Campfire and Meteors

We like to try to do something special as a family for everyone's birthday, but of necessity it's usually something simple—a picnic at a park, a playground, maybe swimming. Even packing up dinner to go up the canyon and have a campfire can feel terribly complicated sometimes! But we finally found a free night (relatively free—Abe still had to work), in the vicinity of Sebastian's birthday, so we jumped at the chance!  It was the night of the Perseid Meteor Shower, so we wanted to drive up toward the Uintas where it would be darker. I still don't even know where we ended up! Somewhere up past Park City, where there was a reservoir…and it was pretty!

We cooked hot dogs and s'mores and explored the little river nearby (and no one fell in). It was a nice night of calm before the summer came to an end!

Don't let Goldie's smile fool you. These kids were fighting over these chairs all night! Well, I guess it was mostly the two little boys fighting over them. I don't know why, since they didn't really want to sit in them…until someone else tried to sit there. Ha!

Off to explore!

There's something unnerving about this smile. It's very impish.

The kids were playing a game of throwing sticks in the river and then running and trying to beat them downstream. They never succeeded, but they were SO excited about it anyway!

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Goldie starts kindergarten…er…2nd grade

 

Poor Goldie! I was looking back through everyone's first-day-of-kindergarten pictures and I saw that I hadn't taken any of Marigold! She did indeed start kindergarten…two years ago…if you can believe it. So I told her we would take her kindergarten pictures now. And here she is! As cute as can be, and with the same elephant backpack.

It's no use, though. You can TELL she is a second-grader! She looks far too wise and old and smart to be a mere kindergartner. You can tell she already knows how to read…and do math…and spelling. So, I suppose I will have to add a few pictures of her when she was in actual kindergarten for verisimilitude.

That's better! Here she is two years ago—not on the first day of school, but at least during her first school unit, on Elephants (her favorite animal!). What a sweetie! 

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Rocks, Bars, Non-sleeping Babies

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What have we been up to lately? I'm glad you asked. Let's start right off with a gallery of Ziggy's latest hats. One is a bag. One is accompanied by little oven mitts (which he calls his "cwebs," by which he means "gloves"). Honestly, the most normal one is the hat and ear-warmer around the neck. 

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We've had some smoky skies and red sunsets, from wildfires near and far. One day the smoke made the funniest wrinkly clouds! They didn't look like clouds. Just like folds in the sky.

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If you think this baby looks scary, you're right. He IS. Where is the sweet little brown-haired baby I once knew? Where is the tiny little waif with gummy smile? It's enough to make one believe in changelings. THIS baby is a toothy shark, who sits at a whacking station with his whacking stick, and stands up in his crib and yells because he can't figure out how to sit down again.

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• We have a "People in Boxes" theme for this line, it appears.

• Also, Daisy's Nursery lesson on the Title of Liberty. Wave those banners, Freemen!

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Some outdoor fun. Rolling down a hill, looking at tiny squeaking baby quail (they were so cute!), and watching Sebastian's cross-country race.

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Gussie is getting pretty good at sitting. But not perfect.

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Even when they fall short

 This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the October 1989 Conference.

President Oaks isn't the person I usually go to for warm words of comfort (ha ha, no offense to President Oaks who is one of my favorite apostles—it's just that he's usually explaining doctrine or clearing up misconceptions) but he had some in this talk, "Modern Pioneers." It's not really about what you think. He quotes President J. Reuben Clark talking about how in the wagon trains, only a few leaders rode in front and got to see the whole panoramic vision of where they were headed and what came next. But most of the people in the wagon companies were just trudging along, vision obscured by dust, unable to see much beyond what was right in front of them, "worn and tired, footsore, sometimes almost disheartened, borne up by their faith that God loved them, that the Restored Gospel was true, and that the Lord led and directed the brethren out in front.”

President Oaks says that "the purposes of God were accomplished by the unswerving loyalty and backbreaking work of the faithful tens of thousands who pushed on" and compares the general membership of the church to these faithful pioneers.

The section I liked best was this:

Many of our members are struggling valiantly to try to do it all. They support themselves and provide for their families. They strive to carry out the responsibilities of their church callings. They spend many hours transporting their children to numberless church and school activities. They try to be generous with money and time for worthy causes in the community. They strive to improve themselves. They hope, after all of this, to have some little time left for togetherness and recreation.

One sister wrote, “We are having great difficulty [just] trying to cope.” Many could say the same. Yet they do cope. They carry on without complaint, even when they have just cause for complaint. And even when they fall short, the Lord blesses them for their righteous desires, for, as King Benjamin taught, “it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength."

I don't know that I'd say I "carry on without complaint," but otherwise I DO feel that this describes me—trying to fulfill all my responsibilities, feeling like I'm not doing any of them very well, but trying to improve and carry on. I am comforted to know that right now, even when I feel pulled in so many different directions—"even when [I] fall short, the Lord blesses [me] for my righteous desires."

P.S. The other talk you need to read from this session is Elder Haight's! Go read about the experience he had when he thought he was going to die. It's amazing!

Other posts in this series:

Back in the last wagon—by Nathaniel Givens

Women Patriots, Women Pioneers—by Jan Tolman

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God remembers them also

 This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the October 1989 Conference.

This quote from President Monson made me think of all the mothers I know who are missing their missionary sons and daughters:

Now, many are not on the front line of missionary service in the Church callings they fill. Does God remember them also? Is He mindful of their needs and the yearnings of their hearts?…To all such individuals I testify that He does remember and He does bless.

…Yes, the Lord is mindful of his missionaries—and their fathers, their mothers, their grandparents, and all who sacrifice for their support, that precious souls may be taught and provided His gospel.

Other posts in this series:

Capt. Moroni, the pandemic, and to be stalwart and brave—by Jan Tolman 

Chastity is for Everyone—by Nathaniel Givens

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Notes from a loving Father

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 1989 Conference.

Elder Scott's talk, Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayers, was just the sort of talk I remember him for most—thoughtful and full of good advice. I really liked this quote about how we can act on our best guess when we aren't quite sure what Heavenly Father wants us to do, and then trust in His guidance:

When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth. We are expected to assume accountability by acting on a decision that is consistent with His teachings without prior confirmation. We are not to sit passively waiting or to murmur because the Lord has not spoken. We are to act.

Most often what we have chosen to do is right. He will confirm the correctness of our choices His way. That confirmation generally comes through packets of help found along the way. We discover them by being spiritually sensitive. They are like notes from a loving Father as evidence of His approval. If, in trust, we begin something which is not right, He will let us know before we have gone too far.

That "packets of help" idea reminded me of Elder Andersen's talk where he compared spiritual experiences to "luminous stones" along our path. I like the idea that God places these little experiences in our way as confirmation that we're on the right path—and then they bless us yet again as we look back at them, remembering. They're often small, though, so we have to make an effort to "be spiritually sensitive," as Elder Scott says—to take note of and then remember them, or we might miss them altogether!

Other posts in this series:

Two great commandments as one—by Nathaniel Givens

Each of our lives matter—by Jan Tolman

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Interrupted time and attention can be enough

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the October 1989 Conference.

As part of my effort to learn more about revelation and how God speaks to me, I've kept a little journal the last few years where I write God's tender mercies and "the things of my soul." This record of God's goodness to ME, personally, has become so precious to me! I love to write in it and I love to read it. Sometimes I feel like there is almost too much goodness, too much revelation, for me to record! But other times I feel sad because it seems like a long time since I've been able to write anything there. I wonder what has changed; why I'm not feeling as close to God as I have at other times, and if I should be doing something differently.

I'm not discounting the idea that I should. I know there are lots of times when I'm failing to do things that would help me live closer to the spirit. It just seems so hard to keep my mind on the things of God with so many interruptions and errands and immediate needs. I sometimes wonder if I will ever be able to stay focused on anything for more than a few minutes! There are so many times when I truly need God's help but I'm just…too busy or distracted to remember to ask Him!

Anyway, I was comforted to read this from Elder Packer:

Things of the Spirit need not—indeed, should not—require our uninterrupted time and attention. Ordinary work-a-day things occupy most of our attention. And that is as it should be. We are mortal beings living in this physical world. 

Spiritual things are like leavening. By measure they may be very small, but by influence they affect all that we do. Continuing revelation is fundamental to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know there has to be a balance. Sister Craig gave that great talk recently about carving out time to be still and listen for God, and I do seek and crave that focused time. I am always wishing it could be longer and deeper and less interrupted! But Elder Packer makes it sound here like everyone feels this way, and that even my small amounts of focus and my tiny glimpses of revelation could spread out and be enough to "leaven" my whole life into a worthwhile offering. That's encouraging to me.

I've also been thinking about the role of covenants in all this—the fact that our covenants tie us to the Savior in this special way that almost seems like it's giving Him permission to intervene in our lives even when we forget or are too distracted to ask. I like to think of it that way, anyway—that my covenants are an umbrella putting me under God's protection even during all those times my attention is drawn away from Him. My hope is that the power of those covenants will draw me back to Jesus Christ and give Him just enough influence to get my attention when, through laziness or carelessness or just busy-ness, I start to drift away.

Other posts in this series:

Revelation: Two talks with two themes—by Nathaniel Givens

This is the church of Jesus Christ—by Jan Tolman

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