Living my Religion

I hit the motherload.
Just minutes ago I hit the motherload. Under one of the seats of my minivan, just waiting for a diligent mother, was a lost Barbie DVD, the pre-teen’s favorite flowered flip-flop, and the toddler’s teeny pink croc. Wow, two pairs of shoes have been rightfully reunited and that makes this mother very very happy!! I won’t tell you about all the discarded Easter candy wrappers, and candy (some chocolate) and cheez-its and fruit snacks and french fries I had to wade through to hit my motherload, it would just be embarrassing and may make you question this mother’s luck. Or worse, my ability to teach my children hygeine. “Cleanliness is next to Godliness, dears. (In my sweetest tone)  How many times do I have to tell you?” (In not such a sweet tone) No, let’s just focus on how totally lucky I am.
I was on hands and knees with my hindside perfectly wedged between the carseat and the van door searching diligently for one thing and one thing alone: the pacifier. The dreaded yet much needed pacifier. I am not talking about the baby needing it, although she is addicted. But, once again, this post is about me and my good fortune, not my children and all that is wrong with them because of me. No, I am the one that needs that pacifier. If it’s up to me, she will have it until she is five, and in kindergarten, cause let’s face it, my house is loud, and getting louder every day. 
My four girls could take on my family of upbringing without a worry. Who cares that we’d be outnumbered by three? We would win a decibel contest…with flying musical instruments.  I am talking by the brass section or even the percussion. So, every bit helps in the hushing of my brood, and that teeny pacifier is my saving grace. And for some reason the baby likes to play fetch with mommy. The little monster. She knows when I am most needing silence. And she always seems to know when mommy is most desperate for quiet. Which only happens when we are down to the last pacifier. You would never believe me when I tell you that we really do own 6 of them. You especially wouldn’t believe me when I tell you that at least once a day, we can’t find a single one of them. I would love to share all my sane moments with the inventor of the pacifier. I do have one question though, why couldn’t God send an nondetachable perfectly matching built in one for each and every baby? Those darn velcro tie things can’t withstand the wrath of my 2 year old.
Back to the motherload. Mother’s Day was last weekend. I scored. My amazing husband (and I guess my kids too) got me a beautiful silver ring, a pedicure and a Costco membership. How could I ever complain, right? Wrong. Do you know what my best mother’s day gift was? Remember I am the luckiest girl alive. My motto is all or nothing…especially when it comes to cleaning. My children’s real gift to me on Mother’s Day was a whole sippy cup of milk…wait for it….dumped everywhere (and I mean everywhere)…wait for some more… on the second pew back… in the middle of Sacrament meeting. On the baby. On her blanket. On the pew. On the carpet. On every single toy and every single snack baggy and every single page of every single board-book. Even on the hymn book. You see, I am the luckiest mother alive and Abigail had helped get the baby’s “shut up and be happy bag” ready for church as part of Operation Pamper Mom Day. She did a great job. She just forgot one thing: the plastic piece that holds the milk inside the cup.
This luckiest mother alive…and smartest mother alive ..sent her hubby out with the screaming baby. The baby had accomplished her role in helping to spread (or should I say pour) the joy..everywhere and was upset that she had no milk left. And who knows where the pacifier was. It’s always hiding when we need it. I used a diaper and the dry portions of the baby’s blankie to soak up as much as I could. And then I took out my baby wipes and had sanitizer for the rest of the sour prevention duties. In the background I could hear people. They were faint in volume compared to my task at hand, but I think they were talking about how wonderful their mothers were. I am not quite sure why they thought they were so wonderful, but I have a good idea, or two, or three. 
All the while I am thinking, “Oh how lucky I am to be a mother. Someday when I am dead, my kids may get up in church and talk about how wonderful I am.” They won’t even recall this fiasco. They won’t say “only a mother can handle a situation like that.” And as I am having this conversation with myself, I finished the clean up job and found the pacifier under the pew. I simultaneously had the thought that they won’t have to remember this. No they won’t have to remember any part of it, because hopefully, if I have any luck at all, they will someday get to live it. The motherload indeed. I couldn’t stop smiling the rest of the day.

And here I am a few days later. Once again, a pink croc is missing and we are down to the last pacifier. Yes, the cycle will continue on forever. As long as there are women out there who are willing to have children.

My Joy is Full

When LG and I had been married about three weeks, we attended the temple together. Once inside we went our separate ways for an hour of learning and service. He went with other men and I went with other women. While there, one statement played over and over again in my head, as if God was trying to tell me something.

“Have joy in your posterity.”

When I rejoined LG as we walked back to our car, he said, “Alice, you are being mighty quiet, do you have something to tell me?” There was no way that I was about to tell LG that I thought God was trying to tell us to have children, when we had only been married three weeks. I said, “I’m fine.” LG’s reply, stunned me: “Alice I felt it every time too, and the temple worker even said ‘Son, now go and have joy in your posterity’ as I was leaving.”

My jaw dropped. God had been talking to me!! And He spoke to LG at the same time so that there would be no confusion or arguing. It took me 6 months of wrestling with the Lord until I was ready to listen. I guess we all act like Jonah at times. I knew if we were to have children so soon that I would more than likely have to forgo my greatest desire, which was to finish college. But, I chose to trust that God knew what He was talking about. I was pregnant shortly after our first anniversary.

Almost fourteen years later, I am still waiting for my chance to finish college. I have been the main nurturer of the children while my husband has gotten all the education a man could ever want. It hasn’t even been a sacrifice really. I so appreciate the fact that my husband has busted his tail to play the role of student/provider and has 100% supported me in having as much time as I want with our kids. I don’t even try to pretend that I know what God is doing, but I do know that I have the rest of my life to finish my coveted college degree and I will never regret its postponement as I think of all the moments that I have been able to appreciate.

I love my children and am so grateful for them. I am proud to be their mother. There is no joy greater than the joy I feel with my husband and our posterity.

Sometimes the joy is so full that it takes me breathe away.

More on joy in posterity here.

Following Christ

I have been catching up on my General Conference talks.

I love the one-liners.
The sentences that ooze truth.
Especially when it’s a truth you have already learned.

Thank you Elder Gonzalez for this gospel message.
I hope you don’t mind that I present it in form of photo.

As you all know, I love the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know my love is the greatest motivation in my life.
And my greatest strength in overcoming weakness.

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.


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.

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.