Thanksgiving Proclamation 1789

I just was sent a link to the proclamation for Thanksgiving given by President George Washington in 1789. Thanksgiving was (and still should be) intended "to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor."

You can read the proclamation in its entirety here.

If we ever needed His protection and favor, we do now. I have been feeling really humbled and saddened by the state of our world over the past few weeks (the election did nothing to calm my troubled heart, but I won't get into politics here).

I feel like we have just hit the tip of the iceberg of things to come, too. I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and the knowledge and testimony that I have of my Heavenly Father's love. I know that I will continue to receive guidance from the Holy Ghost, guidance from my church leaders (especially the prophet and apostles), and guidance from the scriptures to get through these times. I am grateful to have listened to our leaders and that we have food storage and little savings (wish we had more, but we're working on it). Times may get rough for us, but the spirit will comfort us and we need not fear as we are prepared.

I told the kids that I wanted to gather them under my wing and protect them from all that is going on the world. Ammon said, "I didn't know you have wings" and then started laughing hysterically. Once we got his laughter under wraps, we talked as a family about some of the things going on (not just about the financial recession, but the spiritual recession). We made a commitment to work harder as a family to dedicate ourselves both collectively and individually to serving the Lord and learning gospel principles. I've decided that I need to re-institute daily devotionals with the kids. When Dallin was born, that got pushed aside, but I need to recommit myself to teaching them on a daily basis. I feel that once a week during Family Home Evening isn't enough because their world when they are adults will be much worse than it is even now.

I'm sorry to my readers (like I've got crowds of you - HA!) for the seriousness of this post. It's more for myself and journaling than anything, but if you want to comment, you're welcome to it.

Pogo Champion of the World

I know this is the fourth post today - bear with me. I'm trying to update and make up for the month without posts. That way I can go another month - ha,ha. I'll try not to let it get this bad again. I'm going to be good, I promise, and post more frequently so we've got a max of one post a day.

Here is a video of Jaren pogo sticking. He can go no hands. That's talent:

Belated Halloween Pictures

I have been really busy this past month and so am just now getting the Halloween pictures up.

Dallin and Jaren were both pirates. Dallin may be the only pirate ever to drool on the face of the earth with a pacifier (see ZooBoo pic at the top):

Annie was a princess for ZooBoo (but changed to be a different princess on Halloween):

Ammon was Mr. Incredible or Dash (depending on the minute you asked him):

Aside from the baby's costume, all the costumes were just from the kids' dress-up bins. I wasn't going to buy new Halloween costumes when they had perfectly good costumes already. They didn't like it so much, but tough luck.

Another Tagging

Okay, so I was tagged by both Jessica and Alene (as you may have seen in my other tagging post). Since Jessica has a different set of questions to answer, I'm going to do it twice. But, again, I've got no one to tag so it's just going to be a question and answer session with myself. Here goes:

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago (1998):
1. arranging my housing for returning in the fall to BYUH (March)
2. meeting Mike (April) - out the window went BYUH plans
3. getting engaged (May) - cemented the nix on BYUH
4. getting married to Mike in the Chicago temple (October)
5. finding out I was pregnant with Jaren (December)

5 Things on my To-Do List:
1. finish quilling my Christmas presents
2. get an entire night's sleep without being awoken by a child
3. putting away laundry
4. buy Annie new Sunday shoes (I've been cramming her size 10 feet into size 8 shoes for about two months now)
5. work with Ammon on reading (he wants to be able to read - today - and is frustrated with the process and work it's taking him with his dyslexia)

5 Snacks I Enjoy (two out of five being healthy snacks ain't bad, the bad thing is chocolate is no. 1 snack - LOL):
1. chocolate
2. grapes
3. apple slices
4. animal crackers
5. cookies

5 Things I would do if I were a Millionaire:
1. Tithing
2. Invest
3. Pay off house and then build a custom one
4. Pay off student loans
5. donate to some worthwhile charities

5 Places I have Lived (I'm changing this one to all the places I've lived - there have been a lot):
1. Greenwood, Indiana
2. Beaverton, Oregon
3. Crystal Lake, Illinois
4. Rexburg, Idaho
5. Vernon Hills, Illinois
6. Helsinki, Finland (and other cities in Finland, but since I was a missionary and moved every few months, I'm not naming them all)
7. Laie, Hawaii
8. Hauula, Hawaii
9. St. Joseph, Michigan
10. Puyallup, Washington
11. Aberdeen, Washington (there are other places within Washington, but since I was a little kid when we lived there, I can't remember the town names)

5 Jobs I have had:
1. paper route
2. babysitter (steady evening job when I was 14)
3. KFC
4. BYUH library reference desk assistant
5. Business Analyst for Kemper Insurance (which went under a few years ago)

5 People I Tag: No one - and that's okay. I do have friends, but those who have blogs have been tagged already. I just have to recruit more of my friends to blog, I guess. Then, I can tag shamelessly.

Late in the Game Tagging

I've been tagged (a while ago, but haven't had time to check out anyone's blog - including my own). So, here goes:

Both Jessica and Alene tagged me so I'm passing it along (although I don't know to whom)!

1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the six "8" items
3) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV shows (although I haven't watched "regular" TV since the Olympics)
1) So you think you can dance
2) Survivor
3) Property Ladder
4) Biggest Loser
5) John and Kate Plus 8
6) America's Next Top Model
7) American Idol
8) CNN (I'm a news junkie - now I just get all I want from the Internet)

8 Things I did yesterday
1) Got up early
2) Attended church and actually got to go to R.S. instead of Primary (YEAH!)
3) Made cookies
4) Took a nap
5) Talked on the phone for a LONG time to a friend from Oregon
6) quilled a new nativity
7) Made BBQ babyback ribs
8) Cuddled with the baby

8 Things I look forward to
1) seeing Dallin walk (but he can take his time - I'm in no hurry)
2) Thanksgiving
3) Seeing the Lubshina sisters Saturday after Thanksgiving (it's been SIX years since we've seen each other in person)
4) more time for quilling
5) Seeing my kids grow up in righteousness and serve the Lord (go on missions, get married in the temple)
6) Going on a mission (or three) with Mike when we get older
7) Christmas
8) spending family time (most days I can't get enough - but, there are those other days)

8 Favorite Restaurants
1) Texas Roadhouse
2) Logans
3) Wendys
4) Dave's Famous BBQ
5) Red Robin
6) China Wok
7) Thai Spice
8) Olive Garden (in small doses)

8 things on my wish list
1) creating a website to sell my quilling
2) having the know-how to decorate my home as nicely as my friends' homes (anyone volunteer to help me out?)
3) having time to read all the books we own
4) being a righteous mother
5) having children who stay true to the faith all their days
6) going back to Finland some day
7) going back to Hawaii some day
8) managing my time more wisely and getting the most out of 24 hours.

8 People to Tag
1) dunno
2) dunno
3) dunno
4) dunno
5) dunno
6) nobody
7) nothing
8) thats all folks!