Try A Little Something New?

A sweet friend of mine recently did something new with her hair - and it looks AMAZING! She had it cut and put highlights in it and everything! It's a amazing how a new "do" can help one feel like a new person.

I've never dared to be drastic with my hair. It's pretty safe to say I have the same basic hairstyle I was sporting back in high school. You know - all of two or three (or fifteen) years ago. The most drastic thing I've ever done was to get a perm (*GASP* I KNOW) just before my sophomore year. The funny thing is that perm never really left. For years now I've lovingly referred to my hair as having a "chemically induced natural curl". I love it, though. Rarely do I have to fix my hair in the morning, as it tends to already look wildly messy even on a good day.

The one thing I've always wanted to do, yet have never dared, was try a new color. As a child I used to imagine what it would be like to have raven-black locks (much like Anne Shirley wished in Anne of Green Gables), and would even take yards of yarn and drape it over my head just to see what I might look like with blonde, brown, black or even rainbow hair!

I hated my red hair when I was younger - kids can find absolutely EVERYTHING to make fun of others about, and my hair was a hot target (I know my older brother feels my pain). As I grew older compliments began to replace taunts, so I felt my hair color might not be the worst thing in the world for a person to have to endure!

Yet there has always been this little voice in the very back of my head that wonders what it would be like. I've never dared to dye it - thanks to the aforementioned Anne Shirley as a matter of fact. There's this child-like fear my hair really will turn green! It doesn't MATTER how far hair dyes have come in the last 100 years. I'm still SCARED.

For the most part I really enjoy my hair color. Oh sure there are days I bemoan trying to find colors to wear that match my hair and skin tone, but it's worth it in the end...mostly. Still, I find myself veeeeery envious of my friend's new do. If only I knew I could pull something like that off, and that everyone around me would forgive me, I might actually give it a try.

Sunday Inspirations July 5, 2009

My post today will be short and (hopefully) sweet. Short because my head feels like some one's put a vice around it and if I don't go and lie down soon we'll all be in big trouble.

I knew from the moment I got up this morning it was going to be a rough day. My older son was in an awful mood, my youngest was clingy beyond words, and my headache began a mere half hour after after waking. Add to this today being fast and testimony day for our church and I knew my own mood would only grow worse (as my sugar levels drop, so does my attitude about life).

I spent the first two hours of church (we have a 3 hour meeting block on Sundays) volunteering in the nursery today, which I didn't mind at all (neither did A, haha), but as the time came to a close my daughter's temper became increasingly volatile. I thought, "Uh, oh. Sacrament meeting could be tricky today." Oh baby did I underestimate that one.

Tempers were flying with every single one of the kids. My oldest was distressed about things that wouldn't even happen for a year or two (like going to junior high) and after asking permission to go to the bathroom disappeared for over twenty minutes, J wouldn't leave ANYONE alone and got upset when I told him to please stop, B was in a corner under the bench crying because J wouldn't let him color in his (J's) coloring book, and I swear I took A out of the room about five times because she wanted EVERYTHING that EVERYONE ELSE had.

The last time I took her out of the chapel and into the cry room I kept her there. The room was aptly named. Both of us stayed in there a good ten minutes and cried.

I found myself thinking, "Is this worth it?" Knowing my kids were in a bad mood, knowing my headache would only grow worse as the day went on, knowing I could have simply packed everyone up and headed home, why on earth did I keep us there!?!?!

My answer came in one simple thought: because it counts. My Heavenly Father knows how HARD today was on me. He knows (and probably wouldn't have blamed if I had) I could have gone home. But I didn't. And that counts.

The kids obviously didn't get much out of the meetings today. Not even I, multi-tasker extraordinaire, didn't get much out of the meetings today. But I went, and I brought the children with me, and THAT COUNTS!

Take some time to think about it the next time you feel like going to church isn't worth it, because it's at the times it's the hardest to go that I think it counts the most.

What's Your Season?

A few years ago I wrote an "article" as an assignment for the Institute for Children's Literature. It's never been published, but I got to thinking about it this last week as I went looking for a new shirt to buy. The fact I willingly went to spend money on myself was a miracle in and of itself. Finding a style I liked was even better. Too bad for me the everpresent problem of finding colors that match both my hair color and skin tone is for the most part impossible.

During the time I wrote the article I had a dear friend come to visit a group of young women to help them learn what colors would work best on them and why. One particular girl, we'll call her Ashley, loved the color green and would wear everything from Spring Green to Forest Green. Sometimes she looked great, other times she looked pale and hollow-eyed. We discovered she could still wear green, just not all shades.

It was for this very reason I wrote the article all those years ago. So I thought I'd do a little chopping of the piece and share some basics with you today. I especially encourage you mothers out there to help your girls (and even boys) understand these ideas as it can go a long way to helping them look their best long before they start begging to wear makeup (for the girls...NOT the boys). And men - don't poo-poo this idea 'cause it seems girly. Anything that can help YOU look your best should never be ignored.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Did you know every person has a season, and that each of those seasons contains colors to help you look your best, or worst? Believe it or not, the colors you most enjoy wearing could be making you look less than lovely.

To find “your season” it’s important to consider the tone of your skin, eyes and hair.

Is your skin creamy white or peach? Is your hair golden brown, blonde, or strawberry red? Add a dash of light blue eyes and odds are you’re a Spring. Look for warm and neutral colors with yellow tinges such as ivory, camel, peach, and coral. Eastery pastels are also extremely flattering. Accessorize with a touch of gold jewelry to top it all off.

Autumns have gold undertones in their skin. If you’re a redhead or brunette, with brown or green eyes, this is most likely your group. Think warm, medium colors: camel, beige, gold and dark brown to bring out the richness of your eyes and skin. Gold jewelry will bring out the gold in your skin. Autumns also look great in orange undertones as well. Pumpkin, rust, or mustard yellow paired with mossy or forest green can be stunning.

If your skin is pale pink you’re definitely a Summer. Typically you’ll also have fair blue eyes, and dark blonde or light brown hair. Summers should think cool pink and blue when picking colors. Lavender, plum, rose-brown and soft blue are just a few of your many options. A softer white, powder blue, or aqua can be perfectly complimented with silver jewelry.

What if you look best in dark, bold colors like black, navy or red? Is silver your best choice in jewelry? Sounds like you might be a winter.

Wintry skin can vary from pale white, to olive or dark shades. Your hair is classically black or very dark brown, and odds are your eyes are dark as well. If you’d like to wear lighter colors try some pale, icy tones.

Just as specific colors can compliment your looks, wearing those opposite your season will make you look tired or sick. They can emphasize dark circles around your eyes, or red in your face. Others can make you look too pale, or slightly green. Those who look good in cool colors – winter and summer – should stay away from the warm pastels and oranges of autumn and spring.

The good news is you don’t have to clean out your closet (not to mention your bank account) and start over. You can wear all colors as long as you place them carefully. Wear complimentary colors close to your face: shirts, jewelry, and scarves. Keep less favorable colors further away: skirts, pants, and accessories.

Of course the best way to figure out which season is your is to simply hold different colors up to your face. You might be surprised at what works to make you look your best, and what doesn't.

Sunday Inspirations June 28, 2009

My husband and I are speaking today in our main church meeting (Sacrament Meeting). I have to admit to feeling a bit daunted with the subject he gave me: The Prophet Joseph Smith and the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon and the Purpose of the Book of Mormon. Yeah, tell me about it.

Fortunately for me there were several fairly fantastic articles written by the leaders of our Church I was able to work from. One of those talks was given many years ago by a late president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nicknamed the Mormon Church), a great man by the name of Ezra Taft Benson. Instead of giving you my own inspirations this morning, I decided to share with you one of the men who inspired me this last week.

The Keystone of Our Religion

Please read it for some insight into this marvelous gift we've been given - the Book of Mormon - and how it can bless our lives!

Books Recommendation: Summer Bridge Series

Yeah, sure, no kid wants to do homework while being off for the summer, but neither does any parent want their child to completely forget everything before heading into a higher - and harder - grade.

Last year my hubbs and I found a series of books that are PERFECT for helping your kids have fun keeping up, and maybe even getting a little ahead. They're called the Summer Bridge Activities, and they're fantastic!

Beginning as early as Pre-K (and going up through 8th), these books help kids learn/keep up on basic skills they began in their previous grade, and helps them to transition into a few things they'll need heading into the new grade. They're split up into 3 sections: Days 1-15 is section 1, then 1-20 for section 2, and one last section with 15 days. Each of these sections will take your children through math, reading, writing, language arts, and science.

The Summer Bridge Activities site (the link provided above) has some fun online activities for the kids to play and read, but trust me when I tell you the books are far more worth having, for the simple reason that YOU get to work with your child. YOU will be able to see where your child's strengths and weaknesses are. YOU will be able to give praise as well as help where necessary.

I highly recommend these series of books. You should have no problem in finding them in local bookstores, on Amazon.com, or from the original site itself. Trust me when I tell you, they're worth the money you put into them.

Sunday Inspirations June 21, 2009

First and foremost I'd like to offer a hearty and utterly sincere

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

This goes out to every dad, granddad, brother, uncle, teacher and leader of youth and children. Whether you have your own kids or not, the role of father is automatically placed upon any man who assumes the role of loving guide and guardian over our beloved young ones.

I'm going to cheat a little on today's post. I hope you'll forgive me.

My first offering today is a beautiful testament to what having a loving and dedicated father can mean to a family, especially a family who has special needs. Please check it out!

A Father Indeed

The second piece I'd like to share with you is the same thing I posted on this day last year. I'd been given the opportunity to speak in our main church meeting (in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it's common for members of the congregation to give a talk) on Father's Day. I hope you don't mind if I share it with you again.

One of my earliest memories of my father is of a night when I was desperately sick. I don’t even recall how old I was. I simply remember the night my door was opened, the bright light of the kitchen across the hall blinding me. I was frightened for a moment, unsure of who the tall shadows were who boldlywalked into my room, each one looming at either side of my bed. It wasn’t until the soft whisper of my father’s voice was heard that I became calm. I felt his considerable hands press gently upon my fevered brow as he and a trusted friend gave me a blessing.

Those hands have been a symbol of love, of gentleness, and of power from that day. I recall those hands gently lifting me up out of my bed on Sunday mornings, cradling me to his chest as he would rock me awake. Just like many other fathers, he worked an awful lot, and our time together was rare and precious. I loved to go on odd jobs with him, to watch those hands fixing a swamp cooler or a heater. Those hands showed me what it meant to serve my fellow men.

My father-in-law is another special man who knows what it means to use his hands in righteous works. Like my own father, most days you can find him in the home of a friend, family, or ward member who is in need of help. I can’t begin to tell you what it’s meant to watch as those hands, perhaps not so steady as the years have gone by, help to give healing to my sick children. Those hands also stand as a testament to what a good and righteous father can do for those he loves.

I recall the moment my husband took our daughter, so scrawny and gray and weird looking as she first came into this world, and with wonder in his eyes held her for the first time. It was a miraculous moment for him, and for me as well. I remember the day our first son was born. With agony he laid his hands on his son’s head, followed by my father’s and my older brother’s, and together in a crowded hospital room, amid the sniffling and crying of doctors and nurses, they gave this precious boy a name and a blessing. My husband held our child only once in this life.

Since that time two more rambunctious boys and a vivacious little girl have come to grace our home. I love to watch as each child embraces their father as he comes home from work, or takes his hand with their own, anxious to keep hold of him. I count myself as one of the most fortunate of women to have this remarkable man as the father of our children. Like both of our fathers, he is rarely able to be home as his life is spent in working to help those in need, either through his jobs or through his church callings. I know my children are watching as those hands bless not only their lives, but others as well.

I believe it is in these precious moments we can witness a small portion of what it might be like to be a child of God. It is not the material gifts we present to our children, the movies we take them to, or how many times we all go to get a Slurpee. It is in the moments when the bond between children and their fathers are brought into sharp focus.

There is a time in the life of Jesus Christ where my appreciation and love for our Heavenly Father intensifies each time I think about it.

This beloved Son had never once sinned. Never. He could not understand what it meant to sin. Neither could he comprehend until the moment He walked into the Garden of Gethsemane what one little sin can do to a person. All at once the realization of what He was being asked to do begins to settle upon His mind, and He cried out, “Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”

Perhaps the Father’s perfect Son is now frightened by what He is being asked. We do not know. It is only in empathizing with our elder brother, in trying to imagine just a little of what agony the weight of sin had already placed upon Him in those short moments, that we can even begin to appreciate His next words: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Up in a world of spirits stood a Father who must have been in agony himself. Have any of you thought even for a moment what watching this scene must have been like for Him? As He watched His perfect Son writhe in anguish, did He wish to call out, to bend to His Son’s wishes, to stop the pain? Was His hand stretched out, trembling, wishing He could do just that?

The Father would not stop what was happening, but He could give His Son some form of comfort. He sent an angel, perhaps one of Christ’s greatest friends, down to give Him what little support could be offered. Still, it wasn’t enough.

The time came when Christ would be asked to endure more than even He thought possible. Not only was the angel’s presence withdrawn, but the Father pulled His own Spirit and influence away as well. I cannot begin to imagine the shock this must have been to a Son who had never, in His entire life, gone without the influence of His Father. These two individuals had never known a moment like this before. How do you imagine the Father felt at that moment, knowing the intense agony He was causing His Son?

Yet what a joy it must have been for both when the Holy Spirit and influence of the Father was restored. Never does one appreciate the blessings in one’s life until those blessings have been taken away.

Surely this should have been enough. Hadn’t Christ just endured all that would be required? Could not the Father now take His Son up to Him, satisfied that all had been accomplished?

We all know it was not enough. Still the Father watched on as His Son was brutally beaten, mocked by those who simply could not comprehend, nailed to a cross, and hung. Surely the Father desired to send legions of angels to stop the cruelty, to at last allow His perfect Son to be at peace. Instead, the Father knew the mission was not complete. Once again He needed to take His influence away from His Son. Is it any wonder, after all that He had endured, Jesus the Christ yelled out in agony, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46.)

How the Father’s heart must have torn at those words. They were not a condemnation, but a desperate cry from a Son to His Father.

There is a moment I often ponder upon, as perhaps only a parent can. Christ has given up the ghost, and returned to the spirit world, where He is embraced by friends and family who have gone before. His body is no longer in pain. What do you think our Heavenly Father was thinking at that point? Was He grateful for the little time it took for the resurrection and ascension to calm His trembling hands, to wipe His tears, before finally being able to take His Son up into His arms and hold on tight? Was His voice choked as He patted His Son on the back and whispered, “Well done, my good and faithful servant”?

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has said, “[The Father] endured what He saw because it was the only way that a saving, vicarious payment could be made for the sins of all His other children, from Adam and Eve to the end of the world. I am eternally grateful for a perfect Father and His perfect Son, neither of whom shrank from the bitter cup nor forsook the rest of us who are imperfect, who fall short and stumble, who too often miss the mark.”

As we celebrate this Father’s Day, take some time to recognize what it is our Father sacrificed that day, but don’t stop there. If you have never realized it before, it is time to recognize it now. He allowed all of this to happen because He loves each and every one of us so very much. We are not perfect. We all have sinned. We will never be asked to go through what Christ went through. Yet the Father love us so much that He sacrificed His only perfect child so that we can all come back to live with Him someday.

What a remarkable Father.

Sunday Inspirations June 14, 2009

Hey all. I hope you'll forgive me for putting this up so late, but our power was out most of the day as the lines are transferred in preparation for the trax trains heading our way. In any case, my post today has little to do with my own thoughts, but rather I'd like to share with you an article a friend of mine linked us to on Facebook.

I have to say it's really kindly written, which is something we honestly don't find too much of in today's world when it comes to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nicknamed the Mormon Church), in particular when combined with the issue of gay/lesbian marriage. I was pleased that the author of this article not only took the time to try and help others understand our viewpoint, but gave a bit of (correct) theological background as well.

Before you go on to read the article, I want to share with you my own beliefs. No I am not a believer in homosexual relationships, but I have much empathy for those who do. I can see where your thoughts and ideals and even hurts are coming from, even if I do not choose to agree. I can only ask that even as I empathize with you, take some time to understand from where I, and others of the Mormon faith, are coming from. Try to comprehend why we are so stalwart in our beliefs regarding marriage. I am certainly not asking you to agree with me, just to do a bit of research. Perhaps, if more of us tried to do this one simple thing - to understand - there would be far less hurt in this world.

The Storm Over the Mormons - Time Magazine