Musings on 3 Ne. 18

3 And when the Disciples had come with bread and wine, he took of the bread and brake and blessed it; and he gave unto the Disciples and commanded that they should eat. 4 And when they had eaten and were filled, he commanded that they should give unto the multitude. (Book of Mormon | 3 Nephi 18:3 - 4)

We can't give to others what we don't have. Whether we are a parent, teacher or leader of some sort we have to obtain before we can give. Important to remember if one is burning the candle at both ends.

25 And ye see that I have commanded that none of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see; even so shall ye do unto the world; ( 3 Nephi 18:25)

Revelation comes to both our hearts and our minds that we might "feel" and "see." We use all of our senses to "know" the gospel. The Savior invites us to "know" the truth not just believe it. The only ones who think that following the commandments is a manifestations of "blind obedience" are those who haven't followed the commandments themselves.

24 Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. (3 Nephi 18:24)

We don't hold up our own imperfect light (Lucifer's ploy) - we hold up that brilliant light of Jesus Christ.

15 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always, lest ye be tempted by the devil, and ye be led away captive by him.

18 Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.
19 Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name;

(3 Nephi 18:15 - 19)

Important enough he said it twice. And for good measure we'll add one from the N.T.

38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. (Mark 14:38)

Blimey! I'm late!!

Ahoy! Last Friday, Sept. 19, was notable in two ways. First, in case you didn't know (and I'm sorry to be so slow in informing you of this important information), it was Talk Like a Pirate Day. Perhaps you were all out and about in your garb arrrrghing and shiverin' your timbers. (I did run into one person dressing the part - my daughter Bethany who should have invented Talk Like a Pirate Day.)

Secondly and more importantly, it was the 29th birthday of my son-in-law Kip who is appropriately Bethany's husband. Kip is a jolly good bucko and a bit of a pirate in his own right. (In the best sense of the word, of course!) I have the greatest respect and admiration for him. I'm not only glad he's in our family, I'm also grateful. He has made my daughter one very happy matey. I wouldn't trade him for all the pirate booty in the salty sea or land lubber buccaneers on shore. Yo, ho, ho - Happy Birthday Kip.

P.S. As you can see, I had to pull out my pirate dictionary to write this post, me hearties!

Happy Birthday Cameron!!

With eleven children and five in-laws it seems that birthday post come around quite often at our house. Just as the gulf of Mexico is into their hurricane season we are beginnings our family's birthday bonanza. It started Sept 1, with Natalie. Today is Cameron's and then we go from there with birthdays (even several!) every month except Dec. until April. There are several more in May and June and then we have our summer break of two whole months without a celebration.

Today the youngest member of our family turns 13. I told him last night that as he is our last to enter the "terrible teens" that he needed to promise me he would avoid certain behavior (such as mouthiness and moodiness) that so often accompanies this stage of life. He laughed and promised he would stay the cheerful, happy, enthusiastic kid he has been since birth. I'll report back on that in about two years.

Cameron is Mr. Positive. I've always loved that trait in him. For him the cup isn't just half full, it's almost to the top if not overflowing. In fact, his positive mindset prompted his kindergarten teacher to tell my husband in parent teacher conference that he was almost "too confident." Being the mother of eleven I just laughed and said "there's no such thing as a too confident kid." School has a way of beating it out of them anyway so the more they start with the better. I love his laugh. It is infectious and makes you feel happy just to hear it.

Cameron is a giver and a sharer. If he comes home from school with some kind of candy stash the first thing he does is find me and give me my choice of what he has. He shares his money also and has always been enthusiastic about paying his tithing even doubling and tripling the usual 10 percent.

Cameron loves cats! He is always trying to adopt strays from around the neighborhood and they all love him. He went through a stage where if I couldn't find him I would go check the dog house and sure enough there would be Cameron taking a nap with the cat.

He's an A-1 soccer player and plays on a premier club team. He can throw a mean baseball pitch, run up the score in basketball and is begging to play football, snowboard etc. etc. etc. And I have to hide his current book if I'm going to get some work out of him. He is highly motivated by ANY kind of incentive. If there is an award or a reward he wants to earn it - and he does big time!

Eleventh of eleven is a unique position. I don't think there are any birth order books that take it quite that far. (In fact, most of them stop at four. I long ago quit using them as any kind of guide!) I have always been extremely grateful we made it that far because I wouldn't have missed out on Cameron for all the free time in China (as opposed to tea!). I felt his presence and personality for several years before he was born and once he arrived I knew he was the caboose for our family. Happy Birthday Cameron! I love you!

Mom

Picture: Cameron illegally jumping on the furniture at age 2. Good thing he's holding on to that towel.

Rumaging through the photo drawer...

Caitlin, Cameron, Christian

Cameron, Christian

Three quotes:

"I never feel to force my doctrine upon any person; I rejoice to see prejudice give way to truth, and the traditions of men dispersed by the pure principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

"Patience is heavenly, obedience is noble, forgiveness is merciful, and exaltation is godly'; and he that holds out faithful to the end shall in no wise lose his reward. A good man will endure all things to honor Christ, and even dispose of the whole world, and all in it, to save his soul"

"When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth's sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do his will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will not seek his face in vain."

Joseph Smith Jr.

(Quotes posted at the Carthage jail)

In the beginning....

Watching my newly married children setting up house has brought back memories of Randy and I as newlyweds 1973. Randy had just graduated from BYU in April of that year. We were married in Aug. and three weeks later he began teaching seminary to high school students for the LDS church in Bountiful, Utah. We rented a vintage 1930's house with a nice front porch about a 1/2 block from the school so he could walk to work. (Our early 60's gargantua Ford Galaxie was the only car we owned. We were a one car family until just before our 6th child was born 1986.) We were married coming off the hippie era of anti-materialism, make your own bread and granola philosophy. Plus, we weren't pulling down a flush salary. (I believe our grocery bill every week was $10.) So we made do and actually that was our preference anyway. Our furniture was acquired from the old barn behind Randy's grandparent's house in northern Utah. We hauled down an old couch-daybed type of affair. We scavenged for old barn wood and tree stumps out in the field behind the barn which we stained a walnut color and made an L-shaped bookcase-wall unit in our living room. I crocheted an orange and brown afghan for the couch/bed. I found old drapes from somewhere and dyed them brown.

In the adjoining dining room (with wood floors non-the-less!) we placed Randy's grandparents long since rejected wooden table and chairs set that we had also found in the barn. Together, we refinished it, staining it (you guessed it!) walnut as well. (Dark wood was really big in the 70's!) Our most creative decorating piece however was the area rug. I'm not sure where I got this idea but every few days I would go and scavenge carpet scraps from the trash bins behind carpet stores where the carpet layers had deposited the scraps from their days' labor. They were usually long strips from just a few inches wide to maybe 6 inches. I bought some kind of tile glue and a large piece of canvas from a $ discount table at the fabric store. I laid the canvas out on the floor and glued the carpet scraps to it in a psychedelic, striped pattern using the wider pieces to create a border around the edge. The result was quite the trippy rug! As the popular carpet colors were mainly bright at the time (lime greens, avacados, oranges, golds, bright reds) our dining room was razzmatazz. Our bedroom set was an old fashioned, somewhat dilapidated, dressing table and headboard Randy's mother had stored and she made us a jazzy purple- patterned tied quilt for a spread.

For Christmas that year we had to think of gifts that would cost us only a few pennies. We came up with paper mache piggy banks! Actually one was a piggy bank and the other was a mushroom bank. Rebecca and Brad had the dubious honor of receiving the gifts we stayed up all of Christmas Eve night to make. I'm sure they never held a penny! In fact they probably ended up in that barn we had hauled most of our furniture out of!

Those were great days! We spent many happy hours creating our new abode from whatever was free. I wouldn't trade it for all the Pottery Barn in the world. Granted I'm not lobbying to go back to that method (Randy probably wishes I would!) but it was a terrific way to start out married life.

The evidence...

Our work in progress (table and chairs) and the barn!

More.....

Our Ford Galaxie - really it was a monster! This picture was the second morning of our honeymoon. We had decided to camp out (another byproduct of a 70's honeymoon) the night before and just as we were snuggling down into our sleeping bag the clouds burst into torrents of rain and of course we didn't have a tent so we slept in the front seat of the car!

Randy loved to read in the tub. This was just a foot soakie. In the days before blow dryers we had old fashioned hair dryers. It took about 30 minutes to get your curler bound up hair dried. Who has time to sit around! Also check out the piggy banks in the making. Times have changed!

And a few more...

A Few Widding Pics....Post 1

Happy Birthday Natalie...

Today is Natalie's (#8) birthday. She left the teenage years just a few hours ago (she was born around 8:00 pm) and became a mature twenty. Actually in some ways Natalie never was a typical teenager. She always seemed to be ahead of herself. She tended to hang out with her older siblings and cousins rather than others her own age. I picture her marrying someone older than herself with a bit of sophisticated. She tells me that event is a long ways off and that's fine with me. She is studying interior design and has a very artistic eye blended with a dose of pragmatism.

To celebrate her birthday she, three sisters and myself piled in the van and headed up Provo Canyon to the Park City Showcase of Homes. We were able to get through 17 of the 22 homes and we hashed out all the ins and outs of each home everyone's individual preferences. Nat likes clean lines, some dynamic blacks in the decor with some subtle funk here and there. Someday she's going to design a house for me which Lorien will landscape.

I enjoy spending time one on one with Natalie. I've learned that though she can be quiet in group settings, she is a deep thinker and has a great head on her shoulders. I always like having the chance to visit with her. We had a good time together this spring when I went up to BYUI to see her basketball tournament. She gave a great talk in sacrament meeting last week and as I was listening to her I thought she was quite the knock out all the way around in mind, body and spirit. I'm proud to be her mother. Happy Birthday Nat. I love you.