cute, funny, homemade valentine card ideas...

i like to make homemade valentines.

here are some ideas i found this year... i'll show you what we end up with!!

sisters on the sofa.

Mornings with little girls and baby dolls and messy hair.
Oh, the joy of a sister!!

(this picture kills me!!  don't you want to eat them?)

i LOVE these girls.

soooo much.

Some pictures from my bed.

blah blah blogging.

BLAH!!
I hate when I get out of the blogging habit.  When you don't blog often, you feel like you have to have something to say before you write a blog.
My favorite part of blogging is that it is just the everyday stuff, sometimes meaningful, sometimes mundane.
I'm out of sync and it's bugging me.

The REAL reason for my blogging lag has not been medical, it's been technical.
I got a new laptop for Christmas and {whispering} i don't love it.
I can't figure out pictures and I just HATE trying to manipulate blogger without a mouse.
Laptops are much more conducive to {whispering again} bed-ish rest.
But NOT if they make you more stressed out than just sitting up in a chair!
So... I'm writing this post from my actual computer and I FEEL GOOD!
ha!

How about some randomness just for old time sake?
OK...

1- HAIR-- I got my hair cut at a really nice Salon.  It's funky and fun and shorter and layerd.   I never know if I really like it better or not, but it's fun to have something different.  Want to see a picture?  Yeah... the only shots I have of myself are on my iphone and i'm not quite sure how to load them up... I'll try.

2- FACIALS-- I was GOING to get a one hour facial, because i thought i deserved one, cause I'm being a good, pregnant mom and all.  I decided at the last minute to cancel my appointment and just go for a consultation.  (I know nothing of facials.)  The sweet facial lady laid me down on the table and looked at my face under a microscope and gushed over me.  She kept saying what beautiful skin i had and that she didn't think I needed a facial at all.  She said I should avoid the chemicals.  She encouraged me to exfoliate by covering my face with plain yogurt for 20-30 minutes a couple times a week.  My "beauty routine" was perfect.  {Ha!  um, I use plain water at night and Clinique yellow moisturizer in the morning before I apply a small amount of makeup.}  Honestly, 20 minutes of her saying what perfect skin I had after I was prepared to hear her chastising me for years of facial neglect... SO NICE.  I like going to the Spa.

3- HUSBANDS-- Just have to say, I am married to a saintly man who is less than saintly at handling the normal mothering routine.  The less I do around the house, the more I get to SEE what I really add to our home.  First, I keep us sanitized by bringing the dirty kitchen rags to the laundry.  Second, I am the calm and peace of the day.  When I'm not in the middle of things, little things become big things and big guys and little guys all get cranky over easily re-routed little things.  Did ya get that?  Third, there is "picked up" and there is "picked up".  There is a house of order and there is a house of dad-order.  They are different.  Thus the words "I cleaned the house" means very different things depending on who says them.  And that, my friends, is what I'm learning from the couch.  Laying or standing, Mom is still the one who keeps the house running.

4- ATTITUDE-- Perspective is EVERYTHING!!!  Nobody is GOOD or BAD... everybody is both.  Some days I think my kids are rotten and ruined and contentious and lazy.  A few hours later I think my kids are adorable and kind and wonderful.  They don't change, I do.  I'm SOO thankful that most of the time I really, really think my kids are GREAT.  Because, they ARE great.  {They're rotten too, but we ALL have rotten in us.}  And, when I think of them as great, I treat them as great kids having a moment and then they act great.  Just so you know.

5- SMOOTHIES-- Um, green smoothies are really good when compared to eating one lb. of raw kale or beets alone each day.  But...  UGH.  They're killing me.  {I said it out loud.}  Every single day.  I'm trying friends, I'm trying... but some days I'd rather eat nothing than drink one more cup of green mush.  I know, I know.  I'm trying to vary my recipes and I just drink them semi-fast so I don't think about it.  I FEEL good drinking them... but, I don't love them.  I'm not someone that does well with repetition.  I like variety and change and I could eat 100 pieces of fresh fruit a day, but the spinach/kale is killing me.  {dramatically spoken- yes, i did drink my smoothie this morning.  it wasn't THAT bad.}

6- BED REST-- I'm not officially on bed rest, yet.  I'm on "take it easy" modified bed rest.  Because I was bleeding for a long time at the beginning of this pregnancy, I did go on official Bed Rest for some time.  Yes, it worked.  I stopped bleeding.  Can I tell you something that I've found?  Bed Rest HURTS!!  My body ACHES when I lay for too long.  My arms ache, my back aches, I started to get heartburn, my joints were sore, my tummy cramps.  BLAH!  You THINK it's going to be long and boring, but I never imagined that it would HURT!!  Oh, how I love to walk around, bend down and pick something up, carry a baby, VACUUM a floor!  Seriously, you don't realize how nice it is to move until someone tells you not to move as much.  Do me a favor?  Just pick up your baby and run downstairs with her in your arms?  It feels amazing, I promise.  {We are buying a reclining chair that I think will be better as my pregnancy progresses, but who knew that taking it easy could be so uncomfortable?} It's no wonder that less active people have so many aches and pains-- our bodies are not designed for rest, we are designed to stretch and move and work!  Sigh.

7- REST-- Rest does NOT come from wasting time.  Wow.  There is nothing like a marathon "Say Yes to the Dress" session to remind me that I crave goodness and intelligence and stimulation.  When I read a mindless yet harmless book, or watch mindless yet harmless TV, I feel hungry.  My soul feels low.  There is nothing like an inspiring book or an accomplished goal to lift my spirits and change my mood.  Rest is not the same as escape.  REST is not the same as ESCAPE!!  We need to seek more rest.

8- FOURTEEN-- Jakob turned 14 on Monday and got braces this morning.  {We've been waiting many years for his molars to fall out and grow in.}  He's adorable.  Pictures coming.

And, that is all I have to say this afternoon.
Life is good.
Hope all is well at your house!

creation.

This Sunday I am {hopefully} teaching a lesson to children about the creation of the earth.
Namely that Jesus Christ, under the direction of Heavenly Father, created the Earth.
I am using Genesis chapter one and discussing the six days of creation.
This is a gentle lesson that will take under 15 minutes to teach... and yet it involves doctrine and belief that have initiated some of the greatest debates in history.

Who are we?  Where do we come from?  Why are we here?

I remember seeking these answers as a young child.  Don't you?  Don't you remember looking at the great sky and asking if God was real?  I even remember reading Dr. Suess' Horton Hears a Who, and wondering if it were possible that there were other worlds out there.  Are we just a speck on the clover of the universe?

Did God create this Earth?  Really?  Can I really, 100% say that I believe in a divine creator?
What about evolution?  Six days?  Is God just a theory that man has created to explain something that we cannot explain?  Does it really matter?  Why does it matter?  How does this belief affect my daily actions?

First, it does matter. 
I thought of bringing with me some cookies wrapped in a box from Jillicious Desserts.  Jill, is a friend of mine from church, who bakes heavenly.  Would it make a difference if I told the kids they would each get one cookie made for them by Jillicious Desserts verses telling them that a few weeks ago I added some flour, some eggs, some vanilla in  bowl and had brought them the cookie that had simply formed?  Does it make a difference knowing that we have a creator that creates with a purpose?  That we are part of a Divine and Eternal plan and that this Earth is a gift to us, not just a happenstance?  YES!!  It makes a difference!!  It makes ALL the difference.  Creation means it was made with a purpose!

Evolution doesn't bother me-- AT ALL!  Someone could look at Jill's kitchen, who did not believe in a creator, and explain Jill's process of baking a cookie.  It might sound like "some flour and eggs and vanilla all came together and mixed in a big bowl, there was a great heat, and boom! cookies!!"  Imagine the theories of "evolution" that could be concocted if one looked through a bakery trashcan.  From oatmeal to cookies, from coconut to macaroons... amazing!  They can find "evidence" of HOW things happened, they could theorize what they think happened, but they can NEVER disprove a divine creator.  You can NOT prove or disprove God.  You can only come to know Him for yourself, or spend the rest of your life eating the great cookies He is placing at your feet without ever knowing how loved you are and never truly thanking the source of all that is good in your life. 

I don't believe the earth was created in six twenty four hour periods.  Ha!  God is very consistent in the fact that the way he tells time is not the way we tell time.  {Ask Abraham's Sarah about God's time table.}  I have no doubt that someday God will teach us how He created the Earth.  Actually, I think we were there.  We watched as Spirits and we were so excited to see the Earth that He was creating for us. 

I'm grateful that Genesis gives us the condensed version... Um, ask a scientist how to "create" a, let's say, heart, or prosthetic leg.  I bet their explanation alone would take BOOKS.  Imagine how heavy our Bibles would be if we had that to carry around.  I'm grateful for the "six days"... and yet I know that God did create every last blade of grass.  I believe that He is continually inspiring men and teaching them how to operate, how to repair, how to mend His creations.  God is the ultimate creator, scientist, inventor and Father.  Creation amazes me and inspires me.  I am so grateful. 

Years ago, I found an old book on the shelf in my in-laws home.  I read this section written by Elder Russell M. Nelson.  Let me tell you about this man.  First, he is a modern-day apostle in the LDS church, one of our 12 apostles.  Second, he used to be one of the most prominent heart surgeons in the world.  He helped to create one of the first machines that made open-heart surgery possible.  He actually operated on a former prophet's heart before he was an apostle.  In the LDS church, we have lay clergy.  Our leaders have all had other jobs, they have families, they do not seek to become pastors or apostles, they are called, by revelation.   I love that this man was a doctor... but he was a holy man.  He was inspired.  God taught him about the human heart and he was able to change the world... today he is a religious leader.  You see, when you know your Creator, you have access to His inspiration and wisdom and it blesses you in all aspects of your life.  I love Elder Nelson.

Sorry, can I tell you one more thing I love about Elder Nelson?  Ok.  One evening Elder Nelson and his wife were folding laundry together while they were watching a movie and Sister Nelson's heart stopped.  He did CPR, but it was no use.  She died, right there, in her husband's arms.  Can you imagine this?  Elder Nelson was a WORLD famous heart surgeon.  He saved many, many people... God blessed him with so many skills and much wisdom... and yet he was helpless to save the woman he loved most in the world.  What a great lesson he must have learned that night.  I imagine this was his Abrahamic trial.  He knew God was real, yet he also knew that God's plan is not always our plan.

I love these words that he wrote about creation.  He is talking about our body here... but, the creation of man is day six! {read one talk where he references this here- Thanks Be to God.}

Each organ of your body is a wondrous gift from God. Each eye has an autofocusing lens. Nerves and muscles control two eyes to make a single three-dimensional image. The eyes are connected to the brain, which records the sights seen.

 

Your heart is an incredible pump. It has four delicate valves that control the direction of blood flow. These valves open and close more than 100,000 times a day—36 million times a year. Yet, unless altered by disease, they are able to withstand such stress almost indefinitely.

Think of the body’s defense system. To protect it from harm, it perceives pain. In response to infection, it generates antibodies. The skin provides protection. It warns against injury that excessive heat or cold might cause.

 

The body renews its own outdated cells and regulates the levels of its own vital ingredients. The body heals its cuts, bruises, and broken bones. Its capacity for reproduction is another sacred gift from God.

 

Be we reminded that a perfect body is not required to achieve one’s divine destiny. In fact, some of the sweetest spirits are housed in frail or imperfect bodies. Great spiritual strength is often developed by people with physical challenges, precisely because they are so challenged.

 

Anyone who studies the workings of the human body has surely “seen God moving in his majesty and power.”  Because the body is governed by divine law, any healing comes by obedience to the law upon which that blessing is predicated.

 

Yet some people erroneously think that these marvelous physical attributes happened by chance or resulted from a big bang somewhere. Ask yourself, “Could an explosion in a printing shop produce a dictionary?” The likelihood is most remote. But if so, it could never heal its own torn pages or reproduce its own newer editions!

 

If the body’s capacity for normal function, defense, repair, regulation, and regeneration were to prevail without limit, life here would continue in perpetuity. Yes, we would be stranded here on earth! Mercifully for us, our Creator provided for aging and other processes that would ultimately result in our physical death. Death, like birth, is part of life. Scripture teaches that “it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed from this temporal death, for that would destroy the great plan of happiness.”  To return to God through the gateway we call death is a joy for those who love Him and are prepared to meet Him. Eventually the time will come when each “spirit and … body shall be reunited again in … perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame,” never to be separated again. For these physical gifts, thanks be to God!

Yes, I believe in a divine creator.
I believe the story of creation.

God is not just a story that makes me feel good.  He is my creator.  He heals me.  He comforts me.  He teaches me.  He knows me and I know Him.  I learn more about my Father in Heaven each day.  I feel His love.  I see His hand as I see His creations.  I feel God's majesty as I glance across the mightiest ocean and as I feel the soft kicks of the baby in my belly.  (He kicked just as I was typing this paragraph.  This baby in my womb, He knows it too.)  The idea that we are all just here by chance makes my head explode and my soul cringe.  I am not an accident.  I was born with a divine purpose.  My life is a gift and my life has meaning. 

We are not just here on Earth to survive or to find self pleasure... we are here to LEARN and to be TESTED.  We are here to prove to God that even when we can not see Him we will KNOW Him and trust Him and choose Good over Evil.  Someday we will see Him again.  We will remember how He created the Earth and we will remember His love for us.  We will remember every choice we made on this Earth and we will continue to learn from our experience.  We are eternal souls.

Sure, on Sunday I may teach a sweet, 15 minute, lesson on the creation. 
But, this lesson is not something I teach lightly.  It is the CORE of my belief.  It is WHY I live the life I live.  It makes a difference.  It makes a difference to children too.  They need to know who they are and where they come from.  They need to know that they are here by divine design to do a specific work on this Earth.  They need to know that this Earth, and their bodies, are gifts from God, to them. 

Children need to be taught to be grateful for the gifts they are given.  How can they be grateful when they don't recognize the giver?  We are not accidents.  Our choices MATTER!  God loves us and has told us how to be happy her on Earth.  He wants us to remember Him and feel His love.  This Earth is not an accident.  It is a cookie.  A cookie crafted by a master chef, and it is ours to enjoy and care for.  This Earth and this life are gifts.  We shouted for joy at the chance to come here and we can feel joy everyday as we feel God's love surround us.  He is in the Mighty and in the Meek.  He IS real. 

I've pondered this creation story often, in some of my most quiet and holy ponderings.
Why is the creation story so important for us to remember?  I believe it is not only important it is ESSENTIAL because God is calling to us from behind the veil of this life.  He is asking us to remember Him and to remember who we are.  The story of creation reminds us of our eternal purpose.  IF THERE IS A GOD, IF THERE IS A CREATOR THAN OUR CHOICES ON EARTH HAVE PURPOSE AND DIRECTION.  We will choose differently if we are just strolling through life than if we are sent onto a field with direction and purpose.  God wants us to remember WHY we are here and WHOSE we are.  It makes ALL the difference.

Have you seen young children on a soccer field in the middle of a game?  Some of them "get it"  they know they are playing a game, they know where the goal is, and they are at least running in the right direction.  Some kids are born knowing how to dribble and score points.  Some kids are distracted by the dandelions and butterflies.  I've been the mother on the sideline shouting, "Get the ball!  Run!  Look!  This is a soccer game!  You can do it!"  I think we have a Father on the sidelines too.  Sometimes we are distracted by weeds or running in the wrong direction and He is shouting to us, "Remember!!  Remember your GOAL!!"

There are moments when the veil is thin.  Death, birth, times of joy and times of sorrow.  Somehow being surrounded by nature reminds us of His power and our own nothingness.  And yet, in these moments we can feel shadows.  We can hear a voice from the sideline shouting softly to our soul-- I see you!  I know you!  I have a work for you to do!  You are KNOWN, you are MINE and you are ETERNAL.  You have felt this too, or you can if you ask.  He is real.

How grateful I am.  Humbly, eternally grateful.
I am humbled to teach this lesson to my young friends, and happy to believe it with you. 
It is a truth that many of the most intelligent among us do not comprehend.
Don't you just FEEL it?  Don't you just LOVE knowing this is true?
There is a God.  He is our creator.  I know it.
Life is good.