Random Giggles | Page 44

First books

15 November 2013, 4:43 pm by Giggles

Categories: Books, Gospel

I spent a rather large amount of time trying to figure out what book Iddo would hear first. Would I pick a childhood classic like “Make Way for Ducklings“? Or perhaps a chapter book I loved? Harry Potter was definitely in the running for her first book.

I put a great deal of pressure on myself to pick the perfect first book. A line from “You’ve Got Mail” kept ringing through my head:

When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.

What book would shape her identity? Who did I want to help her become?

Going on the idea that she could hear me long before birth, I started reading to her out loud while she was still in utero. And the book I picked? I picked a book that has shaped my own life the way no other book has and is a major part of my own identity. I read her The Book of Mormon. We finished it when she was 2 months old.

Since then I’ve read her “Make Way for Ducklings,” “Caps for Sale,” “The Book of Three,” “The Black Cauldron,” “Good Night, Gorilla,” “The Going-To-Bed Book.” And that’s just the books I’ve read her.

Our reading days are just beginning. I think she’s getting a pretty good start.

5 Shared thoughts

November means…

14 November 2013, 7:00 am by Giggles

Categories: Family

Novembers mean family.

Not just because family gathers for Thanksgiving. But because my family started in November. Four years ago today Brett and I started our family. That right there is reason enough to like Novembers.

The last two Novembers I’ve been blissfully pregnant as well. We found out I was pregnant for the first time the day before Thanksgiving in 2011. I have never felt such an immense level of gratitude on Thanksgiving as I did that day. And last year we were watching our daughter’s heart beat every week at my appointments and my pants were already not fitting.

This November we are a family of three. And that makes Novembers absolutely wonderful.

I could never count my blessings because even just counting all the blessed moments in my Novembers would take too long.

3 Shared thoughts

A quilt finally falls into place

13 November 2013, 1:18 pm by Giggles

Categories: Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

Way back when I worked at the fabric store (2006 & 2007), I bought a lovely large fall print I was going to use as a large border on an appliqué pumpkin quilt wall hanging. In that time I completely changed my mind with what I wanted to do with it. And when I finally cut it out this year it was as large blocks instead of as a border. And rather than doing appliqué I did some thread sketching.

I only got as far as putting the top together this year. My goal is to have it quilted and bound by next Fall. Maybe by next year I’ll have figured out how I want to quilt it.

But I started. And often that’s more than half the battle. And I really like this quilt. It’s turning out just how I pictured in my head. It’s taken me years before I can do what’s in my head. I’m really enjoying this. Let’s hope the quilting works out just as well.

3 Shared thoughts

Winning an argument with a 4-year-old

12 November 2013, 6:48 pm by Giggles

Categories: Science & Tech

I got into an argument with my then four-year-old nephew earlier this year. And yes, that’s just as silly as it sounds. We were arguing which of us likes space more. Despite what he says, I have a lot more years of liking space so I think I’m the bigger space fan. He has yet to make his family get up at 2am to watch an eclipse or meteor shower (I’ve made Brett do both).

Earlier this year on May 24th I was able to take a photo of four planets, half the solar system. In this photo you can see Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and Earth.

Half the solar system in one photo

The funny think about the photo is I asked Brett if he wanted to go see half the solar system and he asked where. I told him it was in our backyard. He’s probably remembering the time I showed up at his door when we were still dating and told him there was a new planet in his backyard. It was one of the ones they’d recently discovered orbiting a distant star and you could see the star from his backyard.

So until my nephew takes a photo of more than half the solar system, I’m going to maintain my claim that I’m the bigger space fan.

3 Shared thoughts

And then you do it again.

11 November 2013, 2:51 pm by Giggles

Categories: Family, Folks

I love traditions. They are a natural part of my life. They bring meaning and connections to my life. And I understand that they must change or die as time passes on.

What I don’t understand is people who insist on doing traditions they hate, who think there are certain “correct” traditions you have to do, or who can’t figure out how to make their own traditions.

When we got married we talked about the traditions we grew up with and modified a lot of them to be part of our new family. We have traditions we do that go back several generations. And we love them.

We also have traditions that are less than four years old. Traditions that started with just us. And we love those just as much.

We understand that traditions are something you do once and enjoy, and then you do it again. Presto! Tradition.

We have a Christmas tradition of going to the store the evening of Christmas Eve, agreeing to meet back at the front in half an hour, and then spending the next half hour avoiding each other in the store while buying stocking gifts for the other person. How did this start? Our first Christmas we hadn’t shopped for our stockings yet so I suggested we do it Christmas Eve with some gift cards we had from our wedding. We had so much fun doing it that year that we did it again the next year. Boom! Tradition.

Of course this tradition will need to be modified probably starting next year now that we have Iddo, but traditions are supposed to change to suit your situation and needs.

Another tradition we love – pre-Thanksgiving BBQ. This one started after we got our fire pit and had such a good time using it to BBQ during the summer and realized we still have great BBQ weather at the end of November here. So to kind of rub it in to our family that doesn’t have the same weather, we BBQ the day before Thanksgiving. We BBQ on New Year’s Eve too because one year we had steaks in the freezer and wanted to eat them. We liked both the Thanksgiving Eve and New Year’s Eve BBQs, so we did them again. Yum! Tradition.

Of course if we ever move further north we’ll have to modify those a bit, but that’s the way it works.

None of our traditions took a whole lot of thought or pre-planning, We hadn’t even planned on really making them traditions until the second year when we remembered how much we’d enjoyed them the year before and decided to do them again.

My mom used to recite a football cheer for us that sums up how to start a family tradition:

Do it again!
Do it again!
We like it!
We like it!

What traditions have you accidentally come upon in your family?

4 Shared thoughts

The Glory of God

10 November 2013, 9:39 pm by Giggles

Categories: Education, Gospel

Last week I talked with the Young Women about why we need an education. We could have talked about the exception, that they need an education in case they remain single or their husband dies. But I prefer talking about the rules rather than the exceptions. So we turned to the scriptures to see what reasons the Lord has given for gaining knowledge and wisdom.

36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.
37 Light and truth forsake that evil one.
Doctrine & Covenants 93:36

18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
Doctrine & Covenants 130:18-19

There can’t be any higher reason for education than that. Intelligence is the glory of God. Knowledge gained in this life will benefit you in the eternities.

When I was starting my Masters degree someone suggested I was doing it to earn more money. That person must not have been familiar with how much money educators make. I was not pursuing higher education for more money or worldly honors. I was pursuing further education because I wanted to better myself, because I was not done improving myself.

As part of our discussion I asked the young women to list any subject they could think of studying. And they filled the board. The topics ranged from finance to nursing to charity to fashion. Then we talked about if any of those topics would not benefit them as women, wives, and mothers in this life. Every topic they listed would help them in this life. Then I asked them if any of the topics would not benefit them in the eternities. Again, everything they could study would benefit them in the eternities.

Learn. Grow. Study. Gain wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. It is the glory of God. That’s reason enough for me to keep going.

6 Shared thoughts

Career Goals

9 November 2013, 1:42 pm by Giggles

Categories: Science & Tech

I saw “A Bug’s Life” in the theater and almost looked in to what kind of degree I’d need to work for Pixar. I love watching the behind the scenes features and commentaries on Pixar DVDs, almost more than the movie sometimes. They really get into their movie research – driving route 66 for “Cars” and learning to scuba for “Finding Nemo” for example.

“Monsters University” came out one week after our theater going days were put on temporary hold (babies will do that) so I haven’t seen it yet. But I love this clip about what they did to help get into the spirit for the movie.