Dancing with Daffodils

Last Sunday my husband was sustained and set apart as the bishop of our ward. That means that he is now responsible for the spiritual and temporal welfare of our entire church congregation and all the people that live in our ward boundaries. It is a weighty responsibility and one that he accepted humbly. Our church is one of a lay ministry with no paid clergy so we all take turns filling the various responsibilities. I currently play the piano for the children during their singing time and I love it. Other times I have helped with the youth organization and the women's organization. Josh has taught the children before but mostly served in the men's organization and most recently as the previous bishop's executive secretary. This was not something he sought after, in fact we both secretly hoped it would never be asked of us, but when the call came, we both supported it and said yes. A lot of people have been asking me how I feel about it and depending on the person I have ...

This weekend we're celebrating my husband's birthday, something we've done more successfully some years over others. My favorite was his 25th birthday when I surprised him with tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld. He loved the show and I knew he would love to see Jerry's stand up routine. I got some great tickets, planned a fun dinner out and was so proud of myself. We were poor college students so this was a big splurge and I couldn't wait to see the look on his face. Somehow he found out that Jerry was coming to our area and he got all excited, making me frustrated that he was ruining my surprise. I had to purposely take him to some websites that had tickets for exorbitant prices and was able to completely discourage him from going. While I had been disappointed that he found out about the show, it only made it that much more of a surprise when he opened up his birthday card and the tickets for that night's show were inside. We had such a fun evening going from ou...

This week my kids were on spring break and we didn't have much planned except a day up in D.C. at the National Zoo. We were going to meet my friend there because it is in the middle of our two houses. I thought it was lucky that it was a nice day after a very rainy week as we packed up our picnic lunch and drove the 90 minutes to get there. Unfortunately, many other people seemed to think it was a good day to go the zoo as well and by the time we got there at 10:30, the parking lots were full. I decided to drive around a bit but couldn't find another parking garage close by or any street parking down by the entrance where luckily Carrie had gotten one of the last parking spots. After 30 minutes I finally did find a spot on the street but only for two hours. Then we got out of the car and saw this long line of people. Since there is no admission fee I figured they must be waiting for a special event. So the kids and I walked to the entrance only to be told we would have to go ...

When I first went to college, my plan was to major in English. I wanted to be a writer and that seemed the best route to become one. I remember sitting in the orientation and all I heard was teaching. It seemed like everyone else there wanted to be an English teacher and I had no desire to do that at all. So I went back to my two favorite things to do: write/read and travel. I considered majoring in travel and tourism and was really in love with the idea of getting paid to plan other people's vacations. But it was 1998 and the internet was really starting to take over tourism; people weren't calling travel agents anymore but looking online for everything so my mom talked me out of it. This lead me to print journalism where my ultimate goal was to write about travel. While in college I subscribed to travel magazines and fantasized about getting sent around the world to rate resorts and find family-friendly activities in big cities. I loved my college experience and did get to ...

Ah, the challenge of a weekly post. I don't have anything brilliant to say today but it was a day filled with wonderful connections. I am naturally a more introverted person; it is hard for me to chit-chat with people I don't know and talk in a large group of people. But I am quite social and love connecting with people that I care about and love. My first connection of the day was with my eldest daughter. She got braces put on yesterday and I went grocery shopping late last night to get food for her to take to school today, like Jello and soup and soft cereal bars. When I was showing her everything this morning she just put her arms around me and said, "Thank you, Mom. I appreciate all that you do for me." It was such a sweet moment and my heart just lit up. I gave her a big hug and told her how much I loved her. Kids so rarely say thank you and often are totally oblivious to all of the time and effort we put into their pleasant existence so I will savor that connec...

This past month our bishop challenged us to think more about our prayers and to make effort to improve them, so it has been on my mind lately. I honestly was struggling to want to pray for a little while there just because of emotional exhaustion. That may seem counter-intuitive but when I'm so down and tired I tend to hibernate and cut myself off from people, which includes God. It was good for me to reconnect and make sure I was being diligent in keeping this important commandment. However, it was a personal finance class that I'm taking that really has made the difference in my prayers lately. My church is amazing and has developed four courses for members to take regarding business and finance in an effort to help each of us be self-reliant. I lack budgeting skills and have wanted to better manage our money for years so I saw this as a great opportunity. This class doesn't have a teacher but we follow a workbook and have a facilitator that keeps the discussion focused...

Last week in the women's class at church, we discussed a wonderful talk by one of our church leaders that had to do with becoming perfect...eventually. This struggle is one I am constantly fighting because my inclination is to do it well or not at all. I hate making mistakes or coming up short. I know that is a common feeling but it has been a challenge for me since I can remember. When I danced on pointe, which was a dream come true, I was so afraid of falling and making a huge mistake that I tended to dance timidly and my movements were small. I wish now that I had put my whole heart into dancing instead of not falling. I struggle playing the piano in front of other people because I get so nervous about making a mistake and the one time I tried sewing it was a nightmare because I could not get the corners to line up just right and the whole quilt was just full of bent corners and other imperfections that made me crazy. With enough time and practice it seems that I should be a...