Favorite Things

Some of my new favorite things:

Single-Minded to the Point of Annoying

Lately I find myself saying the same things over and over, my voice tinged with excitement, my eyes slightly damp. I think I'm going to start driving people crazy, but so far I've only gotten positive reactions. I'm slightly excited about all the things coming up this year for my family. My oldest will graduate from high school. My second oldest will (finally) get his drivers license AND begin his senior year of high school. My third son will finish up his Eagle Scout rank and enter High School. All three boys will go on a Mormon Pioneer Trek adventure in early June. And my dear daughter will get a kitten (if she can just keep up the litter-box duty for a while longer), enter sixth grade, and will probably learn to style her hair.

Fear and Rationality

Today, during the game I was playing with a group of 25 4th graders, someone softly said, "is that a spider?" And I had to exercise serious self-control to not run out of the little reading area, tossing papers and pens as I went. I slid to the side and said, "is it?" And they said no, it was just a piece of fluff floating down. Which it was. I said, "well... you got me!"

Also today, my daughter mentioned (I posted this on Facebook, so if you are my FB friend, apologies for the repetition!) that she thinks mascots are scary. She said, "I have mascot-a-phobia." and proceeded to compare the various costumed characters that have visited her school and tell me which one is the scariest. 

Notes on Being Mormon: The Fight For Liberty

Click the link to go to a very good article written for the Canada Free Press by a man named Mike Jensen. He is not a Mormon. The article lays out our basic Mormon gospel in a concise, clear, respectful way, then goes on to compare the fight for liberty we believe happened in pre-Earth life to the fight for our rights to choose in the current political climate. It's very good. I hope you'll give it a look. 

The beautiful San Diego temple.

Notes on Being Mormon: Pants

Recently there's been some hullabaloo about a group of Mormon feminists who made a big deal about wearing pants to church one Sunday-- there were articles and blogs written about it. Facebook, apparently, exploded. I... shrugged my shoulders.

Best and Worst

I follow a blog called "It Just Gets Stranger", which is usually funny and always interesting. One thing he blogged recently were "Worst Things Ever" and "Best Things Ever" lists for 2013. I'm a TOTAL copycat (just ask my older sister, who liked Michael Jackson before I did) so I thought I would steal his idea and make my own lists. I'm not as funny as him, but I think it's good to send out the old year with spit in its eye and welcome the new with happy, hopeful, positive thoughts. 

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

I want so badly to travel. Maybe I have a little gypsy blood in me or something. I just want to go places and see things and I fear that I will die before I get to all the places in the world that are just sitting there, being amazing or beautiful or breathtaking. Waiting. For me. Places like:
 (Pictures from National Geographic)