All in the Eye of the Beholder

As I walked down the rows and rows of various pieces of art I marveled at the talent that I was viewing.  There were contemporary pieces with geometric shapes seemingly in random positions, and bright colors splattered all over the paper, but if you looked at it just right you could see the artists name depicted in through those shapes and colors.

There were hilarious characatcher’s with elongated faces and very small bodies sketched out on construction paper.

There were stunning portraits.  One was a clean sketch of a beautiful young woman with long hair cascading in front of her shoulders, and her eyes were stunning with the light sparkling in them.

There was a harder sketch of a middle aged man with his face half hidden behind his long unkempt hair and his shaggy beard.  He looked like a rocker who just got off stage after performing one of his best shows… he looked hard around the edges, but if you looked close you could see satisfaction and contentment in his eyes.

There were even some sculptures there. 

I’m sure you are wondering where “there” is.  The art show was held at the local high school.  Our school district held an art exhibit and all the schools art teachers picked out some of their favorite pieces that their children had created during the year and brought them to the high school for the show.

One of the pieces that was chosen was one of Droid’s small pottery pieces. 


It was wonderful to see the progression of art from Kindergarten all the way up to the high school level.  Droid has developed quite a talent for art, and has even photocopied and sold a few of his drawings of characters from the video game “Halo”. 

He was so impressed to see what some of the seniors in high school could do, and I told him that will be that good too if he continued to practice and learn the technique. 

It was wonderful taking my children to the art show and let them appreciate the beautiful things that people can create from their imagination. 

I love art.  Especially my children's art... It makes my heart dance.

Peer Pressure

So, after being locked up all winter the time has come to brush off my neglected running shoes and hit the track.  Jewel met me there and after we made sure that my Little Princess and Little Charge were secure in their strollers we left them with by the bleachers with coloring books, toy cars, snacks and great view of the track where they can watch us… and we can watch them and we took off to see how out of shape we are.

I’ll tell yeah… after the first 200 meters my ankles were hurting and I thought I was going to have to wuss out and walk a little, but Jewel was still going, so I pumped up my mp3 player to Dixie chicks “Ready To Run” and sucked it up.

After the first couple of laps my legs loosened up and my ankles stoped hurting so I decided to shoot to finish at least a mile. 

The last lap was harder.  My lungs were burning (my body doesn’t like running in cold weather, and yes, 49 degrees is still fairly cold to me) and my calves were threatening to explode… but I gritted my teeth and finished the lap. 

 

I love positive peer pressure.  I know that if Jewel wasn’t running by my side I wouldn’t have finished the run.  And I was relieved to hear her say the same to me. 

I’m so grateful for friends who push me to achieve my goals, like finishing a mile, and pressure me to go a step further.  Along with re-starting our workout routine we’ve made a commitment to each other to eat healthy.  My fridge is now full of fruits and veggies, and I have a menu on the front of my fridge so I don't have to think about how to throw it all together.

My goal is to run the Girls Tri Too Triathlon in September here in Akron.  I did it last year with some other friends (also a result of peer pressure) and my goal then was just to finish the race... and not be in last place.  I finished it... and I wasn't last!  This year my goal is to beat my previous time... and to learn how to swim so I don't end up doggy paddling and back stroking through the swimming leg of the race. 

If we stick with this, in a few months we should be some healthy, toned and hot momma’s!  And I know we will stick with it, because Jewel is going to be right by my side the whole time… and if she can do it… so can I.

Pretty Big... No Huge, HUGE Mistake!!

As I mentioned before, I am a member of the Relief Society.  This year the relief society is focusing on the history of the program, and how we can learn and be strengthened from the early women of the Relief Society. 

In May there is going to be a big Stake (which is like a regional) Relief Society Conference in our area.  In preparation for this meeting the Stake Relief Society President called and asked if she could interview me.  She is putting together a video of women telling some stories of their experiences in the relief society, and some (like me) telling stories about early sisters in the R.S. and how they have influenced our lives today.

                In preparation for this interview I went back over Florence’s Autobiography to make sure I remembered the details right and discovered that I have make a HUGE mistake!

                The Autobiography of Florence Pearl Cross starts out telling the story of her MOTHER Louise Goldbranssen!  Louise is the one who danced her way across the plains!

                Holly Cow!  How could I have made such an error?! 

Florence did live an amazing life… I think tomorrow I’m going to have to copy more of the autobiography here so you can actually learn more about Florence, but it is LOUISE who has inspired my dance blog.  If you go back and re-read my first post you will see that it really was Louise in the story… I really don’t know how I get it mixed up in my head… I for some reason thought that Florence was the mother, and Louise the daughter… I must be getting old.  J

                I hope you can all forgive me my HUGE error… and hopefully Louise and Florence will as well. 

                I guess part of life is learning to laugh at our mistakes… even when they are really embarrassing.  I’m laughing at myself… you can too… just not too hard.

Determination

When Doc was a little boy, he was full of energy..,. hyper would be a good word to describe him.  His Mom and Dad were becoming very frustrated and exhausted from chasing him around, trying (unsuccessfully) to keep him under control. 

One day they came up with an idea.  His Dad took an old and dull saw out and sawed it into a log in their yard just enough so that it would be able to be pulled out, and he told Doc to go out and saw that log until it was cut in two.

This little 3 year old boy excitedly ran outside and went to town sawing back and forth on that log with so much focus and determination that an Olympic athlete would be envious. 

His Mom and Dad watched from the window enjoying the quite in the house that they were confident would be very short lived.  They were sure that he would get burned out, or frustrated with his lack of progress. 

They were wrong.

That little boy worked on that log for days on end until he had cut that log in two!

It was then that his parents realized that when Doc decided to do something, he was going to work and work no matter how hard the task, or how long it took, he wouldn’t quit until he reached his goal.

I guess there are attributes that we are truly born with, because nothing has changed in the 30 years sense the day he sawed that log in two.

He is still sawing on logs.  Not literal logs, but the metaphorical ones. 

He now has a chain saw for the literal logs.

But as for all the other hard and long tasks in his life he is still just as diligent and determined to accomplish the task that is placed before him. 

For the entire 11 years that we have been married he has been in school, and once he decided that he wanted to go to medical school he has been doing nothing but working toward that goal of becoming a doctor. 

He has wanted to quite many times, but he knows that 10 years are going to come and go one way or another… the question is… where do you want to be at the end of those 10 years?  As hard as this is, as exhausted as we both are, as stressful as this field is, he has kept his eye on his goal, and is determined to saw this log in two.

He is a great example to me and our children.  Shoot… I have a hard time finishing the dishes many nights!  But Doc is always so good at finishing every task he starts, whether it’s cleaning a room, fixing a car, painting a project, or getting a doctorate degree I know that if he puts his mind to doing something, he will get it done.

I’m amazed at his determination.  And I’m grateful to be married to such a man.

Preparing for Easter

I was reading today in a church magazine called The Ensign, and the first article caught my eye and touched my heart.  With Eater coming up I'm trying to focus myself, and my children on the life and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, and a little less on the Easter bunny... although I'm sure he'll still be hiding some eggs around the house again this year. 

Anyway, I wanted to share with you an article written by Thomas S. Monson the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

I'm so grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, I hope to live more worthy of it.

 

He Is Not Here, but Is Risen

By President Thomas S. Monson

---

 

Today only ruins remain of Capernaum, that city by the lakeshore, heart of the Savior’s Galilean ministry. Here He preached in the synagogue, taught by the seaside, and healed in the homes.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus took a text from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isaiah 61:1; see also Luke 4:18)—a clear pronouncement of a divine plan to rescue the sons and daughters of God.

But Jesus’s preaching in Galilee had been merely prelude. The Son of Man had always had a dread rendezvous to keep on a hill called Golgotha.

Arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper, deserted by His disciples, spat upon, tried, and humiliated, Jesus staggered under His great cross toward Calvary. He progressed from triumph to betrayal, torture, and death on the cross.

In the words of the song “The Holy City”:

The scene was changed. …

The morn was cold and chill,

As the shadow of a cross arose

Upon a lonely hill.

 

For us our Heavenly Father gave His Son. For us our Elder Brother gave His life.

At the last moment the Master could have turned back. But He did not. He passed beneath all things that He might save all things: the human race, the earth, and all the life that ever inhabited it.

No words in Christendom mean more to me than those spoken by the angel to the weeping Mary Magdalene and the other Mary as they approached the tomb to care for the body of their Lord: “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen” (Luke 24:5–6).

With this pronouncement, those who have lived and died, those who now live and one day will die, and those yet to be born and yet to die had just been rescued.

As the result of Christ’s victory over the grave, we shall all be resurrected. This is the redemption of the soul. Paul wrote:  “There are … celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

“So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:40–42).

It is the celestial glory that we seek. It is in the presence of God that we desire to dwell. It is a forever family in which we want membership.

Of Him who delivered each of us from endless death, I testify He is a teacher of truth—but He is more than a teacher. He is the exemplar of the perfect life—but He is more than an exemplar. He is the great physician—but He is more than a physician. He is the literal Savior of the world, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Holy One of Israel, even the risen Lord, who declared, “I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110:4).

“Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives: ‘I know that my Redeemer lives!’” ²

Of this I testify.

Past the Biscuits

I wish I knew who wrote this, but I really like it and thought that you might like to read it too. 

Enjoy your biscuits!

When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage, and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his Biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school.

I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits."

 

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your momma put in a long hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides... A burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"

 

You know, life is full of imperfect things... And imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other’s faults and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences, is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

 

So...please pass me a biscuit. And yes, the burned one will do just fine!

The Best Years of my Life

And we’re back!

It’s interesting how you really don’t appreciate things until they are gone.  I really didn’t realize how much I relied on the internet until mine went down. 

No e-mail.

No Yahoo… (I decided I need an emergency encyclopedia) 

No Entertainment (yes, I watch way too much you tube.)

 

And worse yet… no blogging!

 

I’ve missed my blog!!!

Hopefully my faithful readers missed me too…

Well… let’s get too it.

It’s Spring Break! 

 

I want to make a joke about how I want a break from my spring break but… honestly so far it’s all going good. 

We aren’t going anywhere exciting… no Disneyworld or Yellowstone, we aren’t even going to the park right now with all the rain we’ve been getting. 

We are chilling around the house playing video games, watching movies. 

 Droid is working on school projects, and Cub Scout badges.  Oz is helping Droid with painting the school projects and joining in on all the cub scout activities that he can, and Little princess is along for the ride… occasionally fighting with her brothers for her right to watch Dora or Blue’s Clues.

The best news is that this week is Doc’s last week working the night float rotation… YEAH!  Once Friday night hits he is MINE again. 12 hour shifts aren’t too bad at all if I can have him every evening at 5:30pm.

But I have to be careful.  Often I find myself looking forward too much thinking, “life will be better in a day or two, or a month or two… or a year or two.”  It’s easy to think that I need to just bide my time and “endure” the hard times and look forward to a time when I think life will be easier.  Right now my biggest stress is finances, so even though we are in debt up to our eyeballs, I find myself constantly thinking, “just 2 ½ more years.” 

But I’ve heard time and time again from my parents, and many others that their fondest memories are from the days when they were young parents, their kids were a little wild and unrulely (not me of course…) and they were struggling through school… they say that those were the best days. 

I have no idea if they are just saying that so I will stop calling and whining about how hard it is to be a “single mom”, but… so far in my life they have seemed to know what they were talking about so… I’ll have to trust them and take their word for it.

So… although I’ve washed innumerable amounts of laundry,

made more PB & J sandwiches than I can stomach,

sang the ABC’s more times than I count

and cleaned the same house only to witness my hard work get destroyed only hours later

enough times to send me to send me to the nut house, but…

I know that in the grand scheme of things, this phase of my life is going to be short, and precious. 

The work that I’m doing right now is the hardest of my life, but it’s also the most important.

I’m raising three beautiful children, teaching them how to care for others, how to care for themselves, and how to love everyone… but beat up anyone who messes with Little Princess.  J  I hope that someday they will be ready to leave my home and ready to start one of their own.  I hope that they will have the confidence to stay true to who they are, and be an example to those around them.  I’m raising them so someday they will leave me… it’s hard to think of it that way, but ultimately… that’s what parenting is all about. 

I think I see what my parents said now… these are going to be the best years of my life.