- Last fall, we had an unfortunate kitchen leak incident. It involved having to tear apart our counters and area around the sink. It was a long and messy process of getting the leak detected in the right location, and then David and also his dad put together the new counters. It was pretty crazy in there for several weeks, not having the ability to use the sink, dishwasher, or counters. That entire time I'd have a date with the bathroom sink, handwashing every dish at night. Blech! I remember after that time was over that I vowed to never wash a dish by hand again. (I have since broken that vow, haha!) Sure grateful for the modern conveniences of the kitchen!
- This past October our prophet, Russell M. Nelson, gave a special talk to the women of our church, and challenged us with a few goals. I completed the challenge, and one of the goals was reading the entire Book of Mormon by the end of 2018. As we read, we were to mark each time we came across the name of Jesus Christ. This was such a rewarding activity! I'd never read the Book of Mormon that quickly before, and it was much easier to follow storylines when they were fresh in my mind. I loved (now LOVE) seeing Jesus's name EVERYWHERE! Hardly a page went by where I didn't mark His name. It showed me again what a testament of Jesus Christ the Book of Mormon is! I know the words in it are true and the experience was a great strength to my testimony.
- Piggybacking on that challenge, the Church made some changes that began at the beginning of this year. One of those changes was an hour less of church and instead more focus on 'home-centered' church, through the Come Follow Me study program. Each week at home, we are to spend an hour on gospel study/learning with our families (this year's focus was the New Testament), then we'd come together on Sundays and share what we learned that week. At first this idea sounded a bit daunting to me. We were already having regular family prayer, family scripture, and Family Home Evening, but basically every single time was a battle of trying to get the kids to listen and not run around and wrestle for even 5 minutes! I wondered how in the world they would ever focus and allow me to teach them, and for it to be of good enough quality that they could really learn and internalize the lessons? While it has taken a good amount of my time to prepare and teach them, it has been a wonderful experience! It definitely isn't perfect. There are plenty of bumps still, but I know our family is much stronger as we strive to put this into practice. It really should be up to US to take the reins on our gospel-learning, and not to just expect to receive all of our knowledge at church. I take every opportunity to throw in a gospel lesson and to bear my testimony to my kids. Sometimes we do cutesy crafts/activities, but often we have a simple conversation. I think the key is just to make it a regular part of life, and to connect the everyday moments with the gospel, helping us to always be thinking of how we can be more like Jesus Christ and grow closer in our relationship with Him.
- Another one of the goals that President Nelson made for the women was to attend the temple on a regular basis. He didn't pinpoint a number of times one should go, as everyone has different circumstances. But I made 'regular' to mean once-a-month for me. I have never attended the temple that regularly by a set time. I learned that it is absolutely doable! (For me, at least.) I have gone every month for the past year and once again, I am so grateful for a living prophet who sees my potential and helps to lead me to better understanding my worth and the work that I can do to strengthen my self, and to strengthen my home and family.
One of the only good things about winter is making and eating snow cream!
Here's a couple of videos from the winter:
Valentine's Day! Opening their baskets of goodies--
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