The Place of Becoming: April 2019

This morning we studied Helaman 12 in our family scripture study and verse 23 stood out to me the most, especially in light of everything we heard over this past weekend in General Conference.

"Blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God.."

We have had the privilege of hearing those who speak the word of the Lord in our day. Are we listening? But how soon we seem to forget?

In Helaman 12:1-2 warns, "We can see that the Lord in His great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in Him. Yea, and we may see at the very time when He doth prosper His people...and in fine doing all things for the welfare and happiness of His people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One - yea and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity."

Why do we forget God so quickly? Why do we seem to so easily fall back into our into our routines of distraction, of frantically spending our time on that which has no worth? Why do we resist when the Spirit prompts us to say something or do something? I don't know.... All I know is that the Lord is extremely forgiving and merciful and we can resolve here and now to do those things that will invite His spirit into our lives.

I like what President Nelson said over the weekend:
"Pour out your heart to God. Ask Him if these things are true. Make time to study His words, really study. If you truly love your family and desire to be exhalted with them throughout eternity -Pay the price now through serious study an fervent prayer to know these eternal truths and then to abide by them. If you're not sure if you even believe in God, start there. Understand that in the absence of experiences with God one can doubt the existence of God. So, put yourself in a position to begin having experiences with Him. Humble yourself. Pray to have eyes to see God's hand in your life and in the world around you. Ask Him to tell you if He is really there, if He knows you. Ask Him how He feels about you... and then, listen."

This year we simplified our groundhog treats to pop-up out of cupcakes.

We love Groundhog Day because we've turned it into a family tradition.

This was a post I wrote back in 2017.

Every February 2nd we watch the movie Groundhog Day. My husband and I love the messages from it. These are seven things we've learned:

1. The worst kind of ruts to be stuck in are the deep repugnant trenches of self-centeredness and ego.

2. Nobody misses a jerk.
"The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
-Sir Walter Scott

3. It's important to have consequences, both good and bad. That's how we learn. That's how we grow.

4. When you do good, do it for the right reasons. You can't fake your way into lasting relationships. If motives are not genuine, the masquerade may work for a while but the insincerity will eventually be sniffed out.

5. You can rise above the cold, dark, and bleak. Phil turned his life around when he was still in the middle of winter's bitter chill. He even discovered aspects of the season that prepared his mind to love it, even if it meant the rest of his life. Gratitude!

6. To learn a new talent or master a new skill takes time and lots of practice, day after day, after day.

7. Make a conscious effort to look around each day and see who you can help in small and simple ways. Only when Phil genuinely began to care for others, the mundane didn't matter so much. In fact, he found beauty and fulfillment in the day-in day-out routine.

Escaping the Vacuum Cycle of Self

We love these little head massagers and our kids are teaching Piper to love them too. The first time they tried to give her a little head massage her reaction was absolutely hilarious. I wish we could have caught it on camera.

Amillia got to visit with her bio-mom and bio-dad this month. She gets to have visits with them every other month out of the year. I'm glad they are so willing to keep the connection.

Amillia also gets to visit with her half-siblings and their dad every month. I'm so proud of her sibling's dad, he's really trying to turn his life around. He became a Christian and is trying to develop the habit of praying & reading the Bible regularly. The hoodie he's wearing in this picture says "Neighborhood Hope Dealer" instead of Dope. He's been clean from drugs for almost four years now. So proud of him! We had our Feb. visit at the Provo Rec Center. After I snapped his photo, he wanted to take a picture of me and Kaylee with Amillia - so here we are.

Amillia with her half-siblings at Pioneer Park in Provo - March Visit

Sometimes, when I need to study for my class, I'll take the kids up with me to campus and let them play. They had lots of fun with this little "mountain".

Leah (Kaylee's best friend), Kaylee, and Micah

Miriam getting ready to leave for winter camp with the Stake standing next to one of her favorite friends, Emma Spencer.

Kaylee led our family Come Follow Me lesson all by herself in February. She even brought visuals of the story where Christ goes into the wilderness to be with God and Satan tries to tempt him:

You can see the items Kaylee gathered up: the bag of jewels under her right hand to represent the temptation through riches, the bread she's holding in her left hand over a big rock to represent the temptation through appetite, and her Eiffel tower which is supposed to be the pinnacle of the temple to represent the temptation of identity theft through glory, power, and recognition. So cute!

For the last 10 years, Joseph has tried to keep the tradition of buying each of his girls a rose for Valentine's Day. We all love it! 💕😍

For Valentine's we visited my sister, Amy, at her work in the Retirement Home. She hired Elvis again. I think she hires him every year... and why not, he's legendary! The residents love it! This cute lady my sister has her arm around is Rosemary. She's making a kissy face at the camera. We fell in love with her and she fell in love with Piper.

Rosemary, Amy, Micah, Amillia, my Dad

Rosemary loving on Piper

Miriam and I went clothes shopping at our favorite thrift store. We had fun laughing at and trying on ridiculous looking heels. We both hate heels.🤣

Kaylee practicing origami.

Kaylee loving on Piper.

Micah came with me to class a lot this past fall semester when I was taking the Greek and Roman Literature class. He really loved my professor and had several fun conversations with him after class was over. Micah loved my professor so much, he even designed and printed a statue of Achilles to keep in his office. We finally got around to delivering Micah's statue gift to my professor in February. He was so grateful for Micah's thoughtfulness that he turned around and presented Micah with his first copy of the Odyssey he had ever read when he was about Micah's age, the late 1800 translation where it's all still in rhyming verse. Micah was elated and that night immediately started reading it.

I had the most fun this month surprising my best friend, Suzanne, with a birthday outing to celebrate her 46th! I took her up to Gamer Planet in Sandy and we played the funnest Virtual Reality game ever, Beat Saber! We had a blast!!! (pun intended) ;) This is something I wouldn't mind owning as a family game.

After VR, I took her out to dinner to her favorite Chinese food and we talked about life, about parenthood, about trials and triumphs - laughing, joking, and crying.

Ah, I just love her. It was such a fun night.

Chandler had his first wreck. He was with his buddies late one Saturday night and wasn't paying attention while backing up and hit an ordering kiosk @ Sonic. It shattered the window and dented the frame... just enough that Mjr Tom had to get a new rear end. Chandler was mature and handled the accident very responsibly. He immediately told us and offered to pay the full deductible and any premium increase. He's really a good kid.

He didn't want this picture but Joseph insisted he'd appreciate it later for memories. :)

Miriam loving on Piper.

We've been trying to sell our house. It's really a financial move. We had contemplated refinancing to take care of some of the major things that need attention but eventually decided it would be better to take the equity we've earned in this home and put it down on a place that's 100 years newer and in a quieter neighborhood. We've talked about a new home built in a small cozy little town like Wallsburg... but the kids won't have it.. so, we'll probably stay somewhere in this part of Utah County.

I've spent the last several months painting and getting the house ready for the professional photographer to come. Our original listing of our home only had pictures I took from my junky phone until the professional ones were finally updated on it.

I joked about putting this one in the listing. Wouldn't that be great!

We had a good laugh with it. Ha ha! Gotta love Miriam's photo bomb.

Alexa turned 21 this year! We celebrated her birthday and my mom's on St. Patrick's day. My mom's birthday is actually March 18th and Alexa's is March 1st. We kind-of did a merge of the two and Alexa was honored to share the celebration with grandma. The last day Alexa spent time with mom was on her 20th birthday last year, March 1st, 2018.

Mom's accident was on the 8th and she passed away on March 12th, 2018. just four days before her wedding anniversary on the 16th. This year was much better than last year at this time. I was very happy to have my dad, my sister, Alexa, and Conner visit.