Sunday, April 27, 2014
I forgot to add some things from our lesson on
Charity last Sunday in Gospel Principles that I really loved and want to
incorporate into my life and into our home.
My friend Kirsten shared some things that they teach in their home to
foster charity.
- “Your name is safe in our home.” In their home they don’t talk about people in a negative way or behind their backs. I LOVE this phrase for teaching kindness and to not gossip. It also helps foster family unity because you stick up for each other in the home.
- She tells her children that if they are ever in a conversation that turns negative towards someone she’s taught them that they can change the conversation to a more positive experience and turn the conversation around by saying, “do you know what I love about her/him?”
- “Pass on the good, squash the bad.” She teaches her children (and I might add that she models these behaviors herself) that when they hear someone say something good or kind about somebody to pass onto that somebody the nice thing that was said about them. When they hear something negative they should “squash it so it ends with you.”
On Monday morning last week I went to Zumba. Then for lunch Chad took me to a restaurant
called Farmhouse for my birthday lunch date.
Farmhouse is located on Gilbert and Elliot next to Liberty Market. I’ve wanted to try it for a while because I
see people waiting to get a seat almost every time I drive by and figured it
must be good. It WAS good. I want to go back and try several other
things on their menu. They are only open
for breakfast and lunch. That afternoon
I made up a FHE
conducting sheet to help us step our family home evening’s up a notch.
Tuesday morning I went shopping at Walmart to get some
stuff for our Laurel activity. I taught Karalee
a piano lesson that afternoon. For our
laurel activity that night we put together blessing
bags, tied the ends of a fleece blanket to contribute to a service project
that our Stake is doing, then walked from our church building to the temple (it’s
only about half a mile). It was a nice
evening and we had great attendance. All
of our active laurels came, the other three girls haven’t come in years, but we’re
working on it.
Wednesday night Karalee and Bryant performed in a
Spring Sing on the playground at their school.
All the families were invited to bring a picnic dinner an hour or so
before the concert started and then the 1st – 5th graders
sang for us. It’s a fun, low key concert
to attend and I don’t have to worry so much about keeping the little kids quiet
and in their seats. They can stand up
and dance and walk around a little bit. That’s
the best part!!
Thursday I spent most of the afternoon looking for
a cute, long (4ft) shelf for my living room wall. I went to Designer Blvd., Hobby Lobby,
Kirkland Home, Marshall’s, a furniture store, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Joann’s
with NO luck finding a shelf that long.
I’ve been working on redoing the decorations on the wall above our long
couch in our living room for several weeks now.
I had a picture I took of the Gilbert Temple printed on canvas at Costco
to put on that wall and wanted to redo the decorations all around it. This project ended up being more than I
bargained for though. I first got several
black 5X7 frames to hang around it with pictures from the temple celebration
and dedication but I didn’t like the way it looked, but didn’t know what else
to do. So when my friend Elena--who is a
great decorator, her house is so cool--was here practicing for a special
musical number last week I asked her what I should do to make it look better. She gave me some great ideas, a long shelf at
the bottom and told me that the 5X7’s frames were just way too small and that I
needed to get bigger frames and pictures.
On Wednesday I got some really nice frames from Brenda and from a lady
that hired Heather to sell several furniture and decor items on Craigslist for
her. On Thursday I ended up finding a long
shelf on craigslist for $15. Hanging
that shelf was crazy. The wood was bowed
and when Chad and I tried to hang it, it wouldn’t go on easily and we tried to
force it on and ended up ripping a drywall anchor and screw out of the wall … twice. Yesterday I finally found a way to hang the
bowed shelf then I had to take everything back off to spackle and paint. AAARGH!!
I got everything hung up on the wall after the paint dried last
night. YAY!! I love the way it turned out. I’m now moving onto another project. I want to make a cute sign that I saw at Designer
Blvd. out of the wood from a pallet that I have. I already got all the wood off the pallet,
but I don’t have it screwed together yet.
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| This was how I originally had the picture hung up, I didn't really like it, it was OK but not great, but didn't know why I didn't like it very well or what to do. |
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| Here's my finished project |
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| This is the sign from Designer Blvd. that I want to try and make for my next project. Mine will probably be a bit different but I will pattern it after these ones. (I asked permission from the workers at the store to take the picture.) |
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| Here's the wood from the pallet that I want to make the sign out of. |
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| Karalee's cool new trick on the swing set. |
Friday Chad and the boys had their annual ward Fathers
and Sons’ campout which means the girls and I had our annual girls’ night out! You read about and see pictures from our girls’
night out HERE.
Yesterday I didn’t have ANYTHING on my
calendar!! It was so nice. I finished up the living room wall and helped
Bryant clean up his room. Bryant’s and
Spencer room was out of control messy so after they got home from Fathers and
Sons I had them pull out everything from under their beds and off their shelves
in the closet to throw away the stuff that they don’t want or use anymore. Spencer got his stuff done, but Bryant got a little
overwhelmed and ended up taking a nap under his bed after he got everything
pulled out from under it and off his shelves.
For date night, Chad and I went to eat at Tom’s BBQ, we weren’t than
impressed, and then we went to the grocery store. That seems to have become our normal date
night routine, which is fine. I don’t
need grandiose date nights. I just like
to spend time alone with Chad.
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| Isn't this picture SO cool with all the mist coming of the lake? Yesterday morning before coming home from Fathers and Sons Chad took the boys fishing at Willow Lake up on the Rim. It got really cold and started to rain and then snow on them. They didn't fish for long. (Our neighbor Davin went with Chad and the boys on the campout since his Dad had to work.) |
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| Bryant, so overwhelmed with the task ahead of him decided to take a nap first. |
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| This was the messy task ahead of him that he needed to go through and clean up. I don't blame him for wanting to take a nap! |
Today we had a special presentation from the stake
Sunday school presidency per our Stake President’s request about implementing
the Come Follow Me lessons into our everyday family scripture study. He asked us last stake conference to start
using it in our homes so we’ve been using it for FHE lessons but he wants us to
use it every morning for our scripture study.
It is going to take a lot more planning on mine and Chad’s part to
implement this. We’ll even have Spencer
teach a lesson one morning a week, but I know it will bring many blessings into
our family and into each of us individually.
We’ll probably have to wake up a bit earlier now.
My quotes for today are from Elder Holland’s
conference talk The Cost—And Blessing—Of Discipleship. I’m going to try to use quotes from each of
the conference talks in my letters before the next conference comes. “You
may wonder if it is worth it to take a courageous moral stand in high school or
to go on a mission only to have your most cherished beliefs reviled or to
strive against much in society that sometimes ridicules a life of religious
devotion. Yes, it is worth it, because the alternative is to have our “houses”
left unto us “desolate”—desolate individuals, desolate families, desolate
neighborhoods, and desolate nations.” The word desolate is so descriptive. It sounds so sad and so lonely. I don’t ever want to be or to feel
desolate.
“Christlike
love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness
was always supposed to accompany it. So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who
is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for
it in others. Jesus clearly understood what many in our modern culture seem to
forget: that there is a crucial difference between the commandment to forgive
sin (which He had an infinite capacity to do) and the warning against condoning
it (which He never ever did even once).”
Christlike love comes from righteousness. We must love other by spreading righteousness
and not condoning sin. Not judging but
teaching God’s laws and spreading hope.
Love,
Mindy
