Lightning, Regionals, Blob

Here's a dramatic shot if there ever was one! We've had some great lightning storms this year. This one was all around the horizon, 360º, but not above our heads!

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To go with our study of waves in homeschool, I got this water blob. ("The blobzter," it was called, if you must know.) 

Once, years ago, we made one of these blobs, and it was fun, but was constantly breaking apart at the seams. So it was nice to have this one which was a little sturdier! We played on it during some of our late-summer 80-degree days. So fun!

This was a game the girls made up where you had to wrap your head in a towel and decide whose voice to follow, either ending up in "heaven" (one side of the basketball court) or in…well…the splash pool at the other end of the blob. Would you trust the instructions of either of these two angelic guides? You shouldn't.

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Alpine Loop Leaves

Another post in the ongoing saga of our beautiful October and how the stars aligned for us to do several hikes and picnics (at varying distances and with varying combinations of participants…depending on who had things going on and when I needed to be back to drive people places!). This episode finds us up American Fork Canyon, which is one of our usual spots. But for variety, and since we wanted to wait for the sun to arrive at our favorite picnic area, we drove partway up the Alpine Loop this time. It was beautiful! We were in our van, which isn't my favorite car to drive on narrow mountain roads, but we found pull-outs often enough that I never felt too worried when someone wanted to pass us.

From Tibble Fork Reservoir, we could see bright yellow patches of aspens up higher. "I wish we could get right up close to those," I said.

So we were very pleased when we drove up higher and saw that, indeed, there were places we could walk right in among those golden groves!

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Tiny toddler

We're all so charmed by Clementine now that she's walking. She seems too tiny to walk, but she does—and even runs now! She's so sure of herself, like she knows she's a person and this is how people get around. But then she can still be so wobbly and bumbly, like when she's walking on grass or up a hill or on dirt. I wish I could draw well enough to capture every shape her little body makes as she teeters and stretches and stumbles and catches herself. Sometimes she walks with her hands behind her back like a tiny lecturing professor, or rocks back on her heels like someone admiring a painting in a museum. It's too much!

The girls helped me take some pictures one lovely afternoon after we had a picnic in Payson Canyon. I haven't been there for a few years, and had forgotten how lovely it is! The leaves were at their peak!

Our picnic area was lovely too. There is nothing I like more than a picnic in October in some beautiful place!

The little yellow dress Clementine is wearing is from my counselor in primary, who went to Guatemala this summer and brought it back for her. It's one of my favorite dresses any of my baby girls have had, which is saying something! We had squeezed Clemmie into some too-tiny boots (why is it that all of her shoes are either too tiny or way too big?) and then we tried to get her to walk to us instead of wandering off into forbidden paths—a difficult task!

Oh she was cute, though!

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Tools to cope

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Relief Society Session of the October 1998 Conference.

I think I remember parts of every one of Sheri Dew's talks in Conference, at least I do when I re-read them. They were always so good! I was struck by how similar some of her words were to the counsel President Nelson gave us just this October. Here's what Sister Dew said twenty years ago:

It’s not living the gospel that’s hard. It’s life that’s hard. It’s picking up the pieces when covenants have been compromised or values violated that’s hard. The gospel is the Good News that provides us the tools to cope with the mistakes, the heartaches, the disappointments we can expect to experience here.

And here's what President Nelson said in his most recent talk:

The truth is that it is much more exhausting to seek happiness where you can never find it! However, when you yoke yourself to Jesus Christ and do the spiritual work required to overcome the world, He, and He alone, does have the power to lift you above the pull of this world.

Now, how does overcoming the world bless our lives? The answer is clear: entering into a covenant relationship with God binds us to Him in a way that makes everything about life easier. Please do not misunderstand me: I did not say that making covenants makes life easy. In fact, expect opposition, because the adversary does not want you to discover the power of Jesus Christ. But yoking yourself with the Savior means you have access to His strength and redeeming power.

It's so true. I don't know how I would cope with all the hard things in life without a gospel perspective and the power of my covenants. Even just the hope in good things to come that the gospel gives! I'm so grateful for that hope.  

Other posts in this series:

We are not alone—by Rozy

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A Race and a Lake

I think I've already said how good Seb's cross-country team is. They're amazing. Their second-seven (JV) team often beats the Varsity teams from other schools. Sebastian, as a sometime-varsity, sometime-JV runner, has had his ups and downs this season. I'm sure it's been disappointing to him to be as good as he is and not to be the star, the consistent go-to runner, as maybe he would be on another team. But on the other hand…I think it's been good for him. I had a similar situation in high school, being on a team with the #1 and #2 girl runners in the nation…and then there was me. From that I learned that no matter how talented you are, at the next level of competition there is always someone better, so you can't hang your self-worth on your performance. A valuable lesson.

But all this has led to the delightful consequence of Seb being able to win multiple races when they are split into age groups or Varsity and Junior Varsity. And in my opinion, it is more fun to win the B race then to finish in the middle of the A race! At least, it's more fun for us to watch! :)

These pictures are from Region a few weeks ago, which was one of these happy occasions. It was really fun because it was a gorgeous Fall day, I'd brought all the kids, and Malachi and Seb were running the same race, so we got the fun of cheering for both of them—and then on top of that we got to see Seb come from behind to take first. Pretty awesome.

Herriman boys like to run in a big pack if they can. It's so good for their team unity (and intimidating other teams, I'm sure!).

Smiling Malachi, bless him. This was a hard race, too. Nice for spectators but hot for the runners.

Clementine cheered with everyone else.

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Grotto Falls

It's getting to that time of year where I literally cannot post pictures fast enough. I take too many. Sometimes I don't even get them off the memory card before I'm reaching for the camera again to capture another beautiful thing…it's overwhelming. Too much beauty. That frantic sort of flaming up that makes you feel like you have to catch the year by the tail before it races away forever…

Lucky for us, we are learning about water in homeschool right now and there are ALL sorts of great things to learn about water…outside. And we are doing all of them. Our long, hot, summery September led to a late fall, with the leaves in the mountains at their peak right now, mid-October, rather than fading away at the end of September as they often do. It doesn't feel like summer anymore. But the days are perfect and golden and we all know this can't last, so the question is just can we fit in one more thing? One more hike before the dark is upon us?*

(*Wow, a bit dramatic maybe? That's what fall does to me. It's a curse.) 

Well, let us come down from these desperate precipices (precipi?) and simply enjoy a few pictures. Later, we'll be glad we did. This hike is called Grotto Falls, in Payson Canyon, and it's so short you can barely call it a hike. Especially because when I went to shoulder Clementine in the hiking backpack, Malachi pulled it out of my hands and put it on his own back instead. 

"We can take turns," I said. 

"No," he said. "I want to do it, and I want to be mad about it the whole way." 

I agreed that such was his right, and I wouldn't dream of depriving him of it. And since Malachi is never happier than when he can be martyred and cross about something, so, the time passed quite pleasantly for us all. 

I don't know when or why Junie adopted this stick

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Wholehearted Participation

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the October 1998 Conference.

I've been worrying about a bunch of stuff for my calling (in Primary) lately. I think, having finally gotten over the newness and strangeness of the initial few months, I am suddenly realizing all the less-obvious things I really should be doing, and feeling the depth of how badly I am…not doing them. (Or how well I am not doing them? ha.) I'm also overwhelmed, or re-overwhelmed, with all the people I am to some degree responsible for—people I should be ministering to, worrying over, praying for, serving, and/or inspiring, but am not—not because I don't want to but because there are just so many! The children. The teachers. My presidency. My own family. Neighbors. Friends. I can't imagine how bishops feel, or stake presidents…it must be crushing. And they probably have to learn to rely on the Lord more, which is what I should be learning to do—and I suppose I am. But so slowly!!

Anyway, I did get some revelation while praying the other day, and it was something like this: When you ask someone to serve, you offer them a blessing. They can choose to accept that blessing or not. But offer it to them without apology, for it IS a blessing.

Interesting. For some reason I thought about that when I read this talk by Elder Gordon B. Watts on Gratitude:

A cheerfulness is generated by…gratitude for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the blessings derived from living the principles taught. One faithful district president expressed gratitude to have a bicycle for transportation to perform his calling. It seemed the more he pedaled, the happier he became. Perhaps there is a lesson here: if we are feeling ungrateful, we need to pedal a little faster. The depth and the willingness with which we serve is a direct reflection of our gratitude.

I don't mean to suggest everyone needs to "pedal a little faster"; not if you equate that with "running faster than you have strength." But I do think it's so easy to think, when I'm overwhelmed, that the solution is to do less—and I also transfer that feeling to other people—"Ugh, I can't ask this of her, she already has so much to worry about." Of course there's nothing wrong with being considerate. Or with simplifying our lives. And yet being part of the Lord's work (at whatever level we currently CAN, I guess) is a crucial key to happiness. Another talk from this session addresses this head-on:

Those who feel they are too busy or have too many problems to be part of this work are likely the ones who would receive the greatest benefit from wholehearted participation. And the valuable service they could give would greatly bless others as well.

It makes me think about all the charges in our most recent conference to rise up and choose to live higher, holier lives. To become a people who want to "overcome the world" and do things differently, in happy ways. And that makes all this seem extremely relevant:

It is an interesting thought that the Lord has declared this is the time to establish His Church, and then to realize it happens as each of us develops a firm, unwavering testimony of the truthfulness of its precepts. The Church can build temples, send missionaries throughout the world, and do marvelous humanitarian acts, but it still comes to what exists in our own thoughts and feelings and actions as to how solidly it is established. Will the good news of the gospel be shared with our neighbors? Will new converts be warmly fellowshipped? Will the temples be filled with dedicated patrons doing work for their ancestry? Will families learn to live on a celestial level, all because we have a pure love for our Father in Heaven, His teachings, and His children?

President Kimball declared the kingdom of God that we seek to establish “can only be done through consistent and concerted daily effort by every single member of the Church.”…

Most of us want to live pure lives and contribute, yet we still falter occasionally. Perhaps it helps to reflect on Solomon’s observation that as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he.” It is my privilege to know many who have focused their thoughts on the wholesome and the pure things of life. They ponder on the scriptures, and they strive to magnify callings given to them. The gospel becomes a way of life, and over time they evidence peace and tranquility in themselves and bless greatly those around them.

It's good to remember the "over time" part. But I really believe this is true. I believe that living the gospel, serving in the church, will bring peace, even when our service feels complicated and time-consuming and out of our comfort zones. It's true for me and it's true for anyone who seeks to become one of those people President Nelson says will be "able, ready, and worthy to receive the Lord when He comes again."

Other posts in this series:

Personal Purity—by Rozy

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The form of a determination

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the October 1998 Conference.

This talk of Elder Maxwell's is so familiar, I was surprised we hadn't already covered it in this General Conference Odyssey! Maybe I've just read lots of quotes from it. But even though I had heard lots of it before, it was still my favorite talk from this session. I think hope is just a subject that speaks to my soul!

Elder Maxwell always seems so relevant to right now. This could easily have been said in our most recent General Conference:

Because proximate hopes are so vulnerable to irony and the unexpected, there is an increasing and profound sense of existential despair in the world. A grumpy cynicism now pervades politics. Many feel burdened by society’s other accumulating anxieties.

Even those who are spiritually secure themselves can sense the chill in the air. …There is so much unsettlement and divisiveness. No wonder the subsequent loss of hope almost inevitably sends selfishness surging as many, resignedly, turn to pleasing themselves.

I thought it was interesting to connect a loss of hope with selfishness. I wouldn't have made the connection, but it's true that when you lose hope, you lose purpose or a reason to keep working. Conversely, then, it makes sense that having hope can energize us and give us purpose. That seems like a good reason to keep fighting for hope even when circumstances lean us toward discouragement. And that's just what Elder Maxwell says too, one of my favorite of his sayings:

Real hope keeps us “anxiously engaged” in good causes even when these appear to be losing causes on the mortal scoreboard. Likewise, real hope is much more than wishful musing.…Hope is realistic anticipation which takes the form of a determination—not only to survive adversity but, moreover, to “endure … well” to the end.

I love the picture at the top of this post because of the expressions on those boys' faces as they run uphill. My cross-country coach used to say "Attack the hills!" And you really have to. They're so hard. But you can't cower away; you can't lose heart. The hills are where you have to show what you're made of. I knew that instinctively, even as a young runner. And maybe that's why I so much like this idea of being hopefully determined: determined to trust God, determined to see His hand, determined to keep reaching out to others, determined not to ever give up on my family. Even when the whole world is in chaos, I can keep doing those things! Especially in my own little sphere!

 In the same vein, Elder Maxwell uses the "make our own gardens grow" metaphor I like so much:

We may not be able to fix the whole world, but we can strive to fix what may be amiss in our own families. Tolkien reminds us: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in our own little family plots, we can bequeath to the succeeding generations “clean earth to till”! Thus not only does charity begin at home, but so does hope!

If we look for specific things we can do, the Holy Ghost will direct us, showing unto us “all things” which we should do, for this is one of His inspiring roles. Our opportunities for helping others who have lost hope may be no further away than in our own extended families, a discouraged neighbor next door, or someone just around the corner. …

Therefore, being blessed with hope ourselves, let us, as disciples, rather than being contracted, reach out, including to those who, for whatever reason, have “moved away from the hope of the gospel” (Col. 1:23).

Hope doesn't always come easily to me—my mind is really good at spinning into fears and worst-case scenarios, especially for those I love. It takes a conscious effort to cultivate it. But Elder Maxwell makes a convincing case that the effort is worthwhile. Nurturing hope in ourselves and others can lead to a host of other blessings along the way!

Other posts in this series:

Like a dry sponge— by Rozy

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Ziggy turns 5, Afternoon Tea, Bunny Race

What is better than a 5-year-old boy having his birthday? They are so cute. So happy. So wise about the ways of things. They know all about presents and cake, but they still find them infinitely exciting. I still remember little Sebby's fifth birthday (we went camping!…for the last time) and it seems like just a few weeks ago. Zig reminds me of Seb. Curious and clever, talkative and friendly. He doesn't wear hats ALL the time anymore, but he still loves dressing up and "being" whatever kind of man he's interested in lately: cabinet man, lawnmowing man, garbage truck man, window washing man, UPS man, vacuum truck man, and so on. And he still has his whole cast of imaginary friends: Bunny, Blue Doggy (he is so naughty, that Blue Doggy), Jonas, and a few others that only show up occasionally.

He got a (rather sad and limp) foxy balloon, since we're doing balloons this year. It had been left in the hot car overnight and was never quite the same again. But Ziggy liked it, anyway.

We went to a splash pad for Zig's "fun thing," since it was SUCH a hot day. 100 degrees on Sept 5th! Where are we, California? But the littlest kids all got cold anyway, and shivered their way around avoiding the sprinklers. I didn't get any pictures of Ziggy because he was clinging to my hand the whole time. Clementine was the most fascinated with the water, stepping into the spray and getting facefuls of it and then wobbling off alarmingly on the slippery ground. We all wanted to watch her. 

We made everyone stay and have fun for the requisite one hour, and then took pity on the shiverers and went home to open Ziggy's presents.

Daisy basically took care of Ziggy's presents this year. They were so good that I didn't feel like he needed much else! She had the idea to make him a little Amazon Delivery vest. He has a UPS Man outfit, but we couldn't find anything to buy for Amazon delivery, so Daisy went to my mom's house overnight one weekend and the two of them pieced a vest together with fabric my mom had. It turned out SO cute! Then Daisy crocheted a bunch of different-shaped "packages" for Ziggy to deliver, and made him an Amazon truck out of a cardboard box! (Actually UPS on one side, Amazon on the other.) I just ordered a little "scanner" (just a piece of wood with lights and switches on it) for Zig to scan his packages with when he dropped them off.

(Here's a drawing Ziggy made of a UPS man, a truck full of packages [with the driver's seat in the cab], and our house.)

Zig was pretty excited when he opened up the vest.

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