Much Ado About Nothing

This week was short and seemed to go by too quickly. With Thanksgiving on Thursday, the kids only had three days of school and then lazed about the rest of the weekend. I actually enjoy these types of weekends. The only downside was that Neil had to work both Friday and Saturday so we couldn't laze together. Monday was just school. I cancelled Cub Scouts as the charter school had a field trip that day. Tuesday was more school and Rachel and I went by a half-price book store and sold a bunch of movies and books that we didn't need or have room for anymore. Not really a great sale as the 8 boxes of stuff only brought in $30.00. But that was enough to pay for the pies and whipped cream needed for Thanksgiving dinner. Wednesday the high school had a half day and Aaron went to a friend's house and spent the night. I got a call from friends of ours needing Neil and I to go pick up a car for them from an auction lot. So when Neil got home from work we headed out to Tolles...

They say youth is wasted on the young. All that energy and excitement for life with no actual purpose. As we get older, we find purpose (hopefully) but seem to lose the energy needed to achieve everything that seems to be so important. Then the body starts to undermine our mind's desire for success. It starts with more noticeable aches and pains after limited exercise. The easy trek around the park leaves us gasping for breath while our little ones run circles around us. The eyesight also seems to be a favorite area which old age attacks. These glasses are just for reading ... road signs and billboards. The evening news big story was about President Obama needing twelve stitches. Apparently he also was victimized by aging. A friendly family pick up game of basketball turned painful; I can't help but wonder if his trip to the emergency room today was just embarrassing as he realized that even fame and money can't protect you from getting older. Last weekend Neil dec...

Something Which You Hope To Do This I can't narrow down to just one thing. I have a lot of things I want to do that I haven't yet. Some are just dreams with a sense of maybe, some are actual goals I am working towards, and some are idealistic wants with no realistic sense of being able to accomplish. You can try to figure out which falls in which category :D 1. Complete my bachelor's degree. 2. Run for President of the United States. 3. Travel to the Greek Islands. 4. Visit Iceland with my husband. 5. Go sky diving. 6. Write a novel. 7. Learn to play the piano well. 8. Meet the Awesome Ones IRL. 9. Take my family to Disneyland. 10. Win the lottery. Maybe if I can accomplish #10, I will turn fantasy to reality a lot quicker for some of the other nine.

I have noticed a number of my friends posting each day this month something for which they are grateful in their status. I think that is a wonderful way to start each day and I hope that once Thanksgiving is over, they will continue to give thanks each day. In the October General Conference of the LDS Church, President Monson addressed the saints under the title "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." I wonder how many people consider gratitude a gift, much less one that is divine. Gratitude is generally thought of as a verb. An action we engage in to express in either words or actions our thanks for the actions, words, or gifts of another. However, when thought of as a noun, gratitude becomes a gift to us from God. President Monson expounded on this idea in his address and as I read over it earlier this week, I was struck by a couple of thoughts. 1. The story of the ten lepers. Those familiar with this biblical story remember that when Christ was on the earth, he was approac...

If you aren't aware of what Mad Libs are, they are basically stories in which you fill in the blanks with the appropriate part of speech without actually seeing the story. What could be a story about a fun night out turns into an adventure involving dinosaurs and flying toasters. I loved them as a child and love that my own children are finding joy in their silliness now. We have a new family tradition. Each day I write a mad lib. It's generally a paragraph long with 5-7 words to fill in. Sometimes I come up with my own ideas, sometimes I steal from the entertainment section or classified ads of the paper. What I love about it is that my kids want to do this, it's not me forcing fun upon them for my own entertainment.

Something for Which You Need to Forgive Someone There is one person in my life whom I need to forgive. Unfortunately, I have not yet reached the point of being able to do so. Because this person is an intricate part of my life, and the hurt continues on a regular basis, I am fearful of forgiving because I do not know that it would be sincere at this point. I want to forgive and I want to be able to let my guard down around this person. I want to know that once I forgive, I will not have to be concerned of the hurt being repeated. I know that my forgiving is not requisite on the person asking for forgiveness, and I don't know that this person will ever take responsibility for the hurt caused. And right now, I'm not sure that I can truly forgive. Maybe because I've done so in the past and the hurt has continued. I don't hang onto the anger and pain caused, but each time the hurt occurs, all the past pain comes back and magnifies the current hurt. I am hopeful tha...

Another week come and gone. I've not been 100% at posting every day, but I'm pretty close. I missed yesterday because I had some great ideas but by the time I settled on my topic, I was exhausted and went to bed early. Monday was my day to help out at the middle school. I enjoy this time interacting with students and adults. Rachel stays with a friend who has two children at home then meets me at the charter school for scouts. While waiting with Daniel for the younger kids to get out of school, I chatted with the duty aide. She is LDS and a member of our ward. Daniel was surprised and asked why he never saw her there. She admitted to being inactive then shared with my her family history which led to her decision to not be involved actively with the church. She did marry an LDS man and they raised their children in the church. They are all active and try to get her to come back. She knows that her reasons really have nothing to do with the gospel, but with the culture...

Something For Which You Need to Forgive Yourself I've done some stupid things in my life. In immature moments I have hurt others for selfish reasons. For the most part I have tried to make amends where possible and can only hope that those who I've affected can forgive and, if not forget, at least move on. But there is one thing that comes back to haunt me every once in a while for which I cannot make amends and so I must forgive myself. After graduating high school, I got a job at McDonald's. It became a secondary job as I worked to get myself through college. I was able to work at the Air Force Base during the day and McDonald's at night. Because I went out of state for college, I was lucky to have this job waiting for me at Christmas break and during the summers. After I graduated, I continued working at McDonald's. It was a fun job and throughout all my time I worked every shift available. Those who remember me from way back when will agree that I was, for the m...

I love Christmas. I love the music, the decorations, the baking, the traditions. I love how the world seems more giving and more forgiving. Society turns to service and goodwill to all men. Jesus Christ becomes more important and religion is more acceptable even to atheists. I'm not a scrooge, but I am beginning to dislike Christmas immensely. The store displays have skipped right over Thanksgiving (I guess not many people actually decorate for this holiday) and are already piping Christmas music to all departments. The infamous Black Friday has apparently started already. Retailers are doing all in their power to get people spending money right now. I get it. The economy has hurt them as much as it has affected individual lives. But I feel pushed into buying things I don't want or need. Gift giving has become an expectation rather than a delightful surprise. I know I'm not the only one who is noticing this and I have a friend who is so discouraged that she has p...

I woke up with a sore throat so after getting all the kids to seminary and school, I came home and decided to make myself some hot chocolate. I always end up making the water too hot so I have it sitting on the end table cooling down as I stay busy with general housework. Rachel comes out and sees my cup sitting on the table. Rachel: Can I have some of your hot chocolate? Me: Sure. Rachel: Did you put milk in it? Me: Yes. Rachel (after picking up the cup): I think it would be better with a straw. What kinds of straws do we have? (Note: I often pick up extra straws from various fast food restaurants and occassionally buy packs of straws from the store. Additionally, some cups we have purchased came with straws and those crazy straws always seem to come home from birthday parties.) Me: I'm not sure we have any straws left. Rachel: Of course we do!

Something I Love About Myself I've had some time to consider this. There are many things I love about myself, but I felt the one I wanted to discuss was appropriate as we come into the season of gratitude and service. What I love about myself is my willingness to serve others. At times I think it goes beyond willingness and can be considered a desire. Those who truly know me, I feel, would be quick to agree that if there is something they need help with, I will do it if it is in my power. If it is not in my power, I will mull over the situation to figure out if I know of anybody who can help. I actually feel guilty if I am unable to provide assistance, even though I have a very good reason why I can't. I have been blessed in my life to be in a financial position to help a friend in her quest to Walk for The Cure (Three Day Walk). I couldn't walk with her, but I funded the entire amount she needed to join a team. I have been blessed with owning vehicles which have be...

So Neil and I were channel surfing. We decided to get cable television service when we moved a month or so ago as we had been without any television since the rest of the world went digital back in June of '09. We had the service long enough to catch General Conference and to realize that we were quickly bogging down our children's minds with stupidity. Quite honestly, they do just fine on their own in that regard, they do not need outside help. So less than a month after subscribing, we cancelled our cable service. However, we had purchased a new television which has digital television capacity, meaning we can get the HD channels in the upper stratosphere of television offerings. Seriously, PBS is channel 103.5 and RTV is 7.2. We get the standard network channels, a couple of movie channels (ION and TBS), a smattering of shopping networks, and a few way, way off broadway cable access channels (MCTV and Pentagon). Needless to say, we have odd pickings particularly in th...

Another busy week with not much accomplished. I kept the younger kids home from school on Monday because of their illness over the weekend. They seemed to be recuperating so was prepared to take them to the Den Meeting. Instead, Nicholas pitched a fit over belts and shoes so I left them all home and ended up almost 20 minutes late. We had a quick, but productive meeting. Tuesday I don't recall much of so nothing must have really happened noteworthy. Wednesday was the Battle of Gettysburg reenactment for the 7th grade at Desert Shadows Middle School. I was excited about being able to go. Instead, Cierra climbed in bed running a high fever. I gave her some medicine followed by some water. She gave it all back. Neil had taken the day off so we loaded up Daniel's cannon and Neil got Daniel and the cannon to school. I later took Nick in then came home to baby my daughters. Thursday was Veterans Day and my Cub Scout Den went to a local museum featuring the history of the H...

Having grown up in the southwest, tribal dances are something I have long been aware of. Though I do not know all the background behind all the dances, I have witnessed enough of them to appreciate the artistry involved. Though I cannot claim any Indian blood in my veins, I do know the pulse of rhythm as my heart pumps to the beat of the drum. My feet want to shuffle in time to the shaking rattles. I was searching for a Veterans Day celebration to attend with my den of cub scouts. The Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park announced an event that was free to the public (score), didn't start until 11 (yay for sleeping in), and included a Gourd Dance. I have always wanted my children to be able to experience the tribal celebrations that I was privy to as a child. I saw this as a great opportunity for them to appreciate another culture, plus it passed off one of the Cub Scout Achievements. I am not familiar with the Gourd Dance and my online search for information provided ...

Something I Hate About Myself We all have areas for improvement. If given the opportunity to change a physical feature, most would opt to do a little bit of work on themself. If asked about our greatest character flaw, we could all come up with a top ten list. But to name something I hate about myself is not something I can do. I do not hate myself. I have disappointed myself and others. I have done things which I have later regretted. I certainly do not think I am perfect. But there is just no way I can use the word hate to refer to myself in any way. I have a very deep-seeded belief in a Heavenly Father who is the true, living father of my spirit. He created me. He knows me. He loves me. How could I ever hurt him by feeling hatred towards someone He loves so much? He has given me so much. My life is so incredibly blessed. Can I return such generosity with ingratitude? Life is hard. We are human. We make mistakes and we feel resentful when others' decisions negative...

I've never been good at history. I don't remember dates of important events; I can't name the presidents in order; I have no idea when the UN came into being or why; I'm not sure who were the allies in WWI or WWII - I only know that a few changed sides. I do know that the Civil War was fought in the 1860s and it primarily had to do with the south wanting to secede from the United States due to President Lincoln's stand on slavery. I wish I had a teacher in middle school as dedicated to teaching Social Studies as Ms. Marci Olsen at Desert Shadows Middle School in Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ. She developed a unit for all 7th grade students surrounding the Battle of Gettysburg. It has gotten more elaborate each year. I first experienced this unit 3 years ago with my oldest son. Each student spends weeks researching a person whom they will portray in the culminating event of this unit. They write letters home, they must do a project which involves either creating a replica o...

This should have been posted yesterday, but it was a rough day. This weekend was the Four Peaks District Camporee and as usual, Neil was involved in helping out. He took the three older boys leaving me with the three little kids and Alyx. Alyx is old enough to fend for herself and had a busy weekend with community service. Saturday morning I took the kids to a friend's baptism in our old stake. We arrived to find that a girl from our old ward was also getting baptized so we were able to catch up with a lot of friends. That afternoon we went to a school friend's birthday party. There was a bouncer, climbing wall, Star Wars performer, and lots of food. I finally convinced the kids that we needed to go when it started getting dark and bickering started up. Shortly after getting home, Aaron and Daniel showed up, having come home from the camporee with a friend. Aaron has been fighting a cough and sore throat for about a week and Daniel doesn't particularly like camping...

A friend of mine has taken on a challenge called 30 Days of Truth. I looked through the list of assignments for each day to determine whether or not I wanted to accept the challenge. While the topics were varied and meant for a person to truly assess oneself, I balked at committing myself to taking the challenge. It's not that I don't think that it is valuable to self-assess and hopefully improve oneself, I didn't feel that all of the assigned topics were either truly helpful or meant to be shared with the world - or at least one's followers which could be limited to the blog itself or imported into Facebook and perhaps other social sites as well. (I can't speak to more than Facebook as I spend too much time on that site as it is and it's hard enough breaking that addiction without adding to it with more sites.) Even though I am not taking on the challenge in whole, I did find some of the topics worthwhile and may use them during this month of NaBloPoMo to fill ...

Nothing profound to say. I actually started a post about the BSA Scouting Program but felt like it might sound like I'm complaining and anyone who knows me, knows that I am a scouting fanatic. But I am suffering from a headache and don't have the wherewithal to edit anything appropriately. I wouldn't bother posting at all, but I suffer from a condition which makes inane things more important to me than they probably should be. So because it is NaBloPoMo, I post for the sake of posting.

This is a milestone event in any child's life. My mother kept clippings from my first haircut and saved them in my baby book. I'm not quite so sentimental with my own children, perhaps because I'm just not that organized. Cierra's first cut was a trim at the beginning of this school year and I figured that Rachel would have the same type of wait. It's not that I'm against cutting their hair, more that we couldn't stop referring to Cierra as bald until she was almost 3 years old. Both girls have fine, wispy hair. I have long been jealous of those mothers whose little girls come to church with braided, curled, and coifed hairdos. I'm lucky if I get my girls to sit long enough to run a brush through theirs before they tumble into the car undoing any efforts I might have made. Last night Rachel came into my room asking "Who cut my hair?" Not really the questions a mother ever wants to hear. Since Rachel was doing the asking, I was quick to presume ...

I'm already behind. For those unfamiliar with the acronym (as I was), it stands for National Blog Posting Month. I was unaware that there was such a need for bloggers and already I've failed to post every day this month. Granted, I haven't posted a blog in 10 months - life gets busy and I believe there are more worthwhile pasttimes than making sure I blog every day or even every month. That's not to infer that I am involved in more worthwhile pasttimes, but I am aware that they exist. For example, it is also National Epilepsy Awareness Month. I haven't personally been impacted by this condition, but I do consider it far more worthwhile to research causes and perhaps find cures for this condition. Although seizures are experienced by only 1% of the country's population, that still adds up to nearly 3 million people. Do you know how to help those who are experiencing a seizure? Get the facts at http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/ .