Birthdays Begin Again!

NOTE: I just realized that this is the second post on this birthday. That's what happens when you get behind in blogging. However, I feel to leave this post as well, for it truly speaks of the upright character of my son.

With the beginning of a new year comes a new cycle of birthdays! I love birthdays. They provide me as a mother an opportunity to honor my children individually as I try to make the day memorable for them. I don't always put as much effort forth as I would like - life gets busy, but my children are my highest priority, and I LOVE to help them feel special and loved!

This year started with Myles birthday! What a special boy he is. He is so clever and has been working on so many of his talents and skills. He has become so handy. He knows his way around tools and a fair bit of equipment such as lawn mowers, rototillers, chain saws and all that sort of stuff. He is confident with power tools as well and works well as a great blessing to his father when they work together. 

For his birthday meal, Myles requested pizza. We made 4 homemade pizza's in our favorite themes - Hawaiian and a meat pizza. Myles, in his usual helpful manner, helped to cut the pizza as we gathered for the meal.

Pizza is a favorite family meal. I love the tradition of eating together as a family. As you can see, we get a little bit of silliness going on (at the end of the table) which often provides the nutrients in building strong family bonds. Of course family meals also provide the physical nutrition that comes from good food. What a blessing it is to have children that also value family meals.

Myles even helped to light his own candles on the cake - of course, he likes to light candles, so it is natural that he would light the candles on his own cake.

Myles is a very handy person, so for his birthday we gave him a very handy set of gadgets. These hand held tools have all sorts of uses and applications that I know Myles will discover as he does different little projects.

 I am so thankful to have a son who honors his sisters and his parents. Myles is a blessing in our home, and while he struggles with some of the same things that many teenagers struggle with like getting along in off moments, Myles is a great support to his family. Myles loves to do things with his sisters. He often plays ball with Melodee and he helped her to get the after school job that she has. Together they go to work and then they often come home together as well. Myles is a very dependable person, and the neighbors love his willingness to help them out. When they need someone, they seem to instinctively know that Myles is always ready and willing to assist.

I can't help but feel blessed when I consider the goodness of my son. It is a joy and a delight to work with him, for he helps me often without complaint. He is always up for a family activity, faithfully fulfills his home teaching responsibility with his dad, and his priesthood duties at church. He is a good example and a blessing in our home. Myles, it is a definite JOY to call you my son.

Heeding the Call of the Mountains

I love the mountains. I always have and I can't ever imagine having that change. There is something so majestic and beautiful about those towering spires of rock, covered with snow and trees that inspires me. I am not the only one at our house that loves the mountains. Chad also loves the mountains, and being raised at the base of the foothills, they call out regularly to him. It is a predictable phenomenon, that when we see the mountains coming into view that it is as though they begin to call and beckon to us. For Chad this pull is stronger than it is for me, but I feel it as well.

A short time ago we decided to go up into Cardston. The weather was quite snowy, but it was beautiful up there. Before we knew it, we found ourselves turning west rather than east, for a visit into the majestic peaks of Waterton National Park. It was lovely and peaceful, a delightful way to enhance a lovely day together.

 The roads were snow covered and icy and the sky was covered with clouds making it feel cozy and intimate. While I don't like being on poor roads at the best of times, I LOVED the beauty of the snow reflecting off the mountains, and the pure whiteness of everything.

 I don't thing I have ever before seen Cameron Falls frozen - at least not in person. As you can see, the waterfall doesn't look much like itself, but the icicles were lovely and enchanting.

 My footwear was not exactly designed for outdoor activities in snow, so we didn't do a lot of walking around. I took a picture of Chad in front of the waterfall and then he took on of me (which mysteriously disappeared off the ipad!) I promise - I didn't delete it!!!

 As you can see from the footprints in the snow, we weren't the only ones to appreciate the frozen waterfall that day in the new snow. The sun shining through the clouds was breath taking. I am so glad that we made the effort to enjoy the spectacular winter vista of the day.

 We even saw a herd of deer bedded down under the large coniferous trees in the town site. It was pretty cool!

As we left Waterton, the sun came out from behind the clouds. The skies were clearing, and the snows were left behind. It was the perfect benediction to a beautifully spiritual day. We even returned home in time to spend some cherished time together as a family before bed time.

I am so thankful for the wonders of nature, in all the seasons. I am not a big fan of winter, but I don't think I would ever trade away the beauty of that frozen season for any other season of the year. To me winter balances summer as fall balances spring. Winter helps me appreciate summer just as summer helps me appreciate winter. 

The Lord has taught us that there must be opposition in ALL things. I know that the sometimes harsh cold of winter helps me appreciate the melting warmth of summer much more powerfully than I could had I never experienced cold temperatures. To me winter symbolizes trials and adversity, but I am overjoyed by the knowledge that spring will ALWAYS follow! (That's my favorite season of all!) I must admit, that even the extremes of summer can remind me of hardships, for I don't like extreme temperatures either in the red or the blue! Even in those extremes there are delights and joys that speak to my soul. Summer - even on intensely hot days - thrills my heart with the vibrant colors of flowers dancing in the breeze, the singing birds, and the fluttering butterfly. There is joy and happiness aplenty at times such as these. Winter - as a frozen wasteland - holds my heart fascinated by the glittering snow, frozen icicles that decorate waterways and majestic hoarfrost of foggy mornings. Yes, if summer and winter in their extremes depict trial, there is without doubt, joy to be found even in those moments. I am so grateful for the opposites I have experienced (either personally or through others) that enrich my understanding of the many, many blessings that my Father in Heaven has blessed me with. My heart is filled to overflowing as I contemplate the richness of His love for me and ALL mankind.

Cinnamon Roll Cake and Talents

It is so fun having a daughter that loves to cook! Well actually, I have several children that love to cook, and it is such a blessing. Recently we have been blessed by Naomi's culinary skills. Last week she came home from work with a pan of tasty temptation! Yes, it disappeared astonishingly fast! Lucky for us, she came home with the recipe as well! Within two days, she had her own pan of mouthwatering cookery for us to consume.

There it is! Cinnamon Roll Cake and it tastes every bit as good or better than it looks! So let me share the recipe:

Buttery Cinnabun Cake

CAKE:

3 Cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 Cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ Cups milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 Stick real butter, melted

TOPPING:

2 sticks real butter, softened
1 Cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2/3 Cups nuts, optional

GLAZE:

2 Cups powdered sugar
5 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In an electric or stand mixer mix the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs and vanilla. Once combined well, slowly stir in melted butter. Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix the 2 sticks of softened butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nuts until well combined. Drop evenly over cake batter by the tablespoonful’s and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.

3. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center.

4. Place powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle over warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!

It seems that with as many girls as I have, and their respective ages, I have many wonderfully capable cooks in my home at this time. Just the other day Breanna decided to make a cake. She pulled out a mix, followed the instructions and in a very short time (and with no help) she had baked a wonderfully moist confetti cake. Then just yesterday, Charity decided to help me out by assisting with the cake - she baked an angel food cake which also turned out delightfully well! It seems that we bake treats around here faster than we are able to consume them! Christmas baking - all those cookies and cakes made several months ago, are still being consumed, but at a much slower rate than they would have been a few years back. To me it is a blessing to have so many helping and willing hands in the kitchen. My girls are a joy and a blessing.

Now, lest my son feel left out, let me just say, that he is also very capable in the kitchen. At our house, Myles seems to be able to make the best pancakes. I taught him, but his pancakes rival even mine! Again, it is such a blessing to have his skills benefiting our family.

(These two photos are a couple of pieces of art that Naomi has done this year for her high school art class! Awesome work Naomi!)

I love how our talents and abilities support and nourish others. Food is a pretty predictable talent in that it is obvious that it nourishes others, but the preparation time ALSO nourishes the relationships of those working together in anticipation of a delightful treat or nutritious meal. Talents of music and art , friendship and love also nourish the spirit and those that we share those skills with. I have such gifted children. I think that they nourish me in some small way each and every day and in doing so, they fill my heart with pure JOY! My home is truly blessed by their presence!

The Parable of the Coloured Lenses

Let me introduce you to Sanguine. He was a young man who loved color. It was his work, his hobby and it filled his life!  Each day as he went out into the world he saw the most vibrant and beautiful colors. They delighted his soul and made him want to sing. He found colors in the sky, in the flowers, in all the different grasses and foliages. He saw colors in the mountains and hills, in the clouds and the rains. He saw colors in the wood of his home, on the trim, and reflected back at him in the glass of the window panes. He loved how the different colors complemented and contrasted with one another. The vibrancy and variety of all those wonderful colors filled him with happiness and joy. 

One day as Sanguine was traveling he met Blinkers. Now Sanguine had heard the Graybeards warn against making purchases from the salesman, Blinkers. They warned that one could not truly appreciate color when using coloured lenses, but Sanguine could not understand how adding color could cause one to lose color and so the admonishment of the Graybeards meant little to him. In fact their warning was all but forgotten in the excitement of meeting Blinkers!  Blinkers discerned the love of color that Sanguine possessed and encouraged him to try out some lenses in his favorite color so that he might enjoy all the delights of that spectrum and view it whenever he desired. Loving red, Sanguine  happily chose a rose colored pair. They delighted him. He promptly made his purchase and began wearing them everywhere. The many hues of reds, corals and pinks he was now able to detect in absolutely everything were delightful! In fact he loved those tones so much, that he seldom took off the glasses! He even began to think in terms of those rich ruddy colors. He began to forget the look and feel of blues and greens, but it didn't bother him because he had such a spectrum of crimson colors to enjoy! All he saw and experienced began to be defined through his russet vision. As time went by, Sanguine became so accustomed to wearing his rose coloured glasses that he never felt a need to take them off and life proceeded in a cloud of crimson views.

Over the hill and down the road lived another young man by the name of Beryl. Beryl was also blessed with an affinity for color. His favorite color was blue! Beryl met Blinkers on his way to the market one day. Blinkers, who was very astute, and good at making sales, perceived Beryl's love for blue and also convinced him that the Graybeards were overprotective, and simply feared something they knew nothing about. This made sense to Beryl, and he optimistically purchased an azure coloured set of lenses. Beryl loved the rich blues, greens and aqua colors of his world through the glasses. He wore his spectacles everywhere, finding joys and delights in the rich blues and sapphires of his world. Over time he forgot the warmth of the red part of the spectrum, but he was not aware of this condition as he went on defining his world in terms of his cherished indigos. In the days that passed Beryl's world of blue satisfied him and he forgot that there had ever been anything more. 

Across the lake and to the west was another small, remote village. In this village lived a young man by the name of Clarion. Clarion had a grandfather who was a Graybeard. His grandfather, was very wise and wanted Clarion to not only know of the deception of coloured lenses, but to understand it. This wise man upon hearing of the imminent approach of Blinkers the salesman, decided to purchase some transparent coloured boxes. He then called Clarion to him and once again gave him the warning of the coloured lenses.

"Clarion, the salesman, Blinkers, who peddles coloured lenses soon approaches our village. It is time for you to understand why it is that looking through colored lenses prevents you from enjoying the full richness of the blessings of color, for when one looks through a colored lense, the weakness in them for that color often overrides their knowledge of the color spectrum, and they cannot let go of their pet color long enough to see or appreciate other colors."

With those words, the old Graybeard handed Clarion a blue colored box and asked him to look through it. Clarion immediately loved the rich blues he saw in everything about him. He looked and looked, but the box became heavy and he had to put it down. Next the Graybeard gave him a green box. Clarion was dazzled with the greens sparkling back at him. It was so beautiful, but it too became heavy and he had to put it down. Grandfather continued to hand him color after color, orange then red, purple, gray, and yellow. Then the Graybeard handed him a clear box. Clarion was delighted, for he could see all the colors clearly, and he looked and looked, and looked. Much later he realized that he had dropped the box long ago. The colors he saw were genuine and warm. They hadn't changed, but he had come to appreciate them more deeply. This is the lesson that carried him into his maturity.

Opportunity eventually brought Sanguine, Clarion and Beryl together with others in the work of producing artful masterpieces. Sanguine produced works of art that were filled with reds, golds, corals and crimson. Beryl composed art filled with blues, sapphire, azure and indigo. Others they worked with had an eye trained from green lenses who formed designs filled with rich emeralds, teal and chartreuse. Others favored orange or yellow, but no matter the color, it was always perceived through the color programming of ther chosen lenses for Beryl saw blues and greens in everything, Sanguine perceived reds and pinks and their other associates dominantly perceived the color through which their lenses were tinted. Clarion alone crafted designs that purely captured warm reds, contrasted with cool blues, rich greens, royal purples and energizing yellows but in all his art, his whites were the purest and most defining feature of all.

Clarion's work was in demand, even those who wore colored lenses somehow sensed the purity in his colors. Everybody wanted it and Sanguine and Beryl were beside themselves in seeking to understand Clarion's success. One day they asked him about it. Clarion had been waiting for the opportunity to help them, and slowly approached Sanguine. He reached up and carefully removed the forgotten colored lenses from off the bridge of Sanguines nose. 

Sanguine blinked and reached out to retrieve the glasses, but Clarion said, "You may have these back, and you may wear them if you wish, but first look out the window, over the flowers, toward the hills and mountains, and into the sky." 

Sanguine slowly lifted his eyes to the window and beyond and audibly gasped in surprise! "There is great beauty here that I had forgotten!" he gasped, falling to his knees and weeping.

Beryl was puzzled at the display, for he had forgotten that he too was wearing a pair of colored lenses. Clarion stepped toward him and gently removed the lenses and in that moment Beryl was flooded with the full beauty and love for color he had once had but forgotten as he looked toward the distant hills and saw a bright rainbow in all it's splendour. "Thank you, Clarion, for helping me to see that which I lost sight of. For life IS glorious and beautiful!"

With the lenses that tinted their vision removed Sanguine and Beryl were now able to once again fully appreciate the beauty that surrounded them and it was reflected in their work. No finer artists were ever known in those parts than the three men who had grown beyond the need for colored lenses.

DISCUSSION

Do you wear colored lenses? Have you ever been tempted to view your surroundings or others through the eyes of criticism, imperfection, or unforgiveness? How do you take these tinted perceptions from your vision? Who will lift the lenses from off your eyes for you? Are you aware of the lenses you wear or only the lenses worn by others? How can you remove the colored lenses of negativity and replace them with the clear lenses of perfect love?

The Stumbling Block

I have taken a fair bit of time do read and study over the past weeks. In my learning I was impressed with the need to focus on positive things. The book told of two men. One focused on loving good and the other focused on hating evil. While it sounds like much the same thing, it was vastly different. For the one who loved good, sought it out, found it and treasured it. In so doing, his life was rich and rewarding, he found peace, joy, contentment and felt great gratitude for what he had. The other man who focused on finding evil, found it. But his life was vastly different from that of the first man. For he was constantly irritated, and unhappy. His life seemed filled with discontent for there was never enough of what he thought he needed. He was miserable and seemingly forsaken. The point that was stressed, was simple and plain. The things that you focus on are what you will find, so in a nutshell, if it's bad - DON'T think it!!! It's as black and white as that. It will do you far more harm to focus on all the evils you can find than ANYTHING else in this world. If you want to be happy, find the beauty in life, on the earth and in the people you associate with. NEVER, under any circumstance stoop to think evil of ANYTHING! Herein lies the secret of happiness. To do this one must let go of the bad or they can never truly appreciate the good.

Anyway, the lesson was profound, and because I have discovered the beauty of focusing on love and joy, the truth of this lesson was not lost on me. It inspired me to try my hand at poetry. I am most definitely an amateur, but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to put this principle to rhyme as follows...

The Stumbling Block

 - by Susan R Rice

Two men lived in a rich forest home

The first man on rock

The second on loam.

Each man protected that forest glade

The first man blessed it

The second man forbade

By name they were known as Wunder and Flinch

For Wunder was cordial

But Flinch was a grinch!

Each day as Wunder looked out from his rock

He found beauty and joy

In his morning time walk

For he loved what was good and looked willingly

For the joy in the sunrise

So happy and free

He delighted in rainstorms and admired the view

He cultivated happiness

In everything new

He looked over the mountains, and into the skies

Delighted in meadows

And small dragonflies.

And even when branches from trees were forsook

He cherished the storm

From whence they were shook.

Flinch on the other hand hated the bad

He doubted the robin song

To him it was sad.

He fruitlessly sought with all of his power

To control all the elements

Both the water and flower.

He quipped each morning, as he stood on the loam

"What evil today

Will I find in my home?"

For Flinch it would seem, lived under dark stormy skies

Where Wunder saw visions

Flinch only saw lies

And then one day in their peaceful abode

Adversity threatened

From Heaven flames flowed

The lightning was quick and sowed great unease

For the flames soon swallowed

Even the trees

The animals fled as they called their dismay

To one another,

"Get out of the way!"

And when it was over, all smoky and black

Flinch was sure he'd been right

To focus on lack

But Wunder walked carefully studying the earth

And soon discovered some

Vegetation and birth

As the days turned to weeks, and years soon sped by

Wunder drew strength

From the woods and the sky

He found kindness and beauty, and shared in goodwill

His devotion and zeal

Affect the woods still

For his life was full of the riches he gave

The riches of love

And grace that will save.

But what of Flinch over all these long years?

To him the great forest

Was just filled with spears.

For despite the lush green of the new plants at foot

He simply would not

Let go of the soot

To him his once beautiful home was a mess

Blackened and marred

It caused him distress

For each time the skies filled with rumbles and light

Flinch grew in his terror

And despaired in his flight

He was running in fear from the doubt and unease

That his negative thought patterns

Brought with each breeze.

Flinch found no joy in the emerald groves light

His friends such as worry and

Evil brought blight

He focused on hardship, never reaching new rise

For his soul decayed slowly

Overflowing with lies.

His fruits became misery, his companions were sour

His peace was destroyed

In that ultimate hour

He gave up his vision, his hope in the pure

When he focused on evil

And doubted a cure.

The woods were the life of each man that day

But the focus he chose

Brought him joy or dismay.

When life seems to be filled with ashes and grime

If you listen quite carefully

The answer is time.

Trust God in his goodness, his mercy and love

And Wunder of wonders

It's yours from above!

For the truth of this story is so very clear

Whatever you think about

Is what you hold dear.

This poem is called the Stumbling Block because sometimes there are things that seem to take all our attention. In the poem it was the forest fire for Flinch. He never got past it, but stumbling blocks are not fortresses, they are obstacles that can be conquered. By focusing on how unmoveable the stumbling block is, one will never overcome it. However, by focusing on how to overcome it, the stumbling block is in actuality diminished and becomes conquerable. What a wonderful lesson!