On Junk

The beginning of a New Year is a time for celebration, contemplation, resolution, and organization.  At least, it is wherever I am.  In that spirit, I have been going through the boxes of items I collected in elementary, junior high, and high school that have been stored in my parents' house for a great number of years.  Pictures... trophies... awards... stories... journals... letters... dolls... posters... home decor.  Frankly, it's mostly junk.  But some of it is good, significant, memory-filled junk that has meaning in my life. 

The new year has a way of making me mercilessly unsentimental about keeping junk, however.  Enter the miracle of the digital camera!  Instead of keeping all my good junk (and figuring out how to cart it around with me for the rest of my life), today I took pictures of the best of my junk and then tossed it in the garbage.  Now, when I'm old and gray and my children are cleaning out my house, they will only have to throw away a data storage device with all my old junk on it instead of the junk itself.  See what I am willing to do for my posterity?  Amazing.

The end.

Counting Down

Friday is Christmas Day.

Thursday is Christmas Eve.

That makes Wednesday Christmas Adam, and the beginning of the festivities!

I look forward to hanging out with family, sleeping in, playing Rock Band (thanks for sharing, RHB & wife!), and shopping.  And remembering the real reason I am taking a vacation - the birth of the Son of God.



I liked this video so much, I even figured out how to share it with you here (instead of just a link)!

Happily Snowed In (Sorta)

I didn't set an alarm this morning.  Church was cancelled due to parking bans and an overabundance of fluffy whiteness falling from the sky.  This Sabbath has become a much-needed day of rest instead.  No meetings, rehearsals, visits, or other duties.  Rather, it is day to stay inside, bake yummy deliciousness, study the lessons I otherwise would have had at church, and sleep.

Around noon-thirty I ventured outside with the downstairs neighbors to assess how much effort it would take to dig out the driveway.  The day before I had called my friend who owns a snow removal business and asked him to help us out; they descended upon our driveway just as we were coming outside and made short work of removing the vast quantity of snow that had drifted up behind our cars.  I confess, I much prefer supervising someone else's efforts to remove my snow than performing the manual labor myself.  It was lots easier.

In spite of the fact that I have access to my vehicle, I still prefer to consider myself "snowed in," and am happily using the excuse to stay home most of the day and bake until it smells like heaven (assuming heaven smells like homemade bread).  There is nothing that brings contentment quite like curling up under a warm blanket with a good book and yummy smells coming from the kitchen.

Pre-Christmas Madness

Today is one of those days when I'm glad I have food storage.

We're expecting a major snowstorm tonight.  Just like the rest of the Northeast.  Consequently (and this is something I have found entertaining since the first winter I lived here), every single person in this area has gone out - to stock up on food, or to buy a snow blower/shovel, or to finish the Christmas shopping they would have done tomorrow if snow hadn't been in the forecast.  Traffic is nasty, parking lots are filled and overflowing, and there are long lines of people pushing carts full of merchandise everywhere you go.

Wandering through the aisles at Target (well, I said every single person, didn't I? We needed another snow shovel, since the blowers were all sold out!), I noticed gaping spaces on the shelves where all the sale cereals should be, barren racks with only one or two shovels to choose from, and way too many people.  I was grateful I only had to pick up a few things, so I didn't have to navigate a ginormous shopping cart through the minimally available spaces.  The entire way home, I happily thought about how I could probably cook anything I wanted tomorrow without having to shop for it, from cookies, to pot roast, to biscuits with brown sugar.  Whoever came up with the idea of having food storage was brilliant.  Not just because someday an emergency might limit my ability to purchase food, but because whenever a Nor'easter comes my way, I don't have to worry about running out of milk, or flour, or tomatoes, or whatever.  I can just go shopping in my storage room, and presto!  I have everything I need.  Without having to shovel or plow!

And now I'm going to hunker down, watch a Christmas movie, and think about how blessed I am with a roof over my head, heat eminating from my radiators, and enough food to eat in my cupboards.  Bring it on, snow!  I'm ready for you.

14 (feels like -2)

Brrr.  The walk from the garage to pick up the trash cans nearly froze my feet and fingers.

My friend at work says you burn more calories when it's cold.  Aha!  A reason to be celebrate winter!  Of course, knowing the temperature, I am now even more motivated to make pie.  Extra calories and a 425 degree oven - two benefits for one chunk of effort.  Talk about awesome.

What's that?  Oh, it's an apple cranberry experiment.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

POST EDIT:  Yum. The combination of tart and sweet is fabulous.  And it is beautiful!  Double bonus.  Thanks be to a certain Home Teacher Emeritus for the use of the apple corer/peeler/slicer gizmo.  All the time spent chatting at your house was about the same amount of time I saved having to peel and slice apples by hand.  What could be better?  Hot apple pie, Christmas music, a warm house... life is good!

Parking Lot Blessings

Today I woke up late.  Late = rushed.  Rushed = no time for things one normally does in the morning before work.  But some things are essential.  So, before walking into the office, I took a few minutes and read from the Book of Mormon.  It was hardly long enough to merit the word "study" as a descriptor, but it was sufficient to bring peace into my heart.  It ended with a request for the guidance of the Spirit even without the usual morning study.

I was halfway home this evening when the thought occurred to me that there was a distinct improvement in my mood between my morning and evening commutes.  And then I remembered the five minutes in the parking lot with my scriptures, and I said a silent prayer of gratitude to the Lord for answering my prayers.

Joseph Smith was right when he said the Book of Mormon is "the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (he said that here) 

And that, my friends,

was the lesson taught

in a parking lot

this mild winter morning.

What's Goin' On?

Goodbyes are never fun.

My friend MD is leaving our midst and heading west.  We will miss him.  We bid him a fond farewell tonight with a party, complete with all his favorite sayings, including:  Go Badgers!

A Christmas Thought

"He is despised and rejected of men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and we hid as it were our faces from him;

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs,

and carried our sorrows;

yet we did esteem him stricken,

smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities;

the chastisement of our peace was upon him;

and with his striped we are healed."

(Abinadi quoting Isaiah 53:3-5)

There was a Christmas concert tonight.  We lifted our voices in glorious song to praise our God for the Babe in Bethlehem.  As I sang, I felt the Spirit witness to me of the divinity of the Son of God, even Jesus Christ our Savior.  He came to earth that he might save all men, even as many as would believe on His name.  He has felt of my pain and sorrow - whether physical, emotional, or spiritual - and through His Atonement I find peace, healing, and rest.  How grateful I am for this Christmas season and the opportunity to remember Him.

Words seem pathetically inadequate... I read this and wonder if it captures the feeling that the memory elicits.  Would that I had the writer's equivalent of the tongue of angels to convey the ideas floating in my head... thoughts of Christ that elevate the soul and instill gratitude into the human heart.

Feast: Day 2

I've been hungry today.  Spiritually and physically (but mostly the former).  I made a choice to wait until lunchtime to study from the scriptures this morning. It turned out to be a good learning experience, but not necessarily a good choice.  Lunchtime, which I had determined should be half an hour long, was crowded out by other activities, and ended up being only 11 minutes long. 

Feasting in a rush, it turns out, doesn't work.  You're so distracted by the rushing that you don't remember much about the feast.

So, the lesson for the day?  Eat. Early. And well.

Feast: Day 1

This morning, I feasted on the words of Christ.

I ended full, and grateful to know there is more to come tomorrow.

It was wonderful.

Tonight, I feasted on enchiladas.

I ended full, and with leftovers.

Double bonus for me!

I vote for following the counsel of priesthood leaders.

It is always a good thing.

Contemplations

Let's take a "would you rather?" poll!

Parallel park, take the T, or beg shamelessly for a ride?  I pick begging first ... then the T.  I admit. I don't parallel park.

Did you also know that wearing something on your head protects carefully straightened hair from curling (read: frizzing) in the wetness... and has the added bonus of keeping you very warm?  Take that, you slushy sleet and snow and rain that fell all day upon the land!  Your lousy weather might have depleted my sunshine reservoir and made for lots of tragedy, but I emerged victorious!

Victorious and grateful.  Grateful it wasn't me involved in the head-on collision I heard about this morning, or the squish up that required a fire truck & police car on the way home from work, or the left-turn lane accident that needed an ambulance at the intersection that should NEVER have blinking red and yellow lights instead of functioning stoplights, even and especially in lousy fog & drizzle when half the road is a puddle the size of a small Arizona pond.  Seriously.  All that was missing was a rubber ducky.

On the upside for the evening, the Institute closing social tonight was an excellent reminder of the urgent need to feast upon the words of Christ daily.  Not nibble.  Not just have appetizers.  Not taste-test or graze.  Feast.  Gluttonously.  That will be a filling exercise over the next few days.  We shall see how it goes.

And that is all, since the day is over.

PS - did you know that CTRL+ALT+arrow key rotates your entire computer screen?  Weird.

A Tuesday Story

You will remember the post about my fritzed-out microwave.

For 3 days in a row, I attempted using it again... and it kept fritzing out on me.  So I decided to leave it alone until I had time to fix it.

Tonight, just out of curiosity, I turned it on.  It worked!  So I had warm taco soup for dinner. Yum. I was grateful... both for the hot soup and that I don't have to wash a pot!

And then I laughed, because I now have one more reason to perpetuate the "ignore the problem and maybe it will fix itself!" mentality.  How unhelpful.  This does not promote responsible grown-up behavior.  But it is a nice bonus for those of us who occasionally try to avoid it.

The end.

Let it Snow!

It is officially the Christmas season!
There is fake snow inside, and real snow outside.

Thus beginneth the time of blankets and good books,

apple cider and down comforters,

sweaters and snow boots. 

The season of the year

when I contemplate the majesty of God's creations,

every time I see

the kaleidoscope of patterns in the falling snow

as it floats down through the night,

every time I hear

my snow boots crunch

on the powder-covered earth,

and every time the light

reflecting off the drifts

chases the darkness of the night away.

And more importantly, I remember that a Baby was born

in Bethlehem, a long time ago,who lived and died and rose again:

to break the bonds of death, to redeem me from my sins,

and to grant me the opportunity for everlasting life.

Happy Holidays!

Small and Simple Things

As a prophet has declared,

it is by

small and simple things

that

great things 

are brought to pass.

Tonight, after much effort and labor (ok, maybe an hour, but that's a lot for this project!), all the clothing is sorted, hung or folded, and put away. Why is that a big deal, you ask?  Well.  Here we are, three weeks from the official start of winter, the warm weather having gone the way of all the earth, and I still had summer clothes in the closet.  To finally have them put away is a satisfying feeling.  (Plus, if you don't put them away, there is nothing to rediscover in the spring!)  And since the summer clothes are put in storage, the winter clothes are also accessible.  To top it off, they aren't lying on the spare room bed anymore... for the first time in, well, a while.  I knew I had a closet for something!

Oh, and did I mention I also cleaned the bathroom and did the dishes?  Three of the peskiest chores are now done.  For at least a few minutes.  Tomorrow I get to do laundry again.  But tonight, I feel very satisfied with the progress I have made in bringing order and peace into my home.

Counting

There is a wonderful hymn entitled "Count Your Blessings".  One of the verses reads: Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

Tonight, I feel inclined to count again.

1. Warm weather in December. It was over 60 degrees today, a reminder that the bitter cold hasn't started quite yet, and that an all-powerful Being can send me a warm day to say "I love you".
2. Sincere friends.
3. The Christmas season and all it represents.
4. Inspiration.
5. Sunshine.
6. Family.

More to come, I'm sure.  What blessings did you count today?