The Price of a Leader

Achievement Days (now known as Activity Days) twenty-five years ago consisted of me showing up, doing whatever my leader had planned, then going home, usually with a craft or treat in my hand, and always with a smile on my face. 

When I graduated into the Young Women’s program not much changed.  Then one day when I was a fifteen-year-old Mia-Maid I watched as one of my leaders, Sister Crawford, came in with an armload of stuff for the mutual activity.  It briefly crossed my mind that my leaders probably did a lot more to get ready for a mutual activity than I had ever thought.  They were the ones who gathered all the supplies for craft night, put together our Laurel Legacy cook books, organized our temple/shopping trip to Portland, called people for service activities, and cleaned their house countless times before we came over.  I wondered if they enjoyed preparing so much for an hour and a half activity. 

After ten years I received my answer.

I was recently called to be the Activity Days leader for the 10-year-old girls in my ward.  I just showed up to the first activity, my partner did all the work.  Then she got released.  The next activity was all on me. 

I decided to center it on General Conference and thought it would be fun to decorate General Conference notebooks.  So with Pinterest as my crutch, I went to work. 

I spent hours creating the Apostle labels.  I cut them each out, then laminated them, and then cut them out again. 

I made the cute handouts and tied them on the Gatorade bottles.

Making and cutting out the labels for the books didn’t take too long.

Finally, I Modge Podged printed paper to composition books for the girls to decorate. 

All of that took me about 3-4 hours.  And that’s not including preparing my lesson, and rounding up all the glue sticks, double-sided tape, and stickers. 

As I was preparing the activity I was afraid that the girls wouldn’t like the idea.  They wouldn’t really use their journal, or listen to General Conference.  But I had to try.   My goal was to hopefully help them realize what an awesome privilege it is to have a living prophet on the earth today, and to record some of their feelings as they listen to him.

I was therefore surprised when, bringing out the journals, excitement emanated from the girls.  “I needed something to keep my notes in!” one girl exclaimed.  “My old journal is full!” another girl added.  “This will be perfect!” I heard one girl say. 

Apparently their primary teacher had challenged the girls to keep notes during General Conference, and many of them “had” to watch more than one session of General Conference. 

As I watched the girls attack the stickers, put the apostles’ pictures in order, and glue buttons to their journals, my joy was full.  I helped several girls put the pictures of the apostles in their journals, found the star stickers for another girl, and glued buttons on another girl’s journal. 

Words can’t describe how happy I was to see these 10-year-old Daughters of God so excited to be preparing journals for General Conference. 

Such creativity! 

All of the hours I put into preparing this one-hour activity was worth it.  And I’m sure that all the hours Sister Crawford, Creer, Plaisted, Mahaffy, Ostler, Merkley, and all my other leaders put into mutual activites were worth it too.  When you see your girls, no matter the age, having the time of their lives, anything is worth it. 

I love the stickers! 

Remember It

Facebook is a public journal.  People’s status’s range from personal feelings to ordinary life events.   

There are the everyday statuses.   “Just got home from the store with the kids.  Now off to make dinner!” or “Going out to dinner with my hubby!  I can’t wait!”  

There’s the more touchy feely, ones, “My little boy came and gave me hug today out of the blue and told me he loved me.  I really needed that.” 

Or the testimonies, “Today was another reminder of how amazing the Savior is.  He never leaves us, even when it feels like we’re alone.” 

I’m not saying a person sharing their lives on Facebook is bad.  (If I had a problem with it then I would delete my Facebook account).  What I am concerned about is all those little things we put on Facebook will eventually fade away.  I don’t see the day, but I’m sure someday Facebook will be like MySpace—no one uses it anymore.  The same will probably happen with Twitter, Instagram, and Pintrist.  All of those tidbits of life will eventually disappear. 

May I suggest a simple way in which people can preserve those special moments of their lives?

Keep a journal

Maybe you’re the kind of person who “doesn’t keep a journal very well.”  Honestly, it’s easier than you think, and there are soooo many ways to keep a journal! 

The Personal Traditional Journal

I’ve kept one since I was nine years old.  It is so much fun to look back on my kid and teenage journals to see how much I’ve grown.  Journals like these can provide a sense of strength.  Earlier this year I was pretty down.  I flipped open the journal in which I recorded the last few months of my mission.  I read several entries where I had gone through difficult times and how I overcame them.  Reading those entries strengthened me at that particular difficult moment.  I knew I could do hard things.

Your entries don’t have to be long.  In fact my last entry was a paragraph long.  I recently came across something on Pintrist where a lady literally wrote 2-4 sentences for each day.  Those simple sentences are snapshots into her life. 

Adding titles to some entries makes it a little more fun.

I sometimes add pictures to my journals.  It spices things up a bit.

My very first journal entry.

Typed Journal

Maybe writing’s not your thing.  I admit it takes awhile.  Typing doesn’t. There’s nothing wrong with typing out our journal.  Just remember to print it out once in awhile and get it bound so you can go back and read it now and again, and your posterity can have it as well.

Bullet Journaling

I saw this on Pintrist a couple months ago, and though it’s not for me, it was still pretty cool.  What you do is write the date, then write bullets as to what happened that day. 

An example:

This is not mine.  I got this image from Pintrist.  Yours doesn't have to be this fancy

Blog Journal

My mother in law has a blog journal.  She writes the happenings of her family and life on a private blog, posts pictures, and then gets them printed in a book.  It’s a place where both pictures and words go.  It’s not personal, so her boys can flip through them.  I had the privilege of looking through one.  It was amusing to see my husband as a young teenager, looking tough in his Bomber football uniform, or snazzy, all dressed up to go to the Prom.

If you’re looking for something kind of like a scrapbook, but way easier and not as fancy, try blog journaling.

Kid’s Journal

Again, I found this idea on Pintrist (don’t you love that site)?  A couple kept a journal for each one of their kids from the time they found out they were pregnant (or the adoption was official) to the time they were 18.  Then at graduation they gave their kids the journal.  The couple wrote about special events in their kid’s life, and how they felt about them, as well as the everyday things their kids did. 

Thinking this was a fabulous idea, Chris and I bought a journal for Lilly when we found out we were expecting.  My first entry was the day we had our first ultrasound and I saw her for the first time.  I was able to tell her about her birth several days after it took place, while it was fresh in my mind.  I recorded when she cut her first tooth, when she had her first taste of ice cream, and when she began to crawl—little things that are forgotten overtime.  I don’t write it in everyday, or even every week.  I do try to write in it every 2-3 months, or whenever something monumental happens.  I also stick pictures (or ultrasounds) in the journal too.

Spiritual/Scripture Study Journal

I have so many of these, and I hardly look through them again.  For this reason, I stopped keeping one, until one of my mission companions showed me something spectacular—a topic-by-topic study journal.  I listed a whole bunch of topics, then wrote each one on the top of a different page, leaving anywhere from 1-4 pages in between each topic.  When I found a scripture, a quote, or had an insight, I would turn to the appropriate topic and write it down, dating it afterward. 

If you are exclusively studying one topic you can write everything down on a loose sheet of paper.  Then put it in a three ring binder.  Continue to add to it as you study more topics, or the same one.  This gives you the freedom to add to it over the months and years.  You’re not constrained by how many pages there are. 

I love adding fun things to my scripture journal . . . like stickers

A sample from my journal.

Photo Albums

Hey all you Instagram junkies out there.  Ever thought of printing off your photos to put in an album?  Yeah, a bit too much work, I have to agree.  I have several boxes of pictures in my closet just waiting to go into albums.  I thought of an easier way to make pictures available in print (although I’m definitely not the first.  More like the millionth).  Go to Shutterfly, Walmart.com, Snapfish, or any other picture book website and make a picture book, adding words and titles.  These books usually cost less then printing out all those pictures, and buying countless albums, and they are thinner, which means more room on the shelves! 

Pictures are a great way to preserve memories and events.  I enjoy going through albums of when I was a kid, remembering camping trips, birthday parties, and everyday life.  Next time you post a picture on Instagram or Facebook, remember it will fade away someday so you might as well print it so you can remember the memory. 

Good memories from my high school days captured in a photo

Scrapbooks

If you’re looking for a more artsy way to display your pictures, you can scrapbook.  I scrapbooked during my teenage years.  It was not for me.  I however, love looking at different layouts, amazed at what some people can do.  It’s a beautiful way to document a life.   

One of my first attempts at scrapbooking when I was a kid

I got a little better, but eventually gave it up.

Smash Books

I prefer the Smash Book.  I’m a pack rat.  I have papers from my grade school days.  I keep movie and concert tickets, notes from friends, cards from grandparents, and feathers from camping trips.  Instead of piling them in a box I Smash them.  I glue them into a special book, write a little something about it, and call it done. There’s no color coordination, or picture placement.  It’s a way for me to keep those things that are sentimental in a place I can go back to, without having to unpack and repack a box. 

I told you I'm a pack rat! 

This page took me about 30 minutes, and I have a memory preserved. 

Hobby Journal a.k.a I-don’t-want-to-forget Journal

My hobby journal is just a notebook.

For me a hobby journal consists of writing down ideas for stories and blog posts, mainly so I don’t forget my ideas.  For you it could be a doodle journal, an art journal, ideas for a room you want to decorate, the first verse to a song you’re writing, ideas for how to better your business, date ideas, or fun things to do with kids—anything.  Write them down before you forget.

Only one of these stories ended up on paper.

The Purpose of Journals

Why keep journals?  I believe there are a couple reasons.

For posterity

Journals are for our posterity to read and learn about us.  When we read the personal words of our ancestors we learn about them, their likes and dislikes, what a regular day was for them, what they feared, what they treasured, and trials they went through.  Our hearts are turned to them.  When our posterity reads our journals their hearts will be turned to us.  Keeping a journal is having the Spirit of Elijah. 

Al 22 of my journals I've kept over the past 16 years

For Remembering

We’re humans.  We forget.  It’s so fun to go back through my childhood journals and remember what it was like being a kid, when my only worry was a scraped knee.  When I read those scribbled words I feel like a kid again.  I keep a writing journal to remember things I want to write someday. 

Memories are treasures we should always keep with us.  Memories become stories we tell our children and grandchildren.  We, and they, can learn from them.

Journals come in all sizes

So next time you write something on Facebook, post a picture on Instagram, pin you’re favorite quote on Pintrist, make sure to write it, glue it, or print it. 

Remember it. 

For some fun journaling ideas visit my Pinterest board on Journaling! Click Here. 

Cramming in the Summer Fun

With all Chris’s final papers turned in and tests taken, we only had a month and half left to us of summer.  We needed to pack as much fun into the summer as we could. 

We started by taking a trip to Yellowstone for Chris’s 23^rd birthday.  It was our first family vacation with just us three. 

Lilly didn’t enjoy the constant getting in and out of the car at all the stops, and she wasn’t too impressed with the sights either.  The bubbling mud at the Artists Painting Pots didn’t impress her in the slightest.  (I on the other hand, thought they were pretty sweet). 

Watching the bubbling mud

One of the coolest things we saw was a momma bear and her cub.  I say “one of the coolest things” for several reasons.  One is they were pretty far away.  We had pulled into Roosevelt’s Tower (a waterfall) and saw every person there (about 100+) crowded around the guardrails.  We jumped out of the car and saw a mamma black bear with her two cubs about 200 yards away.  We only saw them for a couple seconds before they disappeared in the tall grass.  Needless to say we saw wild bears!  Later as we were coming back from seeing the waterfall, we saw the mamma bear in profile before she sauntered away into the woods.

The other reason this event was one of the coolest things, is The Lion Group Geysers located by Old Faithful.  After seeing Old Faithful erupt we walked along the boardwalk behind Old Faithful and looked at the other geysers.  We passed an older couple with their young adult daughter sitting at The Lion Group Geysers.  They informed us it was going to erupt in 15-20 minutes.  We weren’t on a strict schedule so we decided to stay.  Chris chatted it up with the couple, while I pretended like I could hear them.  (Wind and hearing loss don’t go well together).  Then in a guttural eruption, the water started gushing out.  It squirted about 20 feet in the air and rained just to the right of us.  The boardwalk got soaked, but we stayed dry.  Then Chris said, “I’m just waiting for the wind to change,” and instantly the wind shifted and cold water fell right on us.  We jumped out of the way, except for the old man.  He sat on the bench and laughed.  Eventually his wife convinced him to move. 

You don’t see a geyser go off besides Old Faithful, very often. 

We found Lilly's geyser

The day after we got home from Yellowstone we headed down to Salt Lake to see Wicked.  My parents had gifted us, Jackson & Katie with tickets for a late 1^st anniversary present. 

It was the first time Chris had ever seen a Broadway play, and the third time Jackson and I had seen Wicked, which was the only Broadway play we had ever seen. 

Apparently, I had forgotten how incredible Wicked was.  I was amazed most of all at the skill of the dancers.  Jackson, during intermission, found out that the actresses playing Glinda and Elphaba are paid $5,000 a week, and they are only contracted for a week at a time. 

We were also able to stop by Chris's Great Grandma's place.  Lilly has now met all of her great, great grandparents! 

Lilly on the carousel

 Last week was our last summer vacation.  Chris’s uncle got married on the Oregon Coast, and Chris’s parents decided to make a vacation out of it.  It was Lilly’s first time on the coast.  She got to see the seals at Seaside, ride the carousel in the mall with Dad, and be smothered with kisses and hugs from her grandma.

Chris and I got a date night one of the evenings.  We went and got Tilamook ice cream, then walked on the windy beach.  It was a relaxing evening where we didn’t have to worry about Lilly. 

Chris, his dad and brother went clamming one morning.  They got up at four and were out on the beach at five digging for clams.  That evening I made clam chowder from freshly made clams. 

Recipe for Clam Chowder

Two 6½ cans minced clams

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

2 cups chopped potatoes

1 cup chopped carrots (optional)

¾ cup butter

½ cup flour

1 quart half & half

1½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. sugar

dash of pepper

Drain juice from clams and pour over vegetables in medium saucepan.  Add enough water to barely cover veggies.  Simmer covered over medium heat.  In another medium pan melt butter and add flour.  Blend and cook a minute or two.   Add half & half to butter and flour.  Stir until thickened.  Add to cooked vegetables.  Season with salt, pepper, and sugar.  Add clams.  Do not boil.  Add a little vinegar when ready to serve (optional).

One of my favorite parts of the vacation was watching Lilly play in the sand for the first time.  Chris and Matthew built a sand fortress.  Lilly was the monster that destroyed it.  She loved squishing the sand between her little fingers, knocking down the sand castles, and trying to eat the sand.  She was even rolling in it at one point.  She had a blast, and I couldn’t get enough pictures. 

Right after she tried to eat the sand

Don't ask about Chris's face