Word of Wisdom Chiasm...Kind of Cool

Our Sunday School lesson last week on Section 89 made me think of this interesting insight on the Word of Wisdom....it is a very complex chiasm (Hebrew form of poetry).... to see one complete analysis go here...but here's a very simplified diagram I used in Seminary...

Word of Wisdom Chiasm (Section 89)

A   Word of Wisdom: A Principle with a PROMISE (v.3)
      B  For the Saints, the "don'ts, (commandments) (v.3, 5-9)
            C  Wholesome herbs & fruits (v.10-11)
                  D Flesh sparingly, times of famine (v. 12-13)
                        E Grain the staff of LIFE (v 14) (also, Christ the Bread of Life, our Center)
                  D  Beasts, in times of famine (v.15)
             C  Grain is good, also fruits (v.16-17)
        B  And all Saints obedient to Commandments (v.18)
A   Receive this PROMISE (v.18-21)

        The Promise: Health, Marrow, Wisdom, Treasures of Knowledge, Hidden Treasures, Run & Walk, Destroying angel will pass them by....

Sewing with Lindi

So Lindi and I also made this skirt while I was here...Lindi did almost all of the sewing! Side seams, hems, gathering stitches (LOTS of gathering stitches)...It's very twirly!

Grandma "Genius"?....Extend-a-Dress

 Lindi was having to get rid of a lot of her favorite dresses since she is (of course) growing taller....and shopping for new dresses was a bit discouraging too because most we found(if we were lucky) would barely come to her knee....so enter a little creative grandmothering....

I used a half slip she already had....then bought 1 yard of lacy eyelet fabric and a couple yards of light weight velcro...
I cut the fabric into 4 strips, 1/4 yd each and sewed the short edges together into a cylinder , then gathered the top edge...(and hemmed the bottom edge)

  

At this point I could have just sewn it to the bottom edge of the slip....but here's the genius part....I sewed some velcro to the under edge of the slip, then the other part of the velcro to the top edge of the ruffle... so it attaches to the slip with velcro...this is because we plan to make a couple more ruffles (black, yellow, etc.) that can be switched for specific dresses...

 Here's happy Lindi with a dress that was approaching uncomfortable shortness...we'll make a black ruffle that would look good with it too..

 And this was a dress she had two years ago for Kaity's wedding and hated to send to DI...

So many sundresses become much more wearable now...

Isn't this a cute one???

This is a navy/white dress

This will look good with the black ruffle...

Happy (modest) Lindi.....what a fun (grandma) project!

Sewing project...easy way to add sleeves...

There are so many cute summer tops and dresses out now...both for us and for our girls....but they are mostly sleeveless so need a jacket/sweater or some adaptation for those of us who don't like bare arms...

I got this cute top on sale the other day, and since it was sleeveless, plan to wear it with a lightweight sweater....

 But the since the fabric was so cute on the back, and since it's summer, I thought I'd add a little sleeve, so I'd have the option to take the sweater off...

This is  an easy way to add a sleeve....buy a coordinating t shirt....I couldn't find one that was a good match in the hot pink/purple color so settled for this pale lavender....it was a Cynthia Rowley from TJMaxx...a nice soft knit and on sale for $7....

Just cut off the sleeve a little past the seam...

Pin it into the armhole and hand stitch with an invisible slip stitch...it's easy to remove the sleeves if you want to later...I may change them to pink/purple if I find a shirt that matches...

And the t shirt that was left with the sleeve cut off makes a great camisole to wear under a jacket or low necked top...just hem the armholes...

Great Garlic Gadget!

I've tried several garlic presses over the years from the squeezie ones to chopper types that roll on the counter...all are limited in their capacity and can only deal with 2 or 3 garlic cloves at a time...also they are a bit of a pain to clean. Usually I just opt for scooping some from the big jar of Costco's minced garlic in my refrigerator. But "real" garlic is really better in some recipes...so I was delighted to find this new approach to "mincing" or "chopping" garlic...you can easily do a bunch in under a minute and cleanup is easy...just rinse to clear out the holes. I got it at a kitchen store, but it's available on Amazon for about $15.

This is 8 cloves of garlic done in a snap!

2012...a good beginning

Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 1, p.2

…this is where the Book of Mormon comes in. It's like nothing else. It's the only answer you are ever going to get to that question in this dispensations(What am I doing here? How did I possibly get into this mess, What should I be doing?) In reading the Book of Mormon no one is ever doing something he shouldn't be doing. Most of the time he would be doing probably the best thing he could possibly be doing. If it is not itself the best thing to be doing, it will quickly put you onto the best thing to be doing because it will have a direct effect on you. It will change you; it will work on you.It is a personal intimate document. It will hit you. You can't just read the Book of Mormon and nothing else. It immediately puts you on the high road to what you should be doing, like no other book. And it will lead you directly into a course of thought or a course of action of the greatest significance to yourself and to the world you live in. In other words, it will enable you to break loose as nothing else can. Only the Book of Mormon breaks loose because it does break loose. It's like nothing else. Now we have the direct revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, etc., but the Book of Mormon was brought by an angel, a tangible thing. …...

I was going to ask the question, how many have read the Book of Mormon? It's an utterly absurd question. It's like asking, have you seen the moon? Or have you been to North America? The answer is "yes," I suppose, but you haven't told me a thing. How much did you learn from that? With the Book of Mormon, it can mean anything. You can say, "I read the Book of Mormon." I remember when I would say that, and it didn't mean anything of course. It meant I had piled up so many pages and got my gold star; that was it. That's not what we are reading it for now.

(So I've got a lot more posting to make to 2011 that I haven't gotten around to yet...but rather than wait to start on 2012 until they are done, I'm just jumping in...I'll catch up on last year later...I hope!!!!)

We BECOME what we want to BE

...by consistently BEING what we want to BECOME each day.

(Elder Scott - October 2010)

A cartoonist contributer to Meridian Magazine....whimsically amusing...

Barnyard of the Tragically Hip..

Arthur was not a trained meteorologist but he gave an accurate forecast for the night: It would be dark!

That was good for a chuckle...

Your Trial Is Your Greatest Treasure....

This latest interview of Barbara Barrington Jones on Mormon Women was so good!

She was a ballet dancer and coached many young women aimed for the Miss America contest. She often speaks at EFY and Especially for Women...we had actually contacted her about doing a program for our stake RS....her conversion story is an inspiration...

....check out the other interviews on the Mormon Women site! Last weeks story about Liz Shropshire was wonderful too...a composer....she went from working in the film industry to running music programs for former child soldiers in Ireland, Kosovo, and Uganda...just amazing!

This is such a great site to blow away that stereotype of the "typical" Mormon Woman...

Four Stories...

I recently attended a RS meeting where the topic was maintaining a positive attitude while dealing with adversity...one of the sisters told these four stories very quickly, repeating the moral like a little mantra at the end of each...all except the Plimsoll story are from the scriptures...

1. The story of The Ten Virgins....keep oil in your lamp

.

2. The story of The Widow's Mites...keep oil in your lamp...give your mites.

3. The Plimsoll Line....Samuel Plimsoll, A british MP in the mid 1800's was outraged by the number of sailors deaths caused by overloaded vessels...he got a Bill passed to include provision for a marking on the sides of ships which would disappear below the water line when the ship was overloaded(ships have different buoyancy depending on the temperature and the salinity of the water).......

...keep oil in your lamp, give your mites, don't load past your Plimsoll line

4.And the last scripture is the one in Mosiah 4 that says you shouldn't run faster than your strength...

So: keep oil in your lamp, give your mites, don't overload, don't run faster than your strength...in other words, take care of your own needs, spiritual, emotional and physical so you have the strength to deal with the trials of life.

Temple Pageant Song...Man Must Have a Holy, Sacred Place

The Choir sang this in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday...It was in the original Oakland Temple Pageant...

Man Must Have a Holy, Sacred Place

by James Ira Young

Man must have a holy sacred place;

.....wherein he covenants again with God.

To keep path straight and more devoted be

....to home, to life, to service unto fellow man.

To keep path straight and more devoted be,

.....to home, to life, to sacred plan of eternity.

This is a VERY SIMPLE song...but often the simplest words are the most profound...

Having the Spirit....

This is something that was in my Seminary Files...Julie D. just used it in a RS lesson, so thought I'd add it here....Remember...these aren't All or Nothing lists....but sometimes we don't recognize that just feeling calm is evidence of the Lord's Spirit filling our lives.

After reading the negative list, go back a read the first one again because just reading the second list can bring a dark feeling!

When You DO Have the Spirit:

1. You feel happy, calm, and clear-minded.

2. You feel generous.
3. Nobody can offend you.

4. You wouldn't mind everybody seeing what you're doing.

5. You are eager to be with people and want to make them happy.

6. You are glad when other succeed.

7. You are glad to attend your meetings and participate in church activities.

8. You feel like praying.

9. You wish you could keep all the Lord's commandments.

10. You feel "in control". You don't overeat or sleep too much, you don't feel uncontrollably drawn to sensational entertainment, lose your temper, or feel uncontrollable passions or desires.

11. You think about the Savior often and lovingly; you want to know Him better.

12. You feel confident and are glad to believe.

When You DON'T Have The Spirit

1. You feel unhappy, depressed confused and frustrated.

2. You feel possessive, self-centered, or resentful of demands made on you.

3. You are easily offended.

4.You become secretive and evasive.

5. You avoid people, especially members of your family; and you are critical of family members and Church authorities.

6. You envy or resent the successes of others.

7. You don't want to go to church, go home teaching, or take the sacrament. You wish you had another church job or no job at all.

8. You don't want to pray.

9. You find the commandments bothersome, restricting, or senseless.

10. You feel emotions and appetites so strongly that you fear you cannot control them; hate, jealousy, anger, lust, hunger, fatigue.

11. You hardly ever think of the Savior; he seem irrelevant to your life, or worse, part of a confusing system that seems to work against you.

12. You get discouraged easily and wonder if life is really worth it.

Now go back and read the first list.....

How Will You Measure Your LIfe?

Below is a link to an address given to last year's graduating class at the Harvard Business School by Clayton Christensen. (He is the author of The Innovator's Dilemma, a Harvard professor, served a mission to Korea, was a counselor in the Boston Mission Presidency, an Area Seventy...he's 6'10" and played on the Oxford University Varsity Basketball team)

He asks his students three questions:

1. How can I be sure that I'll be happy in my career?

2. How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?

3. How can I be sure I'll stay out of jail? (Jess Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of his!)

Here's the full speech:

http://arikjohnson.posterous.com/how-will-you-measure-your-life-by-clayton-m-c

Applying business strategies to happiness in life includes:

Create a Strategy for Your Life

Allocate Your Resources

Create a Culture

Avoid the "Marginal Costs" Mistake

Remember the Importance of Humility

Of course as you read this you will recognize the underlying gosple principals....the Plan of Happiness.

A New Dress Every Day for $1

Did everyone see this Blog featured on Yahoo???

A New Dress a Day

Inspired by the Julia & Julia blogger and unemployment, Marisa Lynch decided to pull out her sewing machine and remake her thrift store finds! She's got some skills!

As a hen gathereth her chickens....

Samantha R taught the RS lesson on Covenants on Sunday...we read of the many times Christ spoke of His desire to "gather His children as a hen gathereth her chickens..." It made me think of this story I found when teaching Seminary....so I tracked it down to put here so I can find it in the future!

This was in National Geographic Magazine:

A group of firefighters was working through the devestation of a Yellowstone forest fire, making sure that all the hots spots had been extinguished. In the middle of the path was a small heap of smoldering ash. One man kicked the ash to allow the air to circulate and cool the brush.

Suddenly a little flock of baby quail fluttered from beneath the cinders. Other chicks gradually emerged from underneath other smoky bumps. "These piles of ashes are the mother quail," one of the rangers realized.

The mother's body had covered her chicks, sheltering them from the searing flames. Though the heat was enough to consume her it allowed her chicks to find safety underneath. In the face of the rising flames, she could have easily flown away, but she was the only hope of safety for her chicks. She gathered them under her body, shielded them with her wings and made herself stay through the raging fire.

Jesus said, "How oft would I have gathered my children together even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. (Matthew 23:37; 3 Nephi 10:4-6; D&C 10:65)

Will we allow ourselves to be gathered?

Lionesses At the Gate

From our RS lesson last Sunday....

Sister Beck said, "The ability to qualify for, receive and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life. When we have that spirit we can walk with God and make proper choices, we can know what to do. Education is wonderful, but being able to feel the Lord's power and spirit upon us is the ultimate education we can receive."

Who Will Teach?

I wrote this a long time ago (1984???)when I was the Primary President and was trying to get a new teacher for a Star A class (4 year olds). I kept turning in names...but went through several rejections....I wrote this and just gave it to Brother Clayton Johnson who was the counselor in the Bishopric in charge of the Primary...just to kind of get rid of my frustration...then misplaced it for years....a couple years ago JoAnne G found a copy in her files and gave it back to me...so I'm going to post it here so I don't lose it again. You can tell I was pretty bummed about all the rejections...it's a good thing it didn't get wide circulation in the ward or I'm sure I would have offended a lot of people!

Who Will Teach?

Who will teach the children?

Oh--don't ask me to teach Primary.
My children are all grown.
I've worked in Primary for years.
I've done my time.

Who will teach the children?

Me? You're calling me to Primary?
I have three pre-school children
and three in grade school
I need a rest on Sunday.
I'll teach when my children are older.

Who will teach the children?

You want me to teach the Sunbeams?
Why, I have three advanced degrees.
My talents would be wasted in Primary.

Who will teach the children?

Oh, not me!
I couldn't give up my Relief Society calling.
It's so much easier with my hectic schedule
to just teach once a month.
And when would I see my friends?

Who will teach the children?

Somewhere out there in a Star A class is a future Prophet of the Lord.
Who will set his tiny feet on the proper path at an early age?
Somewhere in those Sunbeam or CTR or Valiant classes are the missionaries who will one day go forth to serve.
Who will teach them the Gospel principles that must be spread throughout the world?
Somewhere in those Merry Miss and Blazer classes are our sons and daughters who we parents pray will one day enter the Holy Temple and be sealed to a worthy mate.
Who will build their testimonies strong enough to help them preserve their purity throughout the often turbulent teenage years?

Who will teach the children?

Service is not always convenient.
Service is seldom easy.
Service is not necessarily fun.

Service is sacrifice.
If not you--who will teach the children?

Good Stuff: Can You Feel So Now?

A really good article on Meridian by Maureen Proctor...

A comforting message about the earthquake in Chile...

Future Brain...

I love reading "brain books"....this article on Meridian this morning was interesting, thought provoking and inspiring...

Some funny stuff...he talks about Kim Peek who was the mega-savant that the movie "Rainman" was based on...here are some of Kim's jokes:

"Kim, you know all about Abe Lincoln. Any idea what kind of stomach ailment afflicted him at the end of his life?" Kim answered: "I think he had a bad Gettysburger."

Kim made up a knock-knock joke about Utah's senior senator, Orrin Hatch:

"Knock-knock." "who's there?""Hatch.""Hatch who?""Gesundheit."

A math genius asked him how far out he could calculate pi. Kim answered: "3.14159265, then Dad takes me to Marie Callender's and we have pi forever."