Who Needs A Golden Ticket?

Forget-me-nots, specious sacrifice, and golden tickets.

Don't we all love President Uchtdorf?

Find this talk here at the 58 minutes mark.

God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect. Let me add, God is also fully aware that the people you think are perfect are not. ...Many of you are endlessly compassionate and understanding with the weaknesses of others. Please remember also to be compassionate and patient with yourself.

If we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses, we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us.

We focus on WHAT the Lord wants us to do and HOW we might do it but we sometimes forget WHY. ...seek out the majesty, the beauty, and the exhilarating joy of the WHY of the gospel of Jesus Christ. ...The WHY of obedience sanctifies our actions, transforming the mundane into the majestic. It magnifies our smalls acts of obedience into consecrated acts of holiness.

Thank you for who you are.

I loved the good / not-so-good sacrifice examples. I loved that he qualified these statements, acknowledging that each circumstance is different. I love the note that striving for picture perfect FHE can make everyone miserable. Love that he referenced Charlie & the Chocolate Factory  and I especially appreciate this reminder:

Don't close your eyes and hearts to the simple and elegant beauties of each day's ordinary moments that make up a rich, well-lived life. 

The happiest people I know... while in pursuit of worthy goals, discover and treasure the beauty and sweetness of  the everyday moments. They are the ones who, thread by daily thread, weave the tapestry of gratitude and wonder throughout their daily lives.

Gettin' Down on Friday

I just need to copy the OT version of this
and prepare Rice Chex markers for Bingo.

Yesterday most of my day was sucked up with seminary prep. The lesson never did get to where I wanted it, but I'm okay with that -- can't hit them all out of the park. Fridays are scripture mastery game days and I've got most of it ready.

We we we so excited...

JohnCliff Is Forty

Now he's officially old... like me!
He is still such a kid, though.
I love that.

Whaddya Noah?

Today we talked about Noah and the ark, and it was good. After consideration of past successes and failures, I stuck to one theme for the entire class and worked the activities and discussion points into that theme. I tried harder to make it more active and varied to maintain attention. I had to lighten up a bit. What do you know? Making things more fun got better results.

Some of the things we did:
I borrowed a game from another teacher -- she had scripture mastery reference and clues on different animal cut-outs (one went on each back) and the students had to find the other person to make a matching pair.

Each of the 4 tribes had sheet of questions about Noah and the ark. They worked together to find the answers in Genesis 6 & 7. First tribe done got to open the treasure box -- Jehosaphat won. Yes, they chose their tribe names at the beginning of the year. The box held animal cookies.

We talked about cubits (elbow to fingertip) and compared football player measure Josh to petite Katlyn. Then we went outside to the parking lot and counted off 50 cubits -- the width of the ark.

We talked about how the ark is a type of Christ and the Atonement.

They laughed. They read. They listened.

It was awesome.

Little Victories

The Rainbow Connection

I'm climbing the learning curve with seminary lessons -- prep, teach, evaluate, repeat. I am inching closer to where I want to be and trying to focus on the good instead of getting tangled up in the coulda-shoulda-woulda. Truth be told, I'm feeling a bit less-than awesome about myself in general, so today I am going to indulge in some self-promotion. Feel free to play along at home.

When I took out the trash today (go me!) I noticed the glaring difference between the new A/C unit's trimmed back greenery and the creeping vines that have completely obscured the concrete slab for the old unit. So I got out the kiddie rake and the shears and hacked/dragged the ground cover back to where it belongs. I did this while still in my skirt from this morning. I'm cool like that.

It has been two weeks since The Lice, so I liberated the front room pillows and throws from their trash bag exile. Now the love seat and chair don't have to be ashamed of their nakedness. Sweet. The scandalously bare church pew in the family room is about to receive the same treatment.

One week following the initial tidy, the office is still presentable. Enough.

Thanks to me, the laundry room floor is cleared and you can safely pass through to the garage again.

Three hot pink memo boards are going up in Anna's room today. I will use newspaper cutouts to make sure they are straight. I will do this unaided, with my bare hands. And a hammer.

Tomorrow's seminary lesson is about Noah, so it's animal cookies for the treasure box. I didn't have an appropriately themed gluten-free treat for my celiac friend but then realized Skittles would work -- you know, "taste the rainbow."

I rock.

Expelliarmus!

Harry Potter has thoroughly disarmed my reluctant reader. She's in fourth grade now, and I was starting to despair. A hint of progress came last year with Diary of A Wimpy Kid but I was anxious to get her into full-sized books with complete pages of text. My recommendations, selected from family faves, were shot down.

Enter Harry. I think seeing the movie this summer helped a lot, because it was such a big deal. Anna picked up the first book a bit later and worked her way through it, proudly updating me on her progress. When she finished that one, she immediately ran to find the second book. She read that one faster, and now she is on the third.

It has always been my policy to read the book first, watch the movie second. But in this case, I think the movies provided the context and familiarity with strange names and vocabulary she needed to succeed. It is exciting to see her progress through this increasingly challenging series. I hope she continues to the end.

Then maybe she'll try some other family favorites. Acchio, bibliophilia!

Better

72 degrees!

Toilets fixed!

Garage swept!

Anna reading!

Lesson started!

!!!!

Fixed, Broke, Broken

The A/C finally got fixed. The warranty covered most of the cost of the new condenser -- we paid $310. The week before I got my brakes fixed. Firestone coupons helped a little.

I paid the yard guys for August, a five-week month. That kinda hurt. (He's allergic to the world and I cannot take the yard on, too...)

We paid from the dregs of our account. You know, the one depleted by the second car we replaced this year?

So I am not going to get a mini projector. I am going to let my seminary class watch things on this laptop instead. It's about the same screen size as those TVs in the library and I think I've figured out network access.

On Friday I discovered Anna had lice. (Seen her cute short 'do? Thanks, Delsa!) We treated everyone, combed and re-combed, did 14 loads of laundry at the laundromat and several at home and fell exhausted into bed. We all slept late on Saturday, and again today.

September has come and it looks like the fever has broken. It is 83 degrees outside (10:16pm) and I am happy. Until I read Utah bloggers. Writing how HOT August was and how nice and COOL it is at night and how they can start to wear BOOTS and favorite fall clothes. La la la la la la la... can't hear you.

I updated my seminary calendar (cross-referencing secretary and school versions) and plotted out the entire year's lesson plans (consulting the pacing schedule, teacher manual, and birthday list). It hurt my brain.

I started a "healthy eating plan" earlier this week. Then the lice thing happened and another issue I'm not gonna blog about. Needless to say, the "healthy eating plan" is shelved while I medicate my poor, lice-infested, sleep-deprived, cornstarch-dusting pathetic little self.

I am so grateful for the long weekend.