The Rest of November

Blake had a birthday at the beginning of November! I accidentally brought the wrong number candles so we had to a mix of number and single candles on his oreo cheesecake.

 Brooke made Blake a shirt for his birthday. She was so excited to give it to him. It's a missionary shirt.

 One day in early November it snowed. Grant was so, so excited! He kept begging me to go outside and play in it.

 I grade papers for the high school English department and had a lot of work to do since it was nearing the end of their grading period. Grant actually took this picture of me. The couch is my "home office"

 I finally put the papers away and Grant got to go outside. He was so happy!

The boys love playing with Blake. Even trying to walk across the floor can be turned into a game.

 Grant and Brooke have a special relationship. Brooke is pretty patient with him. Grant loves to pretend that Brooke is a neigh-neigh (a horse) and likes to her to carry him around.

 Grant loves to sit on the counter and watch the air-popcorn machine!

 One morning I told the boys I needed to do my chores and that one of my jobs was to bring in firewood. Porter volunteered to do it and did everything all by himself! He is my project kid and loves to stay busy doing some kind of job.

Giving Thanks and Getting Into the Spirit

We hosted Thanksgiving this year at our home. My mom and brother Jared drove out to spend some time and eat with us. A few years ago I accidentally cooked the turkey upside down (breasts down in the pan) and it actually turned out awesome! The meat was really moist and tender. So this year, we decided to cook the turkey that way again. The only hard part is trying to flip the turkey over once it's cooked. Not only is the meat super hot, but the pan's half full of turkey broth. I decided to wrap my oven mitts in plastic bags so all the juices would ruin them. It was a funny moment Jared caught on camera.

 Porter was so excited to get to eat a turkey lunch at school before Thanksgiving break. The kids made little pilgrim hats to wear to the lunch.

 He also told his school class that he was thankful for his cousins.

 The day after Thanksgiving we attended our community's "Holly Days" It's a huge free indoor/outdoor event. We got free french fries at the conference center then each of the kids got a balloon animal.

 We stayed in to jump in the bouncy houses then headed outside to get some kettle corn and hot chocolate.

 None of the kids were interested in riding the ponies, but they liked watching them!

 We met up with some friends to watch the "light parade" down main street at dusk. The weather that day was super warm--near 60 degrees so it was nice to be sitting outside and not freezing!

 Saturday we attended a showing of the movie "Coco". It was part of the kids Christmas Party put on by the company Blake works for. After the movie we headed up on the mountain to find our family Christmas tree.

 It was definitely colder up on the mountain and it didn't take us long to find some snow.

 The kids were good troopers and didn't mind doing a little hiking through the forest.

 We found our tree and were ready to take it back to the truck.

 Porter offered to drag the tree for us all by himself!

 We couldn't leave without having a snowball fight!

 The kids were really into helping me decorate the tree this year. It was really cute and fun to watch their enthusiasm as we got our home ready for the Christmas season.

Brooke's Veterans Day Program

Brooke is part of her school's choir. It's made up of a 3rd-5th graders and she gets up early 1-2 mornings a week to make it to practice before school starts. They learn new songs and some choreography to go with some of the songs. In November they did a Veteran's Day program and invited Veterans to attend so they could honor them. 

 The veterans who attended with the choir

Finding Christ in the BOM: Week 2

I'm a little behind posting my weekly thoughts on my experience this week reading 10 pages of the Book of Mormon each day until Christmas Eve.

I noticed this week that the initial excitement/ "spiritual feast" I felt during the first week started to wane a little. The desire to complete the challenge was still there, but as I read some difficult verses (chapters of the book of Isaiah being quoted and 77 verses in Jacob of the parable of the wild olive branches) it was really hard for me to focus and comprehend everything. Parts of it were beautiful and other parts I had no idea what Isaiah was talking about. I hate to admit it, but those parts dragged and I found myself mentally counting down the pages until I'd be done with that section.

But then I made my own connections to my experiences reading to how Christ works in my own life. Sometimes the things we go through in life are difficult to understand. We have trials that we can't wait to be over or difficult times in our lives where time seems to drag and it feels like this "season" will never end. But, just like in these sections of scripture, Christ is there--we might just have to look little harder to find Him. And it's okay if we don't understand everything--Whether it's the words of the prophet Isaiah or situations in our lives, all we can do is try.

Building a relationship with Him is like any other relationship: it takes time, it takes patience, and it takes work. A relationship with our Savior takes dedication. During the first week I was doing so good reading my scriptures earlier in the day when I was more alert. Part of my problem during week 2 was that life got busy and I pushed off to what should have been a priority to the end of the day and tried to read those ten pages before bed. It wasn't working so well for me. Now that week three has started, I've been better about dedicating time to read my scriptures earlier in the day again.

Another thought I've been pondering last week had to do with when I have trials in my life, mostly when I'm overcome with huge bout of frustration, my first instinct is to push everything away. Why even bother going to church? I'll just stay home. I'm upset so I'm not going to read my scriptures tonight, I'll watch this TV show instead because that will make me feel better.  I can see now how that is counterproductive. It's during those times in my life I should be clinging to the scriptures, to the words from Sabbath day lessons, to my personal prayers-- to find that peace I need to make it through my frustrations. The world is LOUD and says "turn to me, I will fill your life with temporary distractions so you can forget your troubles for a  moment" Our Savior is quiet and says "I will give you peace. I will give you comfort. I will help shoulder your burdens and make them bearable."

It makes the words of this scripture so true--it's my favorite one describing our Savior and when I got to it in 2 Nephi when Isaiah is being quoted it was already highlighted. I wish I could highlight it a thousand times because I love it so much:

Finding Christ in the BOM: Week 1

It's interesting to me that since starting this challenge a week ago, a lot of my thoughts have revolved around a comment a friend of mine made during a lesson we had at church on the Resurrection.

During this lesson, which was on the Resurrection because it was almost Easter, my friend Becca made the comment that she loved how it was a woman who was the first to see the Resurrected Christ. Mary was permitted this blessing because she had gotten up early and went to his tomb, wanting to be close to him. Likewise, what are we doing in our daily lives to actively seek  out Christ? How can we rise and look for him each day?

I have been thinking about this comment for the past seven months. In my own personal life, I know that I don't rise and look for Christ as often as I should. Most of the time I rise and check for missed texts or emails, then look at my social media accounts before my kids wake up. I would leave my scripture reading until right before bed, when I was tired and often just wanting to get it over with.

I knew going into this challenge I was going to have to change my reading habits to accommodate the time it would take to read 10 pages each day. While I can't say that I immediately start reading my scripture as soon as I wake up, I do read my scriptures earlier in the day and I love the affect its had. I can a tell a difference in an added measure of the spirit that I have with me throughout the day. On Saturday I didn't read in the morning and as the day progressed I felt myself getting frustrated and upset about some set backs I was experiencing. I was filled with a lot of contention and anger and all of a sudden the thought occurred to me: "You need to read your scriptures; you haven't read them yet today." Not that reading solved my problems, but I needed to feel that peace and reassurance that God knows me and is aware of my trials that comes through reading His words.

Some other things I noticed while reading this week: The Book of Mormon REALLY IS another Testament of Jesus Christ. Whenever I heard that before, my mind would always jump to 3 Nephi where Christ shows himself to the people of the Americas. But really, in first few chapters of the book, there are prophecies of His birth and role as our Savior and Redeemer. I have loved seeing all the references to Him and to our Heavenly Father. There are so many! I never realized just how many until I started this challenge.

Another thing I've loved is a fresh perspective while reading. I've grown up my whole life hearing the stories in the scriptures and reading the Book of Mormon at church and at home. I feel like I needed this fresh perspective of searching for references to God and Jesus Christ to make the words and stories come alive for me again and gain some new understanding.

Where Are You Christmas?

For the last several holiday seasons I’ve struggled to find that magical Christmas Spirit I once felt as a child. The decorations have seemed a little too gaudy and there’s so much pressure to have the cutest, most overdone tree/yard display. The early Christmas ads online have become so annoying with proclamations that the only way your family can have a merry Christmas is with the latest and greatest product.

Mostly, my longing for rekindling the Christmas Spirit has come from the craziness that evolved within the walls of my own home. No matter how early I try to prepare, the holiday season is always CRAZY-busy and more than often not, the well-meaning activities and parties add more stress than joy for me. Add to that three kiddos looking forward to Santa’s visit with excitement and make the days leading up to Christmas almost unbearable on my sanity when they ask for the thousandth time “Is it Christmas yet?”

This is not a post about giving up the parties and protesting the giving of neighbor gifts. This is about my AH-HA moment I had while attending a “ladies night out” celebration at a local store in early October.

The air had just turned crisp and I was excited that Halloween would soon be coming. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I know some people feel it’s too scary and gruesome, but I don’t view it that way at all. I never realized why I loved Halloween so much until I had this epiphany.

I walked into the store and wandered around, and even though the entire store was on sale, I didn’t really seeing anything that I “had to have”. Eventually I found myself standing in front of a small display of wooden Christmas ornaments. I love anything that depicts the Nativity and I picked an ornament off the shelf that spoke to me that night.

Silly how a simple act can have such a profound effect on one’s spirit.  As I walked back to my car, the ornament in hand, I had tears in my eyes. There, in that parking lot at the beginning of October, I felt the strongest feeling of the Christmas Spirit I had felt in a long time.

The reason I had been struggling to feel the magic of the Christmas season was because I had not taken time for myself to rekindle it. Of course, I love reading the story of the Nativity in the Bible and singing the Christmas Hymns each year. Those always warmed my heart and sparked the Spirit of Christmas inside me. But relying on those things alone would not keep that spirit with me and turn it into the inferno I sought after.

Holding that ornament in my hand, I realized I needed to take the time to get to know my Savior again on a personal level. After all, it is His birth we celebrate. And not just His birth, but His life. Not just sent to earth to be born, but sent to save all mankind through His teachings, example, atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection.

And even though I knew all of this on a surface level, I had been neglecting to know it on a personal level. In order to celebrate Him properly, I need to know Him.

At the very essence of the Christmas Spirit is something our Savior taught: Love One Another. Love for our fellow men and love for those close around us. For some, showing that love means giving gifts, giving service, or giving monetary donations. It’s why I believe it’s so easy for kids to feel that magic at Christmastime. Their tender spirits are tuned into the love they feel in their families and in the community that is shared so abundantly during this time of year.

Which goes back to why Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. After being filled with these feelings, I looked at Halloween a little differently this year. Halloween is a time when our community comes together to do something for others, even if it’s just handing out one piece of candy. That feeling of giving bleeds into November as we reflect on our blessings and what we have to be grateful for. And as all our blessings can be traced back to our Heavenly Father, it’s the perfect way to turn our hearts to the greatest blessing we could ever ask for: a tiny baby who would grow up to save us all from sin and allow us to return to live with Him and our loved ones again.

I am not against getting swept up in holiday parties, baking treats, or exchanging presents. What I need to do for myself, as to not get caught up in my to-do list during the Holidays, is to take time for myself to get to know my Savior personally. I can do this by meditating, reflecting on blessings, and reading His words. This needs to be a deliberate thing, not just something I do “when I have time” or only on Sunday as I sing the Christmas hymns.

I’d had this inkling in my spirit to act on my feelings and it all came together a few weeks ago. I serve as a Young Women leader in my ward.  At the end of October, the group of women whom I serve with got together to discuss an idea one of the other leaders had. She suggested that starting November 5^th we challenge all of the girls in our group to read ten pages of The Book of Mormon daily. Doing this would mean we’d start the book on November 5^th and finish on Christmas Eve. As we read, we will highlight anytime Christ is mentioned. At the end of reading, we will get together to share our favorite scriptures and testimonies of how our relationship with our Savior has grown. How fitting this suggestion was as it is exactly what I need.

I am excited to start this journey of getting to know my Savior better starting on November 5^th and plan to deliberately find time each day to read, reflect, and then act on the promptings I receive. I know that doing so will help me find more joy in the Holidays and give me a gift more precious than anything I could find wrapped underneath the Christmas tree.

Thankful for my family!

This quote by Gordon B. Hinckley has become one of my favorites. As Blake and I near 15 years of marriage, I can honestly say there is no one else I would rather have by my side.