FunnyBlog

Lessons from the Easter Eggs
Everyone starts with smiles.
Caroline has the best “cheese” ever.
Sophia is a close second.

And how quickly they turn on you.

And turn some more.

 O.k. Caroline, you can have a turn.

Now everybody is happy.

Some like to eat. Some like to show off.
I prefer eating.
And then showing off.

Sophia gave this awesome talk in primary on Easter. She wrote it all by herself.


We are all like Easter eggs.

We are all like Easter eggs because when a chicken lays an egg it is white, smooth, and good to be eaten and it is like Heavenly Father is the chicken and we are the eggs, when Heavenly Father sent us down to earth we were white, smooth, and whole.
When we come to earth it is like we are in a package and our parents keep us in the safe package until we are eight. When we are eight and get baptized, we have to take care of our own egg.
When we sin our egg gets dirty and gross. Sometimes people sin so bad that it’s like their egg breaks apart and splatters all over the kitchen floor.
For the egg to go back to Heavenly Father, it has to be white pure and how it was when you came to earth. But, when we mess up our eggs, we can’t fix the egg by ourselves. If we tried to clean up our eggs ourselves it would just get more and more broken and make a bigger mess.
The only one who can fix us or forgive us (or our egg) is Jesus Christ. So when we sin, we have to ask for Jesus Christ to use the Atonement to fix our egg. The only way Jesus Christ could make it possible to fix our eggs was for Him to atone for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane and to die for us on the cross.
I want to keep my egg clean white and non-broken and I am very happy that Jesus Christ will fix my egg even when it gets dirty and disgusting and broken.


mac N cheese
Me to Abigail: Abigail, let me take a picture of you making mac n cheese.
Abigail: Why?
Me: Because I want to show people how you make it.
Abigail: Why?
Me: I don’t know.
Abigail: (walking away) Nobody cares about how I make mac n cheese mom.
Me: Yes they do. Are you cooking that too long? Or do you like it kind of soggy?
How do you like your mac n cheese anyway?
Abigail: I like my mac n cheese hot. (as she gives me that look)
Me: Hot? Do you mean hot like you or hot like a high temperature?
Abigail: (laughing as she puts the box of mac n cheese between me and the camera.)
Feliz Cinco De Mayo – the day of the hot sauce. Hot as in caliente.

Jam Making
A few weeks back our family studied
The Family: A Proclamation to The World.
This was a timely declaration made by our living prophet.
It is filled with wisdom and truth.
We discussed with the kids this line:
“Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”
We came up with the best ways our family could work on living these principles.
This is what the kids came up with:

 
Faith – Read scriptures daily.
Prayer – Everyone pray more often.
Repentence – Admitting when were wrong and saying sorry.
Forgiveness – Not being upset, loving in return.
Respect – Listening /Put ups instead of Put Downs
Love –  I cannot hurt /Breathe/Support Each Other
Compassion – Include Everyone
Work – Everyone Pitch In
Wholesome Recreational Activities – Activity Jar
 
As I pondered how to implement these things into our home I felt inspired that I needed to take the lead. I have personally been wanting to work on being actively engaged with the kids. I want to lead by example. I want to be more kind. I want to be more respectful and quiet. I want to work hand in hand.
 
I found some strawberries on sale last week.
99 cents for 2 quarts. 
That’s a steal.
The fruit was bought and so was the Sure-Jel.
It was time for some jam making.
 
I felt a feeling that instead of making jam alone that I should include the whole family.
I decided that we would forgo our typical sit down Family Home Evening lesson
and work together.
 
This turned out to be one of the best evenings we’ve spent together as a family.
We worked on the jam, each taking turns with the different jobs.
When we got through the kids burst out into a impromptu jam session.
We never work without music around here.
There was such a feeling of love and cooperation and industry.
I was so happy. 
We had Strawberry Cake for dessert and sat down to
sing, pray, and read from the scriptures about work.
The girls made up a great song.
I am so grateful to a God who listens to my prayers
and answers them.
He answers when I take time to talk to Him honestly
and to listen to Him when he talks back to me
through the Holy Spirit.
I love my family.
They are the best.
I am so glad God has given us tools to learn together and grow closer.
And now, every member of my family knows how to make jam,
but I doubt they will ever want to do it without someone with who they can jam at the same time.
What a sweet evening.
Oh and inquiring minds want to know, I am sure.
The homemade freezer jam recipe is a piece of cake.

Buy a box of sure-jel, a couple quarts of strawberries, and a lot of sugar, and you are good to go.
Make sure you have a freezer safe container.
And did I mention A LOT of sugar.
There is NO better jam in the world.
So yummy.
I’m going to have some now.
All the sudden I am starving.

Birthdays by Lindsey
My friend Lindsey is crazy about birthdays. 
She remembers EVERYONE’s birthday.
I mean EVERYONE.
She probably remembers the birthdays
of each of the
Presidents of the United States.
Seriously,
she’s got them all memorized.
She also has the most amazing internal GPS.
You can never get lost when she is around.
When I lived in Knoxville, I called her often,
gave her the name of a street I was on, 
and begged her to help me find my way home.
She would talk me through it.
Every turn.
I miss her.
A LOT.
I feel kind of lost without her.
Even though I am sure I can call her from
my new hometown,
and she could still somehow find a way
to help me find my way home,
physically and spiritually.
Back to birthdays,
Lindsey gives gifts even when there is no party
obligating her to do so.
The gifts are always perfectly personal.
She makes her kids special meals for
breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
She also bakes cakes.
Lots of cakes.
And she decorates them.
Here are several of her wonderful creations.
Don’t they get your creative juices flowing?

Do Your Duty

At church on Sunday, Relief Society meeting proved for a really good laugh. I just have to share.

The lesson was about how our testimonies evolve. The teacher asked us to think about our first experiences where we felt God was talking to us through the Holy Ghost.

This one woman talked about how she couldn’t remember ever not believing in the truthfulness of the gospel and that God was watching over her. She recalled how she could remember when she was very young, toddler age. They didn’t have primary songs then, but would sing the hymns. One day at Primary, the children sang Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel.

She said that for us to understand, we needed to know that her mom would say they needed to go potty for #1, and for #2, her mom would always say, “do your duty”.

So, now, the lyrics to Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel.

Put your shoulder to the wheel, push along.
Do your duty with a heart full of song.
We all have work. Let no one shirk.
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

Minutes of laughter ensued. Minutes. The more you thought about it the more you laughed.

When everyone calmed down, the woman said that she didn’t think it was funny as a kid, she truthfully thought how wonderful it was that God watched over us so much that he even cared how we did our duty.

More laughter.

I love the women of the church. They are hilarious.

How Great Thou Art


When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home- what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!

I have loved Carrie Underwood since her days on Idol. Someone recently shared this video on facebook and it made me feel like worshiping. I can say that only because I have lived in the South. Those Southern folk are good at worshipin and ministerin.

I love my God. He is a mighty God. He is all powerful. As I have focused on my relationship with Christ I have found myself overcoming my fear of death and really looking forward to the day that I will once again meet my Savior Jesus Christ.

This old hymn How Great Thou Art has been a favorite since the days that I was a Mormon missionary. It was a hymn that we sang at a lot of baptismal services because it was usually known by most of our converts from different faiths.

While listening I got thinking about How Great Thou Art. How great is our God. I sometimes think that we don’t trust Him enough. Think about it. He is all powerful. He can handle every situation in our lives. Recently while talking to a bunch of people about the third step among the 12, I reflected on my trust in God and how it has changed. I used to think I trusted in God, but I have felt the power of really trusting. Giving it all back to God.

I shared with the ladies that the reason God wants us to trust Him so badly is because He wants us to give our burdens to Him. He wants us to trust Him enough to take care of them, so that we don’t have to. I used to think trusting in God was a one time choice, but I have come to learn that it’s a process. It’s one choice at a time. One problem at a time. One moment at a time. Sometimes I do well and sometimes I don’t. I usually know I haven’t done too well when I find myself fretting, worrying, feeling depressed or overwhelmed.

God is indeed a wondrous God. He is more than just great. He is perfect. He is powerful. He can handle our problems in a bat of an eyelash. We just have to let Him. And when we do, we can then sing How Great Thou Art in a whole new understanding because we will see that he shared His power with us and made us strong. All because we trusted Him to do so.

And my P.S. is: people if you believe in this mighty God enough to give a standing ovation for one of His hymns….please please please cover up your boobs and thighs. Do you really think He wants you, his daughter, walking around looking like a tramp? Are you giving that ovation to the performance or the God? 

I know someone is not going to resist calling me judgmental so let me clarify. I have no problem with people who do dress this way. I used to dress like that when I was 14 and didn’t have any respect for myself. If you show up at my door in a bikini, I will hug  you and tell you I love you, but I will also try my darnedest to keep you out of my husband’s peripheral vision. And my daughters’. Because God  is a great God and I truly believe he cares about modesty. And it isn’t enough to just proclaim that He is great but we need to show Him in our every day decisions that we really do love and respect Him and his commandments to us.


That Ain’t Right
I recently enjoyed a post on one of my new favorite blogs.
It was entitled
That Ain’t Right.
I just had to steal the post title 
for this picture that I took a few days ago.
I stealthily snapped the photo 
as LG and I were pulling out of our driveway.
If I took the picture from the front 
the owners would have known what I was up to.
So I did the best I could from behind.
It’s a good thing I saved the dog 
and the owner the shame of their faces on my blog.
Anonymity is really the right and kind thing to do.
But do you know what the really right thing to do is?
How about NOT taking your dog for a walk
while he is wearing the cone of shame.
I think it is just cruel.
Really.

Mommy Giggles


I think I may be the only mom in the universe that allow my older children to take magic markers to the face of my younger one. Caroline doesn’t seem to mind. Wasn’t she a cute alien last Halloween? This photo makes me laugh.

I was recently contacted by Heather Matthews from Mommy Giggles encouraging me to share a photo for their new blog. I was more than happy to oblige, but was disappointed in myself when I realized that I don’t have enough funny photos on my site. Stay tuned for more funny photos. I’ve got to up my game. I gave Heather several choices to choose from. Go here to see which one was chosen. Of course they had to choose the one that humiliates me instead of the ones that humiliate my kids.

Anyhow, I am going to be one of MommyGiggles most staunch followers because I think their blog has some real potential. Not only for their own monetization but for laughs for you and me. I encourage all of you to go and share your funniest pictures. I also encourage you all to start looking for more funny photo ops. We all know that us mommies can always use as many giggles as we can get.