Do you ever have one of those moments where you are just so embarrassed that you are doing what you are doing, but you do it anyways? I did. Just a few weeks ago, I stood in front of a woman that I barely knew embarrassing myself to no end. Yet I didn't stop. Amazingly enough this wonderful and talented person shares a first name with me. The other Jennifer has a beautiful singing voice and I am in awe of it really. Over a year ago I heard her singing "Do you want build a snowman" to her daughter when she picked her up from watch care. I thought of how lucky her daughter was and then picked my daughter up with a shrug knowing she would never get any awe inspiring song from her mother.
So how did I embarrass myself. Well I talked about a new Selena Gomez song of course. I told the other Jennifer that she needed to redo the video because I wanted a different set of visuals for the song. You may all roll your eyes now because I rolled my eyes when I first started liking the song, "The heart wants what it wants". Why would a thirty something happily married woman like this song you may wonder? I really do love this song. Well I had to do some deep soul searching to figure out why. Watching the video on YouTube did nothing to help me in my quest to discover my true feelings for the song. It seems to tell Selena Gomez's woes with man trouble. The beginning is particularly heart wrenching. However, I do not share her current predicament.
On my way to meet up with a bunch of military spouses, I heard the song again and it was as if a light bulb in my head clicked and I finally understood why I could relate and like the song. The line in the chorus: "The bed's getting cold and you're not here" is really the crux of my liking the song. That is one sentence all military spouses can relate to. Our spouse can be gone for a day, week, month, or even year. Often our bed is cold.
So there I stood almost begging this beautiful woman to be my friend and do a new video for the this song where it focuses on military spouses. I can picture the intro in my head: the wife is standing there in her best clothes hugging her husband who is dressed in his deployment camo uniform. They are holding on tight and then gradually let go of each other inch by inch until only their fingers are touching. Then he goes off to join the ranks of soldiers and the tears slide down her face. "You got me sippin' on something I can't compare to nothing I've ever known, I'm hoping that after this fever I'll survive...." The words of the song fit perfectly to the moment a woman has to say good-bye to her husband for a deployment. Then during the chorus you see her in bed by herself looking at a picture of her husband followed by a clip of him out in harms way fighting a battle. "The bed's getting cold and you're not here the future that we hold is so unclear But I'm not alive until you call and I'll bet the odds against it all"
Hopefully now you are getting the picture. I love how Selena Gomez's song fits perfectly to a military spouse dealing with deployment...."The heart wants what it wants." Now I just need to find someone to do the video who maybe might not think I am crazy. I know I can not pull it off with my tone deaf singing voice.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Sunday, March 1, 2015
I will do what you want me to do oh Lord
At the beginning of the year, I was contemplating the goals I made the previous year. It was another one of those years that I failed to achieve the goals I had written at the beginning of the year. As I thought about why I had failed this year, I realized that I hadn't consulted the Lord before making them. I had no idea what my year would be like and as the year progressed I never once thought or looked at them again after February. Well maybe a fleeting thought about the one where I would do an unassisted pull up. That's it though.
So this year, I thought I would try a different tactic. The first Sunday in January I fasted and asked the Lord what He wanted me to do this year. That night our family sat down and made some goals for the year. Then we posted them on the fridge. I am not going to lie, it is just barely March and I am already struggling with some of them. It wasn't the goals that I wrote down that were an answer to that prayer, of that I am certain. After we put the kids to bed that night, I was reading stuff on the Internet and wondering how people contributed to some of these sites. I did some digging and found myself signing into a site dedicated to people who want to write.
The only problem was that you had to join different focus groups in the site to write or suggest an article to one of the groups. For the next few days I could not get the thought out of my head that I needed to write an article on one of my former ward's seminary group. They had started an Armor of God challenge that was truly inspiring. By the end of January, the article was written and published. I can honestly say that the Lord wanted me to do that and led me every step of the way. Here it is:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=210&sid=33071082
Since then I have written two different book reviews, one was published so far:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865623063/Book-review-The-Healer-merges-Welsh-legends-spiritual-gifts-in-speculative-novel.html?pg=all#8lF1Om5U28iHlbZJ.01
Yet I still feel the pull to continue writing and as I feel inspired to write about different subjects, I will. I am not sure what path the Lord is leading me on, but I will follow. I will do what He wants me to do because I know He has a master plan that I don't understand. I just have one step, that is all.
Now I am not going to pretend that writing is easy for me, honestly I have pulled my hair out and felt a knot in my chest from the anxiety of it. Also, life is not easy and I don't have a ton of time for this. In fact my house is often messy and my stress level has sky rocketed the last few months. The writing has just added to many other stresses and commitments that I already have. Which leads me to believe that whenever you truly try to turn your life over to the Lord, Satan works so very hard on you. Satan has been working hard. No fear, I am fighting back and as long as I keep the Lord on my side we will win.
So no matter what battles you are facing keep the Lord on your side and follow His plan for your life. Trust me, He has much better intel on the big picture. You just have a little small pixel of information.
So this year, I thought I would try a different tactic. The first Sunday in January I fasted and asked the Lord what He wanted me to do this year. That night our family sat down and made some goals for the year. Then we posted them on the fridge. I am not going to lie, it is just barely March and I am already struggling with some of them. It wasn't the goals that I wrote down that were an answer to that prayer, of that I am certain. After we put the kids to bed that night, I was reading stuff on the Internet and wondering how people contributed to some of these sites. I did some digging and found myself signing into a site dedicated to people who want to write.
The only problem was that you had to join different focus groups in the site to write or suggest an article to one of the groups. For the next few days I could not get the thought out of my head that I needed to write an article on one of my former ward's seminary group. They had started an Armor of God challenge that was truly inspiring. By the end of January, the article was written and published. I can honestly say that the Lord wanted me to do that and led me every step of the way. Here it is:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=210&sid=33071082
Since then I have written two different book reviews, one was published so far:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865623063/Book-review-The-Healer-merges-Welsh-legends-spiritual-gifts-in-speculative-novel.html?pg=all#8lF1Om5U28iHlbZJ.01
Yet I still feel the pull to continue writing and as I feel inspired to write about different subjects, I will. I am not sure what path the Lord is leading me on, but I will follow. I will do what He wants me to do because I know He has a master plan that I don't understand. I just have one step, that is all.
Now I am not going to pretend that writing is easy for me, honestly I have pulled my hair out and felt a knot in my chest from the anxiety of it. Also, life is not easy and I don't have a ton of time for this. In fact my house is often messy and my stress level has sky rocketed the last few months. The writing has just added to many other stresses and commitments that I already have. Which leads me to believe that whenever you truly try to turn your life over to the Lord, Satan works so very hard on you. Satan has been working hard. No fear, I am fighting back and as long as I keep the Lord on my side we will win.
So no matter what battles you are facing keep the Lord on your side and follow His plan for your life. Trust me, He has much better intel on the big picture. You just have a little small pixel of information.
Choose The Right activity BEAN BOOZLED Style
Warning this is not an activity idea for those with a weak stomach and instant gag reflux. That being said, it is fun and such a great way to teach an awesome concept.
Harry Potter jelly beans have been around for a while and though I have been tempted to try them, their expense and the thought of eating a nasty jelly bean has always deterred me. Then a few months ago when my husband showed the family a you-tube video with a couple sisters taking the Bean boozled challenge I was once again not interested. However, my sweet 10 year old daughter was and begged me to do it. Her friends did it on a day she couldn't participate and it filled her with more angst and longing. The begging continued. I still had no interest whatsoever.
Yet when inspiration struck me while trying to plan activity day activities for the year I added a Bean Boozled choose the right activity to the list of options for the girls. Somehow they chose it So we had the activity and this is how it went (add the dramatic pause and dun dun dun):
It started out nice and calm, we sang Choose the right (found here https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/choose-the-right?lang=eng) Then I had everyone tell me what they thought agency meant and what it means to be responsible for our choices. Since the girls are all between 8 -11 years old, many did not know what agency meant or what being responsible for our choices would entail either. We discussed how agency is the ability to choose for ourselves what we want to do. However, with each choice there are consequences good and bad. When we make a choice sometimes we know the consequence and sometimes we don't. Either way we need to accept the consequence of our behavior and learn from it.
After our discussion we took the Beanboozled challenge. I had previously divided the different colored jelly beans into bags. Bean boozled jelly beans come in 10 different colors and 20 different flavors. Each color has a good and a bad jelly bean. You don't know whether you are going to get a good one or a bad one. Examples of the flavors and their mates include licorice/skunk spray, baby wipes/coconut, barf/peach, toothpaste/berry blue, etc. Each of the girls had the choice whether or not they wanted to participate and each of them had a cup to spit the gross one out into. We took turns spinning the wheel that would tell us the next color we would try and then taking a jelly bean. All together we tried our jelly beans and either ate or spit out the one we received. Unfortunately for me and Sister Stephens (the other leader) we got only one good one each.
Let me tell you the bad ones were just absolutely horrid. They really did taste like real skunk spray or real barf. It was so gross and by the end I was gingerly biting into those things to avoid as much of them in my teeth as possible. The absolute worst part is that the cups got smellier and smellier and the room really started to reek. Girls were going to water fountains and one poor young 7 year old boy came to try it out with us and threw up. So there is a reason I warn you. Amazingly enough the girls absolutely loved it. Also, you might not think baby wipes sounds bad, but it is....it really is. That one surprised me the most.
I would recommend a prompt removal to an outside trash all the cups because the smell was horrendous. It took everything I had not to loose my dinner while cleaning up the messy remains.
To wrap it up I pulled out a little box of all the good jelly bean flavors and the diagram that tells you exactly what you are getting. Then we discussed how making good choices that include reading your scriptures, praying, fasting, and going to church can be like a guide for us. That these choices help us stay close to the Lord and can be like the diagram that gives you a much better idea of what you are getting. I bore my testimony that making good choices really does help you develop greater faith and trust in the Lord. It doesn't always end up perfect, but He brings peace to all things.
So if you are crazy enough to give this a try, go right ahead. Hopefully, it left an impression with these wonderful girls.
Here is what a bad jelly bean reaction looks like. It was pretty funny to watch.
Harry Potter jelly beans have been around for a while and though I have been tempted to try them, their expense and the thought of eating a nasty jelly bean has always deterred me. Then a few months ago when my husband showed the family a you-tube video with a couple sisters taking the Bean boozled challenge I was once again not interested. However, my sweet 10 year old daughter was and begged me to do it. Her friends did it on a day she couldn't participate and it filled her with more angst and longing. The begging continued. I still had no interest whatsoever.
Yet when inspiration struck me while trying to plan activity day activities for the year I added a Bean Boozled choose the right activity to the list of options for the girls. Somehow they chose it So we had the activity and this is how it went (add the dramatic pause and dun dun dun):
It started out nice and calm, we sang Choose the right (found here https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/choose-the-right?lang=eng) Then I had everyone tell me what they thought agency meant and what it means to be responsible for our choices. Since the girls are all between 8 -11 years old, many did not know what agency meant or what being responsible for our choices would entail either. We discussed how agency is the ability to choose for ourselves what we want to do. However, with each choice there are consequences good and bad. When we make a choice sometimes we know the consequence and sometimes we don't. Either way we need to accept the consequence of our behavior and learn from it.
After our discussion we took the Beanboozled challenge. I had previously divided the different colored jelly beans into bags. Bean boozled jelly beans come in 10 different colors and 20 different flavors. Each color has a good and a bad jelly bean. You don't know whether you are going to get a good one or a bad one. Examples of the flavors and their mates include licorice/skunk spray, baby wipes/coconut, barf/peach, toothpaste/berry blue, etc. Each of the girls had the choice whether or not they wanted to participate and each of them had a cup to spit the gross one out into. We took turns spinning the wheel that would tell us the next color we would try and then taking a jelly bean. All together we tried our jelly beans and either ate or spit out the one we received. Unfortunately for me and Sister Stephens (the other leader) we got only one good one each.
Let me tell you the bad ones were just absolutely horrid. They really did taste like real skunk spray or real barf. It was so gross and by the end I was gingerly biting into those things to avoid as much of them in my teeth as possible. The absolute worst part is that the cups got smellier and smellier and the room really started to reek. Girls were going to water fountains and one poor young 7 year old boy came to try it out with us and threw up. So there is a reason I warn you. Amazingly enough the girls absolutely loved it. Also, you might not think baby wipes sounds bad, but it is....it really is. That one surprised me the most.
I would recommend a prompt removal to an outside trash all the cups because the smell was horrendous. It took everything I had not to loose my dinner while cleaning up the messy remains.
To wrap it up I pulled out a little box of all the good jelly bean flavors and the diagram that tells you exactly what you are getting. Then we discussed how making good choices that include reading your scriptures, praying, fasting, and going to church can be like a guide for us. That these choices help us stay close to the Lord and can be like the diagram that gives you a much better idea of what you are getting. I bore my testimony that making good choices really does help you develop greater faith and trust in the Lord. It doesn't always end up perfect, but He brings peace to all things.
So if you are crazy enough to give this a try, go right ahead. Hopefully, it left an impression with these wonderful girls.
Here is what a bad jelly bean reaction looks like. It was pretty funny to watch.
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