More reverence give me!

My last post revealed some of my personal New Year's resolutions, now I'll discuss our big FAMILY resolution, which is to be more reverent at church. For those of you in my ward, let me just apologize now for all the years of having to endure our circus. I've been feeling especially motivated lately to step up our reverence after sitting behind the most amazing family the last few months. This family has 6 kids, ages 15 to 4 - they all sit perfectly still for 1 hour 10 minutes and they don't even bring a church bag! I feel like I bring LUGGAGE to church!


So, in my quest to increase our reverence I decided to stop bringing a church bag (my kids just spend the whole sacrament meeting fighting over the stuff in the bag anyway) and just bring a "church pouch." I made this pouch based on an idea my friend Christianne gave me last year. It is super easy to sew, seriously the hardest part was sewing on the button!

This Sunday I'm going to try the "church pouch" and see how it goes. Do any of you still bring a bag to church (my youngest is 4)? Or, do you have any reverence tips?

"What manner of men ought ye to be?"

As my children have grown older and, consequently, began spending more time at school, I've found myself with more spare time than ever. Slowly, I feel I've started to redefine myself and what fills my time. I wasn't so sure I liked the direction I was taking though . . . I found myself bored and killing time in malls trying to "fill the time." But, at the end of the day I felt like I wasted my day. Why was I feeling so unsatisfied? The scripture "What manner of men ought ye to be?" 3 Nephi 27:27 kept coming to mind.

Last month, I was released from the Stake Primary Presidency. This ended 7 awesome years of primary, or so I thought. I was soon called as the Primary Music Leader. Many of you know - I CAN'T SING. Consequently, this calling now fills a lot of my spare time. What a blessing! I spend hours each week teaching myself the songs (not the words per se, but the NOTES!) Our piano and I have become good friends as I work on my pitch (I can only imagine what Simon Cowell would say about me!) I've also spent a lot of time on my knees, praying for help with this new calling. So far, the experience has been so enriching to me. I feel more fulfilled.

I've also been working lately on my homemaking skills. I've been sewing more and trying new recipes. I've also been preparing some of my oldies, but goodies. Here's a picture of Adam helping me make our favorite chocolate chip cookies (it's the recipe from the Crisco butter-flavored cubes container). I'm sure Adam's thinking, "when are these cookies going to be done!?!?!"

Today, I went skiing while the kids were at school (and Adam was at a friend's house). It felt so good to be exercising and the mountain was breathtaking. And, tonight I'm attending a Japanese cooking class. Ally is obsessed with all things Japanese right now and I thought it'd be a great surprise to her if I made our family a Japanese meal (other than just sushi, which is the only Japanese food I know how to make!)

I'm feeling better lately with how I'm spending my time. I would also love to fill in the gaps with more service, family history, and temple attendance. But, for now I feel like I'm making strides by being more conscious about how I spend my time and trying to ponder more what type of woman I ought to be.