More Like Him July Update

 

This my friends has been an excellent goal for me.  One that I might duplicate for a few years.  I have to take a hard look at myself and realize what I have done each month to be more like the Savior.  So each month I need to think about what I want to do and then do it.  This month presented itself with a challenge.  My son is living in MN now with my husband's family.  He left behind a friend he made who want to go to church with us.

So each week we have been driving this beautiful young lady to church, sometimes Young Women's activities, and to get the discussions with the missionaries at our church.  (to see what missionaries do click the link).  As I prayed earlier in the month, I learned that I need to open my house and be willing to do whatever it takes for this experience.  I need to do this for two, maybe three reasons.  One, Alyssa has a desire to learn and needs help getting around as she is just now learning to drive and can not bring herself.  Two, my son is preparing for a mission and he needs to have people open the door for him to be able to teach things in the near future.  (His papers will go in shortly)  And lastly, a reason that I did not know at the beginning of the month was the great joy that is the outcome of this work.

  Each time we have the opportunity to serve Alyssa, I feel such great joy.  Joy in her willingness to learn new things.  Joy in having two young men teaching such great messages that show the love the Savior has for us.  Joy in seeing my daughter's testimony grow and her courage in having her own missionary moments has grown this month.  Joy in the overwhelming presence of the Holy Ghost.  Joy in remembering why I made the decisions to become a member of the church.  Joy in the blessing we enjoy because of earlier choices.

Reflecting in this month and allowing myself to be a "fisher of men" I feel joy.  July has been good to us.

Drumroll please....

I won the Liebster award from my friend Yaya at Whispering Pines.  I think she might have felt sorry for me because I said I didn't have much to blog about this month.  Thanks for the award!  And yes, Yaya you did talk me into blogging a few years back.  I like to use this site as my personal journal.

I agreed to answer a bunch of questions from her.

1. What was your first job and did you enjoy it?

My first job was being a waitress at Perkins Restaurant in Ashland, Ohio.  I suppose technically I babysat cousins before that. I really enjoyed working at Perkins.  I learned how to balance things clear up my arms.  In the window where you pick up food, right by your knees was a syrup warmer for the maple syrup.  We wore maroon skirts and had aprons with long ties in the back.  I remember a particularly busy night in my first couple of weeks working getting my apron caught on a syrup jar and shattering it all over the floor.  I guess that is the initiation for new waitresses.  Having to clean up warm gooey syrup in a middle of a dinner rush.

2. Do you have a collection....what is it?
I have a bunch of snowmen, but they are all put away for the season.  I'm actually getting away from collections as to not have too much stuff lay around the house.

3. What is your  default  "too lazy to cook" meal?
This is daily...oops did I say that out loud?  No, we cook here most days, but we have a busy schedule and grab food at least a couple of times a week....
Besta Fasta Pizza, Wendy's, and KFC get our business often.

4. What is your favorite thing to wear that you always feel fantastic in?  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to wear jeans and hooded sweatshirts.  I look forward to casual Friday at work.  In the hot summer, I wishing for cool nights.  (I'm loving this cool weather right now)

5. Summer? Fall? Winter? Spring?

Absolutely the fall.  I love everything about it: colors, leaves, pumpkins, apples, jeans and sweatshirts, football games, Ashland County Fair, Halloween, harvest time, school's in session...what's not to love, right?!

6. What is your favorite moment in history?
Tough one for a history teacher...
Spiritually, I think it would be the time of Christ, one particular moment would be hard to pick, from birth to death He did so much to benefit the world.  So I will say the meridian of time.

 

To think about American History I really enjoyed visiting Gettysburg a few weeks ago.  I think the Civil War was interesting, but I don't know that as well as I would like to.  Just the thought of the country starting to liberate the slaves has been intriguing to me...but, my most favorite thing to teach about is the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

The students today have no idea how much hate was in the country due to skin color.  They do not understand segregation because they have never lived those moments.  I love their reactions to it, and I think if we keep teaching them about those times in history they will continue to make their world a more tolerant world.  It still isn't perfect, but they sure can see the contrast.

7. What is the one song that without a doubt always puts you in a good mood?  "Life Is a Highway" both versions.  Tom Cochran made it a hit the summer before my senior year in high school.  Rascal Flatts brought it back to my life in the movie Cars, but both versions make me happy.

8.  If you had to pick one, would it be the Beatles....or the Rolling Stones.  Who?  Naw, just kidding.  I would have to say the Beatles.  Even though I didn't live through their debut I listen to their songs.  I was introduced to the Beatles in Middle School when my choir teacher had us do a Beatles concert.  I'm not sure if I knew who they were before that.  We have a boy at church named Jude.  Can you guess what I always think when I see him...

9.  Do you have any hidden talents or abilities for anything in particular?  I'm not sure if I have hidden talents...but I am good at teaching.  I love preparing for kids to help them learn, to catch them up if they are behind, and I've discovered this past year, that I like enriching the gifted.  It was my first opportunity at that this past year. 

I like to sing, especially in a choir where I learned to sing alto in school.  I became an alto because no one else wanted to do it and our choir director said he didn't need more sopranos and needed some volunteers for alto.  People at church think because you can read music you should be able to direct it too.  I do it when asked, but I really dislike doing it because I honestly can't do it correctly and it is very embarrassing when I have to do it.

10.  What was a favorite vacation?
I'm torn between two.  We love the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and go there often on the way to Minnesota to visit Kyle's family. 

But, I also loved going to Charleston, South Carolina.  I think that was my personal favorite.

But, give me a large body of water that you can't see across and I'd be happy.


I have to nominate another blogger who is up and coming blogger.  That is Vicki over at the Selvage Edge.  Vicki has two beautiful twins.  Her experiences with her late in life motherhood is very encouraging to me and I love watching all the things I took for granted by having my children at such a young age.  They are super cute and will make you smile.

The Low Down

I feel like this bee.  I'm just flitting from flower to flower.  The bee is more purposeful than I am right now.

It seems like we are just in a routine and not doing much.  This past week I took a Globalization college course to help maintain my license for teaching.

Oh, I got a good one for you...Last Saturday it was gently raining.  Kyle thought it would be a good idea to take a morning swim at mom's house in the rain.  I went along with this idea.  It was fun swimming in the rain.  We were on our way home when I innocently was walking down the deck stairs and my flip flop decided not to cooperate.  On the rain soaked stairs, my flip-flop decided to test the laws of physics, especially friction.  Well, my flip-flop thought it would be a good joke to hydroplane across a stair step.  Left foot went 70 mph down the stairs, while my right foot decided to follow at about 20 mph and pointing in the other direction.  Not to mention that my rear end bounced off about 8 steps in the process.  Between the giggles of my surprised self and my husband surprise I limped and giggled and cried all the way to the car.  I have had a sore toosh all week.  I feel like a granny getting out of a chair and will be grateful for the day I can stand up with out a shot of pain.  Much better today than it was a week ago.  Sigh...

Next week, I get a 17 year-old daughter.  More flitting in the see able future.

Family "Not So" Home Evening

We met our friends the Tompot's and the Elders for dinner at Cahn Grove Park in Ashland last night.  We enjoyed a nice picnic with an "old-fashioned" barbeque.

 Kyle and I were commenting on the smell of charcoal and knowing that most of the time we use a gas grill.  We both remember our parents taking us to the park and grilling on the grills, it doesn't get done as much as it used too.

 We enjoyed a nice picnic and a quick lesson by Darren about some things he learned last week while he was at EFY.

 The kids tossed a Frisbee and played catch for awhile before we parted ways with the Elders.

 So we could enjoy time in the pool at Mom's house.  What a great way to end a very HOT summer day.

Rainy Summer Days

Seems like since we've been back from Minnesota it has rained everyday.  Not all day, but enough to make it hard to do things outside.  Plus, all that water in the air, making the humidity ridiculous.  Frizzy hair is the norm around here.

Since my last post I've had a birthday, 38, nothing monumental; just another year older.  I bought myself this water cooler.  I've been wanting one, and I found one on sale when I was shopping with Mom.

 It seems I'm the only one that likes the fruit infused water, but that's okay.  I'll save it for get togethers.  So what do you do when it's rainy?  Housework...

 And I have been trying new recipes, I made homemade spaghetti sauce.

I make homemade Italian bread to go with the lasagna I made. Both were quite good, very yummy.

I picked black raspberries twice now, I have a third picking I need to do today.  I froze some and made cobbler with the other picking.

Can't forget laundry, amazing how one less body can reduce the loads.

Here's that cobbler.

It's been a slow-paced return to Ohio.  Seems I can always find just enough things to keep me busy. 

More Like Him June Update

My lesson to learn in June is to let go.  To allow my son to learn to live on his own.  To trust that Heavenly Father will take over the role of parent.  To allow him to start learning as I learn by trial and error, to allow him  full agency.

It says in 2 Nephi 2: Redemption comes through the Holy Messiah—Freedom of choice (agency) is essential to existence and progression—Adam fell that men might be—Men are free to choose liberty and eternal life.  I know now that Dakota is in good hands.  My church is the same all over the world.  Each church building is organized the same way and has the same global leader.

When we arrived at the Brainerd, MN chapel to meet the people who would take over in the spiritual growth of my child I was so impressed.  Bishop Howard knew exactly where Dakota was going second hour.  They had just organized a temple prep class for another young man who is preparing to leave on his mission.  They have a calling ready for him and a few assignments.  He already has begun the process of filling out mission papers and is on his way.

It was difficult here trying to get the same information, where in MN it was handed to us.  That was my reassuring moment, the witness from the Holy Ghost that this was the right place for him to be.  For him to grow into a man, where I believe if he stayed here in Ohio he would have stalled in his spiritual growth.

When we talked to Kota last night he was enjoying the peace and solitude of Oxyoke Lake, listening to the loons call.  He is growing...

I understand a little bit better what it must be like for Heavenly Father watching his children grow, to allow them the right to choose.  With the hope that we will remember to include him in our choices through prayer or listening to the Holy Ghost give us council.  I understand a little bit better what it must have been like for the Savior when he was guiding the apostles and letting them make choices and loving them in spite of things they chose.

June brought big changes in my family and growth for all of us.  I feel like I understand agency just a little bit better.  For that I am grateful.