This year I got to attend Women's Conference with my mom! It was great! I love being uplifted with activities like this. The speakers were prepared and inspiring and I wrote down lots of "favorite stuff." Thanks Mom, I love you!
Joey took two days off to take care of the kids while I was gone during the day. When mom and I came home each night he had made dinner for all of us and the table was set, the kids were already bathed and in pajamas, and laundry was done too! I had no idea that he had this "domestic diva" deep down inside of him just waiting for the chance to shine! ;) Thank's Joey, I love you!
Mom and me, May 2, 2013 (The day Amber's baby, Eleanor, was born!)
Our family out for treats, Grandma's treat :).
Mom took this picture one night while we were playing outside. I thought it was cute.
Here are some of the things that were shared at Women's Conference that inspired me:
*Use scripture stories to teach life lessons to children.
I have a really sweet experience from using this advice just this week. We had an FHE on Sunday about prayer so we read Enos chapter 1 and then watched the same scripture story on friend.lds.org. Well, last night Miles was reading quietly by himself---I walked into the room and and my eyeballs almost popped right out of their sockets when I happened to glance at what he was reading by himself---Enos Chapter 1!! WOW! He has never decided to read scriptures completely on his own before that I know of! I just turned and quietly walked away and tried to keep that room quiet for him, hoping and praying that as he read he might start to grow his own little testimony.
*Remember the tortoise and the hare story. Consistent and persistent is most important when it comes to reading the scriptures with kids. Don't worry about being fast or reading huge chunks.
This is great for me to remember because with my personality ((recovering perfectionist)) sometimes I get burnt out and have an "all or nothing" mentality. Small and simple is doable for me and gives me the best chance to NOT get burnt out or feel overwhelmed.
*"Be faithful in the small things, for it is in them that your strength lies."-Mother Theresa.
The older I get the more this rings completely true! I am all about small, doable, simple, easy, tiny things. I can't think about eating an entire elephant all at once or I'll freak out and think I can't do it--but I can do it small bite by small bite over time, and voila, it is all gone eventually. Not that I would eat an elephant... :)
*Heavenly Father always sends angels to get you through adversity. Usually those angels are you and me helping each other.
I have seen angels in my life. They are the people who acknowledge me and love me. Those who take the time to be a true friend are some of my greatest treasures. I am SO grateful for true friends! I have been treated oppositely too. And because I am still learning not to wear my emotions on my sleeves (toughen up girlie!) I have shed tears after some of those encounters. I guess we all know what that is like too. I thought about this and hope to be a better angel myself. I don't want to cause others pain or sorrow because of my actions or words. I would hope to know I lifted others and was not vindictive. If Heavenly Father would like to put someone in my path that I can reach out and help, I want to be ready and willing.
*We can expect God to help us as we keep our covenants.
I am so thankful for the blessings of the temple. I love to go!
*Children stretch us and help us realize that we have more capacity and ability than we realized.
Yes! That rings true at 2am when I am helping a small child puke into a bucket and it feels like my eyeballs are too dry to even open more than a crack and then the toddler down the hall starts crying and it's already starting to be a long day hours before the sun comes up... But it is good to remember that those moments make me better in important ways. They are not fun moments, but they are important to my eternal growth. Apparently I have some growth that needs to take place in the dead of night at times :).
* You should sit quietly for 20 minutes every day unless you're too busy and then you should sit for an hour.
(Pefect advice for somebody like me that loves to run around doing "stuff" and "fluff"! Soon life just seems too busy and crazy and I'm going and going and going...for what?? Fluffy stuff usually---good stuff, but not essential stuff. Just sit down, Tiffany, and listen and think and read and do what you need to do mentally to keep an eternal perspective and be aware of those goals I have inside of me...and then I will feel a little less like a chicken without a head running around!)
*Act on the prompting to connect. Create human moments. Love each other. Be the answer to another's prayer.
I love the idea to create human moments. That's what makes life great, when we show others that we can care and can love.
*Sing to your babies every day.
(This was just for me I think. A lot of different speakers talked about the power of song. Most nights before the kids go to bed I sing them each 1 song as part of our bedtime routine. I feel like this is such a simple and easy way to teach them through the words of those songs and I felt like as I listened to those various speakers that I should continue to do this, and so I added it to my notes. Yes, my almost 7 year old is still my baby deep down in my heart, and he will probably still be that to me when he is 87...)
*Adversity, and our mistakes that we have learned from, can refine us and make us even more beautiful.
*Choose to walk in the light! Choose to love!
My mom took a picture of the inside of the Marriott Center. It was filled with about 15,000 women at the general sessions. The first general session we attended we sang an opening hymn and hearing 15,000 women's voices sounded so angelic that I had to stop singing and just listen to it. It was really beautiful and inspiring. That many women singing all together sounds SO pretty!
