Letters from Home – Page 143 – A blog by Angela Ross

What I learned as I taught

I taught the Boy Scout Merit Badge class about Animal Science this week. Most of the Scouts were no longer teenagers. They were Scouts with disabilities and it was a stretch for me to prepare for a group with such diverse needs. The things that worked best were storytelling (my lizard story and my sheep story) and using pictures I projected on a huge screen. I invited a young girl in my neighborhood to come along with me to teach a portion of the lesson about chickens and they LOVED hearing her speak.

These are a few things that I observed that night.

1. Smiling is contagious.

2. The Scoutmaster of many years was leaving them and a new Scoutmaster was being assigned. When the announcement was read, many Scouts came out of their seats to hug the man who was leaving. The Scoutmaster could hardly speak because he was so sad to go. I found myself wishing I was less inhibited about showing appreciation for people.

3. The young men who serve each week as “buddies” for these Scouts are the ones learning the most powerful lessons, not the Scouts to whom they are assigned. I hope my sons get a chance to serve in this way someday.

4. One Scout walked in carrying a DVD about the Church. With an enormous smile, he came up to individuals, one by one, to show them his treasure. “Look!” he would say, with such enthusiasm, that each of us felt excitement for his movie, too. If that’s not the essence of what we ought to be doing with our associates in sharing the gospel, I don’t know.

5. Rarely have I felt such connection to people so quickly as I did in that room.

6. I observed the leaders who come each week and saw a calmness in their countenances. I think this must come because they were in a place the Savior would choose to be and doing the things the Savior would be doing if he were here.

7. Little Avery, a fifth grader, showed more poise under pressure than I see in most adults. We can ask children to do hard things.

8. I still love teaching science.

Calm down.

This is what I need to do to calm down. It involves several things.

Keep my relationship with my Heavenly Father as my first priority.
Breathe more deeply more often.
Allow for differences in approaching a problem.
Don’t interpret positives as negatives. Instead of wishing more could be done, see every small act as a positive.

Christmas 2015

1-DSC_0039 — Nativity kids at my parents’ place in Spring Lake on Christmas Eve

1-DSC_0021 — The smallest shepherd with his sheep. This is my nephew and this is my favorite picture from Christmas. Richard got a new camera. so we have no photographs of him because he was the photographer.

1-DSC_0036 — No worries, this angel is pretty cool. This is the last photo of the younger boys because they received video games for Christmas and we didn’t see much of them after that.

1-DSC_0045 — Paige was with us again and Daniel was the piano man providing background music.

1-choir — Richard and Daniel participated in the ward choir. Photo from Janine Clarke

1-DSC_0052 — View from the front porch on Christmas morning

1-DSC_0051 — We had no place to go, so it was great.

1-DSC_0055 — Sitting in this chair, bundled up and cozy, I watched the entire Roosevelt documentary series over two weeks. 14 hours, people. Richard and Paige joined me for the last 10 hours. I often bundle up like this in the house.

Paige's paint doodles — Paige’s paint doodles

1-DSC_0073 — For the upstairs tree we used mostly red and white ornaments and it was one of the prettiest trees we’ve ever had.

2-DSC_0053 — Richard was eventually able to dig us out.

Let’s learn something from the “selfie” generation

Soon after my call to be a Relief Society president, I felt the need to compile a photo directory for the women in my congregation. Many sisters don’t know one another. I didn’t know many of them! We began taking photos in August during activities. I asked Tiffany, who is fearless and has a nice camera, to lead out. I had no idea what a challenge this project would be. In the end, Tiffany, my presidency (Charlene, Cindy, and Kristy), and I had to really extend ourselves to make this happen.

Most women in my congregation, bless their hearts, love every one, are not of the selfie generation. Every photo in this directory, minus a small handful and those I stole from Facebook, seemed to invoke real pain in the person being photographed.

“Can you wait until I lose 20 pounds?” asked more than one sister.

“Let’s just not do this. No, I don’t take photographs.”

“No, please don’t take my picture. And no, I don’t have any photos of myself in my phone that I can send you.”

“I hate that photo of myself.”

“You will NOT use that photo of me. I’m sending you a different one.”

“<silence>” when I begged via email, text, and in person.

To confess, I didn’t love looking at my photo in the directory either. But with each text or email I received with a photo attached I felt celebration well up within me. As I compiled the document on my computer, I had a powerful experience. These women are beautiful! They are each so unique and talented. How I admire each of them. Looking at their pictures all together I felt swept away by how much strength I saw.

Yesterday when we handed out the directories at church, all I heard was how the sisters hated their individual photographs. As disappointing as this is, I still feel a surge of power and love when I look into their faces in the directory. I think they will, too, once the shock of seeing their individual photographs goes away.

What can we learn from the “selfie” generation? We can learn to not take ourselves so seriously. When we smile for a photograph, we are sharing light. You can see it, can’t you?

Christmas cheer

I don’t have much to say about last week, which included a death in the family, a basement flood, a canceled vacation to visit family, a funeral, and blizzards to drive through, except that we are still smiling. The role of the Savior in our lives has everything to do with it.

I shopped for religious, non-photo Christmas cards in many places this year. Most were too expensive for my budget. I read recently that we should reevaluate how we use our family pictures as Christmas cards. Sometimes a person in mourning doesn’t want to see a smiling, complete family in a Christmas card. And if we are celebrating Christmas, where is the Savior in such a card? I have decided that the Savior is in our smiles. He is in the growth that we have accomplished during the year. He is in the beauty of the surroundings, and the source of joy in our lives. Truly, we smile because of Him.

Merry Christmas, dear readers. Smile, give cheer, and rejoice. The Savior lives.

Grandpa

I was blessed to have 41 years of time with my Grandpa Stewart. I will miss my grandpa’s deep blue eyes, funny stories, requests for violin music, boots, and the way he always talked about his wife JoAnn. On the night that he died, I lay in bed awake, remembering his voice speaking her name, again and again over the years. Oh, how he loved her! That’s my favorite part of who he was…and is.

I like this

#ASaviorIsBorn

Paige and her roommates

Well. These pictures of these young ladies make me smile. Paige has had a great first semester of college. Not only are these ladies smart, beautiful, talented, and have great taste in movies, they have the best-smelling apartment and coziest living room. Photos by Erica’s mom (I think!)

Life Hacks

Our Relief Society is doing an activity later in 2016 entitled, “Life Hacks.” The sisters will be invited to share things that they do to make their lives better.

I can’t stop thinking about this concept. I definitely have some life hacks that work for me. And that’s the thing to remember: strategies that work for me won’t work for others. Here is a list of some of my favorite life hacks:

have a plan and make lists, but try to remain flexible with expectations.

try to always be creating something, whether it is a piece of writing, art, craft, sewing project, violin program, or food.

watch almost no television and have a carefully curated collection of movies to watch.

keep a record in a journal and other places.

get dressed every day even if I am not going out.

try to always be reading something.

don’t weigh myself on a bathroom scale and do try to listen to my body for clues about what to eat and how much to eat. If I feel like eating for emotional reasons, I try to chew gum instead.

give gifts to strangers sometimes.

listen to Christmas music in January. I need it most then.

remember my ancestors often and wear jewelry or clothing almost daily that belonged to them.

avoid using my smartphone when I am with Richard.

keep a 3-ring binder full of page protectors for each child in the kitchen. When they bring home important papers, certificates, cards, etc. I put them in their binders. I also keep a binder labeled by the year to collect family papers for the scrapbook.

plan things with the family that aren’t child-centered. Not everything we do has to be about the kids.

Viking entry

This was a history journal entry that Mark wrote today about the Vikings. Notice that although he was pressed for time, he didn’t forget to mention an important fact about the Vikings’ place of origin.

Who Were the Vikings?

The Vikings were people who lived in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.* When they couldn’t find fertile ground they started attacking the Franks.

When Charlemagne died, the kingdom split into 3 parts. That way the Vikings could attack them easier.

The Vikings used flat-bottomed boats, so they could go right up to land without bumping into the sand.

*the place where Lego was created