Sunday, September 27, 2009

Today in Relief Society the teacher taught Elder Uchtdorf's talk The Influence of Righteous Women from the Sept 2009 Ensign. She asked the class to share personal stories about women who have influenced their life. I didn't share my story in class, but I wanted to share it here.

Elder Uchtdorf states:

"The scriptures give us names of several women who have blessed individuals and generations with their spiritual gifts. Eve, the mother of all living; Sarah; Rebekah; Rachel; Martha; Elisabeth; and Mary, the mother of our Savior, will always be honored and remembered. The scriptures also mention women whose names are unknown to us but who bless our lives through their examples and teachings, like the woman of Samaria whom Jesus met at the well of Sychar (see John 4), the ideal wife and mother described inProverbs 31, and the faithful woman who was made whole just by touching the Savior’s clothes (see Mark 5:25-34).

As we look at the history of this earth and at the history of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, it becomes obvious that women hold a special place in our Father’s plan for the eternal happiness and well-being of His children.

I hope that my dear sisters throughout the world—grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and friends—never underestimate the power of their influence for good, especially in the lives of our precious children and youth!"


A week or so ago I had a hard morning with the children. After the older children got off to school, I sat down in my room feeling overwhelmed. Actually I was a little more than overwhelmed. Have you ever had one of those mornings where everything just seems to weigh down your spirit? As I thought about my children, about the state of my house, about the weeds in the backyard, about projects left undone; my list of "abouts" kept getting longer and my heart kept getting heavier. I had a little pity party with myself and shed quite a few tears. Then, because I have been taught what to do when I am feeling down, I knelt and said a little selfish prayer: "Heavenly Father, I know I need to count my blessings, I know I need to get to work, I know I need to serve someone else, but I am just sad. I feel alone. I know this is not generally the way things work, but if possible, could I have someone let me know that they are thinking about me today?" Then I stood up and went to work.

A few hours later the phone rang. I started laughing when I saw the caller ID "Jackson White" (my Mom's cell phone). Mom, "Hi, I have been thinking about you all morning and just wanted to call to see how you were doing."

I am grateful for a Mother who is an instrument in the Lord's hands. I am grateful for a Heavenly Father that answers even selfish prayers.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Does your ward do Super Saturday?!


As part of my ward's Enrichment committee, I am gearing up for Super Saturday. I must admit I have mixed feelings about Super Saturday. On the one hand it is a ton of work for the committee and sometimes I find myself asking "Does anyone really care about all this stuff?" However, somewhere along the way (usually on the day of the activity) I find myself realizing that it is a great time for women to get together to learn, to create, and to build friendship. At that point, the day is worth it. This year we are keeping our projects simple and so I am really excited about the day (I am not cutting a single piece of wood;-). We even created a little blog to display our items:

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The other picture

We did get some good pictures of Nathan. The photographer took this picture about thirty seconds before the frown picture. She took the picture thinking he was going to smile again, but I guess he had other ideas. He went right back to being happy after the frown!
One night this week we had a really busy night. I was gone at a meeting and Paul was trying to get ready for Scouts. Nathan wasn't too happy, so Paul asked Skye to help entertain him. How do you entertain a fussy baby? Skye wrapped various parts of her body in diapers and did little dances for Nathan. Of course. It kept him entertained for quite awhile and also entertained me when I got home!
I have been busy getting ready for Super Saturday. I am not in charge this year, but I still get to help on a couple of fun projects! I worked on this apron while Paul was on Scout campout this weekend. I think it turned out great and it was really easy!

Skye has also been praying very hard each night that "Satan will repent and start to be good." One night I thought "Oh wouldn't that be so nice. I can just imagine the headlines: "Satan Repents. End of Temptation."" I don't know if it will do much good to pray for Satan, but I do love Skye's empathy- she feels really badly that he can't have a body.

On a final note, one of the kids brought home a chant from school. Has anyone ever done a study to show how the same jokes/ chants/ songs are passed down through generations of children? They always seem to hit the same age group- for instance, I think all Kindergartners come home and tell the "Are you afraid of a man this big?" joke. I don't think anything can prepare you for the part of parenting that includes listening to the same phrase over two hundred times in two days (all four girls singing it constantly):

I like bananas, coconuts and grapes!
That's why they call me Tarzan of the apes!

Ha. Now it is stuck in your head too. Just don't teach it to your children.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Heart breaking

I got Nathan's pictures taken today. Every time I see this picture I just want to pick him up and give him a big kiss. It also makes us laugh.
Sweet boy. Does it make anyone else feel like coming over to give him a squeeze- or is it just a mother thing?!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Seattle in no particular order

We heart Seattle.
We heart salmon ladders.
We heart Snoqualmie Falls.
We heart camping in the rain.

We heart hanging out in the Montesano, WA library while our brakes were getting fixed.
We heart tide pools.

We heart this really weird lava flow in OR as we were driving home.
We heart the Peter Iredale.

We heart the OR coast. Can we go back soon?!