Just One Reason Marriage Is the Best

Today I am grateful for my husband.  I am grateful that when I "grew up" I did not have a time on my own but instead went directly from living with my mom to living with Matt.  When things seem like they suck at least there is always one person there who loves me and supports me and thinks I'm awesome no matter what.

Flowers

I love flowers.  And I love taking pictures of flowers.  Hopefully my neighbors don't mind me stalking their gardens...

These ones are from a bouquet Matt gave me for my birthday:

Making Italian Bread

Last night our dinner was so delicious that Matt said I should blog about it.

We had Pasta Fagioli Soup.  It is pretty good, but pretty light; you need to eat something else with it.  I was thinking some good Italian bread would be the perfect side.  In my renewed efforts to live within my means I decided to make some instead of just buying a loaf.  I've watched my mom make bread before (thank you Mummis!  I definitely relied on your teaching while making the bread), but I have never made any of my own, so I searched online for the most simple, basic Italian bread recipe I could find.  This is the recipe I ended up picking.  It calls for bread flour, but I didn't want to buy that, so i just used regluar all-purpose flour.  The only thing I ended up needing to buy was a 40¢ packet of yeast.

Making the bread was nice; a much more calm and enjoyable experience than any other time I've made something for the first time.  At dinner we dipped it in a concoction of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and ground pepper.  It was delicious!



All that was left of our 12-inch loaf after dinner.



Relief Society and little miracles

I wanted to write a post about Relief Society Sunday meetings.  I am very grateful that at this time in my life I have a calling which allows me to attend Relief Society.  Throughout the week I start to feel exhausted and, quite frankly, defeated.  I always look forward to church on Sunday because I know that I will come away with a renewed feeling of optimism.

This was true yesterday.  Throughout the first two hours of church I was waiting for something to help me feel better.  As the last hour started I began to worry that it would not happen this time; that I would leave church feeling just as discouraged as when I arrived.  But, as always Relief Society came through!  The lesson was about charity.  At the very end of her lesson, the teacher said that she felt impressed that Heavenly Father did not think that this was a new concept for us, or a concept that we needed to improve upon.  Instead, she felt impressed that Heavenly Father wanted us to know that He sees the little things we do every day that no one else sees.  Our actions do not go unnoticed.  I felt the spirit witness to me that this was true.  I was uplifted!  How grateful I am for this!

I will add one other unrelated thought.  This morning I did my grocery shopping for the week.  While checking out I was given the opportunity to donate a dollar for children's cancer research.  I did so, and received an instant win scratch off card.  I pocketed it, and made a mental note to check it when I got home.  After I had been home a little while I realized that I had not bought a couple of things, one of which was hamburger buns.  I also remembered the instant win card.  So, I scratched it off, and discovered I won one dollar off hot dog or hamburger buns.  Pretty awesome!

The Miracle of Prayer and Neighbors

This afternoon I left the house to go grocery shopping with Lily.  I had my purse, shopping list, wallet, coupons, cell phone... That's everything right...?  Nope, forgot my keys.  I was locked out of the house.  Matt couldn't help.  He was about to get on a plane to fly back home from a business trip.  We have a spare key, which is kept by my father-in-law (aka Pops) who was at work.  So, there I was.  Locked out of my house and my car, with Lily, in the heat (the high was 85°...crazy for the beginning of April).  Matt suggested I call one of his brothers to see if they could go pick up the spare key and bring it to me.  That didn't sound ideal.  My visiting teacher lives nearby so I called her.  No answer.  So, I tried breaking in using my library card.  That didn't work.  At this point I felt I could do no more.  I was stuck, but I needed to not be stuck.  Lily and I could not just sit outside for the rest of the day.  So, I said a prayer.  My hope was that my prayer would be answered by me being able to break in with a different card (my library card is thin and flimsy, I thought maybe a thicker card would be my miracle).  But, I was willing to have my prayer answered some other way just as long as I got help in some way.

Just then, one of my neighbors came outside and started talking to me about my problem.  She was the answer to my prayer!  She offered to drive me to Pops so that I could get my key.  So, about an hour after our story started I found myself back home.  Inside my home.

This could have been a horrible situation, but instead I am thankful that:

• I decided to change Lily's clothes before we left so that she wasn't wearing pants and long sleeves
• I had my cell phone
• Pops had the spare key
• I prayed
• My prayer was answered through my wonderful neighbor, who I had never met before today, I might add.

General Conference - Sunday Sessions

One of the things I struggle with the most is getting discouraged with myself.  I always love conference because it encourages me to do better rather than making me feel guilty about all my faults.

I didn't watch much of conference on Sunday, but the one thought that I really liked and that really stuck with me was:

When we sin we are not lost.  But that's what Satan wants us to think.

Yes!  We are not lost when we sin!  Got to put that on my "must remember that" list... "Do not wallow in self loathing when you make a mistake.  You are not lost when you sin.  Such is life.  You make a mistake, you move on, you make a mistake again and again and again.... Such is life.  You are not lost."

The 181st General Conference - Saturday Sessions

• Women are strong.
• We can make good choices even when they are hard.  If a man can choose to break the bones in his arm and cut his arm off in order to save his life then we can make choices that will allow us to enter heaven after this life.
• We only have to be better a little bit at a time.  It is OK for change to happen gradually, little by little.

I know there were more good thoughts I wanted to add, but I've forgotten them already.  Got to write down thoughts when they happen, not hours later!  (I will add more later if I remember).

April 2011 General Conference Sessions