You Are So Beautiful To Me!

My husband sings this to me sometimes and today found it on youtube in a bunch of different versions including Spanish, opera and Italian. Very cool. I want my daughters to marry guys that sing this song to them. We all need to hear it, after all--WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Today I was amazed at the beauty of the mountains all around in Redlands where we visited Jay's Dad for a birthday surprise today. The sun shone, air was clear, the sky bright blue, the grass so green and cool, the sunset clouds were pink cotton candy, the kids were giggling with grandpa tickling and chasing them. We had a couple injuries, though. The wet grass caused some slipping and Grandpa pulled a muscle when he fell. Buddy was walking down some stairs and twisted his ankle. It's a bit swollen, but he got a blessing, some arnica, and some lavendar and eucalyptus massaged into the foot to help the pain and swelling. We made him a bed on the floor so he wouldn't be stuck up on his bunk bed. That'll make bathroom trips easier. :-) He is feeling much better now.

Well, today the Kister Kids and I made our own caramel apples with molasses, brown sugar, butter and walnuts. Very fun, but even more fun to watch them (and Jay) becoming progressively stickier as they ate them. Pretty cute.

Last weekend we had our San Diego Mormon Choir and Orchestra concert. It was so wonderful! It was neat to see how happy the children were when they had finished. You could tell they just felt good inside. They'd been a little antsy beforehand, but we danced together and galloped around the "holding tank" room where they kept us prior to performing. It was such a blessing to have that whole experience of singing along with so many others, blending our voices with the power of the symphony orchestra under such wonderful direction.

This week the kids started their first practice with Jackie Abernathy's children's choirs. They had a great time and she's already going to have them perform a song at a fireside this Sunday. Matthew says he wants to sing, so we will see how that goes. :-) My sister, Audra is planning her wedding for end of December/beginning of January so that makes it hard for our cousin Becca to dance at the reception since she'll be 8 1/2 to 9 months pregnant. So I will teach Emily and Samara this month what we call the "white dress dance" to a song called "What Heaven Sees in You". It will be neat to see how they do. I teach Global Rhythms ballet tomorrow. I'm pretty tired, but encouraged that the Lord will help me get some good rest and start fresh tomorrow so I can be excited to teach my class their dance beginning and also cover the PreBallet with Emily and Grace not there tomorrow. I have good children. I am so thankful that they are starting to become more responsible for themselves (just a little--but it's so encouraging!). I have hope for the future! I am hopefully going to be in the Stake Christmas Choir, as well as our Ward Choir at church. I went to ballet class last night, taught by Xavier. I love how well he warms up the class and also that he challenges you constantly, keeps you moving while giving a thousand corrections, so you stay warm and your mind focused. I want to be a good teacher! I need to pay closer attention to how the Savior taught. Many parables, using analogies the people were familiar with. Hmmm...Something to think about. :-)

I can blog again

And so, it has been months since I last posted. I lost my blog! Well, I am preparing for the Christmas recital which will be the second Friday in December around 10:30 in the morning.
I have found some music I love, which really helps me feel the Spirit, and I hope it helps others, too.

New Definition of Love

I heard a new definition of love this week on a tape about meditating. Yes, a tape...from the library. I like listening to books on tape, CD, etc. I just loved the new definition of love that I heard. The author said love is paying attention to. What we love we pay attention to. That was so incredibly simple and is so amazingly hard for me in terms of being totally present with my kids throughout the day when they all need "talk time" at random moments, often simultaneously, and usually when I am in the middle of something like meal preparation, phone calling, schedule planning or some other task requiring my concentration. I just made a new committment to myself to LOVE MORE and to LOVE AT ALL TIMES.

I am in Huntsville, Utah visiting with Great-Grandpa Dave and Great-Grandma Lola King. . .Jay's grandparents. We decided a couple months ago to come up here and visit them. They are so wonderful--such loving people and we have sure missed them. I really felt like I needed to bring the kids up to get to spend some time with them and get to know them better. Well, it has been a wonderful trip so far. We visited my parents and sister in Surprise, AZ where my new nephew Daxton Lehi was blessed, his brother Parker celebrated his birthday, and we got to see Grandpa Jerry's garden and the papaya trees we mailed him awhile ago. They are thriving! WE grew them from seeds and I am so thankful.
I will have to post more later when I'm not falling asleep! :-(

So, now to reflect on my experience of last Friday when one parent of the little ones I teach ballet came up to me after class to talk and make sure that since we were going to hold this year's recital in a church building, that there would be no religious proselyting "because we are Christian," she said. I was so astonished I could just only tell her we'd be performing on the stage which was in the same room as the gymnasium. We would not be in the worship room. Her fear seemed to be relieved, but I felt like my mind had been scraped with sandpaper. It was so strange to me to realize that even though I believe in and worship Jesus Christ, some people do not recognize me as being Christian.
I LOVE to be CHRISTIAN. I love Easter as a way to celebrate the reality of Jesus6 life, atonement, death on the cross, and ultimately his resurrection. I love to reenact His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, have our own Passover meal, and to truly feel gratitude for all He gives me each day.

Now I have to reflect on my Mothers' Day experience. We visited friends we love and called our beautiful mothers and grandmothers in faraway lands of Arizona, Utah and Redlands. Jay went outside after church and found a tiny bird under the tangelo tree. It fluttered very clumsily away from him, and as he observed it, he realized it was injured. He picked it up and brought it into the house as a way to protect it from our dog, Lizzie. Well, I loved holding it, stroking it's soft feathers and seeing it's intelligent little expressions. We fed it, made it a tiny nest in a basket and lined it with soft rose petals. The tiny bird fluttered around the nest, tried eating a little, but by about midnight that night it became exhausted and lay down in the nest. It covered it's body with a rose petal, closed it's eyes and passed into heavenly peace. I cried and wished I had done more sitting and holding it, wishing I had treasured the short time I had. I wondered what God wanted me to learn from this experience. I decided to treasure my times with my children more so that they truly feel that they are my little jewels.

One of our favorite things to do together is just sing. We have a few favorites including the national anthem, Come Thou Fount, God Bless America, God Bless the USA, Redeemer of Israel, Ye Elders of Israel, Come Ye Children of the Lord, The Old Rugged Cross, Oh How I Love Jesus, Yellow Submarine. . .and so many more.

Okay, that wasn't too hard. I'm just talking to myself here. Today I am just amazed at the Lord's love for me. I got a haircut at Avia salon from my friend from church--Emily McMackin. Super haircut, fun time to just enjoy getting to know a great person a little better.

Today I loved spelling story time with my kids. After dinner we sat around and just gave all the kids their spelling lists for the week (they've been studying the words and defining them earlier this week) all cut up into individual words. I started a story. "Once upon a time there was a king who wanted to give a proclamation to his people. . ." and Kitty Lou added, "but he was really tired and went to bed. When he woke up in the morning there was a snake in his bedroom." Dallin said, "The king got his pillow off his bed and bopped the snake with it." Samara said, "but when he bopped the snake, two more snakes showed up, so now there were three." And so it went on and on with pumpernickel, peppercorns, usually, keep, shop, stop, nationality, arrange, every, and many, many more. It was fun to hear the varied imaginings of my cute children.


One thing I loved about yesterday was that since we've been homeschooling without the help of a charter this semester, we've had no history curriculum to use. But yesterday a friend, Sarah, gave us some REALLY COOL history books, including the very one I had been considering purchasing. The Lord is so GOOD to us! He truly wants us to have what we ask for. I just feel more and more that many times the wants in my heart are planted there by the Lord Himself. Then when I ask He is so pleased to grant those requests. It's almost like He shows me beautiful wonderful ideas, things, scenes and allows me to ponder them, see how cool they are and think, "Wow! That would be really neat!" So then I ask for His help to bring to pass the idea and He is always willing to help me. I am testing out my theory in June.

Jumping in. . .blogging for beginners. . .I'll just see what this does. . .