Stake Primary Activity Days Armor of God Activity

I was invited to speak at the stake primary presidency to speak at a stake primary event for girls and boys between the ages of 8 and 12.  My topic was “spiritual defense.” 

We read the first 11 verses of Alma 50 in the Book of Mormon. I set up the room as a large Stratego board game, and created pieces with references from Captain Moroni’s city fortifications (timbers, ditches, pickets, stone walls, towers, heaps of earth, bows and arrows, stones and slings, armor, swords and shields, etc) instead of numbered pieces ranked 2-10 like in the actual board game. Each group had a flag (title of liberty) and were given time to set up their board like they would if we were playing stratego.  

I also added some pieces labeled “strengths” and “weaknesses” to the mix. I taught the class three times and all 6 groups placed their flags on the back row, with their watch towers up front and weaknesses right nearby. 

I encouraged the team captains to select a spy to sneak over and take a look at the opponent’s board. The spies   always came back and reported where the weaknesses are. 

We discussed fortifying our own tentimonies, not with timbers and fences, but with spiritual safeguards to protect us from vulnerability to the enemy, Satan, who also knows our weaknesses and will prey on them. 

I made little sleeves of paper to slip over the game pieces as the girls called out ways to fortify our spiritual strength: daily scripture study, doing family history work, daily prayer, repentance, obedience to commandments, etc. 

We read  in Ether 12:27 where the lord promises that if we are humble and have faith, He can make weak things become strong. The teams took a weakness from their boards and traded it in for a strength.

We read about how Moroni never ceased strengthening his cities. He called in for help, and placed armies strong men in his cities. He erected towers where watchmen could see danger and warn the people. We discussed who our watchmen are: a living prophet, warnings and personal revelation from the Holy Ghost,   General Authorities, local church leaders, parents and teachers.  (Ezekiel 3:17, 2 Chrinicles 26:9) 

We discussed how aware Moroni was that these two cities needed strength and how he took immediate action to safeguard them, so an attacking from their adversary would not be a surprise, but something they were prepared for. We SHOULD expect an attack from  Satan. Opposition is part of our mortal experience. weakness is part of our probationary state, and we are all given opportunities to exercise faith, call for divine assistance, take courage, build, grow, repent, and change.  We MUST be aware of the intent of our enemy, and “prepare to meet them with all manner of weapons of war of every kind”. (Alma 2:12). What is on your own personal shield of faith? How can you turn your weakness into a strength? 

After the lesson, the stake provided a fun craft for the boys and girls to decorate a shield and write how they personally will fortify their testimony and build spiritual strength.  I loved reading their ideas: “I will work on my talent of piano and share uplifting music to bring the spirit into my home”, “I will stop fighting with my brother.” “I will read the scriptures before school.” “I will spend more time outside. “I will be kind to the girls in my class” “I will listen to scriptures on my phone on the bus”, “no cussing club”,  “I will be nice to my mom” “I will watch general conference” “I will keep the sabbath day holy” “I will have a good attitude about dinner and stop complaining.” “I will pay tithing” “I will use kind words.” One of the girls suggested that this was like “defense against the dark arts class in Harry Potter.” Ha! Love it. Yes. Every Sunday, we all attend Defense Against the Dark Arts in Sacrament Meeting, Sunday school, and our other auxiliary meetings. Church is where we recommit to better ourselves. The action and change happens when we do the homework. 

What a fun morning. These youth are bright with the most brilliant light of Christ. the future is bright with these awesome, creative, thoughtful, and brave soldiers joining the Lord’s Army. 

A and E are THREE

Twinner Twinner Birthday Dinner! 

A and E are now big 3 year olds!  These babies have rocked our world this year. They are brave, affectionate, funny, demanding, active, stoic, careful, smart, thoughtful, and full of love. They turn life up to eleven, and sometimes, when they’re not around, I feel like someone has pushed a mute button on my life. Not just because of noise, but because they bring vibrancy and Light into their environments. I love them with all the mother love I have ever known, and they cultivate a new crop of mother love I could not have comprehended before they came into my family. Happy Birthday and here’s to another year of harvesting and sharing the strongest love we’ve ever grown. 

We celebrated on Saturday with a sibling gathering/party at Metfield Park. 

A requested a “mater” cake and E wanted a “Barbie” cake.  We gave them giant plush fuzzy blankets, board books, kinetic sand, and scooters for their birthday.  On Sunday, we painted E’s nails and put her hair up into a fancy crown braid and A got a new shirt for Mexican Independence Day. My parents made it back to Arkie just in time to join the celebration with trucks and baby dolls. The twins also got BBC cupcakes from Gwen,  a sweet gift from one of our neighbors, and birthday crowns at Occupational Therapy. 

Feliz Cumpleanos, babies! 

Summer of Goodbyes: Nicholas

Is this the most depressing series of blog posts you’ve ever read?  We’ve had a lot of face time with grief, this summer. 

My mother heart aches for Jill, who bravely and lovingly delivered her son, Nicholas Ethan, stillborn at 39 weeks gestation. The time I have spent grieving with Jill was intended to just be support for her and her family, but I have been reminded of my own spiritual gifts and recognized God’s love for His children stronger than ever as I’ve mourned with those who mourn. I joined the group of lovely sister friends who wrapped our love around Jill and created a sister’s quilt with fabric donated from each friend and a message to go with.  They did a beautiful job and I love how it turned out. 

Nick’s funeral was a sacred experience.  Not my story to share. I will post a pic of this brave and beautiful forever family though, because they are loving each other and carrying each other so well, I want to remember how impactful it has been to witness friends and ward family belong to each other so well and mourning and loving and uplifting and growing together. 

 After the funeral, one of Dean and Rachel friends stopped by and Dean announced “they’re here to hug us.” These amazing children already know how to comfort and love and support and mourn. They understand and graciously accept the offering from their little peers when what they really want is just to have their baby brother alive and here in their arms. I’m so in awe of the way they’ve picked up and carried on even in brokenness. 

Sometimes, life shows little mercy on a broken heart.  Rachel broke her femur last week and is non weight bearing and wheelchair bound for 6 weeks. Jill gathered up all her mothering strength and bravely packed up Nick’s nursery and created a “healing room” in there for Rachel. I got to spend some time helping her with this process and a healing room it is. Nicholas strengthened Jill’s testimony of together forever and the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. In Nick’s room, we understand grace. We feel the safety and comfort of knowing all broken things can be made whole abd perfect once again. A broken heart. A broken femur.  Jill has done the fiercest, bravest kind of mothering.  When Jill told me about Nick’s death, the very first thought I had was “God must REALLY trust Jill to give her this horrible tragedy and trust her to stay with him.”  I think I might be tempted to listen to the natural man, be angry or let bitterness consume me. But she carries on and trusts Him. I am deeply motivated to keep my own covenants and inspired by Jill’s example of being a disciple so Lord can trust me as well with the work he calls me to do and the experiences he gives me to bear. 

Here’s determined little Rachel using her walker from healing room to the kitchen. It’s so metaphoric. Even when we are broken if we just keep trying we will find strength beyond our own placed upon us. Look how not alone Rachel is while she carries forward. In her own despair, Jill finds purpose in lifting and carrying and standing behind and empowering and supporting Rachel and teaching her about her strengths. 

All things work together for good. 

It does not feel “good” that my friend had to bury her baby. It does not feel good that he is not here. 

But there IS good in the world and all things are working together so they may be. 

Summer of Goodbye’s: Grandma Carla

One of my all time favorite weeks ever in my whole life was the one I spent prancing around the Bay Area with Paul and HolleeAnn, 5 year old Reese, toddler Quincy, and baby Corbin.  We stayed a couple nights with Paul’s mom “Grandma Carla” and Jim at their beautiful home on a SF Bay inlet in Petaluma.  By day we took the larkspur ferry into the city and played and in the evenings we came back to Carla’s and were given the royal treatment and then  woke each day to steel cut oats and farmers market peaches, and spent lazy mornings listening to Carla talk on the phone to everyone she knew while she had her morning pot of coffee.  Her voice echoed through the entire house and the air felt familiar and comfortable and wonderfully welcome. We watched baby birds hatch in a nest built in the wreath on her front door. She pointed out a funny seagull eating a French fry at lunch and narrated his thoughts for us. The whole week was just sort of magical and much of it had to do with Carla’s prescription for us to mindfully savor it. 

Carla knew and lived hospitality and it was a good life of loving and ministering. She and Jim visited our family here in Arkansas several times and always made a point to come down to Paul and HolleeAnn’s to see us when we were vacationing in Ca. She loved my children, loved narrating and watching Corbin eat, and loved to get fried chicken with us at Monte Ne. Carla never knew a stranger, always preferred a country road to the highway, stopped at every roadside attraction and left with a story about whatever company happened to meet her there. We will forever quote her using a deep Carla voice. We miss her presence on the earth, but as Nico says, “now I have a guardian angel to watch over me every day.”  

We’d better be good.

A few weeks after Carla’s passing (she fought a long battle with cancer), our highlights magazines came in the mail. Carla gifted these subscriptions to the children a couple years ago, and it’s always the best surprise for the kids when they get the mail. Carla’s love and hospitality continues to bless our home.  We take time to enjoy the little things the way she did, in her honor.

Summer of Goodbyes: Kristi

I’ve done a lot of ugly crying this summer. 
My dear friend moved to Utah, end of June. 

Kristi can make me laugh faster than almost anyone. She’s an excellent storyteller, a gifted listener, and she is just so likeable. Everyone loves her, because she’s....well because she’s just so dang likeable. 

We spent many evenings crying or laughing together while boxing up her beautiful life for a new chapter. 

Kristi retaught me about thoughtwork. I’m so thankful for her. I love the way she loves my Quincy. They text each other often. I miss movie dates and just being her date in general. I like being her plus one and I like the company she attracts because she is so loved by so many great people. She’s been a voice of sanity and reason and laughter and good cold reality when I need it, too. She’s still all of these things, we just don’t get to eat or go to movies in the process. I can live with this. But I do crazy miss her all the same. 

Here’s her van all packed up the night before she left town. I promised her I didn’t cry and she knows I was lying right to her face. I cried that night with Kate in my kitchen over cheese and crackers and cried again the next day when she hit the road. 
And even though I talk to her via Marco Polo every couple days, I really really miss her. So much so that when I ran into the Love Welcome Serve lady (Amy Hammon of Euna Mae’s) in Target, I totally fan girl’d her and had her send a polo to Kristi with me. You know you’ve got good friendship when you’re willing to flag down a stranger and look like an idiot just because you know it will make someone’s day.  

Oh Utah. You just keep taking all the good ones (I’M ALSO LOOKING AT YOU, CARLY! 😂😂) 

A Summer of Goodbyes: Teresa

My beautiful friend Teresa died, this summer. 

Remember that one time when I was Primary President and really had no clue how to do anything?  In came Teresa to save the day (read: year, children, my sanity). 

It’s really a wonder any of us are still functioning at all, because Teresa not only lived her own life well, but she managed all of ours for us, too! 

That sounds extreme, but she did have a gift for making everything perfect with personal touches. She’s like the perfect online dating match for my Type A side. SO compatible and complimentary to my type A side, that I hardly mind that Type A Meg has been stifled and suffocated by my loud and exhausting Type B Meg-who has has been bullying my type A life the past few years. With Teresa around, all of my type A needs were satisfied. Order? Check! Color coding? Always! Extra details that take everything over the top? Of course! Teresa stepped in as Primary secretary at the perfect moment. She brought order back into my chaotic life, and was a second brain when I was unable to operate at my desired Type A quality.  When I needed to sign a certificate of advancement, she had it printed and waiting for me, AND she had the right pen ready to place in my hands as well. I believe I could have performed a complex surgery on another human with her at my side directing me. She didn’t miss a beat. 

And this is just one reason she will be missed. 

I will miss her friendship. 

I miss the way she could hyper focus on something until she had an answer or solution. I will miss her laugh. 

Teresa really knew how to lighten the mood. Once, she found out my Sunday school class of 12-14 yr old boys had been acting like  turds (their words!) one week. When I arrived to teach the following week, T was in there already, making the boys do lunges. They begged for a lesson after that and she left with a wink and a quiet offer to come back any time she was needed...and she often did sit in as the second teacher for two deep leadership. They never needed to do lunges again though ;) 

When the transmission on our odyssey gave up the ghost in the barker parking lot, it was Teresa who came to my rescue. Soren, Wren, abd Sloane filled her back seat, and she apologized that my seat was actually Minka’s, so she sat in my lap. I’m quite certain Minka did not know she was a dog, because she was so well cared for and spoiled by Teresa. Any pet of hers is one of the few I’d be willing to hold.

Quincy and Reese also had a connection to Teresa, through Young Women and through ward choir. Quincy wanted to join the choir last year, but with Aaron serving on Sundays and little Wren and Sloane, I didn’t have the energy to wake them from naps to transport Q to and from the church. Teresa offered abd brought Q home each week from choir practice. This was quite a blessing for our whole family. Q and Teresa developed a very sweet bond. 

We’ve played with Peyton this summer, and Aaron and I joined Jared and others for a big group date night last weekend. Both are doing just remarkably and I know it’s because of how well they were prepared by Teresa’s loving ministry in her family. 

She did everything very well.

All of the beautiful artwork of Christ that hangs in my home was ordered and framed by Teresa. I’m pretty picky about my decor, and I totally trusted her as my interior decorator to choose all of the frames and help me choose where they would hang. They welcome the Spirit into my home. 

Teresa was an accomplished pianist. When her brother in law visited, he sang the same song that was performed at my grandfather’s funeral. Their music was such a powerful bearing of testimony, that a crowd gathered in the doorways and foyer to listen. It was incredible and unforgettable. 

The prelude music at her funeral was a recording of her playing favorite hymns on the piano. Because of course she played piano at her own funeral! No one else could have done it justice. It was perfect. 

Teresa once went through the posters she designed for a stake building open house event, ad painstakingly changed out all of the lower case cursive letter R’s because the committee commented they looked “too Halloweeny”. She was motivated completely by love to do this. Teresa was a class act and so full of humility and grace. She was thoughtful and creative, and driven. Below are pics from her funeral in Utah. I miss her. She’s working hard on the other side. Her son testifies of this in Sunday school and how he feels her near by, helping he and his dad. Beautiful.  Jared also tells of experiences he’s had to testify of Teresa’s continued, eternal role as wife and mother in their forever family. 

Thanks for being my friend, Teresa! Families are forever, and I believe our friendship is forever, too. You sure are missed. 

Stringfest 2018

Q is taking on the cello this year and Reese is beginning her 3rd year on the violin. We kicked off the season with Reese’s performance at Stringfest. Both girls just started private lessons after school.