Robert D Hales Conference talk

Another winner-- this one is on patiently waiting upon the Lord-- great perspective:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/waiting-upon-the-lord-thy-will-be-done?lang=eng

Here are some of my favorite parts:

Why such terrible tribulation? To what end? For what purpose?

As we ask these questions, we realize that the purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences. How do we do this? The scriptures give us an answer in one simple phrase: we “wait upon the Lord.”12 Tests and trials are given to all of us. These mortal challenges allow us and our Heavenly Father to see whether we will exercise our agency to follow His Son. He already knows, and we have the opportunity to learn, that no matter how difficult our circumstances, “all these things shall [be for our] experience, and … [our] good.”13

What, then, does it mean to wait upon the Lord? In the scriptures, the word wait means to hope, to anticipate, and to trust. To hope and trust in the Lord requires faith, patience, humility, meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end.

In my life I have learned that sometimes I do not receive an answer to a prayer because the Lord knows I am not ready. When He does answer, it is often “here a little and there a little”33 because that is all that I can bear or all I am willing to do.

Birthday Parties

We are getting good at holding birthday parties. Autumn is our birthday season, we have 3 in a period of 5 weeks. The first one we had was for #4, he had a dinosaur party, the kids buried plastic dinosaurs in our woods that the kids had to dig for. We played dinosaur, dinosaur, roar instead of duck, duck, goose, we had some other games I can't remember it's been a while now and then of course we had homemade whole wheat vegan lemon birthday cake with homemade sherbet made in the vitamix out of frozen fruit, agave nectar and a little bit of water to get the blades turning. We also decorate with lots of streamers and balloons and the kids pick stuff out at the dollar store to put in the goody bags and decorate the table. We usually have the party hats and matching plates and cups.

So we had a carnival party today. The kids filled easter eggs with tickets and hid them in the forest. Then they set up several stations outside with different activities like bowling, golfing, bean bags, jump rope etc. We also popped popcorn and filled popcorn bags with it and #2 made some great little cookies that got eaten really quick. Then my husband let each kid have a turn shooting the BB gun and then the bow and arrow. That was a highlight. Then we had them play catch the chicken, so the boys were running around the yard and forest getting all scratched up catching chickens to put back in their coop. Finally we had our lemon cake and sherbet, party hats and sang happy birthday in the midst of our lovely decorations. Very fun times, very easy, most everybody just walked and they all walked home when it was over. Thanks to my girls for setting up and pretty much running the party while I baked the cake and talked to one of the moms.

Next week we'll be going to the Classic Fun center-- more good and easy times. No wonder my kids all insist on a party!! But I am pretty glad when February comes around-- no more celebrating-- we can actually get some work done!!

We got a full day of celebrating tomorrow with Halloween parties at our homeschool group, Ryan's work, and the pinewood derby in the evening. We'll be leaving at 8 a.m. and getting home around 9:30 p.m.

Falling out of bed

We took the sides off the cribs yesterday because #7 is usually in #6's bed in the morning and I don't want him to get hurt climbing from crib to crib and the side of his crib kind of broke. So anyway, #6 fell out of his bed about 4 times last night, but went right back to sleep each time. #7 only fell out once mostly because his bed is partially blocked by the other one. It's hard growing up!

Elder Uchtdorf's talk

Fourth and finally, please understand that what you see and experience now is not what forever will be. You will not feel loneliness, sorrow, pain, or discouragement forever. We have the faithful promise of God that He will neither forget nor forsake those who incline their hearts to Him. Have hope and faith in that promise. Learn to love your Heavenly Father and become His disciple in word and in deed.

Be assured that if you but hold on, believe in Him, and remain faithful in keeping the commandments, one day you will experience for yourselves the promises revealed to the Apostle Paul: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Brothers and sisters, the most powerful Being in the universe is the Father of your spirit. He knows you. He loves you with a perfect love.

God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees you as His child. He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you matter to Him.

Another home run talk. http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/you-matter-to-him?lang=eng

Too bad I can't read and write all day-- gotta get the day moving!

Another Great Conference Talk-- Boyd K. Packer -- following the Spirit

I'm kind of behind in the whole conference discussion, because I really don't pay that close attention during conference mostly because of all the excitement that is constantly around me when all 7 kids are awake. But then afterwards as a I read or listen to the talks, I find these great nuggets of inspiration. This whole talk is great. Every sentence contains great wisdom. I'll just blog about these couple quotes:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/counsel-to-youth?lang=eng

This quote is very comforting to me:

The gift of the Holy Ghost, if you consent, will guide and protect you and even correct your actions. It is a spiritual voice that comes into the mind as a thought or a feeling put into your heart. The prophet Enos said, “The voice of the Lord came into my mind.” And the Lord told Oliver Cowdery, “Behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you.”

It is not expected that you go through life without making mistakes, but you will not make a major mistake without first being warned by the promptings of the Spirit. This promise applies to all members of the Church.

As I get older, I am better at recognizing the promptings I receive. Especially as I look back on my life, I can see times where I should have recognized promptings better and other times where I am so thankful that I did follow promptings. There have been a couple times where I feel so bad about something, that even though there is no logical explanation for my feeling- I can't do the said thing.

The big one that comes to mind is from my BYU years. It was summer and I had gone down to the Y to finish setting things up and I stopped by my apartment for the year. While I was there looking at it, one of the girls who was living there for summer term asked me if I would trade apartments with her for the fall, her fall apartment was just upstairs. I said sure, because the only roommate I would know was the one I was sharing my room with, and I figured she wouldn't care. On my drive home, I just had a terrible strong feeling that I should not live in the apartment upstairs. It was so strong that I knew that I should either live in the apartment I signed up for, or find a different place to live. I called the girl and told her I wouldn't trade and when it came time to move in, I was very nervous because I had not met any of the other girls yet and I was afraid they really liked that girl and would be sorry that I had taken her place.

It turned out that we all 6 of us got along great. We still get together periodically and keep in touch. My room roommate especially bonded with the other girls in our apartment and that just wouldn't have happened for either of us had we lived with the girls upstairs. That was also the year I met my husband. He came to our apartment because he heard it was the fun place to be and it was. He never ventured to that other apartment. The Lord really was watching out for me and now that I can look back, when I get that bad feeling I know it is the Holy Ghost warning me about something. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what it is, depending on how strong it is, but the Holy Ghost truly acts in my life guiding me and helping me as I go along. I definitely get answers to my questions and prayers. It is such a profound blessing in my life.

I also loved this quote:

You may in time of trouble think that you are not worth saving because you have made mistakes, big or little, and you think you are now lost. That is never true! Only repentance can heal what hurts. But repentance can heal what hurts, no matter what it is.

We have a tendency to get down on ourselves when we are not perfect and I know people who feel they are too far gone to even try to take advantage of the atonement. I wish everybody knew what I know-- that God loves us and wants us back no matter what. His time was spent among sinners when He was on the earth, and it is never too late to come unto Him. He loves us and He will help us no matter how good or bad we are as long as we let him. He will take us from wherever we are and help us get better little by little- He won't make us do more than we can. He is perfect and He loves us.

Great Quote

Pondering a passage of scripture can be a key to unlock revelation and the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Scriptures can calm an agitated soul, giving peace, hope, and a restoration of confidence in one’s ability to overcome the challenges of life. They have potent power to heal emotional challenges when there is faith in the Savior. They can accelerate physical healing.

Richard G Scott October 2011 conference

I love the scriptures and I love this quote. I have found it to be true in my own life. I think when we have emotional challenges- heartache, fear, sadness, depression-- the scriptures can lift us and remind us that the Lord loves us and is watching over us and things will be O.K. even though we can't see how. This lifts our spirits and encourages us to reach outside of ourselves which in turn helps us put our own feelings in perspective. The scriptures have been my guiding light throughout my life- that where I turn for peace, solace and understanding. I like the idea of that they can accelerate physical healing. I believe it, because when we are happy we are less likely to get sick and more likely to get better. Reading the scriptures makes us happy and encourages us to do more things that make us happy!

Chicken Ordinance

I'll be attending a city council meeting on the restrictions on chickens in our new city. I can't print from this computer, so I'm writing it here so that I can easily copy and paste and print it on my other computer.

To the City Council:

I have reviewed the proposed chicken ordinance for this city. I am glad that the city wants to allow the chickens in the city and is trying to find a way to make this possible in a way that is acceptable to chicken owners and their neighbors. Part of the reason we picked our lot was because the backyard neighbor had chickens. We decided against another lot where the next door neighbor had 2 yappy dogs.

The only thing that should be regulated is that the chicken structures are so far from the property line-- this should be the same as for any other shed or out building. What it looks like should not be regulated nor have need of approval -- unless it is larger than 120 sq. ft. just like any other out building. This city is considered rural and qualifies for federal funding for rural areas for home loans. We can't accept the 0% down loans because we are rural, and then not allow a few chickens into the area or overregulate them. This is the type of thing that HOA's are meant to cover- not cities. As long as there is no health hazard or other nuisance, the chickens are clean and healthy, and they stay in their own yard, then there should be no problem. I don't think they should even have to be registered with the city as that causes more red tape and cost for the homeowner and more work for the city that is really unnecessary. Also, since there already seem to be plenty of chickens in the city with no complaints, I think it's fair to say those chicken owners have probably been taking good care of their chickens and have done just fine without any regulation.

The current proposed ordinance regulates where on the property, chicken structures can be, also regulates that the chickens can not be allowed out of the proposed approved area designated for them. The healthiest chickens and best eggs come free range chickens. Chickens are great for fertilizing gardens and landscape plants. They can be used as tillers for gardens. They eat bugs, so letting them free in the yard actually keeps bugs down. They are birds just like the wild birds that roam freely throughout nature. When a small backyard flock is well-cared for- there are very few diseases, and the birds are very helpful and useful not just for egg production, but also for gardening and yard maintenance. The birds should stay on their owner's property, but where they are allowed to go on the property should not be regulated. This should allow owners to have their birds as free range as possible if they so desire.

Vaccination should also be left up to the owner. It is unnecessary to vaccinate backyard chickens because they are not exposed to many other chickens who could have disease. Also, there are no guidelines to do so given by the USDA. The chicken diseases that are preventable by vaccine do not pass to humans. They are mostly for big farms who have their chickens in tight quarters without enough air and room to roam. Chickens with space and care don't get sick.

The chicken coop, tractor or other structures should be subject to the same regulation given for other out buildings in the city. The chickens should be required to stay on their owner's property, and should not cause a nuisance as many things can. Roosters are already not allowed- hens are no louder than other birds in nature. Keeping the yard clean should be a given just the same as for anything else. Yard maintenance is not regulated by the city. As long as there is no health hazard, the owner should be allowed to keep their yard however they want. Chickens should fall into this same category.

Redwood Forest Adventures!! Part 2 -- the rest of the story

We recovered pretty well from the crazy lady experience, the kids were very glad that we reported her to the police, and I think they were glad to all be sleeping in the same tent with us and nobody wandered off on their own the whole trip. They now understand why it's important to have a bathroom buddy and to stay together. Our new campground and site again was right by the bathrooms and the trees were even taller. We drove to the visitor center to see where to go and we were on our way.

We drove on the old horse and buggy road into Crescent City and had to stop to look at some of the huge trees. The kids loved it until #2 got stung and then #4 got stung twice. We checked him and he looked alright, but he was ready to drive all the way back home to Utah. We stopped at Stout Grove and finally got him calmed down enough to agree to go when he got stung again. We quickly took his shirt off and sure enough, a yellow jacket fell out-- it had been caught in his shirt. Now he really did not want to go- so Ryan took the other kids and I stayed with #4 and the twins, they came back and said it was so awsome, Ryan promised #4 a new wii game if he would come. He came very reluctantly, but it was awesome. It was so beautiful, it was just like being on a movie set. The trees were so huge it felt like we were small insects and a big dog could come bounding out at any minute. He had a good time and everyone agreed that if we did nothing else, that walk through Stout Grove was worth the long drive and the misadventures we'd had so far.



We finished the drive into town- it was just beautiful and we had a picnic lunch on an overlook to the ocean. The waves were wild, but it was beautiful and peaceful and spectacular really. Then we drove on down through other parts of the park, we had to stop at one of the beaches it was so pretty and I love the ocean. We were disappointed however, to find out that there was a large swell coming in for a direct hit on the beaches while we were there and it wouldn't be safe to go tide pooling. We were educated on sneaker waves and decided against going into the water. However #5 fell in and got soaked, but we had extra clothes and shoes for him and he liked the idea of being the only one to go into the Pacific Ocean.

We drove on down some more and paid $5 to drive through a tree, but our van was too big, so we just walked under it and got sap dripped on us. Then we were pretty much done for the day and drove back through the forest on the old horse and buggy route the other way. It was spectacular. We let the kids take turns riding up front to stick their heads out and we let them all be unbuckled for most of it which the twins especially loved.

We packed everything up in the morning, ate breakfast and hiked down to a beautiful river beach. The kids found some frogs and stayed mostly dry and threw a lot of rocks in. It was very relaxing. We drove on down through the rest of the park and stopped at Wayside tree and hiked around. It was surreal- lots of moss, greenery and huge trees. We ended at the opposite visitor center, watched a video on the Redwoods and the kids got their Junior Ranger badges and bought their souvenirs. We ate lunch on the beach, read an Indian legend about a girl who turned to stone because she cried about nothing, and watched the waves some more.

Then we drove on down the 101 through Indian country, then more forests, hills, trees, eventually small towns, then vineyards, then bigger towns and finally into Marin County. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge at night into San Francisco, drove along the Embarcadero, pointed out places we used to go when we lived there and the building Ryan worked in. We explained a lot about cities and boats and people and buildings. We decided not to get out and try to find a place to park or anything, but we think it gave our kids a better perspective on what a big city is. Then we drove out across the Bay Bridge to San Ramon where we lived and Ryan worked most the time we were there. It was fun to remember our time together there- having our first baby, Ryan working his first "real" job out of college. The kids got bored looking at our apartments and work places there, but I remember thinking the same thing when my parents would take pictures of there first houses and other stuff. I understand now- guess I'm getting older.

Well, there was no where to camp around there at all, so we just kept on driving, it was all pretty much on the way home anyway. There were probably places around Reno and Tahoe, but by the time we got there it was going to be morning soon, so we just kept on driving- switching off. The kids slept through most of it, we had to wake them to see the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco so it wasn't too bad, but we stopped at a rest area and slept for about 2 hours. We got pulled over in Nevada, because Ryan thought the speed limit was 75, but it was 65 through there- fortunately the kids were all buckled in and the cop let us go when we couldn't find our registration. We had had to stop for the bathroom often throughout the whole trip, and true to form our last stop was at the rest area right before Tooele, Ut at the rest area where the salt flats are. Then it was a 2 hour drive home, where we turned the TV on for the kids and crashed for a couple hours and said-- we're not really home yet!

The kids were great. We listened to a lot of music along the drive and there was plenty to see. We all loved it and would do it again-- but our next road trip will probably be to Colorado or Idaho! :)

Redwood Forest Adventures!! Part 1 - Crazy Lady

We took the week off and drove to see the giant redwoods this week. None of us had ever been, and we were looking forward to it. We had a fabulous time, it was beautiful and well worth the very long drive. We had a great time, we had a few mishaps, but we survived and we are looking forward to our next trip! This is the long version-- you can read the short version on my other blog www.academichomeschooling.blogspot.com.

We packed and got everything ready to go on Monday- we planned on camping so it is a lot of work to get everything ready to go. We knew we wouldn't want to camp more than 3 nights and we needed to be back for everybody's final soccer games on Saturday. So we finally left at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning and drove to Winnemucca, NV and then through the back parts of Oregon. The Tom Tom was great at navigating, sometimes we had trouble believing it because it thought some of the roads we drove on were unpaved, but we found it was pretty accurate and especially helpful finding things around town. There was a lot of construction through Nevada. We saw an overturned dumptruck that had dumped black asphalt across the road in the back ways of southern Oregon. We drove through some very pretty country, then we eventually came out at Klamath Falls which was a very unimpressive run down town. We had a hard time finding a grocery store and then it took us awhile to get on the right road to the Redwoods. We finally did and stopped at a campground down the road that turned out to be closed, so we kept driving til we came to another state campground that was open and right by the Redwood National park and found a campsite right by the bathrooms.

It was about 11 p.m. and we were excited to finally be out of the car and able to lie down, so we pulled out the tent and Ryan started setting it up and we were getting everybody out when some crazy woman with a low cut top that showed a bunch of cleavage came swaggering over and asked what all the screaming was about. We told her there was no screaming and then when she saw all the kids she accused us of stealing them and demanded that we show her pictures of them to prove that they are all ours. We told her, that they are our children, that there was no screaming and that she should go get the camp director if she had a problem. She kept insisting that the kids were not ours and pushed my husband and started asking the kids if we were their parents. Ryan was setting up the tent outside with the older kids, I was in the van with the babies and younger kids. When she started walking toward the van and picking up some of our things, I asked her what she was doing and told her to go away that she was disturbing and scaring the children. One of the twins started to cry really loud and a man came over and we told him what was going on, he had to wrap his arms around her and force her out of our campsite. He said they were just camping over there. Ryan said we are out of here, we loaded everything back up and tried to wake the camp host. He didn't stir, so we drove on down the road and found another campground which we passed in case that crazy lady would follow us. We saw a sign for highway patrol so we drove over there and reported her. The officers said that she was probably coming off of some drugs or medication, and that we did just the right thing by removing ourselves from the situation. The kids were pretty shaken by the experience, but now they understand very well now why they should not run off by themselves and should always have a buddy when they go to the bathroom.

The campground we ended up staying in was called Jedediah Smith Campground and it was right in the redwood forest-- it was so nice, we were right by the bathrooms which also had showers for 50 cents for 5 minutes which makes such a difference when you're camping. There were a lot more people staying there too which was good. The crazy lady was quickly put in the back of our minds as an occurance to learn from but really would not affect our trip.

More to come......

Perspective in Trials

Now I don't really consider myself to be going through a great trial anymore, especially compared to what I've been through with having twins, dealing with unkind actions at church, homeschooling, running a household and various other things which don't even seem like that much compared to what I've been through in other times in life and especially not compared to real serious trials I've watched other people go through with death, divorce and the like.

Even so, life is never stagnant and I am having to practice my long earned skill of patience. We are building a house and it has been moving slowly, but at least it is now moving, and I'm so happy at church, I feel so good when I go and my daughter is so happy to go and everybody is so nice and friendly. I am uplifted each week, and we all just can't wait to move there. but like I said it's moving slowly.

So I read this scripture this week:

1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.

2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.

3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

4 And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.

1 Nephi 17:1-4, Book of Mormon

8 years in the wilderness!!!!! Bearing children, eating raw meat, living in a tent, traveling by foot!!!!!! I can wait a couple months for my brand new house in a beautiful spot surrounded by nice, quality people. I can handle driving down there a couple times a week. I really have nothing to complain about and everything to look forward to!!

Funny and Cute Kid Things

My twins are almost 21 months. Their first words: #6 "uh-uh", "eis", #7 "uh-oh", "bal"

#7 has been crawling out of his crib and I have found him in his brother's crib a couple times- time to take the sides off I'm afraid. He also likes to twirl and get dizzy and fall down. They both understand so much and look for their shoes when it's time to go bye-bye. #6 will say "bye" after people have already left. They both fold their arms for family prayer and blessings on the food. They are way cute.

#5 prays to watch Thomas the Train and Team GeoTrax every night and every time he prays which he likes to do a lot. He is also incredibly stubborn and if he doesn't want to do something like move out of the way so somebody else can walk past him, he won't do it which usually ends him up in his room on time out 'til he's ready to be happy and nice. He has been following behind his soccer team in the back I think because he sees no reason to exert himself further than that. He can play for hours by himself though and he's very sweet and likes to make the twins laugh and watches out for them. They are starting to follow him around and I think he likes having a little entourage.

#4 won't read any words that have any reference to girls like "she", "her", "mermaid", "girl", "dress", etc. when I'm reading with him. He just skips those words and keeps reading.

#3 throws amazing tantrums when he thinks his math is too long and hard. Once he gets into it, he moves through great. I always point out to him how easy it actually was, and hopefully we'll get over this hump. He really has a lot of common sense and is very good to watch out for his brothers when he's not poking them.

#2 definitely has personality. As a baby just walking she would hop down the halls at church and say "ribbit". Up until last year, she was horse most of the time galloping around the house on hands and feet. Unfortunately she would often hurt somebody in her way- she' is getting better and watching out for people. She is also very dramatic and everyone knows when she has the tiniest little bump or hurt spot, but when she crashed on her scooter a few weeks ago and got some major scrapes, she hardly cried.

#1 is very mature and doesn't often do the funny stuff, although she had her share of it when she was younger. She does have her funny moments and I'm glad we can all laugh at ourselves!!

LDS General Conference-- Elder Anderson's talk

What little bits of conference I caught today amidst our weekly 5 soccer games and playing catch up in the kitchen and making lunch and helping kids with math, was all very good. But Elder Neil L Andersen's talk made me cry. He talked about how we should not delay having a family and we shouldn't limit the size of our families and of course how it is a personal decision and we shouldn't judge each other, it is very personal. He also talked about how we need to support families and help each other and love each other in this endeavor and how children are precious gifts.

Having a large family is hard. The prevailing attitude I see from so many people in and out of the church is that it is too hard to be worthwhile, and they wonder why anybody would want to subject themselves to that endeavor. There is little time for anything besides just taking care of the immediate needs of these little people in a large family. It is nice when I am around people who appreciate what I'm doing and support me rather than mock me or subtly make things more unpleasant or difficult than necessary. A smile of support is really all I need, and it was very nice to have a vote of confidence thrown my way from the top leadership of the church. It was nice to hear some words of support, and confirmation that there is a good reason for subjecting myself to so many dependent little children. Thank you, Elder Andersen.