Little Bits of Life…

Christmas has come – the snow has fallen, gifts are piling up, the decorations are (finally) hung, and the kids have had their annual trip to see Santa. We even managed to get the Christmas cards out and most of the gifts wrapped. No doubt about it – the holidays are upon us.

Last week, I made a quick trip to the grocery store, coupons in tow, hoping to get a great deal on some cereal. I clip coupons and occasionally find some amazing savings, and this week was no exception. I was intending to buy 4 boxes of General Mills cereal for 25 cents each. I grabbed the cereal and a few cans of soup and boxes of muffin mix (also on a great sale) and went to the checkout line. As I waited in line, the lady behind me commented on my coat, so we chatted for a bit. She seemed like quite a nice lady, and reminded me a lot of my grandmother. Well, it came time for me to check out and as I handed the checker my coupons, she informed me that they would not accept one of the coupons (a coupon from one of their competitors that normally they honor). A little disappointed (but not surprised as it was just an AWESOME deal), I told the checker I’d skip buying the cereal. She put it off to the side and returned my coupons. The lady behind me in line leaned over and said "Did you just put that cereal back?" I told her I had. She turned to the checker and said, "I’ll pay for it." Though she offered several times, I didn’t let her pay for the cereal. (Turns out I’m just a cheapskate and don’t like to buy stuff unless it’s a really great deal.) But this experience left me with such a wonderful feeling of the spirit of giving and caring. It is amazing to me that in this world where so many people are only interested in themselves, this one sweet lady cared enough about me – someone she didn’t know and would probably never see again – to offer to buy the cereal she thought I couldn’t afford. I left the store that night with a lightened heart and a feeling of appreciation for the kindness of this stranger.

A few days ago, our home teachers made their monthly visit. They talked with us for a while, asking about work, family, the holidays, and those sorts of things. Then they shared a message with us of the meaning of Christmas, and the power of service. And as they were leaving, one brother grabbed the shovel he had brought over and began shoveling our walks and driveway. It had snowed that morning, and as we’d been at church, in meetings, and caring for a nephew who was staying with us for the weekend, we hadn’t yet found time to get out and shovel. It was a small act of service, but struck me with great force that these men would take the time to come visit with my family and then take the time to go out in the cold and dark to shovel our walk.

There truly are wonderful people in this world. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that, especially if you pay attention to the media, which seems intent on telling only the bad things that happen. But the good people are out there, and I think there are more good people with kind hearts than it seems at first glance. I like to believe that, given the chance, most of us would lend a helping hand if we saw a need we could meet. And isn’t that the true spirit of Christmas?

There is no greater gift than the Atonement of Jesus Christ. There is no greater love than our Heavenly Father offering us a way back to His presence. And there is no better way to show our appreciation for these Heavenly gifts than to share that love with those around us.

I hope this holiday season serves as a reminder of the wonderful gift we have all been given. Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but the best thing about it isn’t the presents or the snow. It is the love of the Savior that spreads across the globe, in these small and simple acts of service.

Merry Christmas.

Some days I find myself laughing every time I turn around. Not that my life is really all that hilarious, or that I’m a funny person, or that I happen to have a book of jokes that I carry around with me (though Erica could pass for a book of jokes lately, and a fairly decent one at that). It’s more that I’ve found it easier to choose laughter as my response to the things that go on in my house. Laughter, I’m finding, is a great stress reliever. And it’s contagious, which helps almost every situation. And it’s a lot prettier than crying or yelling. 🙂

Yesterday afternoon as I was making dinner and (as usual) running the discipline train full speed, Isaac managed to land himself in a 4 minute timeout in his room (a 1 minute extension to his typical 3 minute timeout). When I’m making dinner, it is sometimes a little difficult for me to be exact with his timeouts, as I can’t always leave the food I’m cooking (or burning, as was the case yesterday) when his time has expired to run up and tell him he can come out if he wants to. Consequently, his 4 minute timeout was a little longer – closer to 5 or 6 minutes. So anyway – when I did manage to make it up to his room and opened the door to excuse him from his room, I said my customary "You may come out of timeout now if you would like" to which I received an "Ok" coming from the direction of the closet.

Now, the direction of the response set off a little warning bell in my head. Normally, the closet isn’t a big deal. But earlier that day, Isaac was in (yet another) timeout and when I excused him and went back down to the kitchen to work on dinner (yes – timeout twice in the 45 minutes I spent making dinner – this boy tries my patience some days) I waited to hear running feet or slamming doors – the usual indicators that Isaac has exited his room. I waited and for a good 5 minutes I heard nothing coming from his room. This is usually a bad sign, so back up I went. I walked out of the kitchen and away from the sizzle of the food and immediately I heard my son’s crying voice calling for my help. Up the stairs I ran, into his room, and over to the closet to find him sitting on the shelf, pleading for help to get down. I of course helped him down and then we had a talk about not climbing up on things that he can’t get back down from by himself. Still a far cry from "No climbing in the house" but I’ll take what I can get at this point.

So at any rate, when I heard the "ok" come from the closet, I immediately thought, "He’s climbed the closet again." But instead, to my surprise (and relief mixed with fresh fear) he came out of the closet with his pants and underwear around his ankles. He looked up at me and said, "Is Dad home yet?" That made my stomach do a backwards flop. Immediately, about a dozen thoughts rushed through my mind, including: Isaac needed a bathroom during timeout. I didn’t come up after the 4 minutes – he spent an extra few minutes in his room. He does his best to stay in his room during timeout, even if he needs to go to the bathroom. Sometimes when he poops he wants Dad to help him wipe, since I won’t do it (we’re working on him wiping by himself and doing a good job). His pants are down and I couldn’t see if there was poop in his underwear or not. My conclusion? He pooped during timeout and wanted Dad to help him clean himself up. My answer to my son’s question? "No, Isaac. Daddy’s not home yet." Pause. Deep breath. "Why are your pants down?" He looked up at me and said "Cuz I needed to go bafwoom." Oh no. Gulp. Another deep breath. "Well, son, what do you think you should do then?" And, to my infinite relief, joy, and pride, my son shuffled off to the bathroom, used the toilet, and ran off to play. No emergency. No mess.

The laughter in this situation? Mostly because there was a small boy standing in front of me, pants around his ankles, and the only thing he cared about was "Where’s Dad?" At least he has his priorities straight. 🙂

Nearly two years ago, I took a cake decorating class with my mom and one of my younger sisters. I’ve always wanted to learn to decorate cakes and especially how to make a rose out of frosting, so when I saw a Wilton Cake Decorating class offered at my local craft store, I signed up (and convinced my mom and sister to join me). It was great fun and I learned a lot about frosting and baking cakes that I had never known. I even learned how to make a decent looking rose out of frosting (though my sister was MUCH better at it than me). 4 weeks, 4 cakes, and many dollars later, the class was finished and I contemplated taking the next course, Wilton Cake Decorating Course 2. My mom and sister didn’t want to take the next course at the time, and I ended up not taking it right away. Then we moved, and life was crazy for a while.

Over the summer, the sister who took the class with me went to visit another of my sisters and they took the second course in the cake series together. On her way back home, my sister stopped at my house and happened to bring her final cake with her. It was amazing to see! Beautiful flowers, birds, and basket weave, all made of frosting and totally edible! I was hugely impressed and reminded that I did want to take that class at some point in the future.

A few months ago I was at my local craft store again (for who knows what reason – I’m really not a crafty person and for the life of me I can’t remember what on earth I was doing there) and stopped by the class schedule list to see if they happened to be offering a class on making chocolates (another thing I’m very interested in learning to do). No such luck, but I did notice course 2 of the Wilton method was being offered, and that the class fee was half price if I signed up for September. So, on a whim, I signed up for the class without even checking with my husband (something I typically don’t do). I purchased my class kit and went home to dig out my cake decorating box from under the pile of lightbulbs in the laundry room.

I thoroughly enjoyed the class. One of the best parts was that I only had to make a cake for the final week instead of making a cake each week as we had done in course 1. I learned to make 2 new kinds of frosting: royal icing for the flowers (they dry stiff) and color-flow icing for the birds (they also dry stiff but are shiny). I learned to make mums, victorian roses, daisies, violets, daffodils, apple blossoms, and a few more kinds of flowers that I can’t remember the names of. I made edible birds, and learned to make beautiful basketweave on my cake sides. I was thrilled with my final project, in spite of the flaws. Because honestly, if you don’t know what the mistakes are (and I’m not going to tell you!), the cake looks awesome! It tasted great and I would have been thrilled to eat the whole thing myself, but I decided after 4 weeks of eating all the leftover frosting (I figure I probably downed about 4-6 pounds of powdered sugar all by myself) I’d had more than my fair share of that, so I ended up giving away better than half the cake. Probably a good choice, especially since the only reason I tolerate cake is because I love frosting. 🙂

Kimball went a little nuts taking pictures so there are a gazillion. 🙂