DONE!

Last month book club was at my house and therefore I got to choose the next book to read. I browsed my book shelves and found two that I had been wanting to read and hadn't yet. Cold Sassy Tree and At Home in Mitford. Several ladies had read both and so we settled on At Home in Mitford, a book about a preacher's daily life and how he cares for his parishioners. One of our book club attendees who had read it described it as a la, la, la book; a gentle, rolling book; and to don't expect a climax or plot. A good book to read after The Count of Monte Cristo.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! This book was 446 pages too long. It took me 250 pages to just get into it a little. And it took me a month to read. I might have read it faster if I had not known to not expect any kind of plot. It might have kept me trudging along hopping for something, anything to happen. Anyway, not my kind of book.

Voluntary Consequences & Restrictions

On several occasions we've allowed our kids to determine their own consequences or restrictions. This seems to work rather well. We've discovered they are most often harder on them themselves than we would be.

Nate is a little addicted to a computer game called Third Grade Adventures. It's the first thing he does in the morning and usually the last thing with some play time in between. (One morning he even got up before my 6 am alarm!) We talked about how much time he was spending on the computer and I asked him to come up with an amount of time for him to play. Kiersten piped up, "How about a half hour?" I was kind of thinking the same thing. He turned to her and said, "NO!," and turning back to me, "How about 10 minutes?" I just smiled and didn't argue.

So my parental advice is let them be part of the solution. It seems to always work better when it's their idea.

Oreo Cookie Truffles

Can we just say YUM!

I found this recipe the other day on the internet and had to try it out. So while I was at mom's with many different mouths and opinions, I whipped them up. We couldn't stop at just one (we as in Katie, her friend Trisha, kids, Natalie). I wonder what they might taste like with Mint Oreos dipped in chocolate coating.

Recipe

1 bag Oreo Cookies, ground in blender or food processor (filling and all)

8 oz. softened cream cheese

1 package Almond Bark (white chocolate candy coating)

1 square of the Chocolate Bark for drizzling

Mix ground oreos and cream cheese until well combined. Roll into 1 inch balls and place onto baking sheet or tray. Refrigerate overnight or until very firm (I did about 15 minutes and they seemed just fine). Melt white chocolate according to package directions. Using 2 little spoons, dip balls into chocolate and place onto parchment paper to harden. Once dry, melt chocolate bark and spoon into the corner of a ziplock baggie. Snip a small corner and drizzle back and forth over the truffles. Let dry. About 30 truffles each recipe.

Fire of Faith

I attended the 2008 Worldwide Leadership Training on Saturday and was intrigued by a quote Elder Oaks made, quoting Elder Ballard:

Clearly, those of us who have been entrusted with precious children have been given a sacred, noble stewardship, for we are the ones God has appointed to encircle today’s children with love and the fire of faith and an understanding of who they are. --"Great Shall Be the Peace of Thy Children," Ensign, April 1994

What caught my attention was the expression"fire of faith." He didn't say spark of faith or smoldering faith or ember of faith, but fire of faith. A raging bonfire of faith that is very hard to extinguish. That particular expression reminded me of a talk President Eyring gave in the 1986 October conference titled "The Spark of Faith". He quotes President J. Reuben Clark:

It is my hope and my belief that the Lord never permits the light of faith wholly to be extinguished in any human heart, however faint the light may glow. The Lord has provided that there shall still be there a spark which, with teaching, with the spirit of righteousness, with love, with tenderness, with example, with living the Gospel, shall brighten and glow again, however darkened the mind may have been. And if we shall fail so to reach those among us of our own whose faith has dwindled low, we shall fail in one of the main things which the Lord expects at our hands. --Conference Report, October 1936

An experience Tyler's Grandma Ellis related to us one time while we were camping at the cabin illustrates this spark of faith concept. She and Grandpa Ellis had come up several weeks before to cut down some diseased trees on their lot. Grandma's job was to burn all the little stuff. They spent the day burning, and at the end of the day extinguished the fire -- or so they thought. The next morning she checked on the ashes and threw some kindling on top. It immediately burst into flames. Even though the fire appeared to be out, there was still that spark waiting to be resurrected.

[Y]ou need to do everything in your power to be absolutely certain that your spiritual bonfire of testimony is burning brightly enough to keep the wolves of darkness away. You can always use more dry kindling. As the Apostle Paul taught, each of us has “come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23.) None of us has progressed so far in this life that we do not need to continually fortify our testimonies. --Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Spiritual Bonfires of Testimony," Ensign, November 1992

I hope that my neighbors and friends and family who cast a glance in my direction know that my fire of faith, my fire of testimony is burning strongly. It's burning brightly. But as Elder Wirthlin stated, I also recognize the need to "fortify [my] testimony" daily.

Irish ancestors?

That is the question that initiated my search of Personal Ancestral File and Familysearch.org and concluded with a visit to the Tooele City Cemetery.

Tyler was the top sales performer in pensions for 2007 and got invited to CUNA Mutual's President's Council . . . in Ireland, and I get to go! So I spent the afternoon researching and found ROBERT KENNEDY MCKENDRICK, my great-great-great-grandpa, born in Kimbo, Antrim, Ireland. The exciting part was I discovered he immigrated to Tooele where he died and was buried.

Ty and I made a quick decision while it was still daylight to head to the Tooele City Cemetery and find his grave.

As I was looking up plot numbers online, I came across another cemetery named Tooele's First Cemetery. Only 37 people are still buried there, including an infant son of Robert Kennedy and Agnes McGavin McKendrick.

This is the inscription on the Daughter of Utah Pioneers monument at the Tooele First Cemetery: As no plots were sold, families were required to dig the grave and use the next burial space. Several bodies were moved to the new cemetery.

Another find, another family, same Tooele City Cemetery, same row in the cemetery: PHILIP DELAMARE and MARIE CHEVALIER (another great-great-great grandpa).

After searching through my forebears, we did a quick search of Ty's pedigree, the Leary line in particular (Leary, O'Leary; sounds pretty Irish). Ironically, we found that most came from England, a few from Denmark, a few from Czechoslovakia, and none from Ireland. Yet through my pedigree (Seamons, DeLaMare), which is clearly English, I have an Irish ancestor.

What a delightful Friday night!

I will go and do

"Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."

--President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, August 2005

I came across a website someone has set up, encouraging us all to honor President Hinckley by reading the Book of Mormon in 97 days, starting Monday February 4 and ending May 10. I accept the challenge even though I just completed it the beginning of January. In May of last year I attended a class at BYU Women's Conference titled "Discipleship: His Love, His Work, His Heart," and one of the two presenters was Cindy Pennington, sister of Sheri Dew. During high school one of her seminary teachers challenged the students to read the Book of Mormon once a year, and she accepted and has read it each year so far. That hit me hard and I decided then I would do the same.

I was continuing my study of the Old Testament after finishing the BOM in January, but it will go back on hold for a few months as I reread the Book of Mormon. I truly do learn new things every time.

"Your friend died,"

to quote Ashie when we told her President Hinckley had died. Yes, my friend and prophet died. And what a friend he was to me and to all of us. I will miss President Hinckley. I will miss his optimism, his unwavering faith, his humor, his love, his humility, his example of untiring service. But how comforting to know that this church is a living church. It does not die with the passing of a prophet. It will go on. This past week I took Nate and Ashlyn with me to vote early. On the way home Nathan asked what I just did. I told him I was voting for a president. He paused for a moment and then said, "But I thought President Monson was going to be the president." I had to smile as I explained that I was voting for a president of the United States. It made me grateful that the church does not have to go through a voting process with candidates vying for the position. The Lord is at the helm and He is in charge. A new prophet will be called and I hope to sustain him with all my heart as I did President Hinckley.