And the Winner is…

 …Matthew! Daniel was in braces for just over a year. Nathan’s took a year and a half. Matthew sped through his in 9 months. And today was liberation day! Kevin and Matthew stopped on the way home and my fifteen-year-old very happily gobbled up some Starburst. For him, it was like getting back a long lost, always reliable, food allergy aware best friend. He was also introduced to a super tasty new friend. Between the time he went into braces and now, the cross-contact info on hi-chews has changed and they are no longer a potential threat to his life. We were super excited when we discovered that a few months ago, and today was tasting day. Matthew loves them. Pretty much the only downside to the braces coming off is that it is going to take him a little time to adjust his embouchure so he can play his trumpet again. 😉

Lest We Forget

Matthew and Malia are on spring break, so today we took an outing. We drove to Delta and visited the Topaz internment camp site and museum. The forced gathering and movement of hundreds of thousands of people of Japanese descent away from the west coast just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 is not something I learned about in school. In fact, I had no idea it had even occurred until I was an adult. And I’m not the only one. This egregious violation of freedom is not one that is taught in the schools, at least none that Kevin or I or any of our children have attended. It is also one of those things that should not be forgotten. A full two thirds of those who were forced to leave their homes, jobs, possessions, and everything they knew were American citizens. None of them had done anything wrong or given any indication they intended to do so. Their only crime was having Japanese blood and heritage.

The museum is pretty new. It opened in 2015. The internment camps (Topaz is one of ten) existed from 1941-1945, so this is a story that has been waiting a long time to be told. And while the buildings on the actual site were all dismantled and sold off after the closure of the camp, the gravel roads, cement foundations of the sturdier buildings and a variety of other landmarks remain. We didn’t realize that we would be able to drive and walk through the real site, all of which is open to do so. There are signs detailing what each section was used for and we were able to get a really good idea of how big the camp was. It was bigger than we realized, although still much too small for the 8300 people it housed. It was also very windy and cold, one of the weather extremes that happens in our desert climate.

The museum held many items and one of the things that struck me was how the people interred there used whatever they could find to create objects both useful and beautiful. They repurposed shipping crates into furniture and made beautiful art out of the tiny shells that are evidence of an ancient sea covering our state. While their situation was difficult to say the least, they created as much of joy and beauty as they could.

These are stories that should not be forgotten. When I take a good look at the world we are living in, I desperately want to think that such violations of freedom won’t happen again in our country. Although there are times when I doubt, ultimately, I have to let hope take the reins and trust that as long as we remember the mistakes of the past, we will be less likely to repeat them. 

Texas Extras

The members of the ward where Nathan is currently serving in Texas are amazing. The ward mission leader’s wife contacted me a week or so ago, about five seconds after Nathan was transferred into their ward. She wanted a few pictures and some details about Nathan that she could share with the ward on their Facebook page. She introduces each new missionary to their ward so the members can get to know them a bit. She also asked about some of his favorite treats. She told me they would be feeding the missionaries on Easter and planned to fill an Easter basket for each of them. 

This evening the same sister sent me some pictures of Nathan enjoying the holiday at their home. She fed him and his companion and assembled some amazing Easter baskets for them. They are far fancier than the ones I filled for my kids here and she got all of Nathan’s favorites in there. I am enormously touched. As a missionary mama, I am so grateful to know that there are other mamas taking care of my kid. 💗

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Although we have fun with all the egg and bunny themed things we do around this time each year, we have a tendency to do all those things before the actual holiday. We do have chocolate bunnies and jellybeans on Sunday, but we try to focus on the Savior and the real reason Easter is so important to us. Each year I include some kind of reminder of Christ in the kids’ Easter baskets. This year I tucked a replica of an ancient Israeli clay lamp in their baskets, the kind that would have been used in the time of the Savior’s earthly life. It was a different kind of reminder of Christ, one that looks forward to his second coming rather than one that looks back to his atonement and resurrection. I wrote a letter explaining why I selected this particular item so they could refer back to it later on, and thought I should include that letter at the end of this post.

As I have studied about the Savior and the atonement this week, my heart has been full of gratitude and love for my Savior. I have been enveloped by reassurances via the Spirit that what I have read is true. I could struggle to find the right words, or I can simply quote Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf whose words touched me to the point of tears earlier this week:

“Because of Jesus Christ, we will rise from the despair of death and embrace those we love, shedding tears of overwhelming joy and overflowing gratitude. Because of Jesus Christ, we will exist as eternal beings, worlds without end.

Because of Jesus the Christ, our sins can not only be erased; they can be forgotten.

We can become purified and exalted.

Holy.

Because of our beloved Savior, we can forever drink from the fountain of water that springs up into eternal life. We can dwell forever in the mansions of our eternal King, in unimaginable glory and perfect happiness… 

…I testify that the most important day in the history of mankind was the day when Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, won the victory over death and sin for all of God’s children. And the most important day in your life and mine is the day when we learn to “behold the man”; when we see Him for who He truly is; when we partake with all our heart and mind of His atoning power; when with renewed enthusiasm and strength, we commit to follow Him. May that be a day that recurs over and over again throughout our lives.”

Amen. As Nathan would say, “The book is blue. The gospel’s true.” 

April 17, 2022

Easter Sunday

This year’s Easter reminder of the Savior needs a bit of explanation. As the signs of the times have become ever more apparent in the past several years, I have found that the parable of the ten virgins has become one of my spiritual focal points. While some parables teach about believers vs. non-believers, this parable is about the members of the church. It teaches that many members of the church won’t be spiritually prepared when the Savior returns and as such, will be left bereft of some of the choicest blessings the Lord has promised us. I want to be among the number that is prepared to meet the Savior and want our family there with me, so I’ve tried to keep in mind the reality that time is growing short (Pres. Nelson has been quite clear on that) and that I need to be a follower of Christ and not just a member of the church. (Thank you, Daniel, for that concise description.)

As usual, when a gospel principle resonates in my heart, I like to have an image or some kind of reminder to keep that principle fresh in my mind as I go about my day-to-day life. However, I have never seen a painting of the parable of the ten virgins that I really love. I’ve looked and continue to keep my eyes open, but nothing has every really clicked for me.

In about November, Sis. Whosit taught relief society. She was talking about the parable of the ten virgins and shared a visual aid with us. She had visited Jerusalem with her sister several years ago and while she was there, she purchased a replica of the ancient Israeli lamps that the women in the parable would have used. The lamp was tiny, small enough to fit right in the palm of her hand. She explained that when filled with oil and equipped with a wick, the lamp would give off light, but not a lot of light. Just enough to light the face of the person carrying the lamp and perhaps enough to show the bearer one step in front of them. The meager amount of light given from such a tiny lamp is the reason every person needed their own lamp. 

Sis. Whosit then turned to talk of the oil filling the lamp. The small amount of oil that each lamp can hold is not enough to allow it to burn throughout the night. It would need to be refilled in order for the lamp to burn until daylight. Then she brought out the oil jar that would accompany the lamp. Again, it was tiny, fitting easily in one hand. The amount of oil in the jar would fill the lamp once so that between the full lamp and the one jar of oil, the light would last through the night.

As I pondered what she had shared with us, I realized that the reason the five prepared virgins did not share oil with those who were unprepared is not because they were feeling mean or spiteful. It was not that they didn’t care about these other women. It was not because they were selfish or un-Christlike. It was because they literally could not share or they themselves would not have what they needed to be prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom.

With that, the little lamp became a reminder of what that parable means for us. Each and every one of us must have our own testimonies. We must all make and keep our own covenants with the Lord. Each of us must individually search out the Savior and develop our own relationship with him. Each of us must make the choices that will allow us to become a little bit more Christlike every day. Each of must do the work necessary to become truly converted, true disciples of Christ. In short, each of us must take responsibility for our own salvation. 

Of course, we are all here to help each other along the covenant path. That is a key element of the gospel, a part of the covenants we make, and an undeniable part of developing a Christlike nature. We are responsible to teach others, helping them however we can in their journey towards the Savior, loving unconditionally and striving always to show greater charity. But my firm belief will never be enough to save another person. I can only seek to help them come to believe on their own.

So hold this little lamp. Ponder on what having oil for your lamp means. Allow your daily actions of prayer, scripture study, ministering to others, and keeping your covenants fill your lamp one drop at a time. Let your heart be softened and changed every day that you may be more fully converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then, turn outwards and seek to help others fill their lamps as well. With love and compassion, willingly become the Lord’s hands on the earth and a better servant in his service. As each of us does so and becomes a bit more Christlike in the process, we will all be counted among those who are prepared when the Savior comes. 

Love, 

Mom and Dad

A-Hunting We Will Go

The past several years have seen Malia doing a solo Easter egg hunt. We blame that solely on COVID. This year, with things finally edging more towards normalcy, my mom wanted to see everyone for Easter. For us, Easter Sunday is spent at home with Kevin’s parents joining us for dinner, so we decided to gather with my clan on Saturday for an egg hunt and lunch. We ended up being small in numbers, my parents, Esther, Rachael and Dave and three of their kids, and me and my little crew minus Nathan, were the only ones in attendance. While my mom would have liked to see everyone, the smaller numbers actually made things a bit calmer, which was nice. 

Daniel, Matthew and Drew hid all the eggs for Malia, Kate and Sam to find. They were pretty clever in terms of hiding places and had to give a few hints to the younger crew. I had stuffed the majority of the plastic eggs with tiny stuffed animals and some little squishy animals that are all the rage right now with the elementary school set. The stuffed animals were far and away the most favored though, with even Matthew claiming a tiny lion as his own.

We also took the opportunity to have a small celebration for my mom’s birthday, which was two days ago. I made her a coconut bundt cake and fancied it up to have an Easter theme. Two birds, one stone, right? Anyway, it was a super simple cake with super simple decorations, and it was delicious. I haven’t made this particular cake for a long time and had forgotten how moist it is. My little crew and I have decided that we need to revisit some old favorites for our FHE treats for awhile instead of trying new things as there are many little gems buried in the depths of my cookbook.

It’s always nice to be able to gather with family. I think that in times past I took that for granted, but that is one more thing that COVID has changed. Like so many other things, being cut off from family and friends for so long has opened my eyes to what a blessing it is to be able to gather with the ones we love. 

And as a side note, Malia did in fact make Jell-o eggs this evening.

Egg-stravaganza

Easter is in a few days and the kids are on spring break, so we spent the day participating in some fun Easter themed activities. In fact, it was a threefold egg themed activity day. First up was decorating Easter egg pancakes. The pancakes were carrot cake pancakes, one of my springtime favorites, and were topped with an assortment of berries, cream cheese syrup, and whipped cream. It was an egg-ceptionally delicious way to start the day. And we all had a nice serving of veggies for breakfast. 😉

The second phase of today’s egg-tivities was making sunbutter eggs. Think chocolate dipped peanut butter eggs, but sunflower seed butter instead which makes them safe for my nut allergy kids. I made these once years ago thinking Matthew would like them, but when he wouldn’t eat them, I opted not to make them again. I thought they were delightful, but I absolutely did not need to eat an entire recipe all by myself. Last month, Matthew was browsing through my recipes and happened to come across this one. He got egg-cited and wanted to try them. In his defense, he was still really young the last time we tried these, and he is a lot better about trying new foods nowadays, so we gave it a go. Matthew is egg-static about our results. He loves these eggs. Malia doesn’t like the white chocolate dipped ones, but she does like the ones dipped in normal chocolate. Her reasoning is that the sunbutter tastes weird and the normal chocolate covers up the flavor better. But the rest of us enjoy them, so I’m not worried about them not being eaten. 

We finished up our eggs-tra busy day by coloring eggs. Matthew wasn’t interested in joining us, but Malia and I had fun. She was egg-static about some of her results, and had to rotate eggs in the cute egg cups so we could take pictures of all the ones she thought turned out egg-celent. She told me she wished we had more egg cups so she could showcase all her special eggs at one time, but the cups were an impulse purchase in Hobby Lobby just because they were cute which meant that I didn’t give much thought to how many she might want. We rectified the problem by simply rotating the eggs in the cups and taking multiple pictures. And she was nice enough to include my lovely jade green egg with curving stripes in her gallery. 

It has been a super fun day, but I’m a little bit eggs-hausted. I’m looking forward to putting my feet up and watching “Easter Parade” this evening. That hasn’t always been a tradition, but I think it should be. I mean, how is a ritual viewing of a classic starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire not an egg-cellent idea? After such a busy day, it is egg-zactly what the doctor ordered!

And as if we don’t have enough egg in our faces, the kids want to eggs-tend the fun by making Jell-O eggs tomorrow. 😂

Happy Little Catz

The PTA at our elementary school sponsors the Battle of the Books competition (Everyone uses the acronym BOB instead of the actual name) nearly every spring. Although Malia has been old enough to participate for several years, last month was her first opportunity to actually experience the “battle” part. In 2020, the COVID induced shutdown began less than a week before the competition was scheduled to occur. In 2021, the schools were not holding any assemblies or whole school activities due to COVID, so the PTA cancelled the entire thing. After losing those opportunities, Malia was extra excited to participate this year.

All the kids who are interested in participating in BOB are organized into teams of five for the competition. Each team selects a name, draws a team poster, divides up the books so at least one team member reads each of the twenty books, and meets together regularly to prep for the competition. Each member of Malia’s team was assigned to read four books, but I made a deal with Malia. I challenged her to read all twenty books and if she did, I promised to take her out to dinner and a movie. She found that highly motivating and did in fact read all twenty books. While she enjoyed most of the books, there were a few she did not. But I feel like it was a great experience because she was exposed to a variety of genres, some of which she would never have selected on her own.

A week or so before the competition, her team, which had selected the name BOBcats as their name, was informed that another team had chosen the same name. As a result, Malia and her teammates had to come up with a new name. I love the humor of this little group of kids because they named themselves “The BOB Ross Catz.” And yes, they do in fact know who Bob Ross is. (If you don’t, google him. It’s pretty entertaining.) As a part of their competition preparations, they had to create a poster for their team, one that they all worked on together. The competition was a month ago, but the team posters were sent home today. One of Malia’s teammates was supposed to have the honor of keeping the poster, but when he told them he didn’t want it, Malia was more than happy to volunteer to keep it. (Yes, she is a packrat. She tries to keep everything she ever touches, and it contributes to the massive mess that is her bedroom.) I had not seen the poster prior to today, and it made me laugh. Out loud. Those kids are funny.

Oh, and they did great in the competition. They made it to the semi-finals. Woot for their hard work and preparation!

Texas Extras

Sometimes Nathan shares pictures with us that aren’t included in his emails. He’s kind of all about business in his emails and lets his guard down a bit with us, so I though including these “extras” would be fun!

"We exercised this morning. We did a NUTS workout that left us all DEAD today. It took 30 mins and was about a bazillion burpees haha."

Nathan and his companion ate most of the missionary peeps Malia and I made. They did share some with the Hermanas though.

"Look at these fun games we saw in Walmart haha. You are beginning to see why the saying 'only in Texas' is a thing."