Good thing it is already 10:30am

because I would have felt really guilty calling this breakfast:

Despite the claim that it is a "good source of calcium and Vitamin D" and "nutrition to help your kids grow up strong" the second ingredient on the list is SUGAR! And I will tell you, you can taste it! At first I thought it sure looks a lot like dog food, and then I tasted it - it was candy! Yeah! What easier way to get kids to eat breakfast than by crumbling up their favorite candy bar and putting it in a bowl with a little milk. Delicious! Don't worry, the pumped your regular Hershey's bar full of all sorts of minerals and nutrients so it is not just candy. With a list of vitamins A, B, C, B6, B2, B1, Folic Acid, B12, D3, I am not sure if I even needed to take my multivitamin this morning. From now on I am switching to Reese's for all my nutrition needs.

I am the guilty one that bought it on sale and it is the perfect not-totally-guilt-ridden sweet pick-me-up. And I fed the kids multi-grain Cheerios and juice. Yesterday I made oatmeal. So, today I have a nice brunch....definately not breakfast snack. Hey, there's a good idea- the perfect Church snack! Just put it in a baggy and you wouldn't hear anything from your kids until the 'cereal' ran out. ;)

Just my size

For the past two days Faith has created a private eating restaurant for little people. using one stool as the table and then setting another for her brother to sit on, she improvises a Jack-in-the-Box as her seat. Actually it was the Jack that started the whole project. I suppose that there is nothing more exciting that sitting on a seat that at any moment may say "Pop goes the weasel!"
Yesterday I finally just set their lunch on the makeshift table and let them enjoy their food there. I sat at the table observing for awhile and then felt too silly and decided to join them. Pulling up my own bathroom step-stool to stand on I ate relaxedly with the kids on their level. How plesant. I can't wait until we actually get their kid table out of storage and then can enjoy every meal on just the right sized table.

Use what your mamma gave you

In my case that happens to be semi-wavy hair and a great jaw-line.

Just plain trashy

I have been rather involved mentally lately with the idea of being a real bonafide self-sustainable person. With new ideas pouring into my head from good books I have been looking around alot. I have had a couple of super successful trips to the Goodwill to boot! I like giving to others and using used stuff that has a story.




Here's what got up my gander: I live in a rather large apartment complex. There are dumpsters all over the place, and they are always full! Full of things that are totally useful but because someone is to lazy just to get a donation van to come pick it up they throw it into the landfill. Today I was appalled to see not one, but TWO perfectly good carseats in the dumpster!!! I just donated one of our old ones at our storage unit for a lady that runs a foster care home and always need things for kids. Come on people, she could have used them!!! I watched a guy on Saturday throw a beautiful stroller into the dumpster. I actually had the gumption to say something to him as I saw home hoisting it over the edge. "You all done having kids?" "Yep and we have grown out of this stage..." Before I got to "you could probably donate that to a kids shelter" or "I'll take that" he had thumped it into the bottom of the dumpster.

And that is where I am a weak hypocrite. I could have just popped into the trash and got out all the above mentioned items. Heaven knows I wasn't too bashful to do so when I was a kid (we had college apartments behind our house and we found many a cool treasure in the dumpsters just over the fence, not to mention inherited a lot of dumpster cats for pets). But I didn't. I just shook my head and muttered to myself and kept driving past. Argh! Half the time the really good furniture and stuff is not even in the dumpster, it is totally to the side, I could just load it in the back of my van and take it to Goodwill or someplace worthy. Just today there was a stellar plush velvet red sectional between our dumpsters. I paused twice to look at it in my comings and goings to think if there was really anything cool I could do with it...ARGH!

I suppose recognition is the first step in change. What out world! I am a newly devoted second-hand save-the-landfill gal, starting first thing tomorrow, or next week, or maybe as soon as we move out of this trashy apartment complex, ah heck, how about a new year's resolution?

Self Smarted yet not too Crafty

In preparation for birthdays and Christmas (Merry Christmas by the way) I have been trying to find the cheapest and neatest way to print all my digital journaling. Such journaling includes word documents, blogging, and digital photos.
I have found that Office Max and Staples are surprisingly not the most efficient way to go (so there Josh).
I have also found that there are a plentitude of digital scrapbooking sites that claim to make putting your pictures and stories into a cute format simple be not so simple for the un-crafty even if there are basic templates. I need the 'cute-sy stuff for dummies' version of all that jazz.
I have recently found two simple things: Blog2Print and Blurb BookSmart. Blog2Print is not as cheap as Blurb, but it is EASY!! Such a qualification makes it worth the money to me (even if I have been sitting on printing it for a couple of days hoping that I could got a cheaper route with the same amount of ease). Blurb is super cool and uses much the same formating stuff that I am used to on a Mac. In fact, if I were to research it I am sure that I would find that it is really some sort of Mac application thing that I haven't known of until I just self-smarted myself.
Printing all these out will kinda qualify as a homemade gift, at least a very personal one. ;)

Relating to the sons of Mosiah

Elder Jeffery R Holland mentioned once that there had perhaps been one day in his life since his serving a full time mission that he had not thought about it, although he could not recall what day that might be. I hadn't realized it, but I too have thought of my 18 month full time mission to Belo Horizonte Brazil almost, if not every, day since that first day in February 2003 I watched the sunrise through the plane window revealing a country I didn't know, but a people that I knew I loved.

We were discussing in institute today about the sons of Mosiah desiring to serve in the Lamanite nation, despite them being their arch enemies and having sworn to kill any Nephite that came into their land, because their love for them was so great. comprising chapters 17 through 26 in the book of Alma we get an account of their 14 years of service in their hostile land. Our teacher pointed out in class that missions are not easy, yet we often hear so many returning say it was 'the best two years of their life.' There is only one reason for that - love.

I had always desired to serve voluntarily as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It has so shaped the person I am and the values I have. The gratitude I felt for the great joys in my life naturally led me to submit my application to become a full-time representative of what I know to be true. I received my call to serve a few weeks after submitting my papers to Church headquarters. The big white enevelope arrived in the student union center at BYU-Hawaii where I was attending school. Luckily I had checked my mail and lunch time and most of my roommates were around so we went to the cafeteria to open the enevelope. I was anxious, excited, and really scared. This was a huge commitment. Someone else (gratefully a prophet) had picked where I was going to spend the next year and a half of my life, whether I thought it was a cool location or not. I opened the enevelope, saw the greeting letter and skipped to the part that told the location. Brazil. My head told me I was not so excited about that. Why? It just didn't seem like one of the places I ever wanted to go in my life. And then something amazing happened - almost like a magic wand passing from the tip of my head down to my toes I felt an overwhelming love. I loved a multitude of people in that place - Belo Horizonte Brazil - instantly. I can't deny it to this day. I felt in that moment a great gift that would carry me through some really tough times over the next 18 months. I was caught speechless and almost suspended in time, reveling in that feeling, unable to join in the jumping for joy of my roommates or adequately stutter out the place to my parents on the phone. I was falling in love, or even better, was being filled with love for Belo Horizonte - beautiful horizon.

"Now these are the circumstances which attended them in their journeyings, for they had many afflictions; they did suffer much, both body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much labor in the spirit....and they fasted much and prayed much that the Lord would grant unot them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren,..to the knowledge of the truth. And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted. And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among they brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hand unto the salvation of many souls."

I don't know about 'many souls.' I do know of a few that I was able to be in an instrument in their coming to the knowledge of the truth. I do know that the Lord sends us His love for people all the time. I haven't had such a physically prominent rush of love for God's children as I did the day I received my call to serve in Brazil, but I have felt that gushy sort of love in my heart for people all around me. And despite the difficulties I may have faced as a missionary, and even my honest distaste for some places in Brazil, I love the Brazilian people. Especially those that happen to live in Belo Horizonte, Vespasiano, and Tres Coracoes.

Humble for the Hope of Heaven

Two 'H' words have really been on my mind and heart lately. Hope and Humble. I have really felt like there is much to hope for in our lives, but never realized that obtaining a sure testimony of that simple principle would be so challenging. And what a beautiful word it is! I keep telling Josh I need to get pregnant so I can name the next girl Hope, he thinks I am cheesey. I love it; I love knowing that there is a great Hope for us all; that the Lord loves us all enough to give us chance after chance to be happy and if we just hold on a bit longer there will be so much coming even if the now is confusing. In the Book of Mormon I was reading this morning it mentions that we are "wanderers in a strange land," fumbling around in this world knowing and hoping for the next. Not to say that we begrudge this whole experience, we simple can hope for a better. That hope comes through Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. It is true and it is lovely and feels so beautiful.

The next 'H' that has struck me lately is Humble. I have come to love this quality more and more. It is not the kicked dog kind of humble I am talking about, that image you get of someone that is humble because of circumstances and the seem to cower a little around others. No. It is the confident humble that strikes me. Knowing exactly where you stand with God and therefore knowing exactly how much room you have for improvement. So often in scripture, as I have been paying attention to the word humble, is it used in context with rejoicing. Rejoicing, really! Just this morning I read within Alma's great sermon in chapter 13 "and now my brethren (which is such an endearing term), I would that ye should humble yourselves before God, and bring forth fruit meet for repentance, that you may also enter into that rest." What rest? Well look in the previous verses and you see that Alma is teaching them that there are many even "eceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God." None of that buisness about only a few living with God. No way! Be humble and try your best to repent and you are very much wanted to be with your Lord! Here's today's favorite from that sermon:
But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye man not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering: having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.

Did you catch some of those glorious phrases? "watch and pray continually" "be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble" "Having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life" "having the love of God always in your hearts" All of those things are gifts. Great gifts. Loving gifts. And they are real promises.

I love the combination of hope and humble. They are a great part of the becoming that this life is all about. That part of becoming that makes me motivated to change with love and because of love.