Board Books

Well, I had a picture of some awesome board books we now own -- thanks to some equally awesome people -- but the Internet is having issues at my house.  And I am lacking in patience tonight :).

But I love board books for my baby girl. 

I love their thick pages (which withstand those momentary baby-gnawings until Mommy realizes what's going on...).  I love that many of them are so interactive.  We have a touchy-feely book that Munchkin loves.  She knows exactly where to touch to feel the different textures.  Her current favorite is one we checked out from the library which has a mirror on the last page.  She laughs every time she sees it!

I love that I can sit my sweet girl on my lap and we can flip through a couple of stories quickly.  And that she can help turn the pages -- even if she does need a few reminders to be sooooft. 

I'm grateful we can begin what I hope will blossom into a love of books and reading with these age-appropriate books.  And I look forward to many more stories shared with my little girl.

What are you grateful for today?

General Conference Talks

I know, I know... I was grateful for something having to do with General Conference yesterday. 

But it's pretty awesome and wonderful.  Especially the talks. 

Today was the second half of General Conference.  And I loved so many quotes and talks today. 

My two favorite were about gratitude and about the importance and necessity of loads. 

And since these two talks were given by two of the men who regularly give talks I consider my favorite...  I guess that means Elder Bednar and President Uchtdorf are among my most favorite speakers.  Their messages are always timely, uplifting, optimistic and real. 

Among my favorite statements from these talks:

A reminder that we have agency and may sometimes choose (unwisely) "to limit our gratitude based on the blessings we feel we lack."

The uplifting thought that endings in this life are only temporary interruptions.

And -- my favorite thought-provoking question:  "How much of life do we miss by waiting for the rainbow before we thank God for the blessing of rain?"

I cannot express how much I loved that question.  Because even though I have been making a concerted effort to be grateful every day for something, I can't say I'm fully living with an attitude of gratitude.  When things aren't going great...  Am I still seeing the blessings?  Or do I wait until the storm is over and see the beautiful rainbow before I acknowledge the blessings of the storm?

The talk is available here.

I didn't grab out any specific quotes from Elder Bednar's talk on bearing loads.  But I loved the story he told in the beginning about the heavy load in the bed of the truck being necessary.  I loved how he applied that to our mortal lives and the burdens we each carry.  And I loved the questions he asked about the burdens we carry:  is the load I'm carrying going to provide spiritual traction?  Is it going to help me get back home?  And how beautiful the reminder that we are never alone -- that the Savior has promised that He will help carry our load.  I've felt Him help me.

That talk is available here.

And President Monson's talk on love and compassion.  So needed.  So appreciated.  I got choked up with the story about the delayed flight on which not a single passenger complained.  What a beautiful thought.  I found myself wondering if that would be true today too...  And definitely something that stood out from his talk was this:  Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals.

His talk is available here.

I'm looking forward to reviewing these talks in the months ahead.  I know there is much to be gleaned from them and from the others.

I am thankful for General Conference.  For the talks prepared and spoken.  And I am thankful for a prophet and apostles to guide [me] in these latter days.

What are you grateful for today?

Being Able to Watch Conference at Home

Every 6 months, members of my faith gather to listen to the Prophet and Apostles speak and share with us the things our Heavenly Father desires for us to know.  We call this General Conference. Now, we don't literally all gather to Salt Lake City, which is where the Conference takes place.  But it is broadcast in real-time across the United States and into many countries.

The last General Conference we had helped me decide to begin this gratitude blog.

It is always a blessing to attend General Conference.  I always feel the Spirit testify to me that the things I am being taught are true.  And I always just feel happy to have attended.

My husband and I used to choose to go to the church building and watch all the sessions of Conference there, even though they are available online and can be viewed easily by anyone.  We felt we were more focused there, so we did that.

But having a baby changes some things.  Now it's easier to be home -- where she can get a nap when she gets tired and fussy!  Where she can roam around and do her things while we are trying to do ours (amidst making sure she doesn't play with the electrical cords and smack the laptop onto the floor...).  And it's kind of nice to get to stay in our pajamas all day too ;).

So I'm grateful for the technology that allows us the opportunity to watch General Conference and listen to the Prophet's voice and hear the words I need to hear and feel the Spirit nudge me as I receive my own inspiration and answers to prayers through hearing the things being taught -- all from the comfort of my home.

It's a blessing indeed.

What are you grateful for today?

Glue Sticks and Double Sided Stickies!

These tools are making life easier these days... 

I'm working on the Marvelous Monday Meals cookbooks, and without glue sticks and double-sided stick-its, I would be having a difficult time with it.  They allow me to stick in the pictures!  And what's a good cookbook without pictures?  It's not a good cookbook, that's for sure ;).

I could do it digitally.  And I probably will for the digital copy.  But I'd already ordered something like 200 pictures before I had that thought occur to me.  Plus it works out about the same price-wise and is actually faster this way, since I have Wal-Mart doing all the work of printing out the pictures in good quality.  Our printer can do it (and has, for the day I forgot my camera and had to take cell phone pictures of the food), but to get the high quality, it prints really slowly.

So I'm happy doing it this way.  And I'm having a ton of fun with it :).

And I'm grateful for those geniuses who came up with glue sticks and double-sided stickies.  Because they are awesome.

What are you grateful for today?

That I Grew Up in Panama

Along with many others, I've joined the throngs who are posting old photos on facebook every Thursday for Throwback Thursday.

In case I haven't said it enough:  I love pictures.  Especially pictures which include people I know.  And so I have no shortage of options when it comes to Throwback Thursday.

Today, the picture I found on an old jump drive I keep stored in a jewelry box was one I scanned many years ago (possibly a decade ago now).  A picture of me with two of my siblings, and we're all wearing the same shirt:  a sloth shirt with the genus and species of the sloth on it and the words Barro Colorado.

And in the background -- glimpses of the home of my youth.

And the memories come flooding back.  Oh how I love my memories.  Especially of my childhood spent in Panama.

In the years since I moved away from my first home, I have had many people ask me what it was like to grow up in Panama.  My response has always been the same:  It was normal.  Because up until I was almost an adult, it was all I knew.  And I didn't know to cherish it.  I didn't realize how unique it really was.  Because it was normal for me.

But now that I do know...  I know why it was so awesome.  And I am so grateful I was blessed to grow up in a place so beautiful and unique.

And here's why...  In a sort of stream of consciousness sort of way.

A safe neighborhood...  In recent years, I realize that not everyone is blessed to have that.  And it saddens me greatly that my little girl won't have quite the same opportunity.  I remember feeling completely safe to be wandering around our neighborhood at a very young age.  Barefoot, of course.  We were free to run and roam wherever we wanted to in the neighborhood, as long as we were home at a decent hour.  I remember one family's rule was that the kids could go anywhere as long as they could hear their dad's whistle and respond to it when they heard it.  I remember walking through the jungle -- usually with one of my siblings or a friend.  Because the jungle was just part of the neighborhood.  It was where we built forts or hunted for paint-balls that didn't explode during paint-ball wars.

Speaking of being bare-foot...  That was just normal.  These days, I can't even fathom the thought of going out without shoes.  I wonder how I will feel about it in regards to my kids.  But we never wore shoes to play.  And sure, we paid the price of getting stuck by the stickers (this awesome plant that grew in the grass -- and blended in well -- which, when touched, would close its leaves...  And, oh yeah, there were plenty of little thorns on them), but that was kind of part of the fun.  You kind of started memorizing where the sticker patches were anyway.

Awesome thunderstorms for 9 months out of the year...  Living in this part of Washington, we don't get a lot of thunder and lightning.  And I kind of miss it.  It was a huge part of my life until I moved here, because Alabama has them too.  But those Panama rain storms...  They brought fun!  The flooding ditches in back and down the hill of my house.  I'm sure we weren't supposed to play in the swollen ditches...  Especially at the point where several ditches converged and dumped into the sewer.  Because there was power in that pouring water.  And there was probably a reason there were huge metal bars (easily a foot in circumference) blocking the entrance to those sewage entries.  Kids could easily be swept away.

Rose apples...  Oh my goodness.  Rose apples.  I cannot express how much I wish those were a product that would be shipped in.  I only know of one rose apple tree in my neighborhood.  And I remember many a day when we kids would tromp up there, and I'd help hoist my sister into the tree so she could climb high and get the juicy good ones (before the bugs did).  How does one explain a rose apple?  They are pink when they aren't really ripe and when they are amazingly ripe, they are closer to a purple.  The flesh is white.  They are oblong.  And they are delicious.

And let's not forget the other amazing foods and food places...  The platanitos (fried plantain chips)...  Pizza Italia...  Sorento's...  Don Lee (Chinese food)...

Sliding down the hill...  On a slip and slide.  Or cardboard.  And some could even slide down in palm frond casings -- or whatever those were.  I never could.  But I sure did enjoy the cardboard sliding!  It was only really possible during dry season, when the grass was brown and dry.

Or exploring Clay Hill.  That was an awesome place.  Nooks and crannies.  And probably saw grass.  And clothes that got stained if you were playing around there in the rainy season.

The truth is, as I sit here reminiscing, my mind can barely keep up.  The memories are pinging around, and I smile.  And this brief list doesn't even really do it justice.  It was a beautiful place to grow up.  Especially in the area where I grew up.  We were blessed.  Blessed with beauty and safety.  I just didn't realize how much of both until they were gone.

I've been back since I moved away.  Once... in 2008.  It had been 10 years since I'd moved.  I made an effort to see (and take pictures) of a lot of the things I took for granted in my growing up years.  Those things I didn't realize I'd miss when I was gone.  Like being able to watch a ship go through the canal...  Or see army ants tearing away at fallen mangoes.  Or buying una paleta de guineo from the paleta man.  It was an amazing time I spent with my dad.  And we were blessed by a wonderful family we knew there who invited us to stay with them while we were there.  Which gave me the opportunity to see a huge tarantula up-close-and-personal as I was trying to go to bed...  But that's a story for another time.  It was an amazing time, but it was bittersweet.  In 10 years, so much had changed.  And though, intellectually, I knew that would be true...  Emotionally I guess I expected somehow to go back and see all as it had once been.  And when it wasn't...  Well, I understood that concept of You can't go home again.  And I'll admit it... I cried.

But even so, my memories remain unchanged.  And though I can't ever share exactly those experiences with my daughter and any future children we may have... I look forward to showing her the pictures and telling the stories.  Stories of a happy life, a happy childhood.  Stories of a beautiful place I once called home.

What are you grateful for today?

My Niece Saria's Help

It's Spring Break in these parts.  And I decided to have my niece come help me with the munchkin for the day.  Mostly as someone to entertain the baby so I could get other things done.

It was fabulous.

Not that Baby Girl is a difficult child.  But I get fewer projects done with her, because she takes up a lot of my time.  Which is fine, because that's what motherhood is all about.  But since I had the option of help, which also gave my niece an opportunity to earn a little moolah, I took it!

And she was an amazing helper.  Both my husband and I were able to work on some projects while Baby Girl was happily playing with her cousin.  She loves all her cousins and just laughs and laughs and laughs at everything they do. 

We went shopping.  To Costco and Target and WinCo.  I don't know why, but it's so much easier having an (almost) 13 year old along to help with things. 

And taking a shower without a baby trying to dig in the bathroom trash can is a wonderful event...  (She usually ends up in time out for touching the garbage cans, but when I'm dripping wet in the shower, the consistency on that kind of goes out the window...). 

Yep, my niece is amazing.  She was a huge help for me today, and I'm glad I got to spend time with her to boot!  I am loving seeing her mature into a beautiful young woman.  She really is a great person, and I'm glad to call her my niece!

What are you grateful for today?

Our Air Mattress

I bought this air mattress in October of 2006.  I was about to move to Tuscaloosa... without my furniture. 

That was a whirlwind of a time back then.  I barely found a place to live (an event I count among the most amazing miracles/blessings/tender mercies in my life) and couldn't coordinate a furniture move by the time I needed to be there to begin work.  So I packed up my Buick with what I could fit (twice) and headed to my new home. 

And rather than sleep on the floor...  I got an air mattress.  A cool one that inflates itself!!!  Bonus!

And it's definitely been one of my best purchases. 

Because it served me well those 3 weeks in Tuscaloosa before I moved my bed up (along with my other furniture).

And then it served me well for 6 months after I moved into my first place here in Washington.  But it doesn't fit two quite so well, so we had to replace it with a real mattress on our wedding day.  Haha.

But now it serves us well for times when we have someone extra sleeping here.  Like tonight, when my niece is here :).  The one thing we (unfortunately) don't have is a 3rd bedroom...  So we'll see how Baby Girl does with sleepover company tonight in her room...  I'm hoping it all goes well.  I'm pretty sure the (almost) teenager will have no problem sleeping through the restless baby.  Too bad we lose that ability when we get older ;)...

What are you grateful for today?