Talking in Church . . .

I am confident I have never been excited to speak in church before, but I am feeling sooo excited to speak in church this coming Sunday. Initially I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath and thought, well, we're new in the ward, yada-yada, but I've totally changed my mind. My topic is "Charity" and it is so much fun!! I have been reading story after story of wonderful examples of charity. Why do I love these stories? Because I feel the Spirit of the Lord each time I read them-- it touches my heart, brings tears to my eyes, sends a shiver down my spine, and warms me up. The ward who helped a mom give her 3 year old disabled daughter physical therapy and she finally learned to crawl, the missionary who sent money to a friend to send back to his own mission companion to help where the boy's family couldn't, the girl scout who visited a nursing home as a challenge and made a wonderful friend, the teenager who let a stranded family into his home during a snowstorm, the boy who decided to use his college savings to give his family a christmas during the depression, and there are so many other wonderful stories!!

What a wonderful topic to be assigned!! I have no idea how I'm going to narrow everything down to 10 minutes!! A list of all I've read follows, but these stories are everywhere this time of year so they shouldn't be hard to find!!

Scriptures:
1 Corithians 13
Moroni 7:44-48 (For the full effect I like to start reading at about verse 37)
TG Charity; Love; Family, Love Within

Books:
Secret Santa by Anne Osborn Poelman
No Room in the Inn by Katherine Paterson
Shepherds, Why This Jubilee? by Jeffrey R. Holland
A Christmas Treasury for Latter-Day Saint Families by Lloyd and Karmel Newell
Night Tree by Eve Bunting
Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear! by Don and Audrey Wood,
Sunshine for the Latter-Day Saint Missionary Soul and so on . . .)

Ensign Talks: Search "Charity" at lds.org Gospel Library for lots more!!
"The Great Commandment" by Joseph B Wirthlin (Nov 2007 Ensign)--NOT just because of his message, which is fabulous, but it also reminds me of the conference [was it the same one? I think it was] when he was giving his talk, and was physically shaking and having a hard time standing at the pulpit, and Elder Nelson came and stood with him so he could finish his talk, brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it!!
Other great articles: Feed my Sheep by Silvia H. Allred (Nov 207 Ensign)
That Their Burdens May be Light (Sept 2007 Ensign)
Charity: One Family, One Home at a Time by Anne Pingree and You Are All Heaven Sent by James E. Faust (Nov 2002 Ensign)
Becoming Insturments in the Hands of God by Don R. Clarke and all talks in the General Relief Society meeting (Nov 2006 Ensign)

Farewell Olivia Naps

Olivia, who loves her Dad, likes to sleep like him too, with her pillow over her head. Unfortunately, it looks like its time to say "Sayonara' to her daytime naps. Sigh. And Jolie is acting like she's going to cut out one of her naps too. Double Sigh. For the past few months I have had the glorious luck to have Olivia and Jolie take 2-3 hour naps at the same time in the afternoon, and with part of this time being Austin and Nyah's cartoon time it was fabulously refreshing, and now it looks to be all over. Gone. Gone. No more The Count of Monte Cristo, or The Squire's Tale, or whatever I'm reading. When will I email or blog or mindlessly read internet gossip, er, news? I don't know. The hardest part of having little one's (for me) is giving up naps. They seem to find it very easy, but I wish I could fight them tooth and nail to keep on sleeping.

This is what happens when I try to take a picture of ONE of my children-- I end up taking pictures of ALL of my children. Since Jolie has recently been pushing up on her hands and knees I thought I would try to get a picture of it. It proved to be quite a challenge. For the few minutes she and I were hiding in my bedroom, I couldn't seem to push the button at the right time. Too early or too late, I just kept missing it. And then the clowns came in. Whenever Austin, Nyah, or Olivia see anyone with a camera they immediately want in on the action. Austin started making funny face and diving in front of the camera to block Jolie. Nyah tried this for a while until she was pushed, then she wanted to be the one taking the picture, and when told 'No' started pouting. Olivia wanted to be in the pictures and see the pictures on the back of the camera at the same time. Then I started taking videos (which didn't convert to the correct format when uploaded onto computer--have to have Kurt check that out). They were dancing, and making ninja moves, and star wars moves, and laughing, and wanting to watch behind the camera while I shot, and wanting to watch the movies when I was done, and "More Mom!!." It's amazing something 2x3 inches big can be so totally engrossing and entertaining and fun. And the bottom line is I love having fun with my kids, so its okay I missed my shots of Jolie. I got one of all 4.

Chaos

I like to vacuum. It blocks out all the noise, Noise, NOISE!!!

Growing up . . .

Jolie is six months old now. She has started pushing herself onto her hands and knees. She must be in a hurry to get moving, even though she is very mobile rolling and scooting around on her belly. I tried to get some video of her escapades, but her older siblings like to hog the camera. It makes me sad she's growing up :(

Side note: After getting a new ream of paper, and Kurt bringing me another ream of paper, I found the missing ream of paper, in a box of piano and guitar books which hadn't been unpacked yet. Of course.

Mysteries in our house . . .

We had a major crisis this past week!!! "Blankie" disappeared for three whole days and I was the last one to see her, and thus, the primary suspect. Even by myself. I kept thinking "Was I not paying attention and throw it away?" (Which I sadly suspect has happened to more than just a few things) I searched trash cans, laundry baskets, bathroom cupboards, toy baskets, under beds, and EVERYWHERE. And it was NOWHERE. And then it was there--in Austin's room, in a toy basket I know I searched at least three times, which means it was in his room the whole time, likely being moved from place to place each day as the tornadoes that are my children tore through his room each day. I love how he said, "I don't know" when I asked if he knew where blankie was 20 times a day, even though he probably picked it up each day as he cleaned his room. Olivia, thankfully, made do with the rejected look-alike blankie. Which then made me wonder if it was time for the official grayish-pink blankie to disappear, but Olivia's excitement and happiness on having her "blankie" back changed my mind. I guess she (blankie) can hang around a while longer. Notice how "it" suddenly became "her" when she was missing and I was worried about her?

Now if only I could find the two school books Olivia lost our first week here that we need for school, and the ream of paper I know I bought last pay day, but which I can't find. Sigh, suffering from mushy-mommy-brain at least makes life interesting.

As a side note, I love to receive comments on my blog and I think everyone does, so I have decided to leave comments on everyone's blog that I read this week. Hopefully you get to be a lucky one. And I admit to the world, that when I am bored I read blogs of people who are connected to the people I know, like my sisters in-laws or friends, who I don't even know and have likely never met and probably think its weird that I'm reading their blog, but its true. I don't know if I've brave enough to post comments on those blogs, but we'll see.

Scissors and little girls

Can anyone explain the fascination of little girls cutting their hair whenever they come into contact with a pair of scissors? Austin and Nyah were spending the afternoon up to their elbows in art project stuff-- paper, tape, stamps, markers, crayons, and of course, scissors. They were busy for a couple hours drawing and making things. When I was helping them clean up I found blonde hair clippings amongst the paper scraps.

"Nyah, did you cut your hair again?"

"Yes . . . I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

Right. If only I hadn't heard that at least twenty times before. It seems it was just a little snip, probably the end of a single lock of hair. *Sigh* well, at least it was only her hair (Austin has had a few trims thanks to her) and it wasn't an entire pony tail this time. One more thing to look forward to the other two girls growing up to do :).