Wisdom of a Child

After a long and thoughtful moment of silence, Alli asked me, “Mom, how could we come from heaven without falling and breaking ourselves?” I should have known something profound was on its way, because the moments of silence are so rare. She loves to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk so that when she finally is quiet, I can almost hear the wheels turning in her head!

Another of her childhood musings was cloaked in innocent humor when she commented on her passing youth. She sighed when she said, “Perhaps I’m not a child anymore”. Apparently, she and her cousin, Landon, (also a preschooler) are done with being just a kid and are ready to move on to bigger and better things. Watch out world, these kiddos are sharp!!

I LOVE taking part in my sweet daughter’s innocence.

Family Mission Statement

Lately, I have been reminded of the need for mission statements—especially for our family. Nick and I talked about it several months ago and even listened to the good old Covey talk on tape about family mission statements.

Originally, I wanted to have a short statement that would roll off the tongue. However, after considering what is most important about our family (also owing to my tendency to be verbose), it has turned out to be much meatier. I want part of our morning devotional to include memorizing parts of this so that later in life all this conditioning can aid in easy recall in otherwise compromising situations. Basically it has morphed from a single “statement” into a “year’s supply” of them.

As we are still in the drafting stages of grasping the big picture of our mission statement, let me know:

***Does your family have a mission statement? How have you used it? Do you have it somewhere prominent in your home?

Here’s the Nick and Miriam Family Mission Statement (Take One):

We are a family that is blessed by God. We are obedient to Him and to leaders and parents who are guided by His Spirit. God has given us a compass of faith to guide our family to grow in strength, virtue, wisdom, and courage. We strive to daily improve our relationship with Deity as we kneel in family prayer and ponder the scriptures. We will worship together forever.

Our home is place of beauty, order, peace, and simplicity. Our home is a safe and protected sanctuary. Our home is a place of inspiration and nourishment. Our home is a place of preparation. Our home is a gathering place for family and friends.

We choose to be together and desire to always be unified. Time spent as a family is precious. Our bond is strengthened as we work hard and accomplish our goals cooperatively. We work daily to build our family of excellence. Our laughter is heard during work and play.

We treat others with gentleness, respect, and patience. We recognize the God-given desire to be kind to others. We are accountable for our choices. We are always honest and fiercely loyal. We stand up for what is right, no matter what. We are examples of leadership and dependability.

We have beautiful bodies with energy to use them to be creative and serve others. We study to fill our minds with priceless knowledge. We discover and develop our talents to bless our community.

We will fulfill our family mission in a way that enriches the quality of our family life and draws us closer to each other through Heaven’s Grace.

My Forever

If you have a sensitive gag reflex, before you proceed, grab a barf bag. Sometimes our outward demonstrations of marital bliss can drive people to porcelain, so I totally understand if you don’t read this! This post is dedicated to my wonderful husband. Nick is a phenomenal person and it is seemingly impossible to enumerate the vast qualities that he possesses. However, I’ll briefly cover the basics as I share a teeny peek into who he is as a son, father, and husband. My mother-in-law was down for the past several days recovering from a small, but painful, surgery and Nick concerned himself with her well-being the whole time she was here. Nick has always held his mother in such high regard and really works hard to make sure her needs are being met—I love hearing him talk about how he was such a momma’s boy as a kid. Any single ladies who are reading, take close note of how a man treats his mother! Nick is an amazing father to our little princess and makes it a priority to spend quality time with her. Alli adores Nick and will do anything to get a daddy-daughter date with him. We are best friends and can’t get enough of each other—I’m so glad he works at home because it’s like having a never-ending sleepover with your best friend. No matter what we are doing, he always makes me laugh—dancing, hiking, going to the rec center, ballets, symphonies, just sitting on the couch with a bowl of ice cream—from the big and elegant to the simple and mundane, my life is fun because we can laugh together doing anything. I love you, Lover. Thank you for giving me your life and eternities.

Your Honor, I Plead Guilty

There is so much guilt in life. It just comes to us, uninvited. And with all it glorious compounding nature, it just adds up, no matter how little it was when I discovered it had snuck in. Not only that, I’m a mom and with that comes a whole new world of feeling like I’ll never add up. Needless to say—I deliberately avoid unnecessary tasks that are notorious for creating guilt. Scrapbooking, for example (guilt, guilt, guilt!) or maybe setting a goal to quit eating chocolate for lent (guilt, guilt, guilt!). Blogging is like unto attempting to abstain from the cocoa bean bliss. I feel guilty. I know why I should keep my blog updated—so many people who are dear to me live so far away and I’d love to share my life with you. I have several dear friends and family who are faithful orthodox bloggers—I am not. Let’s just say that blogging (consistently) is a funsucker in my life. I love to live in the moment, take lots of pictures, laugh until I cry, talk for hours with my friends, read, snuggle, etc… Taking the time out to blog about it makes me want to poke my eyes out. Alright, so it’s not eye-poking worthy, I guess. But I don’t want to apologize and commit that I will be better because I know I will fall off the wagon. Why can’t we all just live next door to each other? Humph.

I’ll humor myself and just try to catch up. By the way, “catching up” is guilt-speak for “I haven’t been ‘good enough’ in the past and now I’ll try to rectify my actions by overloading this post with way too much content just so I can sleep more soundly”. Word of the day? Assuage. Can you use it in a sentence please? Let’s assuage Miriam’s guilt by quickly scrolling through the forthcoming pictures and skim the captions. The not-so-distant future may not hold another blog posting, so get it while the guilt is hot!

This was a "choice" Alli moment. She was helping me clean the banisters (note the pink rag) and she found a book and gt distracted. I'm such a softie for literacy that kids can get out of almost anything if they are reading!
This is Nick showcasing one of Alli's preschool games--scooba diving for words. He's hot stuff in skin tight plastic!

Alli wasn't actually too keen on wearing the "mask". It squished her eyes shut!

I try to take as many pictures to capture family work ethic. Here she is helping to clean up the toys in an efficient way. She comes up with so many creative ways to get stuff done!

Here's another golden moment. She's efficient, que no?

We didn't get to go sledding at our favorite park as much this winter...I guess we almost still could since it WON'T QUIT SNOWING around here!
Ahh... wintertime love! My life is wonderful, what else can I say?

Here is our Sunshine with her two best buds. I love when they all come over to play, they crack me up! I do trip on my tongue trying to get them straight, though (their names all rhyme and are only differ in one consonant).

Have I ever mentioned that Alli does NOT play with toys? If you are reading this and know that her birthday is coming up, please, please, please look closely at the picture above. These are typical items that entertain her. That's an old car we found buried in our garden patch (she doesn't use it as a "car"), a teeny mirror, a glittery fuzz ball, marbles and gem-like beads, and a keychain light that is broken. Hmmm...does she play with that expensive doll I got her for Christmas? Barely. What about the Potato Head? Nope. She doesn't want to play with all the food and dishes in her kitchen set? Not really. Save your money and bring pom-poms. Trust me on this one!

My mom made us matching aprons for Christmas with our names on them. She also included all kinds of goodies to bake together, including Alli's favorite, Rice Kirspy treats. She told me today, "I'm homesick for Mama and Papa's. Their house is so fun and they always have Rice Krispy treats and yummy breakfasts." She's a girl who knows what she wants...and is learning how to cook them!

Thanks for humoring me. I really do love reaching out across the web to all of you in these posts., I just wish I wasn't so prone to guilt trips. I've racked up a LOT of frequent flyer miles!

Artistic Outlet

One of the ways we try to make our together time special is to go on “Family Dates”. Last week we had so much fun at Color Me Mine, an open studio for painting ceramic pieces. We chose to paint teacups for yet-to-be-planned tea parties.

Nick was super meticulous to attain the drippy look along the rim of his cup.

Alli’s teacup went through several phases during our hour and a half session. She loved being there with just the three of us doing what she loves to do—paint. The final stages of her cup were completed using a mixed palette –as in she mixed all the colors on her palette.

I had fun experimenting with the different techniques they had displayed—mixing paint with soap and water and then blowing bubbles, combined with taping off sections to get a clean striped look.

We highly recommend this activity as it is appealing to such a wide audience and it allows for time spent with one another talking and creating something beautiful and memorable.

Being a Woman of God

Recently, I have seen the need to reassess where I am, spiritually speaking. This introspection resulted in a goal to define and become a Woman of God. Based on my study of what others have said, I will share what I believe a Woman of God to be. The following are ideals, mind you, and are by no means areas that I have perfected.

A Woman of God:

• Has knowledge that God blesses her each day with His love. She feels His love and identifies His hand in all things. She knows that she can turn to the Rock and Anchor of her faith when life seems anything but stable.


• Serves God, others, and self—in that order.


• Loves. She nurtures and finds opportunities to create an environment friendly for growth and views mistakes as part of the growing process.


• Cherishes the knowledge of the sanctity of marriage and family life. She supports honorable men—whether they are in her family, civic leaders, or church leaders—and she does all she can to uphold a decent society where men are free to excel in their capacities, free from the filth that so easily besets virtuous men.


• Is willing to sacrifice and not gloat about the perceived “loss”, thus becoming a martyr.


• Understands that no amount of time in front of the mirror will compensate for the inner beauty that radiates from a woman of God. She knows that her body is a wonderful gift and she will not be dissuaded to embrace the worldly belief that she does not “measure” up (or down).


• Is empowered with unshakable confidence in the gestalt (the smaller elements that are unified to make up a whole that cannot be understood by inspection of the individual parts) of God’s plan for her life.
  

In my quest to become this ethereal being, I want to know what my friends and family think of who a Woman of God is.

**What is an attribute that describes a Woman of God?
**Do you have a female role model that emulates these attributes? Who is she?

Update

I am a lackadaisical blogger (I love that word and all it's nuances). We have been busy living life and have failed to chronicle our adventures.

Here is a generic update on our goings-on:

1. Halloween was a blast with Alli living out her dream of being a witch and cackling the night away.

2. Miriam's birthday was spent in the company of her lovely parents who came all the way from The Land of Enchantment to spend time with us. Those birthday celebrations were in addition to a fun jaunt to a romantic getaway in Midway with Nick.

3. Miriam has not yet been summoned to Jury Duty (fingers crossed!)

4. Nick has started attending Toastmasters to improve his public speaking abilities--his constant drive to improve himself is inspiring!

5. We are getting ready for winter...and we still hold to the desire to have the ability to hibernate as the cold sets in.

All in all, we are happy and healthy and have a renewed goal to be a better blogger family!