More Godliness

I read this quote the other day, by President Ezra Taft Benson (the prophet of our church many years ago--he was the first prophet I remember because I was baptized while President Benson was prophet):

"When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue and the order of our priorities. We should put God ahead of everyone else in our lives."

This is great food for thought. It so happened that DH went to a Priesthood leadership meeting the same day that I had been thinking about this quote. When he came home, he shared some thoughts he had and notes he had taken with me. Here are some of the questions he wrote down that are also great food for thought:

• Am I focusing on activities vs actions when I look at the gospel goals I have for my family? (ie testimony of the scriptures vs only daily reading)
• What am I doing to involve the Lord in my life so that I can see miracles in His work?
• Am I making myself available and actively seeking opportunities to be an instrument in God's hands?
• As a family we must learn to fast and pray together for specific purposes.
• Do I radiate the joy of Gospel living in my own life?
• Do I FEEL the joy of Gospel living?
• Am I looking for opportunities to lift up the hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees?

There were more, but these are the ones that I wanted to post here. I am a mother of six children. What I want most for these children is for them, above all else, to have a strong testimony that Jesus is the Christ and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is where the fulness of His gospel is to be found on this earth and to live their lives according to this knowledge. There IS no other thing I want above this for these children that are the loves of my life!
So...the question that comes to my husband and I is are we doing what we need to do to achieve this goal? We read the scriptures most days as a family, we usually have Family Home Evening weekly, we say our prayers, we fast, we go to church, but it is NOT ENOUGH. The world has stepped up it's evil, or I should say Satan has stepped it up, so WE MUST step it up, or our kids won't have a chance in the world the way it is today.
We have been feeling like we need to make some changes in our lives to achieve these goals. Our daily scripture reading needs a shot in the arm, to say the least. We are barely awake in the morning when we read but there is no other time that we are all home together on a consistent basis. Here are some of the changes we need to consider:

• I think we may need to move bedtimes (including mom and dad) up a little earlier so we can get up easier and be more awake.
• Instead of reading straight through the scriptures again, maybe read by topic.
  
• Change our reading goal--rather than trying to finish a chapter, read a few verses and then discuss them. Maybe use pictures from the gospel art kit to help in discussion.
• Make sure we talk about what to pray for before we say our prayers so they are more meaningful.
• Our family fasts together each month on fast Sunday, but we usually don't remember until the last minute. We really need to prepare for this and make sure the kids understand the purpose of our fasting.
  
• We need to be sure to point out when the Lord answers our prayers so the kids can gain a testimony that God does answer our prayers. We have done this many times with them, especially lately as we have seen the hand of the Lord in our lives a lot the last few years. It feels like lately, though, we have become a little slack in doing this.
  
• Cut back on extraneous activities. This goes for every one of us. I'm talking about T.V. time, computer time, crafting (gulp), texting, etc. And I'm talking about clearing things out of our heads as well as actual activities. I know my mind wanders all OVER the place when I should be thinking about more sacred things.
  
• Focus on the basics--school work, chores and duties in the home, playing together as a family, taking care of our bodies through good nutrition and exercise, and working on gospel goals together. (we need to help the kids set their own goals in this area, as well as set ours as adults. Like attending the Temple more often, etc.)

Anyway, this is just a posting about some of my personal/family goals and not meant to be preachy in any way.
Here is one last quote to ponder:

"We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we're doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the "thick of thin things". In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes."

Our Valentine's day, documented

I wanted to post what we did for Valentine's Day, you know, for posterity's sake. It started with french toast and sausage, with a dusting of powdered sugar in the shape of a heart. Very cute, actually. Then lunch was homemade salsa (Daddy made it this time) with taquitos and chips. For dinner, we pulled out all the stops, and used our china and lovely red glasses. I so LOVE those glasses! The food was as great as the dishes--shrimp scampi and Trader Joe's green bean and roasted corn casserole. We also had pink sherbet punch to make it extra-special. Dessert was raspberry brownies from Sam's club. Good, but soooo mouth-puckering rich. A very good day for food, I'd say. :)

Oh--funny story. I was up with Little Miss and her earache until 2 in the morning Saturday night. As I was heading to bed at 2 am, I happened to look out the window on the front door and saw a car in front of my house. It looked like my bff's car, and it puzzled me to see it there. Then I saw a woman out on my front lawn, bent over near my kid's wagon. I thought to myself, "That lady wants to steal our wagon!!! No way!" I watched her to see what she was going to do, ready to open the door and yell at her. She stood up after a minute, got into her car, and drove away. I went right outside to see if she had taken anything and hoping it wasn't my son's tricycle that he loves so much. Well... turns out it was one of Teeny Bopper's friends heart-attacking our lawn for her for Valentine's day! phew! I laughed out of relief and because it was just so darn funny that I was getting all worked up for nothing.

My son and Fern Gully

So...we have a video by the name of Fern Gully. I have some minor issues with this movie, but no more than with several average "kid" shows. You know, is the villain too scary, is the plot a little too "green", yadda yadda. Well, my three year old son Dr. D LOVES this movie. I mean, bordering on obsession loves it. Well, turns out he loves it so much because of the main female character, Crysta. She is a cute little fairy with a nice figure and sweet personality. I thought that he, being only three, was drawn to her sweetness. Call me naive.
Here are some of his comments over the last couple weeks. We were making the kids Valentines cards, and Little Miss gave him a few of her cards. (they were Phineas and Ferb, his favorite) Anyhoo, I caught him looking lovingly at his card and he said, "I'm going to give this to Crysta and tell her, "You're pretty". Then she'll give one to me and say, "You're awesome."" O-kay.
Then a couple of days later he was playing with our Magic 8 Ball toy, which incidentally he calls the magic meatball. He came up to me and said, "The magic meatball says I love Crysta!" Mmm-hmm.
Well, today he brought me the magnadoodle and asked me to draw a picture of Crysta. I did my best (which is NOT very good, let me tell you) and he said, "Where's her boob? I like her moob. You need to draw it--just one moob." (he's a little confused between moobs and boobs, apparently. He doesn't quite realize that moobs are man-boobs and uses the terms interchangeably.) :)
Well, I am now convinced that it is more than her sweet personality that my little guy is attracted to and I also never realized how early these boyish interests began. Now that I know, I don't think we'll be watching Fern Gully for a while. Good thing it's already missing...

Need Valentine's Babysitter?

Our ward young women are doing a fundraiser for girl's camp. They are holding a Drop Off Daycare for Valentine's Dates!!!! It will be Saturday, February 13 from 6-10 pm at the church. (If you want specific directions, let me know) The cost is $2 per hour/per child. Everyone is welcome! Tell your friends! There will be several adults supervising as well, so no worries! :)

"Allo Gov'na!" (said with a cockney accent)

Here are some photos of my super-hot husband and darling daughter as they were stepping out for the Chairman's Award Banquet with the Governor. That's right, dinner with our own Gov. Brewer! I didn't get to go this time because I couldn't take my little Tail Gunner, and he isn't quite ready to be away from me (meaning from his food) for the 5 hours or whatever it was they were gone. Next year, I'll go and hopefully/probably/whatever we will have a new Governor.
Don't they look beautiful?!?!

(P.S. When did she grow up?)