Conversations with Smiths- Part 10

Remember yesterday when I mentioned that we tend to get a leeetle bit off track during scripture study time?

We had just read this scripture:

18 Lift up thine eyes round about and behold; all these gather themselves together, and they shall come to thee. And as I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on even as a bride. [1 Nephi 21:18, but quoting Isaiah 49]

Nathaniel: Is this scripture telling us to tie up our wives?

Todd: What?

Caleb: Hey, Dad, I guess you need to tie up Mom.

Todd to me: What is he talking about?

Me: Binding up brides, naturally.

Todd: Um, Ok.

Me: Ha. Good luck.

Benjamin: That's true. If Mom doesn't want to be tied up, there's no way Dad would be able to do it.

Nathaniel: Mom would beat you up if you tried, Dad.

Caleb: Yeah. Mom would win.

Todd: [who thought he was being too quiet for the kids to hear, waggles his eyebrows at me] Well, I didn't know you were into that sort of thing.

Me: [Smirking at him with one eyebrow raised] You don't know everything about my past.

Benjamin: [The one sitting furthest from us, but the only one who heard] Ahh! [Looking completely horrified! Eyes bulging wide open, face frowning, and then curling himself into a ball on the couch to whimper.] Don't want to know! Don't even want to think about it! Aahhahahaha! Scarred for life. Life, I tell you!

Todd: Oh, stop. We're your parents. We have sex. Get over it.

Benjamin: Ahhhh! Make it stop!!!

Nathaniel: And THEN you can use the tied up brides as Christmas trees; you know, with all the ornaments you hang on them after you bind them up.

Me: PLEASE, stop talking, Nathaniel.

Todd: [snapping the scriptures closed and sighing peevishly] I guess we're done with scriptures for tonight. I don't know why I even bother some nights. [looking at all of us who are giggling and snorting]

And again we must say, Poor Todd.

Conversations with Smiths- Part 9

We Smiths spend a lot of our family together time in three places; the car en route to wherever, the dinner table, and in the living room for family scripture study and then family prayers.

Family scripture study is a challenge for any family for a number of reasons. It's difficult to get everyone in the same place at the same time. Also, it's difficult to read when you have family members of all different ages and reading/comprehension levels.

In our case, though, the problem seems to be that it's a problem because we're all together. Once one person loses it, everyone but Todd quickly follows leaving him to try desperately to rein us all back in, poor man.

Tonight was a good example.  While reading Isaiah 49, we got a little, um, distracted.

Caleb: In Primary a few weeks ago, they asked us which of the 10 commandments we knew. I said, "THOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

Me: Did anyone get it?

Caleb: [Name of one of his friends] got it. But none of the other kids...But all the guy teachers laughed a lot.

Benjamin: Yeah, knowing the men who are teaching in primary, I can totally see that. Except maybe for Brother A. I don't know if he would have...nah, I mean he's seen Zombie Prom, surely he's seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

Nathaniel: "You shall not pass" is from "The Lord of the Rings"!! [He was totally appalled at his brother for not remembering this, btw.]

Benjamin: Oh, yeah! Eh. Same difference.

Caleb: Right, like when Galdalf used the Holy Hand Grenade to defeat the Balrog!

Me: Or when the Eagles saved everyone from the killer bunny!

Nathaniel: Or when the Ents-

Me: The Ents who say "Ni!"

Nathaniel: Right, when the Ents who say "Ni" kill the Balrog, because Ganldalf counted to 4 with the Holy hand grenade, and then turned into Gandalf the White.

Caleb: And then Gandalf stood on the bridge asking everyone what their favorite color was.

Benjamin: Grey! No, White! Ahhhhhh!

Nathaniel: Actually, the Ents who say Ni, killed the Beast of Ahhhhhh, too.

Todd: [Groaning]  Guys, come on! Can we please focus, here??

All of us: [Still laughing]

Poor Todd.

Seven Things Sunday!

1. Lilyanna had her first French lesson this week. It's with a private tutor originally from Haiti and a couple of other preschool age kids. Her first question, "How do you say 'tiger' in French?" Now that she knows 'le tigre' we've been hearing about it a lot! She's really excited for this week's lesson. Hopefully when we spend our 36 hours in Paris this summer before flying home from Europe, I will get our point across to our waiters, etc. and after butchering their lovely language, I will stick my 5 year old in front of me to charmingly discuss tigers, colors, and body parts. It will hopefully diffuse their annoyance at me.

2. I have managed to lose the weight I put on over the holidays. The weight that I was specifically working hard to NOT gain over the holidays. Good grief. Imagine if I hadn't been trying!

3. I have a little girl turning 5 this week. To say she is excited is a drastic understatement. Oh, and we still haven't gotten a party planned for her. She changes her mind about what she wants about every 30 seconds. I'm apparently over party planning. When the boys were little, I was crazy about planning birthday parties. I spent weeks hand designing invitations, gathering ideas around the theme, picking out the perfect cake to decorate. Now, I can barely summon the desire to ask Lilyanna what she wants. So sad. I'll get it all together for her, but I lack the obsessive enthusiasm for the project that I once had. Sometimes it's tough being the youngest.

4. My oven quit working this week. It's been a rough few months for our kitchen. We had to replace the refrigerator. I managed to fix the dishwasher (I'm still preening over the fact that I fixed a major appliance!). Our neighbor got the food waste disposal working again, but it's on borrowed time. The water filtration system is in poor shape and needs a new tank. Todd and our neighbor ended up having to replace the kitchen faucet, and now the oven. It reminds me of a couple of years ago, when it was a bad time to be a pet in the Smith household. (They all died.) Now it's apparently a bad time to be an appliance in the Smith kitchen. The oven, btw, will require professional help. I managed to get it all taken apart and isolate the problem, but fixing the problem is beyond my pay grade.

5. I've joined a scripture reading group with some friends from church. Basically, we just email or text one another when we've finished whatever we're studying that day, sharing a favorite passage, or personal insight. It's been interesting to see their perspectives on different scriptures and I'm enjoying a little extra accountability.

6. A certain husband of mine who shall remain nameless is turning 40 very soon. He doesn't want a big party, my little introvert. And he doesn't want us to spend any money, since all extra dollars this year are going into our travels and apparently repairing every single thing in our kitchen (and my van). This means we've had to be extra sneaky and creative with what we're doing for his birthday. In the off chance he's actually reading this, I will simply say that details are to follow.

7. It is Kindergarten sign up this week! Hard to believe the day has already come in some ways, but in others, she's been ready for school for about 3 years now. ;)

I FINISHED!!!!

It took me 13 months, not 12, but I finished reading the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price in a year-ish!!  (Or a baker's dozen of months...)

What did I get from speed reading my way through?  It's a good question, because I certainly wasn't studying the scriptures.

 Because of how fast I was going, I was much better able to see and track the pride cycle, and also the linear story line in the Old Testament. The rises and falls of the Israelites were much more tragic because of how quickly I was seeing them go by.

I will confess that speed reading through the New Testament almost killed me.  Because I didn't have time to savor and ponder the words, I realized how much of the New Testament is the same thing repeated over and over and over again.  Although, rushing through Paul's writings made me dislike him less, so that's something.

When I was in college I took 2 years to read the Doctrine and Covenants.  I took 2 months this time.  I believe there is a happy medium somewhere in between. Although, because we visited Nauvoo, IL and Carthage Jail this summer I had a much easier time visualizing some of the sections that were written during that portion of church history.

I've read all of these books before, but while doing this challenge, I also came to realize that not as many people as I would have thought have.  That's bizarre to me.  If you claim to believe or not believe in something, you've got to know what you're talking about.  I don't think you need to be able to quote chapter and verse, but at least know generally the wheres and whys.  Or know the scriptures well enough to have a book that speaks to you most or one that you would rather stab yourself with a fork than have to read again.  (Todd says Leviticus. I say Numbers.)

Anyway, I'm glad I did it. But now I'm ready to slow down and study.  I think I'm going to use this book:

It's set up a bit like a text book and there are lots of opportunities to stop and read the scriptures where the specific stories are coming from or where the author draws her conclusions from.  I'm looking forward to a less frantic pace.

One thing I learned all over again, though, was how for me taking time out of my day to spend with scriptures helps the rest of my day feel more focused.

Keeping Myself Honest 6

Spiritual: I'm behind but catching up. I've been listening to scriptures while I do tasks in the kitchen during the day. Or while folding laundry. I'm only about 15 pages behind, which in the grand scheme of this project is not much, but which I've been fighting hard to not let get any worse.

Physical: In an effort to be kind to my posterior tibial tendon, I was a total schlubb in April. Other than working in the yard, which I've been doing a lot of, and belly dancing I've barely gotten my heart rate up. The good news is that my tendon feels as good as new! The bad news is that I'll probably need to start if not from scratch, probably back several weeks in my training.

Financial: Better this month, but not as good as I would have liked. Still, we were able to increase our mortgage payment even more, which should shave an additional few months off the end. The long term goal is to have the house paid off by 2017. (13 years from the time of purchase.) We'll have kids graduating in 2018, 2020, and 2022 which seem like pretend dates as I'm typing them, but which are disturbingly close. Not having a mortgage to pay right when we will potentially have 3 kids in college or on missions all at the same time sounds pretty awesome.

Organizing: The challenge was good this month. One of the challenges was to clean out my email inbox. This is a daunting task, but I did take the time to unsubscribe from quite a few companies that I just don't need to be getting email from, especially at the alarming regularity with which they send it. The one that amused me the most was Roy's. Roy's is a restaurant that used to be in the financial district in NYC (It exists in cities all over still, but shut down their NYC location many years ago).  Todd and I haven't been there since our 5th wedding anniversary.  We've been married for 14 years.  I really don't need to hear about what's going on at Roy's.


Books I Read this Month:
Notorious Nineteen
The Beekeeper's Apprentice (The very fact that the Mary Russell books exist makes me happy.)
Thale's Folly
Wicked Appetite
Wicked Business
A Monstrous Regiment of Women
Edenbrooke (Charming.)
Minding Frankie
Heavens to Betsy
O Jerusalem
The Builders (This novella is part of an adult literacy series. I love the idea of "easy" readers for adults that don't bore the reader to death in the process.  At only 87 pages for the entire story, it's a quick read, but enjoyable.)

Keeping Myself Honest 5

Spiritual:  I'm a few pages behind in my scripture reading, so I'm cutting this short tonight so I can go catch up!

Physical: I was doing FABULOUS until 2 weeks ago when I did something unfortunate to my posterior tibial tendon. I am trying to behave so I can start running again in a few more weeks. It was completely my fault. I did not listen to my body one night and am losing a month of training because of it. grrrrrrr!

Financial: Not so great this month. We had several unexpected things pop up, but also, I just wasn't as diligent about being prepared when I went grocery shopping. I did a lot of "I'll just run out and get..." type trips to the grocery store. It's amazing what a difference that makes! 

Organizing: The challenge wasn't very challenging this month, because I was already up to speed in those areas covered. April is a whole different story!

I'm ready for a new month and the chance to start fresh, so to speak!

Books I Read in February: (Slightly higher number thanks to the lack of running.)
Stay
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Importance of Being Seven
Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled
Smokin' Seventeen
The Mark of Athena
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
Forever
Explosive Eighteen
In the Garden of Beasts
Code

Keeping Myself Honest 4

Spiritual: I am completely up to date on my scripture reading. Mostly because I have started listening to scriptures while I run. Do you know what doesn't help you run faster? Leviticus. Or Numbers. Or Jacob, Chapter 5.  However, I'm not really going for speed. I'm going for not dying before the end of the race, which I think is a worthy goal.

Physical: I ran 34.75 miles this month. It should have been closer to 40, but I started out the month sick and then had a couple of days where I had to short myself a mile because there just wasn't time.  My proudest moment was when I ran 2.5 miles in 28 minutes a few weeks ago. I know that for a real runner, that isn't at all impressive. I also recognize that I have run much faster than that in years past. But for me right now with this body, that was awesome!

Financial:  We've done pretty well! There were some things that we needed to purchase, but we did a much better job of keeping our spending in check.  Next month will be more of a fast because   the last trimester of dance tuition is due. Also, I'm going away for an overnight of alone time on my birthday weekend, and buying a new vacuum. I'm all done with the vacuum that has literally been held together with duct tape for so long. I hate having to re-duct tape the hose each week, too. I found someone in the neighborhood who can use our old vacuum, so as soon as I get my new one, I will pass the old on to her.

Organizing: The challenge is going okay. I went through much of Lilyanna's toys and dolls and dress ups the other day and got all of those organized. And I'm still doing great at winnowing things. I've been donating and selling left and right. It makes me feel lighter.  Stuff really can weigh you down.

Books I Read in February:
Postcards from the Dead
Time after Time
Virals
Seizure
Heaven is Here
True Colours
Drop Dead Healthy
Why Can't I Be You

Keeping Myself Honest 3

Spiritual: I am completely up to date on my scripture reading. I did get a bit behind when I was away helping to care for my sister, but it wasn't too difficult to catch up. I brought my scriptures in my carry on bag for my flights, but I apparently lack the attention span on an airplane. Incidentally, there is nothing like horrific turbulence on a flight to remind me of how incredibly powerless I really am. I found myself humming the Indigo Girls song "Up on the Airplane". Specifically the line "Up on airplane/nearer my God to thee/I start making a deal/inspired by gravity."

Physical: I got all 4 runs in for the week and went to belly dancing. Didn't make it to boot camp. Lilyanna had a high fever the night before and little did I know it but was kicking off the rash of strep and head colds to beset our family for the rest of the week.  I will confess on the running thing, I didn't get all my miles in.  On Monday, I tried, but discovered that the treadmill I was on was broken, so while I was feeling AWESOME at how fast I was running my requisite miles, I finally looked over at the woman next to  me to compare her mph and discovered that while our footfalls were exactly the same, her setting was way lower than mine. I finally got off and asked the gym trainer what was up, and he confirmed that indeed they have problems with that treadmill.  Still, for a couple of miles I was the BEST runner! ;)

Financial:  We did okay at this for the month of January. My unexpected travel was in there, but all told, we did okay. We kept things simple for the birthdays we had this month, and definitely spent less.  While we have a few things to stock up on this month, we are going to be more mindful of our spending and do another financial fast in March.

Organizing: The challenge is going okay. I'm sort of picking and choosing the tasks I do for the month rather than going in the assigned order. In reorganizing drawers and cabinets in the kitchen I discovered that somehow we have accumulated FIVE potato peelers. Five! I don't even have an explanation for how that might have happened.

Books I Read in January:
Born to Run
Eat and Run
The Raven Boys
The Scorpio Races

Keeping Myself Honest 2

A report on my resolutions more for my own benefit than anything else. 

There is a bit of a caveat this week. It's not my story to tell, so I'm not providing details, but a very close family member of mine who lives far away nearly died this week. I spent two full days this week fretting about a situation completely and utterly beyond my control and did pretty much nothing on those days. I mean, I went through the motions. I homeschooled, and taught piano and made dinner and drove kids where they needed to go. But every other minute was spent either worrying or praying or trying to find out what was going on.  My goals and self-betterment, while important, paled mightily in comparison to the life of someone I love. I'm not excusing myself, but giving myself a bit of wiggle room.  Due to the incident, I will be travelling west this week to help care for this person and her family and am trying to prepare everything for my family for while I'm gone. So, other than scripture reading, everything else is going to be catch as catch can.

Spiritual: I accomplished my reading goal everyday, though I found that if I don't get the bulk of the reading done in the morning before Lilyanna wakes up, it mostly gets left until the evening when I'm definitely not absorbing as much.

Physical: Running went great this week! I am following a training schedule for a couch to half marathon, but discovered that I could skip to week 4. This is especially good news, because it means I might actually be ready in time for the big half marathon this spring in Columbus.  We'll see! Belly dancing was super fun, and I totally skipped my hellish boot camp class since it was in the midst of the days of fret.

Financial:  Financial fasting was okay. I spent unexpected money for travel, though the bulk of my plane ticket was given in a most welcome but unexpected offering of frequent flier miles from my father in law.  The whole situation made me reflect on something I read in a book by the Economides family. They mentioned that one of  their standards for an emergency fund is "How much would it cost to fly the entire family to a funeral of a loved one on short notice?" Tickets are absurdly expensive if you don't have the traditional two weeks lead time.  The price for us, right now, would have been so prohibitive that there's no way we all would have been able to go should things have gone as badly as they could have gone. Fortunately, we didn't have to make an awful choice like that, but it makes me all the more determined to make sure that we pad our emergency fund better.

Organizing: I'm still doing a good job at getting rid of things, but the challenge was a bit of a disaster. My counters are improved, but in no way good. Losing two days didn't help, but honestly, I didn't make it enough of a priority at the beginning of the week. I was using a cram mentality, which isn't going to work for me with organizing. It needs to be a more methodical process.

Keeping myself honest

A report on my resolutions more for my own benefit than anything else.

Spiritual: I did great with scripture reading! And my days flowed better as I made reading scriptures a priority.

Physical: I did my horrific bootcamp class on Thursday, and ran on Friday. I only ran a mile and walked a half mile, but still for day one, not bad. My schedule for running is going to be M/T/F. I would love to do every other day in an ideal world, but schedules do not allow for ideal.

Financial: Financial fasting wasn't so great this week BUT money was spent on the things we knew ahead of time we were going to need. I had to renew my membership at the rec center and sign up for my classes. I also had to order some homeschool books and supplies for my kids, although I had an amazon giftcard that paid for most of that.  We did a great job at meal planning with ingredients we already had on hand. Last night I went to the grocery store and kept myself from picking out anything that I didn't need. (Except there was a great price on GF chicken nuggets, so I did pick up a box of those.)

Organizing: I've been doing a good job at getting rid of things, but the challenge I'm doing doesn't start until tomorrow anyway, so I'm good. ;)

Resolutions 2013: Spiritual

When life gets busy, I find that my prayers and scripture reading get perfunctory. I don't like that I let the most important things slip into that mode.

I have done many different types of scripture studies over the years, but I'm excited to try this one this year.* If I stay on plan, by the end of the year I will have read the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine & Covenants.  In the past, I've usually spent one year on either the Old or New Testament, or Book of Mormon, or Doctrine and Covenants.

Just like there is much to be gleaned from slow and careful study of the scriptures, I'm excited to see what new things I learn by studying them all so close together. Sometimes parallels are found that wouldn't otherwise have been noticed.

I'm looking forward to starting tomorrow!

*Here's the key to reading the chart!