Time of Abundance
Right now I feel like my life is abundant. My prayers are full of gratitude. I have plenty of food in the kitchen, much of which came from my own garden. I am able to be a homemaker and spend the best time of each day with my children, watching and teaching them. I am overcoming some of the weaknesses that have brought me down in the past. I have much to do every day, and most of it is very meaningful. I have an abundance of friends and family that I continue to deepen my relationships with. I an learning about and incorporating new practices into my life that have made it richer, including meditation and permaculture. My body continues to engage in the amazing task of growing new life, and I feel my baby move frequent inside me. My husband has a stable job he likes, and although we are not rich, we have enough means for our needs and most of our wants.
I don’t know how long this time of abundance will last. My family has all worked hard to get to where we are now, and the Lord has blessed us. We’ve also had harder times, and I’m not expecting them to stay away forever. Now, I’m just focusing on becoming the best I can so that whatever does come, I will have a store of spiritual strength.
Slide
I always wanted to put a slide down our hill. We finally did, and both the kids and I love it.
When I was looking for slides, I wanted a longer one but this one
Now we just need to landscape around the slide, I’m not sure quite yet what we’ll do, but certainly something other than bare dirt. Any ideas?
Wind Caves
My four year old can beat me in a race right now. I’m not in very good shape right now, thanks to the wonderful excuse of a baby in my abdomen. Still, I wanted to go on a hike. We ditched the idea of the six mile hike up the mountain, and decided to go to the easily hiked Wind Cave trail. I think it was about my third time hiking this trail. Well, the not-too hard less than four miles round trip was almost too much for me this time around. While I was huffing up the trail, Joe reminded me that I hiked Logan Peak when I was similarly pregnant with PB. I was too ambitious then.
PB generally does better hiking than walking (trying to get that kid to walk anywhere is like walking up the down escalator). It was a bit too long for him though, we had to do a lot of motivating and listening to complaining.. Even Mr. C who had the benefit of riding on Daddy most of the way had a meltdown right before we got to the windcaves. But we did make it. And I realized on the way that I don’t love hiking because it is easy, but because it pushes my body to do more than it normally does. It is better because it is hard.
Protected: Herb Spiral
Peach Days
Our community does a big celebration right after Labor Day named Peach Days. It is right around the time peaches ripen, and it is an easy time to find an abundant amount of peaches for sale. This year we had a peach tree adopted at a church garden, and we had a good harvest of huge peaches. One of my main activities on peach days was canning peaches.
Saturday we went to the parade and wandered around. It was hot, lots of walking and looking at things I didn’t care about. Not my favorite. The kids did have fun, eating huge amounts of candy from the parade, riding carnival rides, and looking at cars at the car show. This was probably the favorite activity:
Purpose of Marriage
It is hard to escape the onslaught of propaganda for and against gay marriages. It is unavoidable to form opinions, and often unavoidable to have to defend such opinions.
I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and they have been outspoken against the practice of gay marriages. Not all within in the church support this opinion: many question why they church is outspoken against gay marriage. I have reflected on this topic. What I ultimately decided is that marriage isn’t ultimately about love between two people and a way to express that love. Marriage is not about a couple. Procreation, or sexual relations, is not about a couple. It never has been. Marriage is about children. Marriage is designed to protect the creation, nurture and raising of children. It is designed to ensure that children can be born in an atmosphere of love and safety. Children are not dependent on one person, one sex, or one set of viewpoints, but instead of the joy of being raised by a loving partnership.
The traditional view of a family should be fought for. Sexual relations should only happen in the stable environment of marriage, as its purpose is to create new life, to bring children into this world. And marriage is designed to ensure that these children have the best chance to be raised in a good atmosphere. The church not only stands against gay marriage: it stands against all forms of sexual relationship outside of marriage. It speaks out against having children outside of marriage, whether in a partnership or without.
The ideal doesn’t always happen: death, divorce, infertility, abuse and more can ruin the ideal of a family. But it doesn’t mean that we should give up on the ideal. I am living the ideal: I am in a stable marriage with children. I grew up with a mom and a dad who loved each other. I am blessed because of it: my childhood was rich and full, and I certainly would do a much poorer job of raising my children by myself. And I am so grateful that are people who were willing to strive for that ideal family life, even when it doesn’t always happen. Without trying and fighting it won’t happen at all…and even if we don’t quite get there, we are better off from striving for the ideal.
I do not support gay marriage because of children. Marriage isn’t all about love, it is about protecting the interests of our children. And a gay marriage simply does not allow children the benefit of both genders, and is as yet: “a social experiment, and like most experiments it will take time to understand its consequences.” (quoted from here, see below)
For better articles on this subject:
Gay Parents and the Marriage Debate by Ross Douthat
Protect the Children by Dallin H. Oaks
No Other Gods by Dallin H. Oaks
Fairy Forest
I had heard of the fairy forest a few years ago. It wasn’t too far from my grandparent’s house up in Kamas valley, so we decided to combine a trip to visit both my grandparents and the forest. The Fairy Forest is located at milepost 17 on the Mirror Lake Highway.
I didn’t quite know what to expect when we walked up the forest. What we found was a large area that I feel is best described as a community art project. The naturally rocky area has been transformed as people have created little scenes, arranged stones and painted rocks. Many of the scenes were from this year, so I think it is a project that is continually growing. The kids had a lot of fun looking at all the different rocks.
After we circled around the forest, and headed out, little C asked, “Where the rocks?” He was heartbroken to learn that we were leaving and there wouldn’t be any more painted rocks to see.
For more information and better directions on how to get there, see this post.
Continuing Education
So after spending 16 years in my life at school, I am no longer forced into learning. All the opportunities I get for continued education come from my own initiative. I think it would be easy to just stop learning, but I love to get more knowledge. Since I’ve graduated from school, I’ve actual found that my learning had been more valuable and useful to me than many of the things I learned and since forgotten when I was in school. Here’s some of the ways I like to learn.
Books
I like to read, although for a long time I wasn’t necessarily into non fiction. But if I do pick a book that I am very interested in and is well written, I’ll make it through. Sometimes if it is a longer or less compelling book, I’ll make sure I actually own a copy and just keep returning to it. Eventually it gets read.
Audio/Video
Sometimes reading take too much effort. Listening to podcasts, audio books, watching documentaries, or online video often makes learning about things more simpler. I started to want to learn about Permaculture, but found I just couldn’t get through books at first. Instead I started to watch an online videos series while I exercised in the morning and soon found I was much more engaged.
Online Classes
There are plenty of free or paid online courses. Classes are often more structured and interactive. Paid classes have the added benefit of monetary motivation. In the few I’ve done I got much more out of it, because I paid for it. There is a lot out there though, so research a class and look for reviews before you actually pay for a class.
Online Feeds
Blogs, Facebook pages or groups, magazines, forums, email lists, youtube channel, all provide an opportunity for casual learning without taking to much time. I will subscribe to things I’m interested in and its easy to just take the time I have to read or watch a bit.
Community Classes or Clubs
I like to keep my eye open at the library and other places for community education classes. Often they are free and are a great place to not only learn, but to meet people in the community with shared interest.
Finding Time
I find that as long as I am choosing things that are actually interesting and useful, motivation isn’t a problem. Sometimes finding time is. I do a lot of multitasking: reading during a meal, listening to something while I’m doing chores. It isn’t too hard to give away some leisure time, or participate in studying something with a group, friend or spouse. I like to set aside a bit of time either daily or weekly to just focus on studying and learning something new. A half hour at a time can quickly add up to finished books and classes.
Lemonade
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.
Sometimes I fell tired and discouraged. I have a lot to do caring for two boys, including home school; growing a new baby, and caring for the house and yard. Plus there are many projects that I want to get done. I’m just glad I still get a nap everyday.
I started on an impromptu Family Home Evening lesson. I read a story about having a good attitude during hard times. Then we went and did an object lesson. I gave the kids some lemon water and asked if they liked it. They didn’t. Then we added some sugar until they did. One glass missed the lemon and just had sugar. Plain lemon water and sugar water isn’t that great. The best drink was when they were combined.
In my object lesson, lemon was life experiences. Sugar was Christ or the gospel. I started thinking about how overwhelmed I’d been feeling. I had a lot of lemon. My life experiences aren’t necessarily good or bad, they just happen. Lemon can be good when you expect and want it, or if it is unexpected it is extremely sour and not desirable.
Having too much lemon isn’t a bad thing: as long as I have enough sugar to go with it. My sugar is enough time to reflect, relax, study the gospel, grounding in priorities, good attitudes, love for who I interact with and what I do, and a strong foundation in Christ.
When I have lots of lemons and lots of sugar, life is good and happy. I need both.
Liz Braithwaite 