mom_of_jcchlsm

Pushka, you asked: So what does that say about me Mom of jcchlsm? smile.gif It says you're likey a lot closer to your ideal weight than I am!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 4:30 am - alarm was set for 5, but the baby went off a little early. My turn to get kids to Seminary. 2. What do you prefer diamonds or pearls? Diamonds, but I rarely wear jewelry. 4. What is your favorite TV show? I really don't like TV much at all. I get sucked in too easily. I guess my one favorite show right now is LazyTown. 5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Oatmeal or toast with butter and preserves (I make them myself every year - usually enought o last a whole year - my favorite is Nectarine Jam, which I make every Fourth of July) 6. What is your middle name? Lorraine 7. What is your favorite food? Oh, I like lots of things! 8. What foods do you dislike? raw onions, things that are spicy/hot 9. What is your favorite chip flavor? Baked Lays 10. What is your favorite CD at this moment? Ray Lynch: Deep Breakfast (been my favorite a looong time!) 11. What kind of car do you drive? Ford Aerostar or a Mazda 6 Wagon 12. What is your favorite sandwich? Toasted BLT with mayo and cheese 13. What characteristic do you despise? Gimme attitudes, unwillingness to try, apathy 14. What is your favorite item/outfit you like to wear? grey sweats, a hoodie sweatshirt, slippers 15. Where would you like to travel? Russia, China, South Africa 16. What color is your bathroom? Really tacky tan/gold 17. What is your favorite brand of clothing? Sag Harbor 18. What location would you like to retire? Somewhere along I-80 or I-50 between Sacramento, CA and Nevada - in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. 19. What is your favorite sport to watch? Basketball 20. What is your favorite sport to play? Umm, does that mean I have to exercise? 21. What is your goal in life at this moment? To raise good kids. 22. When is your birthday? Day after Halloween - All Saints Day 23. Your favorite flower? Iris 24. Are you a morning or a night person? both 25. What was your childhood dream of becoming? An Engineer (math/science - not trains)

Brigham City was not a faith-promoting movie. But it was a well executed, suspenseful drama without foul language, nudity or other things that turn off the general LDS viewer. I did like at the end ****Spoiler Disclaimer****** when the Bishop has doubts about taking the sacrament and the Ward shows solidarity. God's Army and The Best Two Years, on the other hand, do, IMO, promote faith, encourage youth to serve missions, remind Saints where their priorities should lie. And they are also good, clean fun. Acceptable Sunday movies at my house (as are Veggie Tales, Heros from the Scriptures, and a very few select other movies). I did NOT like RM because although it was funny, it gave faithful service a beating and never confirmed the value of adhering to standards. It poked fun rather than inspired. Singles Ward was much the same way. I'm concerned that Churchball will be as well, unfortunately.

We love The Best Two Years and God's Army. Didn't like RM. Brigham City was OK, but not really a repeat. I've been wondering about Churchball. Does anyone have opinions on that one yet? Haven't seen the movie of Charlie, but just reread the book. Hope the movie is all it should be.

Mos Burger! Wow! We used to eat there all the time! Yum! You've made me think of more yummies: Nuts - cashews and pistachios and pecans. Anyone like frozen grapes in the summertime? And frozen peas - I used to pop those while doing homework. Sweet and crunchy. Brown sugar is good straight (in small quantities - otherwise your tongue gets raw).

I like snacks. My favorite Candy has to be Junior Mints, though I enjoy most candies. I don't like dark chocolate, and I don't usually like things with peanuts (peanut butter cups are OK, though). Don't like gum very much. In Cookies, my taste tends toward the traditional. Chocolate chip. Or chocolate chip dough without the chips. I don't like brownies or chocolate cake. Other flavors of cake are OK, but not a real favorite. I really like fruit pies and cobblers. Also lemon merangue pie, and some cream pies. Ice Cream: rich and satisfying vanilla or vanilla-based ice creams (a ribbon of fudge or carmel is nice, or a touch od fruit). I also like sorbets in all flavors. On the salty side, I like buttery popcorn or jerky or Baked Lays potato chips. I really like sweet more than salty. So, what do you like?

I thought of stating another thread for this, but decided it overlaps enough with my last post here: Ways I have sucessfully involved my kids in genealogy: 1. They know that at age 12, they will need some family names to take to the Temple to do baptisms. They have to do the research themselves and submit the disc and everything. I have conveniently forgotten to tell them that the Temple will provide names if they don't have any family names ready to go. Of course, they figure that out on their first trip to the Temple, but by then they already know how to do it. 2. I've made pedigree chart puzzles. Two kinds have worked -- a regular chart laminated and cut up and also a blank chart laminated with the names laminated seprately (put he names in the right spaces on the chart). It's important to make one for each child - they really like putting their own name on the chart! Somehow it totally loses its appeal if your sibling is person number one. 3. Family Tree shirts. For a reunion, we all wore matching T-shirts onto which we had drawn trees showing how we were related to others at the reunion. 4. We have an occassional FHE dedicated to an ancestor or ancestral family group. 5. For a long time we had a huge paper chain family tree extending back 5 generations. Each person was either dark or light pink or blue (showing gender and whether or not individual Temple ordinances were complete) and each family group was linked by either a black or white paper link (whether or not the family had been sealed). Whenever my husband and I went to the Temple, the kids helped us swap out links to show the progress we had made. But eventualy, all we had left were the dark and black links for living family members who were not Church members. What ideas do you have?

I have mounds of genealogy - photos, charts, newspaper clippings - the works. It currently resides in two very full drawers and a box in the living room (as well as on the computer). I have big charts on the wall (extending down the hallway!). I want my kids to know and love these people. When I'm feeding my baby I recite his lineage to him. I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to do a genealogy scrapbook. I'm thinking something that will make learning about ancestors more interesting and easier for kids - really accessible and fun. Something to look through at bed time or maybe as a quiet book for Church (no originals - just copies of photos and documents!). Not too far back - maybe only four or five generations. I am scrapbook-clueless, so it would need to be simple. Ideas? How would you arrange it?

HEART ATTACK!!!!

One of my favorite scriptures on this topic comes from the Pearl of Great Price - Moses 6:58-60: Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying: That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory; For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified; Now I realize you don't accept that as scripture, PC, but it illustrates LDS understanding of what is required to attain salvation. The Lord teaches so many things to his children by "types and shaddows." Here He parallels our birth here on earth to our rebirth into the kingdom of heaven. Clearly, baptism, as well as receiving the Holy Ghost and accepting Chirst's atonement are necessary. This is off-topic, but I want to share it: I discovered the beauty of this scripture shortly after the birth of one of my children, when I was staying in a hotel room with both of my parents (both non-LDS) the night before my grandmother's funeral. Dad was to give a short sermon, and asked me to look up the scripture about "dust thou art" (Dad hadn't been to Church in over 20 years, and was pretty rusty, but clearly the most quallified among his siblings for this task). I was a fairly new member of the LDS faith and looked up "dust" and found these verses, copied them out and handed them to Dad. He really liked them and fit them into his grave-side sermon the next day. He cited Moses 6:59-60. I looked around and not one of my relatives seemed to catch on that that book isn't in the bible! Back to the topic at hand: The Articles of Faith cover this, too. We believe that all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinences of the gospel. (emphasis added) and We believe the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are first, faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, second, repentance, third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, fourth, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost (emphasis added) (and also - these are from memory, and may be off by an "and" or "the", but are otherwise accurate.)

I tend to agree that if you enjoy it, and you feel that the children get a better lesson because of it (or get the lesson reenforced by later play / use for FHE, whatever), then it's fine. I do worry about a few things, though: 1) Your above-and-beyond handouts may make others feel like they're not doing a good enough job (and either they'll spend time and money they can't afford to keep up or they'll just resent you and be constantly afraid that they're inferior teachers and that their leaders aren't happy with them) 2) A lot of what you do is wasted. If you send home a ready-to-go, laminated, organized FHE in a labeled folder with 10 different children, 2 will never even make it out of the Church building, 2 will be lost on the floor in the car or van, stepped on and destroyed, 2 will end up under a bed or in the back of a closet, 3 will be dutifully given to parents (one of those will be thrown away, one tucked in a "safe" place and never looked at again, and only one will end up as a FHE at some point), and the last hand-out will be kept by the child, who plans to use it, but probably won't. 3) Church guidelines make it very clear that you are not to spend your own money. Stuff like that is supposed to come out of the budget. There are two reasons for this that were explained by our bishop in a meeting. First of all, Church funds are distributed out to wards based on their membership and attendance numbers so that all are on equal footing. If the members in a relatively wealthy ward spend a lot of personal money on activities or extra fluff and fancy stuff, it can cause feelings of jealousy and the impression of favoritism. Also, the financial circumstances of any family in the ward may be tighter than the general public knows. If "everyone" spends $5 a week preparing their lessons, or if families are asked to bring a certain cassarole or whatever to an activity, they may not be able to afford it and may be too embarassed to say so. Anyway, that's a lot of negative, and I didn't start this reply with that in mind. Do it if you want to, but don't feel it's necessary, and don't let yourself believe that that's the only way to magnify your calling. There are a lot of people out there magnifying their callings without the fluff and stuff.

The first hymn I memorized after joining the Church was "How Firm a Foundation." I learned all 7 verses. I particularly like verses 4 and 5 which deal with trials. You'll laugh at what trial I needed that song for -- I would chant the whole song over and over to myself while running for my fitness quallification when I served in the Air Force. But I have heard those word echo in my mind a hundred times since then to comfort me through much tougher trials. A scripture, a hymn, or the words of a prophet -- having it in your mind to hold you through really makes a difference!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and offense is in the mind of the offended. I remember about 10 or 12 years ago there was a big stink because a caucasian Santa Claus in a mall called a small black child on his lap a little monkey. The kid was climbing and jumping and wiggling around like a little monkey. A lot of black people got really upset at this "racist" remark. I didn't get it. I'm a white person and I call my own kids little monkeys. I asked a black co-worker to explain why the fuss. Apparently, some black people are touchy about the idea that caucaians are futher down the evolutionary trail than blacks. Now, I don't believe humans evolved from monkeys and I think it's silly for someone to be offended over a comment that isn't intended to provoke, but I'm careful now when I'm around black people not to say anything about monkeys or evolution or whatever I think might be taken the wrong way. What's this got to do with cartoons of Mohamad? Whether or not offense was intended originally, and whether or not there is any merrit to the ideas portrayed in the cartoon, if it bothers people, now that we know, it shouldn't happen again. And good people will let it go at that. "We're sorry - no offense meant" and "Ok, now you know, please don't do it again." At this point, few can claim to be ignorant of the offensive potential, so if more art of this type comes out in the near future, you can bet that it is intended to offend.

How old and set in his ways is this cat? You can sometimes train a cat using a spray bottle of water. Make sure it's clean - not used previously for bleach or anything. Keep the bottle with you and administer an immediate squirt if the cat does anything he's not supposed to. No delayed punishment - cats just don't get that. And make sure you love and pet and play with him when he's being good. Also - neutering can make a huge diference. If it's a tom, you should definitely try that first (good idea for other reasons as well).

the only possible solutions are multiples of 9. each time you refresh the page, it swaps out the "random" characters by each number, but all the multiples of 9 have the same symbol and that's the one you get when you click the cyrstal ball or magic lens or whatever it's supposed to look like. why are the only solutions multiples of nine? I'll tell you. whatever two-digit number you choose, you end up subtracting from it the value of the one's place, leaving you with a multiple of ten, and also subtracting one for each ten, which leaves you with multiples of nine. I really stink at the game where you have to round up the lady bugs. After several tries, I made it to level 2, but I don't see myself improving much beyond that.

PC, You might take a look at: http://www.whyprophets.com/prophets/rapture.htm I don't like the in-your-face way it's written, but it does show clearly the differences between LDS and Protestant views of the Second Coming with scriptures quoted (including referencing various versions of the scriptures)

I could punch that computer all day long. Hey! I know how the psychic works. Anyone else figure it out?

oh! Those are hilarious! Thank you for the morning lift. You never know - it could be the highest I get all day...

Our Ward gave every family a copy of Preach My Gospel. Our family mostly uses it for FHE lessons. It really is a great tool akin to the old Gosple Principles manual. It feels great to have your missionary efforts rewarded!

Yes I'm working on this. it's because invision board 2.1 is so new, and there aren't a lot of modifications for it. the only portal available only runs in the root folder, so the portal would be at ldstalk.com/forums. The one i had before could run anywhere. I will be putting a portal back in, but didn't get the chance to last night. Did you know you speak fluent jibberish?

Fian, What programs did your family work with for all that travel? Were the kids in chaparoned groups or on their own?

So here we all are, spending time on the internet . . . any sense if hypocrisy out there?

I served in the Air Force during the Gulf War, and have watched this war with great interest. I also still correspond with two members of my old unit who have been there this time around. I agree that the situation is more positive than most of the mainstream media would have you believe. Yes, there are dangers. Yes, it will tear at his heart to see what is happenning there. But if he is a good person going in, the experience will strengthen him.

Shan, that was sort of my point -- even requesting a fam of same religion is no guarantee. Within any faith, family standards and kindness and goodness very broadly. Without KNOWING the family she goes to, I have very little assurance.

Several of you have given me good things to think about. Like I said, we have time still. Few of you have addressed my question about the potential value of the experience. Any voices on that topic? Also, please notice that I figured out how to add an avatar and signature! Go me! hey! my signature worked, but the avatar didn't. I'll try again... Ha! Now it works!