A weekly window

It's Sunday night and I just wrote my weekly email to my dear sister Mel who is in the MTC preparing for her mission to Cambodia. Recycling some of that email for a blog post seemed like an efficient thing to do. Waste not, want not right? I like to think of weekly letters/emails to missionaries as a weekly window into my life because this is all they get each week: a small window-peek into the lives of their family.

Yesterday morning I drove to the Tri Cities to run on trails, and it was glorious. Jeff held down the fort for a few hours while I drove there and ran for over an hour on the twisty crispy brown trails of the Chamna Preserve, down by the Columbia and Yakima Rivers. There is something about peaceful alone time in nature that heals the soul. The Chamna Preserve is fast becoming my favorite outdoor corner of the lower valley. I took a few pictures in an attempt to capture the crunchy tranquility there.

I seem to be on a roll for having one good spiritual insight per week. I hope it continues! It is astounding how difficult it is to find quiet alone time where I'm in the right frame of mind for meaningful scripture pondering. I only have three kids, and one of them goes to school! When I'm extra exasperated/tired/surrounded by kids' demands/noise, I often turn to general conference talks for my scripture time because they are like a nice concentrated dose of meaningful spiritual-ness--it doesn't take as much thought (aka quiet time) to unravel their mysteries as it does when I read the good ole fashioned scriptures themselves. I do my best to at least get in a verse or two of direct scripture each day, but it's an uphill battle! Ok, here's my weekly insight that I've been pondering and feeling very thankful for. Copied from my journal on Thursday night:

"I read the most beautiful thought this morning in Elder Gary Stevenson's conference talk/testimony. Referring to his recent call to the quorum of the 12 apostles, he said this: "As I agonized over my inadequacies this week, I received a distinct impression which both chastened and comforted me: to focus not on what I can’t do but rather on what I can do." That really hit home this morning. One of the things that I often struggle with is closely related to inadequacy: "am I doing enough?" This was a wonderful reminder of a very powerful way to stay positive. If I feel like I can't do something, I need to shift my focus to the Lord Jesus Christ, "for in his strength I can do all things" (Alma 26:12). The next step is to pray to him for help and guidance and then keep on trying! I'm so glad that we can always repent and keep on trying."

I loved reading the testimonies of our three new apostles this week. It's just astounding how I feel a burning, pure PEACE in my heart every time I read their words. They ARE called of God! I'm so thankful for their words and their service.

So my church calling for the past almost year has been a Primary girls activity day leader. It's pretty fun--a little stressful at times, but kind of a sweet deal calling-wise. I help plan and attend two activities per month and that's all. That means that I get to go to all three hours of CHURCH for adults on Sunday. At first that three hours of grown up lessons chafed and I was a little bored (I was used to teaching junior primary and wrangling a class full of young squirmers for the second two hours of church!) But lately I have really been enjoying and needing church. Yes, sacrament meeting is a wiggle fest with Amber and Rose (Jay is usually pretty calm, bless him) and I normally handle Amber through Sunday school since Jeff teaches gospel principles once a month (but Amber's not too crabby yet by then and she can survive that hour mostly on snacks and toys while I get to listen to the lesson). After that I pass Amber off to Jeff for the third hour of church and go to Relief Society by myself. It feels like such a treat! I often feel like a parched, sunburnt person, staggering in from the hot desert suddenly finding a deep cool lake when I go into Relief Society. I go and drink deeply and even SWIM and it is so refreshing and it feels so NECESSARY. Like I'm a little bit broken (or at least cracked, ha ha) when I walk into Relief Society and I leave feeling all patched up and full of peace and optimism. I hope I didn't lose you in my analogy! Hah.

I always thought of callings in the church as me being needed to DO something FOR others. A bonus along that path of service is often personal fulfillment and spiritual growth. Yes, that is still true about church callings. As I've been relishing my time in Relief Society lately, however, I've realized that my current low-key activity days calling is also the Lord's way of giving me this beautiful, priceless gift of quiet time to listen to a lesson, ponder, and feel the spirit, when I rarely get that during the week. It is a wonderful testimony to me that the Lord knows what we need before we know we need it and he GIVES it to us. We just have to take it and make the most of it! Of course going to Relief Society isn't always going to be all about me, but I'm sure enjoying it while I can.

Weekly window: closed.

Leafy

Since yesterday was Veterans Day, there was no school. While I was running in the morning, I noticed that our favorite park in town was covered in leaves. Eastside Park is probably the main reason I survive autumn in this sage brushy Yakima Valley. The park is one square city block in size and bordered by large gorgeous old trees--mostly maples. It is my sanctuary. We've been going there ever since Jay was a little one year old! It was a gorgeous sunny fall day, slightly breezy and 56 degrees--perfect for flannel shirts and leaf raking. So we invited the cousins, loaded our rakes and kids into the van and drove over to play in the leaves. I brought the good camera for fun, as evidenced by the plethora of pictures. I love it when I have as much fun as the kids when we do something together!

Little Jay at Eastside Park, fall of 2010.

Babies always look so serious and suspicious in the sunlight.

They were quite industrious little leaf gatherers. They spent more time gathering leaves than playing in them!

They did not like looking into the sun for the age-old siblings in the leaves picture...

[little Em, Shaina, and Brad, fall of 1989]

[little Jeff and little Steph, fall of 1984-ish] 

[little Jay and baby Rose at Eastside Park, fall of 2011]

If the leaves are pretty, maybe they taste good too?

This girl feels every emotion with her WHOLE SELF.

I could hardly believe that Amber laid down so calmly when Rose pushed her over to bury her. She just laid there while Jay and Rose threw leaves all over her.

"look, Mom--no hands!" of course she got all cute right when I had put away the heavy good camera. Cell phone to the rescue!

Jay gave everyone a ride on the merry go round. Amber loved it, little daredevil.

 Jay found a stick that was as tall as Grampa Charley, and I gave Amber a ride on the swing.

Cousins.

Ahhh, a golden, mellow fall day with leaves, sunshine, and happy kids. 

Family Photos

This week I forced my family through some major photo shoots. I no professional, but I managed to get a few keepers, due more to my children's cuteness than my own photographic prowess. First came Amber, on her birthday. 

Then later that afternoon I did a sibling photo shoot with all three of my cuties. That one took a bit more work. I didn't dress the kids up in coordinating clothes or anything; I just made sure that the hair wasn't too messy and the clothes didn't clash too much and started clicking the camera. After our first seven minute session everyone came inside and I looked through the pictures. They were no good--as in nothing could be salvaged except for laughs. So I lured the kids out into the backyard a second time with the promise of candy corns if they would humor me again. I brought chairs for them to sit in and that was the magic touch. Laa! They didn't all smile angelically all at once ever, but I kind of like the more natural look we ended up with. I fed Amber Cheezits through the whole 9 minute session because it was late afternoon, the hour of cranky irrational doom for all small folk.

Attempt #1:

 I let Jay and Rose each come up with a pose to try. This was Jay's idea. 

This was Rose's pose idea. 

And yes, this was my pose idea. Well, the theory was good... 

Left: Pinterest photo pose inspiration. Right: Pinterest FAIL. There's always at least one!

Attempt #2:

Amber's Cheezit-mouth grimace: classic. 

Every time Jay or Rose said something, Amber would whip her head to the side and look.

Hands down my favorite. 

You can only ask so much of kids after 4pm... 

The next day (Thursday), Jeff and Jay had no school so I planned for us to have a little family photo shoot that afternoon at nearby Westside Park, a mile from our house. This was The Big One of the year, and after last year's multiple failures and resulting photo apathy in the kids, I was very careful in my preparation for the family photos so we could get them right the first time this year. I dug up some semi-coordinating clothes from our wardrobes. I researched family of five photo poses on Pinterest and narrowed it down to three possibilities.

We were watching good ole Spencer (age 8) on Thursday, and my plan was to put him to work: set the camera on the tripod, use the remote control trigger to take pictures, and have Spencer jump around behind the camera to get the kids to look and smile. Then at the last minute Jeff's sister Steph called for a favor and ended up volunteering to come help, like the all-star she is. Her two small energetic kiddos were asleep in the car, so it was perfect timing. I was overjoyed. We've never had a real person take our fall family pictures before! So we handed Steph the big camera on the auto portrait setting and had her push the button. It was WAY easier than positioning the tripod and using the remote! And my Pinterest pose research actually paid off for once--I skipped over all of the adorable fancy ones and picked simple, realistic poses that we could assemble quickly.

We only had to do five or six takes before we were done. It was a miracle. Of course every time we broke up the pose to check the pictures, the kids scattered far and wide to the playground and it took a while to gather them up again. That's the only reason this thing took more than ten minutes. As usual, the pictures weren't perfect, but I figure it was the best we could do in fifteen minutes as amateurs. We even found a pretty tree to stand by in the park, even though the few trees we do have in our town have not been quite as vibrant as usual this autumn. Last year I withheld the Christmas card photo until after the cards had been mailed, but this year I'm posting all of them. You never know which one will be on the card--I don't even know yet!

Happy sigh.