Sunday, March 16, 2014

Saint Patrick's Day Family Tradition

Family traditions - something to rejoice about, record and hope to remember!  I want to share our St. Patrick's Day tradition.  This March holiday is on Monday this year (2014) so we decided to celebrate a day earlier so our daughter did not miss out on our family fun before ending her spring break and returning to college.  I'm not sure when we started this, but we have been eating green on St. Patty's day for a long while.  This is our family tradition, to prepare and eat green foods.  For our Sunday St. Patty's Day dinner we had roast beef and gravy, and these two items were not green.  But we did enjoy green grapes; green jell-o with fruit in sundae dishes; green rolls; green milk; asparagus; green mashed potatoes; and dessert was green ice cream with mashed thin mint cookies (Girl Scout cookies, of course).  Pretty nutritious, very delicious, and lots of fun!  I try to get the whole family involved in the preparation.  So a few days before, I ask each of them what they would to like eat and would be willing to prepare for the meal that is green.  I gather a list and then I know what items need to be purchased from the store and need to be on hand and ready for preparation.  Our dinner table is decorated festively with green plates and napkins.  Along with our clover garland, this year we even had sprinkled down the center of the table green Hershey kisses and green M&M's.  This was easy to do, because after Christmas I separated our Hershey kisses and M&M's and used the red and silver kisses along with the red M&Ms for Valentine's Day.  All the green treats were stashed away for St. Patty's Day.  Does my family know much about why the holiday is celebrated Probably not, I don't really know.  But they do know our family will gather around the table and have a big, some-what fancy, green meal together.

Tonight I also want to remember that as our meal was ending and dessert was being prepared, our children were happily singing songs they remembered from music they sang and listened to as youngsters.  It was great to hear them singing together and remembering, laughing and getting along. Now that's something else to rejoice in and remember.  :)

In years past, the kids have woken up to green water in the toilet; lucky love notes on the mirror; green milk in the refrigerator; we've eaten Lucky Charms for breakfast; and school lunches have been packed with green items.  Which have included green apples, green wrapped granola bar, green grapes, a juice box with green labeling, and celery sticks or cucumber slices.  

I know that if I ever want to do more to make this holiday fun, I have found a creative and very helpful website, thedatingdivas.com. They have St. Patrick's Day all planned - ideas, printables, and great suggestions to make the day memorable.  Always a wonderful holiday resource!  

  



Tuesday, March 11, 2014

How Did This All Come to Be?

I will never do a blog!  That’s what I said years ago.  I didn't have the time, see the need, and I certainly didn't want to share my personal life with the world.  Besides, at that time my life didn't seem so joyful. 

However, the last year or so I've been thinking that I may want to do a blog as a way to record or keep a journal.  At least it would be a place to put and preserve some of the many pictures I take and tell the story behind the photo.  Because, I certainly don’t scrapbook!  [As a side note, I've decided, or rather have learned about myself, that I take pictures that seem significant and memorable to me, but probably meaningless to others without the story to go along with it.  When it is time to take the photos from my phone or unload the camera memory card, I often don’t know what type of category or file to put the photos in.  I don’t want to delete the picture, but where do I put it?  Perhaps a blog may be part of the answer.]

The past month or so the impression to begin a blog has become increasingly stronger.  I suppose there is not one main reason that the time is right, but many. 

1.  My in laws are planning to leave soon for a six-month temple mission and I've thought a blog would be a nice and easy way for them to keep up with what is happening with my family.

2.  I do have a desire and feel a need to write down, preserve and share meaningful events and experiences with my family.  Realizing, that while they may not be fully interested now, at least it would be somewhere and could be read in the future.  This is a way to preserve the Lance and LuAnn family history! 

3.  I don’t  feel I am very eloquent with my speaking, and sharing my feelings or thoughts vocally with others.  So this may be a fun and easier way to express and record the thoughts in my head and the feelings of my heart. Perhaps something I write will be a blessing to someone else, an answer to a prayer, or a word of encouragement to keep going. 

4.  My church leaders continue to encourage its members to share our lives.  To share with the world the day-to-day, normal, everyday happenings as well as our beliefs and feelings through on-line media.  I desire to be obedient and do my part and feel now is the time.  There have been things that have been thrown in my path, such as articles and quotes that I've read that have cheered me on in my decision.  So many thoughts and ideas have spoken to my heart and have seemed reasonable and clear in my mind.   I know that God wants me to do this, the impressions have been strong at times and the spirit has helped confirm my decision.  I cannot deny the power of personal revelation, I know I've been shown how to do this and why. 

For example, a few weeks ago as I was reading the scriptures, a particular passage stuck out so very strongly to me.  I had to read it again.  The words of Jacob, written so long ago, were expressing how I was feeling about beginning a blog.  So reading it a third time, I decided to personalize the scripture to fit me and my particular desire at the time and this is what I came up with:
"Now...I...know that the things which [I] write upon [this blog] must remain;
                ...but [I] can write a few words upon [this blog], which will give [my] children, and also [my] beloved [husband, family, and friends], a small degree of knowledge concerning [me]...
                Now in this thing [I] do rejoice; and [I] labor diligently to [write] these words upon [this blog], hoping that [my] beloved [husband, family, and friends] and [my] children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their [mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend.]
                For, for this intent have [I] written these things, that they may know that [I know] of Christ, and [I have] a hope of his glory..."
 (Jacob 4:1-4, The Book of Mormon)
This was the final witness I needed to confirm my decision that beginning a blog is the right thing for me and now is the time. 

Perhaps in time I'll discover other reasons why doing this blog is important.  But for now, I'm excited and a bit nervous to create and start.  My life seems busy enough and I don't want this consuming my life or take away too much from my family.  But here I go.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't have worries and some concerns, but I'm going to move forward with faith and the good thoughts and impressions I've had. 


A Blog is Born!

Our lives, our days are made up of moments.  At the end of the day it’s nice to recall the events, those good and perhaps not so good moments.  Happenings that truly were happy, or events that might cause us to feel gratitude and appreciation, or helped us to improve.  Moments that can cause our hearts to rejoice because we can see God’s hand in our lives and the tender mercies He extends to us.  It’s moments like these that I want to “write down” or record, and always remember.  But I also want to be able to share things that I do, or my family and I do, to make our lives better.  As I make record of such events, I do so to share but also to grow into a history for my family to always remember and rejoice in.