Collage Making Fun

Here is a collage I made today expressing my feelings and inspired thoughts from General Conference this weekend.  President Uchtdorf's talk about Jesus Christ as the light of the world inspired it.  It may be hard to see in the picture but the bottom half represents a sun.  As I do the things mentioned here (trust in the Lord, serve, have faith, pray, give to the poor, etc), I will experience His light and the many blessings which come from Him including clarity, peace, joy, strength, testimony, courage and personal revelation.  These are the rays of the sun.  I will feel God's influence and God's love for me more fully.

This is a collage I made last month for our forthcoming baby, Maggie.  I have pondered on a middle name and I think I like the sound of Maggie Rose best of all.  Hence, a rose collage.  It is already hung up in her nook in my bedroom.

A guest post!

This is an email from my dad that I received today, one day before a General Conference of our church when all 15 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have the opportunity to hear from the living prophet and his apostles and other general leadership of the church.  It is always an inspiring weekend filled with encouraging words, beautiful music and inspiring prophetic counsel.

I asked his permission to post his email here and he agreed.  Let me know if you find it as inspiring as I did.

As I prepare for General Conference, I have another story for you.

Kind of long -- but believe me, I have abridged it down to the bone.

{I can already hear grandkids saying, "He sure talks a lot about himself !" }

Back on July 18, 2014 I sent you an email that said, in part:

"Every day I study and ponder apostolic authority.  Why?  Simply because God nudged me to do it.  {That's another story.}"

So, here's the story -- about apostolic authority -- in preparation of General Conference.

Background:

As you already know, in the spring of this year, when Jackie and I decided to start re-attending The Episcopal Church (TEC)I had already accepted Jesus as the Christ and Redeemer of the world, and I was ready to partake of the sacramental emblems of the Last Supper.  {FYI:  Pretty much anybody can receive Holy Communion in TEC.}

And although Jackie has always been a "cultural" episcopalian I wanted more than friendship or culture from the body of Christ with whom I worshipped.  So, I began to do a lot of studying about TEC, and I began to listen very closely to the sermons -- some sermons given by our resident priest, and other sermons given by visiting priests.  Please understand that Episcopal priests are highly trained -- in both theology and church management -- and that their sermons are carefully (and often beautifully) worded.

But I noticed what I would call a "slight movement" toward mythologizing the scriptures.

You might remember in a previous email, I wrote:  

"I told him {the priest} how much I appreciated him as an Episcopal vicar --  even though he did change the Gospel reading from "... for fear of the Jews"  to  "for fear of others"  -- an inside joke between us how Episcopalians flow to and fro with cultural pressures."

But it was actually not a joke when the priest did it, and after services I talked to him about it.  {FYI, Jackie was always afraid of the questions I asked.  She said Episcopalians don't ask a lot of questions -- they just go with the flow.} The priest explained that it was a way to make up for all the anti-semitism the scriptures had caused over the millennia.  I will only report two of the many questions I asked him:  

"And will you next remove any reference to the Jews who stoned Stephen?"

"Or any reference to the Jews who cried, 'Crucify him!'?"

Visiting and presiding at this same service was an episcopal canon (above a priest, but below a bishop} that I also spoke with about the issue of changing the words of Holy Writ.  She (correct pronoun) confirmed that the bishop of the diocese approved the change of wording.

Now, changing/adding/correcting Holy Writ is not hard for me to accept,  BUT it awakened in me the desire to understand HOW the Episcopalian leadership makes such decisions.

In addition, I repeat that I wanted more than friendship or culture from the body of Christ with whom I worshiped.  I wanted to commit myself to communion with this body of Christ, to sanctification with this body of Christ.  I actually started to study the process of confirmation to dig deeper into what it meant to become a full-fledged Episcopalian.

So, I read a few hundred thousand words (or more) from lots of good sources -- all of which lead me to one great question:

DID I TRUST THE LEADERSHIP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH?

And the unambiguous answer was .... No.

So, I expanded my reading to study the worldwide Anglican Communion (AC) leadership.

And the unambiguous answer was .... No.

And I expanded my reading to study various evangelical Christian groups and denominations.

And the unambiguous answer was .... No.

And I even expanded my reading to study Catholicism.

And the unambiguous answer was .... No.

Then on to the next great question:

"WHY didn't I TRUST them?"

And the unambiguous answer is/was:

"Look to the living prophets."

Which I did, and then the answer was .... Yes.

So, as I prepare for the blessing of being able to listen to God's chosen leaders at this moment when I am alive, I am filled with gratitude and anticipation.

Love to My Wonderful Family,

GranDad Chad

Financial Blessings

My part-time job at the library provided me with an extra few hundred dollars each month which I deposited into our savings account.  $250 was automatically withdrawn from my paycheck and deposited directly into savings.  Remember that figure; it’ll come up again later in the story.  The rest of the money (if there was more than that) was used toward flat tires, car emergencies or extra expenses that pop up occasionally.  There’s always something that comes up, right?!

In our 14 years of marriage saving money has happened rarely because each dollar earned usually pays a bill or feeds our family.  There’s not any extra money at the end of the month for fun or luxuries.  So being able to save my paycheck was actually fun for me.  I would rather save it than spend it!  I’ve always loved studying finances.  It is a passion of mine.  I love to make financial goals and pay off debts early.  I always want to save; it just doesn’t get to happen often.  So working at the library was not only satisfying for me personally but also financially.

One of the things I’ve had to do since becoming pregnant is quit working at the library.  I did get permission to take a couple of months off due to sickness, but I felt inspired to quit entirely because I knew that when newborn baby did finally come, the last thing I would want to have to do is leave her at home while I went to work!  In hindsight, I’m so glad that I did quit entirely because there is no way I could’ve handled the fatigue of this pregnancy on top of working evenings and some Saturdays.  I might’ve been able to take June and July off, but I was NOT ready to go back to work in August.  I was still throwing up some evenings!  And I still wouldn’t have been ready in September!  The nausea is gone but the exhaustion isn’t!

It was a concern of mine, however, that our financial goals would be thwarted and that money would be tighter without the extra cushion my small paycheck provided.  I knew I didn’t have to work, however, and I moved forward in faith, knowing that through the blessings of tithing, my family would be lovingly watched over and provided for.  (In my church, we tithe 10% of our income.  Matt and I have experienced so many blessings by following this financial-spiritual principle, I am thoroughly converted to the obeying of this commandment!)

Matt and I proceeded with our decision and preparations for a future pregnancy and I put in my two weeks notice at work.  It would be a little sad to leave my friends and coworkers at the library, but I felt comforted that it would be for a greater good.  (By the way, if my friend, Al, from the library is reading this, Hi Al!  Hopefully I’ll see you sometime when I stop at the library with my family!  I miss seeing your happy face!)

Fast forward a few weeks.  Toward the end of the school year (April or May), Matt received his annual contract to sign for the following school year.  He called me when he received it and gave me some good news.  “Honey, it looks like I’ve been moved up a couple of tiers on the pay schedule.  I’ll be getting about a $3,000/year raise!”  That news was completely unexpected to both of us!  Truly it would be a blessing but we honestly didn’t think much more of it than that.  The financial increase was still months away from happening.

It was a few days later as I was pondering (okay, worrying over) the reality of my impending loss of paychecks when I realized what a $3,000/year raise translates into per month.  Can you do the math?  $3,000 divided by 12 = $250!  That is the exact amount I had been saving from each of my paychecks.  The exact amount!  Who could’ve possibly planned this so perfectly?  Who could bless us so exactly and so directly and so obviously?  God only!  What a comfort that was to me and an assurance that my loving Heavenly Father would take care of me and my family as we take this next step. 

Now that the new school year has started, Matt has received his first paycheck.  It isn’t exactly $250 more per month that he takes home.  Of course, the state has to take it’s share of retirement funding (15% of his income mandatory!) and the federal government has to take it’s share of taxes.  But still, I love to live the gospel and witness first-hand the direct and personal financial blessings from obeying the principle of tithing and knowing my Father in Heaven cares for me.  God is so good!

Transportational Blessings

I was going to post a new blog today entitled “Financial Blessings” but due to unexpected circumstances this past weekend, I am instead writing about our experience with a flat tire.  Hence the title of this post is “Transportational Blessings.”  I don’t think transportational is a word, but I’m a teacher.  And Matt says that teachers are allowed to make up their own words.

Last night Matt and I were able to attend a High Priests Group Social for our area at the newly acquired, moderately tamed, but still fairly wild campground our church uses for Girls Camp and other fun outdoor adventures.  Matt had the duty of shuttling the older folks who couldn’t walk the uneven ground from the crude parking area to the main campground meetingplace.  Up and down he drove in the Suburban, carrying passengers and lawn chairs and potluck offerings over bumpy, rainwater-covered tracks.  The thorny locust trees in that location are so prevalent, I had thought beforehand we would probably get a flat tire due to a puncture from a thorn…  Surprisingly, the flat tire came after we arrived home!

We pulled into the garage after our date and heard a crunch.  Uh-oh.  Matt commented, “I hope that wasn’t a scooter.”  The kids have been having so much fun riding their scooters throughout the garage now that the weather has changed and there aren’t wasps flying around so much.  It was worse than a scooter, however!  It was a wooden board that the kids had been hammering nails into that contained 5 giant nails sticking straight up (now only four because one of them was stuck in the tire)!  We drove right over that board! 

We could hear the air rushing out of the tire.  The kids came out to welcome us home.  Dad was not so happy.  He quickly got to business loosening lug nuts and jacking up the vehicle.  We would have to put on the spare tire in order for me and the kids to get to church in the morning.  It was already after bedtime so he went straight to work.

After I got kids to bed I joined him outside and again, Dad was not too happy.  The spare tire would not loosen from it’s home under the car.  We went through the manual instructions step by step but that darn spare tire was not coming off!  I called our friend who used to own the Suburban to ask for his advice.  He ended up coming over and we all spent about 2 hours outside in the cold trying to get the spare tire.  It was just not happening no matter what we tried.  While this friend was helping, we were chatting.  He had just spent the last 3 days as Mr. Mom while his wife was in another state visiting her sister.  He was not only on full dad duty, but his own car had broken down the day before and was at the mechanic!  He had been so busy that day he hadn’t had a chance to shower.  He had just picked up his wife and they were still eating dinner when he dropped it all to come over and help us!  Talk about service!

At 11:00 pm, I finally went to bed.  Matt came in a while later.  I decided to stay at home Sunday with the kids.  Matt would drive his car to church and take our flat tire in to Walmart to fix it after church was over but before two more church-related meetings in the afternoon.  (Whoever said Sunday was a day of rest has never served in an LDS bishopric!)

Church went well.  “Where is your family today?” Matt was questioned several times by caring ward members.  He told them the story of the flat tire.

Matt forgot his wallet so he came home directly after church (he really didn’t have enough sleep, poor guy!)  He grabbed some food and took a cat nap before driving in to town to hit Walmart before his next meetings.  What a surprise when he opened the trunk of the car and he pulled out a tire without a nail puncture and with stickers and the tire pumped full of air!  After bouncing it and beginning to roll it into the store, he realized this was not the flat tire!  He figured out he must’ve been the lucky victim of some deliberate act of kindness.  He remembered a comment from earlier in the day and texted a particular friend whom he suspected.

“Did you fix our tire?” he queried.

“Yes, I hope I’m not meddling too much in your business” was the reply!

Matt called me and told me the good news and we both digested this blessing.  We feel we are blessed.  We know we are blessed.  But doesn’t this particular act stand out from others?!  What an incredibly Christian, selfless, generous, and immediate blessing this kind friend was able to bestow upon us.  It’s astounding and it’s inspiring.  Thank you, you know who you are!!

Random pictures over the last several months!

Just browsing through pictures on the computer…  Not sure if y'all have seen these before.

In our "new" Suburban
Spring 2014

Thanksgiving 2013
I picked it because I look so small
(and lately I feel so huge)!

Ella on Christmas morning 2013!

Abby modeling the new apron Mom made for her!

Ella got one too!

Abby with her rock collection

All of the new aprons!  Felicity's is made to look like Snow White.

Klaus at the zoo.

Abby enjoying some ribs!  A very unusual experience at our house!

Felicity running along with Mommy and Klaus at the
Kansas City Temple 5K Run May 2014

Cousins wearing the same shirt--unplanned!
To celebrate two birthdays on the same day, Auntie Anaise and Kian!

Kian got to decorate his cake with gobs of candy.
Thank you, Auntie!

Klaus and Daddy being silly!

Daddy receiving an award from the Salvation Army
for the homeless kits he and his class put together.  He was on the news!

Klaus petting a snake at the zoo!

Our newest addition!  Due January 17, 2015!

Klaus wearing some false teeth at the Oak Grove Funival
September 2014

Abby getting her hair sprayed at the Oak Grove Funival
September 2014

Christmas 2013

Achieving BIG goals in 2014

I began this year, 2014, with an enthusiastic determination to do something BIG!  I wanted to make a New Year's Resolution that would change me, that would be incredible, that would be impressive!  I wasn't sure what it would be but I just felt like I could do anything, even reaching a lofty goal whether health-related, diet-related, educational, or doing something new and different in my community.  I thought about a half marathon but that didn't feel exactly right.  I pondered various opportunities for continued personal growth and education but I wasn't inspired to pursue any specific thing.

I did commit myself to very strict dietary rules including eating only whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, natural sugars, spices and a few condiments.  Nothing else would pass my lips.  No refined sugar.  No oils.  No junk food.  No meat or dairy.  No white flour.  I wanted to be the healthiest I had ever been before.  I felt like Superwoman when I was in social situations with desserts.  I passed them over without any regret and looked forward to the healthy treats I had waiting for me at home.  It felt great to be recommitted to my health.  I exercised for about an hour a day as well.  I loved it.

Then Matt and I made the decision to be willing to have another child.  This decision was made after a tremendous amount of talking, planning, praying and internal wrestling with the Spirit.  My journal is filled with pages of thoughts and questions and preparations for the possible ramifications of our family growing in size again.  The timing of the pregnancy had to be perfect because of the severity of my morning sickness.  My sickest weeks must lie within the summer months when Matt is off of school and can take care of house and children-related duties.  As these plans were pondered over and questioned and prayed about and discussed, my heart was slowly turned toward being willing to follow God's counsel to "multiply and replenish the earth."

Matt and I feel that it is a married couple's duty to have and raise children.  Our Father's commandment to Adam and Eve remains in force today.  Of course, every marriage and every family is different and these differences must be considered.  In our personal situation, pregnancy has to be planned.  In our current situation, our marriage is strong.  In my case, I have to feel ready emotionally, physically and mentally.  The decisions relating to family must be made between a husband and a wife and the Lord.  For me, the Lord was prompting me that it was time for us to consider another child.  If I had continued to push those promptings away, I would have been like Jonah trying to run away from God.

This one decision, to have another child, has changed everything (ok, not literally everything, but it changed a lot about my life).  Before the decision I was exquisitely happy with working part-time at the library.  I couldn't have imagined a more perfectly suited job for me and my family.  I never could have  imagined walking away from this awesome opportunity.  Why would I quit something that gave me personal satisfaction?

Another of the great joys in my life is gardening.  I love to plant seeds, to help make edible plants grow, to feed myself and my family from our own organic garden.  I love the summer, even in humid Missouri, because it means delicious fruits and vegetables are abundant.  Experiencing summer while pregnant automatically means that my gardening ability will be severely limited.  (To prove this point, I don't think I even left the house during the entire month of June, unless it was somewhere I had to go like to the doctor's office!  I watched the weeds grow from my bedroom window and there was nothing I could do about it!)

And all of the high hopes and big goals I was ready to fulfill at the beginning of 2014 flew out the window with this one decision.

Here is the point of me writing down these thoughts: I have been completely happy since making the decision!  I have gardened less.  It hasn't been a big deal.  I quit my library job without any regrets.  I have endured the summer months of painful queasiness fairly well.  And I find myself filled with joy and excitement at this new adventure that I couldn't have imagined possible before.

I am so thankful for the vision I had a couple of years ago of me and my family with another baby girl we called Maggie.  I am thankful for Matt's and my relationship which is strong and committed and faithful.  I am thankful for his chosen profession in education which allows us to even consider the option of having more children.  Matt must be home during those several sick weeks of severe nausea and vomiting to take up the slack that I must leave behind in my illness.  I don't know that I ever realized before what a blessing it has been for him to have a job that allows him to help so significantly!

I am thankful for my recent ultrasound which showed me what I already knew: that this baby is a girl.  I am thankful for the gifts we have already received: a crib with pink bedding, baby toys and baby furniture, and baby clothes.

Mostly, I am thankful for this BIG thing that has taken over my year.  I'm doing something I could not have imagined back in January.  I'm creating life.  Could it get any bigger than that?!  I'm following the Spirit.  And I'm thankful for the happiness I feel inside because I am willing to do the Lord's will.

Ode to Chicks

Here is Abby's journal entry 6/29/2014.

Today my chicks died.  A fox killed them.  I can still picture them in my mind.  Always getting into mischief, somehow.  They hated to be separated.  Take one away from the other chicks and if it knew where the others were it would go running.  If it did not know where the others were it would call and call and call till it knew where the others were (running while calling).  Scattering the food, spilling the water, pooping in the food.  They were Harry Houdini at escaping, running, and stranger Harry Houdinis, eating.  They could eat five crumbles in two seconds!  They were just about four or five months old.  They were almost layers!  I miss them a lot.  (Sad face with tears)

I made up two rhymes about foxes, cats, and chicks.

"Cats don't cry, so why should I?
Cats eat chickens so do vixens."

"Cats don't keep chickens.
Same with vixens."

This is Abby's picture.  You can see the chicks all have x's for eyes to signify they're dead.

Here are my (Rhyetta's) comments which I wrote in her journal:

While we were enjoying our dessert for Family Night, Dad called out, "Look at that!"  We all followed his stare out the window to see a tan fox in the backyard by the chicken coop!  The fox saw us too and sauntered away.  Abby went outside immediately to check on her chicks.  Uh-oh.  We could see one, lifeless, surrounded by a pile of feathers by the pear tree.  The other two were nowhere to be found.  I figured the fox had gotten all of them.  Surprisingly, Abby wasn't sad.  She has become used to dealing with her animal's deaths.  I feel sad that we won't get any eggs, especially after Abby has cared for them so well and for so long.  It's hard to keep any kind of bird out here in the country with so many predators.  Abby did a great job raising the chicks.  Their names were: Chick Norris, Super Chick and Slender Chick.

Here are Ella's comments:

abby's chicks were loving and lovable and cuddly, but one thing about them i did not like was that they pooped on me. (laughter)

Here is Ella's picture: