I have a tile in my kitchen window that reads:
Life's not the breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away.
Some people spend their free time looking for and trying new extreme activities like skydiving, bungee jumping or rock climbing. They crave that rush of adrenalin that literally takes your breath away. I admit, I love a good roller coaster with lots of crazy loops and barrel rolls and hills that make your heart race. But I also find moments in my everyday life that take my breath away.
Marriage to my sweetheart and best friend in the world is breathtaking. I love him dearly. I have spent more time in this mortal life WITH him than I have spent WITHOUT him, and look forward to eternity with him. My children are also a source of many breathtaking moments. I love to watch the milestones in their lives….their first smiles, their first steps, first lost teeth, first time tying a shoe, learning to read, baptism, priesthood ordinations, passing the sacrament for the first time, first babysitting job, drivers licence, first date, mission service, entering college….I could go on for a long time listing all the moments, some common, and some once in a lifetime, that I have enjoyed with my children and husband.
For me, taking the time to enjoy the very smallest moments of a very regular day, turns that very regular day into something special. Today David spent much of his time working his little heart out trying to roll over. Until this afternoon, I'd really not seen him put a lot of effort into that at all. I spent time on the rug with him just watching as he exerted monumental effort, tongue hanging out he was working so hard, for what seemed like quite a long time for a baby his age. Finally his efforts bore fruit, he was able to get that last troublesome arm out of the way, and he flipped from back to tummy. The look on his face was priceless - utter surprise and pleasure all at the same time. In the next few minutes he flipped back onto his back, and then over again. I caught a picture of one of his rolls, just before he flipped over.
I don't need to ride in a hot air balloon to experience breathtaking moments in my life. Being a wife and mother provide me with those moments each day if I take the time to notice them.
“The family is the basic unit of society. The praying family is the hope of a better society.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, The Blessings of Family Prayer, Ensign February 1991)
Sophia is learning to pray. She is only two years old, but during those two years of her life, she has experienced hundreds of prayers. We have family prayers in the morning and family prayers in the evening, and a blessing on every meal. She sees people praying in church meetings and at the beginning of our weekly family home evening. She has watched her older brothers and sisters say their personal prayers, and she has even walked in on her parents praying…when she was supposed to be in bed. This weekend she even learned to fold her arms, bow her head and close her eyes as the prayers were said in General Conference which we watched on television.
Now she wants to say the prayers herself….every one of them. She often gets to say a prayer herself after someone else prays. Whenever she eats, even if it is just a snack, she insists on blessing her food. She folds her arms and expects everyone within sight and hearing, to fold their arms as well. We humor her. Even her big brothers studying in the family room good naturedly fold their arms as she blesses her "popsicle." We say a few words and then she copies us. We try to make the prayers simple but sincere. We want her to understand that a prayer, even a blessing on the food is not something you just memorize and spout off by rote. When we pray we are talking to our Heavenly Father. We are expressing our sincere gratitude for what he has given us. We humbly ask him for what we need. We try to talk before our prayers about specific needs. We mention family members and friends by name in our family prayers and ask for God's help in their lives.
It is not always easy for us to have family prayers. We have children in seminary, an older son with a job, children in classes and sports. But we try to pray every morning and again every evening as a family. We find that having our evening family prayer around the dinner table is the best way to make sure that it happens every night. With so many children scattering different directions in the evenings and having different bedtimes, this seems to work best for us. Sometimes getting everyone together and on their knees takes longer than saying the prayer. But we continue to make this act of worship an important part of our days.
President Gordon B. Hinckley:
"I feel satisfied that there is no adequate substitute for the morning and evening practice of kneeling together - father, mother, and children. This, more than soft carpets, more than lovely draperies, more than cleverly balanced color schemes, is the thing that will make for better and more beautiful homes." (The Blessings of Family Prayer, Ensign February 1991)
There is a cute game called "Don't Eat Pete" that is fun to play for Family Home Evening. We have tweaked the game a little and created our own version called, "Don't Eat the Prophet." It's a fun way for the whole family to learn the names of all the prophets of the restoration. We've made a couple of editions over the years as the prophets have changed. Here is a picture of our most recent version.
Here are the basic rules:
1. Put a piece of candy, raisin, craisin, or cheerio on each picture of a prophet.
2. Send one person out of the room.
3. Have one member of the family choose one of the prophets to be "it" or "Pete." Make sure everyone there knows which prophet was chosen.
4. The person who was sent out of the room returns. He picks up one treat at a time off the pictures. If the treat is not "it" he is allowed to eat the treat. If the treat chosen is from the agreed upon prophet everyone yells, "Don't eat the Prophet," and then that person's turn is over.
The point is to get to eat as many treats as possible before your turn is over. We like to have the children say the names of the prophets as they pick up the treats, to practice knowing the name that goes with the picture. We help each other when we don't remember a name.
I'm always on the lookout for fun games and activities to use for family home evening that are good for ages baby and on up. This one is fun for everyone. I think I'll have the kids help me make a new version this week that has the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency on it. We can use this activity to familiarize ourselves with the names of the apostles before General Conference this weekend. There's always a chart with pictures in the conference Ensign, so we'll just cut out pictures from that to use.
Now we have a world
Where people are confused.
If you don't believe me
Go and watch the news.
We can get direction
All along our way.
If we heed the prophets
Follow what they say.
Follow the prophet
Follow the prophet
Follow the prophet
Don't go astray
Follow the prophet
Follow the prophet
Follow the prophet
He knows the way.
This is a children's Primary song that has a very important message. In our home we place a lot of importance on the words of the prophets and following them. General Conference is a great place to hear the latest words from our prophet.
Making a big deal out of General Conference weekend is a tradition in our home. Jerry and I were one of the first married in our families. We invited any unmarried siblings to our home on Conference weekend to watch all four sessions of General Conference together. And on Saturday evening, all the men would go to the stake center to attend Priesthood session together. Us women would stay home, and get the food ready. As Jerry and I started having children, us ladies would sit around and chat in the bathroom as I bathed the two little boys.
One particular general conference fell on the weekend of April Fools Day. April 1st, while the men were at Priesthood session, we decided to play a joke on them. We made spaghetti for dinner and decided to put gummy worms on their plates. We dished up the food, hiding the gummy worms under the sauce. We had a blessing and started eating. We eyed the men and looked at each other. They ate without saying a word about anything strange. Finally, we decided to ask them. "Is there anything interesting about your dinner?" "No," they answered. We finally poked around in their plates, and even we could find no evidence of the gummy worms. They hadn't detected them in what they'd already eaten, so what could have happened? We deduced that our April Fools day trick had gone seriously wrong. The gummy worms had melted in the hot pasta sauce, and our hungry men had not even noticed the added sweetness to their dinner. We still had a good laugh together though.
One conference weekend Jerry made cinnamon buns for everyone. That began a tradition. Now, our children cannot even imagine General Conference weekend without cinnamon buns.
We have nine children now and we still get together with extended family on General Conference weekend. Our children all sit on the floor playing conference Bingo. We eat cinnamon rolls, and enjoy eating and visiting together between sessions. Our sons now attend priesthood session with their fathers and uncles, while us women stay home feeding the little ones and big girls and getting in as much "girl talk" as we can. Sometimes we even have "cousin sleepovers" on Saturday night.
Why do we go to so much effort to make General Conference a special time? Because we value the words of the living prophets. We want our entire family to watch all four sessions - 8 hours in a two day period. We want to hear the council that our leaders have for each of us individually and for us as families. We believe that the latter day prophets were foreordained, called and chosen by the Lord, to lead our church in this day. They receive revelation directly from the Lord for us, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Their council can help us survive the struggles and temptations of living in the world today. When we do what they ask, our lives will be more joyful, we will have the Spirit more in our homes, and our families will be more united. Their council will lead us and our children back to Heavenly Father. What a grand tradition!!!
And when General Conference weekend is over, do we forget about all we've heard and go back to life as normal? No! With the Internet, we can re-read or re-watch talks almost as soon as the session is over. And then, when the next month's Ensign comes we have all the talks nicely bound up in one magazine. We can use the talks in family devotional and scripture time or as the basis for Family Home Evening Lessons. Watching or listening once to the talks is not enough. We need to re-read or listen to them again, and apply the principles we learn. If the words of the prophets do not incite us to change our lives for the better, then we are not really following the prophet. We can each make changes in our lives, every conference. We can evaluate and make changes for the better in our families. We can read and re-read talks that give us comfort and hope in the midst of difficult times.
We are so blessed to have a prophet on the earth today. And to know that there will always be a living prophet to guide us. And that he will never lead us astray.
CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEKEND!
Today as I sat on the couch reading "I've Been Working on the Railroad" to Sophia…for the third or fourth time today…I started thinking about the picture books that have been the most loved at our house. Our young children seem to love story books that are based on children's songs, best of all. We sing the stories to them instead of reading them. As our children become familiar with the stories/songs, they sing along with us. I like to leave out a word here and there just to hear a little chirpy two year old voice "fill in the blank." For example, "Fee fi fiddle le eye ohhhh, Strummin' on the old……..Sophia fills in the last word…"banjo!" Especially fun for me is to hear my older children singing stories to the younger ones. I'm sure that Sophie has heard her most recent favorite, I've Been Working on the Railroad, at least three or four more times today, from her big brothers and sisters. How can they say no when she asks so sweetly (and kind of demanding at the same time) "READ ME!"
A few other favorite story songbooks are:
Five Little Ducks (Raffi)
If You're Happy and You Know it
Ten in the Bed (of course I can't find it to get the author of the edition that we have, but there are many cute editions available)
All Things Bright and Beautiful (Ashley Bryan)
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (Nadine Bernard Westcott)
We have other picture books in our home that have been favorites for the almost twenty-two years that we have been raising children. There are a few that have been literally "read to death," or maybe chewed and slobbered on beyond repair is a better description. One of these is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? I think we are on our third copy of that one.
Here is a small list of our favorite picture books. I'm sure there are more but these few come to mind as books that I have shared and will continue to read with every one of our children, and someday our grandchildren.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do you See? (Eric Carle)
Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle)
The Little Engine That Could (Watty Piper)
Oh The Places You'll Go (Dr. Seuss)
The Rainbow Fish (Marcus Pfister)
You Are Special (Max Lucado)
Horton Hatches an Egg (Dr. Seuss)
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (Dr. Seuss)
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub (Audrey Wood)
Are You My Mother? (P.D. Eastman)
Stellaluna (Janell Cannon)
Alligator Baby (Robert Munsch)
I'll Love You Forever (Robert Munsch)
Quick as a Cricket (Audrey Wood)
Make Way for Ducklings (Robert McCloskey)
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Bill Martin Jr.)
…any beautiful editions of fairy tales and nursery rhymes that we find at our local library. There are so many.
Our children love hand me downs. A bag or box of clothes given to us is as good as Christmas. Even hand me downs within our family are grounds for a celebration. I can recall Jacob and Benjamin both thrilling at acquiring "new" to them items of clothing when their older brothers, Brandon and Kyle left on their missions. Emily sometimes even asks Olivia to take extra good care of a certain item of clothing that she likes, because she knows that someday she will get to wear it. The girls especially love to see a younger sister wearing a shirt or dress that they used to wear themselves.
My sister in laws and I pass clothes along regularly. When we get together we have fun digging through the bags together deciding who each item will fit best. It’s a trip down memory lane for the one passing the clothes on. We revel in remembering our own sweet little ones wearing this little dress or those little jammies. We remember with fondness who they were originally a gift from. It is especially fun to see a little dress or shirt get passed through multiple cousins before it wears out.
Olivia needed a new winter coat for the upcoming cold weather. We talked about where we could go to get her one and she offered that maybe, since we've been saving our extra cash for a fun family reunion next summer, we could go find her one at a local kids consignment store. "Besides Mom," she said, "They have cuter clothes there than anywhere else." Here's where the miracle comes in. We were out running errands last week and came home to a basket and big bag on the floor in the front hallway. "Pam brought by some clothes for David and the girls, Mom, " said Benjamin. When I had some time later in the day I started looking through the clothes. And guess what we found? One of the last things we pulled out was a blue and pink winter coat that was just Olivia's size. Coincidence? I don't think so. The saying is so true that.. "When God chooses to bless us, he usually does it through another person." Thanks Pam!
Olivia, 9, likes to type her journal on the computer. Once in a while she will play with the fonts when she is done writing and then print it out. I was tidying up the "school" cupboard and found one of her cute little entries. I wanted to share it. She was writing about something that happened to her this past summer.
"I and my brother Jacob were at the river. And my brother said, "Olivia, you stepped on a red ant hill!" I looked down and sure enough there I was standing in the middle of an angry red ant hill. I started to scream and kick. I'm glad my brother was there and had been in scouts. He knew just what to do. He said, "Olivia, get in the river." So I did. They drowned. "Then what do I do?" I asked. "Cross the river." It was too deep. What now? The river was too deep! There in front of us was a mad red ant hill. Then my Dad showed up. He said, "Olivia, jump to me." "It is too scary," I said. I was almost in tears. Finally my brave Dad stepped on the ants and grabbed me. I was saved by my Dad but I know that the Holy Ghost was there to help me.
My Dad is always very fearless and brave. I love my whole family more than all the treashor (her spelling) in the world."
From this simple account of my daughter I can see that she understands some important truths. The Lord put us here in families for a reason. Our families can be there to help us in times of trouble. They can give us wisdom when we need it most. And when we are so scared that we literally can't take a step on our own, they can pick us up and move us along. She also understands that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and can help us along as well. Through the Holy Ghost we can receive comfort, wisdom and guidance. What a blessing to know these simple truths.
