A Dream Come True

After years of begging, a letter and then follow-up conversation with our landlords (who live next door) Whitney finally is the proud mama to a kitten she named Junie Rose Stuart.

Whitney combed KSL for free kittens and found "the" perfect kitten (gray stripes). She bought the food, kitty litter, and other necessities and made arrangements for us to pick her up on Friday May 31st (the last day of school).

We kept her in the kids' room for the first 4 days so she could get used to us (she was scared for the first day but warmed up). Then we moved her to the recently cleaned garage.

She is acclimating beautifully and shows jungle cat tendencies (stalking, pouncing, running up trees and so on).

There are so many birds around here that she spends a lot of time looking up.

She's mighty cute.

Sunday Thoughts

Today in church the Bishopric spoke about increasing love in our families and marriages, then the bishop spoke during the 5th Sunday meeting about our new ward goal to QUADRUPLE the love at home! Oh my goodness, this is going to be quite the goal.

As the bishop talked to us (he based his talk on Dr. John Lund's teachings) he pointed out that all frustration stems from having unmet expectations and that we must do a better job of communicating and managing our expectations (this is easier said than done of course).

He said it's important to learn to distinguish between goals and wishes.

A goal is something that depends only upon you and is something you can control.


A wish is something that depends upon someone else.

This was interesting for me to hear because I have a very active wish list in my head and not a very long list of goals. Apparently I need to really take charge of me and stop wishing for other people to supply my happiness. Dang it.

Do not confuse Love and Trust. Trust is earned through responsible behavior. Do not confuse unconditional love with enabling behavior. Do not judge. Love, teach, testify.

What if your family and your spouse do not appreciate you?
--You can go to our Heavenly Father in prayer and ask him to accept your offering to your family and your spouse. Ask Him for his acceptance and feel His love.

We learn to love and bless the lives of others, not necessarily because they are good, or they deserve it, but because we are disciples of Christ and He asked us to do it. (I love this!)

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: They announced that they will be realigning most of the wards in our Stake next Sunday which means we'll be losing part of our ward next week...cue the tears!

Sunday Thoughts

Several weeks ago we had a Relief Society Lesson about Love, and it was taught by a sister who is a therapist (I've mentioned her before) so her lessons are taught from that perspective and are very interesting.

She asked us to ask ourselves,  

"How do I show up in my family?" 

"What are my roles 

and how do I fulfill them?" 

We are daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, cousins, friends, wives, aunts, step mothers, great grandmothers and so on, but how do we love in those roles? Are we a source of support, love, guidance and nurture or are we critical, withholding, enabling and rude?

• We need to be consciously doing our part, not just checking things off the list (i.e., prayer, scripture study, Family Home Evening, serving our families and so on).
• Get clear about how you define love in your family (interesting thought isn't it?).
• Why did God establish eternal families? To teach us how to love; having children helps us become more like God. (But it's an incredibly slow process for some of us!)
• There are lots of ways to express love.
• How do we teach this concept of family and love?
• How do we teach our children? Example is the best way to teach them.
• The adversary doesn't take a day off and he is constantly attacking the family.
• Families can be together forever. Can is an action word, we need to our part to have an eternal family.

**Thoughts??**

Sunday Thoughts

Last week's Relief Society lesson was on Obedience and the teacher (who is a therapist) asked some poignant questions and pushed us spiritually (which I really appreciated). I think we have such a tendency, as members of the church, to feel like we're hearing the same lessons all the time and that we already know all about each topic, but since we're always expanding our understanding and levels of commitment these repeated lessons hit us differently each time...I love that!

She had everyone participate in making this list of reasons why we're obedient and why we're not obedient and then pointed out that most of our reasons are spiritually immature. I had never thought of it that way before, but she is totally right. If we obey Heavenly Father because we fear punishment, that is a spiritually immature reason for being obedient...it's still better than not obeying Him, but it's not the best reason for doing so. Ultimately we should be obedient to the Lord because we love Him.

• How willing are you to to be obedient?
• Do you trust God?
• Do you know God?
• We are taught through our own experiences.
• Ask yourself..."Why am I obedient?
• Obedience can become a habit, so that it doesn't have to be a decision every time.
• How many times are we afraid to obey?
• How often do we ask God why?
• It takes courage to want certain blessings because we know what it may take to receive them.
• What is my level of obedience to Heavenly Father? 
• Do I pick and choose which commandments to obey? 
• Am I only willing to be obedient to a certain level before it's too uncomfortable?
• What makes me hesitate before I obey?

In the end she challenged us to pick out a Conference Talk that may be a challenge for us (not our usual go-to subjects) and to wrestle with ourselves as we work to overcome those issues. I loved it that she ended her lesson with a challenge/assignment and I appreciate all the questions she posed in this lesson. I am an obedient person, but my reasons are mostly spiritually immature (though I had never realized that before) so now I will be working to change that about myself.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: It's already the last Sunday in June, that's freaking me out! I haven't wanted to savor a summer vacation this much since I was a kid!

Embarrassed to Admit

Last week I listened to all 6 hours of the audio version of the book The Power, which is basically a bonus version of The Secret, and came away with a repeated epiphany; but I think this time it's going to stick.


The book is all about changing your mindset to being full of love and positive thinking so that you attract the life, love, relationships, job, friends and everything else you want. It makes perfect sense to me, and I know I'm great at it in many areas of my life...but terrible at it in many others, so I desperately need to reprogram my way of thinking.

Anyway, the epiphany I'm talking about is this: that we should be just as happy for anything good that happens to someone else as we would be if happened to us. Duh, right? But yes, I'm admitting this.

I have found that there are many people I am sincerely happy for when good things come their way (pretty much everyone I actually know), but sometimes there are blogging people out there who seem to have so many of the things I want, and I'm not always happy for them. It's more of a sarcastic, teeth gritted "I'm happy for you" feeling accompanied by a pit in my stomach and a "why not me?" feeling. Not good.

I don't want to be this way, but had kind of accepted that there are certain blogs I just can't read because of the wealth displayed or the shmoopsiness of their marriage or the amazing house they live in, or their seemingly enchanted life. It pains me to admit this, but I'm purging my guilt and moving on.

Anyway, after listening to The Power, I now feel completely liberated from those stingy, closed-off, begrudging feelings and have embraced sincere joy for other people's successes! I can't even tell you how much better this feels. I think a weight has literally been lifted off my soul.

I know there's plenty to go around in life, and that just because other people are excelling in areas I'm not, doesn't mean I have to be jealous of them. I can celebrate their victories and work harder for my own.

**Have you read The Secret or The Power?
Are you happy for other people's victories?
When do you feel jealous of others?
Would embracing this liberate you as well?**

Comment Window Tidbit: It's starting to feel like Fall!

The Things We Do For Love

I have just returned from 4.5 hours (gasp! ) of helping decorate for tonight's Blue and Gold Banquet and am flooded with conflicting thoughts and feelings about this.

1. I am NOT a fan of scouts! I think it's great for the boys and I'm glad they get to do it, but I don't think I (or any unwilling women) should have to be involved in it.


2. No one cares that that's what I think.


3. I was asked to come help decorate by the other primary presidency counselor, and could not in good conscience refuse. She had to bring a 4 year old and a 2 year old with her (they were stellar) and is currently 4 months pregnant; while I only had to leave Whitney at home sick on the couch and am just fat.



4. There were 4 of us working that whole time, plus we had a husband there helping me set up the tables and chairs for the first 2 hours. That equals 20 hours of labor for a freakin Scout banquet! And that's just the decorating labor, not the planning meetings, shopping, baking and stressing. (It is such a good thing I'm not in charge of this!)


5. So the question is...Why do we do this? I thought about this much of the time while there because I felt waves of begrudging, unity, annoyance, and pride. So I decided it all comes down to our love of Christ and our desire to serve Him by doing what is asked of us, and when everyone does their part we all benefit. But for now I need a nap.

**How do you feel about scouts?
Would you have been annoyed?
Why do you do the things you do?
How does it look?**

Sunday Thoughts

Today was such a fabulous Sunday, I am so glad I didn't let myself stay home today even though I had wicked cramps and a headache this morning. I just took some Excedrin and hoped for the best.


We got to church5 minutes later than usual, so that meant we were only 10 minutes early for the meeting and weren't able to get a soft seat! We were on the first row of fold-out chairs in the back so we ended up having an entirely different view of things than we usually get when we sit on the 5th row on the left (it's funny how everyone sits in almost the same place each week isn't it?).


I was weepy within the first five minutes of the meeting as I watched cute, little families coming in. There were darling sisters dressed alike, mom's carrying huge bags full of things to keep their kids entertained, boys in new suits (one even forgot to snip the thread that held the back flap of the suit together), dads in suits and ties, young women with their hair just-so, teachers with extra bags of things for their lessons, and old men with their arms around their wives. It just did me in. I was going through tissues like crazy, and my family just looked at me with complete confusion. Whitney kept saying, "Why are you crying?" and I didn't have a reason that I could really explain to her.

Almost all the youth (ages 12-18) were sitting up on the stand, there were 20 young men and 12 young women. I wished so badly I could take a picture of them all together up there, because they made such a wonderful sight. Several of them gave talks and then they all sang together. I felt the Spirit so strongly that I thought I was going to burst or run up to the microphone and start pouring out my soul. (What the?)

{A self-portrait I took in the hall during primary.
My mascara was all cried off.}

So after church when I was trying to choose a spiritual thought to give at a Stewardship Meeting I had to go to I knew I'd found the right one when I found this.


This thought expresses feelings I wouldn't have known how to articulate. When I am at church I feel love. I love the other people there, I love the good things they are doing, I love the truth being taught, I love feeling my testimony grow, I love it that my children get to go there each week, and I love being able to serve the primary kids through my calling in the primary presidency. I love, love, love those kids!

{Our junior primary--ages 3-7)

I find that I don't ever want to miss church because I want to have these feelings and I want to be with the kids. When it's not my week to do Sharing Time I help make sure things run smoothly in primary and I move around sitting with different kids when they're not being very reverent. They often end up sitting on my lap, holding my hand or leaning into me the way kids naturally do. It's beyond sweet and makes me want to pick them up and say "I'm so glad you're here, I love you!"

Good grief, what's come over me? If there was any doubt about me incorporating the LOVE into my life over these past two years I think I've knocked it out. I'm officially a smitten, oozing, cry baby, boob.

**Did you have a good day at church
Do you tend to sit in the same place each week?
Do you get weepy there?
What makes you feel full of love?**

SPT--100 List Item #14

#14 from my 100 list
"I care about the people I’m in charge of at church."

Upon thinking about this SPT I realized that I'm doing way better than I thought I was with my word for the past 2 years...LOVE. I have a tendency to think that I don't love enough and that I'm missing a piece of my heart or something because I don't gush the way others do. But thinking about how I care about those I serve at church I realized that I'm full of love! How's that for an SPT epiphany! (Thanks Lelly!).

I have loved the members of every class I've ever taught and every sister I've ever visit taught (even the one that took me a long time to love). I have genuinely cared for their well-being and done my best to prepare lessons and handouts that would be meaningful to them, and have tried to let them know through my treatment of them, that I care about them and want the best for them. What a blessing this is in my life!

**What's #14 on your 100 list?
Have you ever had an SPT epiphany?
How are you doing with your word for the year?**

Sunday Thoughts

It seems like everyone has stopped blogging for Memorial Day Weekend, what's up with that? Maybe we're the only people who don't go out of town for it...figures.

My next door neighbor gave a great talk in Sacrament Meeting today about being a peacemaker. She has had the assignment to speak for over a year, so she had a lot of time to think about her topic and live it. (Interesting no? It reminded me of us choosing a word for the year and trying to live it. How would it be different if we had to stand up before a congregation of 500 people to report our progress?)


Here are my notes:

--God has blessed us all with a desire for peace.
--We must learn to love each other.
--John 13:33-35
--Two things which transcend death: Who we have become in life and our families.


--We may not fight with our spouse, but do we dodge their affection or do little things that are less than kind? (Ouch!)
--To prevent contention, we have to love everyone. (My word for last year and this year is love!)
--1 Samuel 16:7

"But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

--She told a great story of standing up and admiring her work after spending a couple hours taking care of her flower bed one morning, when her husband came out and said, "Man, these look awful." She realized that he was seeing the remaining weeds, the bug-bitten leaves and the unbloomed flowers, but she was seeing the flower bed as it may become in the future. God sees us the way she sees her flower bed, full of potential.


--We must see the good in each other.
--We can learn to look past the flaws we see in each other.
(Hello Jill!)


--The only difference between a weed and a flower is the judgment we give it.
--Do people see the light of Christ in our eyes?

**Any thoughts??**