After a couple of days of posting my daughters video on various web places I have had THREE people offer to do a sound recording of her and one person offer to tutor her in voice coaching! Now I know I am bias and its not the best quality video BUT I really do think she has a great voice that needs to be used and enjoyed. I'm not one of those pushy mums who needs my child to be centre of attention but I am a mum that encourages my children to utilise their talents and work on their weaknesses. If Princess Kirsten has the opportunity to enhance the singing talent she has and if she wants to go further then I am happy to help all I can to get her there, whatever it costs. I cant imagine to explain how her self esteem has risen reading the feedback from my facebook friends, yahoo im friends and friends/family that we have in real life.
Whatever she chooses from all of this is fine with me, but I do believe that singing will become a very happy part of her life, even if its only in her regular every day life.
Today, 9 years ago, my boys and I were baptised. I can still honestly say that it was the best day of my life, aside from giving birth to my four children. I'm not much keen on being centre of attention (though teaching is a little different) so I was as nervous as heck all day long! My boys were running round excited, they couldn't wait to go through the font! On that day in church I was told that I have two nicknames from most of the members, the first one was: 'Debbie Lucas (my former name) the girl with a speach impediment; she takes a breath now and again!' and the other was 'The girl in the bubble'. When I finally allowed the missionaries to talk about the gospel with me I spent months soul searching, working emotions, thoughts, insecurities etc and each missionary that came and went contributed to my conversion in a positive way but it was one in particular that could totally tune into me and knew exactly how to answer my questions, almost like he had a God written summary of who I am! This was Elder Baker, he was my rock during this time, he would indulge me in my never ending questions, give me scripture chases and assignments to work on, share some cool scriptures he found himself and basically just totally supported and encouraged me. Through him I gained confidence in sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone, so much so it was being prayed about that I immediately be called as a stake missionary after i'd been baptised and received the gift of the Holy Ghost! I had so much to say, so much to ask, so much to share and learn I just couldn't get enough of it.
My baptism itself was funny (looking back) because the water was icey cold after the heating broke down through the night then I had to go under twice because I hadn't completely immersed under the water! I tell ya, my asthma was ready to kick back with a vengeance but I know I was being taken care of. The few minutes in the water was phenominal, I forgot there were over 100 people watching us, I just totall felt like I was home, like I belonged, like the missing piece was in place. I had a feeling I wasn't alone in that font with Elder Baker but it didnt scare me, I felt so thankful and blessed that someone would be there with me in that way. I felt such and overwhelming feeling of love for everyone and everything. For a time there I just didn't remember that I had any kind of negatives in my life, everything was calm, quiet and peaceful, it was definitely something that I will never compare to outside of the temple.
I was baptised in Gorleston Ward, Norwich Stake. I lived in Gt Yarmouth at the time and life wasn't so bad, it was a good move on my part although its spikes were here and there it was worth it just to be so close to the beach, to be able to enjoy the calmness of the water from just a few yards of home.
9 years on I have been through many trials, some through bad choices some through the bad choices of others but at no time did I ever doubt my Father in Heaven and His intentions for me. Yes i've murmured, yes i've struggled, yes i've almost given up but that was in my times of self doubt, lack of understanding of my role in life, in my life, in my home. Now though, I look back and I think of all the things I could have done different, but you know what? I'm glad I didn't because as hard as some things were, I have a testimony that is worth all the money in the world, its worth more than all the big houses, new cars, luxury holidays and all the scrapbooking supplies on the planet. I would go through ANYTHING to keep my testimony, to grow it and anyone around me. I dont care for items around me in the same way I used to, I dont care that I live in a rented home instead of my own, I dont care that my car is 6 years old or that we no longer holiday abroad. None of it matters, what matters is what I am inside, who I am outwardly, how I feel, how I treat other people and that I never, ever give up on myself. While I am doing that I am living the purpose of me the best I can and in that I know Heavenly Father will bless me as much as he can, and I know He loves nothing more than to hand out blessings when we have done all we can to show our love and respect for Him!!
I have so much in my life, I have so much inside and in a flash it can all disappear, I know that. But thats only if I allow it to happen, if I allow myself to be a victim of others words or actions, if I stop trying or stop being. No, I like who I am and I love my Heavenly Father and being baptised was truly the best choice I have ever made in my life.
In my journal I have copies of the talks that were given for the boys and me. I have copies of the programme, and I remember two of the hymns we sang. They are (and they both bring tears to my eyes even now when we sing them!) I Stand All Amazed and I Need Thee Every Hour, at this point i'd never heard it till a few days before when someone sang it for me and played the music on the piano. I knew immediately that this is one we HAD to share! My boys agreed and wanted to sing that for all the assigned hymns!! Lol Rather than link up to them I want to share (two hymns sang as one but its obvious which are which but this is so beautifully done) them so take a few minutes and enjoy:
One day I will serve a mission, I will go and help others find and keep the gospel in their lives. I hope with all my heart that I will be able to do some good, offer all the righteous things that we are commanded to do in our every day lives. I dont mind where I go so long as I get to go. I listen to returned missionary stories and I am in awe, I admire each and every young man and woman that take out 2 years (18 months for women) of their lives to totally commit to the Lord's work anywhere in the world, sometimes facing such diversities they feel they are going to die! Yet the Lord is there with them, taking care of them and walking through it with them, giving them all they need to do what they can. Isn't that just an amazing thought? I have my 'special' missionary friends who are etched in my heart, some of their families I have become friends with and still email and write to, I love these people so much for who they are, who they choose to be and all the wonderful things they choose to be and do, unselfishly. I want to go and do the Lords work too, someday.
At present I am a single mum of four. My older two boys have moved out
of home but I have such a strong and loving relationship with them they
are my inspiration. My younger two children are with me. I am divorced,
I choose to be home full time to raise my youngest son myself, its not
always easy but it is always worth it. Money isn't as it once was but
thats ok, I dont need more than I have. I have a significant interest
(a guy to you and me!!!) that is good for me, strong in the gospel,
makes me laugh, thinks of the small things that have the bigger effect
and again, I am thankful. I have so much and through the love and
guidance of a sweet, loving Heavenly Father I know all is going to be
ok, I know He is taking care of me and I trust Him with ALL my heart in
the darkest of days...thats how I know I have a testimony.
No matter who goes against me for what I believe, no matter what anyone thinks of Latter Day Saints, Mormons or anything, I am PROUD to belong to the church that is true, focused on the Lord, believes in families and is all about love, compassion, hard work and being positive. How on earth can that be wrong? I am proud to be a Daughter of God and that He has given me so much in my 40 years, including support, love, trials, strength and the physical things that I need to get through days and for my family to survive. Blessings? I can't always cope with the amount that I receive but thats just the Lords way of loving me and one day I know I will be just like Him and walk/live/be back in His presence. I just know it!
Family home evening is a special time set aside each week that brings family members together and strengthens their love for each other, helps them draw closer to Heavenly Father, and encourages them to live righteously.
In 1915 President Joseph F. Smith and his counselors in the First Presidency began a Churchwide effort to strengthen the family. They called on parents in the Church to gather their children once each week for a "Home Evening." Families were to take time to pray and sing together, read the scriptures, teach the gospel to one another, and participate in other activities that would build family unity.
In 1970 President Joseph Fielding Smith joined with his counselors in the First Presidency to designate Monday night as the time for family home evening. Since that announcement, the Church has kept Monday evenings free from Church activities so families can have this time together.
Latter-day prophets continue to urge Church members to give highest priority to family home evening. They have promised that our dedication to this program will help protect our families against the evils of our time and will bring us abundant joy now and throughout the eternities.
Although family home evening should begin and end with prayer, it is not intended to be a formal class. In a statement regarding family home evening in 1915, the First Presidency said that "formality and stiffness should be studiously avoided, and all the family should participate in the exercises."
Family home evening can be held by every family and in a variety of different ways. Whether you have children in the home or are a family of one, the resources available on this site can help you plan and prepare successful and memorable family home evenings.
As we have set our theme for the year on Love at Home, I thought I would share some of the things that I/we do to actually exercise our efforts to strengthen and uplift our family unit. The one thing we do, as Latter Day Saints, is hold a Family Home Evening each Monday night. Now in reality most Lds families know that this can often be hit and miss, especially as kids grow up and everyone is in different directions. In fact kids of any age are hit and miss with this night but making it fun and less restraining is always the way to go. In the past we have held our FHE's on a different night for a variety of reasons, but though it is not set in stone it is often nice for the kids (and parents) to know the routine of FHE.
The idea for a Family Home Evening is to bring the family together for a short time and talk/teach/learn about principles of the gospel, the Lord life and anything else that is good and essential for good, wholesome living. Strengthening the family is more than just being in touch a few times a day, more than knowing how their day went. Its about really spending some pre-set time together that is focused and planned. The bond, love and friendships that come from such times as this are priceless, trust me, if my kids and I can do it then so can anyone else!
In the past my family and I have done lessons on such things as Food Storage, The Commandments, Free Agency, Christ's Life, Temples, Baptism....to name just a few. We take it in turns to have our own part in making the night fun and full of learning and generally this is how it goes:
Preparation: * Through the week prepare a lesson, use visuals, talks, short dvd's, act outs etc. Anything to make learning the principle fun and easier (especially for younger children).
* Buy in a few goodies for treats afterwards.
* Assign prayers, hymns, teachers etc, whatever is relevant to how the FHE is going to be offered.
* Plan a fun activity for afterwards.
Programme: * Sing a hymn
* Opening prayer
* Lesson - this can be given by one/two people or done between everyone. A scripture can be shared, a mini play can be acted out, pictures etc. There are lots of ways to teach and learn a principle. Keeping in mind that the focus throughout is on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, about Their teachings, life essentials that we have been given by revelation and/or something that is personal to your family.
* Have fun with your activity. This can be anything that includes all family members, be it a board game, a walk, an extension of the mini play offered already...in fact its all about just enjoying being together.
* Closing prayer
* Eat! My kids love this part, they get some stuff that I purposely only buy for FHE and they think its great! It's also a great motivator when they want to go off and do other things instead of do FHE!!
Sometimes our FHE's have lasted hours, sometimes they last barely 5 minutes, it really is about where the heart is and making the effort. I admit though that on average ours last around an hour not including the activity which I often extend through to bedtime, inclusively.
Tonight for example, we sang our 2009 family theme hymn, Love at Home. Charley opened with a prayer then we listened to a talk on byu.tv about families being sealed in the temple for time and eternity. Afterwards I back tracked to the Family Proclamation and picked up certain parts of that to read and discuss. Charley done pretty well giving his young age too. We chit chatted about our family, where our weaknesses were, where our strengths were and then set a goal for us all for the next week. We decided that we would each work on 3 things that would increase our roll in our home. Kirsten (hope she doesn't 'get' me for saying this!!) chose to work on her patience when Charley is dominating the tv, walking around after herself so I dont have to and going to bed when I say. Charley is going to work on not snapping at Kirsten when she would like to sing and he's watching tv, he's going to spend more time doing creative things that doesn't include the tv! He's also going to carry on picking up his toys and putting his dirty washing away. Me, I'm going to...what am I going to do? I thought I was perfect? No? Darn it!! Ok, i'm going to moan less when I find I am walking round after Kirsten, I am going to try harder to not win at board games and I'm going to read longer stories to the kids at bedtime. Wish me luck!!
After we finished we played pairs with some cards I got for Charley from Early Learning Centre, where you face all the cards down and turn two over, if they dont match you turn them back upside down and try and remember where and what they are for next time. The person who finds more pairs wins. Charley loves this game and Kirsten and I are getting pretty good too!! We stayed at the dining table for a while, even though we played about 4 games of this! This picture was not taken tonight, it is a few days old but you get the gist, right?!! :)
We talked about all kinds of things relating to our family, our extended family and how we can improve our purpose, the snacks had great timing when they came out to soften the blows to the facts of life that sometimes we just have to accept! Come Charley's bedtime we gathered for our family prayer, this is one that lately I have gotten to say and lasts for quite a while because I have to make sure we thank, ask and set forward our plans, intentions etc and also allow the children to have their say. Charley loves reading and so we picked up the kids version of the Book of Mormon and read about Jesus blessing the children one by one. For the first time Charley realised that Jesus actually knows his name!! Sweet!! Charley hosted his own personal prayer then settled down watching a movie, very happy but very tired. Ten minutes was spent with Kirsten because she was itching to get back on msn with her friends! So we covered some feelings about the time she's been back home with me. It's all good stuff and we are just so blessed.
Result: Three happy people, the spirit was strong in our home and the kids were hugging and laughing again. Me, I just look on with total mummy pride. Job well done!
I am so inspired after a FHE that I have to go read some more on whatever subject we have talked about, so for the next two hours I scoured book after book to feed my desire, ok so I chatted to a couple of friends on yahoo im and skype too but hey, its all good stuff, right?!
I have been playing round with a playlist for some of my favourite Christmas songs. They wont automatically play cos I personally find that annoying so if you would like to listen to them and still browse this site (or if you must you can listen and then buggar off to another site!!) all you need to do is right click on the Playlist tab at the top there and open it in a new tab. Thats assuming your version of windows does tabs or you are using Firefox. I'm not sure about any other browsers so have a looksee. When you have opened the new page just hit play and off you go! Simple. I will be adding more play lists as the coming Big Day gets closer cos I dunno about anyone else but I just love the old songs, Jim reeves, Bing Crosby etc (Christmas songs I mean) so I shall add those.
Moving on...
I am now an official member of the Modest Molly Mormon team!! If you haven't already checked out their site, what you waiting for? A chauffeur??!! Go see what its all about, and soon enough you will see one of my 'pieces' up there. Just be gentle with those rotten tomatoes!! ;) This is going to be my new signature over there....like it?
Now obviously I didn't get much choice on a M word that fitted me to keep in tune with the MMM style, I mean naturally I would have chosen something like:
Magnificent or Messy or Majestic or Married...but darn it I'M NOT MARRIED!!! lol
Anyway, after much debate with Princess Kirsten it was a landslide win that Madness was appropriate! Charley on the other hand still insists that i'm 'just mummy'! Bless him.
So, get your fingers walking and come give me some darn support over there will ya!! ;)
Now to move my dresser unit into the hallways, the desk erm, somewhere else, the bookcase to the other wall in the hallway, the self unit into the living room and the sofa on the other wall in the living room....you follow?
I seem to be on a streak of trials lately, and its getting rather tedious! Charley tripped over in the living room whilst on his skates and smacked his nose on the floor, blood everywhere, 3 hours and 2 doctors later we were home and we were cuddling on the sofa. He thought it was great going in the ambulance, the paramedics fussed over him which he just lapped up and the nurses just loved his charm and cute smile!! Thankfully there was no damage once the bleeding stopped, but gosh there was a lot of it. No after affects either so panic over.
Charley (again) knocked the tv off the unit when he leaned round to get the dogs lead, somehow he pulled the cable instead of the lead and the tv missed him by inches, totally killing the thing leaving us gobsmacked! Then (of course it comes in threes!) he calls his dad, who he hasn't seen for 3 months or so now, only to have him hang up the phone. The poor kid was so confused and upset. There is just no need for that at all.
Kirsten is back at school now and spent the morning throwing up with nerves incase the two previous bullies started again. I prefer her to 'toughen' up and deal with it rather than shy away from it and not learn to find a way through lifes challenges cos afterall, its going to be harder in the big wide world. The school secretary called me a while ago to say she's just seen her laughing with her friends, and one of them was one of the former bullies, so that has gone well. She looked cute in her new uniform all done up! :) I have been looking into home schooling her, purely cos I'm not convinced this bullying has totally stopped but at the moment i'm pushing her towards staying where she is, so we'll just wait and see.
Charley starts his nursery tomorrow, he's not too sure if he wants to go but he needs to get out there and socialise with people his age. I know he'll be ok after a few days, he's just used to being with me so much. The nursery is really nice though, with lots of stimulation and fun stuff going on which I know got his attention when I wasn't paying him attention! He came home and flaked out on his bed, he said it was 'hard work playing at nursery', we only went for a second visit!!! Lol
I have his birthday on Wednesday so we have decided to go bowling and swimming with some friends then have his birthday cake and stuff afterwards. I've themed it on Roary the Racy Car cos he loves that, now I want to see if I can get him a dress up costume, another of his favourite things to do. I'd love to do a proper party for him as thats what he's been harping on about for ages now...but ya no, we cant do it all eh?! I'm sure he'll have a good day!
I've just received an email from a guy I chat to at a school i've been asked to go back and teach craft projects to, he has offered Kirsten a piano...FREE...the school are changing theirs for a bigger one and he remembered me saying that Kirsten and I would love to learn but feel it wouldn't really work unless we had one of our own. I never give anymore thought to it!! How cool is that??!!! We're going to have so much fun now playing out of tune for a while!!! :D
My scriptures have been a fantastic source of strength for me lately, I have got into a pretty good routine every day, the kids enjoy 15 mins of listening over breakfast and just the atmosphere in our home has changed phenominally. Kirsten has prepared a Family Home Evening based on preparedness, this evening she is going to get us started on a 72 hour kit, showing us how we can begin to put one together within a small budget. She also likes the idea of doing a family project and has suggested we do a study on some of the British history (she loves the tudor times so that's where we'll go first!). She's pretty cool my chick!! :)
I've finally taken the plunge to sign up for an OU course! Open University is going to be the best way for me to do the degree I want at the same time as doing all the other things I do. Then I went and signed up for a City & Guilds in Creative Design where it covers a range of crafts from home furnishings to pottery. That looks really good and if I get the qualification it will mean I can skip right to Level 3...cant do Level 2 or 3 till 1 is completed but its all good stuff, i'm open to learning! Kirsten thinks this is a great idea cos we can do 'homework' together and she can finally learn how to use my sewing machine!! Lol Bless, she's so eager to broaden her scope right now.
Ok enough from me, i'm off to get the Princess from school and grab a tin of paint from Focus so I can have a play in Charley's room!
