Quote of the Day

I've been in a blah mood today - bad sleep, no exercise, and a long to-do list equals no motivation for me. However, I did read a really fabulous quote that I thought I'd share. I think I might just be ready to start getting something done around here now. My wonderful husband is so tolerant of my unmotivated days. Anyway, here's the quote:

"The moment you are aware of your holiness it goes sour and becomes self-righteousness. A good deed is never so good as when you have no consciousness that it is good—you are so much in love with the action that you are quite unself-conscious about your goodness and virtue. Your left hand has no idea that your right hand is doing something good or meritorious. You simply do it because it seems the natural, spontaneous thing to do. Spend some time in becoming aware of the fact that all the virtue that you can see in yourself is no virtue at all but something that you have cunningly cultivated and produced and forced on yourself. If it were real virtue you would have enjoyed it thoroughly and would feel so natural that it wouldn’t occur to you to think of it as a virtue. So the first quality of holiness is its unself-consciousness.

"The second quality is its effortlessness. Effort can change a behavior, it cannot change you. Think of this: Effort can put food into your mouth, it cannot produce an appetite; it can keep you in bed, it cannot produce sleep; it can make you reveal a secret to another but it cannot produce trust; it can force you to pay a compliment, it cannot produce genuine admiration; effort can PERFORM acts of service, it is powerless to produce love or holiness. All you can achieve by your effort is REPRESSION, not genuine change and growth."

The Way to Love
~ Anthony De Mello

I know that quote had little to do with me not being motivated. Really, though, when I get in my down moods, I try to remind myself to look outward, not inward, to get over it. That takes effort, so I am most assuredly not where I'd like to be. However, I would like to be the kind of person who does good effortlessly and without realizing it. That really does seem to be the ultimate expression of being charitable. It's a really beautiful thought to become the kind of person who is not self-interested and is motivated only by love of his fellowman. I guess it gives me something else to put on my to-do list ;)

Just a Quick Funny

This is a quick click you can read in about 10 seconds, but it made me laugh and it might make you laugh too.

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=34895

Spring Catch-up

A lot has actually happened in the month of March and so far in April. I haven't been in the mood to track down all the pictures and upload them, but because it just feels better to sit down today, cleaning will wait and blogging will ensue. I warn you, I think there are something like 30 photos I am going to put on here, so it will be long and probably boring for the lot of you. But, I do know grandparents check this blog, so they'll appreciate each and every one.

Vegas

In the middle of March we traveled to Las Vegas to watch the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament (too bad BYU lost in the semi-finals but it was a great game). We met up with my mom, step-dad, grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin while we were there and had a good time seeing some of the sights (although I just really hate the casino environment no matter how cool their gimmicks are), watching basketball and spending time with family. It was a quick trip, but a lot of fun.

The night we arrived in Vegas we went to the Vegas temple and walked around the outside. None of us had ever been. Brett and I were hoping to get there for a session, but it just never worked out. I am glad we at least got to see the grounds with the kids.

It's always important to get a 4 generation picture in front of a giant M&M. Adie was very excited to go to M&M World.

While we were in the M&M movie, my uncle and cousin watched Chase and had him try on a few souvenirs. Doesn't Chase look thrilled?

I think Chase liked being an M&M bug better.

Grandmas and Chase with the Coke bear. Another important picture to capture for posterity

The whole lot of us in front of the Bellagio

Brett and I enjoying a BYU basketball game

We walked down some of the strip and made sure we at least documented it with a picture in front of the Luxor

St. Patrick's Day

I actually love this holiday. It's low-key and green just happens to be my favorite color, so I don't mind having an official excuse to wear it. I skip the pinching because I hate being pinched and I think leprechauns are kind of creepy, but we can just ignore those parts.

We don't really like corned beef in our house, but Cabbage Patch Soup is tasty and festive

The St. Patty's Day spread: Cabbage Patch Soup and green biscuits, served with green bowls and cups. Do you like our place mats? Yes, we are high class.

The kids in their green garb

Diana and Marc came to visit

Brett's sister, Diana, and her husband, Marc, came to visit us during their Spring Break. It was a lot of fun to spend the days seeing local sights we hadn't seen yet and spending the evenings playing games and talking. (I hope you don't mind us stealing a couple of pictures from your blog).

We met Diana and Marc in Mesa as they were driving down and caught the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. We hadn't been before and really enjoyed it. The kids did really well. I hope we can make it a tradition as long as we're down here.

We took a hike in Sabino Canyon.

Not a bad view, eh? It was perfect hiking weather.

We went to the Biosphere just here north of Tucson. It was really interesting. I can't believe a group of people were sealed in there for two years. I was really fascinated by the idea of them creating a self-sufficient environment. If you're a local and haven't been I think it's worth checking out.

We hit the San Xavier mission on our way to watch a spring training baseball game. We watched the Rockies play the White Sox. Half the time I was keeping my eye on Adie, who was running around the bleachers, or trying to put Chase to sleep, so I can't honestly say I remember who was winning (we left before it was over), but it was fun to be there.

Easter

The Easter bunny visited Saturday morning. We dyed eggs in between conference sessions and had a little hunt in our play room upstairs after conference because the community egg hunts looked to be an insanity. Adie doesn't know any better and had a great time. Sunday, we enjoyed conference and relaxation. Some friends invited us over to paint Easter cookies during the week, but due to illness, we weren't able to do it. They still gave us the cookies and dye though and Adie had a blast painting them Sunday morning.

Egg hunting

Racing back to the basket. Adie pulled the pigtails out of her hair that I had put in so she was sporting some Easter wings that day.

Chase spots the Easter grass

We give in and let him have at it. He loved playing in it, even if his face in this picture doesn't show it.

Creating her works of art. I was going to give her a water color brush, but couldn't remember where I had put our paint supplies, so she got to use a pastry brush. It still did the trick. Good thing she wasn't looking to be too detailed.

The finished product

Grandma Millar comes

Now we are caught up to this last weekend. Brett's mom came to town and it was so fun to have her here. Adie was anticipating her visit for weeks.

Brett's aunt and uncle are currently on a mission here in SE Arizona, serving in Sierra Vista, so we took a little trip over to visit them. It's fun to have them close. We've been to visit them twice now and will hopefully get to return a few more times before their mission ends. You will notice poor Adie looking pretty miserable. She was. She broke out in a fever shortly after we arrived there and she spent most of the visit napping on the couch.

Daddy taking care of his sick little girl

We got to borrow a jack hammer on Saturday morning and finally were able to finish planting the trees we bought weeks ago. After many failed attempts to manually dig the holes for our trees, we were happy to get this project done. The soil here is somewhat akin to concrete, so it was not nearly so easy as we thought it would be. A big thanks to Grandma who watched the kids so we could get the trees planted.

Adie is a big helper whenever we're working in the backyard.

Here are our three planted citrus trees. We also dug three more holes for other trees we will be planting soon. I will be so happy to have this project done. We thought the backyard would be done in a matter of weeks, but those weeks have turned into months. We want to finish up before it gets too hot to work outside and plant, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can keep making progress.

We took a quick trip to show Grandma the San Xavier mission and then drove over to Saguaro National Park and took a look at some of the natural beauty we're surrounded with here. Right now is a great time to check it out. Brett took some great photos of cactus blooms (he'll have to post some his pictures).

Grandma with the grandkids at Saguaro National Park

Sabino Canyon Sunset Run

My friend and I have been running most mornings together for months and it culminated in our running this 7.4 mile race up and back down a canyon at sunset. It was beautiful scenery. They handed out glow sticks for the way back since it started to get dark. Overall, I really loved the race and hope to do it again. I was disappointed in my performance because I had to stop and walk twice. I was getting really light-headed during a fairly steep and long uphill climb near the turn around point. I felt we had trained well for it and I was surprised how much it affected me. I thought about pushing through but thought it wasn't worth it to me to see if I could just keep running without fainting or throwing up, so I walked probably a little more than half a mile up the hill. Kali kept right on trucking up the hill. I am pretty sure it should be her, not me, running a marathon this summer. She is a driven woman. Good thing she got me out of bed to go running because I would probably be pretty far from my goal if I didn't have her out their motivating me, so a big thanks goes out to her. Anyway, I had to run faster than my normal pace back down the hill to catch her, but finally did. Near the end of the race, there is another short, steep incline that I thought I could easily run up, but again, the light-headedness got to me and I walked 1/3 of the way up the end of that hill (boo). We still finished in just under 1 hr 20 mins, which equals about a 10 min 45 second mile. Not great, but not horrible. When I do it again, I'll know what to expect and try to train accordingly.

My family greeted my stinky, sweaty self at the end of the race.

My fabulous running partner and friend with our glow sticks. We made it!

And now I am caught up on my blogging and can slack off for a while again. What a relief!

Cooped Up

Well, as many of you well know, we are sickly family. The kids get sick pretty much every 2 - 3 weeks. It might sound like an exaggeration, but honestly, it's not and it's getting old. I am reading up on it, trying to figure out if there is anything we can do. Adie has asthma so when she gets a cold it goes right to her lungs so I attribute many of her ailments to that. However, Chase seems to get a cold almost as frequently. I also think they don't do well with the dust down here in the desert. It's pretty windy where we live and there is a lot of construction going on, living in a growing housing development, so I am sure that doesn't help.

Anyway....I am constantly feeling cooped up and wishing we could get out more. I always feel like we're going to get someone sick. I have to cancel plans a lot and I have lots of things I want to do - invite people over for Sunday dinner, have arts and crafts projects with kids over here, etc. but these last few months have proven very difficult in that regard. That being said, we have gone on a couple of vacations and had some visitors, so I shouldn't complain because that has been a lot of fun. I would just like to enjoy some of the things in our neighborhood too and get to know our neighbors and friends here better.

I am searching for what I can learn in this little challenge of ours. We are truly blessed. While the kids are sick a lot, it's never anything serious and I do get out running, go to enrichment and a few play dates (when the kids are well enough), and I have things like Bunko and book club, but I am hoping we can get out as an entire family more. I am an extrovert so I really like being with people (even though I am shy and a terrible conversationalist, so I am often quiet in groups but I still like being there). I hope the summer brings us better luck and we can get out and play with all the wonderful people around here, as well as get to know others.

In the mean time, since the three of us here at home today are feeling a little under the weather, I will try to use the time to get caught up on blogging which I am sorely behind on, maybe get some sewing done and most importantly, just spend some down time with the kids. So, here goes...Thanks for letting me whine for a minute. Sometimes you just need to get it off your chest, ya know.

The photography shoot from... the 80s

So tonight we tried to sit the kids down to get a few pictures. I'm not sure what it was, but everything came out... well, for lack of a better word, 80s. So, we decided to go with it and will soon be hanging the following pictures on our living room wall. Well, Sabrina wants to at least.* Anyone have any of these growing up? I'm making this available as one of the options for people I take pictures for.* Any takers?

*Please note any and all sarcasm related to this post :)

Anticipation

I love, love, love LDS General Conference and I especially love when it coincides with Easter so I am awaiting this weekend with much anticipation. As I was thinking about it, I realized today was the Friday before Easter, or Good Friday. It's not celebrated much in LDS culture, but it is throughout Christendom, I think especially among Roman Catholics. It commemorates the day Christ died before his resurrection on Easter Sunday. A few years ago, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin gave a talk in conference about Christ's death on Friday and His resurrection on Sunday. It is a beautiful talk, one of those on my all-time-favorite lists. A couple of years ago, my friend bore her testimony and referenced this talk (you know who you are) and it is one of the few testimonies from Fast and Testimony Meeting that I distinctly remember. It was very powerful. So, with that long prelude, I'd like to share a quote from this incredible talk and urge you to read or re-read the talk in its entirety.

"I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross.

On that terrible Friday the earth shook and grew dark. Frightful storms lashed at the earth.

Those evil men who sought His life rejoiced. Now that Jesus was no more, surely those who followed Him would disperse. On that day they stood triumphant.

On that day the veil of the temple was rent in twain.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were both overcome with grief and despair. The superb man they had loved and honored hung lifeless upon the cross.

On that Friday the Apostles were devastated. Jesus, their Savior—the man who had walked on water and raised the dead—was Himself at the mercy of wicked men. They watched helplessly as He was overcome by His enemies.

On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled.

It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God.

I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.

But the doom of that day did not endure.

The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.

And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.

Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.

I testify to you that the Resurrection is not a fable. We have the personal testimonies of those who saw Him. Thousands in the Old and New Worlds witnessed the risen Savior. They felt the wounds in His hands, feet, and side. They shed tears of unrestrained joy as they embraced Him."

Read the whole talk here.

It is messages like these that make me so excited for an Easter weekend filled with words from prophets, seers and revelators. I'd like to add my witness that Christ really is our Savior and Redeemer. He died for us on the darkest of all Fridays and was resurrected on the brightest of all Sundays. He lives!

Thank you!

To the mysterious, generous donor of a sackful of baby food on our doorstep, if you read this blog, thank you very much. That was very thoughtful of you!