right. Spend time with them in person, or read their books if they have some. Associate. (The Prosperity Forums are a great place to do that, by the way! Get to know each other, and identify those who understand things a little better than you. Pay special attention to those who are identified as FTMF Home Study Participants... they have a wealth of experiences to share!)

In truth, at every level there is a better way to think, which is why we (as well as OUR own personal mentors) keep learning and associating with better thinkers, too.

Is There Money in YOUR Backyard? Prosperity and Tumbleweeds

With our recent re-opening of our forums, I’ve really been enjoying myself as I read your comments and successes. I also appreciate questions posted there so that I can respond in the forum and let all readers benefit.

Here’s a new post that I felt compelled to share with you:

“One of the things that helps me overcome doubt and fear and push right through that terror barrier is a little game I have created for myself. It is like the Where's Waldo of abundance. I actively look for people who are prospering and see that abundance can be born in many creative ways.

"For example, the other day I was on the internet and found an article on a woman who lives in Kansas making 40K a year selling......are you ready for this.......TUMBLEWEEDS! Those awful pesky things that blow across the road and get stuck underneath our cars on the highway, and she is raking it in. It started as a joke because she was merely learning how to create a web site and to her astonishment people placed orders! NASA, Hollywood, and many others. Her idea came to her because there are always so many of them blowing across her land. In jest she believed that was her greatest asset and it turned out to be true.

"I look for these stories now. And the more I look the more I find. The internet, newspapers, conversations I hear in public and so on. I hear people making money in the most amazing ways. The sad thing is that a few years ago I would have read that same article and had an internal temper tantrum because I didn't think of it. Or that it is not fair that she could discover something like that I was not so blessed to have myself. Once again, competative and not creative. Now I read it and smile, smile, smile and think that if God smiled down on her with tumbleweeds then there is MOST DEFINITELY something for me. It gives me hope. And for me, this little game helps my terror barrier. I look for the sucess in all those around me and I feel it for myself. Try really hard to not look for the possible failures, because it will be all you see. Hang in there! It is coming.......this is your time. God loves you.”

Post YOUR comments and questions about principles of prosperity in our forums! Be inspired to prosper by other people’s stories and experiences!

Keep reading below to find out how to win an autographed 3-D poster by participating in our forums…

Principles of Prosperity Forums Finally Re-opened!

After being overrun by spammers, we had to pull down our prosperity principles forums last year (or has it been two years???) Anyway, I’m SOOOO excited to announce the re-opening of this (more secured) community. Questions directed to Trevan or me will now be handled in the forums, so that ALL our readers can benefit from the conversation.

We want you to join us! There is no cost to participate. It’s a place where prosperity-minded people can talk about the principles, share their stories, lend and receive support, mastermind… etc.

I want your questions! Your success stories, BIG or SMALL! Your comments, your votes at our polls, your feedback…

Create a login and join the community!

The top ten contributors (excluding staff) will receive an autographed 3-D Jackrabbit Factor poster! Winners determined by quantity and quality of posts between now and December 31, 2007 (don’t worry, top contributors are not judged by how well they prosper or the magnitude of their success... just level of involvement in creating valuable threads.)

**** If you are currently in the Family Time & Money Freedom 12-week program, watch your email for step by step instructions on how to access the PRIVATE forum just for participants like you… it’s CHANGED since our last email a couple days ago. If you have not heard from us about this already, please let us know. We’re missing current email addresses for a few of you in the program.*****

Prosperity and Christmas

This was shared with me as “A Letter From Jesus,” author unknown. It helped me remember to keep peace in my heart in spite of society's typical seasonal conflicts. Since prosperity at Christmastime should be measured NOT in terms of money spent, but joy shared. Fellow Christians, let's be peacemakers and consider these alternative ways to expend our energy this season:

Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival (although I do appreciate being remembered anytime).

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Now, having said that, let Me go on.

If it bothers you that the town you live in doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that, there wouldn't be a need for such a scene on the town square because there would be so many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about people calling the tree a Holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. I made all the trees. You can remember Me any time you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish. (I actually spoke of that one in a teaching explaining who I am in relation to you, and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15:1-8.)

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth, here is My wish list. Choose something from it.

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid, and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing your President complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family? Then follow up. (It will be nice to hear from you again.)

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive them.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile. It could make the difference. Also, you might consider supporting the local Hotline: they talk with people like that every day.

7. Instead of nit-picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a “Merry Christmas,” that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary — especially one who takes My love and good news to those who have never heard My name. You may already know someone like that.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no “Christmas” tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them (and I suspect you don't) buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Marines, Salvation Army or some other charity and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of Mine.

Happy Winter Holidays,

JC

P. S. Don't forget — I am God, and can take care of Myself. You don't have to protect or defend me. Just love Me, mind your own business, and do what I have told you to do. I'll take care of all the rest.

Mother Teresa operated under these principles and provided a wonderful example. In her words, "I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there."

I've noticed this with my children: If one child misbehaves, and a second child harps on them to stop, a third will pipe in to yell at the second for being too loud, and it isn't long before everyone is yelling at everyone else to be quiet. Oh, the irony.

With all that said... Merry Christmas! And Peace on Earth, Prosperity, and Good Will Toward Men!