Finally!

I love it when the Conference Issue of the Ensign arrives! Even though I've been listening to the talks for weeks now, I especially love it when the printed talks arrive at my door, and I really love it that we have the subscription that gives two copies so that I don't have to share with Randy.

Five for Friday--What a Week Edition

1. My most despised household chore is ironing, so I very rarely do it. But since I had my job interview on Wednesday, I sucked it up and ironed 5 of my shirts while watching "Larkrise to Candleford" which is a BBC miniseries I'm loving. It took the edge off the ironing, but I still hated it. I always feel like I iron more wrinkles in and like I do battle with the cord. Maybe if my iron were cordless I wouldn't feel like such a spazz.


2. Last weekend I watched "Miss Austen Regrets" on the computer while cutting out good mail labels. I loved the movie and am so smitten with that time period. I love the look of everything, especially quills and ink on the page.


I actually wrote down several quotes while watching this movie because they resonated with me so much.

Niece to Jane Austen: "Please don't expect a Mr. Darcy."
Jane: "Oh my darling girl, the only way to get a Mr. Darcy is to make him up."

Jane: "Girls of 20 are so desperate to be in love."

Jane: "As every woman knows there's a scarcity of men in general and an even greater scarcity of any that are good for much."


3. My companion and I finished our visiting teaching this week (we had to go out 3 different times over the past 2 weeks) and left on such a high. One woman we visit is super busy because she's taking a full load of college classes plus has many children to run all over the place and care for. She was almost too busy to let us come visit, but luckily she did. We ended up offering to do errands for her so she could work on a paper she had to write. She was reluctant to let us do these "silly" things (drop a band uniform off at the dry cleaner, buy manila folders and stamps) but we were adamant, so she relented with tears in her eyes. It was so easy for us to do these things for her, we had the time and we were going out. She didn't have the time and desperately needed someone to do something for her. I love being a useful visiting teacher!


4. At our bread-making class at Michelle's house I was telling them a riveting tale of the death of our toaster oven and the void its absence was leaving on our kitchen counter, when Amie offered to give us their practically new toaster oven! She said they never use it and that it's just on a shelf in her pantry. Good heavens! We use ours all the time and have been feeling the lack of it greatly. (Landon's bagel consumption has gone way down.) I met up with Amie at Costco so she could give me the toaster oven, but then ended up running an errand with her and then going to lunch at Chili's. I had a coupon for Chips & Queso, and we split an entree, so it was a $6 outing.

Behold the toaster oven with celebratory bagels inside! You would think it was a Christmas miracle or something, but the kids are so excited about this. I actually heard Whitney say, "I just love our new toaster oven!"

5. Landon's flag football team has won their first two games of the season already. It's nice that his coach is letting them coach themselves for the most part, and is having them take turns being quarterback. I'm still in mourning for the end of soccer season, but Landon's soccer team won their first tournament game last night and they have their final tournament game Saturday.

**Do you like ironing?
Do you like movies set in the Jane Austen time period?
Do you enjoy being a useful visiting teacher?
Do you use a toaster oven?**

Comment Window Tidbit: It's Friday again, tra la, tra la, tra la.

SPT--Good For My Soul

I'm making up my own assignment this week since Lelly has been missing from the blog world (how dare she have such a busy life?), and documenting what I did this morning.


Landon started summer band yesterday (for 3 weeks) which means I have an hour to fill while he's there. It turns out there is a lovely park with lots of mature trees right next to the junior high, so I get to have an hour of glorious, outdoor reading time! I finished re-reading Gift From The Sea yesterday, and spent my time reading Northanger Abbey today.

Being surrounded by trees is good for the soul!

I thought Whitney was going to join me so we could read alone together, but she opted to sit in the sun and play in the sand. Whatever floats her boat eh? I don't understand it, but I'm okay with it.

**Do you read outside very often?
What would you do with this hour?
What are you currently reading?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Lori is back from a 2 week cruise and is coming over to watch Friday Night Lights. I love it that she loves that show as much as I do.

Borrowed Wisdom

My blog friend, Neighbor Jane Payne (if you're not reading her blog you should be), wrote a brilliant post about the month of January and it totally rocked my world and made me want to stand up and cheer. I asked her if I could publish her first paragraph on my blog so I'll always have it and she kindly said yes.


"January is usually known as the fearful month of diets, budgets, organizing, and resolutions. Not so in my world—January is for relaxing and enjoying. January is the month of low-expectations. Cars, garages, and windows are supposed to be dirty. There are no yard or garden duties, tax-deadlines, gift-giving holidays, or flies in January. January is made for frugal luxuries like wearing sweaters, reading books, taking naps, cooking stew, taking an institute class, and fun projects." --Jane Payne

Now don't you feel a lot more affection for January than you did before you read this post? I think I'll go spend some time in the cozy.

**What frugal luxuries do you love?
What's your favorite wintertime activity?
Do you love being home?**

P.S. Why not join Amy M.'s fabulous 12 photos on the 12 monthly plan? You can check it out here.

Comment Window Tidbit: I'm taking pictures of my day with Amy's 12 photos on the 12th in mind and will end up having to narrow them down because I'm sure I'll end up with way more than 12.

Reading Bliss

One compensation for not being able to sleep well at night is being able to read (with my headlight technology of course). This only works out well if I'm loving what I'm reading, and luckily that has been the case lately.


I have been reading The Little Friend for awhile now (it's a big one, 624 pages) and finished it in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. I love getting completely sucked into the lives of characters like the ones in this book, and was sad for it to end. (Thanks Tasha for giving me this book.)


I've also been loving these obligation-free mornings during Christmas break, and have been getting some good reading time in. I started reading The Star Garden right after I finished The Little Friend. This is our book club selection for January, but is also a great treat since it's part 3 a series of books that I have loved.

When I woke up at 3:37am last night for a bathroom break (why does that only happen sometimes?), I was a little bit giddy that I could read for awhile since I was awake. That doesn't happen very often, so I'm loving it right now.

**Have you been pleasuring reading?
What are you reading now?
Have you read either of these books?**

Sunday Thoughts

At our presidency meeting last week we decided that next month after our primary program is over we're going to have sort of a free day in primary, so the kids will get to watch a slide show of photos made by me. That means I get to bring my camera to church all the time and can document the greatness that goes on there. I had it with me today and tried to sneak it out without taking away from what was going on. I even took video of our senior primary singing, it's wonderful.

I LOVE PRIMARY!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I just absolutely 100% adore primary. I love the kids, the lessons and the music!


It was my turn for Sharing Time today which meant I got to sit up front facing all the kids for the entire time. This is really a treat because I can make eye contact with them, see them interact with their teachers and the other kids in their classes and I get to see their faces light up as they sing.

There is NOTHING like singing in primary. We are blessed to have a fantastic music leader who does a great job of being prepared with pictures and actions that help the kids learn the words to the songs, plus she ALWAYS shares her testimony of the truthfulness of what they're singing.

I often get choked up when we sing songs in primary because the Spirit is so strong there. Today we had a man from our ward substituting one of the classes and I watched him get red-eyed and teary over and over again as we sang today. It must have been such a treat for him to be in there with us today to feel the Spirit and hear those words. It was just plain sweet.

Happy Birthday
Laurie B. & Marie!!!

**Do you get choked up when you sing at church?
Do you love primary?
Thoughts??**

Sunday Thoughts

The theme of our ward conference this morning was Charity (the pure love of Christ), which goes along beautifully with the theme for our Teacher Inservice meeting tonight which is Loving Those We Serve. I think it's rather great that these two meetings are happening just days before Valentine's Day because I have been thinking about Love so much and feel like I'm approaching it from a full heart rather than a shmoopsy point of view.

"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." I Corinthians 13:2-10


I love these scriptures! It's both comforting and daunting to know that we can have every talent, every blessing, be super dedicated and so on, but if we don't have love we have nothing.

From a teaching perspective (and parenting perspective) loving those we serve is the key to everything. "If we want to influence learners for good, we should not merely love to teach; we should love each person we teach. We should measure our success by the progress of those we teach, not by the excellence of our performance." --Teaching No Greater Call page 31


This quote kind of cracked me up, because it made me think of someone doing a great job with their lesson, but coming away unsuccessful because they didn't love those they taught. Not that that's funny, but the image of a teacher being impressed with his own performance is.


I think we've all had or our kids have had teachers that clearly love them and teachers that are just getting by. Loving can be a hard a thing to do, and I've always thought that maybe this was a weak point of mine, but the more I think back to the kids I've taught in primary, the girls I've taught in Young Women's, the sisters I've visit taught and so on I see that I absolutely loved them and did my best to reach them. This gives me hope as a mother, because maybe I'm doing better than I think I am!

**What do you think??**

Blissful Day at Home

Yesterday morning after a 9:30 visiting teaching appointment, I had my entire day free! It was so great. I had lots of stuff I wanted to work on and felt so liberated not to have anyplace I had to go until it was time to pick the kids up from school at 3:30.


I cut out some good mail labels I needed to send, blogged a little bit and then got the idea that I wanted to decorate the wall behind the computer, above the bulletin boards. I had propped a few things on top of the bulletin board the day before and liked it so much I decided to go crazy up there. I ended up spending my whole day doing this...what a luxury. I listened/watched some shows online (Samantha Who, Notes from the Underbelly, Pushing Daisies, Netflix Project Runway) while I framed pictures, hammered nails, printed words and basically surrounded myself with things I love.


It's definitely a busy wall, but I love it! I watch design shows a lot and have started watching a new one on HGTV called FunShui, which does room redesigns following Feng Shui principles. I understand and relate to a lot of those ideas because I'm very affected by my surroundings, so I'm often uncomfortable at other people's houses if there's bad lighting, hard edges, blank walls, and so on. One of the things I recently heard on the show was that words are powerful, so choosing to look at certain words can be empowering. That's why I printed my word for the year...Love and the word Believe. After writing my Believe post a couple weeks ago I'm in love with that word.


I framed these pictures from our recent California vacation and included a quote I found to remind myself about the importance of our daily home life.

"I think laughter is more important than a family vacation because it’s always available and it’s free. Big family events and vacations are wonderful, but these will not replace the daily humor and laughter in a home." --Gary K. Palmer

I spend many hours a day in this room, so it makes perfect sense that it would be filled with words, quotes, pictures, cards, and things I love. Many of these items have been given to me as gifts from friends or as good mail, so it makes me very happy to have a place to display them. I have a lot of Paris items up there as well because I have great memories from that trip, but also because that trip has come to symbolize possibilities and follow-through to me. I still can't believe we actually went!

Happy Birthday Carlo!!!

**Where do you put things you love?
Do you like Feng Shui ideas?
What do you think?**