Quote for the day

"Too frequently, women underestimate their influence for good. Well could you follow the formula given by the Lord: 'Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God' (D&C 88:119)."In such a house will be found happy, smiling children who have been taught, by precept and example, the truth. In a Latter-day Saint home, children are not simply tolerated, but welcomed; not commanded, but encouraged; not driven, but guided; not neglected, but loved."

Thomas S. Monson

I love President Monson, his sweetness, kindness and gentleness. I think that if we strive to make our homes this way than we will be happy and so will all that live there.

Painting a picture

The other day while standing in my kitchen looking at my calendar for the year - pictures of the Savior - Kim asked me if I could paint a picture of one of the stories of Christ what it would be. So, I had to pretend that I could actually paint and said the woman with the issue of blood. I think she had amazing faith and was blessed for it by the Savior, who not only healed her but also took the time to find her and recognize her faith. I have what would be considered an issue of blood for a while now, as have many woman I know, and so it is dearer to my heart and I love that the Savior showed how personal and indiviudal the gospel is with a simple question of who touched me.

What story would you paint? Why?

Confused

Well I have been working on my dissertation and I am confused. I keep thinking that at some point I might hear something I thought I would but no - that would be way too easy! So, I just keep on doing interviews in the hope that something will start to make sense to me. I guess I should clarify - I understand what they are saying just not why - what is different about these woman than the woman in the literature? I guess I will have to wait and see what happens but patience is really not a strong suit of mine so I keep talking to people about it and wondering out loud how it works - I need to talk with my advisor and Linda but this is the last week of the semester and it is crazy busy for everyone so I can wait.
Any thoughts about this?

GPS

My sister, Shelly, asked me to post more often while her baby Bella is in the hospital so that she has something to read, sad that she wants to read my random comments!

Last night for FHE Kim, Donna and I were driving to Jefferson City (where FHE was) using a google map printout. Generally I like google maps and find the places I am trying to go. Well, we had a few mishaps with another car following behind us, the directions telling us to go right instead of left, etc. As we started home and got lost trying to reserve said directions Donna said too bad we don't have a GPS! Well, the sad thing is that we did - Kim has one that we have used before and was sitting in the middle console waiting and eager. We pulled it out and waited for a few mintues for it to find its bearings (satalite) and then tell us where to go, out own little Liahona! I was joking about how much that is like life that we have all this power, information, and ability and sometime just let it sit in our middle console waiting for a time to be used - if we would just open the scriptures, pray, attend the temple, etc. It is amazing how I miss things that are sometimes so very obvious.

WE have hired two new people at work to work under me and we did the training tonight. It went well - I just hope I can keep up with both of them and my crazy schedule - the good news is that this is the last week of classes!!!!! Only 1 quiz, 1 test and 1 essay left in the semester - if you can't tell I am very excited!

Change

Last night at FHE the lesson was about change, based on a talk from the last GC, called Get on With Our Lives (click to read). It talks about 4 things we can do to deal with change, 1) follow the prophet, 2) keep an eternal perspective, 3) have faith, and 4) be of good cheer. It is a nice article. As we discussed it I found it interesting to see how many people really hate change - for me I love change, that doesn't mean it isn't scary sometimes but I just really like newness and that is usually accompanied by change.
A change I am not looking forward to is that my good friend Kim is leaving Columbia sometime this summer. She resigned from her job as a professor here and is deciding on one of the offers she has been given for next year. This change is different - I am so happy she is going to be in a place that will make her happier and help her to fulfill her goals but I will miss her, miss working with her in primary, miss her friendship. It will be a harder change than usual for me because usually I am the one that moves not my friends. BUT I am going to follow the prophet, keep an eternal perspective, have faith and be of good cheer and all will work out for the good!

Throw your hat over the wall

I was watching a show today and it told this story that I thought was cool.

Three young men were traveling and came upon a huge wall. They couldn't find anyway around it and stopped to discuss what to do. They decided that they would throw their hats over the wall and then they would have to follow it. So they made a plan and struggled until they got over the wall.

I just thought that the story had so many different hidden messages about life within the story. Cyndi was telling me about a story she heard in Stake Conference about the Cookie Monster. The Cookie Monster won a game of some sort and was given three choices - 1) he could wait a week and get $250,000, 2) wait a day or two and get a dream car or 3) get a cookie right now. Guess what he chose - the cookie of course. So the speakers question is: are we choosing things over our goal of eternal life so that we can get the cookie? (this of course is paraphrased)

So then I was putting the two stories together and thought about how easy it is to do a several things - 1) it is easy to throw our hats over the wrong wall or chose to eat the cookie right now, 2) am I throwing my hat over the wall and then just sitting there and not going after it? and 3) do I look to climb the wall and not worry about how hard it is or do I move forward with all of my might to scale it and then move on to the next wall with vigor? Just some random thoughts I would share.

Refurbishing the chairs

I have been meaning to refurbish my kitchen chair cushions for some time now and finally did it. The white is the old ones and the flowers are the new. I really like them - added more stuffing to the cushions, so they are much softer now. They are just not the biggest chairs or the most comfy but I am very appreciative of them! They do their job well.