Life is good.

Here it is, the weekly round-up.  

You know, I like my life.  I sure like it.  Love it, in fact.  I've got a good life.

This issue of "my three sons" is the Grateful issue.

I'm grateful for such sweet little ones.  Look at their peachy-pink skin and those alert, bright eyes.  The work to fun ratio gets better every day (meaning...less work and more fun).  It's just heaven. (Dane on left, Alec on right)

Grateful for babies that are learning to sleep.  They sleep with limbs all over each other but it doesn't bother them.  And if one baby wakes up and starts fussing, sometimes loudly, the other one never even wakes up.  I'll go in to check on them and see one baby screaming and flailing and the other fast asleep.  (Dane left, Alec right)
Grateful that they'll always have each other for friendship and companionship.  Lately they've been interacting with each other more and it's SO cute to see.  They do it a lot when they're on their tummies.  
(Alec left, Dane right)
Grateful for the father-son relationship.  Erik is an amazing father.  It just comes so naturally to him.  Man oh man am I grateful for that.  Erik was washing his truck on Saturday and Reid was so jazzed to help him.  It's like Reid heaven, all of his favorite things: Erik, cars, outside, water.  Erik let him play on the motorcycle after that, which may have been a bad move.  We had a dang hard time convincing him to come inside when all he wanted to do was sit on the motorcycle.  Perhaps forever.
Reid's hair gets curly when it's wet.  So cute.
Grateful for small moments.  Remember the Elder Ballard talk?  I think of it so often.  "The joy of motherhood comes in moments."  This is one of those moments.  I made graham crackers (so good) and Reid was enjoying them with some milk.  I put it in a bowl for him, like a little cat, because I wasn't sure he could manage in a cup.  It was so fun to watch him.  He would dip his graham cracker in the milk and then lift it to his mouth.  But he would bite off the top part and not from the bottom, the part that was soggy with milk.  So his graham cracker kept getting soggier and soggier and goopier and goopier.  

from Elder Ballard's talk:

Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).

Grateful for church and time together as a family.  I tell you what, Sacrament Meeting for us in this crazy stage of life is hard.  It's crazy hard.  Here's how it usually goes: we manage to finally get there while the opening hymn is being sung, try and find enough seats in the back (the hard chairs), there are never enough seats back there so we're always squeezing ourselves into the middle of a row, climbing over people with our carseats full of babies, trying to convince Reid (while using quiet church voices) to come sit with us instead of walking around saying hi to his friends, feeding the babies and getting our church clothes all spit-up on, making a scene while our babies loudly gulp, fart, poop, cry, laugh and Reid is telling us all the sounds the animals in his book make...loudly...the book that we brought to help him be quiet, then I start the routine of taking one baby to the mother's lounge to change the poopy diaper, change the spit-up'ed shirt and swaddle him, go back inside and switch with Erik, change and swaddle the other baby, then Erik and I try and rock the babies to sleep, trying to minimize the fussing (noise).  That's our Sacrament Meeting.

But I'm so grateful for it.  I think because we have to work so hard to even get there, survive the three hours of church, let alone get some spiritual uplifting out of it...that I've come to understand the meaning and importance of the Sacrament ordinance more.  I've come to the point where I'm like, this is where we're going to be for the three hours of church because I need to be there.  I know I need the blessings of participating in the Sacrament ordinance each week, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to partake of it. 

Yesterday a really touching thing happened.  It was our Ward Conference so Stake leaders were there, making the amount of people in Sacrament Meeting more than would be there on a regular Sunday.  The bread was blessed and passed, and then the water was blessed and passed and after the young men passed it to the congregation they passed it to each other, but they were one cup short.  You could see the exchange between a few of the boys, trying to figure out what to do, talking very quietly.  I saw one boy shrug his shoulders and they walked back up to the front.  The bishop came over to instruct the priests and then one of them went to the back, filled up one more cup, and came out with a tray with one solitary cup in it.  They said the blessing on the water again and then the one boy partook of that solitary cup.  It was so sweet.  

It really illustrated to me how important of an ordinance the Sacrament is, and how we all need the opportunity to participate.  

We all need that renewal.  

Every week.  

I loved the parallel to the ninety and nine, and the one.  When it comes to our Savior, we are all "the one."  We are all the one sheep that He will go and find.  

Oh, another uplifting moment from church.  The choir sang "Come unto Jesus", one of my favorites.  Maybe because it's one that I can always play, even if I haven't touched a piano in months.  And maybe because the words are just so touching.  Anyways, so the choir sang and then the Stake President got up to talk and he repeated a line from the song.  It's a really beautiful song, but sometimes when you hear a song you've heard a hundred times it just kind of goes by without any meaning.  But when he repeated this one line, it's like I had never heard it before.  It was just so potent, you know what I mean?  

The line was "His love will find you and gently lead you from darkest night into day."

I really love that, "His love will find you".

To sum up, church yesterday was so good.  It's always a lot of work, but I came home renewed and I'm so grateful for that.  I'm grateful for the chance to sit with my sweet family and feel the peace that things are the way they should be.  To feel the calm that comes when, at least for today, it feels like we're on the right path.  You know?

Here's my cute babies in their church clothes.  I love my little men.

So that was our week.  To wrap up this issue, here are some creative things to enjoy.  I saw this image on Kindred, a wallpaper site that I found from How About Orange.  Both links are worth your time.  This button image is my desktop wallpaper right now because I thought it was just the most gorgeous thing I've seen in a long time.  I don't quite know why, I mean it's just buttons after all, but the colors!  Just gorgeous.
I saw this idea on Inchmark, a cool blog, and I'm going to make some love boxes this week and send them out to people who I want to send some love to.  I like the idea of a "love box".  She called hers "spring in a box" but I like "love box".  You have to say it kind of like this though, to get the full effect, "loooooooove box" (your voice inflection has to go up and down like a roller coaster on the word love, it's more fun).
I'm making these today.  I saw them on lovelydesign, a blog I LOVE, and I'm going to make these for the goody bags for Reid's party this Saturday.  
Later this week I'm going to make this puppet theater because Reid is getting two new puppets for his birthday to go along with Officer Mustache (scroll down to see Uncle William playing with the puppet for a baby Reid) and it's high time he had a theater to play with them.  

That's our life.  

Life is good.

The new plan.

Hello everyone.  

I sort of made a resolution that I would like to try and improve on. (that sounds very resolute, doesn't it?)

I think my life has become too technologized.  Yuck.  

It's nice to have resources like blogs and facebook to stay in touch with people, but I think it just keeps relationships suspended in a weird place in the cyberspace void.  Do you know what I mean?  Like with facebook, I get jazzed when an old friend finds me, but then all I ever do with it is spend 2 minutes looking at her page and go, "oh how wonderful, she's married and has a sweet little baby and looks very happy" and maybe take the time to send a message is personal and touching.  Something like this, "Hey, how are you?  Looks like things are going great!"  

Do you do that, too?  It's like since I know I have an avenue to contact friends now, I just keep it at that but never really even cultivate anything.  Or any real friendship.  Something more than reading what Twilight character someone is most like.

Same with blogs.  It's nice to see what our friends and family are up to, but most of the blogs that I check out, I hardly ever talk to these friends.  Why is that?  Like my dear friend Mary.  I adore Mary.  Seriously.  We were roommates at BYU and I think we knew when we first met that it was friend-love at first sight.  But I have yet to email her back (it's been like 3 weeks), haven't talked to her on the phone in like 2 years (probably more), and haven't seen her in who knows how long.  6 years?  

Lame.  

I would like to make a strange comparison.  You know how nowadays girls and guys "hang out" all the time and boys don't really have to make a huge effort for female companionship?  In the singles' world there is always some ward function, some party that some girl is throwing, some easy way to see a girl and chat her up that he doesn't have to work very hard for her attention.  It used to be that he would put in the effort.  

I think our modern friendships have become like that.  It's so easy to just click on a blog or facebook page and see in a matter of seconds how my friends are.  So easy, in fact, that I rarely make the effort to go past that point.  All of our blogging and facebooking (and for some of you...twittering.  Oh, heaven help us.) maintains our friendships, at best, but doesn't cultivate them.  I don't think our easy access leads to us enriching our friendships.  We just keep them nice and visible on a shelf (or our bookmarks folder), where we can see them...and leave it at that.

You know?

So, back to the resolution.  I want my life to be more about doing instead of watching.  

I want to spend less time on my blog and on friend's blogs and more time calling/emailing/sending thank-you's and birthday cards.  I want to spend less time looking at creative things that other's have done and more time being creative myself.  (I think that's the catch-22 of the creative blog world.  Inspiration is right at your fingertips, so easy to come by, that there's just too much of it.  I think we've all become inspiration paralyzed.  Looking too much and doing too little.)  I want to spend less time engaged in technology and more time engaged with people.  I want to make some real changes.  

Right about now you're thinking, "but how will I survive without Emily's fascinating thoughts about her hair?"  Okay, not really.  You're thinking about how you'll miss seeing the kiddos.  Let's be real, that's all you're here for.  Right?  

Well, I plan to post once a week, probably each Monday morning, with pictures of the family.  A weekly update of what's going on around here.  

The rest of this blog, my thoughts on life, will go in a journal.  Something real and tangible, something that doesn't plug in.  Something that may mean something to my sweet little kiddos someday.  

Here's the wrap-up for this week:

I've been organizing the boys' room, trying to make it work better as the dormitory/playroom that it is.  Reid loved the part when I organized his toys and rediscovered all kinds of silly little toys.  
The babies mid-diaper change.  Oh, update on the babies.  They are sleeping through the night!  We're talking 9 hours between the last evening feeding and the first morning feeding!  Woo-hoo!  Something magical happened when they turned 4 months old. (With the help of "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child"  I definitely recommend it.)  What good babies.
Reid being cute.
The bishop's family in our ward is the coolest family.  Remember how she came over one day and scrubbed my bathroom floors?  Well on Friday she called to say that she was taking her kids to the zoo in Santa Barbara and wanted to know if Reid would like to come.  I said yes for him and when I got off the phone I asked him if he wanted to go to the zoo.  He didn't say anything but just RAN back to his room and RAN right back carrying his sweatshirt and then stood at the front door.  I took it as a yes.  He had a great time and I just love their family.  
My sweet boys.  (from L to R: Reid, Alec, Dane)
The babies playing, growing, learning, and just being plain ol' cute.  Dane on left and Alec on right.
Is there anything cuter than a baby in a white onesie?  How about two babies in white onesies?

So that's the new plan.  You'll get the next installment of "My Three Sons" next week.

In the meantime, I plan on reducing the noise out there in that world wide web, and consuming less of that noise myself.  Today I hope to grind some wheat to make bread and try making some graham crackers (sans trans fat or HFCS!) and tonight we're having Thai peanut chicken with broccoli and rice for dinner.  While the babes sleep I'm going to clean up the craft corner in our office so that tomorrow I can get out the sewing machine and sew something.

"One thing I know for certain: the time we have here goes by far too quickly. Don’t waste any more time sitting on the bench watching life pass you by."  

one of my favorites, from here

Introducing...Mr. Duck

This is Mr. Duck.

We see Mr. Duck every time Reid takes a bath.  When he gets out (after some coercion) we wrap him in this cute towel (his favorite).  He's really into this duck towel.  So much so that it's a serious battle to get him to take it off to get dressed.  I'm able to convince him to take it off so that I can get his diaper on and his church clothes, but only with the promise that he can put it back on after he gets his clothes on.

If you look you can see his cute Easter outfit underneath the towel.

He hangs out like this for a good 15 minutes or so and then he's over it and we can put the towel up.  Erik and I call him "Mr. Duck" and he acts as if he really is Mr. Duck.  As if that's his true self.  Like inside he's like, "I AM Mr. Duck."  You know what I'm saying?

So funny.

Oh, as a fun post script, this evening Reid brought a DVD to me asking if he could watch it and saying, "Nacho?  Nacho?"  He had Nacho Libre in his hands.  Coolest kid, ever.

How's this for cute?

This was Alec a couple of weeks ago.  Three months and three weeks.  He's very focused on the mobile overhead.
This was Dane today.  Four months and four days.
This was Reid at three months.  Cute, huh?  

I think I'm going to find more cute pictures of Reid (plenty to choose from, what can I say?...he's a cute kid) and replicate the picture with these boys to see the comparison.  

it's going to be awesome

I am SO excited!  Reid turns two soon and I'm having a great time planning his party.  I LOVE throwing parties and am always looking for an excuse to have a party.  The huz is, however, not so much a fan of having lots of people over/fussing on him/etc.  So parties for him aren't always an option.  Parties for me are kind of lame, you know...fishing.  But now I have cute kids to throw parties for!

Reid is WAY into letters.  All things alphabet.  We play with letter games a lot, read a lot...and he's learned to recognize about half the alphabet.  It's amazing, we'll be sitting at the table eating and he'll look at the words on a bottle of salad dressing or something and say "R?"  Or look at words on Erik's shirt and say "B?"  

It's so fun to see Reid learning and growing.  It's like all these letters around him were just strange shapes before but now they mean something.  He can spell his name, too.  He'll point to the letters in his room, or the letters on the cool bracelet Erik's mom gave him, and spell his name.  How did this kid get so smart?

So, he's going to have an alphabet party.  It's going to be all about letters.  

Since we don't watch TV, only movies sometimes, then he's not really into anything else.  Like Dora or something.  No, that's not true.  He's crazy about Barney.  My mom got him a Barney DVD when she was here to help when the babies were born.  He's hooked.  But, I'm not about to have a Barney party, or a Hello Dolly party (his other favorite), so we'll stick with letters.

I'll post more about it as it happens, but here's the invitation we've sent to his little friends.

Kids are so much fun!

A new feature: Let's Talk

Let's Talk:

today's topic: are you a crunchy con?

I renewed online the book "Crunchy Cons" hoping that maybe in the next three weeks I'll catch some time to read it.  On the back of the book is the "Crunchy Con Manifesto" and I just love it.  I think it's a pretty good depiction of my conservative view.  

A Crunchy Con Manifesto

By Rod Dreher

1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.

2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.

3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.

4. Culture is more important than politics and economics. 

5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.

6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.

7. Beauty is more important than efficiency. 

8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.

9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”

10. Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.

Does this describe you?  If it does, let's talk about it.  If it doesn't, let's talk about it.  What do you agree with and what do you disagree with?  How about you get the book from your library and let's read it together.  

I put sitemeter on the blog a little while ago because I didn't really think anybody read this silly thing.  It turns out that quite a few people read this silly thing, but you all just don't comment very much.  That's cool.  I'm horrible at commenting on other's blogs.  And I read plenty of blogs by people I don't even know but I like their ideas, quilting projects, photography, etc.  

Sooo...I get the no-comment thing, but let's comment on this one.  

Where are you in the spectrum of liberal to conservative, and why?  Has that changed in the "last 8 years"? (that's an Obama favorite), last year?, last few months?  Let's talk about it.

p.s.  I'm in on the discussion, too.  I'll comment to your comment in the comment section.  After typing comment three times in a row it doesn't even seem like a word anymore.  

I like to pretend to read.

I don't really leisure read these days.  I get a lot of books from the library, but as you will see they are mostly pictures, not a lot of reading.  I am, however, DEVOURING this book.  Looking for solutions.  The babies are now four months old and coming out of their colic craziness (thank heaven!) and we all need some more sleep around here.  I think we have a good game plan now and last night was the best night we've ever had. 

Well, the babies slept the longest they've ever slept, but there was a lot of crying at the beginning.  A lot.  But even that's getting better.  

It's just pretty unnerving to hear a baby protest cry his guts out.

Now imagine two of them doing it.

Yikes.

I am really glad for this book, though.  With Reid I was a huge "Babywise" advocate, and still am.  It's just that with the babies I need some more help.  Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child has given me that extra help.
This was a cute book with a bunch of different apron looks.  I mean a bunch.  Did you think that all aprons were basically the same pattern?  I did, but no, they're not.  Check it out from the library and sew yourself up something nice.  Very cute book.
Also cute is the third of the "Last Minute..." installment of books.  I liked this one as much as the others and there are quite a few projects that I'd like to make.  
I like yard sales, re-purposing, all of that stuff.  So I love books about making incorporating your junk finds into real life.  This book was great.  I mean, really good.  The styling was great and the homes that they showed were very modern and updated but with an element of "junk beautiful."  It was right up my alley, and I think they have other books in a sort of "junk beautiful" series.  I'm going to look into those.
This book looked promising, mostly because of the cover photo and the title.  I am really into rooms that have a lot of white with pops of color, just like you see above.  But this book was exactly what I'm not looking for...a junky house.  This book showed the kind of homes where their yard sale/estate sale/flea market-ness has turned their house into a disaster of tchotchkes.  Knick-knacks everywhere.  Oh, drives me crazy.  So this book was a little TOO bohemian, even for me.
This book was just nonsense.  When I was looking for another book, this one came up in a search and I remembered liking him from a show I saw on HGTV or something called "Dress my Nest."  So I figured it was worth the 50 cents to get it on hold at the library.  I was wrong.  Weird style in this book.  I just don't get it. 
Another book that I saw while searching for something else...interesting, but not too different from the magazine.  Which is great, by the way.  Every time I look through a "Lucky" magazine I always end up wanting to be better at sewing.  I see dresses or skirts for hundreds of dollars and think, "I know I could sew that!"
I love me some Barefoot Contessa.  Seriously.  She's just about the only one on the food network that I'm into.  

My list of shows that annoy me is quite long (number one on the list...Giada.  She bugs.  Say it with me, "MOATS-ah-REHL-ah"  I think I'm going to claim an ethnicity and only have it come out with certain words.  I mean, I get that she actually IS Italian, but it only comes out in certain words.  I've got some Irish in me.  I think I'll start randomly throwing in a strong Irish accent.  Just for fun.)

Okay, back to the book.  I like how she cooks rather simply, with ingredients that don't freak me out, and it all looks incredibly satisfying.  I would use this book if I ever had a dinner party or if I made the huz a special dinner.  I LOVE Ina.
I like Jamie Oliver, I really do.  I would like to be neighbors and chat about the weather, gardening, our kids, life...I don't know.  He seems like a really cool guy, but his food totally freaks me out.  When I was flipping through the book all the recipes had really strange ingredients.  I mean, strange.  Things like rabbit.  Seriously, do people really cook with rabbit?  Maybe it's a British thing.  Whatever it is, I don't get it.  
And now we start the list of books that I got, barely had time to peruse, before realizing that this is not my season for leisure reading.  This Montessori book (I'm really into the ideology behind Montessori) looked great.  Like something I could implement it now.  I just need to find time to really read it and not just skim.
This book looks so rad.  I think I fit into this category and I really want to read this book, so it's on my list of books to get again when I find a little more time in my day.
Lastly, this oldie but goodie book on writing.  I've been thinking a lot about writing lately, and I've been meaning to read this book for a long time.  So I checked it out.  But I think it'll end up going back unread.  Another season...for reading it and probably for writing much as well.

So that's what I'm up to over here.  

What are you reading lately?

Any recommendations?

tickle monster

A while ago my kind brother William sent (just for the fun of it, isn't that nice? and fun?) Reid this book.  It's a really cute children's book about tickling.  Very fun for mom and dad to read with a little Reid.  But, it gets even better...

William also sent us the matching tickle mitts, they're these glove things that you put on and your fingers come out the little holes so that your hands look like the tickle monster's hands and you have your fingers free for tickling.  They are VERY cute.
Reid loves the book, loves the mitts, and loves tickling.  Here he is tickling his babies.  They can't get enough attention from Reid, it's adorable.  They'll be playing on the floor or in a bouncy seat and Reid will walk by and they practically rubberneck to see him going by.  They are BIG Reid fans.  I love it when Reid chooses things to play with on his own, like this time when he put on the mitt himself and started tickling his babies.  Things like this make all the hard work worth it.  

p.s.  Where did Reid get that gorgeous flaxen gold hair?  I just love it.  Oh, and that's Alec on the left and Dane on the right.

my morning coffee.

With all the sleep I'm not getting these days, I need serious help in the morning.  A good jolt.  I don't drink coffee...but who needs it anyway with these cute little morning jolts.  This is what I wake up to.

This is morning Reid.  He woke up and I went in to get him a few times, but each time he pointed to his bed and put his head back on his pillow.  He wasn't ready yet.  When he was ready he buried his pacifier under his pillow, (maybe hoping the pacifier fairy will leave him some cash?) and he was ready to go.  As you can see, he has crazy hair after he sleeps.  Every time I can't wait to see it when he wakes up.  This morning was especially good.
Here are my jabbery babies jabbering at me.  They are so fun.  It's getting to be so much FUN with all these boys!  Demanding, confining, exhausting...but fun!
Happy Alec.
Happy Dane.
Happy boys playing on a happy morning.  Seriously, who needs coffee?  These little ones are my pick-me-up...as in, "Mom!  Pick me up!"

Back on the horse.

I have been to the library since the incident, but not with all three kids.  Today, I did it.  We didn't make it for storytime (everything in life revolves around the babies eating schedule, it seems...) but soon after.  Probably better anyway, fewer people.  

It went wonderfully.  

Well, my three little ones did wonderfully well, that is...but I think the incident has left me as a marked woman.  With the Wednesday library volunteers, at least.  When we were checking out our books the lady was really trying to hurry, asking people if they would mind if she checked us out first, scrambling, dropping things...I'm not exaggerating.  I promise.  She was acting like my two smiling and cooing babies, lying peacefully in their stroller, could at any moment burst out crying - shooting piercing cries out into the silent library like flames from a dragon's mouth.  

It was funny, and a little discouraging.  I think we'll just go to the library on a day that's not Wednesday.  Reid doesn't care, he wasn't into storytime, anyway.

But!  I did get this!  It's like brand-spankin' new and I've already been able to check it out at my local library.  Well, I had to request it...so, for $.50 I got it at my local library.

It's a good thing.

I'll let you know my thoughts.  Since you're dying to know.  

Here's a sneak preview...

I don't like the shells on pots idea so much.

Just saying.

and head injury free!

Here's a good one from ohdeedoh, a really cool parenting/kids/design/home blog.

It's a coffee table playmat, something that you could just wrap onto your existing coffee table.  We had a coffee table, but when we were getting ready to move from Alaska here to California, and with the impending birth of two more little ones, I convinced Erik that a wood coffee table (and therefore hard corners at little person height) was just not a good idea.  (sorry, Erik)  I wish I had seen this then.  What a great idea to just wrap it on and take it off, besides the fact that Reid is obsessed with all things cars and would love this.

While we're on the subject...

While I'm getting all churchy and stuff...

this last weekend was General Conference. Twice a year the leaders of my church address the body of the church (and the world at large, actually) and give counsel, love and support. It's wonderful. I heard someone call it "spring cleaning for the soul" and that's exactly right.

You can listen to clips here.

(in a few days you'll also be able to watch clips or read in .pdf files)

Feeling a little overwhelmed with the current economy, feeling financially and emotionally strapped and wondering what your family can do? (listen to Elder Robert D. Hales from the Saturday morning session)

Feeling alone, lonely and a little forgotten? (listen to Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from the Sunday morning session)

Feeling like life changes so fast and not always for the better? Are those changes getting you down? (listen to Elder Steven E. Snow from the Sunday morning session)

Feeling like life is just too much to figure out on your own? Wondering how to find your path? (listen to Elder F. Michael Watson from the Sunday afternoon session)

I promise you'll feel like your soul just got a big drink of Gatorade, a renewed sense of purpose, energy, devotion, peace and joy.

If you did watch Conference, what were your favorite talks? I usually feel like there's a theme that sort of surfaces (one time like 4 people used the parable of the Good Samaritan in their talks) and this time it seemed like the theme was temple attendance and understanding temple covenants. What did you think?

Okay, now I'm done.

It's true, it's true. It's all true.

The other day I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Black Eiffel, and saw this post about a few movies she had seen recently. Erik and I had seen "The Visitor" just a few weeks prior, so it was interesting to read her thoughts. Want to know my thoughts? Probably not, but I think I'll post about it someday because I have a lot to say about that movie. Anywho, so I was reading some of the comments for good movie suggestions (the huz and I are always looking for something interesting to add to the netflix queue). Someone had suggested the movie "Defending your Life" saying it was a sweet and inspiring movie. So, I put it in the queue and last week Erik and I watched it.  These days it takes us at least 2 or 3 times to watch a movie because of lack of free time, or because we are so exhausted that we fall asleep every time we try to watch something.  But when I finally finished it, I have to say that I was mad.  Really annoyed.  This movie is such crap.  I know I said I'd try to say crap less, but this movie is total garbage.  

I don't want to "spoil" (that was sarcasm for ya) this movie for you, but the storyline is that this guy dies, and goes to Judgement City where judges review his life and determine whether he's ready to move on or if he needs to go back to earth as another life and try again.  Interesting concept, but it's full of lies.  

It feels to me like this world is full of noise, full of people trying to tell you what to think.  Trying to convince you of something.  Propaganda, really.  It's not always malicious, but the problem is that it's not always true.  Like this movie.  

It's a seemingly harmless movie, just a mindless way to spend a couple hours.  But that's just how lies creep into our lives.  We mindlessly listen and allow them to root in our minds.

Lies of this movie:

1.  It shows all the previous lives that the characters had before.  Women were men in previous lives and vice versa.  Lie.  I just don't believe it.  I believe (with all of my female soul) that "Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."  

2.  The main guy dies, meets a girl and they fall in love.  Seems sweet, right?  Except that this girl (Meryl Streep) was married with two kids.  Did they just disappear from her memory?  She hardly mentions them.  She's all of a sudden like a schoolgirl, giddy in love with this guy she just met in Judgement City.  So what, when we die all our dearest relations here on earth are just faint memories?  What a sad thought.  I can't imagine my life without Erik and our sweet boys, let alone imagine an eternity without them.  I believe that "The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave."  I know that that is true.  I know it.

So, the point...

My faith in the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is powerful force in my life.  It's not just a faith, really.  I know that it is true.  It's all true.  We can agree to disagree on this point, that's fine with me.  But I had a moment while the babes were sleeping and Reid was eating breakfast and something in me just had to write this today.  

I hope we are all careful of what messages we allow to come into our homes/minds/hearts.  The truth is just so freeing and beautiful that I hope we don't waste time on the lies...whether they are malicious ones or just time and energy wasters.  

If you, of my small but wonderful readership, are not of my faith and are curious about what I'm talking about...please ask me.  You can email me, comment on this post, or check out lds.org

In the meantime, please read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", I believe this with every bit of my being.  It gives me hope and happiness.  It makes my everyday worthwhile and meaningful takes away the uncertainty of the future.  

Bottom line...Families are Forever.

...and thank heaven.