Conference reflections

I loved President Nelson’s conference address this morning.

I recently read an article that indicated the young missionary sisters in the mission field are questioning their role as leaders in the church and wondering why they can’t have “more authority.”  Frankly, I hope that article was misleading and misguided about the sisters’ attitudes. 

Shortly after that I read an article indicating that the “lack of authority” of women in the church is caused more by culture than by revelation.

Both of those articles cause me concern because I have a daughter that I want to grow up to be a faithful young women, mother, grandmother and great grandmother.  I fear her being influenced by those who do not understand the sacred role of women as designated by God.  It is my belief that those attitudes stem from a lack of faith and trust in a loving God, and a lack of understanding for His plan for his children—both His sons and His daughters.

Over the past several years there have been groups of women pushing for more and more responsibilities in the church and demanding that the apostles treat them the same as they treat the men in the church.  I feel those women do not understand the sacred gifts unique to women and the way they compliment the sacred gifts unique to men. 

As I listened to President Nelson, I felt he was outlining the path I, as a mother, can take to help my daughter understand the power she can have in her sphere as a women—without jealousy or feelings of inferiority because men have been given different gifts and responsibilities.

I also had a sense during President Nelson’s talk that as women, we have been living “far beneath our privileges”.  (See this talk)   I believe this is in part because we are not expanding upon the gifts we have been given of caring and nurturing and covet the gifts of presiding and providing.

It seems many of the talks in this conference have been directed at having the spirit more fully active in our lives which will help us reach our full God ordained potential.  I hope I will be able to better implement them in my own life that I may rise to my potential, and help my daughter, son, and husband to do the same.

It is my testimony that God loves all his children, that He has a plan for each of us, and that as we seek to follow that plan by obeying the counsel of his living prophets, we will be guided  back to our Heavenly home where we shall be blessed with all that the Father hath.

A River Runs Through It

Have you ever had a sudden realization that you were focusing on the wrong thing?

Our little valley is technically in a desert.  And often times, our religious leaders ask us to join our faith and pray for rain.  Being a farming community, many of us know intimately well how much our lives and livelihoods depend on water.

That's probably why when it started hailing this afternoon, it didn't really cross my mind to pray that it would stop.....instead I prayed the Lord would protect my garden (the outcome of that one will be determined over the next few weeks).

For 20 minutes or so around 4:45 this afternoon, I would frequently turn to the window and watch the hail pelting my garden and silently pray it would be spared.  About 5:10 p.m. Jake arrived home dashing in and out of the house with only the words, "Hi, I've gotta go, we've got a big problem!"

I was at that point, pretty clueless and followed him out the back door, where I suddenly realized the fate of my garden was negligible compared to the fate of my HOUSE!

Water was cascading down the terraces in my back yard and filling our yard with thick muddy water.

Jake already had his boots on (he keeps them in the car), and was grabbing a shovel to head up hill to see if he could correct the flow and divert it from our yard.  I quickly changed my clothes (of course I would be wearing my newest outfit today), threw on an old pair of shoes, told the kids to stay in the house, and attempted to follow him.  There was only one major problem with that....I don't know the woods like he does.  I followed the water for a short time, but realized if I did find him, I would likely only be in his way.

As quickly as I could, I returned to our yard to evaluate what I could do there.  I noticed that the water had two main paths, one leading into the back yard creating a pool of water and a mountain of mud on the east side of our house, the other turning slightly south and flowing down our driveway.

I decided the best thing I could do was to encourage all the water to take the southern path.  I also knew two heads were better than one, and Jake was already who knows where up the mountain trying to clear the ditch that was supposed to be carrying the water on its merry way.

So I called my Mother- and Father-in-law.  I am so grateful they live close and are usually home when I have a crisis.  Only there was no answer!  Oh well, I had a few ideas.  I darted back outside to start shoveling away at the dirt.  I dug a little trench that encouraged some of the water to head south, but the water was moving so swiftly it was creating its own trench headed west!  I needed a dam, but every shovel full of dirt I threw in the path was quickly washed away.  I looked around for rocks I could use.....we had plenty....except I knew I wasn't strong enough to carry the ones that would be effective. 

Then I spotted the pallets!  Hurray for picking those up last weekend!  I hauled one up the hill as quickly as I could.  I was nearing the top when I heard the phone ring.  I had a pretty good idea it would be my Father-in-law, but there was no way I could get there in time to answer it.  I hoped my son (almost 4) would answer it.  But nope, it was my daughter (19 months) who got to the phone first.

I did my best to prop the pallet up with the shovel and ran back to the house to grab the phone.  I re-called my in-laws and got an answer on the 1st ring.  Help was on the way.

Back outside, my one pallet had fallen over and was allowing water to flow into the yard again.  So I hauled up a second pallet to act as a brace for the first. (They are visible at the top of this picture).

Jake near the beginning of shoveling out the mudslide

 

 

More of the mud/hail/water sludge 

Braced together, the pallets were effectively encouraging all the water to follow the south path to the driveway...now I had to figure out how to remove the water next to the house.  That's when my Father-in-law showed up---in his car!  I should have mentioned to come on the 4 wheeler as our driveway now more closely resembled a stream than a road.

Working together, we were able to clear a path that allowed a large chunk of the water to reach north of the house and fall down the hill there.  We continued to shovel water and dig trenches to guide the water.  When Jake returned (around 6:00???)  we had most of the water away from the house except for what I was bucketing out of the flower bed.  Jake ran to get the shop vac (one of the worlds greatest inventions) and sucked most of the remaining water out with that.

With the water diverted, our focus shifted.  Jake returned to the mountain to see if he could do anything to prevent this from happening again, and I began checking with the neighbors to see if they needed anything. 

Most of our neighbors escaped the flood, and those who hadn't already had crews helping them out, so I returned home.  Jake was back also, and we began shoveling out the mudslide.  2 1/2 hours later, we were pretty much bushed (or at least I was), and we decided to call it good for now.  Then my awesome brother-in-law showed up to help!

So he and Jake went back to shoveling while I ordered hamburgers for our very late dinner.

Gratefully, it seems no water actually entered the house.  Whoever built it didn't include any windows on the east side in the basement, probably because of the depth of the foundation compared to the surrounding ground, a fact I am exceptionally grateful for tonight :)

Except for a few sore muscles, and sadly our garden, things will be just about back to how they were before the storm come morning.

Our garden on 7/3

Our garden on 7/8 after the hailstorm

My House Doesn't Always Look Like This

Have you ever just dropped in on someone, been invited in, looked around their immaculate home and thought, "How does she keep her house SO CLEAN???" (If it was my house, you must have come on cleaning day ;) )

Or perhaps you have dropped in on someone and left wondering "does she ever clean that house?" (Again, if this was me, you probably came right after busy week at work).

I have read a few blog posts recently that are probably part of what some have termed the "Mommy wars."  I'm not exactly up to date with either side, nor do I really care to be, but as a quick overview, some blogs were talking about how important it is to keep a clean home, while others were emphasizing that spending time with your children is the most important thing you can do, even at the expense of housecleaning.  Honestly, both sides have some merit, and I'm not about to decide which one is right for you.

But as I read those articles, I realized something.  There are likely people who have thought both things about me.  I can think of a few people who have visited my home several times, and likely found very few things out of place (and I probably apologized for those).  They are often the people who schedule their visits ahead of time allowing me enough time to put things away, make sure the dishes are washed, the kids are reasonably clean, and my house is generally in order.

But there are also people who just drop in....and who knows what they have seen.  Perhaps they have come after my busy week at work, where I barely manage to keep enough dishes clean for the next meal so most of the week's dishes are piled around the sink.  Perhaps the floor was coated in kids crumbs from the last 3 or 4 days because I haven't had time to sweep.  Maybe one of the kids was coated from head to toe in yogurt. And most likely, all the couch cushions were on the floor being used as trampolines while a zoo full of stuffed animals removed any chance of guessing the color of my carpet.

The thing is, no matter which version of my house you have in your head, MY HOUSE DOESN'T ALWAYS LOOK THAT WAY!

We are real people, we do our best to keep our home livable and fun.  At times we do feel it is important to clean up the ENTIRE house.  Sometimes it is a week or two before we get around to even the most basic of cleaning chores. 

So, from something I read a long time ago. If you are coming to see me, feel free to drop in.  If you are coming to see my house, make an appointment.

Either way, know:  My house doesn't always look like this ;)