Towards Peace

Summer 2013 is over.

I worked more than I wanted to,

but financially, it was necessary.

It seemed the more that I prayed for help,

more work came my way.

Funny, hunh?

Near the summer's end, 

I found myself near depleted of courage

and with little planning,

and an invitation from good friends on the "other side" of the Rockies.

I only wanted one thing:

 To feel Peace in my soul.

I knew where to go,

where I always feel peace.
Do you ever feel that you have to get away?
--from the same view, the same people, the same ol', same ol'?

Joseph and Ari and I decided we'd go over to Utah

and spend some time at the temples there.

This is right after we'd gone in the Mt. Timpanogos temple

and done baptisms for the dead--thus the wet hair.

But, seriously, it was packed full,

and we were there for over two hours.

Is there a better place to spend time with my children?

I can't think of it.

The same day,

we went up to Salt Lake City and spent the day on 

Temple Square.

We also took a tour of the Conference Center....

that waterfall is on the roof!

The picture above is carved into stone...

isn't it beautiful?

I gave each of the kids a camera and told them to record our trip

by taking all the pictures,

and they did a great job.

 We had planned on going to the Salt lake Temple,

but didn't make the appointment ahead of time.

So we just enjoyed the gorgeous beauty of the gardens.

 *marigolds

 *coleus and zinnias

 *lisianthus and allysum

 *hollyhocks

 *impatiens, dusty miller, petunias

 *a little bit of everything.

Even a 13 year old can see the beauty all around.

That's important, I believe,

to spend time around truly heavenly things,

as this world presents things counterfeited as

"beautiful"--

to teach him the difference.

To let him feel the difference, that's invaluable. 

Joseph found a Book of Mormon

printed in Norwegian-

the language of his great-grandparents.

Then we headed up to the Christus Statue:

..Where we sat for a long time and reflected and pondered...

(John 20:19-23; 1 John 1:1-4)

36And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 37But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 40And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. 41And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? 42And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. 43And he took it, and did eat before them.

What feelings surface when you look at this beautiful statue?

The word that comes to my mind is

"Home".

I am reminded that He is my Home.

He is my brother. My Savior. My truest, dearest Friend.

The statue calls to my rememberance 

the words from the hymn, 

"O My Father":

 For a wise and glorious purpose

Thou hast placed me here on earth

And withheld the recollection

Of my former friends and birth;

Yet ofttimes a secret something

Whispered, "You're a stranger here,"

And I felt that I had wandered

From a more exalted sphere.

What does it remind you of?

****

We spent time with great friends who are beckoning us to leave our side of the mountains,

to come to theirs.  Joseph got to hike the mountains the run along Highland and Alpine, Utah.

We went to church there, met some kind people. My friend Sarah gave me the fifty cent tour of Alpine, where we even looked at homes in the area. 

So who knows?

I didn't go to Utah in search of a "move",

but found myself open to the idea.

I also found the peace I was searching for...

it is 

always

always

always

the same--

in The Living Water,

Jesus Christ.

For more information on Holy Temples, I invite you to check out

https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/temples

John 4:14 - But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Conference Weekend!

Conference is coming up this weekend.
I'm most anticipating what Elder Uchtdorff and
Elder Bednar are going to share with us...
and of course,
I know I'll have a good cry with
Elder Eyring as always.

And crepes.
Conference Saturday is always about crepes.

What about your Conference weekend--
what's your favorites?

A Family Mission Statement And An Invitation

When I  think of different people,
there are often particular images that come to mind--
like when I think of Southerners,
I think of hospitality, easy-going smiles, corner churches,
and Friday night football.

When I think of people I know,
I generally think of their family members,
the house they live in,
where they work,
but mostly,
how they treat others,
or what I know to be important to them.

The older my family grows,
the more clear our family identity becomes
to each of us...
my southern roots show when we invite others
into our home,
around our dinner table,
and share whatever we might have to offer.

If you were a fly on the wall at our house,
you would get an earfull--
lots of joking around,
laughter,
poking at each other,
and inevitably the conversations come around
to the topic of sharing the gospel.

That's just a natural consequence in our circles of friends.
We don't sit around and tap our noggins
trying to think of whom we can share our testimonies with--
we're not that good of planners, honestly.
But, being friendly to start with,
we make new friends easily,
and it goes from there.

IN his book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families",
Stephen Covey admonishes the creation of a
Family Mission Statement,
to create purpose and unity within the family.
And while we haven't sat down together and formally
created our own mission statement,
there is a recognition of at least one of our
familial callings,
Missionary Work.

Our family identity is centered on
The Restored Gospel.
We are missionaries.
It's what we do--
The Colonel does KFC chicken
and we share the gospel.

Last week,
Nana started a new semester in college.
In one of her classes,
she was chosen as a partner by a classmate,
as part of a class assignment to write about someone
and introduce them to the rest of the class--
he said,
"I wanted to choose someone who would be interesting.
I knew if I chose you, I wouldn't be disappointed. You're a Mormon.
I choose you."
Then he proceeded to tell her about himself--
he's married and has a child and he's an Athiest.
This last week, they set aside some time to work on the project
with another classmate Nana invited into their group as well.
Nana was surprised that he'd chosen her solely because of her faith,
and welcomed the chance to share what she knows and how she feels
about what she knows.

Nana was excited.
Before she left for the meeting,
we had a few minutes to talk about
what sharing the Gospel means to her,
and how much our family is defined
by this calling of missionary work.

All of us, from the youngest to the oldest,
share this calling together.
We are a Family,
A Work in progress,
and we are also missionaries for
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"...if ye have a desire, ye are called to the work."

So I'm just wondering--
has your family created their own mission statement?
As we are all missionaries for something,
What are you missionaries for?
If you'd like more information about creating a Family Mission Statement,
take a look over at Simple Mom.

Something to Share:
To my non-Lds friends--
Have you ever wondered what the Book of Mormon was?
Would you like to read it right where you are, to get a feel for it?
Well you can do that with no obligation to anyone or anything at--Read the Scriptures.com

I've set a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon in 100 days, and if you'd like to join me, start today.

That's just sixty-six verses a day...and get this, Read the Scriptures.com has an audio feature.  Just click a button, and listen to it right here at your computer.  Doesn't get any easier than this!  

The Book of Mormon is true.  And you can know it for yourself.  It has the power to change your life.

If you want to let me know you're reading/listening online, I'd love to share the journey with you!

To receive your complimentary copy of the Book of Mormon, check out https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/book-of-mormon 

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

September marks the 15th Anniversary of 

The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

Fifteen years ago,
I never thought that the sanctity of Marriage

would be challenged as it is today. So Who knew fifteen years ago

that the Family,

The very definition of "Family" was going to need to be clarified?

Heavenly Father did,
and has

revealed it to us as

The Family: A Proclamation to the World.


What THREE words best describe your family?

Families Can Be Together Forever

This was the best day of my life.
Beautiful.
Perfect.

It was the day
our family was sealed
for
Time and All Eternity
in the
Salt Lake Temple--
or the Pioneer Temple,
as our family calls it.

I'm the only Latter-Day Saint
 in my family
as
Mr. Wonderful is the only
Latter-Day Saint
in his too.
That makes us pioneers in our own right,
so when it was time
to choose which Temple
to seal our family,
the Salt Lake Temple
was the obvious choice.

Our special day was June 25th, 2004.
Just six years ago.
Don't we all just have the greatest smiles on?

I'd arranged the photographer to meet us
right after the sealing
so those smiles
are fresh
and
true.

That day in June,
there were 54 other couples being sealed--
fifty of them were young couples just being married.
When our family came out of the Temple,
there were wedding parties
all over the beautiful temple grounds.
As our photographer placed us
under this tree,
our first photograph--
we were surprised to see other
photographers gather around us
and also snap away with their cameras.
My oldest son, David Scott
whispered in my ear,
"What's going on? Why are they doing that?"
I thought about it and said,
"Well maybe it's because we represent
eternal families today."
The other wedding parties
were young and vibrant--
but I guess seeing children
dressed in white
with their parents just touched their hearts.
I don't know.
But
I was on Cloud Nine.

I wish we could go back to the Temple
once a year,
the whole family,
right back to the same sealing room,
ya know,
and just BE TOGETHER
as a family...
just to be sure we're all
where we should be
in Life.

Because it was the best place
in the world
to be with my family--
to have that eternal-ness
all around us.
To have just a glimpse into
eternal possibilities.

Having an eternal perspective
is the foundation of our family--
the fussin' and fightin'
the kissin' and makin-ups

they all matter.

Because what we have at stake
aren't just family relationships
that are to be
endured and tolerated
in this life,
to be left in the dust tomorrow,
no,
we're building more than that
in the walls of our home,
and when you're building something
you believe is meant to last forever,
you take it seriously.
At the end of the day,
I have to be "right" with my kids,
and they have to be "right"
with each other.
Discipline is meted out with purpose--
to teach, to prepare, to grow
these young ones
into responsible,
faithful
loving
adults.

As earnest as I may try,
I mess up.
I need forgiveness from the people
I love most.
So humility is my goal here,
as I urge my young ones to do their best,
to show their best,
to repent and improve
and be gentle on themselves too.
To laugh more
at myself,
gives them permission to laugh
at themselves.

We're participating in God's Greatest Plan--
the Eternal Family.
And whatever else we may deal with
as we learn and grow
in the lab of our family walls,
nothing
nothing
nothing
is more important
than the relationships we build
with one another.

So yeah, we'll deal with
the normal challenges of a growing family
head on,
and somedays there is
weeping
and
wailing
and
gnashing of teeth,
doors taken off of hinges,
time-outs
groundings
and grumblings.
But there are also
apologies offered,
hugs given,
prayers heavenward,
forgiveness offered,
hearts mended.
Because I believe this to be true:
Families Can Be Together Forever.

To learn more about the purpose and promises of the Holy Temple: https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/the-family

*before listening to this, go to the bottom of the page and pause the musicplayer.

It's Only Wednesday!--running hard with no end in sight!

Crazy week already..
if you've noticed the absence
of my comments,
this has been my week:

* Monday--
no wait,
let's start on Sunday--
since Dani has been here,
I've been getting up with her
at 2am to feed the Ninja child...
I keep her company
while he eats and then I go back to bed.
I don't know why this baby doesn't sleep
all night long.
He's twenty pounds!
We feed him dinner
we bathe him
and put him down at 9pm.
He sleeps for about 5 hours
and then wants a bottle.
All of my yahoos slept thru the night
around 3 months
some sooner.
So if you've got any ideas,
I'd love to hear them.

Okay, and up at  6am,
to let the dog out.
by Monday morning,
I was already tired...
and if you recall,
my Monday post was actually
written around 2am
because of the cold spell (oh how I wish it'd come back!)
and Mr W's snore-fest.

Daisie returned from her Arizona
trip to visit her birth father,
Monday night.
The excitement to see her--
I even made a door poster--
"Welcome Home Daisie! We Missed You! We Love Your Gutz!"--


quickly evaporated when I saw her
hair.
It's dyed blonde.
There are no words to contain
express
my feelings about this.
She's fifteen.
We talked about dyeing her hair
in depth
and I said
"NO." ---
it's inappropriate for a young woman her age,
it's expensive to maintain
it's unhealthy for your hair,
and all those chemicals into your skin.
blah
blah
blah.
So the homecoming went from
"WOW! She's home!"
to
"Crap! What'd you do to your hair?"
in less than a minute.
In reflection,
I guess I should be grateful she didn't ask
for a tattoo of the Grand Canyon.

After I reattached my head
to the rest of me,
I calmly went down to her room
and handed her two letters
I'd written to her while she was gone.

We talked about her hair--
her plan was just to return to AZ
everytime she needed her roots dyed.
Uh, no.
School is coming up
and there's not going to be a break until the holidays.
Which means,
come September,
her roots may be down to her ears
and that's a natural consequence of her choice.
I'm not bending on this.

She went to visit her birth father
over Spring Break and came back with
highlights--
after Id' already told her "NO.",
so it's not like this is a new thing--
she knew exactly what she was doing.
I think she's at the age where
she's making choices based on the thought,
"It's easier to get forgiveness than permission."
So come September,
October,
November,
December,
with her brown roots lining her blonde dye,
I hope she will learn this lesson:
"When Mom says No,
she means it."
or some other grand lesson on
Choice and Accountability.
Pray for me.
No, wait,
Pray for her.

IN less than 12 hours later,
yesterday morning by 7am,
she was packed to go to our
Stake's
"Daughter of Virtue Camp"...
our Stake just bought some sweet land
in southern Colorado,
where many many hours of work
has been spent clearing the land,
running electricity,
digging a well water system
building pavillions,
several bathrooms with showers!,
raised tent sites,
clearing paths
and establishing grassy gardens areas
in the middle of a lush mountain area
has been created specifically for our
daughters.
I forgot to take pictures yesterday
of
"Camp Joseph"--
but both Nana (who went up as a leader)
and Daisie took their cameras
so we'll put some pics up next week.

I wasn't planning on
driving the two hours south
yesterday morning when I got up--
nope,
I went to drop Daisie off at a meeting place
where it was discovered that there wasn't enough
room in the leaders' cars for both Stuff and Girls--
so my thinker started thinking,
and I said,
"Here, send me."

There was joy and rejoicing in my Suburban
as they filled it to the ceiling
with Stuff,
and the girls left with their leaders,
while I ran home and woke up my yahoos
and told them we're going on a roadtrip today!

We got there about an hour after everyone else,
so that the tents were set-up,
the matching colored t-shirts had been donned,
and the girls were gathered at the flagpole
being greeted and briefed on the rules--
only one really stuck out to me--
"Always have a buddy with you. There are bears in the area."
Got it.
Take someone with you to the bathroom that you can outrun.
Easy-peasy.

The camp is lovely,
it's going to be even more lovely as
we continue to make it so.
The girls were as happy to see us
as we were to see them--
nevermind that we'd just seen them
before they left.
We all mushy-gushy that way.
I don't know why--
it's a sickness really.

After Dani and I and the yahoos
toured the Camp,
we left and drove the 100 miles home.

It was too hot to cook last night,
so we went to

"REDDDD ROBBBBBINNNNN"--
 love their fries...so soft and yummy.
Addictive in every way.
I would in fact, give a kidney for a
bottomless basket of their fries.

What?

Today is supposed to be a scorcher--
over 90-stinkin-degrees
so we're headed out to the pool
to the mall
to anyplace air-conditioned
for the whole day...
We'll hit Costco up at lunchtime--
their free samples tour is to die for--
and love those buck-a-piece-churros,
am I right or am I right??

I love air conditioning.

It's only Wednesday
and there's more to come--
more hot weather
more running around
more "teaching moments"
in every direction.

Catch me if you can...

Weekend Whatevs

Another Summer Weekend has flown by!
Can you believe it?
I had a completely awful train of thought
about getting ready for school
or
"The Day That Shall Not Be Named"
in 5 weeks!
YUCK!
It was awful I tell ya.
So not ready yet.

It's because retailers are puttin' out
backpacks
lunchbags
notebooks and pencils.
Killjoys, nuthin' but rotten Killjoys
all of 'em.

When I wasn't thinking about
ya know,
TDTSNBN,
I was having fun with la familia.

Friday night,
the yahoos and I made
homemade guacamole
and
fresh tortillas
for a really tasty Messican dinner.
Am I the only person on the planet
that knows about
keeping the
avocado seeds
aka
"Buddies"
in the mixture to keep it fresh?

I don't know if it's actually true,
because
guacamole disappears in our house
before it can go bad--
but if you've heard of this,
and know it to be true,
shout it out, K?

As for the fresh tortillas--
I don't make the dough,
but buy them already formed
from Costco
and cook them on the griddle--
seriously,
once you've had them fresh and warm
you will never want to buy them
cooked again.

Saturday Morning:
We did not have the missionaries over for breakfast.
That was weird...
we have fed missionaries breakfast
for a decade.
But the elders didn't call and didn't come.
So we had a fun family breakfast,
cleaned the kitchen up,
got into our clown car
and went to the Y
for
Zumba Class!

One of Nana's friends, Taylow,
came with us
for her very first Zumba experience.
We told her how much fun it was
and all that
really pumping her up
to have a fantastic workout.

To our shock and awe,
the Zumba-Instructor-On-Crack,
Elody
was there.
Dani and I
quickly warned
Nana and Taylow about her
with all the energy of our souls--
"That's HER! She's nutz!"

Only 15 minutes into the routine,
we were all laughing our bums off
at the ridiculousness of it all--
Elody knows her Zumba moves--
yessirree she does!!--
But
But
But
it's like she is Angel*na J*olie in that
new double agent thriller,
SALT--
Elody doesn't want anyone else
to know what's coming up!
It's like her routine is a secret
and we're just supposed to read her mind
what she is going to do next.

FUH-HUH-NEE Stuff
I tell ya!
I had to take a water break,
and as I stood in the back of the room,
I saw more than two women
just standing there
just. standing. there.
shaking their noggins in
frustration
disbelief
and may I add,
not to the schizophrenic beat at all.

As for me and my girls,
well, if we'd been at school,
let's just say that
we'd have been kicked out
for goofing off in class--
we were laughing so stinkin' hard
at the situation
and
at each other's attempts to keep up.
I'm giggling now as I write this--
an image of Nana comes to mind
where she is half-jumping
trying to touch her toes with one hand
while the other hand is flailing above her head
like a wet noodle
and
Dani, unsure of what to do
just started doing the can-can!

I promised myself to bring a camera next Saturday.
The good news?
Our regular awesome instructor, Wendy
was in the class too--
so we tried our best to keep up with her.
I grabbed her after class and asked,
"Is Elody a different level of Zumba instructor than you?
Because, well, as you could see,
we were all over the freakin' map here today!"
Wendy smiled,
"No, she's not a different level--she's not too good at giving
directions though. But if you keep coming to her class, you'll catch on."
Wendy was loyal to her co-worker,
and I can appreciate that--
told you Wendy is awesome.
I did see several women corner Elody outright
and ask about her routine...
read
my
mind.
I only overheard her answer,
"Just keep coming...blah blah blah...
and you may be able to read my mind someday."
Or something like that.

Truthfully,
it was awhole lotta fun
in a different way--
the workout kicked our bums
but the laughing made it so fun!
Can't wait for tomorrow's class--
Wendy's night!!
Yesssssssssss.

Okay,
so after the YMCA
we came home and ate leftovers
from our Messican dinner...
the rest of the guac was inhaled
I do believe at that time.
Oh, I didn't mention that we used
six avocados for one batch
did I?
Yeah, we make enough to feed our family
and whomever drops in.

The youngest yahoos had to be threatened to sit down
and eat before they grabbed their fishing nets
and headed to the little pond
with their awaiting posse on the front steps...
a clan of little yahoos in the neighborhood
all lovin' the excitement of fishing!

So the yahoos scarfed down their lunch
and flew out the front door
and down the path to their summer haven.

An hour later,
they all appeared at the front door
with a bucket of stinky pond water
and a five-inch-long sunfish in it.
"Can we keep it?"
"Uh, no. Where would we put it?"
"In this bucket!"
"It smells awful guys. N' look at it--the bucket's too small."
"Awww...c'mon Dad!"
"No, we're not keeping it."

That's when I noticed the yahoos
looking at each other,
fretting about carrying the heavy metal silver bucket
all the way down to the pond again--
obviously,
their excitement in the catch
had made the trek home easy,
but hauling it all the way back
was pure dread.
I chimed in,
"Let me grab my shoes,
and we'll take the baby for a walk
down to the pond with you guys, k?"

Of course there was much relief
and
rejoicing at my offer,
and I was proclaimed to be,
"The Best Mother In The World!"
by all concerned parties.

Apparently,
I rock.

So we took the Ninja baby,
who giggled and cooed the whole way,
down to the Preserve where the pond is--
only we didn't go all the way to the shore--
there's two paths,
one is above it all,
and the one directly to it.
Once, because of trees,
we couldn't see the Boofus and one of his posse,
and just as I said that,
we hear:
"REDDDDDDD ROBINNNNNNNN" coming from down below--
to which the Caboose responded with missing a beat:
"YUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!"

Do you remember calling
"Marco?"
"POLO!"
yeah, my yahoos are all commercialed-out.
Every so often we'd hear,
"REDDD ROBINNNN"
and not to be left out,
Mr W and I joined with the Caboose--
"YUMMMM!"

On the trail, I realized we
coulda
shoulda
woulda
brought the hound
if I'd thought of it.
So after an hour
we headed back home
dropped off the Ninja Baby
leashed the hound
and
headed back to the Pond.
Our dog lubs the Preserve--
she can be taken off leash
once we assess that there are no other
dogs on the trail
and she lubs it as only a lab can.
We put about 400 miles on her in
thirty minutes
before coming home.
Saturdays rock, don't they?

Sunday:
Church.
Three hours of it.
Sounds like a long time,
to members of other faiths,
but we Mormons are the definition
of
Overachievers--
while one hour is good enough for my Baptist heritage,
Mormons just can't get it all done in one hour!
We have things to do,
people to see--
if I don't write another post this week,
you can assume I've been translated
overnight.
just kidding.

If that were true,
I'd be gone already,
on account of it being
Monday morning
at 2:04--
I went to bed at 10pm,
but between Mr W's snorfest
and a coldfront that woke me up shivering
so I had to get up and close the windows
in the whole house,
I couldn't go back to sleep.
So apparently,
three hours of church
was not enough
to translate me.
Not even after thirty-plus years.
Shoot.

I'm ready for Monday...
supposed to be a scorcher.
Bring it.

What about your weekend?
Spill it!

~~The 1 I've been Promising~~

Finally,

I remembered to post this-- 

pictures from a Saturday Morning Breakfast

with the missionaries.

They surprised us one morning

as two of them

showed up dressed

like

WWF wrestlers.

I present

"Xander"

and

 "The Big O"

The Big O...outta California.

Xander, outta Canada--doesn't it show?

His shirt reads:

"True North

Strong & Free"--

gotta love Canadians!

These boys' Mama's miss them, I just know it!

I don't know exactly why

these fun hardworking missionaries

favored us with a WWF appearance,

but I know that we loved every second of it!

~

 I love our Missionaries

I love their glow

their commitment

their youth

their strength

their example

all of it.

I'm pretty sure

they know

we love their guts!