Important things!

Have you ever thought about what is really important. With so many people around me being affected by cancer and many other health issues, it drives home the importance of family. Although, we are here to make it through this earthly life, we have the support and love of family. Why does satan try to side track us from what is important? Yes we are to work hard provide for our families and be successful, but to who's standards is success measured. I think we have to turn to the Lord and he will help us know what our measure of success is.

An education is important without one it is very hard to provide for our family, it is also the only thing we take with us, besides the love of our family, when we die. We can't take the riches and possessions of this world so why not take the time for family. Then there are good things that can be used for bad as well and can take away from our families and from God.

I find that even with my own family that sometimes the things of the world interrupt our scripture study, prayer and meditation time. I find sometimes, well a lot of the time, that the stuff that I'm doing isn't necessarily bad, but it takes time away from my husband and kids.

What kind of message do I send my children if the only thing of importance to me in this world is based on working and surviving day to day. Do I teach them about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do I affect their lives in a positive way. What about the lives of the people around me do I touch them for good or do I run over them or neglect them. Do I pay attention to what Jesus would do if he were here.

I think satan works so hard to distract us so that the family will fall apart and he can steal those who are struggling away to his side.

I feel strongly about, The Family: A Proclamation to the World an excerpt I wish to share with you is:

"The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.

I continue to strive everyday to live the life I know I should. To live to become like Christ.

Gas Leak? It smells like bad garbage!

That's what one lunch lady at my friends kids elementary school said yesterday. My friend works at the charter school during lunch a couple of days a week. Yesterday they were fortunate she was there. One of the ladies cleaning tables off in the gym came in saying that it smelled like gas, but she thought it was the garbage that stunk. My friend went out and smelled it and screamed for everyone to evacuate the building. They did get the building evacuated,however it did take some time. She shewed the kids out of the gym only to find them a few minutes later in the hall. She yelled as loud as she could to get the teachers attention to get their students and get out of the building, there was a gas leak. They finally listened and got everyone out of the building.

I showed up to drop off a kindergartner at the same time this mass confusions was going on. I figured I would turn off our van and wait outside the main door where the kindergartener's enter, which is right by the gym. The little boy I drop off got out to wait by the door and a lady told him not to go into the gym and shewed him away. I had the little boy come back into the van to wait for his teacher. I watched dumb founded as another little boy ran through the open gym door and into the building. They aren't allowed to enter the school until their teacher opens the door. I just felt something wasn't right, but there wasn't anyone around to tell us what was going on.

Finally about 6 minutes later a lady came and told us we needed to evacuate the parking lot and to move our vehicles because they had a gas leak. I moved and watched as emergency vehicles poured in all around the school. You would think that a school would have a better procedure for taking care a this kind of emergency.

It brings up my key point. What procedure do my kids schools have in place in case this kind of emergency happens. I know that my kids schools have better procedures in place than what the charter school did, because I was the health and safety commissioner for my son's elementary school and many of their teachers are on the committee to help establish the safety procedures that they follow. They also meet with the school board and talk about what they are doing. MY KIDS schools have an evacuation plan so they can move the kids off of the school grounds to another location still within walking distance from the school.

As a matter of fact only a few years ago they had a fire at the middle school and evacuated the kids off premises and then called parents. They also worked closely with the radio station and other media sources to get the information out to the parents about what was going on.I told my friend they may want to discuss something like this in the future, so they could move the kids off the school grounds to a place that would be safer.

Looking at the place they had the kids go, in my own personal opinion, it wasn't far enough away from the building. I thought about the house that had the gas leak and exploded here a mere couple of months ago it affected the houses around it. The kids probably would have sustained a lot of injuries. It's a charter school so I don't know what procedures they follow. It just seemed like there was a lot of confusion. We were okay and things ended good, but what happens if it happens again? I hope they learn from the experience. It could have ended badly but it didn't and for that I'm very grateful.

Weird things in unusual places!

Skylar has a photography assignment that he has to take pictures of stationary things. We decided it would be fun to go up Logan canyon to take pictures. As we were driving up the canyon we came around a corner and out in the middle of this clearing someone built a giant snowman. It was really hard to miss. He took pictures and so did I. It's not every day you drive up through a canyon and see a giant snowman it was pretty cool. We had a lot of fun finding cool places to take pictures, of course, Logan Canyon has many. I love it up there. It was also a lot of fun just to spend time with Skylar.

Broken arm

Brennan and the gym floor got into a fight and floor won. Just kidding, he was actually playing Wall Ball with the Young Men of our ward. He ran into the wall with his right arm, turned to run parallel to the wall and tripped over his own feet and landed on his left arm. He hit floor hard enough he heard his arm break. Unfortunately, he decided he didn't need to tell anyone it was broken. He went along with assumptions that it was just sprained or he pulled a muscle. All week he tried to convince us that it was getting better, on Monday, 6 days later he came home from school complaining it still hurt and that his band teacher told him he needed to get it x-rayed if it hurt bad enough that he couldn't hold his trumpet. He finally conceded to having it looked at I called and made an appointment. Tuesday he went to the doctor and without taking a second glance he sent him to have it x-rayed. Upon returning to the doctors office the doctor stepped in the room and said he'd broke his arm in two places and he would be wearing a cast for 4 to 5 weeks. He also tried putting a pink cast on but Brennan wasn't going to let that happen. It's navy blue and matches the jacket he wears everywhere.

Thought's about Christ

Christmas was very enjoyable this year, it is the first year we've ever just stayed home for Christmas. It beats lugging everything around with us. It was also very relaxing, not rushing to go and do anything. It was wonderful. However, I felt a little selfish because we weren't spending it with others in need or who were lonely. I did want to go spend it with some one in the nursing home that's family wasn't coming, but my husband didn't want to sing and scare them to death, I told him I thought that just being there talking with them and getting to know them would be enough. Oh well, maybe next year if no one wants to do it with me, I'll go alone.

I sometimes wonder what the Savior would do with his special day. Would he spend it in service of his fellow man I think so. I don't think he would have been selfish with his time and his life. So what makes us feel like we have the right to our own time and place. If someone was in need he was there. I wish sometimes that I could have been there to watch and learn from him(I also wish I could remember if I was there). How much time did he spend with his family? How did he treat his mother and father? We have so little written about his life but from what we know and speculate, I figure he would always give his time and love to everyone and for everyone around him, not just his family. I'm sure his family was important, but it did not keep him from doing Heavenly Father's work.

I was thinking about the new year and what I wanted it to be like. I'm still thinking about it. Sometimes I can't help but wonder where we draw the line of helping people and when it becomes enabling people. I'm sure Jesus had to deal with this as well. Where did he draw the line? I'm still looking for answers and I won't give up until I figure out what he would do. He loves everyone and want's what's best for everyone. He never gives up on us. So what do we do? At some point we can't live the life of the other person but we can give them a leg up.

Just something I was thinking about.

Fall Leaves!

This seems to be my childrens favorite time of year, again we have some pretty funny photos. Skylar wasn't so happy about raking and having kids jump into or run through the leaves, he even had 3 of his friends helping. He gave up after a while, deciding to try another day when the two youngest siblings are in the house.





Alas, we have a couple of inches of snow covering the ground and the leaves. Skylar didn't get the chance to finish them.

Yummy Pumpkin Butter Recipe!

Okay so I've neglected posting a few posts. Actually I forgot to finish them and just realized they were there. This was in October.

Friday while helping Dalton's teacher at school I had the pleasure of tasting Pumpkin Butter on bread. I had never tasted Pumpkin Butter until that day, talk about delicious. It's so good you could eat it by the spoonful. I decided to post the recipe, it's very festive.

At first Dalton protested that he didn't like butter, but his teacher has a one taste no thank you bite. They have to at least try one bite. He bit into it and ate the whole slice of bread with pumpkin butter. Only one child out of twenty-three didn't finish their slice. Pretty amazing odds if you ask me.

Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Spread

4 oz. cream cheese spread (softened)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or if you don't have pumpkin pie spice add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a small bowl, beat softened cream cheese, sugar, and syrup till creamy.
2. Add pumpkin, spices and vanilla and beat till smooth.
3. Refrigerate at least one hour and enjoy!