Why It's Important Not To Take Yourself Too Seriously

I should call this The Ram Dialogues, in honor of Chinese New Year and my favorite little Ram.

Kindergarten Show and Tell was the letter "U" this week.  Belle and I talked about different things at our house that started with the letter U and decided she should take her ladybug umbrella to school.  We were hurrying this morning to get ready for school because we were all going together so I could just the science fair (no snickering, please) and I honestly forgot all about Show and Tell.  After judging, Guy and I went to pick up Belle a little early to go home.  She hadn't done her Show and Tell yet so her teacher asked her to show everything what she brought so we could get home.  As I'm standing there next to her teacher, Belle pulls out a (very clean, mind you) white pair of Underwear from home.

I have a very smart daughter who knows Underwear starts with the letter U.

When asked why the change, she said "I wanted to make everyone laugh, mom!"  I'm sorry, but weren't Rams supposed to never defy authority?

Conference Talk Friday: To Learn, To Do, To Be

Two weeks ago, our Relief Society studied this talk from President Monson.  Our discussion was a little different, being from a women's perspective.  President Monson has such a wonderful way of expressing himself, I can always hear his voice in my head when I read this talks. 

To Learn:  We spend our entire life in the church learning.  At 18 months we are put into classes where we are taught and guided.  But that's not where the real learning should come from.  We should never walk into a Sunday School/Priesthood/Relief Society lesson where we haven't already studied and prayed over the lesson to be presented.  Our children should learn nothing from primary that they haven't already been taught at home.  Good thing we have a lifetime to work on that one, right?  President Monson used my new favorite scriptures from Hebrews 12, "Lay aside . . . sin[;] . . . let us run with patience the race . . . set before us, looking [for an example] unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."

To Do:  Once we have learned, we must do what we have learned.  What a logical progression, but one that many people do not get!  It truly frightens me to know if I don't do my best I will be held responsible for those souls I might have helped had I done my duty! 

To Be: I try to ask myself this question frequently: "Do the people around me know what I stand for before they even meet me?  And do they feel the same way after they meet me?"  Depending on my answer, I can do a little self-check.  As a result of all of this learning and doing, we, little by little, will be one with Christ.

Have a great week, everyone!

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

OK, so mom trumped me in the holiday celebration department . . . again.  You all really need to check out mom's post about her Chinese New Year's celebration.  

I love exposing my kids to other cultures.  We are totally blessed to have some very direct ways to teach them about other people and how they live their lives, like travelling there to visit!  We kept our celebration very simple, just indulging in some takeout and using our blue and white dishes.  But we will definitely keep celebrating.

Some highlights.  

a: realized someone had been playing with my new camera, hence the foggy pictures.  No, it's not steamy in the room, those are little fingerprints all over the lens.

b: how long does it take one five year-old (who, for the record, defies authority at every turn, mom!) to eat one piece of brocolli . . . 10  minutes.  But she did it!

c: Guy's favorite dish: "noodles and catchoo chickn!"

So, goodnight from the rooster, the ram, the golden dragon (always new my girl was something special) and their parents, the two oxen!

Conference Talk Friday: Elder Wirthlin

Elder Wirthlin is one of those men I would love to call Grandpa.  I can just imagine sitting on the couch chatting with him.  His talk "Come What May, and Love It" stood out to me, especially because we lost him soon after conference.  I loved his story about losing a football game and his mother's reaction.  Our children's problems are very real and we need to be sympathetic, but wouldn't you find yourself smiling thinking how much you would love to have your greatest trial in life be a lost football game?!  I also thought he was very kind to share with all of us his family's trials of trying to help his grandson with autism and his daughter's serious chronic illness.  

I have a total testimony of the fact that how we deal with trials says a lot about our character and also has a lot to do with how happy we are, trials and all.  When "the dial on the wheel of sorrow eventually points to each of us,", often I feel our inclination is to either a) make sure everyone knows every one of our problems and feels very sorry for us, or b) hide all of our problems and constantly pretend everything is "just fine."  I love it that Elder Wirthlin tells us that we shouldn't pretend we don't have struggles, but we should work very hard to pick ourselves up, learn from our trials and do our best, given our individual circumstances.  

I will always remember his advice to laugh, keep an eternal perspective, and trust in my Heavenly Father. "'The simple secret is this: put your trust in the Lord, do your best, then leave the rest to him.'"

I'd love to  post about all of our family's exploits these last two weeks, but, sadly, there has been very little exploiting going on around here.  Stay tuned for some fabulous Chinese New Year festivating, or at least some fabulous take-out!

Conference Talk Friday

I have posted about President Uchtdorf's talk from Women's Conference before, but honestly, it's become a bit of a mantra to me.  I am way too easily swayed by the voices in my head and around me saying that what I contribute to this world is not good enough.  

As I gave his talk a second, third, fourth, fifth read, I started to focus on all of the main points of his talk, not just his point about being creative beings (I used that one for a while to justify my CADD).  I have been thinking a lot lately about God's happiness.  God's happiness is not in living in the biggest, newest house on the block, driving the biggest car, taking your kids to the most lessons of anyone in your neighborhood.  God's happiness comes from being creative (our Heavenly Father is the most creative being in the universe), being compassionate (sometimes a chore with tired, whiny three year-olds), and being an instrument in His hands.  

This last point is very interesting to me.  The instrument does not dictate the path, it is used along the path.  This requires us to give to our Heavenly Father the only that, really, He did not give us, our own will.  Wow can that be scary sometimes!  How often have we felt we needed to do something, even though our own "rational" thoughts are telling us otherwise?  And what would we have missed if we had applied worldly logic instead of listening to the Spirit?

Read through President Uchtdorf's talk as soon as you can.  Or watch it in the website, he's so much fun!  You'll feel better about yourself and inspired to do better.  

Have a great week!

CADD

Hello, my name is Juju and I have a problem: I call it Crafting Attention Deficit Disorder.  

Exhibit A:  Crochet.

I have the following projects "on the hook": One baby blanket, an afhghan, and a grocery bag.

Exhibit B:  Knitting.  

OK, so this one is still in the "think system" stage.  But I'm determined.  If my left-handed sister can teach herself how to knit right-handed with no help, I have no excuse with my army of knitting goddesses behind me. 

Exhibit C:  Scrapbooking.  

Sigh.  Double sigh.  But I've got plans . . . big plans!

Exhibit D: Sewing. 

Various projects in various stages of completion, from fabric waiting to be made into something (I'm thinking lounge pants or floor pillows from Amy Butler's book In Stitches or maybe something from her new book Little Stitches) to blankets that have been tied and need to be finished off to be donated to the LDS Humanitarian Center.  Oh, and the pile of repair work that needs to be done.

And after all of this confession time and shameless listing of my faults to the public (I will probably never hear the end of this from BJ), my favorite place besides my house is still my local crafting store, 40% off coupon clutched in my sweating palms.  So my goal this year (yikes, that kind of sounds like a New Year's resolution!) is to get a handle on this pile.  Well, truth be told I'll probably just replace old projects with new ones.  Honesty among friends, right?

I'm starting to make Chinese New Year plans.  It comes this year on January 26th and is a favorite holiday of ours.  Any excuse for some takeout, right?!

Conference Talk Friday

I have such wonderful memories of this talk by President Monson at the close of the Sunday morning session of last conference.  We took Bug to her first session of conference at the Conference Center.  I woke up at 6 a.m. to get Bug, BJ and myself "church ready" then woke up the other two and got them ready to go to Auntie Kara's house.  We packed a backpack full of various toys and snacks so Guy and Belle wouldn't take their boredom out on her darling house (even though, as it turned out, they spent two hours trying on Kara's hats and boots . . . monster boots!) We arrived at Kara's house more than an hour before we needed to be to the Conference Center, dropped off two kids, and headed to conference.  By this point, I needed a nap and was, to be brutally honest, not feeling the "joy of the journey".  

As I listed to Presdient Monson promise me that one day my house would be empty and there would be no more children to dress, feed, and love, I completely lost it.  How could I wish away one moment of this precious and short time with my children?  Talk about a wake up call.  I couldn't clean the fingerprints off of the library door upstairs for a week.  What if no one ever put fingerprints on the door again?!  (don't worry, Mom, they were cleaned . . . eventually!)

President Monson's message was primarily aimed to young mothers like myself, who are still "in the trenches," so to speak.  But his words could apply to all of us.  How often do we hear (or think) 'as soon as I get married, I'll be happy' or 'as soon as we buy a bigger house, I'll be happy' or 'as soon as we retire, I'll be happy'?  Happiness is a daily decision, not a product of our personal circumstances.  (Note to self: really try to live this principle!)  No matter what our situation in life, let's all resolve to today to be happy with all the wonderful blessings we have, especially in the throws of January blahs!