Valentines

Emma had so much fun making Valentines for all her classmates. She has a crush on Eric so naturally that was the first one she worked on. Helping her brought back so many memories of when I did the same thing!

Compromise

Emma: "Mommy, I want to take a bath."
Me: "You have to eat dinner first."
Emma: "No, I want to take a bath first."
Me: "No, You need to eat dinner NOW."
Emma: "But I want to take a bath really bad!"
Me: "No. You know what? Fine. I don't have the energy for this. Eat while you're in the bath then."

Say What?

I was looking at O magazine while waiting at a doctor's appointment the other day and came across this picture of this woman, Crystal Renn. The article said she's a Plus Size model.

She's a Plus Size? Says Who? No wonder so many women have issues about their appearance in our society! Rubbish I tell you! Absolute Rubbish!

Jeffrey R Holland:

We should all be as fit as we can be—that’s good Word of Wisdom doctrine. That means eating right and exercising and helping our bodies function at their optimum strength. We could probably all do better in that regard. But I speak here of optimum health; there is no universal optimum size.

Frankly, the world has been brutal with you in this regard. You are bombarded in movies, television, fashion magazines, and advertisements with the message that looks are everything! The pitch is, “If your looks are good enough, your life will be glamorous and you will be happy and popular.” That kind of pressure is immense in the teenage years, to say nothing of later womanhood. In too many cases too much is being done to the human body to meet just such a fictional (to say nothing of superficial) standard. As one Hollywood actress is reported to have said recently: “We’ve become obsessed with beauty and the fountain of youth. … I’m really saddened by the way women mutilate [themselves] in search of that. I see women [including young women] … pulling this up and tucking that back. It’s like a slippery slope. [You can’t get off of it.] … It’s really insane … what society is doing to women.”

A woman not of our faith once wrote something to the effect that in her years of working with beautiful women she had seen several things they all had in common, and not one of them had anything to do with sizes and shapes. She said the loveliest women she had known had a glow of health, a warm personality, a love of learning, stability of character, and integrity. If we may add the sweet and gentle Spirit of the Lord carried by such a woman, then this describes the loveliness of women in any age or time, every element of which is emphasized in and attainable through the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Exercise, Eat Right, Be Healthy, Be Happy.

I need to do a new post but I can't think of anything. I guess I can just ramble on about stuff. . . let's see. . .
I started counting my calories last week so I can feel somewhat confident when swim suit season comes. And I've been working out 5 days a week for the last 3 weeks. Progress is slow, nonetheless. But the Biggest Loser has inspired me to never give up! I grew up in the same stake as Koli who is on the show this season. Cool guy. Speaking of weight loss, my little sister has been doing a liquid diet since October! No food. Zip, Zilch, Nada. Not even on Christmas. Not sure how much weight she's lost exactly, but I hear she looks FABULOUS! I am so impressed by her. I would have lasted about 4.5 hours on that diet.

I was thinking the other day about whoever our Christmas Elves were. If you're reading this I want to say thank you again. It makes me feel loved, even now, knowing that we are pretty poor and yet that didn't stop you from showing us love. It makes me feel accepted even though we feel like we stand out like a sore thumb in a ward where people are pretty squared away financially. (Ok, I guess realistically we're not the only ones who struggle, but it feels like it sometimes!)

I'm taking a teacher development course at church taught by Brother Swim and I'm loving it. Not just for the training, but because he is a really neat person and I look forward to hearing from him each week. He's real, which I appreciate. He even swears in class! How often do you see that in the Mormon church? ha ha!

I'm wondering about having more children and when. Emma will be 6 and Brooke will be 4 this summer, but we are nowhere near ready for another one. If Alan wasn't in law school and he had a full time job, I probably would have had another one by now, or there would be one on the way. Part of me is really sad about that, and the ever-widening gap that will be between our first two children and our third. We actually tried for a few months in the Fall but then realized we were under way too much stress financially and it would be "running faster than we are able." And I would have very little help since Alan is gone so much, and we live in a 2 bedroom apartment, and we can't afford a car big enough, and we're still paying off the hospital bill from when Brooke was born, and I'd probably end up in the nut house, etc. So that's my dilemma with that. I think the fact that we didn't get pregnant was actually divine intervention cause the Lord knows we can't handle it right now. I guess it's ok though cause most days I feel like 2 kids keeps me plenty busy and crazy and wishing for more "me" time, anyway.

Well, those are some of my random thoughts. Ta Ta for now!

Tim Tebow

Did you watch the Super Bowl yesterday? I did. My favorite part was learning about Tim Tebow from the Colt's, and his awesome example being a young athlete who is not afraid or ashamed to share his belief in God. Did you see the commercial he and his mother were in that the liberals made such a big deal about? Basically it was pro-life/ celebrate life, and sponsored by "Focus on the Family." It was simple and tastefully done. Not sure what all the hoopla was about. Some of the comments about it on the internet intrigue me. One person said, "Focus on the Family and Jesus Christ should stay out of people's personal lives."

Wow.

If they only knew how deeply Jesus Christ is in fact very involved in the personal life of every single person who has ever lived or will ever live. And how He is intimately acquainted with the details of every person's trials, weaknesses, sicknesses, sins, and more, through the atonement. It's not possible for the person who created you, bought and paid for you, and grants your every breath, to stay out of your personal life.

They don't know Him and therefore they don't care, but one day Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ.

Remember that.

Fireproof

If you haven't heard of the movie Fireproof, I'm here to tell you about it! It's a must see in my book! It's a Christian movie about a firefighter (Kirk Cameron from "Growing Pains") trying to rescue his marriage which is headed for divorce. We watched it last weekend and it was awesome. I loved the song in the video above, too. I can relate to it right now. I'm sure we all can in our own way.

And I've discovered I have a passion for supporting these wonderful Christians who are making good, honorable movies and music.