Quality Cousin Time

With the start date of his mission fast approaching, Nathan has been prioritizing family time. I had my every other week lunch with my parents today and Nathan joined me. My sister Rachael joins us for these lunches and since her youngest, Sam, is not in full time school yet, he gets to come too. Sam was only 1-year-old when Covid shut everything down which meant that by the time we were able to gather again, he didn’t remember any of us. Over the past months as we’ve been able to gather as a family more regularly, he has begun to warm up again and is at the point now where he will even talk to us, not just stare and grin (which always reminds me of Jacob, his oldest brother at this age). While Rachael and I chatted with my parents, Nathan and Sam got down on the floor with paper and markers. It was fun to see one of the tallest cousins hunker down to the height of the smallest cousin. Sam will probably have forgotten Nathan again by the time Nathan comes home in two years, but for now they were able to spend some quality time together.

The Spirit Speaks in Every Language

Today was the day that Nathan spoke in sacrament meeting in preparation for leaving on his mission. His college ASL teacher, who is deaf, was on his invite list and as such, he arranged for friends from Logan to help him interpret into ASL. Nathan signed all the hymns and I learned that the ASL community does what is called “copy signing” for the hymns. Each person copies the signing of the interpreter, thus “singing” without voices. They pray by closing their eyes, bowing their heads and then opening their eyes so they can watch the person signing or interpreting the prayer. I did the same so that I could experience just a bit of the deaf community Nathan has learned to love and I know there were others doing the same. Nathan had a friend interpret into ASL for the bulk of his talk and had another voice for him as he bore his final testimony in ASL. 

Kevin and I were sitting right behind Nathan’s professor and I have to say that I found the experience quite amazing. Nathan slips into ASL incredibly smoothly. He doesn’t struggle to remember signs and signs with ease and fluency. Facial expression is a big part of the language as it conveys meaning and Nathan is a pro at that part. As I’ve shared with him, I feel like this is what the gift of tongues looks like. He has been signing for less than three years and has shown such a natural affinity for the language that there is no doubt in my mind that he has been given a spiritual gift. 

Nathan spoke about the atonement, repentance, and testimony and how learning the signs for them has increased his understanding of each gospel principle. His understanding and love of the gospel and his desire to share it with other people and help them find the joy he finds in the gospel is the reason he is serving a mission. The way he spoke about the gospel basics and the testimony of Jesus Christ that he shared showed evidence that he is spiritually ready to serve. And his love for the deaf community is evident in his passion for their language and their way of life. The Spirit was undeniably present in the meeting. Many people commented that he already speaks like a missionary.

Nathan still has a month at home because his start date was pushed back when he passed his language evaluation with flying colors, but he opted to keep his original speaking date since he had invited people from college, his pre-college job at Harmon’s, etc. As the time drew near, he was actually really glad he would still have a month to go because it gives him time to finish his mission prep, pack up his room and visit family and friends before he goes without the added stress of needing to write a talk and speak in sacrament meeting. In addition, he felt like speaking in sacrament meeting, having one last visit with all his important people, and being set apart all in one day would be pretty overwhelming. I completely agree with him. I know he was nervous about both speaking and interpreting, but he did a fantastic job. I am incredibly proud of him, his desire to serve, his passion and excitement for the gospel, and the love he has for those around him. 

I’m glad he still has a month at home. It gives us a chance to spend a bit more time with him before he goes. I know the next four weeks will fly by, but hopefully we can have some quality family time between now and then. And maybe by then my mama heart will be prepared to lend him to the Lord and the people of Texas for a little while.

Nathan’s Reflections on the Day:

This Sunday the 30th of January I was able to speak in church as part of preparing to leave for my mission.  It was wonderful to see so many good friends and family. We all felt the Spirit in that meeting, and I personally felt fulfilled and so much peace concerning the start of my mission coming up soon!

The cool part for me, though, was bringing a bit of the Deaf Culture into our little ward meeting. My USU ASL Professor Brian Burns came down to see me speak, so a few of my friends and I (Kobe, Tait, Chelsey, and I) all worked together to ASL interpret the meeting for him. He was beaming from ear to ear at the end of the meeting and was very proud of all the work my friends and I have put in. A lot of people were fascinated seeing how the interpreting worked and seeing people sign. I signed my testimony and had a friend voice for me. I’m so grateful to have met some other awesome signers and improved my ASL skills so much before my mission. It means that I can focus on the teaching skills and teaching the gospel instead of trying to learn a language in under 2 months. I’m so excited to go serve the people in Fort Worth Texas with the wonderful language of American Sign Language! 

Say Cheese

Today was Nathan's missionary picture day. We also took the opportunity to take one last family picture before he leaves. Next full family picture: 2024. Two years seems like a long time right now.

Quality Sibling Time and Quality French Fries

Before Daniel left on his mission, he took Malia to the state fair. It was a chance for him to give her some one-on-one time before he left. With Nathan’s departure drawing near, an outing with his little sis was in order and today was the appointed day. The two of them had lunch at Crown Burger, Malia’s favorite burger joint since Carl’s Jr. jumped on the plant-based bandwagon and off her safe restaurant list. Nathan said that whoever was cooking at Crown Burger today was fantastic. The food was delicious, cooked just right. In particular, he commented that the fries were perfectly crisp and hot. I’ve never been disappointed by Crown Burger fries, so I have to wonder if they were really super extra amazing today or if Nathan’s semester of eating at McDonald’s with his roommates has given him a new appreciation for food of a higher caliber. 😜 Either way, they enjoyed their lunch immensely.

After eating they were off to paint some ceramics. We have owed Malia a trip to paint two ceramic pieces for almost two years now. She earned the first when she passed off all her multiplication facts at school. Unfortunately, that happened in the midst of the 2020 shutdown and even after things began to open back up, supply chain issues meant the pieces she was interested in painting were unavailable. She has been waiting very patiently for the world to calm down a bit, but it has been a long wait. In fact, it has been so long that I don’t even remember how she earned the second piece, which is really sad. Even today, only one of the two pieces she wanted to paint was in stock, so we are going to need to schedule another trip at some point.

But all that aside, Nathan drove her up to the ceramics studio after lunch and they spent several hours blissfully creating some art. Malia painted the horse she has had her eye on, and Nathan chose a happy little fish. The had a lovely conversation with the business owner, who Nathan said was super nice. She is a small business owner, not part of a larger chain, and based on their experience, we would gladly visit her establishment again. We’ll have to check back in occasionally to see if the dragon Malia has her eye on is in stock. Apparently, it is a popular piece and with the supply chain oddities, it was out of stock today.

I’m so glad Nathan was willing to take Malia on an adventure. The age gap between them is big which can create challenges, but she definitely misses her brothers when they are gone. I know that being the youngest can be a challenge for her as she often feels left behind and left out as the boys all move forward with their lives. But moving on is a part of life, one that Kevin and I have worked to prepare our children for. I think I understand just a bit of her sadness at being left behind since they are leaving their mother behind as well. But I wouldn’t want it any other way. And even though my little crew is beginning to scatter far and wide, we all look forward to those times when we can gather together again. In fact, my little flock is already planning a temple trip when Nathan returns home in two years. By then Malia will be old enough to do baptisms for the dead and all six of us will be able to go together. I love that the temple is the future outing they are all looking forward to the most.

In the meantime, Malia will always remember that Nathan took the time to spend a day with her and that they both had a great time. Those memories are priceless. And in less than a week, their ceramics will be ready to pick up and she will have a tangible reminder of some quality time spent with her second oldest brother.

C is for Cookie

And when I say cookie, I mean cookies. Plural. So. Many. Cookies. 

Today was cookie baking day in preparation for hosting friends and family when Nathan speaks in sacrament meeting in a couple of weeks. In honor of where he will serve his mission as well as his mission language, we have Texas shaped cookies and hand cookies forming a variety of common hand gestures and ASL letters. I made all the cookie dough in advance, so our four hours in the kitchen today was cutting and baking time. Now we have a couple of hundred cookies that will get tossed in the freezer for now. I don’t usually do labor intensive cut out cookies when I’m baking for this many people, but Nathan and I had a fantastic time creating all these goodies. And the cookies turned out super cute. It was well worth the effort.

As a side note, Nathan is my Sesame Street kid. When the cookie dough was mixed and colored, it reminded him of Cookie Monster and Elmo. It might be a bit morbid to say it looked like a couple of bowls full of Muppets, but I think he’s right. 😂

Stay True in 2022

The end of one year and the start of another is often a time for reflection and the establishing of news goals or resolutions for the new year. As I’ve pondered on this over the past several days, I don’t feel inclined to make any grand new commitments for the new year. Having said that, my lack of desire to set new goals is not because I don’t want to improve. It’s because as the Lord has guided and directed me over the past year, I have already set small goals that will help me become more Christlike and am working toward them day by day, one step at a time. My personal equation for joy (Simplify + Prioritize + Balance = Joy) has been a fantastic guiding principle this year and I intend to continue to let my own personal recipe for happiness continue to guide me in my goals and decisions. So instead of making new goals for this new year, my resolution is to stay the course, keep moving forward with faith, and continue to look to the Lord to help me find the answers to “What lack I yet?” He has never left me bereft when I’ve asked for guidance on my journey to become a true follower of Christ and I know he will continue to help me stay on the path that will lead me to the longed-for blessings of exaltation and eternal life.

All is Calm

Life can be a whirlwind running from one activity to the next, one responsibility to the next, one chore to the next. Even when I’m sitting still things are not usually calm. My mind is generally a chaotic cacophony of scheduling, to-do lists, advance planning, etc. It can get pretty noisy in there. But there are moments when I’m blessed with stillness, moments like those spent in the temple or the times during my scripture study when the Spirit is teaching me something profound. Those moments never seem to occur often enough, but I am grateful when they do.

Today was one of those moments of stillness. As I celebrated Christmas with my little flock gathered around me, there was peace and calm both surrounding me and inside my head. Everyone was happy and peaceful, just so grateful for this day we had to be together. There was laughing and joking and joy all around. There was plenty of good food all prepared in advance so there was minimal work for all on this holiday. There wasn’t even any bickering. And for once, my mind was blessedly still, not working on what is next but focusing on this moment. 

As my kids have gotten older, Christmas has become a calmer day all around. There is still plenty of excitement and anticipation and we all still look forward to seeing what Santa brought us, but things are just a bit lower key. Last year we started sharing our wish lists in a shared google doc and it was so helpful that we updated it for this year. Most of us knew what we were getting from everyone, but that didn’t make things any less fun. It was still great to watch all my loved ones open gifts and feign surprise. And knowing that they had received something they were really hoping for completely made up for the lack of secrecy. Of course, there were still a few surprises and that was just as fun as always. 

Last night was a bit of calm as well. Half of my siblings and their families were elsewhere so with only fifteen of us in attendance at my parents’ house, things were much quieter. Malia was the only youngling on hand so acting out the nativity was off the program as well. Instead, we had a musical evening with singing, piano, some trumpet and saxophone and even an ASL translation of “Silent Night.” I really enjoyed the greater peace of the evening and as the littles all continue to grow into bigs, it is something I’d like to continue. Our traditional Christmas Eve religious gifts were given once we got home and everyone got to bed at a fairly decent hour, which was nice.

As I mentioned before, today was calm. Malia was super excited and thrilled about everything, but with everyone else being a bit older, things are less chaotic. For the first time in many years, things were light on the Lego. Malia got a Lego dragon, Matthew was gifted with a Lego Ferrari, Daniel got a Star Wars themed set and I got my first ever big Lego set which was the Chinese spring lantern festival. Lego dumplings! So fun! And yes, even with four of us receiving Lego, it was a light Lego year. 😉 Kevin, Daniel, and Matthew received enough plastic models to last them for years. Malia got a variety of dragon themed items and some new sketch books. Nathan was gifted with a variety of items he will use on his mission as well as several ASL themed items just for grins and giggles. And Kev gave me a gold CTR ring, one I’ve had my eye on for years.

“Silent Night” is one of my favorite Christmas songs. For me, the stillness it invokes is the same stillness that the gospel brings. It is the “be still and know that I am God” kind of a feeling, the one where I’m completely at peace despite the turmoil around me, knowing that the Lord has everything under control. It is no big surprise that the Savior, whose birth “Silent Night” recalls, is the author of this peace. It is because of him that I can have the calm of knowing that all will be right in the end, that God will always prevail, and that if I keep my covenants and stay on the path he has set for me, I will have this stillness and the joy it brings eternally. So as my day of peace winds down, I hope I can carry this calm with me into the new year. We live in a chaotic world and being able to walk through the worldly turmoil without being caught up in it is one of the blessings of the gospel. 

Merry Christmas. May there be peace on earth and peace in our hearts.

Elf Antics

According to Malia, our elf is the best elf. She loves that Jingle Jangle is funny, but not naughty. So many families have elves that make a mess and leave havoc in their wake. Ours is mischievous from time to time, but never in a mean or destructive way. He tends towards humor and creativity rather than leaning towards felony. This year he arrived by air, flying in by paper airplane the first week of December. He spent his time with us fishing, doing some sledding, and giving us all a glimpse of how we would look if we decided to sport a mustache. He even gave Nathan a big Texas mustache so Nathan could decide if that is a look he would consider post mission. 😉 

Malia gets so excited for Jingle Jangle’s arrival each year. She gets so excited by all his antics. And every morning she gets so excited to pop out of bed and search for him.  (I wish she would be so eager to get up for the other eleven months of the year!) She is sad today because she knows that tonight Jingle Jangle will return to the North Pole, although that sadness is greatly tempered by the fact that tomorrow is Christmas. She is the last of my kids and I know that as she gets older her excitement for our elf will wane, but hopefully her affection for him will remain. He has been an important part of our Christmas celebrations for many years, and I hope that as all my kids grow up, they will remember the years he has spent with us with fondness. 

In other news, Nathan won the roommate lottery this year. They all got along really well, enjoyed each other’s company, and had a fantastic semester. They became such good friends that they sent a Christmas card together. Talk about an amazing blessing for Nathan in this first semester of college. I’m so grateful for these young men and the joy that they helped Nathan find in his first semester in college. Hopefully at least some of them will still be around when Nathan goes back to USU after his mission.