back to school...

This year, I gave the young women I serve in our congregation this for their back to school thinking of you thingy ma jiggy. (it's a technical term. Ahem.)

 I kept it small and simple because, well, that is what I had time for this year. The most important thing to me remains actually going to see the girls, looking them in the eye and letting them know that they are loved and thought about. They walk every day into a minefield, and I want to be sure that they remember that there are people who are praying for them to fight that good fight and to be the young women that God intends for them to be.

quote of the week...

"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself."


--Eleanor Roosevelt

Dayenu.

I have been thinking a lot about an experience I had last month while at Education Week. (a weekend where BYU-Idaho opens up the campus to people for 3 days and has hundreds of Continuing Education classes.)

We signed up for a Passover Dinner celebration with Victor Ludlow. He walked us through the entire evening and how the occasion has been celebrated for decades, adding in his own experiences of traveling to the Holy Lands, and sharing insights from his life long study of the Jewish culture and religion.

There were several things about that night that left a lasting impression on me, and one is a portion of the Passover called, "Dayenu." The reader (Ludlow, in this case) reads stanzas as the dinner guests respond, "Dayenu" each time, and then all the guests sing a song.

The word "Dayenu" means, "it would have been enough for us", "it would have been sufficient", or "it would have sufficed" (day in Hebrew is "enough", and enu means "to us"). The stanzas (there are 15)that the reader recites all refer to blessings that God gave the Jewish people, such as deliverance from Egypt. Some of the stanzas refer to the miracles that God gave them, and the dinner guests say, "Dayenu" after each one, like this:

If He had split the sea for us. (dayenu)
If He had led us through on dry land. (dayenu)
If He had drowned our oppressors. (dayenu)
If He had provided for our needs in the wilderness for 40 years. (dayenu)
If He had fed us manna. (dayenu)

I have pondered many time since that night the importance of feeling and recognizing "dayenu" or, for me, what God has done for me and my family that would have been "enough". I think too often, it is easy to think about what we have right now that might be lacking, and not remember all the good in our lives that has come before. Sometimes, I forget all the miracles that have happened in my life...instead I stand and wait impatiently for the next one.

So since that night, I have tried to say my own version of "dayenu" when I feel prompted or pulled to do so. It sounds different every time, and each time I have done it, I feel a swell of gratitude and a surge of perspective. I see in a tender and fresh way that God has indeed been good to me. Here is what one I say might sound like:

If He had given me my body and soul, dayenu.
If He had given me a good husband, dayenu.
If He had kept us both healthy and safe, dayenu.
If He had given us just 1 child, dayenu.
If He had healed my heart of just one wound, dayenu.
If He had given me 1 person to learn from, dayenu.

What I love most about this meditation/prayer/thought process is the unspoken afterthought of, "but He didn't just do that. He gave me more. Much more."

I hope that this little lesson I learned can be of value to someone out there who reads it, and that you can find a way to see what God has done for you that would have been "enough", and even more importantly, how much He gave you after that.

And if you feel for just a moment the love that He has for you, then...dayenu.

quote of the week...

"In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order."

--Will Durant

I had to make this...

If you love all of these floating around blogs and Pinterest and Facebook, you should know that you can make your own! Just go to someecards.com. It's super fast and easy.

quote of the week...

"As soon as a man begins to speak negatively about another, I forget every other thing he's ever said."

--Abraham Lincoln


I can't say it enough. What we choose to say about others reveals so much about our character. Gossip, passing along bad stories, judging, whatever you want to call it...it is toxic. It is like a cancer. You cannot feel the love of Christ and then speak hatefully about your neighbor. It is such a habit in our culture to enjoy and even celebrate tearing others down and constantly talk about people's faults. But any temporary charge we get out of feeling "better than" someone else will turn to ashes in our mouths. I love the scripture, "our works will condemn us, Yea: our words will condemn us." I believe that is true. Whether spoken to others or just around our homes where we think it's "safe"...one day our words, if not chosen carefully, will condemn us.

a few thoughts on having a blog, and why I owe all men an apology...

Yesterday I was having a text conversation with a dear friend, and she wrote, "Are you going to blog about Education Week?"

To which I replied, "Wait. I have a blog??"

Yeah.

I already know that what I am about to say isn't going to come out the way that I want it to, and I will end up wishing I were someone who could write more clearly the feelings and thoughts I have been having...but I am going to say what I want to in my own meager way.

A few months ago, I started working outside the home. At first it seemed like it would be just a more part time kind of thing, 4 or 5 hours a day, 3 days a week. It has since developed into a 6 to 7 hours a day, 4 days a week kind of thing. I am loving it, it is the right job at the right time. I am blessed.

However. I have noticed that I have not even remotely been able to keep up with many things that I spent hours on before. I do the best that I can, but my best is honestly pathetic right now. I am learning how to plan and schedule but SO much is done last minute, and I have to let go of lots of good things that are just not good enough right now for me to spend time and energy on.

I was considering how hard it is to juggle it all, and I found myself feeling more than a small pang of guilt over the times when I looked at the men in my life: at church, in the neighborhood, and sadly, in my own home, and thought that their efforts were lacking.

I am embarrassed by the times that I thought, "Geesh, how hard is it to email about something?" or "I wonder if the lawn is EVER going to get mowed...I've only mentioned it 12 times." or "We always have to pick up the slack for the men and make sure stuff gets done."

I am exhausted at the end of my work day, and I don't even work full time. What energy I have left I give to my sweet family, because that is as it should be. I find myself on the drive home, gearing up to forget how tired I am and how much I still want and need to do, and I focus on how I can help my children and my husband and my church. I realize now that my husband has done this for 25 years...and overall, I never gave it a thought. I just expected it.

I have always (I hope) been an appreciative wife and a loyal friend to the men in my life...but I can't honestly say that I really ever put myself in their shoes.

So let me say this to the good men I know:

I am sorry. For thinking you had to do more, and that you didn't care as much as I thought you needed to care about certain things. I am sorry for my lack of patience when you didn't do things in the time frame I thought they should be done, or the way I would have done them.

And thank you. Thank you for leaving your homes every day and working to provide for your families. Many of you work at jobs that in a million years I could never work, and you do it day in and day out because you believe in what you do and in who you do it for. Thank you for coming home and listening to the children and women in your lives when they need your love and attention, even when you are tired and worn down with the weight of the world. And thank you for taking on the honey do lists and church responsibilities when you really just want to sleep or watch TV for a bit.

So, as The Hubby's Grandma Peg would say, "That's it." That is all I wanted to say. I wish I could have said it better.

And , yes, I will blog about Education Week. Sometime. :)

quote of the week...

“Most of our obstacles would melt away if instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.”


~Orison Swett Marden

quote of the week...

 "You never know how much you really believe anything, until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to tie a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? . . . Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."


---C.S. Lewis

Memorial Day...

They never fail who die
In a great cause: the block may soak their gore:
Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs
Be strung to city gates and castle walls—

But still their Spirit walks abroad. Though years

Elapse, and others share as dark a doom,

They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts

Which overpower all others, and conduct

The world at last to Freedom.

--LORD BYRON, Marino Faliero

quote of the week...

"I am ready for whatever is coming. I am a servant of the Lord and whatever He has in store for me is for my benefit."


--our son, Spencer

quote of the week...

"Hurrah for Israel! Hurrah for Israel! Hurrah for Israel!"


I know that most people who read this blog know the significance of this exclamation, but I feel strongly that I should share it and talk about it today.


This is the soft shout that we gave our son as he left for his 2 year mission for our church. I wanted to share the story about where this particular saying comes from.

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(From the book, Our Heritage: A Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints)

 

The Prophet called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to go to England on missions. Elder Orson Hyde, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, was sent to Jerusalem to dedicate Palestine for the gathering of the Jewish people and other children of Abraham. Missionaries were sent to preach throughout the United States and eastern Canada, and Addison Pratt and others received calls to go to the Pacific Islands.

These brethren made great sacrifices as they left their homes and families to respond to their calls to serve the Lord. Many members of the Twelve were struck with the ague as they prepared to depart for England. Wilford Woodruff, who was very ill, left his wife, Phoebe, almost without food and the necessities of life. George A. Smith, the youngest Apostle, was so sick that he had to be carried to the wagon, and a man who saw him asked the driver if they had been robbing the graveyard. Only Parley P. Pratt, who took his wife and children with him, his brother Orson Pratt, and John Taylor were free from disease as they left Nauvoo, although Elder Taylor later became terribly ill and almost died as they traveled to New York City.

 

Brigham Young was so ill that he was unable to walk even a short distance without assistance, and his companion, Heber C. Kimball, was no better. Their wives and families, too, lay suffering. When the Apostles reached the crest of a hill a short distance from their homes, both lying in a wagon, they felt as though they could not endure leaving their families in so pitiful a condition. At Heber’s suggestion, they struggled to their feet, waved their hats over their heads, and shouted three times, “Hurrah, Hurrah, for Israel.” Their wives, Mary Ann and Vilate, gained strength enough to stand and, leaning against the door frame, they cried out, “Good-bye, God bless you.” The two men returned to their wagon beds with a spirit of joy and satisfaction at seeing their wives standing instead of lying sick in bed.

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So now when I hear this shout, I think of every missionary that has ever left the loving arms of their family to go and share the Gospel. I think of every family member who watched them leave. I think of the strength and faith that it took to do that, and I used to wonder if I would have that strength and faith myself. Now I know that I do. We have that strength and faith because we know that it is our charge to share what we know.

So when I use the expression, "Hurrah for Israel!" just know that I am saying, "This is God's work! It hurts to have him gone, but this is one of the most important things he will ever do! God is good, and merciful, and I put my son in His unwavering and perfect hands. All is well!"

quote of the week...

"Complaining is not thinking. Ridiculing is not reasoning. Accountability is not for the intention but for the deed. No person is proud simply of what he or she intends to do."


 --Thomas S. Monson

a little thanks...

I serve with the best people. And they worked SO hard on our recent fundraiser that I wanted to do a little something as a thank you. I gathered up relaxing back salts, stress relieving lotion, and some yummy mints and chocolate. Catch the theme? These ladies needed a break after all their hard work and effort!

I printed out these cute "one in a million" cards as photos, and then backed them with posterboard and attached a ribbon.

Here's one all done. Turned out well!

I wish I had a better way to express how much I love and appreciate the women I serve with! They truly ARE one in a million. I am SO lucky and happy to get the chance to associate with them. This little something will have to do!

quote of the week...

"Life is filled with pieces of joy. Life is challenging, hard, and full of heartache and anguish caused by our sins and the sins of others. But as long as we seek to follow Christ, we will be given pieces of joy, and these pieces of joy will be sufficient to carry us through our darker times."

---Betsy Chatlin, Finding Peace

happy anniversary, bri and jordan!

Our sweet daughter and her wonderful husband started their journey to forever 2 years ago today. I wanted to post one of my favorite quotes on marriage in their honor:


"Marriage hath in it less of beauty but more of safety ... it hath more care, but less danger, it is more merry, and more sad; it is fuller of sorrows, and fuller of joys; it lies under more burdens, but it is supported by all the strengths of love and charity, and those burdens are delightful."


--Bishop Jeremy Taylor



Here's to 100 more annniversaries, dear kids, all filled with love and happiness.

quote of the week...

"Remember that faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time."

Thomas S. Monson

quote of the week...

"Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world."

--Wayne Dyer

Reasons #672 and #673 why my husband is perfect for me...

I am driving kids to and fro (where is 'fro' anyway?) and that song "I'm Sexy and I Know It" comes on the radio.

Me: "This song is SO annoying. I can't stand this song."

My 14 year old: "Dad loves this song."

My 12 year old: "Yeah, he says it's his theme song."


Of course he does.

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actual text conversation between The Hubby and I:

Hubby: Did you have an idea of what's for dinner?
Me: Yeah. Like I would ever actually KNOW that.
Hubby: Hey, a guy can dream.
Me: It's cute how you keep hoping.
Hubby: Isn't it?

quote of the week...

"By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach."

--Winston Churchill