The Lord's Tender Mercies

The background:
A few years ago Elder Bednar gave a conference talk titled "The Lord's Tender Mercies". This talk really touched my heart. I thought about it a few days ago, and felt prompted to read it again. So I printed it off the internet, read it, and it was fresh in my mind.

More background:
A few days ago, Ally lost a book. It was a book she had only had for a day and only read it once. She really wanted this book, looked EVERYWHERE for it, had us pray for her to find it during family prayer, and I even tried to help her find it. (Mom's magic finding finger rarely fails, but it did in this case.)

October 22nd, 2008:
After the girls left for school in the morning, I went out to take the chickens some kitchen scraps and found one of them dead. It looked it like it had been killed by an animal (racoon or skunk or something) in the night. I don't really know the chickens by name like Mike and Ally do, so I wasn't sure which one it was. It was one of the smaller of our three black and white ones, so I knew it was either Ally's chicken Holly (named after the fairy hero in the Artemis Fowl series) or Liz's chicken. These hens are more like pets than just egg providers. Ally collects the eggs and cares for them every day. Just the day before she and Liz were outside with Holly and Liz's chicken in their laps petting them and holding them. Ally will run and the whole flock will run behind her.

I told the girls when I brought them home from school about the chicken and that I didn't know which one it was. Ally said if it was Liz's chicken she was going to be really sad, but if it was her chicken she was going to be really, really sad. Al ran to the backyard. I followed her. When I got out there she was playing in the coop area. I asked her if she figured out which chicken it was, but she said "no" and ran to the other side of the coop. She picked up the remaining small black and white chicken. She could tell by the color of the legs that it was Liz's chicken. I went to hug her, but she ran away and curled up on the grass in the corner of the yard. I tried to get her to talk to me, but she ran to the other corner of the yard (the chickens all running after her) and curled up in a ball. So I just went inside and left her alone, wishing I could do something to help her, but knowing she would have to go through the pain of loosing a pet and a friend.

She came in with red puffy eyes about half an hour later. She still didn't want to talk to me, but I heard searching around in our book closet (a little closet under the stairs with book shelves and kids books). I was in the kitchen preparing dinner. She held a book around the corner of the wall, so I couldn't see her, just the book. It was the missing book! The one that had been missing for several days, the one we had prayed over, the one that we had both looked for at least five times in that very same bookshelf! I said, "Oh! Where was it??" She peeked around the corner, smiling through her tears, "In the bookshelf!"

I said, "Come here, I want to talk with you." We came into the living room together, I put my arm around her and said, "Ally, Heavenly Father knows you are in pain. He knows you lost a friend. And he knew if you found this book at this time, it would comfort you. It is one of the Lord's tender mercies in your life - a way He helps you and shows He loves you. It won't take away all the hurt, but it will help, and God knew it would help." We both had tears coming down our faces, her for chicken and me for the knowledge of the Lord's tender mercies in my daughter's life at a time when she really needed it. I couldn't help her pain, but He could.

Pumpkin Patch Pics!

The pumpkin patch group!

Michelle and Tabitha on the hay ride. (Spencer in the back ground)

Nana & Lilly

Tabitha & Liz

Ally and her pumpkin

My beautiful girls!

Katie and her pumpkin

Liz and her pumpkin.

Six Weird and Random Things about me

I was tagged! Six weird and random things about me!

The rules are:

* Link to the person who tagged you (adventuresofthedomesticengineer.blogspot.com )
* Post the rules on your blog
* Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself
* Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
* Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
* Let the tagger know when your entry is posted

Weird things about myself, in no particular order:

1. I enjoy walking into a room in my house that is particularly clean, just to look at it.  It's not like I need anything from the living room, I just walk into it, look around, take a nice deep breath, smile, and think to myself, "what a nice clean room."  I do that also with a drawer or closet I've recently organized, "ahh, what a nice organized silverware drawer."  Try it!  Or maybe you already do and it's not that weird :)
2.  I'm addicted to sour cream.  Could be worse, right?  My husband calls me the sour cream pusher, always asking my family, "Did you want some sour cream on that?"  Sour cream really makes the potato (or soup or nachos or whatever)!
3.  I am compulsive about making list of things I need to do.  The best thing is to cross things off the list.  Sometimes I write things down I did, that I had not put on my list in the first place, just to cross them off.  Sometimes making my list for the day takes ten or fifteen minutes.  Hmmm, I should put making my list on my list of things to do so I can cross it off too!
4.  I really don't like babies.  I know, I'm a terrible person!  They just don't do anything for me.  I love it when they get about one year old and are starting to say words and toddling around and such.  I'm just not one of those, "ooohhh, can I hold your baby???" kind of girls, and I've never gotten baby hungry a day in my life.  But I do love toddlers and older kids!!
5.  I've always wanted to have a chimpanzee as a pet. 
6. Some mountains just call to me to be climbed. Mt Hood, for example, was like a beacon, its snow capped peak calling me to stand at the very top and celebrate life. And I remember feeling so alive and so complete standing at the top of South Sister, as the wind whipped around me and I could see for miles and miles.

TAG!!! You're IT!

1. Stacey
2. Kim
3. Airen
4. Trish
5. Jodie
6. Dedra

Compassion and Creating

I really enjoyed President Uchtdorf's talk he gave during Women's Conference. Lately I have been feeling especially discouraged and frustrated, the "I can't do it all" type of feeling. So I was sitting listening to the conference, feeling kind of bored with the first couple of speakers, Relief Society is so great, yeah, yeah, blah, blah (sorry! but that's what I was thinking!) I said a prayer that I would hear whatever message God needed me to hear during the Conference, that the spirit would carry it to my heart, and that I would feel uplifted. President Uchtdorf was the next speaker. Wow. It was exactly what I needed.

He said, "To me it appears that our splendid sisters sometimes undervalue their abilities—they focus on what is lacking or imperfect rather than what has been accomplished and who they really are. The good news is that this also points to an admirable quality: the innate desire to please the Lord to the best of your ability. Unfortunately, it can also lead to frustration, exhaustion, and unhappiness."

Exactly what I had been feeling.

"I would like to speak about two principles that may help you find a path to peace, hope, and joy—even during times of trial and distress. I want to speak about God’s happiness and how each one of us can taste of it in spite of the burdens that beset us. "

Those two principles are Compassion and Creating. So the past few days, at the end of the day, I think about all the things I've created and all the ways I've had compassion. Compassion is sitting by Ally for an hour while she does her math homework, not because she doesn't understand it or really needs my help, but just because she needs and enjoys my support. Compassion is spending an hour looking for a cat costume for Katie. And creating... I create lots of clean spaces where there were none before. I created cinnamon dried apples yesterday. I helped the girls create cute jog-a-thon costumes. I created a master temple for all of Cascade's PowerPoints - complete with their own customized color scheme.

President Uchtdorf concluded his talk with, "I believe that as you immerse yourselves in the work of our Father—as you create beauty and as you are compassionate to others—God will encircle you in the arms of His love.¹⁵ Discouragement, inadequacy, and weariness will give way to a life of meaning, grace, and fulfillment."

I know I am a daugther of Heavenly Father, and as such, have infinite worth. And even though it's still easy to get discouraged at the close of the day when the endless list only has a few checkmarks... it does help when I think about the plethera of amazing opportunies I have had to create beauty around me and show compassion for others.

Superheros All Around!

Today is the Jog-a-thon at Arthur Academy. The theme is "Superheros", so the kids got to dress up as a superhero, if they wanted to. Ally wanted to be Violet from The Incredibles. I looked online and the costumes were at least $40. Yikes! So we made an Incredibles logo out of felt, pinned it on a red shirt, and she wore black pants. I got a bandit type mast from the party store for .99 and we cut it out to look like Violet's mask. I also got her a long black wig, which she decided was too itchy. She looked really cute, and Mom was happy too with her .99 costume :)
Katie wore her cat costume from last Halloween to be catwoman (I know, she's kind of a villan, not a hero, but we'll pretend...) Liz made up her own - she was "Baby Liz Liz" (like Baby Jack Jack from Incredibles). Her super power was to "rhyme". She wore a Bat Man shirt and cape that Jeanne had made Mike when he was just 4 yrs. old. On the cape she pinned a "Baby Liz Liz" logo that she made herself out of felt. Oh, I almost forgot, Baby Liz Liz talks with a baby voice too.
Know what I decided? There are not enough female superheros!
I, myself, was also a superhero today - Super Mom! I brought in all our fall and Halloween boxes from the shed yesterday, and Katie's cat costume was nowhere to be found. Katie said a prayer before we opened the last box that it would be in there. It wasn't. She said another prayer this morning that we would find it. I went out to the shed to look a little more. I had to move all the Christmas boxes, and finally I found one last Halloween box of stuff behind it all. Katie was thrilled - and again, Super Mom was happy, this time for a child's answered prayer.
I'll post some pictures from the Jog-a-thon later. Thanks to everyone who sponsered them!
Up, Up, and Away!!!

Card Girls start their own businesses!

1. Card Farm Fresh Eggs - $3.00 a dozen
2. Liz's Amazing Massages - Only $1.00 for both feet and hands (about 15 minutes total). Testimonial from a frequent customer (Mom) "Liz is an absolutely amazing masseuse! She really knows how to knead with her fingers and use her whole hands to really get in deep. It is soooo worth the $1.00!"
   
3. Elizabeth's Homemade Cookies
   
   1. Email my Mom the type and amount of cookies you want.
      
   2. 1 dozen cookies - $3.00
      
4. Lizard's Weed-B-Gone Service
   
   1. Weeding - $1.00 per 15 minutes of weeding (but some big weeds I can't pull out)
      
5. Katie's Window Washing
   
   1. $1.00 per 15 minutes of window washing (I might need a chair to reach the top of some windows)
      
6. Kathteryn & Elizabeth's Pet Walking Service
   
   1. Small to Medium Dogs or animals only
      
   2. $1.00 per 20 min. walk
      
7. Picture Perfect
   
   1. Katie, Liz or Ally will draw you a picture or write you a story or poem.
      
   2. .50 cents per picture or poem, $1.00 for story (with illustrations)
      

Back to School 2008

We are so lucky to have such a great school for the girls to go to - it's a privately run public school (a charter school) called Arthur Academy. (Katie in pink, Liz in blue)