Irony, Comedy, & Tragedy: or a moment in my life

I decide to make Navajo Tacos for dinner and so I'm adding all the ingredients into my mixer. Hermy, the tortoise, is in the kitchen near me eating her dinner of lettuce. My kids are downstairs playing with the neighbors. And I have my "Anything Box" Pandora station playing so I'm singing along to the Pet Shop Boys and OMD as I'm filling up my 2 1/2 cup measuring cup with flour.

I fill up the cup once, crossing the kitchen to back cabinet to get the flour, and dump it in. As I'm preparing to walk back to the mixer to dump the full-to-overflowing cup of flour the second time, I suddenly find myself sliding uncontrollably across the floor, slipping on a puddle of pee that Hermy just made. I slide and crash into the stove, landing on my knee and foot and spilling flour all over the stove and floor and me.

It was a beautiful moment.

That one day I will laugh at.


But today is NOT that day.

:o)

The tragedy is that I decided to actually make a real dinner instead of laying on the couch finishing a book. The comedy... well that's apparent. The irony? Hermy was outside all day and didn't pee once.

Salt Lake Tribune Article

I was featured in an article on volunteers in juvenile detenion! Click HERE to read it!

Songs I Love because they have my Name in them

Of course, whenever the last song came on by Starship when I was a kid, I'd cry. Mostly it was because it was one more excuse for my brothers to torment me. :o)

Watching the Eclipse

We spent an hour outside with our neighbors watching the eclipse with their eclipse glasses and through the reflection of our binoculars. It was awesome. At the height of the eclipse the sunlight around us was eery. All of our shadows were blurry and the sky looked dark. It was awesome.

I need your help with an Art Therapy Program

I am restarting the art therapy program at Farmington Bay youth detention center where I have volunteered for the past 3 years, teaching writing classes. In order to start the program, I need to have art supplies to run the classes. That is where I need your help. 

Will you please consider donating $5 to $20 to our program so I can buy art supplies? Or, if you'd prefer, you can actually just buy some of the art supplies and give them to me. We will be soliciting donations through United Way and other local businesses that will help sustain the program, but I am in need of money in the next few weeks to get the classes started Tuesday, June 5th. 

The class will be taught for an hour every Tuesday morning and will allow the kids to explore art through drawing, painting, sketching, chalk, and cartooning. Most of the 300+ kids that I've taught in the last 2.5 years have wished they had an artist outlet while in detention. I have been studying many art therapy books and have learned different techniques and activities that help the kids find a way to express themselves.

I am really excited about this program and think it will be a big success. Please consider donating either supplies or a little bit of cash to help me get it going. Let me know if you want to buy actual supplies, see the list below.  I need the items by June 1st. 

Let me know if you have any questions. 

Thanks SO much! 

Supplies: 

16 color water color palette

box of sidewalk chalk (10+ colors)

reams of white paper

200 sheets of multi-color construction paper

large boxes of crayons

large boxes of markers

4 pack glue sticks

Teaching Fairness

Every day I hear one or more of my children whine "That's NOT fair!" Any blessing, any goodness, any attention given to any of their siblings becomes a loss or insult to them. Some notices their brother? They are suddenly diminished, less important, and less worthy.

It's such a big problem.

I realize it's a normal part of development for all of us (I know adults who still struggle with this), but I want to teach my kids now to how be more resilient and more stable within themselves. I want them to learn how to NOT make themselves miserable.

Thankfully, Elder Jeffrey Holland's April General Conference talk provided a perfect solution. Read it HERE. Elder Holland talks about the parable of the laborers in the vineyard that Christ taught-- about laborers being asked to help at 9 am, Noon, 3 pm, and 5 pm. And how they all got the SAME wage. I used different color markers and a big piece of paper and drew the scene as we talked about it. I knew if they could visualize what was going on that it would be more impactful.

My kids' reactions were pretty predictable: "That's NOT fair! The first guys did more work." But it isn't, I told them, the first group agreed to work till 6 pm for $5 (that's the money I used) and that's what they got. That's not fair. It's what they agreed too. The kids couldn't disagree with that. They knew it was true. But it still didn't sit well with them, especially my daughter. That's when I started reading from the talk directly.

This is what he had to say:

I wish to speak of the Savior’s parable in which a householder “went out early in the morning to hire labourers.” After employing the first group at 6:00 in the morning, he returned at 9:00 a.m., at 12:00 noon, and at 3:00 in the afternoon, hiring more workers as the urgency of the harvest increased. The scripture says he came back a final time, “about the eleventh hour” (approximately 5:00 p.m.), and hired a concluding number. Then just an hour later, all the workers gathered to receive their day’s wage. Surprisingly, all received the same wage in spite of the different hours of labor. Immediately, those hired first were angry, saying, “These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.”¹ When reading this parable, perhaps you, as well as those workers, have felt there was an injustice being done here. Let me speak briefly to that concern.

First of all it is important to note that no one has been treated unfairly here. The first workers agreed to the full wage of the day, and they received it. Furthermore, they were, I can only imagine, very grateful to get the work. In the time of the Savior, an average man and his familycould not do much more than live on what they made that day. If you didn’t work or farm or fish or sell, you likely didn’t eat. With more prospective workers than jobs, these first men chosen were the most fortunate in the entire labor pool that morning.

Indeed, if there is any sympathy to be generated, it should at least initially be for the men not chosen who also had mouths to feed and backs to clothe. Luck never seemed to be with some of them. With each visit of the steward throughout the day, they always saw someone else chosen.

But just at day’s close, the householder returns a surprising fifth time with a remarkable eleventh-hour offer! These last and most discouraged of laborers, hearing only that they will be treated fairly, accept work without even knowing the wage, knowing that anything will be better than nothing, which is what they have had so far. Then as they gather for their payment, they are stunned to receive the same as all the others! How awestruck they must have been and how very, very grateful! Surely never had such compassion been seen in all their working days.

It is with that reading of the story that I feel the grumbling of the first laborers must be seen. As the householder in the parable tells them (and I paraphrase only slightly): “My friends, I am not being unfair to you. You agreed on the wage for the day, a good wage. You were very happy to get the work, and I am very happy with the way you served. You are paid in full. Take your pay and enjoy the blessing. As for the others, surely I am free to do what I like with my own money.” Then this piercing question to anyone then or now who needs to hear it: “Why should you be jealous because I choose to be kind?”

About this point, the emotion started flowing, especially from my daughter who struggles when her brothers "overshadow" her. Even though it was hard, we pushed on. I read this to them:

Brothers and sisters, there are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets an unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition. May I plead with us not to be hurt—and certainly not to feel envious—when good fortune comes to another person? We are not diminished when someone else is added upon. We are not in a race against each other to see who is the wealthiest or the most talented or the most beautiful or even the most blessed. The race we are really in is the race against sin, and surely envy is one of the most universal of those.

It's hard to say at this point if it made much difference for my kids. It is a lesson we will reinforce over and over again, for sure. Here's one more point I want to share with all of you:

This parable—like all parables—is not really about laborers or wages any more than the others are about sheep and goats. This is a story about God’s goodness, His patience and forgiveness, and the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a story about generosity and compassion. It is a story about grace. It underscores the thought I heard many years ago that surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.

I do not know who in this vast audience today may need to hear the message of forgiveness inherent in this parable, but however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.

Whether you are not yet of our faith or were with us once and have not remained, there is nothing in either case that you have done that cannot be undone. There is no problem which you cannot overcome. There is no dream that in the unfolding of time and eternity cannot yet be realized. Even if you feel you are the lost and last laborer of the eleventh hour, the Lord of the vineyard still stands beckoning. “Come boldly [to] the throne of grace,”³ and fall at the feet of the Holy One of Israel. Come and feast “without money and without price”⁴ at the table of the Lord.

Envy is HARD. It afflicts all of us. It's something we all struggle with at any age. Being content, being grounded in ourselves, being totally convinced of the love of our Heavenly Father and the unique position we hold in His heart takes a lot of work to maintain. But it will bring us so much more happiness. 

Some Quotes I Love

"We must recognize that we are all imperfect—that we are beggars before God. Haven’t we all, at one time or another, meekly approached the mercy seat and pleaded for grace? Haven’t we wished with all the energy of our souls for mercy—to be forgiven for the mistakes we have made and the sins we have committed?"

—President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Merciful Obtain Mercy"

"I testify that as you love Him, trust Him, believe Him, and follow Him, you will feel His love and approval. As you ask, 'What thinks Christ of me?' you will know that you are His disciple; you are His friend. By His grace He will do for you what you cannot do for yourself."

—Elder Neil L. Andersen, "What Thinks Christ of Me?"

"So the bad news is that family breakdown is causing a host of societal and economic ills. But the good news is that, like any cause and effect, those ills can be reversed if what is causing them is changed. Inequities are resolved by living correct principles and values. Brothers and sisters, the most important cause of our lifetime is our families. If we will devote ourselves to this cause, we will improve every other aspect of our lives and will become, as a people and as a church, an example and a beacon for all the peoples of the earth"

—Elder M. Russell Ballard, "That the Lost May Be Found"

Happy Mother's Day

This is one that needs to be watched again by all my friends and family.

Soft Pretzel Recipes

I tried making soft pretzels today for the first time. They are SO tasty--- even if I forgot to add salt in the recipe. Whoops.

This is the RECIPE I used even if it's not correct and I had to adjust it. I saw it first in a Woman's Day magazine at my vets' office. I almost tore it out and then I decided to just print it off the internet instead.

This is the RECIPE I am going to use next. Though I will adjust this one too by boiling the pretzel dough instead of just soaking the pretzel dough. And I'm going to add salt in the mix! And I want to make some that have a cinnamon-sugar mix on top and not just the salt.

The Woman's Day recipe says you can make them and freeze them. I am going to try that. I'm always looking for a healthy, tasty snack to grab quickly. I burnt out on blueberry muffins because I ate them too much. I think soft pretzels are up next.

If you're adventurous, you can try this RECIPE for rosemary sea salt pretzels and rosemary cheddar cheese sauce. They look delicious. So sad I can't eat cheese.

The Waiting Game

I'm not much of a waiter. I don't like waiting. I don't like those transitionary moments when you're not really in one phase of your life, but not really in another phase.

I'm waiting for what I hope will be my acceptance letter into the U's substance abuse counseling program.
I'm waiting for our house to sell.
I'm waiting to move into our new house.
I'm waiting for my summer classes to start.

It's not a patience thing. It's a waiting thing. I don't like being stuck in a transition.

So I'm waiting..... and trying to be happy and content about waiting......