Oops, too!

by Marsha Ward

As the founder of this blog, I should know better than to let my turn slip by. However, it was just one more thing, and 24 hours in each day simply didn't stretch enough the past week for me to get a post, well,  posted. Mea culpa, and all that.

I think this was the third time I've missed since we began in January of 2007, and I feel pretty awful about it. I'll try to do better in two weeks.

Oops!

by Cindy R. Williams

Oops is a super word. It can be used for almost anything you bungle.

 My day to post was December 8, and thanks to everyday crazy busy stuff, like decorating, and prepping for Christmas, hosting 160 people at a Pigs Feet Christmas party in my home, making tons of fudge, caramels, kettle corn, cinnamon rolls, hosting a guitar, piano and harp recital, directing and acting in a major play, feeding a family of five-not just once, but three times a day-writing for a newspaper, finishing a MG fantasy, running a music studio, preparing for a son leaving home for BYU. Preparing an 18 year old son to leave home for his mission, preparing for my new granddaughter, and generally feeling like I'm a human energizer bunny, my blogging day slipped by. Oops!

A cool thing about blogger is that you can write your post early and schedule it ahead of time, or . . . you can write your post late and back post it. This is one of those back post times. I am too much of a perfectionist to just let it go.

So the kernel of wisdom here is . . . "Oops" is one of the best words in the human language.

Layered Socks

I sat down to write this post last night but I go interrupted. Then I sat down to write it this morning but had to deal with other things. I took my laptop to work with me and attempted to write on my breaks. Alas, instead of my normal lonely breaks, I had tons of people dying to talk to me. So here I am, at three thirty....trying again. I have a hair appointment at four, so listen fast.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to write something incredibly witty about life, love and the pursuit of casual Friday or if I wanted to expound on the frustrations I and my sister have experienced this week. Then I thought about writing on the wonderment of being a new grandmother. The problem with that one is whenever I think about my grandson all I want to do is hold him. He is adorable and sweet and goes to his mommy when he cries.
Inspite of all these wonderful topics I had rolling around in my head vying for my attention, I choose to write about singing monkeys and the smell of human.
I can't help it. School is where I am most of my waking hours during the week. I play with, teach, clean up after,chase, discipline, and run from children for almost eight hours a day. It is truly the dream job. Well, right after mom-to-toddlers. I do actually love my job. I have a ball talking to these kids and hearing all the interesting things they say. I can honestly say that I learn something new almost every day I am in kindergarten.
This week we were talking about our five senses. The day we covered smell was my favorite. I think it started when the teacher asked the children to tell her what they smelled. Hello....she had this coming. There were good answers....flowers, cookies, my feet, Colton, and somebody's fart. We changed strategies at that point. The teacher passed around envelopes with 'smelly items' in them for the kids to smell. After they smelled all the packets, she asked them what kinds of things they thought they smelled. They were pretty bright. Lemon, peppermint, pepper, 'pepper-corn', and "human." The teacher nodded her head enthusiastically at that one. Yes, she knew what smell the boy was referring to. She started to snicker and look at me with a funny look. I had no idea how she got the human smell in an envelope. I imagined her slicing a thin strip off her arm, or maybe cutting bit off her dead husbands corpse in the basement....I was starting to edge towards the door when she explained. "It is the smell of onion."
Hmm. I didn't know humans smelled like onions. I mean, I know we are like ogres in that we all have many layers, but....onion? I wonder what kind of people this child and the teacher both live with. Onion people? I'm gonna have to go smell my kids. I always thought they smelled more like bananas, snicker bars, and dirty socks.  Cause I said so.

Photo credit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/thom-moores-hilarious-ode_n_1761986.html

Richard Paul Evans

By Susan Knight

 

I had the privilege of attending a fireside with Richard Paul Evans last month. I knew he was going to be an awesome speaker. He was keynote speaker at a writer’s conference and a friend related a story about him at our ANWA meeting.

He did not disappoint.

Evans spoke, not in the context of a writer, but as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as a caring, teaching human being. 

Right after publishing “The Christmas Box,” he was invited to speak to a group of junior high students in Georgia. The principal told him to prepare for a “few” minutes with the classes. He said, “I can do that,” and made it a side trip after a radio interview to promote his book.

When Evans arrived, school buses lined the curb of the junior high. He realized kids were bused in from surrounding schools to hear him. The principal greeted him with the news that he had an hour-and-a-half to speak to the students—in the jam-packed auditorium.

I chuckled along with everyone else in the audience. Everyone knows kids that age don't have the attention span to be attentive for ninety minutes.

Evans asked himself, “What can I tell these kids that will take up that much time?” They weren't LDS so he couldn't conduct it like a “fireside.” During his introduction, he hurried and jotted down five things he wished he knew while in junior high. He said he let the spirit tell him what to say.

 

I believe these five things can serve us all well, no matter our age.

1. We are Born of Divinity. There is a reason why you are here. You are not a mistake.

2. Live Free. Do not live in a cage of “victimhood.” Embrace freedom. Let it go. Forgive.

3. Magnify Your Life. Are we living the lives we should be? “All successes in life are built on stairways of failure.” Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t fail by default.

4. Embrace Adversity. “We do not succeed despite our challenges but precisely because of them.” Evans has Tourette Syndrome and spent some time talking about his challenges.

5. Love. Love is a choice. Service is love made visible. We love the people we serve.

He spent at least fifteen minutes elaborating on each “pearl.”

Richard Paul Evans (he referred to himself as “Rick”) is an amazing speaker. The chapel and the cultural hall were filled to overflowing, like a Stake Conference back in Philadelphia. Even so, the spirit was palpable. You could hear a pin drop. The woman next to me cried all through the closing hymn and prayer, as did I.

I went home spiritually fed.