A challenge and some thoughts.

Today our Sunday School teacher ch alleged us to memorize the 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is only 7 verses. Anyone that can recite it next week will get an hour and a half scenic plan ride. Which would just be really cool. I'd love to fly over this area, (actually I'd like to hang glide over all of these mountains and I really love the Zions Cinemax movie for that reason). But even before Brother Elliott offered such a fantastic bribe I thought I would try and memorize it. Especially verse 6 which struck me with an interesting thought. First the verse

D&C 4:6 Remember faith,virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.

My first observation was that it reminded me of the Young Women theme, which I can still rattle off pdq. Next I started giving myself a personal review using this checklist. Faith- I've got that one, understand what it is, etc. Virtue, once again check. Knowledge, hmm knowledge is one that I all too easily put on the shelf- just because I'm a mommy now doesn't mean I need to stop learning, I'd like to find ways to keep expanding my knowledge. Temperance ??? Patience, oh yes I've heard of that- you shouldn't actually pray for it because it will be tried(reeeaaallly tried), right? Brotherly Kindness I'm always reminding my kids about this one. Godliness, Charity, Humility,- pretty sure I understand what all of these can entail. And I'm not there yet, have no expectations of being 'done' with any of them. These are a day by day, drop by drop set of standards. Diligence- I guess this is what I use to try and apply all of the previously mentioned ones. Diligence is definitely a necessity if you want any of the others.
But back to Temperance, aren't Temperance and Patience redundant? This is what really made me stop and think, and they are thoughts I'd like to share. Temperance. When glass, chocolate, and other things are tempered heat is applied as part of the process. The end result smooth and even. Tempered. even. smooth. consistent. Aha I GET it. I understand the definition of TEMPER. You know- the one which I have a family and personal history of just losing. Patience is the ability to wait and not worry, which really has very little to do with Temperance. I can be pretty patient and wait for good things. I'm not perfect at it, especially if I'm hungry and it smells good. But Patience I actually have a reasonable amount of. Temperance is another story. To have Temperance I need to be smooth, even, and consistent. That which is truly tempered does not crack and break easily, it can withstand more than the untempered. If I have Temperance I am not going to start taking my personal dissappointments out on others. My voice will remain steady and even, it will not shriek. My actions will reflect forethought and action, not reaction to the moment. My actions will be consistent. My jaw will not tense up along with the rest of me.

From now on instead of praying for Patience I am going to be more honest and ask that I can be more Tempered. I will keep in mind that being Tempered requires HEAT, stirring, and TIME. I'm also going to take Brother Elliott up on that challenge. I'm rather hoping that my whole family will be able to go, I think the kids would like it too.

Size 14

I just bought a pair of size 14 Levi's at the DI. For me. They were a bit snug, and I don't know if Levi's tend to be vanity sized or what, but I put them on and zipped and buttoned them. HOLY MOLEY they fit!! Trying them on was almost exactly like the Special K commercial where the girl is trying on jeans and sucking it in. Fully expecting them not to fit, then voila! There they are on the body and they fit, really fit. For a little perspective the last time I went and bought myself a new pair of jeans to be skinny jean I bought a size 20. The 20s that used to be my skinny jeans are now my fat jeans. And I really really need to get rid of the 24s, they are rather ridiculous to be wearing. 14s, I still can't get over it. It is usually awkward for me to talk about my weight loss, because being excited about a 14 means admitting I used to wear 24s. But right now I really don't care. I'm so excited to be in a size 14, officially out of plus sizes. I still have 30 pounds to lose, but I can lose that by my birthday, or by Halloween at the latest. I don't remember when I last was this size, I remember hitting 180 by the time I was sixteen. I'm below (BELOW!!) 170 now. I honestly never used to even imagine getting down to 140, and now it is totally there on the horizon. Fully visible on the left side of the scale when I step on it. Not even all the way to the left. But even if I do get stalled in this process, I'm a 14- a FOURTEEN. Yes I'm shouting, I can't help it I'm just so thrilled. I'm pretty sure I yelled it in the dressing room at DI yesterday too, along with a little dance. So I figured I'd should just go ahead and share it here, now I can get it out of my system and get back to business. The business of kicking the next 30 pounds.

Simple Pleasures from my kids

What simple pleasures can I find every day? Well my children provide plenty

Willie- with his little one toothed grin, he is an absolute joy. He is most content in the arms of his parents. He is so observant, his eyes are like little bright sponges- they soak it all in. His laugh, his smile, his little baby voice babbling away. What is he trying to tell us?



Harvey- Aaahh my Harvey boy. He tells us several times a day that he loves his WHOLE family. I think my favorite thing right now is his little mispronunciations, they are sweet but I know he will outgrow them soon. Willie is pronounced with an 'L' at the front. Huggy, checky, a lot of ee sounds at the end of a word. Tonight he sat on my lap while listening to scriptures, reached over and patted Willie's head and said 'Oh Lillie I'm you big brother'. Harvey is always trying to save us from the monsters- he is a hero, a superboy, a GOOD GUY.



Abby- My precious daughter! What would we be without you. Abby loves to surprise us by doing a special chore without us knowing. She creates parties to entertain mommy all the time. She is always trying to help and play with Willie. When we made a lentil dish called Yamiser Wat for dinner she devoured the first helping, asked if she could have more and shouted 'oh YES' when we inquired if she liked it. She is pretty frank about things- when I asked her how I looked one day, her eyes got really big and she responded almost breathlessly- 'Barbie!'. She is mighty good at laying on the compliments. She has the best laugh in the whole world- it is downright ticklish. When Abby laughs, so do I.

FIVE

5!

The first five people...to leave a comment on this blog post will receive something made by me. However there are some limitations:
1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make :)
2. What I create will be just for you
3. It will be done within a year (might take a while)
4. You have no clue what it is going to be
5. I reserve the right to do something really fun

Here's the catch: if you choose to do this, you must post this on your blog and be ready to make something for five people too. This will be fun! When you receive the fabulous item I make you, you must post a picture of it on your blog.

I already have something fun in mind!

Harvey Moroni Pectol -3

Harvey! My sweet little baby boy is 3 years old. And what a character he is. I always assumed he would be very rowdy, into things, daring, etc. He isn't really. When he was learning to walk he would take one step, then pause while he got his balance before he took another. Now that he is old enough to think about it- he absolutely won't go down slides. Not even the little ones at the kindergarten playground. He does love dirt, swords, killing monsters, fighting, and all those boy things. His favorite of our Sunday Movies are the Nephi ones. Only he says Nefighting! He's quiet and keeps to himself, he isn't demanding really. But that doesn't mean he doesn't need us. One of his favorite sayings of late is- I Love You, I Love my HO FLAMMILY!! He finally learned how to give a hug- until now he would just kind of lean into you, but now he wraps his arms around your neck and pulls himself as close as he can. He loves doing things with his big sister and doesn't really understand when there are things he can't do the same- like go over to a neighbors house without his parent(s). He likes his little brother- but doesn't really appreciate all the hair pulling, button grabbing, and kicking feet that seem to make up Willy right now. I really don't know what he is going to do when Willy is big enough to acutally follow him around. I guess he'll learn, and I hope they'll be friends. In honor of his big milestone I foudn some pictures of him over the last few years. I'd like to put a special thanks to my mom here- she made him every single one of those birthday cakes, and he has loved them all.

Sleep???

Last night Willie woke up at 12, 2:30, 4:30, and 5:40~ then Jeff put him in bed with me and was off to work. He woke up at least one other time- but those are the times I nursed him. Yes, this is pretty typical. I know, I know! He's over 6 months old what on earth are we doing nursing so often at night? I wish I had an answer for that. First off- he hates his bed. He does not want to be left all alone in there, he wants to be held. The mobile was helping, but then it's battery died, I don't have more at this moment. He won't take a pacifier- no matter how hard I've tried he just will NOT take one, he hates them. He's teething- evidenced by the tons of drool, general fussiness, chewing really hard on everything. So he wakes up in the night not feeling well and wanting to suck on something. I gave him teething tabs and rocked him once but then he woke up again 20 minutes later- so I nursed him so I could get an hour or two. The experts say the key is getting them to fall asleep on their own at bedtime- I agree. I just haven't found a way to do it. I'm not going to make him cry all alone for hours on end- that just seems completely inappropriate to do to any child of any age. Modified cry it out methods don't seem to work for him either. He just wants to be in my arms to fall asleep. Jeff's will do to. Even then he has to cry about it for a few minutes. Cosleeping sometimes feels like the only way, but I don't sleep as well, and I can't help but wonder how much I disturb his sleep when tyring to soothe him to keep him from waking all the way up. And Jeff and I really like having our bed to ourselves. In related news- He has one of his teeth. And I have what appears to be a small bite mark on one side. Nursing on that side is really awful right now, I hope it heals soon.

Dating, Love, Marriage

Last week Jeff went to Hollywood video to pick up an old John Wayne movie- The Seekers. It was good. But that is not what this post is about. I asked him to please pick up Fireproof while he was there, because I'd been wanting to see it, and RedBox doesn't have it either. So he did, and we eventually found the chance to watch it. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was expecting a bit more firefighter drama, a bit less forthright Christian messages. But it was a very good movie. So this post is some of the thoughts that I have had lately regarding the most important, yet bizzarrely controversial, subject in the world. MARRIAGE.

Marriage is ordained of God between a man and a woman. Love is not an emotion, love is a commitment. Love is work. There are a great many wonderful scriptures regarding what love and marriage really are. I'm not a scriptorian, so I'm not going to list them here. Why marriage between man and woman? Because marriage is not about this life, it is not about today, it is about eternity. It is about putting aside self, and becoming one unit to achieve a higher goal than is possible alone. That goal is family. Jeff and I obviously have the family thing underway- see above photo of 3 squirrelly kids. But marriage is not just about raising the kids either. In the last few months, or maybe the last whole year- with pregnancy, getting ready for baby, taking care of baby, etc I have been feeling internally torn. I want to spend time with my husband, I want to build my relationship with him. But after the day is done, the kids are taken care of, and everything else- there is not much left for US. Or that is how it felt. After trying on my own, I started including in my prayers a request for help to strengthen my marriage. (No, there was nothing wrong, I just didn't want to wait until Willie is weaned to date!) I really like Fireproof because of some of the ideas in it on how to strengthen marriage- Do something for your partner, check in with them in the day, study them, put them first. Wherever we put our time, energy, and money is what we love best. I'm so grateful to be able to put mine in my family, and so grateful that Jeff does the same. Last night we hired a sitter for Abby and Harvey and took Willie with us to dinner. We think we should be able to afford a sitter once a month or so, and then do things at least weekly at home after they are in bed. At least once a week, the kids will go to bed a little early and we will do things without them. We love doing things with them as well. But at least weekly we need to take time for each other. I've heard too many stories of people coexisting and working together, but when the kids are gone and retirement comes they don't know each other. So I have made it a personaly commitment- and anyone who would like to join me please do- to grow old TOGETHER. Not separately in the same sphere of existance but together. I know this post is very rambly and not well composed, I apologize. It was just in my mind. I need to come do another post on an update about the family- and Harvey's birthday! Which I will.