Beginnings - My One Word

This week I am on assignment to put together the next Family Home Evening lesson. One would think this would be a simple task. Lately, I'm so jumbled up that even that seems complicated. Pathetic, I know.

So after a morning of playing with the kids I carved out some time to try to commit to a lesson topic while they worked together building a duplo zoo.

I prayed. I sifted through my scriptures. I sifted through Preach My Gospel then on to our Family Home Evening books and then on to a few online resources that have come in handy quite often. And I still came up empty handed. There were certainly a ton of great ideas, but nothing that resonated with me. Nothing seemed to fit.

So I told myself I was just being silly. I needed to just pick a lesson. Commit. And move on. After all, they were all good lessons. Who cared if it "fit" or not? Maybe it just didn't need to.

Then Atticus came in to show me something he had been working on. After I checked out his handy work he turned to me and asked "And what are you working on, Mommy?". And I said that I was trying to find a family home evening lesson that felt right for our family. He said "okay" and he walked away.

I thought that was Atticus' way of ending our little dialogue until he came back a few moments later with the kids' latest Friend magazine (a children's magazine published by our church) in hand with a page already open and said, "I found this yesterday and thought it would make a good lesson and activity, perhaps you think so to?". As I read the title of the article that he had opened up to it sunk into my heart and I knew that it was the lesson that I was looking for. I thanked Atticus for his help and for sharing his prompting with me and he headed back to playing with a big smile on his face.

Now, I don't know if the lesson I ended up picking was the right one because our family really needs to learn this lesson. Or if it was a chance for Atticus to learn about following promptings. Or even if it was just a chance for Atticus to help. But I do know that it felt right and I needed to follow through on it and move forward in faith that the other pieces would fall into place.

So what does all this have to do with my one word for the year? Quite simply - everything. Trying to come up with my one word went through a rather similar process. I came up with so many great, inspiring words but none of them resonated with me. Not a single one inspired me or gave me that bit of grounding and application that I felt I needed in my one word this year.

Then, one morning as I was doing yoga (my first session after a couple weeks of being quite sick) and the word came to me - Beginnings. It seemed like such an odd word but for some unexplainable reason it fit. It resonated. It put a little spark and grounding in my heart and I knew that I needed to pick it as my one word, even if I don't understand the reasons behind it.

So perhaps it will have an extra special meaning this year. Perhaps it will just be a gentle little guide as the year progresses. Whatever it is. I'm glad it fits. I'm glad it feels right.

So here is to a new year filled with beautiful 'Beginnings'. Whatever that may entail.

A New Year

December was a hard month around here. Lots of sick bugs mixed in with a ton of other stuff that just made some of the stresses of living here (like finding a doctor that doesn't have a massive waiting list..) magnified. How grateful I was that we made the decision back at the beginning of November to simplify Christmas and New Years. I think it was the first year we did not have guests. It felt a little strange. But I wonder if the strangeness wasn't due more to the fact of being in a new country than it had to do with the factor of not having guests over. Hm. Enough about Christmas for the moment though, as I will post more on that later.

Right now, I really just want to take a minute to say a big "hello!" to 2014. We sat down together as a family on our last Family Home Evening of 2013 and each decided on some goals that we wanted to tackle this year. Living in a city that has so many resources Jason and I kind of wanted to capitalize on that a bit by ensuring our goals used those resources (like first aid courses in our first language). In any case, here is what we came up with.

Jason: First aid certification. Wilderness survival course. More time to practicing piano. Get a bed (You read that right...we still don't have one. This pull-out sofa thing is getting pretty madly uncomfortable. Unfortunately, this one is really far down the list of financial priorities. Moving is expensive and so is this city.)

Laura: Learn to play guitar (hahahaha... I know our neighbours are going to love this one. Thankfully for them this one is kind of on the back burner because I need a guitar before I can learn to play one.). First aid certification (I really think all parents should have this!). Carve out some time to start French. Find more fun (and creative!) ways to introduce music to the kids.

Atticus: Learn basic swimming. Learn to tie shoes. Create and build an airplane out of lego. Create and build a boat out of lego.

Milayla: Take swim classes. Use the toilet all by herself.


We're excited to get to work. I'm also working on my 'one word' for the year (last year's word can be found here) and which principles I want to work on with the kids along with my individual role goals (like being a mom :) ). Which means that I better go and get started on that lovely thing called planning.

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year filled with many opportunities to strengthen families, friendships, and faith.

Jason's New Year Talk

Jason gave a talk in church back at the end of December (after Christmas and right before New Year's). Seeing the time of year that he was giving the talk, the topic was on New Beginnings. December was a pretty crazy month with everything that was going on and I am so impressed that he was able to carve out some time to write a talk and a really great one at that. And he did an awesome job delivering it. Of course, he delivered it in German (thanks for the translation, Ingo!) but it's here in english for everyone.

We sure wish that our family and friends in Canada (and sprinkled throughout some other countries as well) were able to come and give their support in person, but since the logistics of that are a little tough I thought I would post his talk on here (with Jason's permission, of course). And even though you weren't about to be there in person, we sure do appreciate the thoughtful emails, calls, prayers and cards :).

When Jason was up giving his talk, Atticus decided to draw a picture of Jason giving his talk. So between Atticus' picture, and getting to read Jason's talk it is about as real as it gets without having actually been there (short of Jason recording his talk, maybe I should do that next time..).

Without further ado, I introduce Jason (enjoy!!!).....

:::::::

As we complete our Christmas celebrations and near the end of this year, many of us look forward to our future in the coming year.  What will the year bring? What will I accomplish? Who do I want to become? Whether we seek to improve some specific aspect of our life, or want to completely recreate ourselves, now is a wonderful time to consider where we are, where we want to go, and how we can get there.  This is especially applicable to our spiritual selves.  As spiritual children of a loving Heavenly Father, we all have the divine potential to become great.  Great in how we live, love and bring God’s truth to the rest of his children.  Yet we all make mistakes, and, as the apostle Paul wrote “come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). There is wonderful news, however, for anyone who may feel discouraged by the imperfections of their mortal nature.  The prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament taught us an important lesson.

One day, Jeremiah was in his house and heard the Lord saying:
“Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
“Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
“Then the word of the Lord came again to me, saying,
“O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? … Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” (Jer. 18:2–6.)

Though each us has has flaws, the Lord does not throw us a way.  No, he can make us anew.  He can make us into something useful, something beautiful, something great!  But for that to be possible, we must be moldable in the Master Potter’s hands.

Thirty years ago, in a 1982 general conference, Elder Hugh B. Pinnock of the Seventy gave a talk titled “Beginning Again”.  He says that from a spiritual perspective, we may all begin anew, and gives us eight ways that we can do so.

First, Elder Pinnock says that we must eliminate the phrase “if only I had done something differently” from our thinking and vocabulary.
If only David had not gone up on his roof that fateful night, he might not have fallen and committed murder.
If only the Nephites had stayed humble and acknowledged God in their lives, maybe they would have remained a great nation instead of being exterminated by the Lamanites.
If only you had not gone on that date, or taken that trip, or made that investment, or met that person, your life might have been different.
How much time do we waste thinking about what might have been had we done something differently.  Our thoughts and our words are precious resources.  Continually asking ourselves “What if” is not the question to ask if you want to start again.  Instead, we must face today, and accept where and who we are; look forward with faith and optimism to the future, and not waste precious time dwelling on the “what ifs” of yesterday.  A better question would be “what may be?”

Second, do not wait for tomorrow to begin again. In Proverbs we read “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” (Prov. 27:1.) This is particularly important to me.  Too often, I make a resolution or goal...that I will start tomorrow, or the next week.  Now -- right this very second -- is the time to resolve to change and become who we want to be.  

Third, Elder Pinnock admonishes us to commit to living the gospel of Jesus Christ in its entirety. “For you shall live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God.” (D&C 84:44.)

Elder Pinnock continues by saying,

“Many people live the gospel according to themselves. That is self-deception. There is only one true gospel. We may alter it or tint it with our own notions. But if we will adhere to the pure teachings of Jesus Christ, we will eliminate many of the rationalizations that lead to problems. The menu has only one entree. To pick and choose which of God’s precepts to live is satanic self-centeredness. Integrity is the foundation of our life-style.”

It is not enough for us to choose which principles, commandments and covenants we will keep if we hope to gain salvation.  In his Lectures on Faith, the Prophet Joseph Smith explained that “A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things, never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.”  If we want to be saved, we must strive to obey all that God has instructed us to do.

Fourth, face reality.  And I would add - accept it! If we wish to journey somewhere in life, we must first know from where we begin; otherwise, the directions are of little value.  Often, it seems like it would be so much easier if we could simply run away from our difficulties.  King David was someone who thought this way.  He had been a good man, even a chosen and elect individual.  But he buried himself under his own lies, until they spiritually crushed him.  We can understand a little of what he felt from Psalms where he cried, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” (Ps. 55:6.) Do we try to escape our problems by running away physically or emotionally in some way? I believe most would agree, however, that this cannot solve any problem.  It is only when we accept personal responsibility for our lives that we can begin to escape the weight of guilt or trial that weighs us down.  Remember, the Savior said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28.) He invited us to learn of him and to take his yoke (a much easier yoke) upon us. (See Matt. 11:29.)

Fifth, approach our challenges positively! Look up! Take charge! Sound the battle cry!
A poet wrote:
Never give up! If adversity presses,
Providence wisely has mingled the cup,
And the best counsel, in all your distresses,
Is the stout watchword of “Never give up!”
(Martin F. Tupper, “Never Give Up,” in Poems of Inspiration, sel. Joseph Morris and St. Clair Adams, New York: Halcyon House, p. II-77.)

If we do not know how to begin making the changes we want to see in our lives, recall what the Savior said:“Seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (JST, Matt. 6:38.) Just a few verses later, the Savior tells us, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matt. 7:7.)  The Lord has the answers we seek for, if we will but ask him.

Sixth, don’t begin again partially. We must be thorough and complete.  Have any of you tried to patch an old piece of clothing with a new patch? The patch will not hold.  I love how the Lord puts it: “No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for … the rent is made worse.” (Matt. 9:16.) Don’t patch. Begin a completely new life.

The wealthy young man described in the New Testament missed an opportunity to follow the Master because he was unwilling to give all he had. Instead, “he went away sorrowful” (Matt. 19:22), and is never mentioned again.

Seventh, be open and candid in your relationships with others. I cannot agree with Elder Pinnock more on this point, and yet, I admit, for myself, that expressing my feelings frankly and honestly is a huge challenge.  Elder Pinnock said, “So many of life’s difficulties are brought about by being double-minded. Let us learn to say it as it is. Think of Peter’s extreme discomfort when the Master addressed him after Peter had been teaching a false concept: “Thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of man.” (Matt. 16:23.) From that moment, Peter was a greater disciple. The person who is open and honest will be vindicated. Time is his friend. Trust is his reward.”

Last, but perhaps the hardest of all; forgive. Paul said, “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also.” (2 Cor. 2:10.) In order to begin again, we must be willing to “love [our] enemies, do good to them which hate [us], Bless them that curse [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us].” (Luke 6:27–28.) When we harbor resentment, hate, anger, or envy towards any man or woman, the only person that we hurt in the end is ourselves.  We cannot move forward spiritually while we carry the chains of the unforgiving.  I love the example that Elder Pinnock shares in the story of young Joseph in Egypt.  Here was a man who had initially been left for dead by his brothers and subsequently sold into slavery.  If ever there was someone who had reason to want revenge or to carry a grudge, it was Joseph.  Nevertheless, he chose not to.  Joseph said to his brethren when they encountered him in Egypt as Pharaoh’s deputy, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, … to save much people.” (Gen. 50:20.)  Because he chose to forgive his brothers, the Lord blessed Joseph immensely and made him an instrument in helping his family.  

I would like to finish by quoting Elder Pinnock once more:

“Yes, so much of heartache and grief eventually become blessings, our earthly instructions, and condition us spiritually. Even if we cannot understand the “whys” of our tribulations, we can still turn to God and rededicate our lives to his safekeeping. Yes, “he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.” (D&C 59:23.)”

I challenge each of us this day, to commit to beginning again.  Become the person we want to be, and who our Heavenly Father knows we are capable of becoming.  If we want to know better what that potential is, we need only ask him.  Remember that we are literally his children, and as such we carry within us the seeds of divinity.  Each of his children born on this Earth were born to greatness, but it is for us to decide whether we will accept that role, that potential.  In the words of Eleanor Powell, “What we are is a gift from God.  What we become is our gift back to him.” Through the atonement of our Savior, even Jesus Christ, we can accomplish all things and bless the lives of our families and those within our reach.  Begin again, my brothers and sisters, and not just today, but every day.  

I testify of the truthfulness of this gospel and its power to save all who abide by its precepts.  Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. He has given us the power to begin again.  It is why we partake of the sacrament each week, and attend the temple as often as possible.  They are opportunities to rededicate ourselves to a higher purpose and better self.

Reaching Goals

As I wrote about back in our New Year's Eve post, we've been working on teaching the kids to set goals; not just at New Year's but all year round (we just used New Year's as an easy starting point). Well, it turns out the kids are crazy about goals! 

The deal was that we all had a week to reach our goals by the end of the week. That gave us 6 days (as we were not working on our goals on Sunday) to work toward them. We wrote down each of our goals and made little tracking charts to color in. Also, each day that we all worked on our goal we got to color in a slice of pizza on an additional sheet. If we all worked towards our goal each day (and reached our mark for each day) we would get to celebrate with pizza at the end of the week. 

Well, Milayla reached her final goal the first day. Hers was to walk 6 steps and on the first day she walked 10. Then she promptly went back to crawling so we kept working every day with her to get her to prefer walking over crawling. It's a little puzzling; this walking thing with Milayla. She's been walking since 13 months and is presently quite strong and balanced when she walks. However, try as we might we can't convince her that walking is better than crawling. I'm sure she'll make the switch at some point when she decides it's the cool thing to do. Perhaps she needs to hang around more big kids. In any case, check out her cute little victory smile (sorry about the red eyes, those iPhones can only do so much...). In any case, with this girl's determination, intelligence and hard work we really need to be setting out some more difficult goals for her. She is one hardworking baby, and cute too ;) .

And Atticus had a goal to write his name all on his own. He could already write all the letters without our help (and the rest of the alphabet for that matter) but we would have to tell him which letter came when. Well, not anymore! Man, is he hard working. While helping him work towards his goal I learned that he works well under pressure. I was trying to let him set the pace and take initiative on his goal so that he could really feel like he earned it, but he would sit at the table doodling each and every day... Finally, on the second to last day I brought out our bedtime clock (a clock that works some great miracles around here at bedtime, I tell ya :) ) and set it for 5 minutes. In that 5 minutes, he had written his name (on his own) not once, not twice, but three times without anyone at the table pressing him to work on his letters. And when his time was up he was simply beaming about his accomplishment. As well he should be.

As for Jason and I. Well, both our goals that we set to work on with the kids (we each have a goal book that we work on continuously through the year) were tied in with music and complimented each other quite well. Jason wanted to learn another song on the piano and I wanted another song that I could sing. So we picked out a song together and both learned the same song. It was rather nice to sit down each day and practice together and all that time together led to a new song as well (even with me being sick for most of the week; though I can't vouch for how good my vocals were that week).

It was a fun week and we plan on instituting goal week around here a lot more often (hoping to make it every week soon!). So glad we gave it a try with the kids!

New Year's Eve

New Year's was super low key around here. Just after Christmas Atticus, Milayla and myself got sick. When the weekend rolled around we still weren't doing too great and weren't sure if we were going to have people over. Come Sunday evening, we decided we better have at least a small group of friends over to ring in the New Year. So after a day of taking it pretty easy with the kids (and a little New Year with the kids) we had the Lorenzes over for some games, sparklers and fireworks. 

While Germany isn't quite as fanatical about fireworks as the Netherlands is, there are still quite a bit of fireworks and we enjoyed watching them from the balcony. It was a little chilly out on the balcony without jackets, but the fact that we were ringing in the New Year and it was above zero was a pretty nice feeling. 

Atticus even (reluctantly) let me get him out of bed to watch the fireworks (Milayla had seen some of the earlier folks setting some fireworks off at dinner time and that seemed enough for her - at least this year). You can really see how enthused Atticus was about getting out of bed, the scowl says it all.

The fireworks won him over pretty quickly though.

That's better .

Then it was back to bed and time to bid adeau to the Lorenzes.

 It was a fun evening. I love the feeling of New Year's. While we love goals around here, we try not to call them 'New Year's goals' as we are always making more throughout the year (as we reach our old ones). I, however, am a big fan of choosing one word themes for each year as a nice little reminder. And with all the New Year's hoopla we thought it was a perfect opportunity to start teaching the kids about setting and reaching goals. We kept the goals small, with one week completion dates, so that the kids could keep interest. Milayla is a little young still, but Atticus has certainly caught on quickly. We each have a goal and have posted them with a chart to mark our progress on a wall next to the table so that we can talk about them (how we're progressing, what's hard, what's going well etc.) during meal time. At the end of the week, if we have all been successful, we will build pizzas for dinner. I'm pretty happy with how well it has gone so far; when we tell the kids it's goal time they get pretty excited and grab their needed items. Milayla even runs to the book shelf to get Atticus' writing practice book out. It really has become a family affair to all reach our goals together and I love it. It's a nice time and I hope that we are able to continue to feed that excitement with more goals and progress.

And with the New Year officially off to a running start, I had better run and work on my week goal.


Wishing everyone a very happy New Year filled with love, joy and peace.

Happy New Year!

From our family to yours - we hope you have a wonderful New Year filled with joy and prosperity.

To ring in the New Year here is a short video that we love about remembering to move forward and not dwell on the past. Enjoy!

New Year - One Word

Focus.

That's my word for 2013. My theme, if you will. I feel it accurately distills all of my goals, visions and roles for the coming year into an easy, memorable word to keep me on track. To bring me back into the present moment, to absorb and contribute as much as I can, and keep moving forward towards my vision for myself and the vision that we have created for our family.

Our personal and family outlooks for the next year are well underway (we will sit down this weekend to finish them) and I am really excited about the next year. Now it's time to sit down, pray about which ones to whittle away (and to pray about if there is something we missed) and to create strategies for how to obtain that vision/goal. Oh, I am so excited! I love goal making (and goal achieving).

New Years Eve - A Murder

We were pretty excited to ring in the New Year with a dinner and a murder. We invited over a few friends and got to planning.

Since the Murder Mystery was Christmas themed, the decorations were all ready to go. Jason just needed to fix our little star that never seems to stay on top of the tree...

We made name tags and made sure the table was set to go.

Then it was time for the most important part - our guests to arrive! 

Or in this case, the suspects...

Gordon and Vicky

Kay and Shana (Yes, we are aware you cannot see Kay; it was all in character)

Constanza and Kiever

And of course...the hosts!

We are pretty fortunate to have friends who are such good sports. It was a fun evening. Turns out that Jason was the mastermind behind the whole thing and dragged two other guys into his crazy murderous plot.

When it came time to ring in the New Year, we did it Spanish style. Thanks to Constanza we learned that in Spain you eat twelve grapes when the clock tolls midnight; one with each toll. Well, we were fresh out of grapes so we subbed mandarine orange slices instead and loaded the live feed from Spain onto the computer. Eating twelve slices of orange in a short amount of time is not the easiest thing, but it was so fun to do something new. It is one tradition that we will probably keep. Thanks Constanza!

Of course there were fireworks, but it clouded over pretty quickly. And while there are certainly more fireworks here than we have ever had in Canada it still does not compare to the ones in The Netherlands. We will surely never forget the New Year's Eves that we spent there!

As the evening came to a close, we bid our guests a safe journey home and talked about goals for the New Year as we cleaned up. Perhaps we'll share a little more about those goals on another day.

We hope everyone had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year!