Bountiful Baskets

There's a great new thing happening in town (and around the Northwest US). It's a food co-op called Bountiful baskets. Every two weeks they distribute a huge basket of produce for $15. They ask participants to donate their time occasionally to help the system work. You just get what you get each week. My mom got her first basket this weekend. She said they had 90 people participate here. The produce was amazing! Far better than the local grocery store produce. Her basket included:

• bananas
• strawberries
• 2 small watermelons
• oranges
• pears
• apples (I think)
• tomatoes
• lettuce
• cauliflower
• broccoli
• peppers
• cucumbers
• zucchini

She also purchased wheat bread and sweet bread as an add-on. They had a citrus add-on too. They distribute at the local Middle school every other Saturday. I'm sold! so I thought I'd share. I'm a sucker for great produce.

Singing with the Turkeys

One of my Thanksgiving highlights is performing in Rexburg's Turkey Choir on Thanksgiving morning. We attend six intense and challenging rehearsals the Sunday evenings preceding Thanksgiving, then put on an awe-inspiring concert Thanksgiving morning. I'd guess there are somewhere between 150-180 voices. The conductor, Kendall Nielson, and his amazing wife & pianist Elaine (?) are the perfect team and more talented than you can imagine.

I come home from rehearsals late at night wishing everyone in the world could have that experience of participating in a group to orchestrate something bigger and better than you can alone; to be a part of a group of people working together as one. It fills my heart and soul. I have had many soul defining moments while creating music-- those moments when the music, the lyrics, & the spirit that accompany them teach me about the nature of God.

These are my favorite lyrics from two of this year's pieces:

We’ll understand it Better By & By by Charles A. Tindley (1855-1933)

Trials dark on every hand, and we cannot understand
All the ways that God would lead us to that blessed Promised Land
But he’ll guide us with His eye,
And we’ll follow till we die;
We will understand it better by and by.
By and by and by, Lord, when the morning comes,
When the blessed saints of God are gathered home;
We will tell the story, how we’ve overcome;
We will understand it better by and by.

You’ll Never Walk Alone
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

When you walk through a storm,
Keep your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark,
At the end of the storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho’ your dreams be tossed and blown,
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone.
You’ll never walk alone.

Jessi's growing up

This week Jessica has learned to dance, sing, identify herself, & identify several animals and the sounds they make. We tried to get a video. This is the best we could get. Amber & Kate think this it's hilarious.

Piano Recital

Amber had her 2nd piano recital tonight. Kate had her 1st. They both did really great. Great tone, great dynamics, great rhythm. I was proud of them. Kate was terrified. I was worried she wouldn't perform, but she did and she did great.

The pictures are dark, but if I wait they may never make it on here.

What's your vote?

I just got our new pictures back today.

I hope you'll vote for your favorites.

I like this grouping of the 3 girls,

but someone looks goofy in each one.Girls 1

Girls 2

Girls 3

It's distracting to me that they're so far apart in these,
but I think the girls themselves look cuter.
Maybe there's just too much background.

Girls 4

Girls 5


I can't decide which picture of Kate I like best.

I hope you'll let me know what you think.

Kate 1

Kate 2

Kate 3

This might be my favorite

Kate 4

Kate 5

(I cropped this from one of the groups because I liked it)

We got a lot of goofy photos of Jessica

That's an 18 month old for you. Jessi 1

(this is from a group shot as well)

Jessi 2

Amber 1

Amber 2

This is my favorite

One more

See what I mean? Goofy picture of Jessica.

I just love her eyes in this photo though.

Click on it to enlarge it & you'll see what I mean.

I want to play with these of picnik.com

Those of you who use it, what are your favorite effects?

Festival of Trees

When I was a kid I was in a singing group called Rainbow Connection. Now Amber is in a similar group called Tavaci. They had their first performance last night. It was quite nostalgic for me. Amber cute little performer. She loves the stage.

I was surprized to recognize so many of the other families there; my childhood neighbors, friends from my ward, my piano student families, my friends from my fitness class, and some of Amber's classmates. 'Tis a small world here in Rexburg.

Amber was excited to visit with Santa. Kate was not convinced of his authenticity. Amber has requested a spider webkinz (which doesn't exist) and a live, brown, girl kitten (it's just too frightening for kittens on the sleigh).

Dancers

Jessi fits the Mills mold. She's begun dancing whenever she hears classical music.

The video quality is lacking, but the subjects are cute.

Raking leaves

Even when Jessica's hands were numb from the cold she still wanted to help rake.

"Go get another bag" means "Climb in another bag and hop it to me."

Kate loves raking leaves! I'll let her keep on loving it.

She helped me until the job was done.

Amber loves being burried in the leaves.

October 31st

Amber was baptized by her Dad last Saturday. On Halloween! It was an amazing moment. Everything went perfectly well, (with the exception of me deleting over a hundred pictures from my dad's nice camera). Thank goodness I took pictures with two cameras.

I always like taking my children to baptisms because the spirit is so tangible at them. Amber's baptism was no exception. What a great thing for a dad to do for a daughter. I'm so excited for her to have the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It's a true guiding, comforting, influence.


We were excited to have a house full of company for Halloween. I love having a house full of company.
Amber was a bat-kitty-ballerina (for the 3rd year in a row), Kate was a bat-fairy, and Jessica was a kitty. Jessica loved having a kitty face drawn on.

I felt like we should have replenished some of the candy stocks we depleted from various kind home-owners.

We went trick-or-treating early as a huge group, went home for dinner, and then took the bigger kids back out.

If only my kids didn't hand me everything with mint, nuts, carmel, & peanutbutter. Really, it slowed me down for a few days.

Jessica caught on to trick-or-treating very quickly. Once she'd consumed all of her candy, she knew where to get more. . .her sisters' candy bags.

I remember being reprimanded as a child for trying to trick-or-treat mid-summer. It's a great system. We figured it might work any day of the year.

My little artists' pumpkins

They drew and carved these works of art themselves.

They amaze me.

Here are a few of the comments I heard:
"Ew!!!"
"This is grosser than I thought!"
"Mom will you wash the outside of mine off so I don't have to touch the gewey stuff?"
"Mom, will you do mine?" (meaning gut it)

Amber's 8!!!

Amber's 8 favorite things at 8:

Art, especially drawing

Webkinz

Playing with her "imaginations", they're magic

Ballet

Family Home Evening

Aristocrats, the movie

Trick-or-treating

Her Bat Ballerina Kitty Costume

Check out that gap in her teeth. She lost her 4th tooth the eve of her birthday. She wrote the toothfairy a note and got a $1 bonus!

General Conference Blog

Okay all my General Conference reading friends. I think I have the blog fixed so you can post comments now.

Sunday

Tomorrow is our Primary Program. I got to write the program this year. I'm genuinely excited. For one, I don't feel like I wrote the program all by myself. The ideas came to me clearly and easily, though a little slowly. We have such great kids in our ward and great music leaders. I have no worries. Plus, I think this is my 5th or 6th primary program, so I've learned not to sweat it. It all works out.

I look forward to Sundays. I feel true peace, happiness, & belonging at church. I love seeing my little family lined up together in Sacrament meeting. I love knowing that other people are teaching my children the things that I want them to know. Hearing it from multiple sources helps them really get it.

I have to give some kuddos to my husband. Every time I have a baby I get a primary calling. I have never cared for my babies at church, except during Sacrament Meeting. I openly confess he's much better at it than I am. He can get them to sleep in church. I can't. He can entertain them on his lap for two hours with no toys! I come with my bag of toys & goodies & it's not adequate. I let them down on the floor during Sunday School & he warns me, "I wouldn't do that." Sure enough, when I try to restrain their freedom after they're let down a tantrum follows.

Words of the Latter-day prophets blog

I started a General Conference study blog. It's http://www.wordsofthelatterdayprophets.blogspot.com/. Anyone is welcome to join us. We'll study one General Conference Talk each week. We'll begin a new talk each Sunday. If you let me know you're interested I'll add you as an author. Feel free to invite friends on your own blogs too.

This week we'll be studying President Monson's talk "What Have I Done for Someone Today?" from the Sunday morning session. You can link to it and all other conference sessions here. You'll find the links to listen, read, or watch them.

We'll keep the discussion quite open. Please let me know what order you think we should study them. 1) Start with President Monson & work through the 12 apostles by seniority 2) The first contributor to make a suggestion gets to choose the next talk 3) Study the talks by topic 4) study the talks in the order they were given.

Conference

I'm throwing an idea around in my head. I hope you'll let me know what you think. I want to study one General Conference talk each week. Isn't this the miracle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? We have living prophets! I want to study and apply their words more thoroughlly.

Is anyone interested in joining me in studying one General Conference talk in depth each week and then jointly blogging about it? I hope you'll let me know what you think.

picnik

I found a fun free photo editing site. It's picnik.com. The girls and I spent part of our afternoon doing this. I also used picnik to edit the photos I posted of our Capital Reef trip.

Capital Reef

Our day at Capital Reef.

All day I heard "Mom, take a picture, Mom, take a picture."

So I did.

Once the trail got steep I couldn't get my kids to turn around.

(They must be like their mother)

I was delighted to see them LOVE hiking. Giddy might be the right word.

Even this little one loved it.

She giggled everytime I took a big step down the steep parts with her in arm.

These girls were in their element.

They loved finding nesting spots in the rocks.

I couldn't resist the photo op here.

This is Krystal with the girls.

Jessica really formed an attachement to Krystal.

She'd walk right up and expect Krystal to pick her up.

This was such a beautiful hike.

I can't wait to go back again.

There are some amazing sights in this world of ours.

Spud Harvest

I asked one of the potato farmers in our ward where the word "spud" originated. He couldn't tell me.

The girls are out of school for 10 days for Spud Harvest, so we made a trip to Rich's parents' house without him. We had such a great time. My in-laws are wonderful. In 10 years of marriage I don't remember either of them ever being critical of me. Although, recently I've noticed that Sondra can poke fun at some of the silly things I do & we laugh together. This weekend I heard her laugh a lot & I reveled in it. Sondra & LaMar don't spout buckets out unwanted relationship and child-rearing advice. Actually, when they do give advice I tune in and listen. I value their viewpoints. Most of Rich's best traits come from them; his gentleness, his kindness, his lack of pride, his laugh.

Rich's little brother & new wife, Krystal were in Richfield too. I was excited to spend some one on one with them. Matt has grown into a kind, responsible, respectable, nice guy. I adore Krystal. She walked into a well-established family group & fit right in. (Matt's the youngest of 8 and there's been a 10 year gap between his wedding and the last one). Krystal's easy to talk to and easy to be around. We spent a day at Capital Reef together. I'll post pictures later. We had a great time. I enjoyed the talk time with her. I'll be glad to mingle the rest of our lives together. She's down to earth, yet confident. Simple, yet refined.

Relief Society

I went to the General Relief Society Broadcast on Saturday with my mom. It's one of those meetings I never like to miss. There's something powerful about knowing that you're part of a worldwide organization whose primary purpose is to do good; and knowing that women the world over are gathered together at that very moment in that common cause. As we sat singing the opening song, "There is Sunshine in My Soul," a capella (there was a technical difficulty with the sound transmission for a few minutes) I was touched by the realization of how much good we can do collectively as we each try to bless lives individually. My eyes watered, I choked up, and I couldn't sing the words, "Jesus listening can hear the songs I cannot sing." I sobbed and chuckled simultaneously at the irony of the words at that moment.

I left the meeting with renewed efforts to do more; not necessarily to do grand and extravagant things, but to something little, but meaningful every day. Because I believe the little things really matter.

At every meeting like this, there always seems to be one thing said that seems to have been said just for me. Julie Beck, the General Relief Society President said this, quoting President Deiter F. Uchdorf:

“A wise man once distinguished between the noble art of getting things done and the nobler art of leaving things undone. True wisdom in life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. What are the non-essential things that clutter your days and steal your time? What are the habits you may have developed that do not serve a useful purpose? What are the unfinished or un-started things that could add vigor, meaning, and joy to your life?”

I haven't finished thinking it through yet. I'm going to go print the quote off so I can stare at in for a few days. Since school started I've been running crazy trying to get everything done; but sometimes the faster I run the more complicated family life becomes. It's a gentle reminder that in family life efficient is not always effective, and that often less is more.

It brings me back to this quote from Dallin H. Oaks, which forever changed my perspective of the purpose of life:

"The prophet Nephi describes the Final Judgment in terms of what we have become. . .From such teachings we conclude that the Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become."

The principle here is to do less of what doesn't matter, do those things that do matter with more sincerity, letting them seep through to our souls, to change our very nature.

Gaming

The good news:
Richard canceled his World of Warcraft subscription!

Yea! I celebrated. He came to bed with me by about 10:00 every night for a week. We talked, laughed, strengthened our relationship.

The bad news:
He started a new game today called Aion.

I asked if going to bed with his wife was just a beta trial which has now expired. He assured me it wasn't.

Running Crazy!

I've been running crazy for weeks & I just can't slow down. (Really, I think I'm addicted to being busy). I have a compulsion to fill every empty canning jar in my house. With the state of the economy and the nature of being self employed, it seems crazy to store dozens & dozens of empty canning jars. In the past few weeks I've canned green beans, strawberry jam, raspberry jam, blueberry jam, peaches, pears, & salsa; dried peaches & pears; and frozen corn & onions. There's still a crazy lady in my head reminding me that I still have 3 dozen empty canning jars. I'm planning to do beets, potatoes, & applesauce and freeze the carrots from my garden. My sisters are doing the same thing, which leads me to believe that this kind of craziness is normal. You know, most people just buy their food at the grocery store. Oh, you already knew that, didn't you?

The benefit? By 8:30, I'm dog tired, so I've been to bed early almost every night for a week. You may not understand, but this is truely a miracle for me. Rich has been joining me!!! (another miracle) It is so great! He canceled his World of Warcraft account last weekend. I tried not to celebrate too loudly.

The downside, because there's just not time for everything, exercise is becoming a lower priority. Ah, here's my major disappointment of the week. My gym is discontinuing child care & fitness classes as of November 1st. I'm so bummed. Exercise makes me a nice and happy person. My poor poor family.

On Prayer

I just posted this excerpt as a lengthy comment on my sister's blog. Since it's a quote I've though about often, I'm going to share it on my blog. It's from Elder Bednar's Oct 2008 conference address titled, "Pray Always."

"The patterns used by God in creating the earth are instructive in helping us understand how to make prayer meaningful. In the third chapter of the book of Moses we learn that all things were created spiritually before they were naturally upon the earth.

“And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth,

“And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth” (Moses 3:4–5).

We learn from these verses that the spiritual creation preceded the temporal creation. In a similar way, meaningful morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day—and precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day. Just as the temporal creation was linked to and a continuation of the spiritual creation, so meaningful morning and evening prayers are linked to and are a continuation of each other.

Consider this example. There may be things in our character, in our behavior, or concerning our spiritual growth about which we need to counsel with Heavenly Father in morning prayer. After expressing appropriate thanks for blessings received, we plead for understanding, direction, and help to do the things we cannot do in our own strength alone. For example, as we pray, we might:

• Reflect on those occasions when we have spoken harshly or inappropriately to those we love the most.
  
• Recognize that we know better than this, but we do not always act in accordance with what we know.
  
• Express remorse for our weaknesses and for not putting off the natural man more earnestly.
  Determine to pattern our life after the Savior more completely.
  
• Plead for greater strength to do and to become better.
  

Such a prayer is a key part of the spiritual preparation for our day.
During the course of the day, we keep a prayer in our heart for continued assistance and guidance—even as Alma suggested: “Let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord” (Alma 37:36).

We notice during this particular day that there are occasions where normally we would have a tendency to speak harshly, and we do not; or we might be inclined to anger, but we are not. We discern heavenly help and strength and humbly recognize answers to our prayer. Even in that moment of recognition, we offer a silent prayer of gratitude.

At the end of our day, we kneel again and report back to our Father. We review the events of the day and express heartfelt thanks for the blessings and the help we received. We repent and, with the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord, identify ways we can do and become better tomorrow. Thus our evening prayer builds upon and is a continuation of our morning prayer. And our evening prayer also is a preparation for meaningful morning prayer."

That quote tied it all together for me & I had an "ah-ha" moment. I've struggled a bit with morning prayers. I've always said my night prayers consistently, sometimes with a pluthera of mundane repetition; but often as heart to heart communication to my Father in Heaven who I know hears and answers. Because my mom taught me to say my night prayers as a child, it's part of my nature. I've had a clear realization lately that now is the time to teach my children directly and by quiet example, to say their morning prayers too, so it can become part of their life-long nature.

Truly, prayer enriches my life.

Mills Family Reunion

Hogle Zoo

Timpanogos Hike

Timpanogos Cave

We had a great weekend with Rich's family.

We only wish it could have lasted longer.

I'm grateful to my sister-in-law who did the planning.

It's great to spend time together.

Our girls can never get enough of their cousins.