Scripture Challenge Week 18: Ammon and Great Women

This week I read the great story of Ammon (Alma 17-21). I've read it about 100 times but I'm always impressed by the humility and diligence of Ammon which wins him the king's trust and ultimately leads to an entire kingdom being converted to the gospel.

A couple things stood out to me this time:

1. Through love, humility and hard work, Ammon was able to bring truth and light to 1000's of people. When he was roughly brought before the king as an "illegal alien" in the land, he wasn't annoyed at his rough treatment nor did he launch into preaching. Instead, he said he was there because he'd simply like to live in that land - "perhaps until the day I die" (Alma 17:23). Impressed by Ammon, the king offered him his daughter's hand in marriage - surely a great honor. But Ammon very politely declined the honor (I assume he might have been concerned about marrying someone he didn't know and who didn't share his faith) and said he'd simply like to serve the king (Alma 17:25). He didn't need glory or honor. He clearly wasn't just there to get some "baptism notches" on his belt. He was in this for the long haul and truly wanted to come to understand these people, to provide whatever help they wanted, and just live what he believed. Perhaps his example would be helpful to others and that was enough. Sure, when he saved the king's flocks through miraculously cutting off the arms of all the assailants who raised a hand against him and the other servants who were trying to save the sheep, that was pretty flashy. But he didn't do it to be flashy. He did it because it was what needed to be done in order to fulfill his obligation to the king. And when he got back to the king's palace after performing such a feat, he went on to the next task the king had assigned to him, preparing his horses for an upcoming trip the king was going on.

Ammon wasn't easily offended and he didn't let proposed honors or success go to his head. He just stuck with humility, duty, loyalty, kindness and love. And it worked wonders.

2. I love how we get to know some valiant ladies as the story goes on (Chapter 19). The faith of the king's wife is beautiful. And I love how the queen's servant, Abish, takes action to save the day. We hear so little about specific women - or women at all - in the scriptures. But here, in one story, two specific women are celebrated for their faith, their initiative to speak up and go against the grain, and their instrumental involvement in events that altered the course of the history of their people. Strong stuff indeed.

Baked Cranberry Brie (Favorite Holiday Appetizer)

This has become a "must" at our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.

Ingredients:
3 cups fresh cranberries (about 1 12-oz bag)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/8 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cardamon (can be hard to find - works fine w/o this - but really good with!)
1 8-inch wheel of Brie
baguette slices, toasted pita slices, crackers and/or apple wedges for dipping

Put everything except the Brie and bread and apples into small pot. Stir together over medium heat until the cranberries and popped and liquid thickens a bit. Set aside (or refrigerate until you're about ready to serve the appetizer).

When almost time to serve the appetizer, skim off the top white rind on the Brie (leaving about a 1/4 inch border around the edges on the top - this way the remaining rind can keep the Brie from oozing all over the place when you bake it but the cranberry topping can bake into the Brie somewhat). Put Brie on foil-covered baking sheet and put cranberry topping on the Brie.


Bake at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes until cheese is soft and warm. Serve with baguette slices or toasted pita slices, and apple wedges.

Makes enough for 15 hungry people or for 20-30 if you're serving this along with other appetizers.

(This is an adjusted version of a recipe I found years ago in "Always in Season: A Collection of Recipes from the Junior League of Salt Lake City)

Thanksgiving - with a surprise ending

We started the day with the "2nd Annual Jefferson Turkey Trot" with about 5 other families in our neighborhood. Isaac came in first place - he's a fast one - then I won for the adults (because I was the only adult not carrying or urging a small child along - or pushing a stroller - but hey, I'll take a win where I can get it).

Here are the Turkey Trot participants (minus a kid or two - somehow standing still for photos isn't a favorite thing for lots of kids...)

Then we headed to Park City for our Thanksgiving feast with my mom, her sister, and a bunch of my cousins and their kids along with the cute couple and their two little girls who live near my parents and help them with keeping their place up. The table was gorgeous. The dinner was super tasty. My mom sure knows how to do up Thanksgiving right. It was fun to do the final cooking and prepping with my mom and my Aunt Lena and to have great time with my cousins while our kids played so happily together. As well as stuffing ourselves with wonderful food, we sang around the piano and talked and shared the things we're most grateful for in our lives right now.

Eliza got up early on Thanksgiving and started her list of things she's thankful for, determined to be this year's thankful champion. She had 300 things on her list before we even woke up. Then in the car on the way to Park City, she got another 200 things on her list while the rest of the family worked on their lists. We ended up with a combined total of over 1100 things listed by the time we got to Park City. And while Liza won the title of thankful champion, making lists make us all pretty darn happy and the kids were really excited to show their lists to Grandfather and Grammie when we arrived at their house (since they're the inventors of this thankful thing list idea from way back when I was little).

Eliza was pretty proud of her list - and I loved the glimpse into her brain that it offered me...

Jared was in charge of the potatoes. Wow, he makes some amazingly tasty potatoes. My dad was his trusty assistant. (And Jared's doing No Shave November. Quite a beard, huh?)

Pretty table, huh? My mom always makes things look so nice.

  
My kids in their matching Thanksgiving clothes (some were more thrilled about the idea than others - but I thought the twins' sweaters were pretty darn cute and couldn't pass them up when they were 50% off and figured we might as well all dress in brown and orange...)

The kids' table:

Ashton got to join the adult table this year (and ate more than any of the adults)

The adult table:



Yummy pie

Singing around the piano (fun to see our kids sing together at a family gathering since my Grandma used to always have us - their moms - come sing together at family gatherings at her house). My mom and Aunt Lena also played a bunch of beautiful Christmas carols for us - mom on violin, Lena on piano - took me back to my childhood - and tales of their childhood.

We finished off the day at Jared's brother's house with his great family and Jared's mom where we somehow crammed a little more pie into our bellies while laughing and talking about the latest in everyone's lives (should have remembered to take a photo - oops!). I am so blessed to be related to so many wonderful people!

So the day was all well and good until Ashton was suddenly violently throwing up all over the car on the way home - it came on so suddenly we didn't even have a chance to pull over. Wow was that a nasty clean up in the freezing cold on the shoulder of the freeway with Ashton continuing to throw up over the guardrail of the overpass we were on. When we did our "top 10" lists of what we're thankful for at Thanksgiving dinner, one of my cousins who has little babies had "wet wipes" on her top 10 lists. Jared and I decided wet wipes were definitely on our top 10 list as well as we used an entire container trying to get Ashton and the car in decent enough shape to drive the rest of the way home!

Today was all about sick kids (Ashton was still sick and the twins have low-grade fevers and say their eyes are hurting and keep coughing - sort of a weird sickness) and Jared finally finishing the backyard fence with Isaac's help (it's done - yeah!). Jared and I also did a bit of shopping together (Jared has somehow worn holes in the bottoms of ALL his shoes..and we got a few fun Christmas gifts to get ahead of things - found some excellent deals on a few little things for the kids while marveling at the craziness of Black Friday...).

Thank you notes and final Thanksgiving Tree

Yesterday we worked on thank you notes as a little Thanksgiving activity and they turned out great. Every kid picked two or three people to write to (Ashton said he'd rather email people and that was fine). I let them totally pick whatever they wanted to write to whomever they wanted to write to. They wrote to basketball coaches, church teachers, school teachers, relatives, you name it. Here are a few:

I've got to figure out how to deliver this one to the gabige man (garbage man) who does seveses (services) around the naberhod (neighborhood).

An email from Ashton to one of his teachers:
Since it's Thanksgiving, I wanted to tell you how grateful I am that you are such a great teacher. You make math fun while also helping us learn a lot. I know all the other kids in our class think you're great too. Thanks a lot.

Today we put a few final leaves on our Thanksgiving Tree.


Here's the list of most everything that ended up on this year's tree:
School, airplanes, camping, my mom, trees, Pippi Longstocking (a book we read a while ago), that I don't get sick a lot (from Eliza when she was sick last week), houses, learning, love, electric guitars, PJ's, The Magician's Elephant (we just finishd reading it - such a great read-aloud), family, Heavenly Father, dishwashers, that we can play on a basketball team, Dad's job, my amazing children, dance class, dishwasher fixers, trampolines, help, paper, homes, people who love their country, pencils, good movies, snow, teachers, good books, fall leaves, church, Power of Moms, Jesus Christ, plants, my dad, the Holy Ghost, heat, air conditioning, blankets, fruits and vegetables, pizza...

Now I get to make some yummy cranberry brie appetizer for our feast at my mom's house tomorrow (I'll share the recipe soon!). We'll head to Park City to help with all the cooking right after we finish with the neighborhood "Turkey Trot" tomorrow morning.

Oh, how I love Thanksgiving!

Overlooked Blessings

"I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find greater happiness."
- Thomas S. Monson

Here are some of my often overlooked blessings that I am so grateful for:

• Grocery stores: I went shopping yesterday and in one store, I was able to buy all the food, toiletries, and household goods we needed. So much of the world has no access to convenient shopping - and/or no means to buy basic necessities let alone the "extras" I'm lucky enough to be able to toss into my cart at the grocery store. When I lived in Bulgaria, the little communist-era grocery stores sold  gritty grayish sugar, white flour, pasta, some dried beans, and a few other dry goods plus sometimes bread, yogurt and cheese (two kinds- there are only two kinds of cheese in Bulgaria). Half the shelves always seemed to be empty in those stores. Then there were "mini markets" that had candy, yogurt, cheese and some imported packaged foods and bread. Then there were open-air markets (even in the cold and snow) where you went to buy your fruits and vegetables (sometimes great, sometimes very sparse - only what was in season). One woman visited the United States and was excited to show all the people in our little branch (congregation) all her photos. At least 80% of the photos she was excited to share were photos of the inside of a grocery store. People oohed and ahhed over all the amazing number of choices, all in one place.
• A good car: When I need to go somewhere, my car starts. Every time. It's 7 years old and it's nothing remotely fancy. One of the windows won't roll down. The carpet is stained, the plastic parts are scuffed pretty bad, and I'm always loosing the battle of keeping in somewhat clean inside and out. But it's comfortable and it gets us everywhere we need to be. We don't have to ride buses or walk or bike long distances to get where we need to go like people in most of the world have to do. 
• The chance to be a wife and mother. It's hard stuff - this mother and wife stuff - but it's what I always hoped and dreamed of and I wondered for a lot of years whether it was going to happen for me as I saw so many friends and my sister get married and start their families while I was still looking for Mr. Right. Many of my friends are still looking and some have given up. Some friends have been through heartbreaking divorces. Some have struggled mightily with infertility. I am so blessed that these yearned-for blessings of a husband and children did work out for me.
• Beauty: I talk about beauty a lot on this blog and in my life - I probably don't overlook it as much as some do. But I am just so grateful for the beauty of the earth and for the love of our Creator that it demonstrates. God probably could have made a much more utilitarian version of the world. But He went all out. He made so many interesting and exciting and lovely things to warm our hearts and make us smile and make us think. 
• A comfortable home: While much of the world lives in self-made huts that are usually too hot or too cold and have little or no conveniences, I live in a nice house with heat and air conditioning and furniture and plumbing and blankets and computers and a TV
• Peace: While so many people in the world live in fear of the next government take-over, in fear of the wandering soldiers who do whatever they like, in fear that they might have to flee their homes, in fear that their young sons may be forced into an army, in fear of the hate that some people have for them because of their religion or ethnicity and the violence they've seen as a result, I live in a peaceful country where elections can mean disappointments but don't mean overthrow or violence or drastic swings in policies.
• Choices and freedom: I have so many choices every day. I can choose what to wear. I can choose what time to get up in the morning (within a window of what works) and what time to go to bed at night. I can choose when to do what needs to be done that day and can choose a lot of what goes on my "to-do" list. I can choose where my children go to school. I can choose what we eat for dinner. I can choose from many great choices of activities for my children. I can choose great friends. I can choose to go running or hiking because my body is healthy and strong. I can choose to be involved in my kids' school. I can choose to run The Power of Moms. I can choose to share my thoughts on this blog. I have so much freedom.

This afternoon, when the kids get home, we'll all be writing thank you notes to people we're grateful for who might not know how much we appreciate them. We'll use up the rest of the 500-pack of thank you notes from my wedding and do some thank-you emails as well. Writing the list above and sending out several emails today to people who enrich my life has made me feel so much joy today. I want my kids to feel this joy too.

Scripture Challenge Week 17: Strengthening the Strengtheners

This scripture really stood out to me this week:

Alma Chapter 15, verse 18
Now as I said, Alma having seen all these things, therefore he took Amulek and came over to the land of Zarahemla, and took him to his own house, and did administer unto him in his tribulations, and strengthened him in the Lord.
Back when Alma began his missionary work in Ammonihah, he was spit upon and cast out despite his most earnest attempts. But an angel told to go back and try again and Alma "speedily" did as he was told (I think I might have dragged my feet a bit...). Upon returning to Ammonihah, Alma was starving, having "fasted many days" and asked a man for some food. This man, Amulek, had been told by an angel that Alma would come and took him into his home where Alma was fed and where he "tarried many days," likely gearing up for his missionary work and discussing the gospel with Amulek as they prepared to teach people who'd been very unreceptive to Alma's prior attempts (Alma 8:19-27). I like to imagine the great friendship that grew between these two men as they prepared for and served this mission together. They experienced wonderful stuff together as they preached and performed miracles. They experienced  prison walls falling down to set them free. They saw many people - even the wicked Zeezrom - accept the gospel and change their lives. They learned to submit their wills to that of the Lord and see the beautiful things that brings.  They also went through really hard stuff together - huge heartaches when their message was rejected and when they saw some of their followers killed for their beliefs, frustration when Zeezrom tried to turn everyone against them, physical discomfort and pain and humiliation when they were imprisoned, whipped, stripped of their clothes, and spat upon.

On top of everything else he'd gone through with Alma, it turned out that Amulek had to give up all his riches and was rejected by his family (Alma 15:16). In verse 18 (above), it looks like Alma saw and understood how hard these sacrifices were for Amulek and now it was time for Alma to take Amulek into HIS home for a time and strengthen him.

For all of us, there are times when we need strengthening and other times when we need to strengthen others. Often it's the very people who've strengthened us that we'll need to strengthen at some point. No one can be strong all the time and always be the "strengthener." Even valiant wonderful people like Alma and Amulek need time to step back and be strengthened sometimes. Needing to be strengthened does not mean we're weak. It means we're strong - so strong that we've been trusted with big responsibilities and trials that will likely cause us to need to lean on the Lord and on others around us quite a bit - and that need to lean will help us be humble and will give others the chance to serve. Everyone needs to lean sometimes. Everyone needs to serve sometimes. That's how it's designed.

This week, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, I'm so grateful for the chances I've had in my life to serve others, to offer advice, to help people through hard times. And I'm so grateful for those who've been there for me when everything just feels so overwhelming and I've needed a listening ear, a helping hand, or an encouraging word.

*** And one last thing, I love love love this short article that posted on Power of Moms today. I so needed this reminder that while it always seems like there isn't enough time or money or bandwidth in my brain or heart to do all the things I yearn to do and feel called to do, there actually is enough. There is ALWAYS enough to do the things that are most needful when the Lord is involved.

There is Enough Oil

Sisters' Retreat - Napa Valley

How in the world did I get lucky enough to be born into the same family with these women, my very best friends?


We had an amazing get-away weekend in the Bay Area. Thanks to our amazing mom for making it all possible and to Charity for planning a perfect itinerary of culinary perfection, gorgeous scenery and lots of excellent talk time in the area she has made her own.Here's a little list we kept of all the fun things we did together so we wouldn't forget anything. I"ll let the photos and half-sentences tell the story. What a deal (my mom's favorite phrase).

* Meeting up with mom in SLC, flying with her to Phoenix to pick up Shawni, flying together to San Jose; Flood of memories landing in San Jose - all my kids were born there - such huge parts of my life happened there in so many ways...

* Good talks headed to San Fran from San Jose in traffic to meet up with Saydi (who got in a bit earlier) and Charity (who was preparing for a big party) while eating too many pistachios

* Burma Superstar restaurant with Shawni, Saydi and mom while Char did her party - great, unique flavors and we didn't talk about anything at all (not) as requested by Charity who hated the thought of missing anything but had this party planned from long ago (wow, was it ever a crazy long thread of emails finding a weekend that at least sort of worked for all five of us!)




* Police at Charity's beach party when we went to pick her up - illegal location for their bonfire apparently - living on the edge, that girl; very briefly meeting some of Charity's friends while the police stood over us, closing down the parking lot where we were.

* Laughing til we bawled about stuff like "sneaking down the hall" since mom was worried we were illegally putting 5 people in a 4-person hotel room and the random sign in the hall that said circus animals and marching bands weren't allowed in the hotel "quiet zone"

 

* Beautiful run by the bay on Saturday morning with Saydi and Charity

* Axis cafe for breakfast...delish eggs Benedict; Cool graffiti wall nearby (photo at beginning of post)

* Over breakfast, discussion of article about "teach these souls to fly" from mom...all in tears; talking about how motherhood so beautifully helps us raise ourselves as we raise our children...

* Golden Gate Bridge photo stop - gorgeousness. I can never get enough of that bridge.

* Drive to Napa through hills of vineyards glinting in the slanted sun; Listening to Carla Bruni singing in French

* Bottega in Yountville (Napa area) for delicious fancy lunch - butternut rissoto and beet and fig ravioli among other wonderful stuff

* Bike ride (16 miles) with 7 trillion stops for photos in breathtaking fields

* Stopping at picturesque Oakville grocery for baked goods

* Exploring little lanes full of beautiful foliage; Returned the bikes just after sunset

Gorgeous old Inglenook Winery

* Macaroons from Bouchant bakery in little courtyard strung with lights talking about our biggest worries

* Talking about our biggest happies back at the hotel

* Morning church at a local ward - lovely testimonies shared - we can all be the answers that each other needs as we follow the Spirit.

* Talking about the book, "The Book of Mormon Girl" on a terrace at a hotel with gorgeous views; discussing what we love about our church and how grateful we are for the way our parents explained things to us

* Talk of how we use the Atonement in our lives while basking in the sun down on lower patio of the hotel

* One more stop at Oakville grocery for ice cream and fleur de sel chocolate chip and tasty ginger cookies

* Driving to the Hess Gallery at the Hess Winery through super windy and beautiful roads

* Enjoying very cool art together (molten rocks and stained melted snow, this amazing free-standing wall of carefully placed twigs)

* Wandering through the near-by monastery

* Finding this view at the other side of the monastery and taking tons of photos of the foliage and grapes; collecting leaves

 

* Collecting gorgeous leaves

* Singing "For the Beauty of the Earth" while watching the sunset from a perfect perch by an old monastery

For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skiesFor the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise

(I always sing this with my kids when we're enjoying the beauty of nature and turns out Saydi does the same...)

* Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen for dinner (delicious curry chicken salad and loco chicken, seared tuna and skirt steak)

* Making a podcast back at the hotel, brainstorming ideas for extra gratitude and joy this Thanksgiving season. It's HERE if you want to listen to it.

* Up early to grab breakfast and sit in traffic (having great conversations) trying to get to the airport

* Seeing Charity's office and meeting her co-workers before saying goodbye to her and getting the the airport just on time

* Making resolutions together about really living our priorities, doing first things first, limiting computer time, and thereby finding more joy and less stress in our lives. We'll all be following up on each other!

Oh how I love these ladies!!!