Thankful for...

I am thankful for trials whenever, however they come, big or small. I love this quote from Elder Paul V. Johnson's April 2011 General Conference talk, "[Trials] are vitally important to the process of putting on the divine nature. If we handle these afflictions properly, they will be consecrated for our gain.


Elder Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. … All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire."

I have been thinking a lot about the trials in my life - as I have been teaching seminary I have been revisiting the teachings of some great men and women in the Old Testament. I have felt again the hand of the Lord in my life as I take on the tasks and hard things of this life. I also see the joy and love from my Heavenly Father as He is there beside me through everything. I hope that how I choose to experience the trials in my life will do as Elder Whitney teaches - build me, purify my heart, expand my soul and make me more charitable and tender.

Hilary Weeks has a new music video called "Beautiful Heartbreak." I love it! There are two women featured throughout the video. Stephanie Nielsen, who survived a plane crash with her husband and was burned over 80% of her body. And Mariama Kallon, who lost all of her family and everything she owned in a civil war raging in West Africa. I have heard Mariama speak twice now. I love her story and her courage and her spirit. One thing that stood out to me was how she uses her scriptures as her personal therapist. I have done that many times in my life. But I am sure there are many more times when I have not turned to Him first - a lesson that she taught me and I have been trying to do over the last two years.




My trials have become "beautiful heartbreaks" in my life. I am who I am because of the hard things I have had to face. Facing the hard things with God on my side has made me stronger and for that I am very grateful!

Some lovin from my little ones

The other day I decided to stop by Toshia's house after I dropped off the high school kids. It was kind of early but I knew she'd be up because she had to get Adrian out the door to school. It had been a couple of days since I had seen the little ones and I was missing them. When I knocked and then went in I was greeted by two of the happiest little faces you could imagine. They loved on me and were fighting over who got to be held. I just loved it! I was having a not so good morning and I knew if I could just get a hug from these little ones my day would go a lot smoother. I ended up having a fabulous day and I know it is because I got some sugar from these little smiling faces!!!!

This weeks little craft project

These are not the best pictures but I think you can tell what I did. I have lots of music - I am talking more music than ever gets played. But being a piano teacher I have to have access to it for my students. I have half of it stored in a dresser and that keeps it out of sight. This music was always just piled on the shelf and kind of cluttered looking. I have been trying to clean up the little piles of clutter around the house. I saw magazine holders like these done on a blog. The difference is the way I put the tags on. They used metal tag holder thingys that you can get at a scrapbook store. I didn't have enough and wanted this project to be cheap. So I thought about it for a while and came up with putting music paper on a clothes pin and then a burlap and lace flower on that. I used my typewriter to type up the tags and there you go. It looks so nice on the shelf and cost about $6.00 for ten of them.


Basically I got magazine holders from IKEA (5 for $1.99) and covered them in burlap. I used spray glue. I have not used this product before but Toshia uses it all the time and it worked pretty good - just a little messy on my hands. Next time I would wear gloves. Then made the clothes pin clips and hot glued them on the spine. Super easy!

Now I am working on the cutest apron for Halloween. We dress up for bunco night and I don't usually dress up but this witches apron was to cute to pass up. Maybe I'll get a picture.....

A Mormon for Christ

Yesterday there seemed to be a lot of chatter out on the news and radio about the fact that Mormons were part of a cult and therefore not Christian. This is not new to me. I have heard it over and over again. While listening to the radio yesterday for about 5 minutes Noah heard what was being said and he said to me, "Mom, you know the doctrine, you should call and and set them straight!". His comment has stuck with me all evening and into today. Knowing how long you have to wait to get through on the radio (I've had called in before about other issues) I really did not have the time right then to do that. But I bore my testimony to him about my love for the Savior and that He is the center of everything for me. The comment that was made was that Mormons do not believe that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. That is a very funny statement because "we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins". {2Nephi 25:26} It is these truths that I teach my children. The pages of the Book of Mormon are full of the teachings and love of Christ. It is "another witness". The bible tells that "by two or three witnesses they shall know me". I know that there are many aspects of the church that people outside of the church do not fully understand. But if you want to know the truth - go to the source. Do not believe something you hear from someone outside of the faith. We believe that the church is now restored as it was when Christ was on the earth. That all the saving ordinances have been restored through the priesthood. That Joseph Smith was the one chosen to restore these things. He paid for it with his life. The Lord has living prophets on the earth today to guide us and be on the "watchtower". I did not come to this knowledge by just relying on what I have been taught or what people have told me. I did the work. I read, studied, prayed and received an answer that "I know that my Redeemer Lives" and loves me. I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and I have promised to "stand as a witness at all times, and in all places, and in all things". I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I do not belong to the church of Joseph Smith. He was a modern-day mouth piece for the Lord. I appreciate all that he did but I know that it is only through my Savior Jesus Christ that I can find salvation. I know these things to be true. I hopefully live them so that when you see me you will see the light of Christ in me. I do slip up. I do need to "remember always" and because of my Savior I can repent and keep myself turned towards my covenants.

I don't know if I would have been allowed to say all of that on the radio - but I can say it here - this is who we are - "Mormons" are people of Christ!

October birthdays

"This month is such a special one it's birthday time again". Nearly half my children are born this month and one of my grandchildren. It always blows me away when I tell the ages of my children at this time of year because almost everyone is "one year older"! Chelsea will be 27 tomorrow - Chloe will be 20 on Thursday - Seth is turning 24 next week and Chad will be 18 the day after Seth - Jonathan will be turning 3 just before Halloween - but the one that is really getting to me is Ashleigh - she is going to turn 30 this year! It did not bother me really until I realized how old that really made me! I have always felt pretty young around all these kids - but reality is that you can not be that young and have a 30 year old.

The good news to go along with her birthday is that she got engaged last weekend! We are very happy for her - she has not set a date yet but I hope it is sooner than later. We are all so excited. We kind of new that Nick was going to ask her - he had the "talk" with David last Friday. So we were all trying hard to keep that secret. So good thing he couldn't wait any longer and asked her the next day instead of waiting for her birthday. She seems so happy and he is a very nice young man. Autumn had something to say about all this - "Finally, my oldest sister is getting married!" She really emphasized the word finally.

A big happy birthday to all my children and grandson - I hope you have an awesome day on "your" day and all your "wishes" come true!