Fly away Night Owl

I have a new responsibility at church. I am now the early morning seminary teacher. That means that five days a week I will have between five and eight or so teenagers at my house at 6:00 a.m. Let's just get it out in the open now that I am NOT an early morning person. And that is entirely because I am quite a night owl.

That being said, I sense that the Lord is preparing me for this new responsibility because the last few days, once it hits 9:30 pm, I am useless. Don't call. Don't send me an important email in hopes that I'll reply that night. The night owl in me seems to be heading out.

Goodbye late night reading until the wee hours of the morning. Goodbye quite house while all children and husband are asleep; I'll be right there with you. Goodbye last minute treats or late-night loads or laundry.

Hello inspiration. Hello feasting on the Old Testament. Hello sleepy teenagers. Hello quiet of the morning.

And now come all the morning cliches: The early bird catches the worm. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Cease to sleep longer than is needful (okay, that one is a scripture). I know that whom the Lord the calls he qualifies. He's got some work to do with me. But I'll do my best to do my part. Wish me early morning luck! I've got two more weeks to "practice" getting up early. And as my mother always says, practice makes perfect!

Adios, night owl. This early bird is ready to hit the hay.

Malibu Barbie and the A-Frame Little People House

If clothes make the man, then toys make the child. I have spent lots of hours sorting through old boxes of toys and books at my parents house this week, trying to help them pair down what they have amassed over a lifetime of nine children. I'm not the first sibling to have done this and I suspect I won't be the last. But in the mean time it was fun showing my kids the toys I played with when I was growing up.

In several big brown moving boxes I found things like an old magic kit with most of the pieces missing. There was the stuffed smurf, the drum full of maracas and a yellow tambourine, the rainbow colored xylophone with the long yellow chord that you could use to pull the little thing around on its red wheels while it make little tinkling noises. We also had a box of my old My Little Ponies in all their pastel glory. I have vivid memories of the year I got the show stable for Christmas. And there was the stuffed Idaho Potato with his embroidered face and gangely arms and legs. And then came two big boxes of Little People and Dolls.

My parents have a vintage collection of Little People. They don't even make these little people any more because of "choking hazard," though the nine of us made it though just fine. My two favorite pieces are the A-frame house with the absolutely perfect miniture kitchen and a balcony on the second floor and a Main Street USA town. When my boys discovered the main street, they were in heaven. It has a jail (their favorite), a dentist office, a movie theater, a barber shop, a police station, a garage, a restaurant, and an apartment. There is also a stop light on a bridge that connects the two sides of the store and office fronts. At one point while I was sorting other toys, my almost three year old had set up the two sides of the buildings and the stop light and arranged four or five cars driving down the street with little people inside. Classic toys are generationless.

Among the toys I found a big box of toys filled with Barbies and Cabbage Patch dolls. There were five blond hair, blue-eyed Barbies, all of whom would have easily passed for Malibu Barbie (one of them was Peaches 'n Cream Barbie; her dress used to smell like peaches). I found the Barbie who's hair I cut and the Hawaiian Barbie with the super long black hair that got all frizzy after I undid the braids my mom told me not to undo. I found a dress made of Kleenex and cream colored lace tied on to Barbie with a ribbon. I found the Ken doll with the missing leg and the Barbie-sized GI Jo with the battle scare on his cheek. Oh the hours we would play Barbies. It was never "play with Barbies." It was always, "play Barbies."

While I know that the number of toys is so completely unimportant, I hope my children enjoy their toys and look forward to playing with grandma and grandpa's toys, too. I know that for me they represent countless hours of imagination and happiness and life skill building and just good old fun. Sometimes I worry I'm pushing my kids to grow up too quickly. Weeks like this one remind me that toys really do make the child. They have their whole lives to be grown ups. Toys give them a place that is all their own where they can think and do and be anything. I don't have many specific memories of specific moments. But I remember being happy and full of a little kid's big dreams. I hope I can give my children that same gift.

So, what are your favorite childhood toys and what do they mean to you?

Belated Mother's Day

Let's start by saying that my two year old can't keep a secret. My L is just the best. On the day before Mother's Day my good husband had all three boys while I went to teach my morning Weight Watchers class and then to present at a Stake Relief Society Women's Conference. The boys ran some errands and unbeknown to me, picked up a Mother's Day present.

Later in the day we were all in the car going somewhere and Mother's Day came up. Mr. L from the back seat heard the words "Mother's Day" and yelled "Mommy. Mother's Day. Flowers!" Big brother sitting next to him sort of knows the virtue of secret keeping and just as ardently said, "We didn't get you anything, Mom, really. Nothing!" To which L again said, "Yes. Mommy. Mother's Day. Flowers!" And back and forth it went. J and I were in the front seat just laughing hysterically at the two arguing over weather or not I really had a Mother's Day present.

To say the least I had a great Mother's Day. I got to stay in bed until the breakfast of my choosing was ready (I don't really like the idea of breakfast IN bed). The boys ran from the kitchen to get me when Dad gave the word. They bombarded me with hugs and kisses (with three boys, bombarded is the perfect word). They pulled me to the kitchen and showed me that indeed they had picked out a spectacular pot of red-pink tulips. We had eggs and sausage--my all time favorite. All of J's regular before-church meetings were cancelled so I had extra help getting the boys ready for church. I tried to pull the "it's Mother's Day so wear what I want you to wear" card. It didn't work. Two temper tantrums and two personally picked out outfits were just fine by the end of the morning.

After church I got to take a nap. And thanks to my excellent planning skills, dinner was cooking away in the crockpot before we even left for church in the morning.

The boys set a lovely table, complete with China for the grown ups and a scrumptious homemade chocolate cake (I have an AMAZING husband who can turn whole wheat flour into unbelievable creations).

All in all, I felt so loved and so very much like the queen of the family. Some days are more physically demanding than I can almost bare with three busy boys. But I sure wouldn't trade them for anything else!

What a great day to be a woman and a mother!

Book of Mormon Challenge: House of Order #2 WORRY LESS; PRAY MORE

The theme that keeps coming back to me lately is something I came across last week in the last few teachings of Nephi. He basically told the people if they prayed more and worried and wondered less, things would work out. I keep trying to tell myself that phrase over and over: Pray more; worry less.

Boy is it hard.

I can be a bit of a worry wart I guess. I'm not very good at letting go of things that I can't control very well. I worry that I'm not a good enough house keeper. I worry that I'm neglecting the less active children in my primary class. I worry that I'll never become a faster runner. I worry about the library books and movies that are over due (okay, I can control that). I worry about people that I love and the choices that they are making and the potential sadness that they may experience as a result of it. I worry that if I had just said this or that, maybe I could have helped someone a little better. I especially worry about the future. Where should we live, what job should we look for, when will that happen? And so on and so on.

Nephi had the unenviable job of really letting the people have it when they started getting themselves into trouble. So I suppose it should come as no surprise that his words were so clear to me.

Stop all this worrying! Pray more. Do it.

I worry too much with too little action. Moving forward with faith is definitely the goal of a lifetime.

Applying this specifically to my Book of Mormon topic of study of getting my physical and spiritual house in order, I am finding that I'm worrying an awful lot about what isn't getting done. I told my husband the other day that things just never seem to change. Nothing every changes. When will things change? I keep doing the same things and getting the same results. It's making me crazy!

But here's the long and short of it when it comes to keeping house: I'm pretty sure that the Lord will help me make a do-able plan and then execute it if I keep praying and then act instead of worrying and wondering so much about what to do and feeling like a failure for what I'm not doing.

Besides, there is no such thing as failure, only feedback.

Book of Mormon Challenge: House of Order

The subtitle of The Book of Mormon is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ." "Testament" also means "covenant." The Lord's order is to provide structure with promised blessings if we uphold our end. So I'm looking for what that structure is shaped like and how to create it in my home.

There are several places in the BOM where it is make clear that this is an "abridgment" of other records. When I read that I immediately felt this great wash of relief that this question of how to set my house in order really can be answered in real world, practical ways by looking to the scriptures. Knowing that this is an abridgment tells me that I can be confident is not having to hang on to everything that comes through my door. School project, letters, old bills can all be thrown out, while only keeping the very most important or specially, without any feeling of guilt or question of need.

I also see the value of caring for that which is of most value to me. My things deserve care.

In the introductory pages that include the testimony of the three witnesses and the testimony of egith witnesses I learned that live really is a shared responsibility. Never over look the opportunity to include my husband and children in setting our house in order. The practical application of this was sweetly demonstrated last night as we were cleaning up dinner dishes. My oldest has decided that hand washing the dishes that can't go in the dishwasher or are too big for the dishwasher are going to be his responsibility. He pushed a chair over to the sink and started washing. Not to be left out of the mix, younger brother quickly pushed a chair over and stood next to big brother. Big brother handed dishes to little brother and little brother arranged them in the dish drain. I couldn't believe my eyes, frankly. It was amazing.

I'm learning that all things take time. I want to have the perfect schedule right now. I want it to work perfectly and have everyone check off their jobs completed and move on. Order, real change, takes time and hard work.

One impression that I had as I began the body of the book 1 Nephi was that I need to be teaching my children how to order and organize themselves. Early preparation also seems to play a significant role. Logistically it must have been quite a feat to get Lehi's family out of Jerusalem.

We must never neglect worship and thanksgiving.

I need to see to it that I show my children that I don't need a lot to be happy. Lehi's family lived in a tent! This is certainly part of the Lord's manner of organizing and keeping order. I see over and over how the Nephi and Lehi make plans before they moved forward. They created everything spiritually before it was created physically. There was a clear plan in place.

The Lord also does a great job showing how Lehi's family realized that they need not bring a lot of things with them. The Lord would provided.Never be afraid to rid myself of those THINGS that just burden and bog down.

A New Challenge

My sister-in-law Amy recently issued a challenge to read the Book of Mormon by June. She invited anyone who'd like to participate to choose a topic, or rather, a question, and really investigate how the Book of Mormon can and does provide answers to that specific question. Through life's experience, I know that the primary way that the Holy Ghost speaks to me personally is through the scriptures. I love the Book of Mormon and look forward to this challenge.

So here are the logistical details: In order to finish by June, I need to read four and a half pages a day. I do well with concrete goals like that. It generally takes me about 35 minutes to get through that many pages, depending on how many children are awake and how tired I am. I try to read very first thing in the morning and have been getting up around 5:45 to make that happen. It is the only quiet time of my entire day on many days.

The question I decided to focus on is something I've been thinking about and struggling with for just about forever it seems. At first glance it many seem sort of trite or trivial, but this seems to be encroaching on every other aspect of my life right now and I need some solutions.

The Question: What is the Lord's patter for organizing--physically and spiritually? What does the Book of Mormon teach me about how to set my house in order.

When I told my husband what topic I had decided on, I jokingly asked him if he thought the Lord could help me with my paper clutter problem and, wouldn't you know it, my sweet husband found a great scripture about only recording on the plates the things of most worth. The Book of Mormon really does act as a guide for our lives. I can't look up "paper clutter" or "laundry schedule" or "clean floors" in the index. But I can see patterns and I can ponder on the whys of a house of order. And as it turns out, the Lord is putting impressions and thoughts in my mind about the technical structure of how to organize a Christ-centered house of order.

My hope is to post what I'm learning once a week. The margins of my scriptures are filling up quickly. There is so much there that gives me hope, courage, and wisdom. Enjoy the journey along with me. When I post something specific to the challenge, I'll label it "Book of Mormon Challenge: House of Order"

A House of Worship

Today we took the boys to clean the church. They've set up a new system where each organization in the ward is responsible for a different part of the church building and it was my husband's turn to clean the Chapel.

This is a somewhat tricky arrangement and today was a challenging day to need to meet this commitment. We had a MILLION things that needed our time and attention, which, now that the day is nearly over, did not get done. We had tired boys. I mostly just fed the baby. But my sweet husband rallied the troops and put every able body to work. He brought kid-sized dusters and a small hand vac from home for the boys. They straightened hymn books and vacuumed crumbs. I also practiced the hymns I'll be playing on the organ for sacrament meeting tomorrow. The whole thing took nearly an hour longer than we had planned/hoped.

But what a privilege it is to care for our house of worship. I was trying so hard to explain to my two year old why we don't play soccer in the chapel. Over and over I kept saying this is Heavenly Father's House. This is where we take the sacrament. This is the most important room in the whole church. As I spent every few minutes breaking up a fight or calming a crying child, I had to remind myself that those words really are true. What a remarkable thing it is to show our love for the Lord by caring for his holy house. I've lived in places where the house of worship was a small rented house with no running water and electricity. I've met in churches where hundreds of people would fill a chapel (and over flow, and gym) every Sunday. The spirit of each ward is different, but one thing remains the same: we come together to worship in the Lord's House. No matter our differences, no matter our strengths or weaknesses, as we worship, we are one. A body of Saints. No longer strangers but fellow citizens in the kingdom of God.