Johnny's St. Patrick's Day Story

Here is a little story that Johnny wrote at school. I am including the original spelling.

If I found a for leef clover I would wish for gold gold and more gold because gold is like one milend dolers. What I would do with it I would buy loots of things like a manchen a wii a liebiarei (library) a party place.

This is written below a full colored picture of Johnny standing next to a tree with his arms spread out. A bunch of large gold blocks stacked to the sun and a giant 4-leaf clover. I thought this was pretty funny, but John is concerned.

Difficult

We have been getting our house ready to be sold and it is soooooooooo hard. Saturday we spent all day trying to fix things and nothing got fixed. John went to fix the fence posts, and they don't sell fence posts that size anymore. Then John was going to replace a few boards on the deck and they don't sell those size boards anymore. We went to put in the new closet doors for the kids bedrooms and our closets have a molding that hangs down low and so all of the closet doors made and sold today are too long until we saw off that part of the molding ( a lot more work--can we even make that look good?). We also packed most of our books and bookshelve, put a table in the litchen to make it look like the eat in kitchen that it is-- even though our family is too big to eat at that table, and bought a computer desk and moved the computer into the living room. Saturday was a long hard day. Today I spent 5 1/2 hours cleaning the house and moving furniture around for the photographer from the realtors to take pictures. Still there is a lot to do. And of course I still have the regular chores, the upcoming yard work, all of the laundry, meals, and regular child care to add to the hours of time it takes to fix up the house. Plus, John has to help fix up the house, work his regular hours for his current job, prepare for and apply for a new job, do a good job on his calling for church, and babysit for me so I can do my calling. The poor guy. On top of it all, we have had sick kids, and John was even sick with a fever for 6 days, and I am pregnant and tired, and by the way I have had no time for excerise. Thankfully we have recieved amazingly timely counsel from the prophet and apostles. Such as "come what may and love it", "find joy in the journey now", and Elder Uchdorf's talk on hope. We have also found that we have eachother and no matter what that alone makes life good.

Scripture Musings #2

I have been reading in the Book of Heleman a lot because a lot of things in this book remind
me of our day. Here are a few of my thoughts.


In Heleman 7, Nephi has just returned from a mission to the north and has found that the
people are very wicked. He is sad and starts praying on his tower. A group of people see him
and stop to wonder at his morning. So he preaches to them. In verses 4 and 5 it says:

4 And seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers
filling the judgment-seatsبaving usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside
the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the
children of men;

5 Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked
go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of
government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of
the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and
kill, and do according to their own wills׍


Some time ago when I read this I realized that while our government and the minds of the
people are not so wicked as to kill and usurp, we are definitely making laws that "lay aside
the commandments of God", "to get gain and glory of the world", and to " more easily commit
adultery, and steal". I think that our laws about abortion are a great example of making laws
that we may more easily commit adultry. Abortion on the whole is for people for commit
adultry and fornication. It is a way of covering up sin. Married couples who have unexpected
pregnancies do not abort their babies. They have them and raise them and realize that
children actually bless their lives.


We have seen very recently an abundance of dishonesty in business and in the stock market. My
husband and my father have even seen it in their own jobs. We know that a lot of the top
people/ criminals on wall street, and Hollywood actors often go unpunished because of their
riches.


It also seems very obvious to me that people in government make laws and descisions that they
do to get gain and glory of the world. Even the regular people have gotten themselves into
serious, and dishonest debt (I say dishonest because I think a lot of people have taken on
debt knowing that it would be very difficult for them to pay off.) And all of this is to get
gain and glory of the world. I know that I have been guilty here and still and tempted by the
riches of the world and only for gain and glory.


This brings me to the next thing in Heleman. Several years have passed with wars and famine
and repentance followed by blessings of wealth, but the people have grown wicked again.
Samuel, a Lamanite prophet comes to preach to the people. In Heleman 13:21-22, 31 he says:

21 Behold ye, the people of this great city, and hearken unto my words; yea, hearken unto the
words which the Lord saith; for behold, he saith that ye are cursed because of your riches,
and also are your riches cursed because ye have set your hearts upon them, and have not
hearkened unto the words of him who gave them unto you.

22 Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things with which he hath blessed you, but ye
do always remember your riches, not to thank the Lord your God for them; yea, your hearts are
not drawn out unto the Lord, but they do swell with great pride, unto boasting, and unto
great swelling, envyings, strifes, malice, persecutions, and murders, and all manner of
iniquities.

31 And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that
ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them.


I just have a few notes about these scriptures. First, as Americans, we have been abundantly
blessed in riches. Even the poor among us live better that a lot of people in other
countries, yet we kept trying to get more and more. We have now found out that a lot of the
riches were dishonest either by fraud or by debt, And now, it seems that our riches have
become "slippery" and we "cannot retain them." A lot of people have lost life savings from
the stock market and other people who have invested in real estate etc. It is as if our
riches have become "slippery". A lot of people who have lost their homes have lost them
because they took on debt they could not pay and because other people allowed them to take on
debt they knew that could not pay. And it seems that we "cannot retain them", meaning our
riches. I know that this is a time of great sorrow for a lot of people. I know a lot of good
people who are honest and are out of work. I do not mean to condemn any one indivually. Even
my husband John will be out of a job by mid-May. We are trying to sell our home before we
cannot pay for it, and to do so we will have to take a loss on our home. I am however, saying
that it seems like our society as a whole has become like the Nephite nation in Heleman
because we have set our hearts upon the things of this world, supported immorality, and have
been dishonest in the work place. I know that there is hope for the righteous and that God
will take care of those who keep his commandments. But I do think now is the time to repent,
to no longer set our hearts upon the things of this world, and to give all that we can to
take care pf the poor and those we know who are out of work and will need assistance.

Adam's Haircut

I had let Adam's hair grow fairly long because I thought that it might be cute. Well it got to the point where it was definitely NOT cute. No matter what I did, or how often, Adam's longish hair stuck up on the top of his head. So I decided that I would buzz it off and keep his hair short forever more. I thought Adam might object, and he certainly said "ow" a lot during the lengthy haircut, but when he looked in the mirror at the end he seemed pleased. For the next 5 mornings, Adam would wake up, look in the mirror, and happily announce that his hair was not sticking up. Then he would tell me that this is how his hair is going to stay forever and that it would never grow back.

Cute Rachel #2

1. Adam was singing "nananananana Batman!" Rachel started singing "nanananananana Snow White!"
2. While Rachel has been daytime potty trained for about a year now, she still wets when she sleeps. The other day she fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie. When she woke up she came upstairs and very happily said, "I peed the couch, isn't that funny?"
3. Today while I was reading a story to Rachel, Anya, who did not want me reading, kept hitting Rachel's hand, screaming, and grabbing the book. Because Anya is understanding a lot more, I warned her several times that she had to stop. When she would not stop and started throwing an even bigger tantrum, I gave Anya a spank on her diaper. Instead of Anya really crying, Rachel started to cry and told me that Anya is a good girl.
   

My 2 Angels

Yesterday, John and I painted the kitchen a brownish white to get the house ready to be sold. We have been doing a lot to get the house ready to be sold, and as a result I have spent very little time with my children. Yesterday, I asked Ruth and Kate to be on hand to take care of the little kids for me while I painted. At one point Ruth and Kate decided to put a movie on for everyone. Kate took Anya downstairs to hold while she watched the movie. About an hour later, Kate came up with Anya saying that she was not acting like herself and that Kate thought she was sick. I took Anya, and she definitely felt very warm. I sat and held Anya, took her temperature (about 103) and got her medicine. But I knew that I needed to get back and paint. When the movie ended, Ruth and Kate went into their room to play American girl dolls with Rachel. I asked if Anya could sit in their with them. They agreed. Anya did not want to sit, she just wanted to be held. So Ruth picked up Anya and walked around holding her for about an hour. Ruth and Kate also helped clean the house several times during the day. They helped feed Anya, Rachel, and Adam, did dishes, washed bathroom sinks and toilets, picked up sticks from the very cold back yard, folded laundry and did not complain once. When I explained that we would probably have more days like this until the move is complete, they still did not complain. By the end of the day, I felt amazed and very blessed to have such wonderful daughters. I could not believe that my 9 year old could tend a baby and know that she was sick. I think it takes me longer to pick up on that sometimes. Ruth and Kate are certainly real angels sent to bless my life.

Anya Cutie

I decided to try and give a plate to Anya for the first time. I gave her chopped up chicken nuggets and honey. When she was finished she simply put the plate on her head.

This is Anya in the pots and pans cupboard entertaining herself while I make dinner.