a mustard seed

Members
  • Posts

    224
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About a mustard seed

  • Birthday 08/21/1987

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    belovedpainter.blogspot.com

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Rexburg, ID
  • Interests
    books, movies, reading, writing, painting, gospel principles
  • Religion
    LDS

Recent Profile Visitors

3169 profile views

a mustard seed's Achievements

  1. That is good news! Have you been causing trouble? Good to see you again Dr. and thank you!
  2. Lol, I just got a Mormonhub digest in my email and was totally like, "Oh! right!" I'm so sorry friends! My computer died back in November( right before cyber Monday, you know... Thank goodness for tender mercies?) and after that I got a new one and had to immediately move into new apartment right before school started. Then...school started. *makes a stressed yet smiley face* I am blessed for the opportunity to go is all I'll say. It's kind of a cliche to say college is tough anyway. Anyway I missed you all! Even though i forgot about you. What has been going on? Share with your mustardy friend!
  3. So, what now? We'll get a penalty in taxes this year if we don't have health insurance? I didn't have any for most of 2015 and didn't have any for any of 2016...or 2017. But now, I'm going to be signing up with the school's insurance when I go this January. As far as I know, last years taxes did not penalize me in any way(I never got a bill, was I supposed to take the initiative and go find a bill for that?) when I filed. Will the penalty show up this year in taxes or are these bills/penalties stacking up unpaid somewhere that I don't know about?
  4. If you mean defending the gospel on forums and the like, I'm divided on it. I think clarification of truths can be made on this forum in particular. I've read discussions here where I started out thinking one way but then was moved to see a different view because of the way someone phrased something or quotes/scriptures shared that helped illuminate things in a way they had not been before. I won't condemn those who want to engage in apologetics but online...I feel it might be a waste of time. That's how I personally feel. I much prefer making information accessible, for giving people spaces to ask questions like this forum, AskGramps, or the official church websites where missionaries are available in the chat programs. That's how I feel the church could use the internet to spread the gospel, not by encouraging members to spend time online wrapped up in discussions that might or might not be genuine. The nature of the medium allows too much room for people to troll and I even suspect occasionally we get hit here with the random "newbie" who brings up contentious topics or defends obviously apostate things just to stir the pot. Not enough to make sharing and answering things genuinely not worth it though because some people, like me, probably read a lot more than they post. I prefer the focus the church has on real-life activities and connections because there is an element of online communication that is toxic in too large of quantities. Like I used to spend a lot more time online than I do now during my marriage and it was like people in face-to-face interactions couldn't understand me or like they were speaking a different language, like there was something wrong with how we were perceiving each other. So, I much prefer how we emphasize face-to-face interactions rather than defending the church through text debate. Even just the absolutely bizarre miscommunication still going on between TFP and JJ(omgoodness, to watch this, it feels like two slightly deaf people trying to talk on the phone to each other, devolving into "What?" "What?" I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for someone's hearing aid to get turned on) is an example of why 'defending the gospel' online should maybe be considered with a grain of salt. How much can you defend something when intentions, biases, and projections keep getting in the way between the actual points being made?
  5. Lol, thank you for the reiteration, at least. It makes me think that might be the most feasible way to try to tackle these responsibilities.
  6. The loan is subsidized so, it won't start gaining interest until after I graduate in about 4-5 years. My general plan was either to pay as much of the loan off from money earned during my 6 month breaks while I'm still in school, so, by the end, it wouldn't be as big as it would be otherwise. OR find a savings account that I can keep shoving money into(the money earned during breaks) and save it for the entire 4-5 years and hopefully make it somewhat larger than what I directly earned through interest somehow. By the end of school the loans I get, if I am eligible each year, will total about $50,000. Working two jobs during 6 months each year, I can maybe get $20-30,000 saved/earned by the end of school. It'll take a big bite out of it but the less time I have to spend dealing with the loans after I graduate, you know, the better, of course. I thank everybody for their advice and sharing their knowledge of these things. At least now, I have some actual things I can ask my bank about. <3
  7. Ah! I see! I'm trying to save money for college loans that I'll have to pay off. I'm trying to get it all figured out because I've never done this before. I'll be trying to keep up with payments during the breaks, working to pay off the loans(at least what I can) before I graduate. I was just wondering if there was an account or something that I could keep putting money into and still gain interest on it. The CD sounds like an avenue I could take.
  8. Created one what? A CD?
  9. "Against the law" does not equate to an honest living where someone grows crop that contributes to the deterioration of people's health, for profit. If the tobacco farmer decided to only sell to companies that want it for "biofuel" then there would be no problem, obviously. Nobody would question that farmer's life choices, although we might call him on it being "more profitable" to be a tobacco farmer in that case than any other farmer. Because when the tobacco farmer says, "I make more money growing tobacco than any other crop" the obvious implication is that the money comes from the high demand of cigarette companies and manufacturers for that crop. Intuitively, this is just a guess, but I doubt the demand for tobacco as biofuel measures up enough to make tobacco more profitable than growing anything else.
  10. So, not an LDS question but I trust the people here, at least to not make fun of me for not knowing about certain things because you all know about my situation and how my life has been on hold for the past 10 years. Thus, my knowledge of certain things is limited since my experience is limited. My question: is there some sort of savings account that you can have at the bank where you put money into it and the money grows over a period of time? Or is that just something I made up in my head? I didn't want to go to the bank and ask about it yet because I feel like that is foolish as a concept, that it's wrong, and I don't want to look like an idiot asking about something that doesn't even make sense. But you guys will tell me if it's dumb or not. So, do banks have that kind of thing or am I thinking of an investment or something? I admit, working at the call center where a couple of our clients are financial advisory institutions, my view is probably skewed on what BANKS can do.
  11. Stranger Than Fiction One of the better Will Ferrel movies. I just think this is the cutest, funniest thing. Also, I identify greatly with the writer's experience. I'm not a tragedy writer but the creative process can be jump started by the most innocuous things and connections.
  12. I use a bobby pin that I keep in my temple bag to lightly, discreetly clip it to my temple dress. Usually at the top of my shoulder.
  13. Congrats! That's exciting @anatess2! I know what its like to lose 10 lbs, so, it is great that you've done it! Keep it up, lady! You got this! I've been drinking that sparkling water that you can get from Walmart for .50 for a liter bottle. I drink one of those and then fill it with water and those two things I drink every day. Trying, at least.
  14. So, it was my cousin's wedding last weekend and my other aunt and grandma were here visiting from PA. We did not eat good at all, lol. I gained back the three lbs I lost last weekend, going back to 238. THIS weekend, my family having left on Tuesday, I weigh in at 234 lbs. I'm pleased but I realize the gaining and losing could be an issue I want to avoid. I've been trying to eat bigger, fuller breakfasts, medium lunches, and sparse evening meals, since I don't have access to kitchen nor shop from 2 until 8 or 8:30 at night and it's really not the time to be scarfing down a sandwich or a taco or whatever my aunt has cooked for dinner. So, I've been eating at the grocery store in the mornings, big platters of fruits and vegetables with either a bagel or some sort of protein. Then I usually eat a small lunch of vegetable platters and a grilled cheese sandwich from my favorite shop. And then in the evening as I walk home from work, I eat a protein bar or two. I've also been drinking a lot more water, trying to get the water into my system. It feels like some sort of torture where I'm trying to gulp down as much as I can when I remember it and running to the restroom about once every hour. :/ And yet still, I'm only able to finish about 2 one liter bottles each day.
  15. My grandma is very strong in the church and occasionally buys scratchers. And bad movies aren't worth the time, unless you mean "bad" movies. Then...well, I slipped recently and watched a couple of movies that I've been craving seeing when I've been trying to keep my entertainment clean since my return to church. I watched A Cure for Wellness, Get Out, Ozark, and the last season of Salem because I was watching the show prior to my return to church. All incredibly disappointing. Salem's last season jumped the shark, several times, a complete waste of time rather than the closure I was hoping for. Get Out was not as interesting as I was led to believe and more overly dramatic; I didn't relate. And a Cure for Wellness was "creepy" but the mystery was very convoluted and full of holes, unanswered questions; very commercial, in my opinion. Ozark was like Breaking Bad but without any sort of morality tale. Jason Bateman's character is the "anti-hero" of the tale, supposedly cunning and good with money, we're supposed to root for his clever solutions when all it is is jumping from mud hole to mud hole, with no real standard of morals, no descent from goodness, no fall or lessons learned. Just bad people finding ways to survive and get away with the awful crap they do. And all four had levels of depravity that made me wonder what the inclusion really did for the plot or anything; just sickness and taint for the sake of shock or simple glorification. I did not feel uplifted by my experience watching R rated or "M" rated shows and movies again and I wish I hadn't. And although I feel again the temptation to give in for the new It movie...I think I'll pass, personally. Now, that's been my personal experience but I truly do believe that the standards of society have been made so low, I can safely say, after months of watching things on the level of Pride and Prejudice, Disney films, and Studio C, you're not missing much. Especially when you "get" the privilege of guilt free scripture reading right after watching those cleaner entertainments. I'd also posit that alcohol is not worth the time either. There is a culture of social drinking that you need to be familiar with in order to enjoy it. I was never able to relate during my time away. Drinking cocktails by yourself, at home, while watching movies? Not particularly fun, especially if you drink enough to "feel" it and then end up having to pull back your own hair over the toilet bowl. Not worth it because a sip of anything tasty gives you the deceptive impression of harmlessness(it's not, omg, it's NOT) and everything else tastes like garbage. So, unless you want to associate with others who do not have the spirit with them while they are drunk, sit around for hours doing nothing but talking about nothing meaningful, that you may or may not remember, it's not worth the "try." Besides, as much fun as everyone makes it seem, drinking and the resulting feeling associated with it is your body reacting to being poisoned, your brain reacting to abuse and holes being gnawed into it. And that says nothing of where the Spirit goes when you try it...