Monday Meditation - Freedom to Worship

Yesterday during Sacrament meeting, our Stake President made a comment that started me thinking.  He made a comment about being excited to worship this day.  I asked myself Am I excited?  How should I be excited?  I started imagining living in a country where I didn't get to choose which Church to attend, or maybe didn't even get to attend any Church.  Imagine a country where you are punished if you are caught praying, even in your home (examples are in the scriptures).  Imagine a country where you can't talk to others about the Gospel without it being punishable by law.

I worry about where our country is headed.  Many schools have limited dress codes to prevent kids from wearing clothing that would publicize their religious beliefs in case it would offend.  We hear stories of kids being prevented from praying while in the school, even if they aren't trying to get others to participate.  There are many interpretations of what the separation of Church and State means - some thinking that our government can not recognize any organized religion's existence, which in my mind means they are endorsing atheism.  This is not a political blog normally.  And I don't intend for it to become one.  But I have to say stop trying to push a lack of belief in God because by doing so it is definitely violating separation of Church and State.  In my family (parents, siblings), we have a variety of religions yet we are able to function lovingly, recognizing each other's religion as legit and an integral part of how we live our lives.  We have those who don't go to any church so Sunday is basically the same as Saturday in their lives.  We have those who go to Church, but also will shop, go to the lake, etc. on Sunday.  And then we have us Mormons who go to Church and don't shop on Sunday.  When we plan family activities, we look at what everyone's abilities/interests are.  If we're going to gather at someone's home, Sunday is fine and we work around travel schedules and church meetings.  If we want to go out to eat, shopping, an amusement park, etc., we pick a Saturday.  It's called respect.  And I am blessed to have that with my family.  That's what our founding fathers intended with the separation of Church and State - not requiring everyone to believe the same thing and not punishing someone for believing different than you.

I get tired of being told that I'm intolerant because of what I believe.  I'm not forcing you to believe as I do, don't try to make me accept your decisions as acceptable for my family.  And I will vote my conscious.  Today, I have that right as do you.  I won't threaten you or harrass you if the vote doesn't go my way.  I love that we have the right to vote and make our voices heard.  And then we need to accept that vote.  If we don't like it, then we can continue to work to get our opinion heard and change things.

Sorry for the soap-box diversion.  Back to my thoughts from yesterday.  Looking at my life, I think too often I have taken for granted my right to attend the church of my choice.  I do tend to attend every week.  But do I celebrate that ability?  Do I wake up on Sunday morning excited to get ready to attend Sacrament meeting and worship?  Or am I bogged down by all the preparations of getting my family out the door with everything we need, trying to be on time..  Do I truly praise the Lord?  I know that I seek to learn what I need to learn from the lessons.

When we go to a party at a friend's house, everyone tends to walk in happy, joyful, excited to be there and celebrate.  We should have a similar joy, excitement to attend our church services.  We can do this!  There are currently places in this world where you can't.  This is one of our freedoms.  Not only do we need to work to protect it through political means, we need to celebrate it through spiritual means.  Let Heavenly Father know you appreciate that right by exercising it and by telling Him in your prayers.

And if you are reading this blog and don't happen to believe in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father or you don't belong to the same Church that I do, or you believe but don't think that requires attending a Church, this still applies to you.  You can still celebrate and honor and protect the right you have in the United States to follow that personal belief.

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own cconscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.  11th Article of Faith

WFMW - Good, Better, Best

A few years ago, Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave a conference talk entitled "Good, Better, Best".  This talk really has changed my life and I use the principle he taught CONSTANTLY.  It applies to everything in our lives.  How we spend our time, what items we have in our home, what we purchase, what we eat.  Everything.

I'm in the process of purging our home and we're using this principle again.  I want simple.  I want less stuff so that I can take care of the stuff we have.  I don't want to settle for the Good - I want the Better and the Best.

I started this process with my daughters' room.  We pulled out all the toys, all the books, all the stuffed animals and will be pulling out all the clothes.  Books and stuffed animals were easy - We laid out the books ALL over the living room.  I had no idea how many books we had!  Then I had each girl pick their favorite 5 books.  And we repeated that until they had each picked 20 books.  I had them look at the remaining books - "Are there any books that you are going to be broken hearted over more than the ones you have in your keep pile?"  Princess1 swapped out 1 or 2 books.  Princess2 had to have some help with swapping out some books that we wanted to keep for ones that we didn't feel were the Better or the Best (sorry Dora books).

I put away the books we decided to keep - about 100.  And then I laid out the remaining books all over my couch and took pictures.  They were then posted on Craigslist to sell them.  My husband and I picked $20 to sell them.  He wasn't confident we could do that.  But then I counted the books as I put them into boxes - just over 100 books!  So I made sure the Craigslist ad said there were 100 books - so 20 cents per book.  I had SO many responses to this post.  But the more important part - we are moving closer to the Better and Best and simplifying our home and lives.

Interestingly - the girls have 1/2 the books they used to have and are reading MORE!

We did the same thing with the stuffed animals.  When I gathered them all up, I had 2+ large garbage sacks full of stuffed animals.  The girls picked their favorites - about 5 "large" and 3-4 "small" stuffed animals.  It's just enough that will fit in a single file across the foot of their beds.  The rest?  I recently heard that the local Juvenile courts will accept stuffed animal donations to give to children who have to go through the courts.  We experienced this ourselves when our adoptions were finalized and the girls loved receiving their animals.  So I suggested this to our family and the answer was a resounding "Yes!".  Now I just need to call the Court and find out when I can bring them the stuffed animals.

Why is this working when previous attempts to clean out didn't?  1) The girls are involved in picking the Better and Best items to keep.  2)  I've asked the girls if they like cleaning up everything that gets scattered all over their room.   Their answer is no.  So let's have less stuff that we need to clean up - their response "Okay!"  3) The items we're not keeping are leaving our home quickly and are not given the chance to make it back into circulation.

So I have been successful with the books and stuffed animals.  Toys are still making it out of the box where they are being stashed.  The problem with them is I'm trying to find all the pieces/parts for the girls to be able to pick their favorites and then to either sell or donate the remaining.  Guess I better get the remaining rooms done to find those parts.  And do it now!

This process is working for Me!  For more Works for Me Wednesday, check out We Are THAT Family!

WFMW - ER Bag

A few years ago, my grandmother had a stroke.  She called me after she had called the ambulance, at about 7 am.  Having worked in a hospital for many years, I'd heard many stories about long waits in the ER Waiting Room.  So as I threw on my clothes, I also grabbed my current project and I headed out the door.

Once we were in the ER, we were actually seen by the doctor immediately.  But after they ran some tests, we had to wait for results.  After being told she was being admitted, we waited some more for a bed to be ready upstairs for her.

A few weeks later, back at home, my grandmother once again called the ambulance and then me.  I again grabbed my project and put on clothes (she really likes calling the ambulance at 6:30 in the morning).  This time I also grabbed a water bottle and snacks.  She'd had a heart attack.  After a few repeats of this, I had what to grab down pat.  I also learned the items that I needed to grab for Nana.  If you didn't know, many times once the EMTs have put their patient into the ambulance, they start some basic care before driving to the hospital.  In my experiences with Nana, this took 10-15 minutes.  This also allows time for putting together your bag or gathering items for the patient.

This past December, my Mom called and said the ambulance was on its way to her house to pick up my Dad.  Knowing she had a few minutes and there wasn't anything she needed to be doing for Dad, I encouraged her to put together some items for her at the hospital - a project, a book, snacks, etc.  She hadn't thought about that; she'd was focused on my dad.

Since Mom found my thoughts helpful, I decided to share them as my Works for Me Wednesday tip this week.

Here are items to grab for yourself:

• project to do (knitting, crochet - something that is easy to grab and doesn't require space to spread out your stuff)
• book to read/crossword puzzles/sudoku
• water bottle
• snacks
• cash (to purchase food in the cafeteria or vending machines)
• cell phone (check your charge- you may want to grab your charger too)
• or address book with phone numbers if you don't have a cell phone with the numbers saved
• calling card

Here are items to grab for the patient (many of these are for if you think they'll be admitted):

• project (If I'm the patient, I generally bring a project; but this will depend on the condition of the patient)
• a book to read/crossword puzzles/sudoku/toys (especially important if patient is a child)
• family picture (if it looks like they'll be admitted, this can bring a little bit of home to their room)
• wallet with ID, insurance information
• a change of clothes, including underwear, socks and shoes (Nana always seemed to go to the hospital in her pajamas)
• toothbrush (when admitted, this will be provided by the hospital, but the patient may really wish for their own)
• hairbrush
• If they are an 80/90 year old female, you better grab the basic makeup supplies (for Nana, this was always more important than anything else except clothes)
• keys (especially if you don't live with the patient, you don't want them to be released and have no way to get into their home).

I know that if you are heading to the ER, you're not likely to look up my blog to find this post.  But I'm hoping that some of these ideas will stick with you if you find yourself in the situation of preparing to head to the ER.  They definitely Work for Me!  For more Works for Me Wednesday, check out We are THAT Family!

WFMW - Parking Backwards

For the past few years, we've had season tickets for our local Symphony Orchestra.  When we would arrive in the parking garage, we noticed a lot of people parking backwards in the parking spots.  Hmm.  Then we decided to try it.  Wow!  We could get out of our parking spot so much faster because others leaving were more willing to let us in the line and when they weren't, we can nudge forward into the line much easier.  So now we park this way any time we can when we go to an event.

When school started this year, Princess1 changed schools.  With the new school, it is very easy to park in the school's lot and walk up to the door to pick her up.  One day I decided to try parking backwards at the school.  It worked!  I can pull out so much easier and the traffic is lighter when I'm trying to park than when I'm trying to leave.  The biggest reason I do this now - safety!  By being parked backwards, I can pull out and clearly see where all the other kids are at as they make their way to their vehicles.  No more blind spots!

This works for me!  For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, check out We are THAT Family.

WFMW - Reusing School Papers

I don't know about other schools but Princess1 is in 1st Grade and brings home a TON of papers.  This includes her artwork, others homework assignments, papers she started to write a story on but only wrote one word, flyers, newsletters, etc.  I was feeling guilty about throwing so much paper away.  And then I realized that I could reuse some and recycle some (and of course save those most precious ones).  How do I reuse them?  If the paper is 8 1/2 x 11 and in decent condition (not folded, wrinkled, torn, etc), and is only printed on one side, I put it in my printer to print coupons!  Coupons only need 1 side to be printed on and the clerks at the grocery store don't care what's on the reverse side as long as the barcode is readable.

That works for me.  I feel less guilty because I'm not just throwing everything away and I'm saving money in two ways - not buying as much paper AND using coupons.

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, check out We are THAT Family.

Sausage Gravy

A yummy, full of calories, recipe from my Mom.  We grew up eating Biscuits and Gravy and this is the gravy recipe we used.

Sausage Gravy

1 1/2 cup milk
3 T flour
3 T grease drippings
1 t salt
1/8 t pepper

Instead of the grease drippings, I always cook my sausage and leave it in the pan with the grease - unless the grease seems like a LOT (plus I normally double the recipe) so I'm estimating the amount of grease in my pan.  It definitely seems like some sausage creates more grease than others so I just eyeball it after cooking the sausage.  I also use a roll or links - if I use links, I pull out a few to eat as links and cut up the rest; you could do the same with patties.

In a cup with a lid (or something else you can shake), put flour, salt and pepper.  Pour in half of the milk (3/4 cup).  Put lid on container and shake until flour is mixed with milk.

With grease drippings in your large frying pan (and the sausage crumbs), pour milk mixture into pan.  Stir.  Then add the remaining milk to pan.  Stir and cook until thickened to your preference.

Anniversary Chicken

My friend Denise made this for dinner on one of our trips to visit her family.  It was so yummy I had to have the recipe!  She served it with roasted green beans which has now become one of my and Adam's favorites too.

Anniversary Chicken

2 T vegetable oil
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup teriyaki basting sauce
1/2 cup Ranch dressing
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 (3 ounce) can bacon bits
1 T chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a large skilled, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken breasts, and saute 4 to 5 minutes each side, until lightly browned.
Place browned chicken breasts in a 9x13 baking dish.  Brush with teriyaki sauce, then spoon on Ranch.  Sprinkle with cheese, green onions and bacon bits.
Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.  Garnish with parsley and serve.

Source:  "Anniversary Chicken I" recipe by VICKI117 on http://www.allrecipes.com/