Trees and sod . . . for Amber :)

This is what Alex thinks about all the yard we are trying to keep watered.

He is my little helper and always in need of a change of clothes, and sometimes a bath, from all the "helping" in the water and mud.

It's been a week and so far only one tree seems to be struggling. The grass doesn't look too hot either, but I'm hoping the roots take hold this week. (Forgive the picture; I was shooting into the sun.)

And I'm lovin' the view out my kitchen window as the mountains have begun showing off their fall colors.

Do you . . .

want to feel the love of God more powerfully in your life?

want to feel more in tune with His Spirit?

want to have the heavens opened to you daily?

There is a way you can feel a daily renewal of God’s everlasting love and drink from “the fountain of living waters” (1 Nephi 11:25). It follows a pattern set by the Prophet Joseph Smith when he went to a grove of trees early one morning in 1820 seeking answers to his questions. I speak of a morning devotional time spent in prayer, meditation, and scripture study. If you have a devotional every morning, even if only for a few minutes, you will be deeply blessed.

There is great power in setting aside quiet, prayerful, meditative time. In the stillness that accompanies our pondering, we can come to know the Father and His Son.

I know from personal experience the spiritual power that can flow into your life if you follow this practice. You will feel the love of God and a cleansing, purifying regeneration of your spirit (see 1 Nephi 11:22–25; D&C 50:28–29). You will experience moments of revelation, when the Spirit whispers to your spirit what you need to do to be a better father, a better mother, a better son or daughter, a better disciple of Jesus Christ.

I do know that if you continue to meet daily with Heavenly Father in the private chambers of your home, you will come to know Him and our Savior in ways you couldn’t otherwise (see 3 Nephi 19:16–23, 25–29). May you do so and have the heavens open to you in whatever glorious ways your Heavenly Father has prepared for you.

As we use daily devotional time to gain greater spiritual strength, we will better understand Heavenly Father and the Savior and His Atonement. We will taste of “the goodness of Jesus” and feel “with exceedingly great joy” the power of His eternal love.

Yoshihiko Kikuchi, "Opening the Heavens," Ensign, August 2009

The Anatomy of Peace

I did something this month I haven't done in a very long time: I finished the book for book club before our monthly meeting. That was an accomplishment.

The book was called The Anatomy of Peace, and even though I really didn't care for the storyline (there was none to be honest), the message was one everyone should really take to heart. See people as people with the same fears, hopes, dreams and not as objects to change and coerce

However, I'm not here to talk about the book per se. There was a story in there that reminded me of a situation that happened in our home this evening.

We just finished having the rest of the cabinetry installed this week. One piece included a window seat in the bay window, and the kids and I were standing in front of it playing the chimes when Alex, the littlest at 15 months, decided to help himself to a chime and bang away on the beautiful cherry top. Oops!

Tyler came in to see what the commotion was about, surveyed the damage (5 little dents), and calmly walked away. That took a lot of control to not get angry and this show of control reminded me of the following story in my book club book.

The story begins with the son telling how he grew up on a small farm, harvesting apples. His parents never had money as he was growing up and drove a beat up old truck for transportation. Shortly after this boy turned 16, the family bought a new car. One evening he wanted to show the car off to his friends and asked his dad if he might take the car instead of the truck to run some errands. The dad, sensing the boy's excitement, agreed and handed over the keys. As the son was backing out of the driveway, he remembered he'd forgotten his wallet in the house and ran back in to retrieve it. He came out of the house and noticed the car was missing and knew it had ended up in the river which ran below their home. He ran down around the corner to see the headlights of his dad's car shining at him out of the water.

What was he going to say to his dad? He was terrified to face him. He slowly walked back to the farmhouse, found his dad in his favorite chair reading the paper. He quietly recounted what had happened to the car and waited for the backlash. However, what happened next remained with him forever. His father reached to turn the page of the newspaper and responded without looking up, "Well, I guess you'll have to take the truck then."

Wow. I can't say I would have handled that situation so graciously. There have been many instances where I've gotten angry too quickly and forget that people are more important. Although in the picture below I did remember telling myself it really was not big deal that there were broken eggs all over the kitchen and even thought to snap this particular picture of Nathan before we cleaned up the mess.
I give Tyler a lot of credit tonight for not getting upset that we were all standing there and could have intercepted that chime so easily. When I'm yelling and slamming doors, he's the calming voice and I really admire that quality in him.

Choose to Become

"All things are possible to him that believeth."

-Mark 9:23

We become what we want to become by consistently being what we want to become each day.
-Elder Richard G. Scott

I attended my first Time Out for Women with my mom and youngest sister.

Over the summer I had been revisiting parenting books by Richard and Linda Eyre and following their daughter Shawni's blog in an effort to find some ideas. Our family would be going through a minor change with Kiersten entering junior high in the fall and I knew I needed to tweak how we did a few things around the house. One day I read a blog entry about Time Out for Women and looked into it.

I immediately fell in love with the theme for the conference "Choose to Become." In fact one of my most favorite talks is by Dallin H. Oaks titled, "The Challenge to Become." I decided to go and really wanted to attend an event where the Eyres would be presenting, and that is initially what drew me to Time Out. 

However, it was really the other presenters and music that inspired me the most. I guess I've always been a little concerned about my preoccupation with "doing" and not becoming. Just take a look at my blog title :) There is always that to-do list, but what am I becoming in the midst of it all is really the question.

We were challenged to find ONE thing about ourselves, just one (and that was rather difficult), that we would like to change, something to push us in becoming the woman the Lord intended us to be all along.

As I thought about this, my patriarchal blessing kept coming to my mind. The Lord knows what kind of mother, wife, sister, neighbor, friend he wants me to be; what a tremendous gift a patriarchal blessing is in helping me see what the Lord sees in me.

I wrote down about 6 different ideas of change and when I got home from TOFW, I read through my patriarchal blessing and knew which thing on my list needed to be the focus of my becoming. 

My Challenge to Become: Develop a pattern of regular scripture study.

I have been counseled to study the standard works in their entirety and I have been a slothful servant. It has always been a great desire of mine to be better versed in the scriptures, to make it more a habit of study than reading. I did this several years ago as I was reading the Old Testament and loved it and then changes came and I got out of that groove.

So there you have it. As Elder Oaks said in the last general conference, "Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions." I have the desire. Now I need to make it a priority EVERY DAY. 

My Course of Action: Finish the Book of Mormon challenge my ward Relief Society presidency issued last spring.

Summer goals

This past summer I had the kids make some summer goals even though we were six weeks into summer before it actually happened. It was an idea I stole from one of Richard and Linda Eyre's books. I liked that it gave my kids something to do when the boredom hit and they're at the age where money can be a big motivator.

I had them come up with one for each area: spiritual, mental, physical, musical. And in addition they had to memorize 5 scriptures or quotes. Overall the goals set were mediocre. I really think next summer we'll do better now that we all know how it will work. For instance, Kiersten and Nate both set a goal to read so many pages or books. Well that's fine for someone who is not a reader. Both of them read in their sleep I believe and don't really need that as a goal.

So here's how it worked.

1. Once their goals are written down with how much they think they should earn, they bring them to me.
2. I make a counteroffer that can include modifying a goal or the monetary payment tied to it.
3. When we both agree on it, we sign it.
4. They have to put it somewhere for safe keeping preferably where they will see it.
5. At the end of summer bring it to me showing their goals checked off for payment (the money is to go towards school clothes). Next year I'll have them make something to show how they'll accomplish their goals and track their progress.
6. They also received a bonus of doubling their money if they passed off all their goals.

Erik went down to the wire. He really wanted that bonus money for a Wii; Nate didn't get his bonus because he didn't pass off all his piano songs. Kiersten spent her entire time as Grandma's learning and practicing a new song.

As a parent it was thrilling to watch my kids work at something and accomplish it. It's also very hard to let them learn hard things and not step in and make it easier. I so wanted Nathan to get that extra bonus money and to tell him he had tried hard enough, but I also knew that wouldn't teach him anything. He had a challenging moment as he watched his other siblings get that extra money, and I know next year he'll try a little harder (instead of reading all the time!).

My only goal this past summer was to train for my half marathon. I think that was good for my kids to see me working towards something. However, next summer I plan to fully participate with my kids as we achieve challenging and rewarding objectives.

Bottles of peaches

Every summer, after spending time at Grandma's, Erik and Nate would come home and rave about her peaches and eating an entire bottle in one sitting.

I grew up on bottled peaches and pears, and I guess I just remember the hours spent canning, in a hot kitchen, and didn't really have that desire to continue in my mother's legacy . . . until this year.

I decided if my kids love Grandma's peaches that much then maybe I should indulge them and can a few bottles for them.

I bought a bushel of peaches, ate a few raw ones, and made my annual peach pie. With the help of my brother-in-law, Jacob, I now have 11 quarts of peaches sitting on my counter. And you know what? The process wasn't anything like I remember growing up. I actually enjoyed myself and plan on doing more.

But what I enjoyed the most was the smell of sweetness that permeated the air when the peaches were processing in the canner. It brought back a flood of memories from my childhood. I had forgotten that smell until last night, and I'm hoping I've captured a little of it in each bottle.

P.S. Erik asked this morning if he could open a bottle for breakfast. NO WAY! I'm letting them sit there for a day or two so I can admire my accomplishment.

Fields of Gold

This is a field of sunflowers about 2 miles from our house.

Isn't it just amazingly beautiful? And the think that no human planted them. They just appear one day and give beauty to the earth.

Tyler's birthday trees

(The kids all got candy bar grams for school, so we decided Tyler needed in on the action for his birthday.)

It's not hard to please a guy on his birthday when we live on one acre of dirt and no domestic vegetation. The landscaping is slowly coming, but for a couple of weeks we've had our eyes on a Japanese maple at the nursery but couldn't justify buying yet . . . and then a birthday came along. We actually ended buying two Japanese maples and getting a really good deal.

Ty planted our first tree for his birthday and I was a little giddy. I couldn't believe how much it changed our yard. One little tree has made a huge difference and I can hardly wait to get more.

Later we took a drive to the foothills to harvest some scrub oak to put in the native areas of our yard.

Dear little trees:

I know it was hot when we viciously uprooted you from your home on the hill, but I hope you decide you like your new digs where the deer won't gnaw on you and where there will be plenty of water. I promise it won't be that hard.

With love, your devoted gardeners

And to continue with the birthday festivities, our neighbor invited Ty to hike Deseret Peak, a 9 mile hike with an elevation gain of about 3500 feet. I don't think Tyler knew what he was in for, but I'm so proud of him for doing something so hard. This hike took 5 hours round trip and he went with two guys who practically ran up the mountain (or so says Tyler). Once he was committed there was no turning back, but man, what some views from the top.

He may not want to ever do it again, but I'm game. I'll give him a year or two to recover and then see if he'll take me.