The end of cross-country season

We spent a lot of nice afternoons at Sebastian's races this Fall. This was at State. Seb didn't have the greatest race, but we had a nice time watching (and complaining about the entry fee) anyway. Gus was VERY GRUMPY and went boneless and tried to pull away from everyone's hand—until Teddy cheered him up with piggyback rides. Being carried the usual way is horrible, apparently, but piggyback rides? A-ok.

Clementine, on the other hand, didn't mind being carried any which way! When she wasn't bundled in a blanket, she was usually like this:

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A steady shepherd

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the April 1995 Conference.

These two thoughts about "shepherds" (and ministering) seem related:

From Elder Helvecio Martins:

This is the work or the stewardship of the home teacher: to feed, to nourish and quench the thirst of the sheep who are assigned to him as a shepherd.

And from President James E. Faust:

There are some elements of bureaucracy which cannot help but occasionally produce some irritation and perhaps frustration. We ask you to look beyond any irritations or inconvenience in Church administration. We ask you to focus and concentrate on the simple, sublime, spiritually nourishing, and saving principles of the gospel. We ask you to stand steady. We ask you to be faithful in your stewardships as [shepherds] of the Church.

I've been thinking, as I try to figure out how to be a good ministering sister and…ministering mother and ministering wife and ministering friend too, I guess…how Heavenly Father works so efficiently through things we might have to do anyway. Often "ministering" (at home or out of the home) feels like another thing to do. And it is! But it's also so often just the thing I need—whether it's playing a game with one of my kids when I'm too busy to play a game, and then finding myself unexpectedly refreshed by it—or delivering treat after treat to a neighbor whose face I've never even seen because she doesn't answer my texts or the door, and after a year I realize I've started almost loving her anyway—or serving in my Primary calling and thinking every week "how did I grow to like these funny kids so much?"

Those "bureaucratic" (or, I thought by extension, mundane and duty-related) parts of my life, at church or at home, are the vehicles for the things I really need to learn to do. The things I want to learn to do! And when I can look beyond the "irritation and inconvenience" of it all and just "stand steady," I start to learn a little about what it really means to be a shepherd for God's sheep.

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Clementine's blessing day

We had Clementine's baby blessing during church on Oct 31st (Halloween, but it didn't feel like Halloween, everyone having gone trick-or-treating etc. the day before!). She was as sweet and as tiny as anyone could wish, and she wore the same blessing dress (made by my mom) that all three sisters before her wore!

Sam gave her a beautiful priesthood blessing, and I am told by reliable sources that not only did she not cry while the men were blessing her…she looked up at them and SMILED! Abraham, having just received the Melchizedek Priesthood, was able to be in the circle, which I thought was cool. How many big brothers get to help bless their little sisters?

The day wasn't an unmitigated success…

but after a nap (you can't tell, but an hour has elapsed here) she felt much better!

This is who came to be with her on her blessing day. Her whole family, plus my mom, my brother Karl, Karl's children Sarah and Mark, and Mark's wife Maddie. A great crowd!

But she was the star of the show.

I haven't wished to jump to any conclusions about her eye color before waiting a decent interval, but I think we can safely conclude they are NOT BLUE, can't we? It's so fun to see a dark-eyed girl baby! Who could have ever imagined such a thing?!

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Always Remember Him

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1995 Conference.

I realized something as I was reading the Conference talks this week. Elder Henry B. Eyring, who had just gotten his call to the apostleship ("yesterday," he said!!)  was talking about how some sister missionaries had asked him how they could become more humble. He tried to give them ideas, but at the end of the conversation, he said he felt like he had failed. Then he gave some insights about humilty he'd thought of since that time:

First, I would have realized that they already had the first lesson in their hearts. The fact that they even asked meant that they had gone beyond being overwhelmed by their doubts about themselves to hope that if they would just submit, if they could just learn what to do, they could be better. If I had the chance again, I would have told them that. And then I would have given them just this one bit of counsel, counsel about what to do. I would have said just this: “Always remember him.”

Here's what I realized: "Always remember him" is the counsel for when we want to be better at ANYTHING. Humility. Patience. Trust. If we were thinking about the Savior, how could we think we were better than anyone else? How could we be impatient with others? How could we forget His goodness in the past and doubt it in the future? It just clicked into place for me that the reasons we are told to always remember Jesus are many, but they all go back to the fact that remembering him will help us with whatever we are struggling with! If I'm discouraged with myself, I can remember His mercy. If I'm overwhelmed with the impossibility of tasks ahead, I can remember His power. If I'm annoyed with others I can remember His kindness. And it makes sense why Jacob tells us to believe in Christ and "view His death," because when you keep His death—the reasons for it, the implications of it—in your mind, it clarifies so many other things!

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Halloween (featuring Caw)

We had some fun Halloween creatures this year. We didn't know what Ziggy was going to be until the 11th hour (he has been rotating through about 6 different costumes for the past several months, not to mention all his hats) but being able to match Clementine sealed the deal for the Bunny suit! They were pretty cute together, like many of their predecessors.

Teddy was adorable in Malachi's old astronaut costume. I remember so well how much Malachi loved it! After we gave him the helmet for Christmas, he saved up the money to buy the suit all by himself, and then he was working on saving up for the boots. But before he had enough to buy them, he was…too old to want them. How sad! But now it makes me happy to see Teddy appreciating this costume anew.

This terrifying gorilla dropped by.

Eeek! He's got the baby! Poor Clementine!

Luckily, it turned out to just be sweet Junie inside that suit…

…to Clementine's great relief!

Marigold was so happy to fit the elephant suit this year!

She was alarmingly eager to go around tapping things with that trunk.

Daisy was too old for trick-or-treating this year, but she needed a costume to run in for her cross-country team's Halloween Run, and she came up with this ADORABLE penguin cobbled together from parts of her old penguin costume (too small for her now, sadly). The feet were pinned to her socks so they could just flap over the top of her shoes. Some people on her team thought she was a duck, if you can believe it! Tsk tsk. She is clearly a penguin.

I have saved the best for last. Because Gussie was…a "caw." His "caw." I have mentioned his love of macaws, haven't I? Well, it's not so much macaws in general as his macaw, which he calls "Caw." It is both named "Caw" and says "caw," apparently. This was a puppet we'd had for years (it was nominally Sam's; he likes macaws) but somehow Gus adopted it and believed implicitly that it was his very own, so of course it became his very own! And he loves it and takes it everywhere. 

Anyway, my mom saw this costume at D.I. or somewhere and immediately thought of Gus, and it was so perfect! He looked so cute, none of us could stand it. And he liked himself in it too—he kept looking in the mirror admiringly and saying "Caw!"

Halloween was a beautiful warm day (Oct 30th, actually, is when everyone around here celebrated) so the macaw was able to swing for awhile in the afternoon. Which he enjoyed greatly.

As did the astronaut.

As did the bunny.

And don't worry too much about poor discarded Caw on the ground there.

He was remembered and kissed soon enough!

So, it was a happy Halloween for all the animals around these parts!

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