Rocket Ship bookshelf

I have recently become a huge fan of a this lovely lady http://www.ana-white.com/. Ana White is a homemaker from Alaska, and when I say homemaker I mean that literally. She and her husband have built their own house and are in the process of filling it with furniture that she makes herself. I feel so empowered when I read about her, and I even feel more empowered when I pick up a power tool and start making something from one of her plans. I loved her rocket ship bookshelf plan and I had recently scavenged some wood from my mom's basement that was screaming to be used. I loved how the shelves turned out, they are made from an old church removable tabletop round. It took a little more calculating, but I was able to get all of the shelves with an awesome rounded rocket ship look. Johnny was able to stay up late one night, on a school night (eek), and we were able to paint it together. We had a great time together, and he was super excited to put it in his room.

March 30, 2011

March 30, 2011
Scriptures that touched me today

D&C Section 93:13, 19

13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness;
19 I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.

I have been thinking about the ten virgins lately, and how they came to a wedding completely unprepared for the amount of time that they would need to have their lamps lit. I know that the oil in their lamps represent spiritual preparedness, and that it is accumulated drop by drop, you can not buy it in bulk. It helped me to realize that spiritual strength and spiritual preparedness take time. As long as I spend time everyday studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets, listening to the promptings of the spirit and acting on them, I will continue to acquire the oil that I need to carry me through life and beyond. The trouble comes when I stop acquiring, it is a daily process, drop by drop, grace to grace.

The First Robin of Spring

Spring is here! How do I know? Because Hannah heard the first robin of Spring and learned it's song. There isn't much to see in this video because she recorded it in our dark living room one morning a few days ago.

My Goal

With a little extra time on my hands lately, I have been cleaning out my craft room. While I was sifting through papers, I came across a conference talk that I printed out for myself a few years ago because of how it touched me when I heard it. It was a talk given by Henry B. Erying in the October 2007 conference.

..."I heard in my mind--not in my own voice--these words: 'I'm not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.' I went inside. I didn't go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family...I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: 'Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?' As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done."

I remember thinking at the time that this was very important, and that if I took the time to do this, I would be grateful that I did. This thought came to my mind again as I read over this talk a few days ago. Sometimes I am a little slow at following inspiration, four years and one child later, I have decided that I am going to act on the prompting that I felt that day. I have made a goal to try to "write a few lines every day" concerning the more spiritual matters of our lives. So if you notice a change in the tone of my blog, this is probably why. I won't go on to publish the more personal posts, but I will publish some that I feel are appropriate. As I have said before, I like this method of journal keeping, and someday when I decide to make my blog into books for my children I don't want the best parts left out.

March 29, 2011

Johnny asked me if he could play the Wii after school today, since it was an early day and he had played outside for quite a while I told him that he could. I sat down to read my book thinking that he would be downstairs playing. About 30 minutes later our little neighbor boy, Mason, came over to play. I looked everywhere and I couldn't find Johnny. I looked through the house three times, inside all of the lower cupboards, John's work room, circled the house twice looking in each of the window wells, and all of our neighbor's yards . All of our close neighbor boys Johnny's age were outside playing, and he wasn't with them. It was so strange, he usually doesn't do anything without telling me first, and I was starting to get very worried. Finally I went to my room and prayed, I prayed that I would be able to find him and wherever he was, that he would be safe. Finally, after asking Hannah for the second time if she had seen him, she said, “Maybe he's at Bridger's house.” No, he couldn't be, he called Bridger before he had asked to play the Wii and he had Karate practice. I had no other options, so I decided to call anyway. Bridger's mom answered the phone and I asked if Johnny was over there. He was! Huge sigh of relief on my part. Bridger didn't have to leave for another 30 minutes! It turns out that Johnny had thought that he had asked if he could go over to Bridger's, but without thinking had asked if he could play the Wii instead. I had to laugh when I discovered the reason for my worry. I know he is my son, I do this all of the time. I often think one thing and something completely different spills out of my mouth. I am thankful that he was safe.

Just a thought

I was released from my primary calling about a month ago, I had been Maddie's teacher ever since we moved into the Burton ward. I was in Nursery with her, and then I moved up to Sunbeams and then CTR 4. Surprisingly, I loved being with these little children and especially with Maddie. We live in a very large ward now, and there are more active members than available callings. I'm not used to being without a calling for this long. I kind of feel displaced without something to do, but I know deep in my heart that the Lord knows what I need right now. I am trying to use this extra time to strengthen my spirit, get to know my neighbors and figure out my children. I love Relief Society and am glad that I am able to attend every week. Yesterday I learned an awesome way to keep track of spiritual inspiration and make sure that I do something about it. Just fold a paper into three sections and in each section record (1) What I saw/heard (2) What the spirit told me (3) What I will do about it. Yesterday I spent a few minutes just folding papers getting them ready for future spiritual inspiration. I am already starting to fill out a paper, sometimes I just skip the saw/heard section because sometimes the promptings come unsolicited. I have always been a list person, it's the only way that I can get things done. I feel like this is a good way for me to keep track of and act on spiritual promptings. Last week one of the ladies in Relief Society quoted this poem from a General Conference talk from Thomas S. Monson in April of 2004.

“Father, where shall I work today?”
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then he pointed out a tiny spot
And said, “Tend that for me.”
I answered quickly, “Oh no, not that!
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done.
Not that little place for me.”
And the word he spoke, it was not stern;...
“Art thou working for them or for me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.”

March 28, 2011

This is the first day of my challenge to myself to look for times when I have felt the Lord's hand touching our lives. As I was thinking about my day today, I realized that I am dealing with my children's not so agreeable moods more lovingly. After quite a few really hard days, and a few tearful evenings where a couple of my children in particular didn't believe that I loved them, I think that I have learned a little secret. About two weeks ago, the frustrations hit their ultimate high, and Hannah told me “Mom, I think that you love me, but you are not very good at showing your love.” Talk about crushingly honest constructive criticism! I was so confused, I thought that I was doing very well at showing my children that I love them. I hug them often, I take care of all of their physical needs, I tell them that I love them...what more could they need? After a few prayers concerning the subject, I remembered a conversation that I had with one of my friends a few years ago. She had told me that she had read “The Five Love Languages of Children,” and that she had learned a lot from it. I was hesitant to check it out from the library because a few years ago I decided that I didn't like self-help parenting books anymore. They were mostly contradictory, and made me feel like my motherly intuition was incompetent. I checked it out anyway and decided that maybe, just this once, inspiration could use a little help from the experts. I have enjoyed the book very much, and I think that it has a lot of good information in it. In a nutshell, it gave me ideas on what might be lacking in the ways that I show my love individually to each of my children. I have tried to be more encouraging, to hold my tongue more when my children aren't actively involved in what they know they should be doing, to spend a little less time nagging, have a little more patience and take a little more time to talk about what really matters to them. I have noticed a huge difference in the spirit in our home, and a shift if my priorities. A verse from the hymn, “Know this that every soul is free” came to my mind: “He'll call, persuade, direct aright, and bless with wisdom, love and light, in nameless ways be good and kind, but never force the human mind.” I am thankful for inspired people who write good books, and I am thankful for the Holy Ghost for helping me decipher the useful portions of these good books.