We have been coloring this chart to show our efforts in family scripture study this year. Each numbered area represents a section of The Doctrine and Covenants. We finished it today!!
Category: Family Time
Thirty-five
Favorite birthday moment of all time:
I was turning 7 or 8. I was walking home from school alone when I saw my mom coming toward me. Walking to and from school was always so terrible for me. It was the ultimate act of love in my mind if my mom walked with me to school. I remember one day she carried me. She knew it was what I needed that day. So, on this birthday I was totally happy to see my mom walking toward me. She met me near the Christensons’ house and we walked through the tough leathery maple leaves from the Mickelsons’ tree and then our feet swept and crunched the papery thin yellow leaves from the Stones’ tree. We opened my mail as we walked and she put her arm around me. That made me so happy.
I love simple gestures like that.
My thirty-fifth was full of simple gestures of love, too. And I’m thankful for those who took time to give them.
Father Daughter Dance
Paige and I made Daddy and Daughter cookies for the dance tonight. Richard and Paige learned the swing and Paige wore her pretty white dress. The bald daddy cookies make me smile.
Soccer time
No soccer league this year. Timothy plays once a week for an hour an a half at the park with Coach Pat and friends.
We like unscheduled evenings and Saturdays too much to sign up for soccer league.
Heaven on Earth
Tonight, as I made dinner, this is what our family room looked like:
Kid Heaven.
(Yes, Mark is taking a little pre-dinner snooze.) Thankfully, the living room still looked like this:
Mom Heaven.
I should have completed the series by taking a picture of Daniel and Richard in the garage replacing the car’s brake pads.
The title of that picture would have been,
Father-Son Heaven.
M&M
Boing!
Boing!
A Decade
A Decade of:
Light blond hair and blue eyes with pretty speckles
Vocabulary surprises
Library trip after library trip
Lego acquisition
Piano compositions and performances
Insights well beyond his years
Rocks, screws, pieces of plastic, air soft pellets, and legos in the laundry
INVENTIONS!
MACHINES!
SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS!
Drawings of space ships and factories
A helper in the yard
Someone with a screwdriver handy
Baseball
Rock collecting
A Decade of… Daniel. We love you!
Answers coming
Doesn’t this picture just deserve a post? What shall I write about? Hmmmmm….
It’s been a week of spiritual highs for me. I’ve been savoring some of the moments and inspiration that have come to me this week but these things are not something easily shared. They’re still simmering, you see? If I were living where I’d rather be living (I’ll just keep the location my little secret), I’d be out walking right now and there would be colorful leaves on which I could gaze. I’d wander to my favorite spots, visit the old trees and smile at the people I met along the way. I think more deeply when I walk. Are you that way, too?
I think I live in Sahuarita to work patience into my soul. I find myself waiting… all. the. time. Don’t worry. We’re not waiting for life to get happy or something like that. It’s just that we have had to learn to wait weeks at a time to get a book we want or to find the time to “drive up tuh town fer supplies” (our neighbors say this in fun). There are other less trivial things for which we wait, too.
Maybe I’m in my last steps to the purchase of a Kindle. Or maybe this post is a reminder to be thankful for the little things, like a corner fabric store nearby or a book supplier near you.
Or maybe this post is about remembering this little truth: Even if I lived in the place I wish I could live, it wouldn’t change the essentials in my life. My real treasures are within my home & church. Living here has helped me focus on my family and that was exactly the thing for which I prayed just before Raytheon contacted Richard. My prayers have always been answered, so I try to be careful not to ask for anything too selfish. And this doesn’t mean answers have been immediate, or the way I thought they should be. But that’s a lesson in patience, too, isn’t it?
Patience without faith, though, is like trying to be warm without fuel. So, while I wait for many things, I’m trying to stoke my faith… So perhaps I’ll be ready when I don’t have to wait anymore.
Maybe you are having similar lessons in patience.
Softening of the Heart
How have my interactions with my family helped to soften my heart this week?
- Richard and I stayed up late and watched our favorite Mormon Tabernacle Christmas DVD. The King’s Singers were the guest artists with the choir. The most moving piece for both of us is Oh Holy Night, and we saved it for last. We promised ourselves that we won’t listen to it again until Christmas Eve, it’s so special. As I listened to the music and reflected on the words of Luke 2, I just felt so happy. Christ came! He lived and loved us. I wanted to be a better person. I loved everyone.
- Timothy was so upset on Saturday. All I can say is that it had something to do with being the middle brother. I took him with me to the grocery store. He let me put my arm around him as we walked through the parking lot. He got more and more cheery and chatty as we shopped. He melted my heart.
- Mark wanted to spend time with me at church today, so I let him skip nursery and he helped me with some church work before I eventually dropped him off in his class. In the process, I lost a lens from one of my glasses. I searched all over the church, only to find the lens was safely in his little hand at the end of his nursery class. He’d held it during snack and playtime in nursery and had kept it safe for my return. Bless his little heart.
- Learning the human nervous system is a big job and there are a lot of vocabulary words. Paige hasn’t enjoyed it, so I read science to Paige this week as we both stretched out on my bed. I felt the frustration just melt away.
- Daniel walked Sparky at the park this week. I brought Mark and his friend Aleah along, too. I watched Daniel interact with the little 3 year olds from a distance. He allowed Aleah to walk her spider fingers all over his head and arms. He helped urge Mark forward when he lagged behind. Simple, happy moments.
It’s my greatest hope to have a softer heart, more Christlike ways, and to keep my family close to me. Perhaps in the writing of some of these simple things, the softening can last a little longer. I have some real battles this week in my life. A difficult person to deal with, two big events, and the usual errands and business. I have learned that it’s better to be charitable than tough; compassionate rather than judgmental; patient rather than hasty… and that requires Grace, accessed through prayer and humility and obedience.
Teenage Paige
We love celebrations around here. Today we celebrated Paige. If you asked me if I’d like something sentimental and even a little unnecessary, my answer would be, “Yes, and make it a double.” I made a fabric garland with an embroidered “Happy B-Day” for the annual birthday decorating-of-the-door. This hour-long project fulfilled a temporary whim to have a magazine life. You know, the kind of life with handmade fabric garlands and children dressed in white? My children don’t own much white, so that just left the fabric garland to make all my dreams and hopefully Paige’s dreams come true. (Check!)
The boys and I treated Paige to a day of pampering: new nail polish, her own make-up kit, a trip to the hair salon and a trip to the mall for some new clothes. The boys entertained themselves on the escalators and with the really high number of rubber bands on the floor of Old Navy. We came, she tried things on, we conquered. Paige looks great.
After dinner, we ate raspberry filled birthday cake with fresh raspberries atop.
Most of all, we were together and happy and glad to have our Paige. Are you ready to see the Teenage Paige?
