I am so thankful the gospel has been restored to the earth. I love the scriptures and having more than one witness that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. The conferences delivered from the prophet and apostles remind me to hope and I am filled with love for Jesus Christ and gratitude for the love He shows through so many tender mercies. These truths and other true principles enable me to love and forgive and repent.

Choir

Troy and I just joined the interfaith choir in the area. We will be singing with the 4th of July program. It was fun to get together and make beautiful music. I realized I am rusty. I hope the practice we will be getting will help me snap back to what I think I knew or was able to do.

Communication 101 aid

One of my facebook friends put this online and we laughed and laughed. I have since shown it to my son (who decides to not communicate nor date). Now he lets us know he is understanding without having to say much. "Manslater" Dad. or Nate, you need the manslater. He is so smart, and now he is aware of the nonverbal and context of communication in a way that may help him when he does decide to date or communicate. I am excited about it.

Gardening

We have been attempting a potted garden. One of the reasons was that I don't know where in my yard it would be best to plant a garden. Another reason was that I put off making a decision and was running out of time. I am pleased to say that we have things growing, on purpose, in our pots and the younger boys are delighted with this. They check on the plants at least once a day. They water and comment and notice the buds, flowers, sunshine. It has been unplanned fun time. I am enjoying their enthusiasm. It would be nice to get food from them, but this side benefit is delightful.

Mother's Day

Thinking of my mother on this mother's day inspired me to express my love to her and my family. I have been so blessed.
My wonderful husband and fantastic children showered me with excitement, love and generous gifts, accompanied with background music this morning. Each one did something so sweet and personal, it was blissful and heavenly. To see them be so happy to do something for someone else touched me deeply and was a precious gift itself.

On one of the boxes of the generous gifts I received, it said "Achieve flavorful gromet results with the speed and precision of a professional chef. Its easy with a machine renowned for unlocking every ingredients full potential, as well as yours." As I thought about that and opening the box, it occured to me what a huge statement that is. I have a machine that could unlock my potential. My full potential. Pretty big deal. How much would you pay for that? I have received advice in relation to receiving gifts (from my mother) that I will not worry what he actually paid for it. I will enjoy and be excited about this gift. But the metaphor it gave me was stimulating. Something that could enhance our abilities to achieve amazing results if we but open it. I could have put off opening the box. I had other gifts that required scissors to open and I could've gone to open them. But the idea of my potential being realized was itching my brain and I felt compelled to not put it off. It was awesome in the box, more things than I thought were inside. There were not only recipies that could be created, but they were in a super nice collection in a hard cover binder, with amazing pictures. I actually have too many recipe books, I think I am a kind of collector. I love food. I love herbs and spices. But I am inspired to use this new machine and the results it may bring.
Realistically, most of my kids won't appreciate the delicacies it has- although the smoothies are tasty-looking. So while I type about this metaphor for what I have already been blessed wtih in my life, I feel that I should sieze the moment and open up my scriptures, the delicious spirit and bread of life and find my potential through them.

For Family night, Daddy picked out a puzzle that we could all work on. It has been amazing how much fun we have had with it. So Dad got out a bigger puzzle (1000) and has immersed himself in it. We had a little more time with him being laid off, and with the 2 Snow Days! It is a bit harder for the little ones, so they asked if Dad could find one for them to do. So we have this great Solar system puzzle he put out for them. Luke and Daniel have done it a couple times, and then they started to get competitive and the puzzle pieces ended up all over the place. Daniel got started again and had most of it done and Luke was using a few for skates. We persuaded him to put them with the puzzle and one ended up missing. They started the search and we looked all over for it. Luke was very worried about it and asked 'Did the Holy Ghost take it?'
After finishing the laughing we couldn't restrain, I reminded him that the Holy Ghost is there to help us, not to hide our puzzles. So he seemed to get it 'Oh, He is there to help us? ok'

I find it funny when people are in the grocery store with an earpiece phone in their ear and they have a full disclosure discussion with the invisible friend/whomever. I haven't put my finger on exactly what is so funny about it, but I was amused for the rest of the grocery store trip on Tuesday night. Am I embarrassed for this person? Am I disturbed she doesn't whisper? Am I sympathetic? Am I uncomforable with tmi? Am I hanging on to personal boundaries that no one can know about, but common courtesy would know? Am I encouraged by her ability to overcome her lost time in that horrible marriage? Am I gratified that she survived through the miracle of prayer? (I didn't stand by her, we just went down similar aisles.) Am I amazed at the liberal scattering of our personal lives to the world? I must be okay with it, I am writing a blog. I think it still amazes me though. So my response is an inward giggle, a smile and musings. . .