Mrs Egg’s Table

My friend, Jenni, moved to Eureka Springs last year, and just opened up the cutest shop called, The Lovely Ambition Mercantile, and it’s right on Main Street  in downtown historic Eureka Springs.  Jenni approached me about putting some handmade items in her shop and I jumped at the opportunity! Everything with Jenni’s touch just glows. She has a creative eye that can’t be matched.  I knew if I was going to be brave enough put something I made out there for sale, her shop would offer the best odds at success. So I went for it, and delivered my first batch of creative works a couple weekends ago. 

20 minutes after she opened the shop doors for the first time ever, Jenni sent me a text. I made a sale! The first sale was my art! Well that’s just as exciting as it gets. 

Or so I thought. Seeing something I created in a display window just blew my mind. Selling 3 more items the first day of business REALLY blew my mind. Am I really doing this? You betcha. Why not? 

Here are a few things I made and a few pics from my first trip to the shop (Quincy and Kristi A came along and were my support sisters) 

So a week later, I received another order and now my kitchen has transformed into “Santa’s workshop” for the day while I have fun creating. 

Reese is 13!

Happy Birthday, Reese! 

We have a teenager in the house! 

The pictures are out of order on this, but I’m so behind on blog posts, I’m just rolling with it. 

On her birthday, I checked Reese out for lunch and we met up with Aaron at Red Robin (Reese’s choice) for lunch. 

Reese wanted a Poppy cake, because the Willardson love for Trolls is still going strong. She settled for a hot pink blob of a cake that I put flowers on to look like Poppy’s hair. Ok so not all of my homemade cakes are top quality. She loved it anyway! 

For Reese’s Birthday Party, she requested that some friends from school and church come over for make hour own calzones and board games. We ended the night with ice cream and hot cocoa and “mannequin challenge” at Spark cafe on the Bentonville square. 

These kids are so great! 

I introduced the kids to a game that was a huge hit at MY 13th birthday party: the “candy bar game” where dice are rolled and each “doubles” roll earns you time to attempt to unwrap, cut up, and eat a candy bar...using only two butter knives and while wearing oven mitts. They had a good time with it. 

Pictured L-R (back) Simon A, Bradley A, Sam M, (front) Manisha, Emma F, Reese, Finley S, and Quincy.

Tekestrations, perfection, ping pong, the game of things and exploding kittens ruled the game table. These kids are all such good sports and know how to have fun together. On the drive to get ice cream, and after as we took everyone home, they played a few rounds of “competitive listening” (name that tune) and ended with a sing along of greatest showman songs from Sam’s playlist. 

Happy Birthday, Reese! When you were a baby and I would brag about how lucky and happy I am to be your mother, strangers would roll their eyes and say “just wait until she’s a teenager.” 

A teenager you are and I’m still lucky and happy! Mothering you is a treat. I love you! 

Quincy is Eleven!

The Shuggie Bear is eleven! We are so lucky to have this star QB on our team! She is a vibrant, creative, daring, dramatic old soul. She always has a question for you and it’s always a good question. She is a supporter of all handmade art and is confident with her own way of doing everything. She amazes me every day with her boldness and wit. I love this girl! I love that her earrings never ever match. I love that she enjoys school and genuinely likes to learn.  I love her contagious laugh and her direct, unfiltered commentary. Happy Birthday to my very own magical unicorn.

Nativity and Noel

The Christmas season is off to a great start in NWA and the Willy house.  Reese went up and down the lane and personally invited every one of our neighbors to the Nativity and Noel hosted by the Bentonville and Roger’s stakes. We attended Saturday night, and on Friday night, two of our neighbors went with my parents, thanks to Reese’s invitation. 

This was a wonderful event and the efforts of those in charge really showed. The nativities displayed all over the room were beautiful. The live nativity had two sweet mom friends of mine playing Mary each night avdbtheur newborns both made an adorable baby Jesus. The children loved seeing grandpa Hal play a wise man. I think he loved it, too. It was good to see him pal around with Brothers Cabrera and Jensen. I think leaving friends of forty years must be one of the hardest parts about moving to Arkansas. Where they lived before, everyone knew them and they had worked and served abs raised families along side so many peers. They don’t have much of a history of their own here in Arkansas yet, so it was just really really good to see them get involved in an event like this, just like they would have in California. 

The music was good. Really good. The Ozark Mormon chorale was better than I’ve ever heard them before. Crisp. Is that a good word to describe musicians? I think so. They sounded crisp. Everything was just excellent from diction to pitch. It was feast for the ears and heart as the Spirit was felt through testimonies were borne through song. 

The little ones didn’t last. Aaron knew I would love to stay to sing hallelujah chorus (my favorite part of the evening), and generously offered to take the younger three home. I stayed and drove my parents home.

After treats, the girls and my mom and I helped a little with cleanup. Reese and Quincy groaned, but it was good experience for them to be aware of the work that goes into setting up for a large community event. They folded and put away like 300 chairs and were “sore” the next day.   

It wasn’t the right day for it, but it could have been my “honor thy parents” act of service. I grew up with my parents running events like this one. I know the hours they put in. I know they would stay at the church until 1am and not leave until the work was done. I couldn’t get in my car knowing there were 300 chairs to be folded up, when I also knew I had only shown up for the feast and there were wonderful people who had spent an entire weekend working in those gyms to set up, orchestrate, and take down. My parents taught me how to work, so I honored them on Saturday by teaching my girls the same.   

It was a rich evening and everyone there felt the spirit of Christmas. 

Primrose Lane Bunco

My mom hosted the Primrose bunco babes last night. There were 12 of us there but I only managed to get 7 photos. We had an ornament exchange, ate delicious food and laughed and laughed. My mom is such a fun hostess. 

Love Thy Neighbor: Guerilla Decorating

We decided Thelma’s geese needed some holiday cheer. Last night, Thelma told me she lost a brother and a brother in law in the space of four days abs hadn’t felt very festive, this Christmas, but the holiday geese really cracked her up. She’s going to have the kids help her get her lights out this weekend.  Then, when I was picking up gifts for the kids’ teachers, I found tiny Santa hats! Couldn’t resist! Hahaha 

After bunco, Nita, Kathy, Katie, Laura Fogle,    Lady, Mary and I all piled into the fun bus for late night Primrose shenanigans. It was bitter cold but we laughed until we cried adding some Christmas cheer to the port a potty next to J’s house.  The builder, Jim and crew were out laughing and taking pictures before the sun was up. 



This morning, we had a good laugh with Jim. 


We told him to blame this little creep. He replied back with a meme of Cousin Eddie emptying the septic tank 😂

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals! 

I love my neighbors dearly. We have a lot of fun around here. 

Blessings of the Temple

I spoke in Church the Sunday following Thanksgiving. I was supposed to speak the week before, about gratitude, but we found out we had visitors from the stake, who gave really wonderful talks. I accepted the invitation to speak the following Sunday on the topic of temple blessings. This week was a treat because our ward had a young elder return from his mission and speak about his faith building experiences in the mission field. One of the young women I used to work with also spoke, and she shared great on the importance of temple work.  I was fortunate to jump right up after and piggy back on the testimonies of two wonderful young people. Because flexibility with time constraints while public speaking is not a skill that I have, I wasn’t sure how to cut 15 minutes of prepared material down to 6 minutes. During a musical number, I skimmed through and highlighted what I felt prompted to share. And then ended up reading those parts of  talk directly from my phone. Here is that content, give or take and my testimony. I love the temple. 

President Monson said, “As I think of temples, my thoughts turn to the many blessings we receive therein. As we enter through the doors of the temple, we leave behind us the distractions and confusion of the world. Inside this sacred sanctuary, we find beauty and order. There is rest for our souls and respite from the cares of our lives.

Well doesn’t that sound lovely right now? Beauty and order?  Rest and respite?  Sign me up! 

One October day, I went to the temple with the specific intention of receiving this very comfort and peace to aid me through a trial I was experiencing.  I felt that I had done or was doing everything I should, but just couldn’t seem to get to a place of resolution on my own about the problem. I was exhausted, but hopeful. 

So I entered the temple doors knowing both by faith, and from past experiences, that this peace and respite I craved could surely come.  

But I went with the expectation that my conversation with the Lord would go something like this: 

Me: hey This is really hard and I am weary. I know that you see me. I know that you love me. I know that you hear my prayer. Now, please take away this trial. Please and Thank you in advance, Amen. 

Well the answer came, as I knew it would, but was obviously not exactly what I’d had in mind. I will never forget it.

Instead of the warm fuzzy comfort and pat on the back, I felt an almost strict instruction to do 5 very specific things. 

A to do list intercepted all thoughts and I could no longer focus on anything else, let alone my self pity. 

I repeated each of the tasks in my mind as I sat there in the temple, until I was confident I could remember everything. When I came out to greet my family, I quickly wrote down the instructions I received, in the order they had come to me.  To my surprise, seeing the to do list written out on paper, the first letters of each task in the list stacked to form an acronym, which helped me to remember what I needed to do. 

I do not have a crystal ball that could have  told me what the next year would look like following that day in the temple. There is no way I could have known what my family would need from me. I was pretty unaware  that specific physical and spiritual reserves in my life needed fortification to get me through some of the difficult experiences I would face and hard things I would have to endure. 

Over the following year, as I worked on each of the things I had felt prompted in the temple to improve, I saw how each instruction would act as a safety net for myself or for my children when circumstances beyond our control were frustrating or painful. 

The acronym was S-E-T-U-P and I know that following the instructions that they stood for indeed were a “set up” to prepare me for the trials of this past year.  

The temple is a place to understand and perfect our personal ministry. 

President Monson said, 

“As we attend the temple, there can come to us a dimension of spirituality and a feeling of peace which will transcend any other feeling which could come into the human heart. 

We will grasp the true meaning of the words of the Savior when He said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

I testify that this is true. 

The scriptures describe the temple as a place of refuge, thanksgiving, instruction, and understanding, “that [we] may be perfected … in all things pertaining to the kingdom of God on the earth

Instead of a break from my trial and peace that everything would get easier, I received peace in the temple through the reminder that Heavenly Father gave me this trial for my growth. I felt peace when I remembered that He has faith in my ability to learn long suffering, and patience, and resilience, and obedience, and sacrifice, and unconditional love.  I received a break in the temple, not from the trial, but a mental break-through so I could see and trust beyond my doubts and fears that had clouded my vision. The blessing of the temple, for me, were refuge, Thanksgiving, instruction, and understanding.  I could not see what trials lay before me, but the Lord set me up with a perfectly detailed survival kit. I do not believe there is anywhere outside the temple where I could have had the clarity to tune in so clearly to the Lords will for me. 

Elder Cook said:

“My brothers and sisters, in our lives we will have temptations; we will have trials and challenges. As we go to the temple, as we remember the covenants we make there, we will be better able to overcome those temptations and to bear our trials. In the temple we can find peace. 

My challenge is for each of us, wherever we live, to see ourselves in the temple. President Monson has stated: “Until you have entered the house of the Lord and have received all the blessings which await you there, you have not [yet] obtained everything the Church has to offer. The all-important and crowning blessings of membership in the Church are those blessings which we receive in the temples of God. 

I testify of the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer.  I know that Satan uses doubt and fear to alter our perspective and lose understanding of how powerful and effective the Atonement  can be in our lives. Satan tried to convince us that change is not possible, that our goals are unattainable, and that we are not worthy of the Saviors love or help. 

When we attend the temple, one of the greatest blessings is the peace and clarity that can be felt in the absence of worldly distractions.  

We can all start today to work on necessary changes that will make us worthy to attend the temple, and have a more enriching experience there as we make sacred covenants and receive the blessings that are waiting for us.  May we each spiritually prepare our hearts and homes to receive the blessings of the temple.