Gabelma

I think he's great, hope he wins :) I went to a Ray Quinn concert with my Mum a few weeks ago it was really good.-Charley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI0oITcz19o...feature=related this is just a bit of fun for Harry Potter and Irish drinking songs fans lol And for Elphie our X Factors Rhydian http://www.youtube.com/user/TheXFactorUK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHFGx7p7gxc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCDzODOIhr4...feature=related

There is no point in being LDS unless you are converted - follow God and take the path he wants you to take. If you go the long way round and do come back you will be stronger for it, if you don't come back you can't go wrong doing what God wants of you, what he has to sayto you is more important than anything anyone can post here. -Charley

I have spent ages trying to work out an articulate response and its hard to respond to your question my story goes like this I had always knows God existed and felt God by my side I had never known him be apart from me, then about 4 years ago he for all intents a purposes left me alone to battle - I knew he was there but couldn't feel him directing my life in the same way, I used to get strong feelings, big miracles, major direction and it all just stopped. I couldn't understand during times when I wasn't strong in the gospel he was with me, then at a timae I was doing really well I couldn't feel him. I got a blessing that said the goal posts had moved, thath i I needed to work harder for my relationship with the Lord, I had progressed so far and needed this to move forward towards my eternal goal. And this was true I needed to find new ways to pray and had to learn to appreciate that relationship and not take it for granted. My time in the wilderness has been tworth it - my relationship with the Lord seems to be growing more and more, my understanding of the atonment has increased. I am also having to grow in myself more and place more in myself rather than relying on the Lord for everything (I guess I needed the push) as a result I am now able to praise what he has done in my life more. Not sure this makes sense I am not really far enough along on the journey to make sense of it in myself -Charley

Your amazing too - your relationshship with Ivy has me taking notes, she comes across as the most switched on, smart young woman. You are one amazing Mom amongst many things and I admire you greatly. -Charley

I know what you mean my christmas ideas have mostly come out of not having much money but that has been a huge blessing when it comes to keeping Christ in Christmas something we are going to do this year is to have an advent calender which has nativity characters and you build the nativity over the month of advent - I am hoping to find the energy to sit down with Ellie everyday and write a story about the piece we pick out of the box, again the idea came out of necessity Ellie gets migraines and I wanted an alternative to a chocolate one.Because of my best friend we also incorporate some Anglican/Roman Catholic Traditions - we use an advent crown but change the candles but I can't remember what our LDS version of the candles are its written in the box, we also attend a Christingle service http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christingle, and carol services. Allows us to remember and talk about Jesus a lot. For me though I allow the season to be about indulgence to a point but Christmas day is family and to focus of Jesus. -Charley

:) I love the film. I was actually nervous when I put it in my first post, I know it can be quite contentious when my husbands family are present for Christmas we had to come up with a story that worked for both families, basically I put the tree up on the 23rd night with presents early and told my neice that Santa delivered the tree early because it was a magic tree (its ivory with lanterns), that allowed us to do Christmas our way but her have Santa, but seeing that Christmas reminded me why we didn't do him as anything more than a fictional character it was so stressful - I am not anti Santa as such he's just never been essential for me in having a lovely Christmas and now things seem to be getting so out of hand I am appreciating that Christmas doesn't get very commercial for us. My daughter knows the Saint Nicholas story, which we tell her every year.I guess some people see it as sad but for me Santa has become an unnecessary cause of stress. -Charley

WHAT!!! Ummm, Say it ain't so. Reminds me of the movie The Miracle on 42nd Street. don't worry ma i got your back. nice to know i'm not the only one on the site that's not a santa pusher. lol as for the kids. we read, tell, act out, whatever feels good at the moment the christmas story with our kids all the time. most of them can tell it better than a lot of adults. as for seperating that from santa, school and extended family talk about him, but not a big subject in our house. ok so i know i've mentioned this before somewhere so i'll give the short version; my son (this was awhile ago so 5 at the time) explained to his teacher that santa was very very old and eventually you get so old you just die so santa was gonna die soon. for those that are concerned no i didn't tell him that, came up with it all on his own, though i thought it was too funny. LOL I like that, remember my brother getting into trouble for colouring Santa in in bright colours at school, Mum told the teacher she was ridiculous and she gave us both an extended Christmas Holiday - ironically Father Christmas should be painted in green and he has started appearing in our shops in gold and green - Ellie knows Santa is not real but asked could she believe in him anyway which is fine thats what we did as kids. We still left out a glass of whiskey, mince pie and carrot but we also knew Great Uncle Ken was gonna have it - which is why it needed to be a certain malt. Mum just heard a play on the radio when she was pregnant with me about someone who had become very hardbitten because his parents had lied to him about Santa and swore she wouldn't do it with us. Have to say knowing Mum treated us like grown ups and we knew that Santa wasn't real was great as a child - it also helped us trust her later when we really needed too because things went very badly. Also because she was honest the christmas we were homeless didn't hurt anywhere near as much - I had grown up appreciating the people that gave us the Christmas present, so when we were homeless and all I got was a small box Mum had made with £1 to buy my favourite magazine later in the week I really appreciated it and there was nothing hurtful, Christmas was very much about Christ and family in our home and that is special and magical all by itself imo. I also had a wonderful moment I should feel repentant about after years of being bullied by a girl at school - I decided before she went to senior school she should know Santa wasn't real so I told her (she was nearly 12) and made sure she went home knowing it. We do have a present under the tree from Jesus - we include a Christmas Story, religious jewellery etc. Just we keep Christmas so simple and its lovely I appreciate not having Santa as a big deal or feeling pushed to do too much. -Charley

When you get to Kansas I would suggest that before the goats and horses that you put in the time to dig a nice deep storm shelter with strong doors. I was glad we had one when I was a kid in Okahoma. More than once we scrambled for it when tornados swirlled by. the house plans currently involve a kitchen basement, with a pantry or suitable storm room off it, whether it will be possible will depend on the land. -Charley

So who am I lol my name is Charlotte and I live in North East Scotland between Aberdeen and Inverness, I am married to Richard who most of you know better as gabelpa. I am a stay-at home Marmee. My husband is American but I am English. We are both LDS Richard was brought up in the church, I am a recent convert I was baptised in 1992. I met Richard online about 8 years ago just after he had returned from his mission, one day I received a blessing that said within a week I would have the answer to the prayer who to marry which was fun as we had never met and we were both dating each other - fortunately my husband is a good man and prayed himself. We met in March 2002 in real life got engaged 3 days later after I had been through the San Diego Temple it was wonderful he got off his knees and someone having a party the other side of mission bay let off fireworks. No Matter what our trials Heavenly Father gave us lots of moments like that surrounding our engagement and wedding that sustained us and constantly confirmed the answers to prayers that we were to marry. He is an amazing, strong, wise man and truly the greatest blessing We live in a two bed bungalow about a mile from the Moray Firth (North Sea) - its beautiful and safe where we live and I appreciate it We have two kiddies Elana Clare and Gabriel MacRae or Ellie and Gabey - Ellie is strong, independent and sassy a little who at the age of 4 knows her own mind and how to get it lol - Gabey is 1 and generally more laid back, he is just learning to walk he loves housework and anything with wheels. And one day he will decide sleep is a good thing and let Marmee sleep too. We also have a cat called Sylvie who is pretty and elegant and Lucy the Lurcher dog (German ShepherdxGreyhound) who is daft but very elegant I was inspired by the Continuum Concept as a teen and work to bring my children up, I don't use it all but we did do early socialisation we cosleep, babywear etc and I use cloth nappies/diapers. And and we will be now homeschooling - I bribed my daughter into leaving her montesorri nursery behind I know it has proved for our family to be a fairly stress free way of parenting Both Richard and I are mostly vegatarian, and have a major interest in enviromental concerns, our goal is to build an Eco-House (possibly a superadobe CalEarth Vault house or an Earthship) We are hoping to move to Kansas in a few years, and have a plot of land with allsorts of animals. I would like to have some ancient breed sheep and other animals. My daughter wants horses Before becoming a Marmee I was laid low with fibormyalgia a nasty devestating illness and before that I was doing an archaeology degree with the aim to become a forensic anthropologist. Welll thats us -Charley

The headaches may be the root of a lot of his problems, we did an elimination diet with Ellie and it changed her behaviour over night. I feel for your little boy brings back many memories for me. Sounds like he does have the wrong teacher have you and he had blessings?? And I do think you might be worth getting him evaluated if you can I know its very different in the US -Charley

If he was mine I would get him checked out with the US equivelent of an educational psychologist he may have something a normal Dr would miss, also does he seem worse when growing =- there could be growing pains etc He could be overtired or even bored - I was so bored at school it was unreal. And has he had his eyes checked recently? My daughter is younger but she would get whiny and difficult, she would then wet herself and her nose would bleed we discovered she was getting migraines, we have taken her out of school again and have cut dairy out of her diet she seems stronger, I would also talk to him - if he is smart and a little odd his chances of being bullied are very strong, the teacher says the children won't play with him because he cries - could it be he cries because people aren't very nice to him. If he was mine I would be worried too but would tackle it by spending a lot of one on one fun time and try and get him to talk. Just another thought as he can't tie his shoelaces - how is he doing with his writing you say his reading is excellent? does he have issues with clothes being uncomfortable? I have dyspraxia I was 26 when I learned to tie my shoelaces and about 14 before writing became something easy to me. My reading was off the scale before I was 8. Is he a bit clumsy etc? -Charley

ok if I am honest having two kids was harder than I could imagine lol I have a bigger age gap but at 6 months life started to get much easier - I am attachment parent so probably do things differently, I basically carried Gabey in a sling for first 6 months and we still cosleep so I do get more sleep than I would otherwise. Having said that Maureen is right every child is different had Ellie been second it would have been much easier I think but I am not sure she is so good with Gabey whereas he has massive jelous tendancies, this way round we have next to no sibling rivalry. Now we are at 1 year with Gabey and Ellie at 4 its proving to be very easy they play together which takes pressure off me, Like other posters Ellie is proving very helpful if incredibly bossy older sister and they are just so lovely to watch together. -Charley

Ellie pays her tithing every week we give her pocket money she gets £3 -Charley

I don't often agree with Six but this is a great post and I agree with it all as humans we can't know all that God has to teach us we are going to get contradictions and misunderstanding, even a prophet is only mortal and cannot truly understand the immortal, all we can do is grow in our understand generation by generation. I think it was Joseph Smith that said if we could stare into heaven for 5 minutes we would understand more than a lifetime reading the Book of Mormon would teach us. I have found our prophets remarkably anti-racist for their age in comparison to the majrity of the American population of their time. Even Peter showed racist tendencies concerning gentile/non gentile and if the Gospel of Mary is to be believed he was sexist too. I am sure in modern context even Jesus would have been seen as racist or sexist - look at the comment to the Canaanite Woman about her being a dog. For me what matter is I know I am doing what Heavenly Father wants and that is more important than anything a prophet has to say. -Charley

for me its when Christ is the focus of your life and you know that the Lord will look after you and take care of the situation it becomes no longer your concern. When even if you won't be bosom buddies with a person you would still at least pray for them to havea good life, or pray that they will get over their problems or have heart softened and no longer look at them in anger. When you don't think about what they did unless something reminds you -Charley

I'm going to agree with Jason be honest - if people ask start saying what he says to you, And maybe he should phone and tell his parents himself -Charley

Just looked back in. Sad to hear of your news. So I'm just sending these to you They're cyber hugs so they shouldn't hurt too bad for laughters sake couldn't find flowers so this was the best I could do . :pray: :pray: Sending you lots of these too. They always seem to come in handy;) just read this I am so sorry Strawberry -Charley

its easier for me as I grew up knowing Santa wasn't real (we still had him but new he was more of a fun character_, I am doing the same with my children. We have our Christmas holiday on Chirstmas Eve - we have out main meal and open our presents at midnight. Then I change the Santa or the Angel on top of the tree for a Star and we sing Away in a Manger and tell the nativity story. Next morning if the weather is good we go out for a picnic with the leftovers and a Happy Birthday Jesus cake. We also take either 3 balloons or 3 origami boats - attched to them are our 3 gifts to Jesus (promises we make for over the year) and we let them go. -Charley

My daughter has had a great couple of days where Heavenly Father has taught her more about prayer than I ever could. Two nights ago Tigie (her best cuddlie) went missing. We could not find him anywhere turned the house upside down. She then knelt to say a prayer and she got up and said Heavenly Father says he is in your bedroom (mine and gabelpas) we go in and there he is sitting grinning at us from a pillow that I know he wasn't on earlier. Then today my husband was offered a job she was praying for. -Charley

I didn't breastfeed my first at all makes me more philopsophical now I would love my son to self wean but if I let him do that I could envisage having to wean him right before his mission lol-Charley

I haven't been in the same position but my parents seperated - my Dad still blames my Mum publically despite having had countless affairs. And my brother had a recent (well 2 years ago) split from an abusive live in girlfriend I wanted to say I think you are amazing, to be at the stage you are at already, you are right he doesn't deserve you or even close and he is lucky you stuck with him as long as you did. Do you go to Single Adult things? You do need a crutch to get over the 2am thing its miserable then especially as a single woman and you can't get a blessing easily. Have you had loads of blessings? When I am going through a really rough time before I got married I would make sure I had a blessing every Sunday at church. You are one amazing lady. -Charley

I would go mad if I didn't cosleep lol we rearranged our mattresses last night - Elllie and Gabey had wanted to sleep together so their mattresses had been becide each other, last night but Gabey next to me it made life much easier - at nearly 1 year he is still getting up 5 or 6 times a night for a feed but last night he fed and went back in his own bed. My husband is from California we are contemlpating moving to Kansas in the next 3 years./ -Charley

I don't know how much of scripture is literal or just story, maybe Abraham didn't exist but what I do know is Heavenly Father gave it to us to know more about him, I think we need to take all scripture allegorically AND literally in order to get what he wants us to know. I firmly believe the Bible at various times was edited so precious and sacred teachings wouldn't be removed. That said have you read CS Lewis' Mars Trilogy? The middle book Perelandra is set on a plant where the fall does not occur -the Eve character is taught about sin from a man from Earth, makes very interesting reading. I don't think Earth needed to fall for Gods plan to happen I think Adam and Eve could have come out of their ignorance naturally - just like as we can now learn an awful lot by sinning, wisdom can be obtained much quicker from doing wrong sometimes than years of right can teach you - however you can learn wisdom being always right the Saviour did. Nobody made Satan sin and nobody made Adam and Eve transgress - I am sure if they hadn't the world would have kept progressing I know that people assume Adam and Eve couldn't procreate in the Garden of Eden personally I feel it was more they didn't for whatever reason maybe they didn't know how there is the often told fable among nurses which involves the punchline 'i get it in her belly button everytime' That couple could physically have children but weren't because they didn't know how Yes our glory will progress, we are progressing, just like our Heavenly Father. Concerning Angels i believe are like the spirts in Christmas Carol _ Some are those that have been, some are yet to come and some are very much mortal and are present on Earth with us> -Charley didn'

hi I been thinking and praying abut thiis I know that I am OK with it but wasn't sure how to answer your question last night it hit me the Saviour is who answers our prayers under the direction of the Father. The Father listens but its the Son that answers. -Charley